Operation Darkness: Escape or Death
by Arrek Lorrdain


Some time after Yan Tao had left, Arrek was fighting
to keep from losing himself somewhere.  He was so
confused, so violated, he had no idea what was
happening to him and he was scared, scared like he'd
never been before.  The fact that he was the
plaything, an experiment to these Yuuzhan Vong filled
him with sorrow and the trauma that came with it was
almost too much to bear.  He devoutly didn't want to
go away.

Yan Tao had left him saying that she would be back
some time soon, for it appeared that the Yuuzhan Vong
were preparing for their assault on Terra.  Arrek had
been thinking carefully of ways to escape his
captivity, but no viable options were presenting
themselves.  He knew he could try to overpower a guard
and take on the entire ship by himself, but he also
knew that this would probably lead to his death. 
Arrek thought it would be better to concentrate his
energy on staying sane.

The membrane's seal popped and Yan Tao strode into the
cell.  She came and stood near him; apparently from
what he could read of her body language, she had come
to talk.  She sat with her back to the wall across
from him and said, "I'm sure you're wondering why we
chose to attack your infidel planet."  Arrek nodded in
reply.  "During our glorious conquest of Coruscant we
captured and broke a jeedai who was from this
backwater world.  The information she brought forth
about this place and its people was retained by the
shapers for possible future use.  Unfortunate events
unfolded and Domain Tao was exiled from the Yuuzhan
Vong, so taking our fleet and entire domain we came
here with all due haste."

She paused to think over what she was saying more. 
Arrek found it sketchy at best, but was content to
listen. Anything he could possibly learn about the
aliens could be very useful were he ever to escape. 
That is of course if the Terran people hadn't been
enslaved or worse.  He was taken aback about the Jedi
mention and hoped with all his heart that it wasn't
Vickie.  It was either her or Kelly; that much he knew
for sure and his heart filled with more sorrow until
it threatened to burst.  

"We have plans for this world; we intend to use its
people and natural resources for the benefit of Domain
Tao and shapers like me will recreate it into the base
of power for my clan, and those who have been ousted
like us, in this sector.  Our worldship will arrive
here in one of your standard weeks; when it arrives
you will be detained there until it is time to fulfil
your destiny."

"That can wait.  What we want from your people is to
enslave them. They will become the Yuuzhan Vong in one
sense.  The primary wave of attack in any combat
situation. With billions of these disposable troops
Domain Tao will be unstoppable and we will take the
galaxy, which is rightfully ours.  We find qualities
in your people, which we intend to exploit, they are
weak willed and complacent and could never stand up to
us as a whole.  We would like any insight you could
give us into them."

"My family and friends are on that world, I'd just as
soon die than tell you anything."

"Soon, you will be made to see sense.  You are not
like the others, nor like any other human we have
encountered so far. You are not Jeedai, but you are
not one of them.  There shall be a great deal that we
can learn from you, for you will soon be broken." 
With this she stood up and exited the cell without
looking at him once.  Arrek leaned against the wall
behind him and began to think.  

Now his priorities had changed, he had to escape no
matter what it cost him, he was still in fighting
shape, and with two arms now he knew that he could
take the next guard to enter his cell.  Preparing
himself, for he knew that soon food would be brought
to him, he started to do some stretching and tried to
clear his mind of the pain he was still feeling.  

Flying the ship was perhaps the hardest part, but he
knew he could do anything if he put his mind to it. 
He began to run through scenarios in his mind using
his past encounters with the warriors.  Last time he
had lost an arm.  This time they'd lose a lot more
than that.  

Suddenly the membrane popped open, a haggard
human-looking woman came through with a bowl of some
kind of wriggling nourishment the Vong wanted him to
eat.  As the slave came closer, a guard entered just
behind her.  Arrek observed him closely, he was
wearing some kind of armour and was covered in it head
to toe, but he knew that one hard kick to the helmet
could knock him out. Arrek knew that all he had to do
was knock him to the floor and then the fight was
over. The slave put the bowl into his hand.  It was
then that he looked at her face.  

Jumping to his feet he shouted "Vickie!"  The slave
jumped away from him and turned back towards her
master.  Arrek made sure she never reached him. 
Bypassing her he took two running steps and leaped
feet poised towards the guard.  The guard took a step
back, but Arrek's momentum kept him on course.  He
swept his left leg around in a snap kick to the head,
while simultaneously kicking out with his right foot
into the guard's midsection.  The force of the kicks
lifted the guard off his feet and out through the
membrane. 

Landing awkwardly, he slid on his back for a few feet
and Arrek jumped through after him.  Seeing him lying
there, he adjusted his flight and brought his heel
down on the guards throat; whatever the Vong had for a
windpipe could not stand up to the blow and he
scratched around on the floor trying to find air until
he died.

There were numerous side corridors which stretched for
about ten metres before Arrek quickly turned and found
Vickie.  She was standing there looking at the guard
with a mixture of contempt and pleasure.  Not waiting
around he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the
corridor after him.  The corridor stretched for about
twenty metres ahead and ended in a bulkhead of some
sort.  Looking back he saw that the corridor ended
about three metres away from them in another bulkhead.
There were five side corridors, which were around
five metres long opening, out into another corridor. 
Arrek guessed that the ship only had the one
habitation level and that the ship itself was a fairly
small one compared to some he had seen, possibly a
picket ship of some sort.

There were membranes at three metre intervals, each
leading into crew quarters or research rooms.  Arrek
figured this was a Shaper's ship.  As a result he
expected that there wouldn't be too many Yuuzhan Vong
aboard.  He hoped he was right.  

As they reached the first corridor offshoot, a Vong
walked out in front of them.  Not hesitating, Arrek
released Vickie's hand and jumped at the creature. 
Turning his jump into a spin he brought his foot out
and it slammed into the face that started the Vong
stumbling backwards, landing firmly.  Arrek pivoted
and drove a kick into its throat, this time the alien
hit the floor.  It didn't look like it was going to
get back up any time soon, so Arrek grabbed Vickie's
hand again and started running.  

As they ran he felt her pulling up trying to slow him.
He increased his pace and the grip on her hand, he
wanted to meet his foes running, at least when he was
running and kicking he had a chance.  "Wait!" she
cried, Arrek stopped.

"What?"  He asked breathlessly.  "We have to keep
going, to free ourselves."

"I know, but we need to think how to do it, not just
kick everything in sight.  My lightsaber's here
somewhere, the shaper bitch took it from me.  By the
way, I'm not Vickie, I'm Kelly."  She seemed a little
scared at what was happening, but Arrek could feel
that she was probably right and that they had to stop
and figure something out.

"Hi, I'm Arrek, I've heard a lot about you, but I
don't think we've met.  You know how many Vong are on
this ship?"  This would be useful in formulating their
plan he thought.  He was a little shocked that it
wasn't Vickie, but he didn't really have time to think
about that now.

"I think about twenty in total, now eighteen."  She
said with a grin.  

"Cool, should be pretty easy so long as they don't
have those snake weapons like the first one.  Plus,
the Shaper woman, I don't want to kill her, not just
yet.  I want her as a captive if possible, if not I
want a chance to talk with her again.

"Sure.  Something happen between you two?"  She winked
at him as his grin faltered.  "I just want my
lightsabre back, you can have her any way you want
her, just so that's established."

"So," he said, quickly changing the subject, "where is
your lightsabre?"

"In your lover's quarters I think."  She could barely
keep from laughing at this point.  Arrek tried not to
let his irritation and pain show at her statement.

Without saying anything more, Kelly lead them to the
quarters of Yan Tao, it was covered by another
membrane.  It was fleshy and felt strong, but Arrek
knew all things had their weakness.  Moving close, he
found the seam that held it together and started to
pry at it with his fingers, it only gave slightly so
he went onto his toes and put his full body weight
into it.  The seam split apart and he fell face first
into the room.

It was filled with strange furniture and a lot of
insects in containers.  As he looked he saw Kelly's
lightsabre on one of the shelves, the metal glinting
under the luminous light of the ship.  Walking over
carefully, he grabbed it and then just as carefully
crept out of the room and handed the lightsabre to
Kelly.  "Thanks," she said, and then started creeping
towards the main bulkhead.  She was very alert and
moved near silently.  Their senses fully alert, they
listened carefully to any stray noise and checked
every corridor and opening on the way.  

Her lightsabre suddenly ignited, and she turned to bat
some kind of insect that was headed towards them. 
Arrek turned and saw that there were two Vong behind
them about five metres the away, heads poking out from
behind a corridor.  Not waiting he got up and took off
running at them.  Kelly soon overtook him and started
batting all the insects headed for them.   The aliens
came out from their hiding places and readied
themselves to meet the onrushing pair.  Arrek took the
alien stood on the right side of the corridor, while
Kelly took left.  

Reaching a full sprint, Arrek ducked under the slash
from the snake spear and thrust a backwards kick that
connected with the creature's knee.  There was a great
cracking noise as the knee joint snapped backwards
into an angle it wasn't supposed to take and it
started to buckle under the weight of the rest of the
alien. Keeping his momentum going, he ran up onto the
wall off the corridor, kicking off it and spinning one
eighty degrees he kicked off the opposite wall and
faced the alien he'd downed.  It was writhing with
agony and was still trying to reach its snake spear
that had fallen out of his grip. 

Arrek stood on the head of the snake spear and twisted
his foot, crushing it.  The tail thrashed and twitched
out the rest of its life, and Arrek turned his
attention to its owner.  The Vong was in a lot of
pain, but was still spitting in frenzy, it reached out
a hand for Arrek's leg.  Arrek, in turn, stamped on the
hand and kicked its head, kicked it hard.

Turing his attention to Kelly he could see that she'd
harvested a few of the aliens limbs and they were
scattered about the corridor, while she had barely
broken a sweat.  There were now only sixteen aliens to
go.