The TDF sergeant seems annoyed at the questioning he is receiving from this civillian. "We are handling the other ship as well, civillian. Now, one more time," his voice loses most of its friendliness, "please return to the passenger berths immediatey."


*******************

Over the new few minutes, all occupants of the Kul Kura were herded into the main passenger berth, with the crew being placed on benches on one side of the room. Noteably, the crew have been placed in wrist restraints, and two troopers stand near them. The captain is noticeably absent.

A sandy-haired human in a TDF uniform strides into the compartment. "I am Lieuteanant Tord," he states by way of introduction. "This vessel has been seized on charges of spice trafficing. As we have no reason to suspect the passengers of any involvement, you will be free to go once we rech the planet. The crew will be detained, and the vessel impounded."

His voice is firm and leaves no room for argument. "Regretfully, we must ask that all of you remain in this compartment until we arrive. We nearly have the engines repaired, so we will be back underway shortly."

He and most of the soldiers leave, but four remain in the compartment - the red-haired human from engineering, two oher humans, and a bothan. They take up positions around the area and settle in to wait.

Captured again… oh well. So be it. Dime thought to himself as the inevitable knock on the front door of his room began to sound.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he replied, putting an abrupt end to his march studies. The guard standing in front of him as the door slid open stared at him with somber look and instructed him to the main passenger berth. Dime read his gut and came to see he was not under arrest, nor suspect.

“May I bring some entertainment? I’m quite the accomplished performer, and it would be dull indeed to sit in silence. Agreed?” he gave a slight raise of his gripped slitherhorn, and the guard nodded in agreement, and waved to signal that he will escort Dime to the common room.

Dime sat next to his Force-attuned companion in the passenger berth, playing an old favorite from his tour of Coronet City. Anyone native to the city (and likely the planet) would recognize it. It’s an old folk tale that his group updated and gave a modern spin. It doesn’t quite feel the same without some drum and bass, although he still puts some soul in it.

“We are handling the other ship as well, civilian,” the sergeant almost spat the word, as if he held civilians in just slightly higher regard than poodoo. “Now, one more time,” the trooper’s voice had lost any pretense of affability and the energy that curled around him shifted to a darker, angrier hue, “please return to the passenger berths immediately.”

Though he bristled at the soldier’s attitude and obvious disdain for civilians, Caise calmly folded his hands within the voluminous sleeves of his robe and resisted the initial urge to challenge the man any farther. “Very well, sergeant,” he acquiesced, smiling in spite of himself when he added; “Carry on, then.”

It was a pointless barb, of course, and likely would have earned him a rebuke from Master Trask along with the review of endless holocrons regarding protocol and customs throughout the galaxy - Words may be soft and wine may be sweet, Trask might have told him in typically cryptic fashion, Both may hide poison; it is the source that is important. Meditate upon this... - but Caise felt a bit of satisfaction for turning the trooper’s dismissal back on him. “I do hope that the poor pilot is the worst of the casualties,” he added as he finally complied with the TDF soldier’s orders and started, once again, for the passenger berths.

“Forgive me if I have misinterpreted, master,” he muttered under his breath as he strode away from the sergeant, “but words are sometimes easier to turn than the Force; you’ve said so yourself.”

Moments later, Caise found himself standing outside the forward door of the passenger berth once more. The portal had no sooner whooshed open when a contingent of soldiers and the bound detainees they escorted whisked passed him - in fact, had he not sensed them coming and stepped to the side when he did, the miraluka padawan was almost sure that the TDF troopers wouldn’t have had a second thought about trampling some blind civilian and marching their prisoners across him. His jaw tightened at having to let the imperious demeanor of the soldiers go unchallenged but, from what he was able to decipher, an altercation with the TDF was not the will of the Force. Something stirred in the Force, of that he was certain, but the culmination of it was not to be found here…

“Gangway, civvy! Prisoner escort comin’ through,” grumbled the soldier bringing up the rear of the column, nudging the Jedi another step back as he muscled his way through the doorway, “What are ya, blind?”

“Yes,” Caise smirked, falling into step behind the man who had just shoved past him, “What’s your excuse?”

Not waiting for or expecting a response, the young Jedi veered off and found a seat on an as yet unoccupied bench. He drew in a long, slow breath, dispelling the feelings of aggression as he gathered the Force about him and then sent his senses out among the growing crowd of sentients in the compartment. There was definitely something amiss in this whole situation and he had begun to believe that this mission that Trask had sent him on was about much more than simply meeting with the Alderaanian’s colleague or exploring Taanab’s mines for a suitable adegan crystal - Open your mind and heed well the turning of the Force - Caise recalled hearing that bit of advice from more than one Jedi throughout his years at the temple - In time and with focused attention, it will reveal all things. 
It wasn’t long before Dime appeared and took up a seat next to him. The twi’lek, perhaps realizing that Caise was enrapt in his contemplation of the assemblage of passengers, crew, and soldiers, didn’t utter a word. Instead, he entertained himself by coaxing a song from the slitherhorn he carried. The tune was familiar, though Caise couldn’t quite place it, and he found the music quite conducive to his contemplation of the currently unfolding events. Dime’s song had served to quell some of the anxiety that Lt Tord’s speech had sparked amongst the passengers and with those ripples in the Force diminished a bit, Caise found it much easier to focus on those that had truly drawn his attention…

His sightless eyes were drawn to the far side of the room where the Kul Kura’s crew sat, their hands secured in military-grade restraints and flanked by a pair of TDF troops. Combined, the energies of the detained crew were a turbulent mixture that seemed to run the gamut of emotion; everything from fear and anger to nervousness and confusion was represented in the colors that whorled across that bench and, he thought, he may have also sensed some relief and perhaps even happiness from some. When Caise began to mentally separate the tangle of it all, though, he found that two of the crew glowed slightly brighter in his sight than the others. One of these he had seen on the bridge not long ago… Not the pilot… he was at the sensor station. The other he could not recall having seen before but, as the young human was situated beside others of the crew that Caise had come to associate with the engineering crew, he imagined that this dark-haired youth was of similar vocation. Each in turn, he studied them intently and tried to reconcile their contrast to the others in their company. While he found it difficult to discern the reason why, he sensed that both of these men had a part to play in the events that were starting to unfold.

As his senses finally abandoned their active study of Mercury and Ziv, Caise was almost surprised to find that one of the TDF grunts that Tord had left to monitor the room also stood out amongst the rest. Those with physical sight would have perceived him as having red hair and being solidly built, with a stern demeanor, and a confident, capable air about him; a career soldier whose job was his life. In Caise’s sight, though, the tightly woven matrix of energies that indicated the soldier’s place in the Galaxy, revealed him to be much more than his counterparts… much more than what his physical appearance might lead the sighted to believe…

“There’s something different about that one,” Caise murmured to Dime as he drew back his cowl and brushed his long, silver padawan’s braid away from his neck. After a long moment, as the twi’lek brought the tune he was playing to a warbling crescendo, Caise turned his gaze in Dime’s direction and noticed that he too shone more vividly in his sight than any of the rest aboard the Kul Kura. “Prepare yourself, Kol Nuro,” he advised softly, “this is just beginning.”

He offered a cryptic smile, then sat back in his seat, folded his hands in his lap, and allowed himself to meditate upon what was to come, sending an unspoken thanks to Master Trask for the “people watching” lessons.

((OOC: Might have taken some wee-minor liberties here… edits as appropriate/if necessary. Caise will be meditating on the will of the force and “continuing his surveillance” of the room.))

It seems that nothing in the galaxy works out easy for me. There's always some security force somewhere or some bully making things difficult.
Mercury Saran complies with the gruff TDF officer's orders because he's not known for fighting in tight areas anyhow. Besides, his blaster is inthe berth with his gear and it appears that he would be the only idiot chucking out blaster fire with professional uniformed goons.

The whole situation reminds him of being caught once off Corellia near the Abbanna Cluster by Republic Customs officials making a routine check. Thom Dulo and his crew had passed the inspection - so where was the TDF getting off thinking they were smuggling spice? This had to be a mistake.

He wiped his dirty jumpsuit with his sweaty hands and follows the gruff security forces, but he mutters under his breath all the way. Prominent syllables of "why am I going into custody" and "damn TDF" and "you'd think you guys had better things to do than stop a stock freighter while there are pirates" pass his lips.

Thinking of pirates, Mercury wonders how their enemies are faring on the other end. It'd be justice if they were in stun binders and being bludgeoned for the heck of it with stun batons. oooo that'd be sweet!
So maybe he'll just go through things. Maybe these security forces will have the inkling Maercury has no criminal record and no ... well, entanglements. If the rest of the crew is incarcerated - he's going to find a way to break out himself!

Things were going forward peacefully. If none of the prisoners had any surprises hidden in their sleeves, Damanil would getting some easy credits soon. Not as much as he wished, not by a long shot. But what could he do? Shoot his fellow troopers and run away with the Duro captain? Hardly. Even if I could take over the DR-400 or Kul Kura, I'd still have the pirates to take care off. And I ain't no bloody pilot.
One of the passengers caught Damanil's attention though he didn't show it. Not that it would've mattered for the man in question was apparently as blind as a bat. A miraluka, if I'm not mistaken. Don't see one of them too often. Strange how they're able to move around without bumping into things all the time. Maybe he's got the force like the jeedai. Hehh... Whoo!
For some reason even the crappy joke didn't make Damanil feel any better. He'd been hoping for some chance to get away with more than just a little cut of the bounty, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. With a silent sigh, the bounty hunter turned his eyes from the miraluka to the other passengers almost hoping that one of them would jump with a blaster in hand to blast away the boredom of waiting.

It doesn't take the TDF overlong to get the engines up and running again, though only at a reduced capacity. As a result, the flight to Tanaab takes close to three hours - a truly enjoyable time for those in the passenger berth. Captain Dulo himself is never brought into the berth, a fact that is not lost on anyone present.

Damanil's commlink crackles to life, though it is the brodcast channel, not anything directed at him. He learns that the Kul Kura has been placed into a holding position just outside of planetary orbit, and that the pssengers will now be offloaded. Indeed, as he listens to the traffic, most of the soldiers are offloaded, as well.

On the other side of the captive crew, Burukt casually stretches. The Bothan "soldier" knows that there may never be a better time; this fool of a human actually believed that he could force his way in on the Dulo bounty!

The red-haired man seems preoccupied with something over the commlink; having grown tired of the inane chatter, Burukt had already muted his. He grins wolfishly and aims his blaster rifle at the man's back. An "accidental" discharge at point blank range cannot miss, and the unfortunate use of deadly force to quell the "rebellion" of the passengers will remove any would-be witnesses.

No eye in the room processes what is about to happen, but one individual "sees" the furry finger close around the rifle's trigger. Caise is seated nearest to the bothan, and has a moment to react before the red-hired soldier is shot in the back.

It had been nearly three hours since the TDF had gotten the Kul Kura back underway again and had steered the limping transport into orbit around Taanab. The ambient mood in the passenger berth had steadily deteriorated in that time - annoyance, frustration, irritability; all of these emotions had begun to permeate the atmosphere that clung to the passengers of the Duro vessel. The soldiery stationed in the compartment, too, had succumb to boredom and impatience it seemed and the nervousness of the detained crew members had increased exponentially throughout the trip; many of them actively wondered or worried after Captain Dulo as, even after what seemed would have been a sufficient amount of time for the TDF to have heard the Duros recount his life story, the captain had yet to be delivered to the passenger berths to join the rest of them. That little oddity hadn’t escaped Caise, of course, and he knew that others were wondering about the missing captain, as well…

There is something else, though, the miraluka realizes as a series of messages begins to be broadcast over the soldiers’ comlinks announcing that the Kul Kura has been relegated to a holding pattern and that passengers and a bulk of the troopers were to be offloaded. Caise had been prepared to extract himself from the quasi-meditative surveillance he had maintained on the room as the comm channels crackled to life but, just as he was about to release his grasp on those vibrating threads of energy, the Force called him to action.

Deceit.

Treachery.

Malice.

The red-haired soldier that he had taken note of just hours earlier literally flashed in Caise’s sight and an angry streak of scarlet-hued energy stabbed at the soldier’s aura, it’s point of origin dangerously close and emanating from the bothan soldier who had stood post on the other end of the detainees’ bench during the last few hours. Caise did not have the luxury of trying to determine why the Bothan suddenly wanted the human dead - the act was already in progress; the barrel of the blaster rifle was aimed at Damanil’s back and a furry finger was curling around the weapon’s trigger…

Even before this thought had completely passed through his mind, Caise found that he was on his feet, lightsaber in hand, and swinging the weapon down on either the bothan’s arms or his weapon - the energies of both were indistinguishable from one another at the moment, the bothan, the weapon, and the act were one in the same as far as the Force was concerned…

((OOC: Woohoo! Party time! Caise, as described above, is going after the bothan in hopes of stopping the attack, whether that means that he carves through the blaster rifle or the bothan’s arms… all the same in Caise’s eyes. What happens next, I suppose, depends on whether the attack lands and/or what other reactions occur after this… standard attack, no blatant use of the Force just yet.  )

With no time to do anything but react, Caise closes the ditance between himself and the would-be murderer with frightening speed. In less time than it takes for Burukt to squeeze the trigger, the emerald beam of the jedi's lightsaber strikes unerringly, knocking the rifle from the soldier's hands in a shower of sparks, and sending him crashing against the far bulkhead.

Even in his crumpled state, the treacherous bothan does not hesitate. In one smooth motion, he draws a blaster pistol and simultaneously keys his commlink. "I am attacked!" he shouts. "Shadoran has allied with the prisoners and a jedi! They seek to take back the ship! Backup needed at once!"

As he regains his feet, he begins firing madly!

Ziv sat reflectively as their ship made its slow crawl to Tanaab. Only once did the goggled, young lad offer to help, “just to get us going a bit quicker”, but the growl of the soldier watching over him and the threatening motion of the rifle’s butt end silenced him.

He remained quiet for the rest of the ride, thinking mostly about how he might have done the repatch of the relays given a second chance, and what he would need to get the engines back on line, and how long that would take, and whether or not they could add a bypass toggle for short bursts of a few minutes before switching it back to normal.

All these questions were swimming through his mind, when a sudden movement caught his attention. Almost before his brain could register it, a passenger had gotten up and attacked one of the soldiers, a bothan.

A jedi! 

Ziv was fascinated by lightsabers. He had only seen one up close and personal… Akou, his mentor, had brought it into the shop once in his early teens… the squid had even allowed Ziv to touch it.

Wow! Neat, Akou! Where’d you get it? Ziv remembered asking.

Oh, it’s not mine… just holding it for a friend. the squid replied. Just holding it for a friend. 

Neato! Ziv exclaimed.

The fond memory faded into the background as a bolt from the bothan’s pistol hit the hull behind Ziv. The young man crouched down looking for some way to defend himself.

OOC: a) Can Ziv reach and use his pistol if he desires? b) Ziv will attempt to escape his bonds.

Dime, you should always keep on you something with which to defend yourself. That blaster is nice and strong, but it will do you no good if you should be without it...

"Shut up father, I get your point," the Twi'lek muttered aloud amiss the blaster fire. I had meant to buy a hold out on this very planet... damnable timing.

He could defend himself with words in most cases, but against a trained military who makes faulty claims, there is little that he could do but shoot. Unfortunately there is no gun nearby. He had learned from another member of the band on Corellia that very good musicians are able to inspire their comrads to fight more effectively, but Dime had not yet learned that skill. Guess he was making a break for it. If there was an obvious blaster nearby, he would go for it and begin shooting the guards down, but if not he would dive into his room and grab his old trust heavy.

"I am attacked!" the Bothan shouted into his comlink as he drew a blaster pistol and hauled himself to his feet. "Shadoran has allied with the prisoners and a jedi! They seek to take back the ship! Backup needed at once!" 

What?! The thought shot through his mind quicker than the first bolt left the barrel of the Bothan’s pistol. No! Who’s Shadoran? Take back the ship? What? No!!! Just as quickly, Caise let go of the emotional response of shock and surprise to Burukt’s embellished distress call.

What had he expected the outcome to be after he had made his move to stop the TDF uniformed creature? He had offered no warning - there hadn’t been time - and it was likely that any number of the others in the cabin might have perceived his actions as an unprovoked attack… Blast! he fumed, So much for any sort of diplomatic resolution to this one, Master. I am sorry…

Shadoran must have been the name of the red-headed soldier that the Bothan had intended to kill just a moment ago, Caise surmised as his lightsaber hummed in intuitive arcs to deflect blaster fire. Furthermore, if the human soldier hadn’t heard the Bothan implicate him in the fabricated passenger uprising, it put the young padawan in a rather precarious position - directly between the treacherous bothan and his intended target, with that target, perhaps, believing that Caise had acted against a TDF soldier as opposed to a deceitful assassin. Despite the numerous complications and possible divergent outcomes that his actions had set free, though, the blind padawan found it in himself to focus on the here and now…

…The other passengers, the captive crew, and the remaining troopers had all reacted within nanoseconds of his saber barking against the bothan’s rifle and, while many of those reactions may have been delayed by surprise or confusion, it wouldn’t be long before the TDF troops remembered their training and began selecting priority targets and the remaining sentients on board chose between fight or flight.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Master Trask’s voice whispered in his mind. Multiply the threats to the soldiers, Caise’s mind translated as, at the same time he noticed Ziv ducking for cover and furiously scrambling for a means to defend himself. The young engineer’s energies, although momentarily frantic, still pulsed brilliantly in the miraluka’s sight as did the other crewman Caise first saw on the Kul Kura’s bridge, the twi’lek Dime - in fact, there he was ducking for the door to his room... an air of dependability had formed around that one as far as Caise was concerned; he'd be sure to keep any eye on him - and, yes, the red-haired soldier. The auras of the remaining crew and passengers were not quite as pervasive in his vision but they did seem to be aligning against the TDF soldiers - if only because they realized that Burukt’s call for back-up had implicated all of them in the heretofore non-existent rebellion or, simply, because the uniformed guards effectively cut off all egress from the passengers berth. Again, Caise found himself with very little time for contemplative thought and, with an unspoken plea that the Force be with them all, the padawan let go of conscious thought and allowed that great flow of energy continue to guide his actions.

((OOC: I think it would be wise to call up Battlemind +3 right about now, yes?  Caise’s priorities at the moment are 1)defend himself and any “civilians” from Burukt’s blaster fire, 2) assisting in freeing the crew from their bonds (Ziv first, most likely, as the lad is actively looking for an escape and Caise probably notices him first) as the opportunity presents itself, and 3) getting the frak outta this room ASAP!))

"vzzzzz-WHOOOSHzzkaaaaah"

The strange sound suddenly broke the bounty hunter's thoughts taking him completely by surprise. It was strange in the sense that it wasn't something he was used to hearing every day, but it wasn't something completely new to him either. Damanil had seen enough holovids to recognize the sound of a lightsaber and he knew there was only one group of people capable of using the deadly weapon - the jedi!

The green-eyed human brought his blaster up and turned around in a single motion. Since the lightsaber had not cut him in two, Damanil could safely assume or at least hope that he was not the target of the jedi's attack. Not yet at least. At first the view he faced seemed a lot like what he'd been expecting. One of the captives was wielding a lightsaber, and by the looks of it, attacking a fellow trooper - the bothan.

His first surprise was who the jedi was. The blind one? Damn. But Damanil didn't have time to stop and wonder about it more, for he was in for another surprise... Instead of trying to attack the jedi together with the bounty hunter, the bothan turned his back on Damanil and looked for help elsewhere... "I am attacked!", he shouted. "Shadoran has allied with the prisoners and a jedi! They seek to take back the ship! Backup needed at once!"

Take back the..? Whatta? It didn't take the red haired soldier more than a heartbeat to figure out the situation. The bounty, the bastard wants my cut too. "Damn fool!" Shadoran already had his blaster rifle at the ready and at such a distance it would take miracles for the traitorous bothan to dodge his shot.

Damanil felt a surge of anger run through him as he squeezed the trigger. Sure, it would only have taken him another beat of his heart or a blink of his eye to switch the rifle into stun, but the bounty hunter did not even consider it. Apparently the other trooper had tried to take him out with his own rifle, so why wouldn't he return the favor?

The metallic sound of exploding blaster fire makes the young Corellian jump. He throws himself on the cold metal of the decking, covering his head in his hands as everything goes to hell around him. All the young fringer could think was: Oh my! What the hell is that Bothan shouting?

Mercury, unarmed, knows better than be a hero - if that's possible - and scrambles for the vents, hoping that there is a way for him to crawl inside. However, he has bulked up lately and may not get through one even if he finds it. He therefore looks immediately for cover, hoping to hide behind some Plasteen crates or some Durasteel fixtures.

The other two soldiers, having not paid great attention to what is going on, take the bothan at his word and reach for their own weapons. For his part, Burukt tries to peel off a shot at Caise, but one of the passengers - a human woman - picks that unfortunate instant to attempt to run for cover, and takes the blast full in the chest. She drops to the ground, convulses twice, and lies still.

Damanil squeezes off his own blast, hitting the bothan traitor square in the face. Naturally, he does not move again.

With the immediate threat eliminated, the padawan looks to free the captives. The young engineer, Ziv, is nearby. "Hold still!" he calls out. The young man does, and the jedi slices his lightsaber through the chain connecting the wrist restraints. Grinning, Ziv moves to pick up the bothan's blaster.

Dime dives into his compartment and retrieves his own weapon. He returns to find the two soldiers firing rpidly. Another crewmember is wounded, the the compartment is chaos - people are running and screming.

Now with allies, the jedi can better protect the civilians in the room - and is frequently the case, the best defense here is a good offense. He leps to the attack, and the third soldier falls with a look of surprise on his face.

The fourth soldier screams again for backup into his commlink and fires wildly, but Caise is able to deflect the incoming shot. A shot from Ziv slams into the soldier, but his armor absorbs enogh of the shock to protect his life. Not so, when Dime follows with a shot of his own.

Soon the room is empty, but alarm klaxons are now sounding throughout the ship. Mercury steps out from behind the cover he had taken.

Lana fixed the room with a furious gaze. "It's just gets better all the time, doesn't it! Are yougoing to just stand there, or are you going to cut me loose, too? We'll never make it up front, but if we head back toward the engine room now, we can reach the lifeboat." She pauses. "Or, if you prefer, we can wait for the TDF to come and sort this out..."

Blast it! No!!! Caise had a nanosecond to think as a panicked human woman chose the wrong instant to run for cover and stepped in front of the blaster bolt that had been intended for him. Even as the woman’s aura began to dissipate, though, another round of blaster fire whined over his shoulder and felled the bothan.

With Burukt out of the equation, Caise turned his attentions to the rest of the sentients in the cabin. He found Ziv very close. “Hold still,” he called out. The young engineer, quickly complied, his energies flaring as he held out his hands, and Caise with a deft flick of his saber’s emerald blade severed the connecting chain of the restraints. As Ziv scrambled to retrieve the bothan’s blaster, Caise noticed that the other crewman he had intended to cut loose had already found sanctuary behind a stack of crates. A third soldier was closer than Mercury was, however, and that being the case, the miraluka padawan had to abandon the thought of freeing the fringer for a moment. With an electric hum, the saber spun around in his grip as he leapt forward and slashed the reverse gripped blade up and across the trooper’s torso. As the third trooper fell, the last one hollered frantically into his comlink for assistance even as he ripped a shot off at Caise. The padawan’s lightsaber whirred again as he moved to deflect the shot. Before he could close the distance and drop the last TDF trooper, though, both Ziv and Dime opened up on the hapless pawn, dropping him where he stood.

The immediate TDF threat had been eliminated and Caise found himself alone in the room with only a handful of the passengers and crew who had occupied the place moments before. Alarms were sounding throughout the ship and the jedi-to-be could sense that this battle was far from over; nevertheless, given this brief moment of respite, he deactivated his saber and moved to crouch beside the woman whom Burukt had shot. If there was any chance of saving this one, it was his duty to do so.

(OOC: If the woman is not dead, Caise has to try and provide whatever healing he can… even if it’s only to stabilize her long enough to ensure that someone else will be able to help her later… If there’s nothing that can be done, he’ll offer up a “May the Force be with you” and off we go&hellip

As the chaotic swirl of the Force in the room ebbed a little, Mercury stepped out from behind the cover he had taken, and a female engineer whom had been sitting next to Ziv, also emerged from her place of shelter.

“It just gets better all the time, doesn’t it,” the woman fumed as Caise rose from his inspection of the passenger and panned his blind gaze around the room, seeking out Dime’s aura first. He nodded faintly and offered the twi’lek a tight smile as he continued on to regard Ziv, Mercury, Damanil, and finally Lana. “Are you going to just stand there,” she demanded, “or are you going to cut me loose, too? We’ll never make it up front but if we head back toward the engine room now, we can reach the life boat.”

Before Caise could reply, or even ask the lone TDF solider if he had a key for the restraints, the woman sighed; “Or, if you prefer, we can wait for the TDF to come and sort this out…”

“She’s right,” Caise nodded, “they are coming. Lingering here would not be wise.” His head turned in the red-haired soldier’s direction; “If you have a key to release those restraints, Mr Shadoran, now would be the time..."

"Is everyone armed?”

((OOC: If Damanil doesn’t have a key, Caise will cut Lana and Mercury’s restraints. Unless there are any objections, if/when the party heads out, Caise will start out “bringing up the rear” allowing the others to clear the room before he does… replies, etc, all around… ))