Encroaching Darkness

A life not worth living

  Sheer'da thought to herself as she walked the halls of the slave pens.  'Pen five o nine, pen five-ten." Rushing forward a few steps she finds the pen she's been sent to liberate. "Finally, five twelve." peering inside out of curiosity she sees a bunch of children inside. "Kids, that's not what I signed up for."

  Thinking it over for a moment she sighs. "The credits for this are just too good." Resigning herself to possibly two weeks with the kids she starts on the doors lock.

  After a few minutes, she hears something that sounds like scratching. Stopping to look around herself she sees someone from the cell across the hall trying to get her attention. "Miss, please, free us." She huffed at the disheveled man and continued her work. "We'd all be willing to help in the escape." The man bargains.

  Turning to face the disheveled man. "Do you now a quiet way out?" she questions the man. "There are four ways in and out of this place, no, wait, shit, only three. Obviously, the front door. But it'd just be plain stupid to try that. The master here likes natural light, so there's a bunch of skylights. Some were broken the other night by some local kids. So there's a whole mess of scaffolding leading straight up to them and the roof. There's also the sewers, but that's no place for kids. To easy for them to get sick and all that. Then there's shipping and receiving, it could work but the newer slaves are out there and they're liable to start screaming just to spite you if you don't cut them loose. So, will you free me?"

  'Ugh, even if the old fart goes and gets himself killed by the guards it'll be a nice distraction for me and the kids.' Sighing then going over to his doors lock she begins the picking process. "Thank you, young lady." The old man said while rising from the floor.

  Waking the others Tel'drin tells them it's time to leave. "Alright, guys, tonights the night. We've got the vent covers all ready to be taken off so we can get up to the roof, right?" He turns to his left asking Talia, a fourteen-year-old Zygerrian girl. "Yeah, we're good."

  Right as he reaches for the vent cover the cell door swoosh's open. "Oh, shit." The collective muttered out in perfect harmony. Sheer'da smirked at the hive mind of sorts. 'And here I forget how cute kids could be.' Looking at the small collective properly now, she finds the oldest two to be teens. 'Aaand here comes the headache.' Looking them over more critically she finds the ones apparently running the show are holding hands. 'Oh, this is gonna be fun.' "Careful there boy, Zygerrian's are known to be really possessive of what they think is there's."
 
  "I-I'm not, uh, wait! Who are you!?" The boy asked in a panic to get the attention away from him. 'Oh yeah, totally worth all the trouble they'll cause.' "I've been hired to get you kiddies outta here." She was waiting for them to jump for joy or at least go along with it but that never happened. "So, yeah, any day now kids." She said while motioning towards the door.

  Looking to one another for confirmation they all nodded and made for the door. "I knew none of you were stupid." Walking towards the scaffolding she stops to look it over. "Hey, kids, you were going to the roof, right?" They nodded in response. "That's not creepy. Whatever, we're gonna take the roof exit. You kids got any info on if there's guards or cameras up top?" The one in charge of the group told her that the locals that broke the skylights also broke the cameras. "Well, that's helpful. Come on, let's move."

  The sounds of blaster fire got all of their attention. "That old guys goin' out in style." She mumbled to herself as they made way to the scaffolding. Approaching the scaffolding they all start climbing up it. After a few minutes, they all reach the roof of the building. Looking around for guards or guard bots they find nothing and move on to the edge of the roof.

  "Well, Miss Rodian? What's the plan from here? None of us would make this fall." The leader boy says pointing down the seven-story building at the streets below. "Easy, kid. We call our ride." She said while grabbing for her comlink and dialing one. Not even a second later, an air speeder pulled up to them. And old looking Weequay was at the wheel and motioning for them all to get in.

"Hi there, Shor'ha. How the night been so far?" He seemed to be annoyed not by her question or the squeaky tone a lot of Rodian's spoke with but by her presence. "Where are my drugs? And I know I told you I'm no slaver." He told her in an even tone then turned to face the other passengers. "Kids, she didn't say what she wants with you right?" They nodded in unison to his question. "Is that a yes or a no?" They all look at him for a moment. "We don't know why she took us." They all said at once with perfect harmony. "That's, gotta be the creepiest thing I've seen in a while." Turning his attention back to driving he speaks mostly to himself.

  "I'm just going to assume they're not going to wind up as sex slaves." With a huff, Sheer'da climbs into the front passenger seat. "When have I ever done anything even remotely insidious?" The look he gave her said it all. "You're not funny, you know that, right?"