Great American Hero!

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Anticipating the attack coming down at her, Mariella stepped backwards and to her right side, angling her saber to parry the blow. With a green flash her saber deftly skipped off of the top of the droid arm's lower portion and up towards the shoulder in a lightning-fast counter strike. Hissing as it made contact with the metal, the lightsaber flew upward towards where the droid arm met with flesh, seeking to separate them.

[MikDaTv]

The droid arm clattered to the floor which gave it reason to take a step back and reevaluate it's situation. It examined the damage done at it's shoulder before turning back to the woman holding the lightsaber.

A speaker overhead issued a violent scream like sound that was paintful to John's ears. He recognized it as the sound two modems make when talking to one another. The large man opened his mouth and responded to the sound in a similar, but much quieter sound. "I don't think this is good." John said.

Once the communication was complete, the large man charged forward again, this time trying to do the same thing with it's biological left arm.

John wasn't about to let it though and sprang forward catching the fist on a force field made of the Force, stopping it cold. He followed up this defensive tactic with a swift kick to the abdomen with his Force charged legs. The large man tumbled backwards, onto his back.

A door on the other side of the room opened and a huge cargo load lifter droid rolled into the room. It's two huge hands, which could could hold a medium sized dog in it's palm, formed into fists and punched at John who rolled away to the side.

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After Mariella had followed her slash through the arm of the large man, she had spun away and into a traditional Soresu stance. She watched as John leapt into action and moved to cover him as he kicked the large attacker away. She had just positioned herself between him and their assailants again as the cargo-loader droid entered the room.

As John darted away from the attack, Mariella darted forward, her lightsaber appearing as little more than a blurred arc of green, dancing through the air. She batted the Robot's left arm away with her saber and made a motion to decapitate it. A simple combination of two blows that would have a devastating effect if they connected.

[MikDaTv]

The loader droid collapsed into a heap of parts after it's arm and head had been removed from it's body. The large man tried to get up but he found it difficult with only one arm moving his large mass. John was able to get atop him and hold him down with a foot placed on his good shoulder.

While he fought to keep all his weight on the large man, he pulled out his comlink. "Gizmo, do a full scan for wireless networks. Do a full scan for wireless networks!"

The droid responded a moment later, informing him that there was indeed something that could be used as a wireless network surrounding the Praxeum. "Gizmo, jam it! anything, just interupt it!"

a second later the large man stopped struggling below John and the Jedi relaxed a little. "It's a Yaka" he said to Mariella. "But somethings wrong. I think someone's hacked his brain implants."

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A high-pitched sucking sound signaled the deactivation of Mariella's lightsaber as her eyes finished sweeping the room.

"A Yaka? What's that?"

Mariella moved forward to examine the now unmoving man under John. He was certainly large, and she could tell that her blade hadn't caused him any mortal wound. However, it was then that she realized that it was not his malevolence that she had been sensing. She could not feel this man at all, and that began to stir unrest in her before she quieted herself.

[MikDaTv]

"I read about them on my research of Akrania." John said. "They're famously known for their cybornetics. Specifically, brain implants that increase their intelligence. But their normally independent, operating as individuals instead of networked computers like this one seems to be operating as."

He knelt down and held a hand over the Yaka's forehead. "What's more is that i can't feel this one through the Force. I'm afraid whoever he was as an individual is gone, replaced completely by whoever sliced into his brain implant."

John stood back up and looked through the door that had opened when the loader droid came in. "Gizmo's jamming won't work forever. We need to find out whats going on here and fast."

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"Curious...I agree, we should move quickly but cautiously."

Mariella stepped back from the Yaka and twirled the hilt of her blade in her fingers, scanning the room once more, even though she didn't sense anything.

"Do you know what it is that you're looking for?"

[MikDaTv]

"Arca Jeth's Holocron would be upstairs somewhere, probably in what was once his room. I have no idea where this... evil slicer might be though." John said.

He shook his head. "In the light of our discovery though, i think we should forget about the holocron for the time being."

He moved to the open doorway and peered inside. Within the room was another Yaka, much like the last one, standing perfectly still with it's prothstetic eye scanning back and forth. John avoided the robotic eye's gaze and pulled himself back out of the door way. "There's another one in there, as long as the jamming is on he can't inform his master that we're here but i'd rather not fight unless we have to."

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Closing her eyes for a moment, Mariella waited with her hand upon the closed door. She opened her eyes.

"Listen closely, we don't have much time...in a few seconds I'll make a run. You must follow me exactly when I give the signal. I sense a life-force upstairs, and I feel that it may be the root of all of this...ready?"

Like an arrow, Mariella shot forward into the room at the exact moment when the Yaka's eye was scanning the opposite wall, As she ran she drew closer to the behemoth, travelling into its blind spot and waiting for a moment as the Yaka scanned the opposite door. As soon as it drew its eye away Mariella sprinted for the door, throwing it open and signaling John Paul.

[MikDaTv]

John nodded his agreement and waited as Mariella made her run. When she issued the signal to him, he charged forward. He was not nearly as graceful as she was, but he still managed to do it, finishing it off with a Patented Captain Kirk roll through the door to relative safety.

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As her companion made it to safety, Mariella shut the door and turned to face the hallway that they had reached. It made a neat T shape, with a staircase leading off of it and another closed door at the end. The Knight took gentle steps to the edge of the wall just before the stairs and peeked around, seeing another Yaka where the staircase turned back into another flight. Drawing back, she whispered to John.

"I don't see how we will get around this one...There's no way of knowing how many flights there are, or how many guards...we may just have to move quickly and hope that the jam continued to work."

[MikDaTv]

John held up a hand to tell her to wait before reaching over to his shoulder and tearing a strip of his Jedi Robe away. He laid the strip of cloth down in his hand and then it levitated into the air. Using the Force, John moved the strip of cloth up the stairs to the Yaka where he let it fall, covering the prothsetic eye.

"Ok, if he wakes up at least he won't know where we are right away." John said before rushing up the stairs. He slid his body tight up against the wall to slip past the large Yaka.

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With the problem solved for the moment, Mariella followed suit with John, keeping close to the wall as she made it up the stairs, but still passing so close to the Yaka that she could feel its bodily heat. When they reached the next flight she was relieved to find that there was no guard posted there. After three flights they came to a hallway lined with doors on either side.

"These must have been the living quarters, while those rooms downstairs were the function rooms..."

The doors were old and not automatic. One would need to press a button or a series of buttons to get in. At the end of the hallway was another Yaka, staring down at them. Mariella pressed herself into one of the frames of the doors to avoid his sight, and indicated that John Paul should do the same.

[MikDaTv]

John pushed himself up against the door oposite Mariella and made himself as small a target as possible. He glanced down the hallway at the Yaka. He really wished he had a weapon, but unfortunately he had decided to finish the mission first before trying to locate a suitable diamond for his lightsaber.

He tapped a few buttons on control pannel for the door he was pressed up against and it opened. He slipped into the room and started lookind around for anything he could use as a weapon.

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With her mind clear it was not difficult for Mariella to discern John Paul's intent. She unbuckled her belt and threw it, along with the heavy blaster holstered to it, across the hall to her partner. It appeared as though the Yaka had not seen the motion. She motioned for John Paul to stay in the room opposite her while she opened to room that she had her back to.

There was no guard inside, just as there had been no guard inside of the room that John Paul had entered. An idea came to Mariella as if from on high. She cast her eyes towards the wall separating this room from the adjacent one. The wall seemed to be cracked with a sort of spider-web pattern, not visible to her physical eyes, but visible none-the-less. Every time she breathed they seemed to pulse, and she knew what to do.

Clipping her lightsaber to her belt and reaching out her hesitant hands, Mariella touched the wall, pouring the force into the cracks. As though stricken by a wrecking ball, the wall fell down, exposing the next room down the hallway. The far wall had the same strange spider-web pattern, and as Mariella raised her eyes to look back to where John Paul was, she realized that she was seeing them everywhere. She whispered across the hallway.

"John...I'm experiencing something strange...I think you should follow me..."