STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Broken

Hard to tell in the crowd... but Akro is on the stage, waiting his turn to speak.

Hmmm. Rianna will see what he has to say, then...

The arrival of Nehmen and his men has roused the miners, who are now directing their angered chanting at them.

"And who is supposed to have protected us from such tyranny?" Dalt asks. "The government, that's who! And instead of doing that, they pull out their guns on us and tell us to comply! Lieutenant Colonel Nehmen, I presume!"

Nehmen stands firmly in his place.

Akro is on the move, Rianna. He is leaving the stage.

Rianna moves into position to be able to jump down quickly, her lightsaber in hand. Where is Akro going?

He is moving along the side of the crowd, toward the rear.

Hmmm, odd...

Anyone else in the crowd moving?

The crowd is generally moving to confront the arriving riot squads.

Is Nehmen on Rianna's side of the crowd? What about Akro?

Rianna will stay put just a bit longer. Does she notice anything else in particular or sense anything?

Akro is now moving below you on the side of the crowd. Nehmen is to your left at the rear.

As Akro moves, he keeps running into miners that are not paying him any mind and pushing past them. Following him with your eyes, your intuitive sense kicks in when he runs into one miner and rushes past. The miner turns and watches him go, then looks up directly at you.

It is Arneth, one of Rand's students.

Rianna narrows her eyes at him, not letting him leave her site as she contacts Nehmen.

"One of the criminals we're after is here. Hidden in the crowd and disguised as a miner," she tells him, while keeping a close watch on Arneth.

She's also mentally cursing the fact that he's disguised as one of the miners; if she tries to apprehend him, it'll just look like she's attacking a miner for no reason and that will cause even more trouble amongst the crowd.

"It would not go well for you," Vera-Kin says. "Trust me on this."

Vera-Kin will keep her senses open, trying to detect if anything is out of place or if there is anyone approaching their location.

"If you are right, and they are coming here, we will see," Tineas says. He seems rather smug about this.

-

"Watch him," Nehmen says into the comlink.

Akro makes it to the back of the crowd with some struggling, and throws his arms up. The miners are still chanting Dalt's chants and violently gesturing at the riot squads. A few miners are pulling bricks out of the street, and some have produced blasters!

"Listen to me!" Akro shouts, waving his arms. "These men are only here to keep the peace! Violence will not solve this! It is exactly what Astrune wants!"

A brick flies through the air and crumbles against a blast shield with a heavy thud.

"Present arms!" Nehmen shouts. "Prepare gas canisters!"

Is Arneth doing anything?

No.

The riot squads lower themselves into crouched positions and tilt their shields at a slight angle to their bodies, so when bricks and trash it they roll off to the ground. Most slide their pistols through grooves on the sides of the shields as they form into a phalanx-like wall of metal to protect themselves.

Some, like Nehmen, are instead preparing grenade launchers. When his launcher is prepped, Nehmen raises his pistol again toward the crowd.

"I order you to disperse!" Nehmen shouts. "This gathering has become violent and possesses ill intent! Disperse now or there will be consequences!"

This is being repeated by his officers using voice amplifiers.

Akro seems to be encouraging them to listen.

Rianna watches uneasily, keeping an eye on Arneth and waiting for him to move. She doesn't like the look of this at all.

The crowd is getting more violent. On the sides, some are pushing against the shields of the soldiers, who do their best to just push back.

"Re-breathers!" Nehmen shouts, and the soldiers fix light gas masks onto their faces. Nehmen slings the grenade launcher and does the same... but as he does this, one of the miners comes out of the crowd and starts yelling at him. Made nervous by the approach, Nehmen snaps his pistol up again as a warning.

Rianna's going to adjust her position just a little bit, poised and ready to jump down. She doesn't like how this is looking.

Does anything about that miner stand out?

Yes. He has a knife!

Nehmen keeps his pistol trained on the miner, prepared to use it in self-defense... when it starts to swivel away from the miner.

You sense this clearly. Arneth is using the Force to move the blaster!

At this point Rianna decides that the situation is about to get too messy if she remains hidden.

"I'm going for Arneth," she informs Nehmen tersely, before jumping down from her hiding spot.

Rianna takes a flying leap out of the apartment complex... but it is too late. Her approach does not break Arneth's focus, and he squeezes his fist shut just as she lands beside him.

There is a report of a blaster and the crowd momentarily falls silent.

Arneth has used telekinesis to manipulate Nehmen's blaster to shoot down Akro, the leader of the Miner Guild. The laser has burned through his back and exploded out of his chest, taking his heart with it. He collapses.

The shock only lasts a moment. With the Jedi jumping into their midst and their old leader being murdered, Dalt whips them up into a frenzy.

"KILL THEM!" Dalt yells, drawing a pair of pistols. "BREAK OUR CHAINS! KILL THEM AAAAALL!!!"

Nehmen is staring wide-eyed at Akro's body and nearly forgets the knife-armed miner that is charging him down. At the last moment, he discharges the grenade launcher into the man's chest and the gas canister most likely cracks the man's ribs. Gas canisters start flying through the air into the crowd...