Brothers

[TheDrunkenConsular]

Aw man, how did you guys figure out my Shyamalanian Twist?

[Karmack]

Actually it's Kimar's head... 

[Illyiss]

Actually it's Kimar's head... 

Crystallized, shrunk down into a skull shaped lightsaber crystal/holocron, emitting a yellow blade.

[Taegin Roan]

The Crystal Skull!  NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Okay, that movie sucked.

[Illyiss]

Still a better love story than Twilight...

[Taegin Roan]

Still a better love story than Twilight...

Which I will never read or watch.

[Illyiss]

Which I will never read or watch.

An excellent principle.

[Karmack]

Still a better love story than Twilight...

Point.  ;-)

Wait...   There was a love story in Twilight?  *confusion*

[Illyiss]

Point.  ;-)

Wait...   There was a love story in Twilight?  *confusion*

Okay, Stockholm syndrome story?  Stalker fantasy story?  Pedobear story... 

[TheDrunkenConsular]

CHAPTER 20: Clarity, Part 1

     As the Templar defenders, along with D’Aylanna and Jorya, stood in the aftermath of their fight with the Revenant invaders, the sound of loud, armored footsteps on stone began ringing through the halls.  Close behind the sound, a dark, stormy presence followed.  Soon, the figure they belonged to rounded the corner.
     He was tall, and shrouded in darkness.  He wore black robes wrapped tightly around his muscled form, and in his hand was a long, poison green saber.  On his face was an evil steel mask, with demonic features and long pointed horns sweeping back over his head.
     D’Aylanna drew her lightsaber, but Rakham spoke before she could activate it.
     “Godsdamn it, Faradi, where have you been?”
     Faradi immediately shut down his lightsaber and removed his mask, revealing tattooed green skin and long Twi’lek lekku.
     “Master, are you alright?”  He rushed over and knelt beside Jorya, who was still healing the old Templar.
     “Too early to tell for sure.  They got my eyes, but I think the wounds can be healed.”
      Faradi paused to inspect the damage.  “Yes, it doesn’t appear to be terribly serious.  To answer your question, Master,  one of these wretches managed to evade your cleansing wrath and stumbled into my laboratory.  I dealt with him as quickly as I was able, and made my way here.”
      “I thank you for your efforts, Faradi, and you got here just in time.  I have a task for you.  This is D’Aylanna Vih’torr and her daughter, Jorya.  D’Aylanna is an old friend, and I ask that you trust her as you trust me.  She is going to need your services.”  Rakham said, and glanced at the unconscious Revenant Wraith.  “All of your services.”
     “I understand, Master.”  He said, and stood so that he could bow to D’Aylanna.  “I am your faithful servant, Madame Vih’torr.  Now, let’s see about getting this mess cleaned up before the rest of the Order returns.”

...

     “They’ve underestimated us twice, and they won’t do it again.”  Berra said to the rest of the Masters, who were all lounging in her office bearing concerned looks.  D’Aylanna was listening in as well, and the Narudar and Fugitive had both returned completely unmolested, bringing Dala and Nadia back.
     “It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that they’re still testing us.”  Rakham said.  “But one thing is certain; they know more about the Archive than they should.  It can’t be a coincidence that their cavalry went straight for the Vault.  They knew about it.”
     “Outside of this room, who knows where the Vault is?”  Nadia asked with an exhausted look.
     “Tasrii.  Edda.  Faradi.  Gra’porin.  Jorya.  Jorya is obviously not a suspect, and I refuse to believe that any of the others betrayed us.”  Rakham replied. 
     “How did they even get into the Archive?  You can’t just kick down a twelve foot thick wall of reinforced stone.” Dala asked, absentmindedly stroking her lekku.
     “They opened it.” Rakham answered.
     “What?” Dala and Nadia answered in unison.
     “They opened it.”  He repeated.  “Set off charges all around the mountain to disorient us, and opened the door.”
     “That’s not possible.” Nadia stated plainly.
     “I closed the door.  D’Aylanna saw it.  After we fought them, it was open.”  Rakham responded.
     “I already checked with Faradi and Tasrii.  Neither of them left the Archive last night, and neither did I.”  Berra added.  “Rakham, do you know what they wanted from the Vault?”
     “How could I?  People have killed and died for every item in there at some point in history, and that just confuses me more.  Even if someone outside those mentioned had learned of the Vault, it’s absolutely impossible that they could have gotten inside and catalogued the items for the Revenant to know what we have.”  He answered.  “There is an upside to this, apart from the fact that they didn’t get anything or kill anyone.  Stikes is slicing their ships’ navcomputers right now, and he might can find out where they came from.”
     “If your theory that this attack was another test of our abilities is true, it could be a trap like the one Tas and I fell into.”  Nadia said.
     “Very true, and that’s why we’ll be ready, but to be honest with you, the Revenant have yet to impress me that much.  We can handle this.”  He replied, and stood up.  “Now, I’m going to go climb into a Bacta tank and pray that when I get out of it I can see.”

...

     After a long night of work, Stikes finally broke into the computers.  They’d been cleared before their last launch, but the black box provided clear coordinates to the planet they’d departed.  It was a lush, heavily forested world in a nearby system.  An unmanned and virtually undetectable recon craft owned by the Mandalorians had been launched and was currently in orbit. 
     The Revenant operations seemed to be based out of an old star cruiser, but it was clear that the ship had crashed there many years ago, and the Revenant had arrived in smaller ships like the ones on the landing pad.  There were half a dozen of the vessels, and each of them was capable of holding no more than a handful of people.

     A plan was developed quickly.  Dala Crescentfall, Sahka Tekk, Nova Gramm, Korin Stikes, Choh’leni, and Tasrii Kepressa would lead a strike team of Mandalorians in the Fugitive, while the rest of the Mandalorians would follow in the Narudar with Hul Sten, Rawbacca, Teks and the Morn brothers, Callo and Stringer.
     The Narudar would come out of hyperspace first and begin bombarding the site.  Then, the Fugitive would arrive, and the strike team would disembark.  At that point, the Narudar would begin it’s approach and deploy the rest of the Templars and their mercenary allies upon landing.  If necessary, the mercs on the ground were capable of painting targets for the heavy weaponry aboard the Narudar.

     All that remained was the execution.

...

     The bombardment was very much a success.  Enormous craters were blasted in the old wreck, and a huge swath of forest was burning or vaporized around it.  Of course, this helped the Templar strike team less than they’d anticipated. 

     The Fugitive swept into the hangar bay of the old cruiser like a massive bird of prey, and the strike team swarmed out with weapons ready.  However, they met no resistance, and none of the Templars sensed life signs.
    “Energy readings through there, ma’am.”  A Mandalorian engineer with a handheld scanner reported to Dala.
     “Tasrii, take the lead.  Aurek Squad, back her up.  Sahka, Nova, Stikes, Choh’leni, make your way to the bridge and see if you can access any security footage.  I’m going with Tasrii and Aurek.”

...

     Surprisingly, the ship was in remarkably good shape apart from the bombardment damage, and some of the lifts were still working.  The Templar team boarded one of these and ascended towards the bridge.
     “Revenant must have done a lot of work restoring the power here.”  Nova posited.
     “Who knows, maybe they just got lucky.  This wreck can’t be more than ten years old.”  Stikes said, and keyed up his communicator.  “Master Dala, has your group seen any indication of how long the Revenant has been here?”
    “Not yet, Stikes, but we’re finding tech beyond anything we’ve seen the Revenant use before.  They have long range scanners here more than capable of watching the Archive.  It looks li- hold on, Stikes, the mercenaries found something.”  The commlink went silent, and half a second later, the elevators doors slid open, revealing the bridge.

     The bridge was dark and cluttered with instrument panels.  A humanoid skeleton rested in the captain’s chair, but it wasn’t what drew the attention of the Templars.
     In red paint on the walls, floor and ceiling, in a hundred different languages, was one phrase repeated over and over.
     You lose

     “Nova, stop!”  Sahka hissed as the woman stepped carefully into the room, but it was too late.  As Nova turned around and opened her mouth to speak with a puzzled expression on her face, her foot came down on the pressure plate.
     Sahka spun around and tackled the first person she could reach back into the lift, beating the fireball that engulfed the bridge by nanoseconds.  Nova was vaporized immiediately, and Choh’leni was blasted into the wall.  Stikes landed hard under Sahka, and she landed hard on top of him, driving the air from his lungs and cracking several ribs.  The back of Sahka’s armor was buckled by the blast, but the tough as nails Barabel barely noticed that as her head smacked into the floor.
     “Nova!  Nova!”  Stikes choked and gasped as Sahka rolled off of him in a daze.  She drug herself to her feat and stumbled into the the charred and cratered room, coughing from the smoke.  There was no evidence that Nova had ever been there, and Choh’leni was leaning against the wall, still.
     “Masster.  Masster.”  Sahka spoke into her commlink, her accent thickening as her head swam. 
     “What’s going on up there, Sahka?  We heard a blast.”  Tasrii replied.
     “There wass... what iss word... bomb!  There wass bomb, Masster, Nova and Choh are dead!”
      “All units, be advised, we have a force of battledroids on scanners!”  A Mandalorian voice interjected.
      “Sahka, are you alright?  Where is Stikes?”  Tasrii said into the commlink.
     There was no response.
     “Sahka?”
     “Sahka!”

     The Barabel lay still on the floor.

...

[TheDrunkenConsular]

     “Narudar, prepare cannons!”  Marz ordered coolly into his helmet’s communicator.  “Medic 1, Assault 3, Assault 7, get to the bridge and get those Templars back.  You three will answer to callsign Besh.  Engineer 1, get to the Fugitive and fire up a blaster turret.  Answer to callsign Cresh.  Aurek, establish a defensive perimeter thirty five meters inside the hangar door. Master Templars, if you wish to participate in the hostilities, I would recommend taking cover near the perimeter and joining the action when they get close.”
     “No time for formalities, Commander.  Order us like the rest of your men.”  Dala said.  “Tas, let’s make some cover.”  She gestured to stacks of crates near the walls of the hangar, and with a a motion of her hands one of the stacks levitated towards the perimeter the Mandalorians were establishing.  Tasrii joined in, and soon an effective palisade was formed.
     “The droids are close!”  The remaining Engineer said, staring intently at the screen of his scanner.  Everyone was quiet, and only the muted click... click... click... of the scanner broke the silence.  There were eight Mandalorian commandos, not counting Marz or the Engineer manning the turret, and the scanner was reading dozens of droids. 
     It wasn’t long before the first wave appeared.  The droids were tall and spindly, with skeletal bodies and weapons integrated into each arm, blasters on the right and vibroblades on the left.  They were painted black, and their round photoreceptors burned red.  A score of them charged the hangar mouth, with dozens more close behind.
     “Cresh, fire for effect!  Aurek, suppressing fire!”  Marz ordered briskly.  The  blaster turret screamed, blowing holes through the ever growing ranks of droids, drowning out the almost silent electromagnetic clatter of shattergun fire.
     The first wave was decimated immediately, but the second was close behind, stepping over the shattered metal bodies and furiously returning fire, forcing the mercenaries into cover.
     “Switch to rockets!”  Marz commanded.  Each mercenary armed the auxiliary weapons systems hidden in their armor and awaited Marz’ order.  The commander peeked around the edge of the crate he was hiding behind, waiting for the droids to come closer so that there would be no chance of missing.  “Fire!”
     A barrage of rockets streaked across the ten yards between the barricade and the charging droids and slammed into them like a charging banthaa.  The mercenaries immediately switched back to their shatter rifles and finished off the remaining droids.
     The third wave was far greater than the first two, with what looked like hundreds of droids gathering outside.  The Templars felt something else, as multiple dark presences revealed themselves outside the ship.  There was another problem as well; many of the droids who were thought to be destroyed were writhing on the floor, autorepair programs bringing them back to their feet.
     “Marz!  The Revenant are here!”  Dala shouted.  The commander nodded back, a grim look on the face under his helmet.
     “Engineer 2, paint those targets!  Narudar, fire as soon as you get a solid lock!  Besh, status report!”
     “We’re moving as fast as we can, commander!  The elevator was damaged in the blast and these Templars are in rough shape.  ETA ten minutes!”  The medic from Besh replied, as the engineer still with Aurek pointed a set of goggles out of the hanger, designating a target for the Narudar.
     Five seconds later, with a deafening sound, the ground outside erupted, dirt and droid parts launching into the sky.
    “Narudar, keep up the barrage!  Aurek, put these droids down for good!”  Marz yelled, and Aurek Squad began pouring fire into the writhing mess of droids on the floor, not stopping until the movement ceased and the barrage from the Narudar stopped.
     “Commander, the guns are overheated and we’ve blown a dozen circuits.  That’s all we’ve got.”  The pilot of the ship radioed.
     “Alright Narudar, return to orbit.” Marz responded as he peered into the thick clouds of dust and smoke outside. 
     “Sir?”
     “You heard me.  We don’t know what’s down here so we can’t risk a landing.  Get out of here.”  He said, only half paying attention to the commlink as he began to notice movement within the dust cloud.  Suddenly, a storm of blaster fire erupted from the dust, chewing at their limited cover.   The turret opened fire again, but suddenly the barrels were wrenched downwards towards the defenders, strafing them with devastating effect.  Thinking quickly, the engineer drove an armored elbow into the circuit panel and shut down the gun, but the damage was done, three of the eight commandos had been killed by the turret, and two more by the droids.  Seven dark figures emerged from the dust, crimson blades in hand.
     “Concentrate fire on those Revenant!”  Marz roared in fury, losing his calm for the first time that the Templars has ever seen.  He stood and emptied his shatter rifle in a long automatic burst, his armor absorbing half a dozen blaster bolts.
     The Revenant hadn’t expected the nasty surprise of the shatterguns, and three of them were dropped by the Mercenaries’ barrage before one of them caught on to what was happening.  A wave of energy caught the Mandalorians and their cover, first slamming the mercenaries backs against the walls of the hangar, then throwing the remains of their cover atop them.  Only Tasrii, Dala and Marz remained, and Marz lie on his back.
     Dala and Tasrii activated their sabers, icy blue crossing over sky blue as they stood shoulder to shoulder.  As soon as they activated their sabers, the droids stopped firing but continued to rush in, surrounding the Templars in a wide circle.  The sound of a shattergun followed by four blaster shots near the walls signaled the end of the last mercenary defenders, and Marz dragged himself to his feet with cold determination.  The three stood back to back, weapons in hand, the room silent save for the hum of lightsabers and a set of footsteps that drew ever closer. The droids parted, and the Revenant appeared, four of them striding alongside one another.
     They wore black hoods, with half masks that revealed the red tattoos on their faces.  They’d put their sabers away.
     “Nice toy.”  One of them said, and with a gesture, the shatter rifle was snatched from Marz’ hand.  The Revenant caught it, turned it over on his hands once, and pointed it back at Marz.  He made a show of pondering his options, then shook his head with a sarcastic smile.  “No, not my style.  So, what shall we do with you, Templars?”  He asked, placing a mocking emphasis on the last word.  “I suppose we should wait for the rest of you to join the party before deciding.”
     
     As soon as he finished speaking, the droids parted again, and ten badly damaged units stepped forward, dragging Sahka and Stikes.  Both of them were dumped unceremoniously in the circle, and their lightsabers were handed to the Revenant.
     “Thiss one iss ssorry...”  Sahka hissed weakly.  “Droidss in the ventss... Electrocuted uss.  Killed merssenariess.”
     “Well, the gang’s all here!”  The Revenant said cheerily.  “I’m sure you’re all surprised, shocked, even, but I have to break it to you.”  His tone suddenly turned cold.  “We’re better than you.  We’re stronger than you.  We’re smarter than you, and we’ve been doing this for much, much, longer than you.  Now, as for what to do with you.  First of all, I want you, specifically to see something.”  He said, and pointed at Marz.
     The droids parted again, and two more Revenant appeared.  Their black robes were soaked in blood, and it dripped on the floor as they walked.  One of them had a gaping hole in his throat, the other had one fist sized crater in her chest, one on her thigh and a chunk ripped from her side.  Even before their eyes, the flesh reformed, their wounds closing in seconds.
     “No... that’s impossible!”  Dala gasped.  These were two of the Revenant that had been killed by the Mandalorians. 

     The female Revenant took off her mask, revealing a smooth, pale face almost entirely covered by tattoos.  She walked up to Marz, swaying her hips.  Tasrii moving between them, bringing her lightsaber up, and the woman stopped.  With a sigh, she snapped her fingers.  Tasrii’s back arched and she fell to her knees as unbearable pain washed over her in waves.  Her lightsaber fell to the ground, and the Revenant stepped around her as Dala rushed to her side.
       “You...”  she murmured seductively, and placed a hand on Marz’ shoulder.  “...are a tease!”  With her other hand, she found the clasp of his helmet and released it.  With a motion of her hand, it was lifted off his head and clattered to the floor.  He was frozen in place, gripped by the Force as though frozen in carbonite.  She caressed his face, and as she did so, invaded his mind. 
     She saw everything he’d seen, but it wasn’t the interior plan of the Archive or Templar battle plans she was searching for.  It was the night he met his wife, the day his son was born, and the last tearful goodbye that they’d shared.  She smirked and licked her lips.
     “What you said to your son was true, you know,” she whispered in his ear.  “That was the last time you’d ever leave him.”  Her hand went to her belt, and produced a short lightsaber hilt.  “My name is Annora.  I want you to know that.” 

     She activated the lightsaber, and the red blade pierced his stomach.  She loosened her grip on him, enough that he could scream in pain, and drug the blade upwards into his chest.  The scream stopped as his lungs were disintegrated, and she dropped him to the ground.

     Dala made no sound of anger or outrage, but she moved like lightning, swinging her saber at Annora’s head.  The Revenant blocked the blow with her saber, and thrust out a hand, attempting to inflict pain upon Dala the way she had Tasrii.  Dala responded with a Force push, knocking her off her feet.
     “Your parlor tricks aren’t going to work on me, you animal.”  She snarled furiously.  The surprise of the blow had broken her hold over Tasrii, and Dala helped the Zabrak to her feet.
      “That’s quite enough.”  One of the other Revenant said drolly, and motioned to the droids.  Immediately, a storm of blue stun bolts hit the pair, and they went down in a twitching heap.

END CHAPTER

[Lord_S_Gray]

The Revenant Strike back...and shows how they got their name with their resurrection abilities...solid plan,show themselves weak and incompetent to lure the enemy however subconsciously into attacking.  Of course what their ultimate goal is...now that is the real question!

[Illyiss]

Oh the show of long term tactics is delicious!  This is how you wage a war.  Superior intelligence (information, the other kind is not shown for balance), superior use of resources, planning, and a willingness to commit to the completion of goals, at any cost.  I do have to wonder about these Revenants, and their origins, they feel almost...  familiar. 

[TheDutchman]

...Wow TDC...that was...intense!  The Revenant are damned scary, not to mention literal hero-killers.  Excellent tight action.  And the characters that I've become invested in...each death is significant especially Marz.  Exact words can truly come back to haunt you...

And Annora...that's one frightening HBIC... TDC, you've ramped up the action, the stakes, and my sense of dread.  AWESOME writing sir!  I canNOT wait to see where you take us next!!

[Karmack]

echoing the others.  This is intense and amazing.  The Revenant are utterly scary.  A great argument for full disintegration...  Wow.

And Marz...  NO!!!!!!!!!!