Chapter 22
Soryu
They had sensed it from orbit over Santooine, the unrestrained…almost primal use of the force to kill. They had followed the Sons support ships in, picking up their comms chatter, the slavers were dead, “Vorynx Squad” was on site….Vorynx…the word sounded familiar, something Valens had mentioned once perhaps.
They landed just outside the main camp, Gurrlum, the Cathar Master Hk’Tn and his Arkanian Padwan Feori and human Knight Beldan descended the ramp into the orange dust their ship had kicked up. The Selonian Corana stayed in the faster of the three ships hovering above to provide air support he hoped wouldn’t be needed, the Bothan Hissana stayed in the second ship as back up for the ground force.
The last of the slave support ships had just left, he could sense three presences at the slave mine camp…agitated, tense…gone? Gone? It was as if they had vanished…he reached out again, Gurrlum grumbled, a sign of angst in his species.
“Master,” Feori said, “something feels…..” - Splurck
Soryu didn’t even have time to react in horror, he turned to look at Hk’Tn while drawing his sabre, he saw Hk’Tn;s face obscured by bone, blood and brain that had sprayed from the jagged stump that was once Feori’s head. They all ignited their sabres…they hadn’t even sensed the danger, heard the shot, seen the blast…
Beldan suddenly moved, his sabres flashing and cracking as it caught something millimetres from his head, but the force of it was such that it pushed his sabre back into his face, searing his skin,
“Sniper,” yelled Gurrlum, they all went low and defensive, he opened himself…deep, deep into the currents…he could sense them now…the three weren’t in the camp together, one was still there, another up on the cliff, the third far away, but coming in rapidly, Corana sped toward the cliff in her ship to dislodge the sniper, he sensed Gurrlum begin a battle meditation. Hk’Tn was slow to react, utterly in shock at the death of his apprentice right beside him.
This was not going well. And it was getting worse.
Orange dust and deep red brown dirt beneath exploded up beside their ship, another other bolt struck it full in the side, unleashing a smell of burning metal and fried circuits. Coming in toward them was a ship unleashing blaster bolts. Corana veered to intercept. More rounds were fired by the Sniper, Soryu caught one of his blade aimed at his feet, it was a heavy blast…not just energy, these were some kind of energy coated projectile rounds.
“Hissana, the sniper,” Gurrlum took control of the situation with his voice and his force presence “Beldan, Hk’Tn go left to the cliffs to flank it, Soryu, you and I will tackle it head on,”
Soryu didn’t know what ‘it’ was, till he turned and saw, it, a trail of blooms of orange dust speeding up toward them mid-way between their position and the camp where the remains of a rock pillar had long since collapsed in the desert winds. From the rock stump came regular blaster fire, an armoured silhouette, and a presence in the force that felt beast like, unrestrained and lusting for blood. He had never sensed anything like it before…his instincts, the very primal heart of him told him to run…it took an enormous amount of sheer will, even for a Jedi Master like Gurrlum and himself to charge toward it.
They poured out strength and support in the force to firm the others as they wavered against the visceral energy that repelled them. As the others flanked, stray bolts from the aerial combat above them slammed into the ground around them, spraying them rocks and dust.
They fused their motions in a battle meld to deflect the bolts and sniper rounds as they approached. Grenades came at them, but as soon as they tried to divert it the sender detonated them rather than risk them coming back at him, the explosions threw up ever more dust. It seemed like a sand storm…but the explosions alone couldn’t account for this much dust…as he approached he sensed the swirling force, the armoured man was using the force to create a sand storm!
The sniper kept firing as if they were in clear view, not targeting with sight but the force.
“Stay together,” Gurrlum called bringing them tighter into the battle meld, Soryu did what he could to add to the stability.
They reached the rocky outcrop, he could sense the warrior…all around him…his presence in the force was like a lake he was in the middle of, it surrounded him, he couldn’t point to one part of it and say, here it is, he was subsumed. He could see Gurrlum’s head swinging searching for the warrior as well
He could sense Beldan and Hk’Tn nearby, their flanking would not work if they couldn’t pin where he was…orange dust sprayed across their faces, he used the force to keep his vision as clear as possible. He slipped deeper into the living force trying to pick up the core of where the warrior’s presence was coming from. Beldan came into view, a heavy clash as he blocked another sniper round, then out of nowhere a gray armoured monster leapt onto his back from the storm, two blades plunging into then out of Beldan’s chest a trail of blood jetting out in response.
He rushed forward launching a force grasp to try and catch or at least slow the warrior, Gurrlum’s long limbs surged forward in pursuit, but suddenly skidded to block another heavy shot from the sniper and the figure was lost to them. Above them he could hear the thump-thump-thump of cannon fire as the ships fought.
Finally he found a thread in the force…it was large yet…subtle…it was so much a part of the force as to be almost invisible…like trying to see a current under the ocean, everything just looked like water…it was a connection to the force that was deeply seated - like Valens and Milaea.
He could trace the current in his mind…from the sniper, from the enemy pilot above…it was near…
“Hk’Tn” he yelled with his voice and his battle meld, the Cathar was 20 metres away just visible, he turned, his silver blade catching the dust as the armoured shadow flew at him from the side, he pivoted just in time to block the sword. The fight between them was intense, they had already traded a dozen blows by the time he was half the distance, a Jedi Master matched blow for blow by…what was this warrior. Soryu was metres away, he flipped up into the air to close the gap….
The wind was knocked out of him, his skin burnt as lightning struck him full on in the chest, he flopped downward managing to fall into a controlled roll landing. Gurrlum was closing fast as Soryu recovered, Hk’Tn….Hk’Tn was on his knees pushing against the warriors sword, his body crackling with lighting, Soryu launched a barrage of rocks at the Warrior as he rose, but they either bounced off his armour or were knocked aside by indifferent force defences.
Soryu let the living force calm his frazzled neurons and speed his steps forward as the warrior suddenly pivoted and met Gurrlums blade before it could impale him from behind. Hk’Tn sagged to the ground, a smoking charred ruin of a body covered by dying flickers of blue lightning.
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Chapter 23
Jarys
War….war had been all he knew since being abducted from Aethas twenty years ago…the fight was all he knew…
More dust flicked into his face as he ducked out of the Jedi’s cut,
His first war was of survival in the Arena…he had become a beast to survive, and butchered his way out
He rose into a heavy punch to the Jedi’s thin frame, a wet cracking sounded from the Gado’s core as he used the pause to roll out of reach of his sabre.
The second war, the unending battles for the Sons…fighting the slavers who might have taken his people…across a hundred worlds, for years and years he had searched to find just three of them…one he had shown the final mercy to already.
The Jedi was not delayed, he could sense a healing aetheric energy already, he shot out mentally to disrupt it as he pulled his hold-out blaster and fired, it was pointless against a Jedi but bought him time and some knowledge of how the Jedi moved.
Now this third war…against the Jedi…he didn’t understand why they wanted him…was one person who used their ‘force’ and fought for someone else such a threat…he knew what he wanted from them though…he had to find the girl…
The second Jedi was gaining on him, he fired a surge of lighting in his direction, but he wouldn’t be fooled twice and caught it in his palm and on his blade, sending back a concentrated ball toward him. He dived to avoid it and came up in a defensive stance..
He had lived in a constant state of war for so long…perhaps it was all he would ever know…to be facing two Jedi at once almost seemed a perfectly logical way to die…Every warrior dies alone he mused…perhaps this was the forgotten battlefield he would fall on…Selaena was distracted fending off the Jedi that had finally found her nest, Maeson wasn’t as good a pilot as a Jedi, but the Vorynx’s better shields and weapons made it an even fight…Jarys was truly alone.
He countered and dodged the aetheric blasts sent at him as the masters came from both sides…he cut off his flow of aetheric power to the sand storm he had created, it was useless now they could track him. The Gado worried him more than the human, they were thin, flexible and good gymnasts…but their organs situated across their limbs was a weakness. He reached out to try and grasp at what organs he could, but this Gado was strong enough to block him…just.
He sprang at the Gado and launched a barrage of lighting at the human, to hold him back, the human could deal with it, but was clearly not used to it. Their blades met in a furious storm of motion, the Gado using his flexibility to try and get around him, but Jarys was faster and more flexible than he anticipated – he was not a human like the Gado expected – he was an Aethan – stronger, faster, smarter.
He could sense Selaena approaching, injured but victorious against the other Jedi. Maeson above was getting the edge against the Jedi’s ship.
The flurry continued, but the human had broken loose, he had to move fast, he dropped low as the Gado arced high and left, releasing his sword he put his hand to the ground and blanketed it with Aetherc fire, his sword he caught in his mind and hurled up to the Gado’s face, his flexibility let him parry it, but the fire he hadn’t anticipated and his feet were set ablaze, he could sense the humans shock behind him.
The human was surging forward, Jarys pivoted to the side, raising his left hand that was streaming fire toward the human who caught it on his blade, the Gado was fumbling on injured feet to deflect Jarys’ mind controlled sword, he swapped his right hands flames for a crushing grip – the Gado used the force to defend himself from it…but he wasn’t aiming at the Gado…he imploded the churned the air behind the Gado, creating a high pressure zone that then puffed back out suddenly unbalancing the Gado further, Jarys flicked his tremor-knife to his hand and swiped rapidly into the Gado’s arm as he tumbled, the vibrational blade slicing cleanly though yielding a spray of gristle from the Gado’s elongated organs and cartridge-heavy, largely boneless body.
The human drew back out of the flames and rounded on him, the Gado started convulsing, trying to keep himself from falling, he brought his silver blade down toward Jarys, it seared through his right gauntlets armour and into his forearm before he could pull it away.
His pain exploded into a shock wave that finally bowled the Gado over and pushed the human back in surprise, he retook his floating sword with his left hand and slashed it across both the Gado’s legs before he hit the ground, more gristle and fluids escaped as its elongated organs finally gave up from the trauma.
He rolled away from the dying creature, lest it try a last minute attack, only to come face to face with the human, his green sabre casting an eerie light against the orange dirt.
He hit fast and hard, a merciless rampage of blows that Jarys struggled to counter, he used the aether as his second hand on his sword whilst firing off shots of lighting with his injured right…but this human was superior to his fellows, a slight delay in a parry saw him land a glancing blow on his left shoulder, through the armour and scorching the flesh, not disabling but painful.
In the aether he was strong too…not as strong as the Jedi girl, but with Jarys already worn down, strong enough to match him…the human had him in physical combat…Jarys was just holding his own aetherically, and mentally this man was walking fortress that wasn’t worth probing. He had little choice but to go all in.
As Selaena struggled to get in range to help, the dogfight came over head, the Vorynx looked to be smoking from one engine, the Jedi ship looked worse. He drew out all the power he could, his skin flickered with energy, the Jedi was battering him down, a low cut he barely parried in time, his lighting was ineffective as the Jedi deflected it with his mind expertly. He channelled his power not at the Jedi, but at the Jedi Ship…he felt Selaena and Maeson respond in their battle link, they all pulled at the hulking and machine and slammed it toward the ground.
The Jedi sped up his attack with high blows as the ship came crashing down behind him. Jarys braced in the aether as a tsumani of dirt came up behind the Jedi, who rolled out and into a defensive crouch, the tide broke around the Jedi’s invisible barrier as Jarys used every ounce of aetheric power he could muster to leap above it. As he landed Maeson came in low overhead, the back draft scattering the burning metal shards of the Jedi ship toward him, he cruised over Sealena who leapt into the open boarding ramp.
The Jedi rose from the hail of dirt and metal as Maeson pivoted around and opened fire on him, guided by the battle meld. The Jedi dodged and wove with startling speed to avoid the rapid cannon fire that threw up ever more dirt and rock. Jarys surged to take him from behind but as he came into range to start firing lightning the Jedi turned and battered him back with an aether push, he recovered with a roll and rose to see the Jedi slashing down at him, he pivoted out but the blow ripped into his back through his armour…the third time it had saved him today…he kicked out and hit the Jedi’s shin the bone audibly snapping, then rose into an upper cut faster than the Jedi could dodge smashing into the Jedi’s sternum, in response Jarys was hit with another aetheric blast knocked the wind from his chest.
He stumbled back as Maeson approached…he had sensed this before…the Jedi was burning in the aether…his skin was starting to flicker into incandescent white…if he pushed this Jedi any further he might enter a fusion state, turning his body into pure energy…as his grandfather had done in the war that had started this all… it would kill the Jedi for certain, but it would likely be too much even for him to survive…he had to get out of here, he surged what he could into a tempest of lightning as Maeson came over head, cutting off only to leap up to the ramp, but the Jedi was behind him on the ramp!
He thought that was it till Selaena crouched ahead fired a stream of lighting one handed forcing the Jedi on the defensive as sparks flew off into the wind as the ship sped away from the battleground.
Jarys added his own lighting and moved in to attack, the Jedi was hard pressed against the two, but such was his skill he managed to perform swift turn into a crouching sweep kick causing Jarys to stumble letting the Jedi land a pommel blow on his head.
His world going red and black he righted himself and just flung both his fists forward…it was clumsy, almost purely a reflex, but so unexpected that combined with Selaena’s stream it caught the Jedi off guard and slammed into his ribs, an audible crack resonated in Jarys blood beating ears as the Jedi toppled off the ramp and into the orange dunes below.
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