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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2018, 04:45:54 PM » |
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So, the next chapter of Brothers is finished and the next War Journal is halfway done, however, due to technological skullduggery, I can't access either of them.
So, have some Edda, and remember, the next chapters of my other stories are coming soon!
CHAPTER 2: Ghost
The Archive landing panding pad, once home to some of the finest custom starships in the galaxy, was now no more that a graveyard for rusting hulks of twisted metal. The Vong had destroyed most of the ships on the pad in their initial bombing run. The mountain bore the scars of that attack as well, with craters and blast marks dotting it's surface. Sitting alone amongst the wreckage was one pristine NV-2000 luxury cruiser, and sitting crosslegged on the that cruiser's ramp, one Jedi who was either very deep in meditation, or very bored. Edda and Jorn had landed before the sun rose, and now it was high in the sky. She'd said something about 'the mountain sleeping' and wandered off, occasionally stopping at different places to run her hands over the stone and mutter to herself. She'd been at it for hours, and suddenly, the peace was broken. There was a long string of curses from behind a cratered Corellian freighter, followed by the sound of solid stone being kicked savagely and then another, higher pitched string of profanity. Before Jorn could stand and go check on the Templar,the ground began to shake and a rumbling grew below the Earth. "Edda?" Jorn called nervously, rising unsteadily to his feet and stumbling down the ramp. He made his way around the destroyed Corellian freighter blocking his view of Edda as quickly as possible, and found her collapsed on her rear before a gaping black maw in the mountain, ruefully rubbing her foot. As suddenly as the shaking began, it stopped. "I got it open." She shouted back over her shoulder, and dragged herself to her feet to peer inside. "Go ask one of of the droids for my Mountain Kit." As Jorn hustled back to the ship, Edda steeled herself. When she'd sealed the Archive five years ago, she'd never intended to open it again. This place was tomb, both for friends and for enemies. "Got it!" He shouted as he rounded the wrecked freighter, dragging a bulging rucksack. "What's in this thing? It feels like a ton of rocks." "Gear." She said brusquely, and began digging through it. She grimaced and paused for a moment as she realized that her hands were shaking, then furiously went back to work.She produced two web harnesses first, and handed one to Jorn. "Put this on." He inspected the piece of gear. It was an old tactical harness. Each of the shoulder straps bore a patch; one was in the shape of a coffin with a trident in the middle, the other bore the words 'Hit Squad' in stylized letters. Jorn shrugged and put it on, tightening the belt to fit his slender frame and moving his lightsaber to it. It was covered in pouches and holsters. There was a battered, outdated but still powerful DL-44 blaster pistol on the belt, a rugged utility knife, a set of flares, several back-up torchlights, a climbing pick and half a dozen other explorer's tools. Edda had already clasped hers on and was producing more gear from the sack. Two long coils of metal-reinforced climbing rope, which went around their shoulders, two grappling hook launchers and a large torchlight for each of them. "Do we really need all of this?" He asked incredulously. "We probably need all this to get across the threshhold. I don't know what we'll need to reach the Vault." She answered, and flicked on the beam of her light, shining it through the door. It revelead a chasm fifty feet wide and, as far as either of them could tell, bottomless. "I tore the floor out from under the Vong who were chasing us..." Edda said quietly, her mind flashing back to that day.
The smell of smoke filled her nose, and the din of battle rang in her ears. She heard the screams of the dying, the war cries of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors and the shrieks of blaster fire mixed with the hum of lightsabers. For moment, instead of standing beside Jorn, she was leaning against Tasrii Kepressa, her back bleeding in a dozen places and her head swimming, and with a wave of her bloodsoaked hand, the floor under the charging Yuuzhan Vong warriors crumbled away into a bottomless pit. At the will of the Burned One, walls collapsed, ceilings fell in and chaos reigned as the ancient keep destroyed those who dared invade it.
"Are you okay?" Jorn asked, laying his hand on her shoulder and dragging her back to reality. She shrugged off the contact. "Of course I'm okay." She snapped at him, and shouldered her grappling hook launcher. She fired it at the ceiling halfway across the gap, hooked the line through a loop on her harness and, without warning, leapt across the gap, swinging safely to the other side and reeling her hook back in. Jorn followed the same steps with competence and landed beside her. This was what remained of the great hall. The long, finely made wooden tables had been turned up on edge to be used as cover by the Templar's mercenary forces, and then smashed by the attacking Yuuzhan Vong. Most of the defenders were still here, armored skeletons scattered behind their makeshift barricades, mixed with those of Yuuzhan Vong fighters and their Voxyn hounds. Edda crept quietly, respectfully across the floor, until her feet crunched on broken glass and she stared up at the broken window to Berra's office.
She was standing inside the office, now. Looking through the window at the mercenary defenders as they were overrun, sweat dripping down her brow as she struggled to regain her breath, her lightsaber still activated in her hand. The hilt was sticky, and she looked down to see blood, her own blood, running down her arm. She turned to speak to Berra, to check on the blind Miraluka who could not see the Yuuzhan Vong attackers, but instead of the Templar master, she was face to face with Vong fighters as they rushed in through the door. A Voxyn launched itself at her, and she buried her saber in it's guts, but the eight-legged hound's momentum carried them both through the glass, and they landed in the middle of the melee below. She smacked her head against the floor, and her vision began to fade in and out as shards of glass dug into her back. By the time her mind cleared, the fight was all but lost, and Tasrii was dragging her to her feet and towards the entrance.
It was with the pain of broken glass cutting into her knees that she snapped back to the present. She cursed and stood up, shooting a glare at the very concerned looking Jedi behind her. "Come on, Jedi. Through here." She pointed to the door on the back wall, that led to their old meeting and dining room. She pulled the door open slowly. The walls had closed in her, and they hadn't fully reopened. A corridor had been formed that wasn't more than ten inches wide. The floor was cluttered with bones, and the walls were stained with blood. Halfway down the corridor, the tables and chairs had been turned to a splintered mass that blocked any hope of passage. Edda placed her hands against the walls and attempted to move them, but the mountain refused to budge. She gave a frustrated groan, and Jorn placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please, allow me." He said quietly. Edda took a step back and gave a go ahead gesture. He reached into the gap and closed his eyes. The shattered furniture levitated off the floor and drifted towards them. He aloowed it to fall gently into a heap outside the door. "After you." Edda nodded in response and began to squeeze into the corridor, attempting to suck in her chest and shuffle sideways down the narrow path. There was a time when rubbing against the dried blood would have sickened her, but now she didn't even notice, and the crunching of bones beneath her boots was miles away from her mind. What worried her now was the visions. She thought that they'd stopped for good, but they were worse than ever here, and as she came out the passage and into a roomier hallway, she half expected another one to trigger. She could remember very clearly the last time she was here. Tasrii was shouting that they were under attack, the mercenaries were rushing through the dining room and her first thought had been that she had to reach Berra and help her escape. By that time, the Vong had broken through, and she fought them all the way up the stairs to Berra's office. One of their razor sharp amphistaffs opened up her arm from shoulder to elbow, but in the heat of battle she never noticed it, and by the time she reached the top, she believed all of her pursuers to be dead. "Come on, Jedi. The Archive is down here." She pointed down the hall and set off. The hallway was littered here with Vong corpses, and the walls were scored by lightsaber cuts. Faradi had cut through them like a demon, and with Tasrii's help had been solely responsible for the survivors' escape. As they drew closer to the Vault, the bodies and cuts grew thicker, and eventually the floor vanished into another bottomless black chasm. Edda dropped down to one knee and peered into the darkness, the beam of her light dissapearing into it. "The Mountain was protecting the Vault." She said, mostly to herself. The hallway ahead of them took a sharp right turn, and the floor had dropped at least to that point. "What do we do now?" Jorn asked, shining his own light into the darkness. "Is there another way?" "Not to the Vault. See those ledges?" She pointed to narrow, jagged edges running down each wall where the floor had crumbled away. At their widest, they only protruded a few inches from the wall. "We'll use those." "Use them for what?" Jorn asked in alarm. Edda did not answer, instead pressing her back against the wall and beginning to shuffle down the ledge on her heels. Jorn watched incredulously as bits of stone crumbled away under her feet and vanished into the chasm. She stopped after ten feet or so and looked back at him. "Do you want your map or not?" She shouted, her raspy voice echoing. Jorn gulped and began to follow her, shuffling down the opposite side of the hallway until they were face to face. "See? It's not that hard." "It actually is." Jorn said, bead of sweat shining on his brow. "Don't worry, Jedi. If you fall, I'll probably catch you."
Progress was slow, but fortunately, after making it around the bend in the hallway, there were only a few feet left until the floor came back. Jorn, in his haste to find solid ground again, moved too quickly and very nearly fell into the blackness, and certainly would have if Edda had not reached out with the Force and stopped him. He thanked her, and she said nothing, but made her way off of the ledge and over to a door twenty feet down the hall. She grasped the handle and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge, so with a savage kick she knocked it down. Jorn caught up quickly and shined his light inside. The Vault had been mostly empty when the attack happened, and it was in the process of emptying it that they'd uncovered the map they were now looking for. However, a mostly empty Templar vault is a room brimming with treasures to the average person, and Jorn'seyes went wide as his light uncovered the dusty artifacts. The beam also uncovered something else leaning against the far wall; a skeleton in hooded robes, surrounded by slain Vong and still gripping a lightsaber. In it's other hand the datachip holding the map rested, covered in dust. "There's your map. He was down here with Faradi when they attacked. Our defenses only lasted for a few seconds, there were just too many of them." Edda said. Jorn walked over to the bones slowly and knelt down. He took the lightsaber first, and held it in his hand for a moment before hanging it on his belt. Then, the map went securely into a pouch on his harness. When he stood and turned to face Edda, there were unashamed tears in his eyes. "Did you know him? She asked, her demeanor softening to the Jedi for the first time since they'd met. "He was my brother." Jorn replied, wiping the tears away from his cheek. "Nett Bollin." "I'm sorry, Jorn." "Don't be. The Vong took something from us all." He replied, with a smile that never reached his crying eyes. "Why did they send you here to do this?" Edda asked, her tone compassionate. "I volunteered. It seemed right that I should be the one to visit my brother's tomb. Why did they send you? It's obviously very painful for you to be here." "Me and Faradi are the only ones left who can manipulate the stone here, and Faradi is the warden of the Oros Archive, he only leaves it if there's an emergency. The Masters most likely felt that our Order owes yours a debt after your brother died on our watch, and this is how they repay it, so it was worth a little suffering." "I'm sorry, Edda." "Don't be. This isn't the hardest thing I've ever done by a long shot. Now, let's go home." It was Edda's turn to smile sadly now. "Agreed."
...
The trip back to Oros was uneventful. By the time they reached the Archive, Edda and Jorn had established a friendship that would last for the rest of their lives, but he was to return to the Jedi Order, and Edda was given a new assignment. They said their goodbyes outside of the council chamber. "Take care of yourself out there, Jedi." "You too, Templar." "Edda!" Tasrii's voice rang out from the other side of the door. "Duty calls, it sounds like. I'll see you around, Veek." Jorn said with a grin. Edda clasped him on the shoulder, and without a word turned around and swept into the council room.
Most of the masters had left. Only Tasrii still stood within, wearing her crimson robes and turning over her lightsaber in her hands as she gazed out of a huge window at the setting sun. "What do you need, Tas?" Edda asked, taking a place beside her. She was in an uncharacteristically good mood. "I have another job for you, it should be simple, just smash and grab. Exactly the kind of job you like. A Hutt Cartel has has recovered something of great value, and we need it." Tasrii paused for a moment. "There is a catch. The something that we need is more of a someone. A Force-sensitive child. The Hutts have this idea that they're going to turn him into a weapon." "Alright. Send me the coordinates, and I'll go scoop him up. What's the planet?" "Just like that?" "Just like that." "He's on Tattoine. I'll send the exact location to your ship. Take care of yourself out there, Edda." "I always do."
CHAPTER END
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