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Author Topic: Fate of the Aether  (Read 72822 times)
Karmack
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Posts: 5602


Light side points please.


« Reply #210 on: February 18, 2019, 03:05:53 PM »

In each were thoughts and feelings that seemed so right at the time, so wrong on reflection?

Learning from ones mistakes didn’t undo the damage they had caused.

And so she fell.


This is so poiniant.  I am reminded of Peter and Judas from the Gospels.   Both close followers and friends of Jesus.   Both in the "inner circle".   Both believing that they were doing God's will.  And both betraying their friend and Master.

One, wracked with guilt, bowed and sought forgiveness.  Laying his burden down and finding the strength to move on.

The other, wracked with guilt, hanged himself.

She falls, wracked with guilt.  Will she forgive, or will she die?
Logged

signature picture by DarthScrub

Master Singer of the Mak'Tor

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
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Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #211 on: February 20, 2019, 09:37:51 PM »

Chapter 54 — Road to Hell — To Stand In Her Path

 
Part 1

Jarys


Black smoke obscured the pinkish sky as the looting and burning spread further out, native Vulptereens had long since fled from the fighting, the local police overrun by the pirates, lucky ones able to hang on to hover cars that vanished into the side streets of the industrial zone…the less fortunate killed or ‘indentured’ to help the raiders find the best loot – then killed.   

There were too many of too many disparate races to simply mind control them all, but what they could do was create an aetherically distorted emotional ‘puddle’ that increased the attackers rage, reduced their inhibitions and critical thinking causing them to flood in over the corpses and keep pushing forward despite what logic might dictate.

Rolling his shoulders he gave his sword and rifle a quick spin then leapt from the small crook in the struts on the Southern side.

Blazing blue shots struck the conglomerate force beneath obliterating three before he had descended halfway as he felt Maeson and Melron simultaneously spring into action East and West respectively, Brute Squad and the Extolled following in the North. 

The enemy had flooded into the Station as the Sons main force fell backwards, now they would hit the fortified Fourth line in front while Jarys and the other ripped them apart from behind. 

The back of his mind registered the first aetheric pings as Valens, Lyaea and Kiraea fired off the first volley of Black-stone arrows into the descending transports cutting off their re-enforcements and also providing a chance to capture more ships – further out the Jedi slowly positioned at the far edge of Vulpter Gravity well– even at full sub light they were still an hour away

Building up the charge in his limbs he cracked off another half dozen shots into a force of Gand, twisting to avoid the return fire before – not landing – slamming.

Tens of thousands of Newtons struck the Southern entrance way, buckling the ferrocrete into a crater, the concussive force blasting Gand, Ishi-Tib, Weequay, Humans and a few Klatooinians off their feet.  Like Lexrul - before the cracked rock could fall back to the ground it sprung from, he was already moving through them, ultra-dense blade shearing through torso’s, necks and limbs that were within easy reach as near light speed plasma fired into more distant targets.

Pushing through the steaming blood he shouldered into the back of the mercenaries crowding the entrance way, they were barely off the ground under his force before he sliced them to pieces, his rifle now floating behind as he wielded sword and knife in a flurry of dark motion.

To the pirates the Sons had killed were added two dozen more in less than that many seconds.

He kept up the rifle fire behind him discouraging anyone following as the vitae from the severed bodies fell onto his armour.

War was dirty, freedom costly - but he wouldn’t think about this battle that way – he was in the South, Milaea, his child, cub, was in the North West –

He was a protective father

And the Nikto that slowly turned to face him were in his path.

<<<<>>>>

Selaena


Her Hatred screamed with each shot she fired into the streets surrounding Station 7.

“I” Punctured through the side of head

“Hate” ripped into a shoulder guard, the explosive round detonating just beneath the collar bone spraying bone and metal. 

“You” this one was in cover but her shot hit its rifle, detonating the power pack in its face

“All” went straight through the red eye lens but hit the plated skull inside rather than existing – the round exploded within leaving half a mouth stump on the neck.

With each death she felt a release – but only a little. Her face still sagged underneath her helmet, joy at seeing her son cut by his suffering. 

As Sofa had said – they took everything…every time she thought they…

- distracted for a moment she spun round to plant her dagger into a creatures throat trying to sneak up behind her on the air traffic control tower that served as her nest - following the turns momentum she kicked into the second ones knee before slamming her rifles butt into its pathetic excuse for a helmet, finishing the spin by blowing another Yaka arm off. 

It felt good killing up close…but she knew she could kill far more with her rifle.

Now where was she - every time she thought the Outsiders reached a new level of depravity and outrage against the People they managed to exceed themselves..

Below a torso with no limbs flew from the Eastern entrance as Melron charged in.

Far above the approaching mechanical roar of machines was punctuated by the hiss-crack of an explosion as its shields failed to deflect Lyaea’s supersonic bolt.  The purple sky lit briefly blue as Sofa hurled a thunderbolt of lightning straight into three StarSlicer fighters – the pieces not completely vaporized by the will of Aertemisaea smashed into indifferent roof landing pads. Despite the loss she felt little change in the ocean of murderous greed amongst the raiders – Outsiders were all sick – she despaired her baby had to fight such monsters. 

Experienced eyes swept across the visible target area, she noted them falling back into cover, trying to discern where her fire was coming from, but more intent on hitting the others on the Station roof as their arrows downed ever more transports and fighters.

They wanted to hurt her babies…With each explosive energy sheathed bullet she would tell them

“NO”

<<<<>>>>

Kiraea


They were in a steady rhythm, Nock, draw, mark and loose – Valens slightly annoying mantra repeated – but it did the job – eighteen Blackstone arrows spread death through the oncoming transports and fighters as green, red and blue bolts shattered in colourful reams like fireworks against Sofa’s aetheric shield – a bubble that let nothing in and spewed death out. 

Around them the roof top landing platforms were churned into dusty rubble exposing durasteel beams beneath, chunks of ferrocrete spray painted with yellow landing markers bouncing off the sphere of protection.

Midnight needles teleported back in less than a second, re-sent out into a drive core, cockpit - Or as Kiraea twisted her second of four arrows – into the torso’s of six beings seated in a row in a transport hold before bursting out through the pilots head smearing the trasnparisteel port with greasy green viscera.

Every arrow killed at least three before returning, but the flood was unending, “Sof hammer the East!” she called over the crackle of energy.  Kiraea was proud that Sofa had been Chosen to embody Aertemisaea in this fight, it mean Milaea had been right about her, she was a true sister now adopted by the Goddesses to unleash a blizzard of shimmering blue spikes onto a division of twenty or so Nikto pirates sneaking up a transport ramp.

Valens beside her launched off a volley of three arrows then stuck out his arms and closed both fists imploding a Verpine gun-cutter next to the one his arrows had punctured into a death spiral, guiding both of the wrecks he slammed them into a building to the West filled with lecherous feeling creatures after more than just credits from this battle.

“They’re getting closer!” Lyaea called loosing a bolt faster than the speed of sound into one – two – three – four drones trying to protect an ex Techno-Union Raider skiff, the detritus falling like rain into the smoky haze Valens crash had pushed up.

Kiraea took stock…600 in bound from above…up to a thousand in the Station beneath them - albeit a swiftly dwindling number now.  That was probably as much as they could handle.

“Ada, cut the flow!”
<<<<>>>>

Adaea


“Alright…” Debi the Gobril sitting on her lap chirped up at her change in emotion.  She wasn’t meant to take any animals off world, but this was a fight for the whole of their People, and the People included their animals – plus Debi was lucky with a white streak of fur between her eyes.

“…OK here we go Debi…”  she reached at the largest pieces she could find as the Neon light of the Orbital Advertising came through her screen - a gigantic Bith Head – “Bobo the Bith all tastes catered for” – she had to look up who that was one day.

So messy and inconsiderate for the Vulptereens to dump their rubbish in orbit…but they made good projectiles and a fun game of physics. 

“Xandra – launch em!” both Xandra and Maynard fired off two torpedoes.  Lyaea was a better pilot, but Adaea was better at co-ordination with the aether.

Grasping all four torpedoes she began carefully slamming them into large pieces of rubbish, old hovercars, busted cranes and the like, imparting momentum from their still orbit.  In turn these hit other smaller pieces, and these smaller still.  All knocking toward the most direct flight paths from the Raiders fleet to the Station below creating an artificial storm of junk to cloud the flight path.

Raider ships with less experienced pilots or poorer scanners were forced to divert or in a few instances crashed into the junk – the steady flow of transports immediately crawling to a halt as they did what they could to go through or around the shower of trash.

Now she sprung - all three ships hit half sublight detaching from dead float on larger pieces of detritus to come in behind the course correcting ships unleashing six tight streams of magnetic accelerator cannon fire into their hulls.

Xandra and Maynard kept their distance peppering shields to aqua remnants, ships beneath durasteel balloons pierced to expel oxygen, ammonia and sulphuric acid that supported different species respiration. 

With biologically and aether enhanced reflexes Adaea went in close, using the Blackstone spear tip of the Lucky Gondur to slice off wings and stabilisers as her cannons punctured cockpits and engines to ruins indistinguishable from the sea of rubbish that had tied them up.

In four minutes they tore two dozen ships to shreds, filling the easy path to the Station with so much fast moving refuse and orange-yellow tertiary explosions it became unusable – As they pulled back behind Bob the Biths picture they laced the area with Sonic-EMPs set for proximity detonation to counter any of the larger ships pursuing them.

“Alright…flow is cut…” her head pounding just behind her yes from such a sudden burst of aetheric effort as Debi bounced around her feet excited looking for the predators Adaea had been fighting – so cute!!

<<<<>>>>

Oma


As she watched the long range scans her confidence grew – Valens and the Sons were hammering the disjointed forces thrown against them making her eventual task all the more easy.

Either way this was more than ample proof of why a permanent Jedi Navy was essential – prevention might be better than cure, but it took a tragedy like this to spur the Senate into doing anything.

DWWUUP DWWUUP
“What is that, we’re not under fire,” Oma seethed at the shorter woman
“It’s a priority alert – tactical what’s the sitrep?”

“Ma’am we’ve got a signal from the planet matches the unusual profile of the ships we got our arse kicked by in the Deep core…”

“The black ones…” Meeda whispered into a scream
“GET US THE FRELL OUTTA HERE!”

“What?” Oma kept her tone even as her fists balled

Meeda crossed herself with a superstitious gesture

“We are not sticking around anywhere those Black Amoured freaks are - no amount of credits is wor…ck…ckkk,”

Her feet left the deck as the Mando’s at their stations leapt up disruptor pistols in hand – the Temple Guards and Sentinels lit their sabres, the blocky steel clad bridge thrumming with the echoes of the hissing blades.

“We will not be leaving because of your irrational superstition,” Oma ordered without emotion despite her fist gripping the woman’s throat,

“You will order you crew to stand down….”

As best she could Meeda waved them down

“Good…” Meeda crash to the deck a mess of beskar armoured limbs, rubbing her throat through the combat webbing

“Now proceed with the plan, get us close but not too close…”

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #212 on: February 20, 2019, 09:39:22 PM »

 
Chapter 54 — Road to Hell — To Stand In Her Path

 
Part 2

Melron


He hadn’t lost count – People were too intelligent for that, but the tally of 342 surprised him.  He must’ve turned a dozen species he had never seen before into broken piles…and still they came, full of greed, lust and rage – just as they had been on the night they came for the village.

The difference this time was – firstly he was here instead of off on a journey, he understood his enemy, was not perplexed by their queer features and bizarre methods of mobility – he had the weapons and skills to truly resist.  Had even one Guardian been so knowledgeable, equipped and clear headed that night….

No amount of Outsider deaths could change the past…

But it didn’t stop him trying.

The durasteel wall of the eastern store rooms was decorated with a chain of humanoids splattered along 50 metres of its lengths as he tore through the rear of the Trandoshans – finally he hammered one hard enough –the metal rupturing out like a flower, and hurling him outside – the noxious gases they had released spewing out as he telekinetically hammered another three into puddles of scales and broken bones.

Up ahead he sensed a stern presence – the raiders rallying around the Nagai force – as the attack progressed the weaker would rally around such pillars of strength – he would tear them down.

<<<<>>>>

Maeson

He was a simple farmer.  Until they took his family.  Until they rammed him into the red-dust mines. Then he was a soldier, fighting to keep himself free.  He wanted to be a farmer again, have his family again.  They all stood in his way.

Now he was carnage. Absolute and total slaughter.

Lessons learned from fighting the Gen’dai integrated with Melron’s knowledge of Morgukai combat to send a Feeorin reeling, arms spread, chest sliced open to the core releasing profusion of blood lost on the already painted floor.

Another hands gone with one sweep, sinking slowly to its knees, its head meets Maeson’s elbow.

Another brings down a power-maul, he dodges the swing allowing it to pulverise the ferrocrete column, lunges and drives his sword tip first through visor, face, skull and brain.

Another…and Another….and Another…

Till he stops.

There are no more in front of him, behind him just an accretion of parts, a disorderly abattoir.

He looks for the next…and then the next…

<<<<>>>>

Jarys

They see him coming round the blaster bored corner and they know what it means – it doesn’t matter what promises of credits or glory once motivated them – what inflated courage the Sons retreat had given them – Jarys was coming to kill them – all of them. 

Their numbers give them a chance of hurting him – they waste it in a micro second of hesitation.

Then they know fear.

Then he is killing them.

Few even see him coming at them specifically, they experience a micro second of panic before their body is liquefied by an invisible fist.

They break, but there is nowhere to run.

Then he finishes them.

<<<<>>>>

Keison

He had seen a lot in his life, bodies flayed in punishment, men ripped apart by G forces as inertial dampeners failed, his own wife murdered before his eyes with a shotgun – not from being shot – but violently violated by it as Myzm’s men laughed.

He had never seen so much death in so short a moment as Jarys closed the distance between the far T junction and the Fourth Line strong point. 

<<<<>>>>

Lyaea


Fingers tired, arms sore even as she ambidextrously swapped every few dozen arrows.  Piles of bodies were forming around the dozens of steaming wrecked ships littering the areas around the station, the roof too was covered in flaming debris and charred corpses of fools who had tried an Orbital Drop Assault and met Kiraea and Valens sabres.

They didn’t seem to understand who they were fighting.  Maybe in a few hours’ time she might be tired enough to fall for their petty tricks and smoke grenades…

Her current targets were typical of their failed strategy – Jeesaw’s Crew had seen the Blade Brethren get smoked by Sofa’s electrical overload – now Sofa was looking to the South so they thought to sneak up, fire grapnel launchers and get her from behind.  They had heavy shields to provide mobile cover from the arrows they had seen, certain they were better prepared having learnt from the other freebooters failures.

Nock, draw – with a slight grimace of fatigue – mark – she would show them their error.

Loose.

<<<<>>>>

Sofa


Obliteration – annihilation – eradication perhaps?

No words seemed to do justice to what she was capable of.

Soryu would say her body, mind and soul were once more in tune able to draw on the aether fully once more. Yoda would say it was a dark explosion of rage pent up over weeks - years of frustration at Valens, the Sith, the Jedi, the galaxy, her abusers - even herself. Kiraea thought it was the Goddess Aertemisaea using her body as a vessel to defend the People and affirm her place with them.

It didn’t matter. 

She was blasting apart first starships now skiffs and speeders with mere thoughts and FELT like a Goddess doing it.

Perhaps that was the truth Kiraea hadn’t been able to articulate in her ‘theology’ lesson – the Goddesses might or might not be real in the way most people thought about deities – that wasn’t important – the fact she felt like a Goddess right now - THAT was divine. 

She could protect Milaea when she was weakest, help the Sons fight against the scum who wanted to put them back in chains, and all she had to do was unload on the sickest scum the galaxy had to offer.

Each ball, every snapping arc took two, three - six beings – there was a direction to it.  Hearing their thoughts and intent – they all wanted the credits, the glory, the loot…she instinctively turned to the ones who envisioned capturing sex slaves, raping, mutilating – they shone like magnetic bonfires attracting her divine retribution.

Was this a kind of justice, revenge?  Was the fact she was using ‘force lighting’ a sign she had fallen to the darkside or the fact she was feeling good about it - had she really had fallen “Body, mind and soul” as Yoda said.

It was what it was, she was killing these bastards with powers no human should wield and she felt frelling amazing.  Add in a spa with Milaea after, then an evening before an open fire on a gormin wool rug making babies with Valens and it would be the perfect day.

<<<<>>>>

Reeda Kwn

They had few ‘real’ weapons, those taken from the Warriors who fell on the Demagol – they struggled to find their way in the Euclidean architecture halls of metal and machine that offended their sensibilities, did not truly understand the nature of the battle they were fighting. 

Yet Reeda had faith in the Gods guidance and the words of the Avatar.  In her brief conversations with the Sons she had heard stories all too familiar, broken people cast out, forced to work, shamed, beaten, raped, and tormented.  These were the Shamed of this Galaxy, they would fight beside them under the light of Yun-Shuno. 

<Do-ro’ik vongpratte!> Churl called his vigour renewed as he proudly clasped an amphistaff once more before the other Extolled warriors.

Hurling the blorash Jelly they bounded through the tight ducts, steel versions of a Yorik-trema’s docking tube – the huge aquatic-mammalian enemies stopped dead as the jelly caught their feet, fell back as thud bugs hit their stilted bodies, then felt how sharp and swift an amphistaff wielded by a Yuuzhan Vong warrior could be through their blubber.

<<<<>>>>

Mmbri

The Herglics…’broke’ was too small a word… These Extolled fought in a way he hoped never to see again, yet from behind the ruined makeshift fortifications of Ice Squads fourth line, he was happy for their arrival just before the charging monsters had hit. 

Over the comm he heard similar reports of ferocious annihilation. Magma, Hurricane, Tornado and Blizzard squads had all been relieved. 

No more were entering the station under a barrage of arrows, lighting and mental manipulation that had them struggling not to swallow their own blaster bolts. The ones inside were trapped between the immovable fourth defensive lines of the Sons and the unstoppable charge of Jarys people, Brute squad and the Extolled. 

It wasn’t over – but as he watched the Extolled finish the last of the beasts, leaping and thrusting into the huge blue-black forms – he knew only the Insane would keep fighting.

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #213 on: February 20, 2019, 09:42:31 PM »

Chapter 54 — Road to Hell — To Stand In Her Path

 
Part 3

Valens


Yaka were tough, fast and intelligent, their cybernetics made them far sterner opponents than most Humanoids – but they were not Jedi – and Jedi were not Aethans.

So it was in the chain of predation they found themselves above the few trandoshans, Gran, Nikto and Kaltoonians that managed to flee rather than be drilled into fragments of meat and vitae – but well below the entity shredding them limb from limb.

They had realised entering the Station was suicide and fortified a small control bunker waiting for extraction after Lyaea shot their transport down.  Extraction had been vaporized by Sofa’s gradually dwindling divine energy. 

And Valens would not let them escape.

He had landed through the roof  in a crater of crackling energy that sent half a dozen of the abominations cybernetic implants haywire – ocular implants exploded, cyber-claws retracted onto themselves, knee servo’s snapped shut offering kneeling victims for Valens to dispatch with cold fists and elbows.

Shoulder charging he flung bodies into the air high enough for Selaena’s shots to punch through.  Before the bodies hit the floor his left hand swept his rifle and squeezed out three shots –two heads and a leg, as his right hand sabre cut straight through the Gran before his brain could signal his legs to run.

This phase of the battle was winding down – but more were coming – they had seen none of the Nova Corps or Aqualish Quara Elite they knew comprised the core of Boos forces.

People did not flinch from battle when it was presented, no matter their other emotional struggles - once War started the Aertemisin and Guardian training removed all doubts. Enemies stood between them and survival – all other considerations vanished. 

Their melee forces determined to charge with vicious circular-saw implants and energised power claws – he drew them toward him tugging at their legs and arms – they gained the distance as they had intended, but not of their own volition. 

In sweeps that never sliced through less than two of the vile machine men at a time he desolated the remainder till his armour was no longer black, but red, green and white with blood, servo-lubricant and artificial neuro mechanical nutrient fluids.

<<<<>>>>

Kiraea

For a brief moment she paused.  Across the pink-polluted air stained by smoke and debris she could sense no more targets requiring an arrow in the chest or engine.

There were still some in the bowels of the Station, but Jarys, Maeson, Melron and Brute Squad were making light work of them as the other Sons recovered from phase one.

The Aura of chaos in orbit was slowly resolving back into order…whatever power struggle had erupted after Jyx and Boos were incinerated by Sofa had resolved itself- Kiraea would have to give Sofa a big kiss for that little piece of violent genius she smiled.

“There’s a new leader…” Sofa’s voice still resonant with her blessing of power as she gazed with more precision and range than Kiraea could into the purple sky cut by the Orbital advertising ring now broadcasting emergency alerts to stay indoors until ‘Authorities ascertain and contain the crisis’. 

‘Containment’ wasn’t happening any time soon.

<<<<>>>>

Tsen

Wiping his blade across the blaster burnt cloth he surveyed the room.  Twelve corpses in the centre of the war room surrounded by his loyal officers similarly cleaning blood and vitae off their weapons of choice.

Vigo Xithar had been right, the Raider fleet had turned on itself, albeit sooner than expected. 

No matter with Boos and Jyx more ambitious commanders now dead he was in control of the Quara Elite and Nova Corps, 2000 soldiers so far untouched by the battle below in addition to his Ubese allies making sure his escape route was clean. 

The Sons were creative adversaries, but he knew how they exaggerated, the comms traffic coming from Vulpter speaking of ‘snake swords killing Herglics’ ‘bow and arrows destroying fighters’ were just covers for the incompetence of the pirates to face a professional force like the Sons.

Tsen confidently strolled back toward the bridge, the Captains who supported him following after – he couldn’t care less for the bounties on the Sons, 20 million for Keison wasn’t worth the effort – he would decimate them at range and solidify his control of the Nova Corps and Quara Elite in doing so, making himself front runner of the title of Vigo.

A comms officer pulled up beside them

“Sir this just in while we were…distracted with the regime change…A Mando’a fleet exited at the edge of the system, Ordo Clan, Merc’s, they’re on approach to intercept us in just over twenty minutes,”

“Any contact?”

“A woman Meeda Ordo Asking to join up with the attack,”

“They’re late for the party it seems, offer them the same deal as everyone else, 20,000 flat fee plus bonuses for each Sons head they take, ask if they don’t have any Besalisks to clear those dam black ships in the junk belt.”

With a nod the officer headed off to relay the message as Tsen paused at the command throne.

“Bring the rest of the fleet in, they can’t hold out much longer down there.”

<<<<>>>>

Goush

“Captain orders from Tsen, he’s in control ordering all ships forward.” 

Goush had been listening closely to the calls over the comm, he didn’t want to get anywhere near that planet, memories of Myrkr tickled at the back of his mind for some reason he couldn’t explain.

“Tell Tsen we’ll bring up the rear and make sure they don’t make a break for it…go half sublight don’t hurry to reposition.”

“Sir…we’re getting something strange on sensors…”

For a moment he shuddered – not Anathema…Not again! 

“Anathema?”

“No it…looks like a…Sea shell?”

<<<<>>>>

Meeda

“…we’ll pay a further 10,000 for each of the enemy fighters you take down,” the representative for ‘Vigo’ Tsen noted across the comm, Oma out of range of the holo-cam

“Agree to their terms, lets us get right up close…” The Sentinel whispered.

“Agreed,” Meeda echoed “We’ll form up with you in at 324X-991Y-012Z and deploy our basilisks from there, our Vengeance Class Frigates will bolster your rear” putting them right beside Blood Remembers…. Meeda might not like Oma, but the Sentinel had a gift for making the most of every opportunity that came her way.

“Vigo Tsen looks forward to a long and prosperous partnership Meeda Ordo, Cantharis out,”

“Well done…” Oma smiled, an expression that looked slightly sinister on her face.

“Torfun begin deployment…” The Sentinel called sending her men to the slaughter house below, it was painfully obvious to Meeda she was purifying her ranks but the Jedi seemed either oblivious or too regimented to resist. Nothing seemed to stand in the Senitnels path for long

“Ma’am getting another signal on approach…”

Not more Black Ones!

“Looks like…Actually I don’t know what it looks like….”

<<<<>>>>

Kuun Carr

He wasn’t surprised that the Demagol and its invaluable collection of vaccines had been taken to the same location as Yhums Villip tracker now showed.  This species was clever enough not to waste resources, he wondered if they would be fool enough to try and torture Yhum for information. 

The Eversight came out of dark space as the dovin basal detected a large flotilla entering the system on the opposite edge.

“Belek tiu” Laan bowed once more seeking orders.  Kuun needed to be careful, all he had left now was the forces on his ship – their sacrifice must be valuable, he needed Sicara’s collection of diseases to design vaccines for the rest of the fleet – whatever it took to convince this race he was a ‘friend’ he would do.

“Prepare to deploy once more…bring us into the planets rings silently…we wait for the right moment to make our offering.”

And show them the True Glory of the Praetorite Vong

<<<<>>>>

Crashing Angel

Why was she still falling…surely death didn’t feel like a sinking dream – but then never having died she wouldn’t know…

Bodiless eyes in the golden glow looked about the fragments of itself wondering how…how could you act on your best intentions only to find yourself nowhere you wanted to be?

How can your entire world view change so much you don’t recognise the person who did the things your name is linked to – are you that same person anymore or a new one?  What are you without memories and experiences…yet when these things invalidate who you once were, who you thought you were….

She used to think of herself one way…then another…then another…now she was something else again – how could she still be her through all this – was there any one Her if it all changed so much?

Something red pulsed around her, throbbing, beating…a heart…her heart…

No she didn’t want to go back…it was easier to keep falling.

The beating got faster…faster…the darkness of her fall was filled with cracked lines of luminous reds and blues mingling to purples as futures collides with the intersection of choices however well-intentioned and imperfect the results.

The light grew strong…too strong, the beating in her ears she hadn’t had before, crashing, ending, ripping tearing in a sense she had forgotten.  The ground was approaching, amethyst and jagged with squirming darkness trying to effect the minerals growth, organic altering mineral formation unnaturally – and if she didn’t burn through it…

As she smashed through the spires of azure her eyes opened.

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #214 on: February 24, 2019, 10:45:14 PM »

Chapter 55 — Road to Hell — Paved with Good Intentions

Part 1

Torfun
Glassy black eyes gazed through the pink purple haze to see the battle below with the vision of the force.

Every second dozens more died at the hands of the monsters who had tuned this world into a living hell.  Torfun could not allow this to continue.  Whatever disagreement he might’ve had with Oma’s methods were lost against the visceral evil of what they faced.  Questions of how far the Order should go down this more pro-active path needed to wait until this enemy was dealt with. 

“On approach...entering stratosphere in three…twooo…”

The ship suddenly buckled, alarms blared

“Lost Shields!”

“Magnetic confluence on the atmosphere?” Torfun queried, he could not sense any immediate danger – generalised angers of war yes but nothing nearby.

“No unusual readings…wait on our tail what is….”

The Mandalorian pilot never finished his sentence – a flaming ball of magma from a vessel that registered only an asteroid hammered into the engines of shield less ship blazing a molten trail into its drive core and erupting the ship carrying 8 Jedi and ten Mandos into a series of shotting stars in the purple sky that soon flared into white nothing against the atmospheric descent.

Beside them the other two Meteor Q transports were similarly stripped of their defences by Dovin basals and hammered by Yaret-kor – words no Mandalorian or Jedi would learn for over 600 years, controlled by warriors whom Torfun and his successors would never be able to sense coming even in their millions.

<<<<>>>>

Adaea

“Uh oh…” she patted Debi trying to get some her luck.

The latest flight on her sensors was formed in a strong defensive diamond pattern, heading toward the station on a tangent just below the orbital advertising ring.  Marked with Jyx Nova Corps, and Hondo’s Black Sun Aqualish Quara Elite symbols these were the real professionals. 

“Maynard take Starboard, Xandra with me on Port, swing round the wreck a 2-51 point 3 at 600KMPH  - they’ll think we’re another chunk.”
“Copy, Torps or cannons?”

“Cannons, save the torps for the Jedi and Capital ships if they move in,” Adaea replied noting they didn’t seem to want to come near the trash rings

She was getting tired, even poor Debi was flagging on the co-pilots chair.  Space combat was difficult for People she began to realise slicing carefully through the clouds of junk – it simulated Aertemisin release but the lack of overt physical exertion confused her body – she was fighting but her muscles were not moving anywhere near enough.…..maybe if she used a cross-fit trainer while piloting her body would react better?

So far they remained undetected Maynard was position starboard riding through a river of junked excavators and combine harvesters – Adaea couldn’t destroy all the enemy ships in a hit run, but with overlapping fields of fire she could tear apart their rear and give the others time to clear out the remnants.

A quick squeeze sent off 6 rounds from the four forward cannons, two either side of the tip, 24 small lights moving at 15,000 metres per second hit the shields, their blue energy sheaths creating small puddles against the field while the solid Gray-Sleet projectile only lost a third of its speed boring into comparatively porous durasteel.

It was strangely pretty, the blue flashes followed by steel shards fleeing orange eruptions.  The fighters immediately twisted into quick 180’s, pilot pressed back into their seats as they opened fire tracking by sight the stealth hunters their sensors couldn’t see.

Peeling away again Adaea frowned at the speed of their response

“More ships coming in…these ones look clever,” she told the link orb closely pressed to her chest.

Twisting her wheel a 270 she spiralled around the edge of a blob of congealed flash frozen lubricant up toward the relatively safe zone of the Orbital ring as the first shot hit Maynard’s shields.  The vast volume of debris made it hard to lock, but as the neon of the Advertisement’s lit up with Bobo the Bith’s familiar face their black ships became easier visual targets.

She didn’t have many Sonic-EMPs left and was still worried about the capital ships moving in…maybe if she…

Adaea’s thoughts were cut off as Xandra quickly pulled up out of a stream of fire buffeting her shields over a burning glob of rock that smacked straight into the pursuing Star Viper. 

She couldn’t feel anything but in the glare of the Neon lights of the ad ring she saw rocky ships spewing more molten blobs followed by a 200 metre splotchy green-brown ship that looked like a Spira sea shell flanked by ugly green worm things.

“Aephrodaea’s Tits!”

<<<<>>>>

Kiraea

“What!” she screeched back over the crackle of Sofa’s hands as she brought down another transport in the distance.

“There’s something really weird flying around up here,” Adaea replied

“But it’s shooting at the same things as I am…”

“It’s the other Vong!” Lyaea added beside her…

“Are they an enemy?”

“Not sure the Extolled want to ‘preach’ to them or something…till they attack us I guess let em be.”

It would have to do – right now they had bigger issues – Barely ten minutes after the last of the Pirates had been finished off the Nova Corps and Quara started to arrive, settling in a cordon around the Station, garrisoning building and landing APC’s, Walkers and mobile artillery – most of the transports had come in low outside of their range even with the aether and moved slowly through the looted industrial sector around them.

Now they were hammering the stations duracrete walls to chunks with their concentrated fire, the infantry scarce except for the snipers that had forced them off the roof, the artillery blasting down the air traffic control tower that Selaena had been sniping from.

“Next phase begins,” Valens stated the obvious from below as mobile Turbo laser fire shattered against an invisible shield before him – the green glow burning yellow and twisting around him before flinging back turning the cannon that fired it into a superheat blob.

“Take it to them,” she replied expanding her senses integrating her reconnaissance and infiltration experience with the observations of the others. As expected the professional soldiers were happy to bomb them into submission, even now it was only Adaea and the Vong fighters preventing their bombers getting in – but behind them three frigates were working through the trash field Ada had stirred up to get in range. 

But slower ships were also easier to capture.

This was where their battle meld became critical – it was not be a case of addition of knowledge and tactics across minds, but multiplication. Communicating a plan across at the speed of their superior synapses it began.

Heavy chunks of duracrete flew up on the South side, providing a solid testudo to cover the Sons advance supported by Jarys, Melron and Maeson.  Kiraea, Lyaea and Selaena ran to the East side opposite the Quara Elite, Sofa still boiling off energy tensed up, Valens dived back behind cover in preparation, sensing out the geological faults beneath the streets.

Kiraea gripped the Blackstone infused controls of the Aethena where Milaea, Kassyndra and Lydan lay sealed up

“And this is where they die…”

In an instant her plan was executed. In the Northwest hangar the Aethena sprung up, pivoted round and fired two torpedoes, back wash bowling over some of the poor Sons still in the hangar.  Valens Ripped up the roads in front of the artillery and APC’s as Sofa brought a storm of lighting down from above lighting the pink air a bright white and oxidizing the pollutants into steamy trails. 

Neither of these attacks could be focused enough to do much damage but between the kinetic force from below and electrical surge from above their front line was thrown into chaos.   

And that was before under cover of rubble Jarys and the others accelerated the Sons, and Extolled sitting on chunks of metal beneath the testudo across the road and into the midst of their southern line. 

Kiraea, Lyaea and Selaena leapt high, Lyaea boosting their height and speed, Selaena deflecting incoming fire as Kiraea guided the torpedoes into two garrisoned buildings – the black stone tearing the unfortified walls in like paper, then driving them through the collapsing north and western lines – APC’s rears torn off, Walkers were smashed like children’s toys, gun platforms exploded as their power cells ruptured. 

The northern and western front became a fireworks display of secondary explosions as the Blackstone ground down through metal and meat before twisting further back and each hammering into the heavy transports disgorging more APC’s, their proton cores detonating with white-blue flashes that glassed duracrete into ashen flakes and exceeded Sofa’s storm in luminosity.     

Retuning to herself.  Lyaea cut the acceleration and they smacked onto the road between their first and second lines, the Aqualish recovering from earthquake and thunderstorm seemed stunned.  It was the last emotion most ever felt.

<<<<>>>>

Sofa

She was running low…her limbs were tingling into a numbness she had been warned about – People didn’t feel painful exhaustion, they became anaesthetised.

Kiraea’s initial strike had hit them hard, at least a third of the Sons managing to break through in the chaos to capture landed transports - but their second and third lines had quickly recovered.  They were handful against an army, their arcane powers not infinite, and weeks of injuries and fatigue meant they hadn’t begun this fight at their peak.

She heard the rumble of engines as he other transports began to lift off to avoid being captured in turn – it was up to her to stop them.

Grasping as best she could she mentally dragged two back toward the ground, engines resisting the aetheric tug as more Sons and Extolled fought cover to cover through gas and hydraulic lines, every few moment grenades detonating and rupturing another pipe jetting gases or liquids up high before emergency valves cut the flow.

Nearby Jarys, Maeson and Melron took on the Nova Corps walkers and support droids, using their unnatural bulk to knock them over and rip the pilots out hoping to stir terror, but were quickly forced into cover by skiffs with mounted cannons.

Kiraea, Lyaea and Selaena had caused bloody murder amongst the Quara elite on landing but were now in a running battle firing off arrows into the heavy plated APC’s that pursued them through narrow roads between worker bunk houses under fire from Nova Corps snipers.

Valens was leaping across rooftops, pulling vehicles up, or smashing them from above with the aether, clamping cannon mouths shut just before they fired, or ripping Quara hands from arms whilst puncturing snipers with arrows.  He pressed hard to confuse the minds of the leaders, some shot themselves or turned on their men, but they had a momentum of their own now.

The Trasnports buckled down and lammed back into the ferrocrete – the Sons quickly surrounding it and levering off the doors as Jarys and the others kept their flanks secure. Finally breaking in they overwhelmed the pilots and took control…another 50 out…but there were nearly 400 left on the ground.

Sofa could only watch impotently as the Frigates began to break through into orbit despite Adaea’s efforts. 

And all this was before the Jedi and their Mando allies arrived…
 
Returning to the battle she fired another bolt at an APC, the blocky vehicle not exploding like the first few she had hit, it stuttered and died as its electronics overloaded…she was running out of power too fast – what was once devastating and fatal now only distracting. 

They were starting to pull back, they would hit them from above rather than waste more lives – though Valens amidst his attacks on the commanders suspected they had sent down only those troops and officers least loyal to the new commander – the People were thinning their ranks of potential traitors for them.

Sending another aetheric flare to blind snipers across the road before a long range grip to squeeze their hearts into mush she began to consider it was time to make a run for it – abandoning the Sons was a last resort…but in the end the People had to look out for themselves.

Glancing at the approaching capital ships through the burning storm clouds their atmospheric entry created she noticed something out of place…

Green wobbly looking ships with chitin armour…

The vile ships flanked by rock like fighters started hammering into the retreating Nova Corps and Aqualish, hideous tube disgorged the horned warriors and their reptilian slaves as molten rocks destroyed their transports. 

Jarys had to dive into a crater with a group of HK-52s to avoid being hit as he pursued the retreating forces, then having to take the droids apart by hand under the rain of rubble.  The Girls and Sons they had met up with pulled back as the Aqualish received the same treatment, the Vong warriors ripping into the unprepared Quara Elites as the rocky fighters destroyed their air support. 

“The Frigates just lost shields!” Adaea called over the comms

“Don’t know how they did it…but I’m taking the shot!”

An instant later a yellow bloom on prow contrasted the purple clouds as the Shikkar torpedo guided by Adaea’s mind blasted out, pivoted around and hammered into the unshielded bridge of the frigate beside it. The secondary explosions sent chunks of metal into the one of the right - like mangled birds they fell ungracefully into the horizon blossoming orange as pink pollutants burnt, the heat wave struck just as she turned from the blinding white explosion as the factories beneath were crushed. 

<<<<>>>>

Tsen

“The Hell are those things!” he cried as the most bizarre – ships- no more like lizards! – assaulted his forces from behind.

“No matches on the scan sir…should we have the Ubese engage?”

Tsen chewed on it for a moment…the only forces planetside were Boos and Jyx loyalists who would likely challenge or at least irritate him if they survived.

“Play it by ear…co-ordinate but don’t send any more troops down,” 500 dissenters was a small price to pay to keep 2500 loyalists and title of Vigo.

<<<<>>>>

Oma


“What are those things?” Meeda whispered as they watched Tsens ships pull back and a strange vessel disgorge smaller landers that looked more like sea slugs than ships.

Oma could sense nothing – NOTHING –in the Force from them – only what they had done to Torfuns transport – the shock at so unexpected and un-sensed an assault from a seasoned Jedi master still ringing in the force.

This was another unexpected turn, and one she didn’t know what to do with – they had just effortlessly ripped the shields of two of Tsen’s Frigates…..

Oma might not know who or what they were…but she would prefer not to be on their bad side.

“All ships are in position?” Oma queried Meeda

“As instructed,”

Everything stood on the edge of the ruin – the opportunities she had followed to her benefit thus far seemed to be turning against her.  Her advantage was her fleet and soldiers were still fully intact following her cautious approach. 

Now it was time – all or nothing.

“Open fire…”

<<<<>>>>

Hand of Order

In three seconds the might of Clan Ordo working under the auspices of the Jedi Order was unleashed upon the outliers of Tsen’s recently acquired fleet.

Tsen had assumed the Mandalorians were just that, with the stereotypical mercenary intentions.  As the Green and Blue fluro lances of laser fire struck against the quickly flickering shields of the variegated Black Sun ships Oma dispelled them of that notion, her intentions were far grander than being lord over squabbling drug pushers and pimps, she was here to plant the foundation of a new militarised and secure Republic in soil soaked by Black Sun blood.

Besalisks and Jehavey’ir assault ships wheeled round out of the debris field straight into the path of the Aqualish Corvettes, unleashing with their full spray of pulse wave cannons, shatter missiles, Turbo Lasers and Ion cannons – the sudden blast of energy output depleting the specially designed ‘overload’ power cores.

It was worth it – the shields couldn’t withstand such a close range bombardment, the hull pitted, scored then tore from front to back, the detritus lost amidst he existing junk ring – Hit hard hit fast and don’t let them hit you back was Meeda’s strategy and Oma reaped the rewards as the Mythosaur and Vengeance Class Frigates hammered broadsides into Cruisers and carriers whose shields were all double front – worried about the black dagger ships and bizarre flying coral asteroids.

Confusion reigned across the Black Sun force for a few moments, these were captains and commanders well versed in treachery, and skilled in getting out of tight situations. 

Emergency reverse thrusters concealed beneath plating, electromagnetic scramblers and other counter measures were rapidly activated, piloting skills honed over years smuggling and fighting on lawless worlds got a number of ships away even before Tsen issued the order to retreat.

Some she allowed to leave…but the ones Oma needed to take as prizes were hemmed in by the Mandalorian capital ships too tightly to jump or maneuver. 

The whole battle would fall to her dominance.

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #215 on: February 24, 2019, 10:47:31 PM »

Chapter 55 — Road to Hell — Paved with Good Intentions

Part 2

Waking Angel


The sound of battle didn’t carry through the Aethena’s Blackstone plating – but that same aether sensitive substance made sure to carry the tiding with crisp clarity to her mind as she had awoken.

A massacre echoed in the aether.  Black Sun, Pirates, Slavers…A dozen Jedi Knights couldn’t beat one Person, multiplied in a battle synergy…the males 350KG battering rams that crushed through Nagai, Gand, Feeorins, Rodians, now Aqualish and Nova Corps like grav-bowling pins at 15 metres per second.  The women with precision had punctured hundreds with the same three dozen arrows and a dozen clips of explosive Sniper rounds, Adaea obliterating transports with speeding detritus – Sofa a wellspring of annihilation

And High above the guardians of peace and justice snuck up and ripped dozen ships to shreds. The Jedi’s intent to clamp down on such piracy only encouraging self serving amoral behaviour as captains fired on their own sister ships to clear a path to make micro jumps out of the confused mosh pit of turbolaser fire.

Pirates and slavers were not sympathetic figures, abusing the civilians and fighting amongst themselves in the outer warehouses over loot. What had driven these people to that kind of life – did they even know another - would they regret their actions in the future… she couldn’t help but wonder.

It was a tale of two groups of children from broken homes fighting each other as adults.  Her group happened to be genetically designed aetheric demi-Gods, the others drug addicted unemployable thugs.   

There was dried blood on her face and body – not her own – that cracked as she shifted off the bed, muscles sore from being in one place too long.  Beside her were two others…their condition was….

She was already crying for them, the tears turning red as it requickened the blood on her face.  Something dropped to the floor as she swung her legs round…a small totem of the Goddesses laid on her breast unnoticed, a similar one was on each of the others.  It was no superstitious fetish…a soothing device aetherically keeping the wearer in a deep sleep till they were well enough to wake – Kiraea’s Practical Theology.

The pain outside continued…despite the idealism Soryu had tried to instil…the galaxy was Vorynx eat Vorynx…you took your pleasure where you could like Xithar, violently tried to be top Predator like the People – or both.

This was the Universe there was no other -she couldn’t escape it or make it better, couldn’t break the cycle…the reality of heterotrophic life was exploitation and consumption of other life forms. 

She couldn’t bear the responsibility of trying to guide the future, it was as painful as it was futile. Trying to avoid becoming the Red Goddess, a negative identity that just left her exposed to the tides of fate, directionless.   

Milaea needed to find her place - make the choice she hadn’t on Coruscant, in the Council Chamber she had rejected two possible futures for herself and the People – but not chosen a new one with any conviction. 

Yet how to choose when her choice today might seem wrong and become case for regret tomorrow?

Standing on still strong legs as the lines of fate pressed around her vision demanding she act, that she steer the course of the future for the whole galaxy…she decided there was only one thing to do – not decide at all.

<<<<>>>>

Kuun Carr


Sacrifice…must be profitable…so far it had been today.  Their observation of the battle here would be invaluable to the main fleet, the knowledge of Raider tactics and Jeedai style response.  The losses of his own warriors were justified by experienced gained against these Aqualish and Nova Corps, and would be rewarded further by an alliance with Valens and Milaea’s kind. 

The Yorik Trema slowly glided toward the facility that the Raiders had failed to take - numerical and material superiority counted for nothing against these Jeedai arts it seemed – Lucovis had never been keen to share, these used it far more freely.

He overheard the vilip reports from Laan behind him, his forces were dropping in behind the ruffians, rapidly slaughtering the already battered fools who faced Valens and Milaea’s warriors.

Across the cordon the Nova Corps and Aqualish faced weapons and tactic they could not comprehend for the second time that day – many tried to surrender – a concept as foreign to the Yuuzhan Vong as the metal buildings they tore through, amphistaffs slicing apart armour, thud bugs rupturing torso’s as they devastated the outclassed Black Sun forces on the ground even as any hope of extraction was lost to the Mandalorians surprise attack in orbit.

His cheeks twisted in delight as the docking tube squelched out and Kuun Carr prepared to make his offer.

<<<<>>>>

Valens

An uneasy truce thickened the post battle air, the fatigued depleted People squared off against the Praetorite Vong as they ripped the last of the Nova and Aqualish to shreds…fires still crackled, buildings still whined and flaked off transparisteel or duracrete…

Taking advantage of the situation the Sons quickly boarded all the transports they could get into that were still serviceable after the Vong strikes – but many remained outside eyeing off the new arrivals – as the People had not abandoned the Sons so now the Sons would not abandon the People.

An undercurrent in the aether was stirring not just the lines of fate…but a building warmth, Sofa and Kiraea sensed it most deeply…their blood trace burning with energy…could she be awake?

Before him the bizarre ship descended, disgorging what looked like an honour guard.

<<<<>>>>

Kuun Carr

Sacrifice was always needed and that involved pain – a pain he gladly bore.

To treat with these infidels was not beneath a Prefect as some believed, for in sacrificing his ritual purity by stepping upon their metal and machine world - polluted by their worship of false idols of industry – he exalted the Yuuzhan Vong and brought future glory to the Praetorite Vong.

He lived as one already dead ever since being assigned this glorious Sacrifice of Self, and nothing could harm or dishonour the dead.

The Tizo worm brought meaning that the infidel could understand to his words as his tongue rebelled against their vile language.

“Glory to You Warrior of Renown!  Dread Valens, Slayer of Jeeedai, Destroyer of Siith, Reaper of the Black sun…” he kept his arms out in a gesture of peace even as his amphistaff crawled along his back horns.

“Too long we have been opposed…to my regret – deceived by Lucovis, the one called Xithar – we two Warrior races, proud and noble set conflicting by his manipulation – but Glory to the Yun’o – we see you as you are!”

There was some truth to his words – he now knew these were the allies he needed to further the Invasion, they had proven their prowess again and again – and with the Collection of viral agents in their hands he had every reason to treat with them. 

“I am Kuun Carr, Honoured Prefect of the Glorious Praetorite Vong, come to join you in battle against our deceitful foe!”

<<<<>>>>

Valens

He couldn’t sense anything from him…but the feeling amongst the others was sharper for it – they estimated around 100 aetherless abominations, 150 reptilian slave creatures – too many for the People to risk a fight in their current state.

Noting the pause Kuun continued

“We seek to join our brethren, who know life is earned through pain and sacrifice….”

“You wish to ally yourself with us…” Valens queried
“Yet you attacked us on more than one occasion…”

He bought time as Kiraea and Jarys tried to determine their options to fight if they had to – it didn’t look good….they might’ve beaten back the Pirates and Black Sun…but the Jedi were now engaging freely high above and they did not have the ships to stop them…Kuun did….. 

“As you have our forces…Lucovis is a master deceiver, we both fell prey, but Yun-Harla the Trickster Goddess has played her own game bringing us together now as allies.”

Kuun gestured across the wreak of the Nova and Aqaulish

“See now I seek to redeem our error with your enemies blood!”

Valens could not deny they had come at just the right time.

“And what does this alliance involve?”

“We offer you knowledge of the True Ways, technology better than machines and metal, cultural exchange, assistance in destroying your enemies.”

“And in exchange?”

“Only what we offer you, share knowledge and technology, assist us by returning the vessel called Demagol and our People who were imprisoned there by Lucovis, help prepare the way for the other followers of the True Way who come in our wake, and join them in glory rebuilding the galaxy when they arrive.”
 
The man was either insane or part of some much larger plan. 

Either way there was no way an alliance could ever work with vile creatures who defiled their bodies with mutilations…but Valens didn’t know enough about them, and they had them at a disadvantage – a temporary alliance to get out of this situation, learn more about them, possibly use them to destroy Xithar and then…even then he wasn’t sure the People could fight them alone.

“You ask much…” Valens replied offering nothing of substance

“But I offer more…you will stand beside us in glory…”

Or fall in shame was the unspoken threat.

<He is so full of dren it pours out his mouth!> Kiraea thought across

<But we’re surrounded…operating at 23.2% capacity on average…and the Jedi are starting to engage the Black Sun…We’ll be next …> Jarys confirmed what Valens suspected and Kuun knew this too.

What was best for the People…he needed to understand this threat better, the Extolled could help if he refused Kuun…but Kuun had a ship with unique abilities, soldiers that could tear the approaching Jedi to shreds…they could not face all these enemies at once –

They had to survive today whatever that took. 

There was no choice but to acc…

“Wait”
<<<<>>>>

Milaea


Too much blood had been spilt today…

All attention in the aether focused on her as she stepped in front of Valens, they had only vaguely sensed her awakening, not how quickly she had moved.

Sofa and Kiraea wanted to rush to her side but were frozen by the focused stares of the Vong slowly surrounding them.

“Mighty Milaea…” Kuun genuflected “Enemy of Hideous Lucovis, our Sister I greet you and beg forgiveness for previous misunderstandings between us…”

Milaea touched Lyaea’s mind who offered what she had learned from the Extolled

“Those of your kind on the Demagol what were they doing there?”

“Tormented by Lucovis, you well know how he mutilates children, sparing not even infants in his depravities”

Her mouth twitched faster than he could see…he knew much more than an ‘enemy’ of Lucovis should.

“I have heard they were what you call Shamed Ones, that you gave them over  to Lucovis yourself to experiment upon…and indeed before that treat them as slaves with rapes and beatings...”

“These are lies, more deceptions Lucovis has implanted in them no doubt…return them to us and we will see they receive the healing they require.”

No one believed him.
<If they will enslave their own they will enslave us> she thought across.

“These others, the Extolled” She made a point to call them by their preferred title, the flicker of disgust on Kuun’s face at such honorific given to Shamed Ones would’ve been missed by most beings – Aethans missed nothing
“…also tell me you are the first of a larger force…intent on Shaming this galaxy entirely….”

“Indeed many pilgrims follow us to Teach and share our way peacefully…but as you know this Galaxy is a violent place…we wish to smooth the way…”

<They want fifth columnists who they will soon tread under heel>
He reached out his hand, one finger severed and tattooed in what was likely a ritual.

“Join us to help make this Galaxy a better place in the future for them and your Children.”

Again the lines of fate crisscrossed over her –paths to different futures…eyes narrowing as pressure built with the racing shatter-point, red lines converging.  They could feel her intent now…and whilst they could not feel fear as most beings understood it, the People were convinced this was a fight they could not win.

<Trust me…>

Milaea wasn’t doing this to avoid or create any of the specific futures that tried to push into her head – she did what felt right in the moment, the here and now –she couldn’t and wouldn’t bear their future alone. 

And in that here and now, what felt right was to oppose those who enslaved their own and wished to turn the galaxy into a feudal hell of bio-tech monstrosities.  If she regrated her choice later…that it seemed good now would be her consolation.

Kuuns already tight skin stretched in a vile fashion as he tried to look friendly.

“The Goddesses tell us that to Harm your own People…is the greatest crime…”

<<<<>>>>

Kuun

She would refuse…the bitch would refuse…the amphistaff slithered behind him as the Plaeryin bol that had long ago replaced his right eye bulged with poison ready to spew on the her – if she survived then he would show her the Glory of the Praetorite Vong by sacrificing her to Yun-Harla.

“…leave us Kuu…”

<<<<>>>>

Milaea

Before she could finish her sentence, a thin straw like object flew from behind into Kuuns eye as it opened up.  In slow motion acidic poison sizzled out from the eyeball. 

A reflexive telekinetic shield was raised just before she remembered it would be of no use against their aether dead bio-tech.  A strong hand twisted her around and the scratching hiss of fluid on a sabre filled her ears as Valens pulled her behind him.

Beside Kuun two Vong Warriors exploded - one from Jarys rifle, the other his hurled sword.

From behind the Extolled were shouting in the Vong language to the warriors below - lots of ‘Yun’o’ and ‘Yun-Shuno’.

The aether was filled with the Peoples fury, but it was tempered with a fatigue from having fought so long already. 

They could still win, these were not the shocking novelties they had been but it would cost too much.  Valens was about to toss her behind a mound of rubble when she pushed out. 


Balling her hands she pulled all the flows she could, her hair and clothes starts to lift in the crimson build up like a Blood Angel risen from the Aether itself.

Locking onto each of their auras she released her clenched fists.

Streams of Red lighting surged through the air burning out Vulpters pollutants in their path – each beam struck one of the others in the torso flooding them with her healing energies, re-invigorating and stimulating– at the molecular level she cleaned out Lactic acid and cortisol build ups and boosted their cellular metabolism.

Kuun was no fool, he had anticipated they might refuse and made sure to make his offer when they were weak and vulnerable. 

Today Kuun would learn the People together were never weak.

<<<<>>>>

Reeda Kwn

Her finger spear had not stopped the Plaeryin bol but it had given the Avatar time enough to protect her…and now…

“BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE GODS!” Reeda screamed to the raucous cheers of the Extolled as burning red flowed from the Avatar of Yun Harla to the others as they fought those who twisted the Gods words for their own prestige.

They raced to the ground loping through the metal stair wells – Yhum redeemed leading the charge as they came up the Avatar of Yun-Shuno called Lyaea fending off four warriors – not alone but basking in the Red Glow of Yun-Harla called Milaea.

“Throw down your Weapons!” Yhum called

“See the True WAY!  Warriors you are the shamed, deceived by the Overlord and priests!”

<<<<>>>>

Jarys


He hadn’t been there on Lexrul to defend her from these things…he was now. 

Tearing his sword out through the firsts back he pummelled the third with fresh fists as the cathartic flows washed across his body. 

“JEEDAIII” A fourth hissed as a fifth summoned more reptilian slaves from the bloated transport – they were ignorant of the fact they now stood in the most dangerous place in the galaxy – between Jarys and his daughter.

“You wish” he sneered.

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #216 on: February 24, 2019, 10:50:36 PM »

Chapter 55 — Road to Hell — Paved with Good Intentions

Part 3

Maeson

Back to back he stood with Melron amongst the slashing serpents of the enemy. 

His armour already beaten down by the Gen’dai was becoming more liability than protection as their queer weapons assailed it. Their bodies began piling up, the one in front of his dropped, head exploding from Selaena’s fire. 

They weren’t going to break and run like the raiders – they were a death culture he saw it in their eyes, far from home single minded, with no prospect of return. He could respect that – but he’d still kill them.
<<<<>>>>

Selaena

“You” went through a chtinous shield exploding an arm like splintered wood

“Disgust” blasted a foot pepping out behind a corner

“Me” took two heads in a row, the bullet punching through one skull and hitting the others eye socket before exploding.

She was glad Milaea had refused these vile things, there could be no treating with Outsiders who enslaved their own or abused their bodies…like they had Lydan…

Eyes wetting with tears she continued her dissertation.   
<<<<>>>>

Lyaea

<Take them alive if you can!> she signalled out as the Extolled smacked another warrior unconscious.

The more they captured the more information on their fleet they would obtain, and the more the Extolled would venerate her.

She didn’t mind they believed her to be a Goddess – for she was – all women embodied the Goddesses – if they used different names for their deities what was that to her.

<<<<>>>>

Kiraea

“Frell the are UGLY!” Sofa screamed as the purple glow worse off – if anything Milaea’s healing flow had slowed her to normal – but not before she had torn up half the elevated road way to down one of the green transport animals.

“Tell me about it – I bet they stink too - just keep your helmet on and think about naked women, unnnghh” their crab armour was tough to pull things out of – it kept moving about even on the dead ones.

“Is everything with you about sex?” Sofa’s reply just heard over the thvump of Mumbles fire as the Sons forced a defensive ring.

“Babies, family that’s what I love…you need Sex for those things!”  she skidded behind a burning APC to dodge their flying grenade bugs.

Spinning round the wreck to elbow then gut another one she found herself covered in oozing black blood,

“Plus it’s a lot nicer to think about than this…”

<<<<>>>>

Mmbri

His jaw was over tensed from gritting his teeth as he fired the Blackstone rifle over and over again.  These enemies seemed to be utterly suicidal – even Kiraea and Sofa didn’t seem to scare them…but far worse than that – half a dozen were flopped on their faces worshipping the Daemons as they lit the area around them with force powers. 

In-between keeping himself alive Mmbri felt a sick drop considering what the Daemons could do with Monsters who worshiped them.

<<<<>>>>

Adaea

“Gravity fluctuations…” she said pulling the understanding from the battle meld as she lead her small force to take out their air support. If that was how they stripped shields…then if she expanded the inertial compensators just past the shields range…

A tactic that would one day take the New Republic weeks to determine took the super-cognition of the People less than ten minutes as she adjusted the settings, already working out what changes to the power gird would be needed to ensure it didn’t draw too heavily in future ship designs.

Their one main advantage over the Karintha Class Transports lost Adaea felt a wellspring of pride as each Coral Skip burst into chunks - she had embodied Aethenaea by deducing the solution, and now embodied Aertemisaea and Aephrodaea by destroying those threatening the ones she wanted to protect.

<<<<>>>>

Milaea

She couldn’t bring herself to kill…to harm. 

Instead she hurled bolts of red toward the Sons, revitalizing their bodies and minds unhappy she couldn’t effect the Extolled as they subdued their less enlightened brethren.

A Red Angel floated above the ruined Station hurling healing fire upon favoured supplicants, throwing up chunks of rubble to take the hit of thud bug launchers, tugging at the ground beneath Kuun’s soldier’s feet to trip them.

Perhaps others would consider it as good as killing, but for Milaea there was a key distinction – tripping someone over did not make her responsible for a third person ramming a sabre through their neck – invigorating a solider moments from death was a protective measure- if that soldier then blasted his assailant, that wasn’t her action but theirs.

This was the ground war – in orbit Oma dripped with ambition and pride as her Mercenary allies and Jedi Soldiers hammered the unsuspecting Black Sun forces. 

Even as she did this Oma had two corvettes and bombers scattering the trash in the way of a direct orbital bombardment with sonic pulses and kinetic shields.

<”Get a Clear Shot, then annihilate everything on the surface,” This would be the victory that sealed her hold on the Jedi and the confidence of the Chancellor, Black Sun, Ubese, Valens and whatever the hell those other things that had just landed were all desolated by Oma’s quick thinking
“Keep the pressure on that Ubese Destroyer – I want its shields down and engines offline!”>

Even as Milaea kept her People and their allies safe with screening telekinetic shields that hued the air red she sought out the Jedi Sentinels mind.

Like a granite monolith it towered with purpose and focus – convinced of the righteousness of its cause it saw no means as beyond the pale in securing an Army and Navy for the Republic.  Whatever the merits of such a notion were an irrelevance - Milaea only cared that Oma intended to achieve that aim by harming People – this Milaea could not allow. 

She could break her mind…a ruby gold spear tip forming easily to assault the distracted mind

<”They’ve broken out sector 3…” Meeda advises

“Let them go, we don’t need to destroy them all, just make sure that Ubese destroyer is brought down…” Oma notes as they begin trading fire with the ship heavy stars of green plasma erupting against their shields – Blood Remembers is trying to break free, using its bulk to push past the Vengeance Frigates.

She’s there to earn money to restore her world…angry about Oma choking her…Meeda sympathizes with the Ubese who have suffered at the Republics hands just as much as the Mandalorians….>

Milaea pressed sympathy into action.

<<<<>>>>

Meeda


This was wrong…horrifically wrong, the sympathy she had gained for the impoverished Ubese on their rotten world Uba IV came to the fore of her mind as Blood Remembers began to lose shields under their concentrated fire.

Blood Remembers….

“Don’t you forget…” her grandmother had said on her death bed “…don’t you ever forget the Dral’Han…what the Republic did to us – you forget that you forget yourself,”.

“Its frelling ugly work…” Tern had said to her when she was only a teen looking over the corpses of the rebellious miners they had cut down, “But it’s not on us…”

But it was on them.  The Ubese were just the same as the Mandalorians…Meeda had agreed to this to earn money to restore her world –she had the best of intentions – but not at the expense of another warrior race facing the same challenges of mercenary life and a broken home world.

Quicker than she ever had before Meeda pulled her pistol and fired straight into Oma’s back.

The sick smile of triumph on Oma’s face turned to utter shock as she went to one knee – Meeda fired again and the Sentinel tumbled face forward but kept raised on her arms.

“STAND DOWN” Meeda shrieked as her third shot slammed into a glowing Temple Guards blade and bounced back into her face.

<<<<>>>>

Milaea

Pulling back telepathically she sought the Commander of the Black Suns Tsens mind, feeling the black oil of Xithar’s manipulation.

<Abandon two of your Frigates, send them on collision courses to cover your escape>

Xithars control was old, not overly strong as he left this one with substantial freedom to operate independently – the black walls were shattered by red fire that flowed like water.

“Abandon the Hammer and the Scythe to cover our retreat…we’re getting out of this hell hole,”

Tsen ordered taking advantage of the brief lull as the Mandalorians and Jedi faced off uncertain what was happening and who was in charge.

<<<<>>>>

Goush

“All forces retreat!” Tsen ordered over the command channel.

“Way ahead of you pfsask…” Gosuh mused as another Cruiser exploded into chunks of doonium as merciless attack runs of the Basilisks tore drives and hard points to pieces along other retreating ship.

He kept his eyes on the empty trophy rack the whole time he gave orders trying to push past the improvised blockade of Mando’a ships as if visualising the heads of the Mando turncoats heads would make them appear as Blood Remembers and the other ships lost more functionality with every buffeted and blow.
Sparks rained from busted cables above he felt another shudder that rattled his teeth…but then no more

“They’ve stopped firing!” the tactical office called in the work stations below

Quick as he could he shouted,

“Hammer the accelerator Jump NOW!”
<<<<>>>>

Milaea

She was getting better at it – more subtle – she dumped battered APC’s and fallen walkers in the path of Vong warriors – trapping them while diverting the Sons and keeping her own People focused only on the most imminent threats while the Extolled moved about to convince the trapped Vong to lay down their arms.

She couldn’t save them all…but that was OK. 

She noticed the Yuuzhan Vong below her staring up as she levitated, some dropped their weapons to worship, others screamed defiance at the Jeedai trickery.  But it wasn’t just them, some of the Sons as well.

If being a Red Goddess was the result of doing what she felt was right…

Her voice boomed with Ruby shockwaves in the blood dust misted air.

“Throw down Your Arms!”

<<<<>>>>

God and Monster

Tension behind his eyes and in his back from hours of aetheric manipulation, archery and sword play dissolved beneath Milaea’s healing flow as Valens moved toward Kuun - It’s eye slowly folding back in a sickening display of the vile devices the Vong implanted into themselves. 

A pressure started to drag at Valens legs as he stepped forward, his knees unwillingly buckling…like the rest of their weapons he could not sense what was attacking him nor repel it…

“Now you will see the GLORY!” Kuun leered as Valens knelt against his will.

Gravity became heavy, his limbs sagged, the Blackstone countered some but not all …they had devices that created micro-singularities…his mind flashed with the integrated data of the battle meld…that was how they stripped shields…propelled their ships…Gravity…Milaea and Lyaea had used lighting…their biological form was resistant to the aether…but electricity…Gravity…

Like miners once searched out ultradense Blackstone or Bloodstone in the mountains he easily found the gravity distortion…and so did all the others.  Pushing against the pull the transport ship warbled as if in pain as he stood just in time to parry Kuuns strike.

The disgusting mutilated face that thought its perverse tattoos and excision celebrated the glory of the Gods struck with ferocious speed and brutal strength.

Both Aethans and the Vong sought genetic means to improve themselves…but Aethans would never dishonour the sacred form the Goddesses had given them, the peak of beauty that all females exhibited – Valens own male form was far enough from their perfection. 

God and Monster drove each other hard in a flurry of motion difficult for the few Sons nearby to track.  Dovin Basal gravity distortions were met with aetheric singularities, thud bugs spiralled out of control in micro vacuums, blorash jelly sizzled on aetherically heated ferrocrete. 

The powers of the God and the fetishes of the Monster spent nullifying each other the duel in the centre was purified –

Kuun Carr, strength and speed enhanced by dozens of implanted biots, the greatest Yuuzhan Vong warrior in the galaxy - unarguably one of the greatest of the Fleet beyond it -maintained an unrelenting pace, his amphistaff shifting swiftly from nubile to rigid as he sought out every possible opening behind the glowing green blade.

Valens, strength and speed designed by centuries of science and selective breeding, arguably the greatest humanoid warrior in the galaxy shifted between Ataru form, Echanni strikes and Keshiri Sith ripostes as his mind analysed Kuuns pattern against the techniques the others had seen the Vong use on Nimban, Lexrul and the Demagol.

Sparks of white slew off with scales of the amphistaff, divots of Blackstone bounced against calcite flints of Voduun shell in the air as they fought ever closer, their powers and esoteric weapons soon relegated to mere sideshows as each blow strained muscle and tore fibres and sinews in their respective armour. 

The universe shrunk to the 3 metre radius of their battle, as though the Aether itself was in that moment only concerned with the vicious dance of strike and riposte, kick and block, dodge and weave.  The few Vong nearby not already rent to pieces by Jarys charge looked on in awe equal to the terror of the few Sons in visible range – both terrified their hero in the fight should lose and they’d be left to face the murderous impossibly swift victor.

Despite Milaea’s ministrations, weeks of war was catching up with Valens – the burn in his chest and head from keeping the dovin basals occupied with gravity distortions was intense as Kuun’s unusual fighting style was difficult to learn, still he pressed out of a Makashi deflection with Keshiri flourishes.

Kuun began to strain against the constant barrage, his biots pumping hormones against a tide of waste protein build up, the micro-symbionts straining to filter out toxins as the amphistaff died finally sheared in half by the senseless blade of green energy.

Reverting to his subcutaneous horns and two Coufees while Valens methodically sliced into the gristle gaps in the voduun crab armour spraying grey superheated juices down the red shell, Kuun poured strength into increasingly frustrated blows, incensed that such heathens and their vile Jeedai arts could defeat Praetorite Vong. 

A fast slash met empty air as the green sabre was switched off, wrong footed Kuun fell forward into the rising hilt and fist that clasped it, smashing his teeth back into his mouth.

As Kuun fell back the depletion in his body as biots finally failed was mirrored by the fall of his warriors - half personal guard shattered in bloody chunks on the ground – the rest were pleading fealty to ‘Yun-Yammka’ the indifferent Abyss Monster that dripped with Yuuzhan Vong blood. 

“Throw down your Arms!” A blazing creature of bloody fire called out overhead as even more of his Warriors fell back, he raised his Couffees but found his wrist grasped by the daemons hands, strength the like of which he had seen only in radank claws implanted on the greatest warriors of the Fleet broke his forearms as the blood ran from the sides of his shattered mouth, teeth flopping out freely.

All had been in vain, all the glory Kuun thought he knew was propaganda, hubris and false idols – his sacrifice squandered as he could not warn the fleet for the reignited green blade swinging toward his neck.

The Yuuzhan Vong fleet was on the Road to Hell, and now…

…now the Daemons were waiting for them.

<<<<>>>>
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Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

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« Reply #217 on: February 25, 2019, 07:44:40 PM »

And that was amazing...     I love the interactions, the epic quality.  Its like reading Beowulf.  :-)   I feel for Milaea, she's been through hell and back, and she STILL can't decided exactly what to do!  :-)  And Valens...   Champion of Champions.  To bad, in the end, he's still a slave....
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« Reply #218 on: February 27, 2019, 09:03:25 PM »

I think that Karm's comparison to Beowulf is completely appropriate!

I wonder what Mili's awakening will entail after her near-death...certainly a corner turned, a decision made, especially regarding her People...

And it looks like the Preatorite Vong REALLY underestimated their opponent(s).  BTW: the idea of "the Extolled" is just brilliant, especially deriving from their previous caste within Vong society.

But one of the best parts: the absolutely wonderful, fist-pumping reference to 300  Wink

Amazing writing LSG.  I can only guess at the complexity of mapping the multiple threads within the story  Smiley
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« Reply #219 on: February 27, 2019, 09:42:14 PM »

BTW: the idea of "the Extolled" is just brilliant, especially deriving from their previous caste within Vong society.

I can't take credit for that, Extolled was the term the Shamed Ones Rebellion took in the NJO series, i just tried to give it a longer history and a more cohesive genesis as their chosen title.

As For Milaea...well...First there is another 'Goddess' who has been busy we need to catch up with....
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Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
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« Reply #220 on: March 09, 2019, 09:55:56 PM »

Chapter 56 — Road to Hell — Locked From the Inside

Part 1

Lyaea

The trip inside the ‘yorik-trema’ was beyond disgusting, the living vessel was full of bulbous fleshy chairs and growths, truly these Extolled Yuuzhan vong were a weird culture. 

As soon as Kuun was beheaded by Valens the others had thrown down their weapons.

As fast as possible they had begun the retreat while Milaea kept the battle in space relatively calm. 

Adaea had sliced in with Maynard and Xandra to pick up the Sons, Jarys and the Men carrying four injured Sons a piece and even Vong on their shoulders to the Aethena

She had been grabbed by Reeda Kwn and convinced of the need to
“Obtain the Ro'ik chuun m'arh” 

Beside her Maeson and her mother looked no less disturbed at the strange ship

<Perhaps they are strange…but we can learn from their bio tech…> Maeson noted trying to be hopeful.

“We are approaching the Eversight Avatars, our vilips indicate with Kuun dead the other Extolled have risen, only with the presence of Yun-Shuno’s chosen will the priest and warriors submit,”

“Alright…” Lyaea was still sore from the fight, but if she needed to show off her ‘divine’ powers to get this ship captured so be it…they needed it quick - they were to leave the system and blow the station ASAP.

They docked without incident and had to wander through a docking tube that reminded her of…well…a sacred part of her anatomy.   

Reeda quickly spoke with another of the Extolled in their bizarre native language explaining things no doubt.

“They are in the command pods – the priests resist…They deny the gods you embody Avatar! This way.”

<The Jedi are starting to take back control of the Mando fleet…hurry!> Valens sent telepathically as she trotted behind Reeda who ran as fast as her imperfect legs could manage past the bizarre concoction of living objects and naturally grown walls of coral.

Up ahead there was a tumult between the barely clothed Extolled and the Warriors – at least six Extolled lay dead as the Warrior protected what appeared to be a giant sphincter that elicited a murmur of disgust from Selaena who primed her rifle.

Lyaea put her hand out to guide it down,

<Try and take them alive…more useful to us long term…> she soothed then quickly rushed forward with a shout.

“Khattazz al'Yun Yun-Shuno!” she lit her body with aetheric lighting scattering the Extolled in terror while the Warrior leapt forward to take advantage only to be met by Lyaea’s rapid fists. 

They had enough data on Yuuzhan Vong battle tactics from their various fights to be able to easily overwhelm their basic warriors now – and given Kuun had brought his best warriors to the surface of Vulpter…

In a rapid flurry of six jabs, two hooks and three upper cuts her perfect fists sheathed in Black Stone gauntlets cracked the voduun cab armour apart, smashing bones and rupturing organs beneath.

<<<<>>>>

Reeda Kwn

She pushed past as the Avatar tossed aside the last warrior, her shaper hand extending fine nerve needles to try and stimulate the door open.

“Don’t waste your time…” the male Avatar called.  With a leaping twist his blade black as the void between galaxies slashed the sphincter apart into grimy vitae spraying flaps of flesh. 

He was met by a torrent of poison sprays and thud bugs, but those he didn’t weave to avoid he took in his stride moving forward against the last of the depleted warriors. Reeda placed a hand on his chest to hold him back.

“See now the power of the Gods!” Reeda Called

“Yun’Shuno Implores you throw down your arms and be free!”

“Lies!” a priest hiding behind a bulk warrior objected “Kill the Shamed One who speaks out of turn!”

“It is you who are shamed by your cruelty, you who forget the Gods!”  Reeda tasted the strange tang in the air as the Avatar burning with blue fire stood beside her

“See now the Avatar of Yun’Shuno!  She of the thousand eyes grants forgiveness if you will but admit your errors – Free yourself from your delusions,” Reeda implored

“Only you can free yourself from the suffering your cruelty inflicts upon your soul!”

“Mad! Mad Woman, Infidel, this is no Avatar – a hideous Jeeedaii who uses trickery to deceive you!”

The three Vong warriors looked across to each other…they knew Kuun was dead…saw three beings lit in lighting before them, and behind them two dozen Extolled armed with all manner of weapons itching to avenge themselves on their oppressors.

Already cast adrift in a foreign galaxy, even if the fought to the last who would transmit their ‘glorious last stand’ to the Fleet for remembrance….

“Release yourself from the false teaching of the priests!”  Yhum called out behind her – a respected warrior his words would tip the scale.

“Find Yun’Shuno and the other Gods as well as Yun’Yammak!” He fixed their gazes as they blinked against the light of the Avatars.

“Who among you has not feared with each biot implanted it would be rejected and lead to his being shamed…” Reeda went of splaying open her shapers hand

“…or that a Shaper who has a grievance will not cause a long fused one to rebel to the same effect…Free yourself from this fear by acknowledging there are no Shamed Ones, but those who treat them shamefully…” she paused as he held their attention - words were good, but for a warrior force mattered more

“…or face the judgement of Yun’Shuno…”

Lyaea’s electrical fire surged a brilliant white for a moment in time with the intoning of the Goddess name.

The Warrior amphistaffs lowered.

“HERETICS!” The priest chose to remain in his wilful ignorance - breaking toward Reeda with a coufee raised.

Divine light ended his delusions.

<<<<>>>>
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Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

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« Reply #221 on: March 09, 2019, 09:57:45 PM »

Chapter 56 — Road to Hell — Locked From the Inside

Part 2

Oma

She struggled up and pushed away a Temple Guard offering to help her.

Meeda lay off to the side cuffed.

“Traitorous Bitch…” Oma seethed as her mind slowly reset itself from the fog of hypnogogic confusion

“We’ll take her to the brig…” the Temple Guard intoned beneath his white and yellow mask

“Not her you imbecile! Milaea!” Oma had been wondering when she would show up again…clearly they had been holding her back for when they were in desperate straits.

Shaking off her confusion she stormed to the main tactical station
“What’s the situation?”

“After you…fell…there was some confusion across the fleet…the remaining Ubese and Black Sun capital ships managed to escape…”

“And Valens?”

“The ships positioned for orbital bombardment were awaiting your order…a number of transports were detected leaving the far side of the planet….along with the bizarre vessel…we were not in a position to intercept in the confusion.”

“Fools!” she seethed “You shouldn’t rely on me for every order!”

She had been too dominant in her takeover of the Order…had no time to find adequate second officers.

“Did we at least get a tracker on the Ubese…:”

“We did Sentinel…once it drops out of hyperspace we’ll have them.”

She could not – would not - allow this to turn into another defeat – the Order could not afford it. 

“Have Master Tnbu and Ordo Endures assist in the recovery efforts, make it clear the Jedi drove the Black Sun from the system…and it was Chancellor Ovriths approval of auxiliary forces that enabled it,”

Oma would not forget to keep the Politicians happy so long as she needed them.

“We press on in pursuit of the Ubese…and get those stupid cuffs off Ordo,”

<<<<>>>>

Goush

“HELL!”

His fists slammed on the arms of his command chair the stars spun in kaleidoscopic twirls around his Blood Remembers.

Once more his ships had taken damage he couldn’t pay the repairs for…he was already working off the last lot from Myrkr on this job!

“This is how they trap you…” he seethed to no one in particular “Get you reliant on their mercy…debt bondage…Hutts, Vigo’s all the same…you wake up one day and you’ve been their patsy for a decade and have nothing but an empty belly and ramshackle half functioning ship to show for it….”

“Where to captain…” the navigation officer probed cautiously as the countdown to real space drained away with his prospects of ever getting out from under the Vigos thumb again.

Shaking off his irritation her replied

“Set course for the Rendezvous Xithar gave us, hopefully we can finally settle the account, then Nar Shadda, we’ll sell some of the trinkets we took at Hondo station, try and get some gear for home…”

Goush gazed on the empty trophy racks as they approached the jump point.  Damn the Anathema thrice over…their insatiable hate for the Ubese had caused generations of suffering and showed no signs of abating.

<<<<>>>>

Meeda

“Do we have the co-ordinates…” the Sentinel demanded tapping her foot in irritation.

“Working on it…” bitch the analysis program flickered though possible destinations before Meeda’s eyes as she glanced to the long range scanner every few seconds wary of the Black Armoured creatures showing up nearby.

Finally the scrolling options pinged,

“Here…Cularian System…almost nothing on it apart from the name,”

“Not a known black-port, Mercenary?” the Jedi queried in an insulting tone as if Meeda knew every smugglers secret hide out…fair enough she knew a lot…but that was the job.

“Not that I know of…even if it is a Mando ship showing up won’t be out of place,”

Oma sneered

“Follow them…” Oma swiftly turned to leave the bridge her orders given

“Sentinel…” Meeda protested, knowing she was on thin ice after the fractured events of the last few hours.

“…Is it really wise to follow them into an unknown system…it could be a trap…a Black Sun fortress we don’t know about…”  The deal was getting worse, once word got out Clan Ordo was working for Jedi they might never live it down…her best bet was to get all the credits out of Oma she could while limiting any further confrontations.

“They are fleeing randomly, desperate to escape justice…you have your orders Mercenary…”

The last word spoken like a curse felt strangely hurtful As if we have any choice after the Dral’Han you obsessed bitch…

Her bridge crew looked at her expectantly

“You have your orders…set course for Cularian system at the next jump exit…”

Meeda flopped in her chair, hands still raw from the stun cuffs, throat sore and voice hoarse from Oma’s telekinetic choking…hopefully it would be just what they thought, an empty system, they hit the Ubese from behind…

She trailed her hand along the eye of aversion etched into her breast plate…the wyrd of Oma was becoming obsessive, the Black Armoured creatures…compulsive pursuit of Ubese…trapping herself in her own wyrd of destruction…and dragging them down with her.

<<<<>>>>

Goush

The docking clamp hissed open with refuse gases as Goush impatiently tapped his thigh plating.  The Cularian system was the designated rendezvous for after Goush had helped Tsen destroy the Sons and become Vigo.

So far he had seen no other ships in the system, only a raggedy old orbital power station with solar panels that looked as old as the planet, sensors only picked up a few odd floating bits of ancient wreckage at LaGrange points about the system.

As the rusty brown door slid open Goush almost fainted at the sight of the figure entering.  His mouth behind his helm wide…he had expected some crotchety hideous old mechanic a grade above the type you saw at Mamzer Station…instead…

“Welcome Goush of Toush Uba…” the silken voice from moist ruby lips set amidst perfect curves of alabaster skin massaged into his ears.
“It seems you’ve had a hard time of it…” the tall feminine figure approached him, gleaming in polished gold and royal reds that shamed every inch of Blood Remembers as unworthy of hosting such divinity.

“But it’s all over now…” she trailed a hand across his mask “Now you are blessed to be in the bosom of the Goddess of the Sublime…”

Yes…a Goddess truly a goddess….

“…and the Profane…” the last words implanted in his brain along with her fingers.

<<<<>>>>

Oma

They slashed out of hyperspace at a midpoint over the orbital plane of the Cularian system, the Mythosaur, Four Vengeance Class Frigates and Two Cruisers backed by three Consular Class Corvettes full of Jedi primed for battle – more than enough to deal with Goush already damaged force.

“There it is…around the fourth planet…the Ubese Destroyer, two cruisers and a frigate…in geosynchronous orbit near a solar battery platform…no heat signatures from the engines, they’re all powered down.” One Mandalorian noted as the bridge bustled under the watchful gaze of the Temple Guards.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Meeda whispered

“Micro Jump in, send your fighters to disable them then we board…”

“We should blast them from range…” Meeda suggested

Oma shook her head

“We have them with their pants down and appendages out – we take them to Coruscant in chains then the galaxy will see the Jedi are not beaten…”

Oma could feel Meeda’s doubts, she thought Oma was obsessed, but such a petty mercenary couldn’t possibly comprehend the political goals this action would achieve – with Goush on trial for Myrkr the Chancellor got his front pages and in return she would get further authority to expand the military arm of the Order.

“...No more delays,” she added as she swept quickly toward the hangars intent on being the first to take an Ubese head.

<<<<>>>>

From the grainy green washed out footage sent from the Mythosaur to the Meteor class transport Oma watched the Jehavey’ir assault ships pound the destroyer with bolts of ion, arcs of electricity erupting all over the already damaged destroyers hull.

“Limited life signals on the ships…tracking proton trails to the surface…orbital scan shows only one structure a few transports, looks like they went ground side….strange there is only one structure on the surface…some kind of tower” the Mando Tactical officer explained.

“Ordo take the ships in orbit, I will attend to the ground forces,” Oma ordered as she assessed the readouts on the black tower – the scans were unable to get much, it appeared to be made of a hardy composite of some kind – likely the remains of an ancient fortress or bomb shelter that Goush used as a hide out.

“He can run but he can’t hide…” she whispered mostly to herself – his ships must be too damaged to put up effective resistance and he deemed his chances better by fortifying himself planetside – he was getting desperate, backed into a corner and that made him dangerous….

She glanced around to the Temple Guards and Sentinels in full battle gear

Not as dangerous as two dozen Jedi determined to make a point.

<<<<>>>>

Meeda

Docking was swift the Mando’s breaching of the hull practised and proficient, with a blast of energy she entered the eerily silent ship backed by Yon and half a dozen other super commando’s – the first of six such teams slicing into the port hull simultaneously.

“Just like at Uba,” She noted over the internal comm as they met no immediate resistance “They use defence in depth…”

Odd they haven’t vented this section yet…gravity still active and lights still on

“Stay alert, mag lock your boots, keep the suits vac tight - have your visors set to quickly adjust to dark, they’ll try and surprise us by switching off gravity, lights and venting atmosphere just before they strike…”

Cautiously they moved forward linking up in the X junctions with the other teams to form three 12 man squads.

The blast doors were all open, systems not  flickering form the ion barrage were humming away indifferently.  Blood Remebers reminded her of the Mythosaur, old but well maintained, still she passed a number of recent patch jobs, oil spills and acid leaks on the somewhat brown plating that was covered in the patina of age and dried particles spewed from the vents providing recycled air at higher nitrogen levels suited to Ubese biology.

“Boss…” Yon interrupted peering into a small room off the side of the main ventral corridor

Inside was a magno-solder iron still on abandoned on the workbench beside a lukewarm cup of caf and busted capacitor that was being repaired.

“…Left in a hurry…might’ve abandoned ship, life signals could be rodents…”

Meeda shook her head

“No they left someone behind…how far o the bridge?”

“Thirteen metres forward two levels up…”

She rolled her shoulders and tightened her grip on her rifle

“Dask make sure our way out is secure, Yon, Karv lets move.”

<<<<>>>>

Oma

“Coming up in range in 5…4…3…2…”

“Fire,” she commanded.

The Besalisks broke from formation, abandoning their 30 degree descent angle to plunge almost vertically down, laser cannons and shock wave generator rods unleashing on the Ubese transports below and a 25 metre perimeter around the landing zone. 

The empty transports crumpled inwards under the effect of the sonic waves from the generator rod clusters, metal wilting like petals as the Basilisks screeched back skyward at the last moment to avoid their terminal velocity splattering them into wreckage the likes of which they had just created.

The rapidity and precision gave Oma a new appreciation for Jedi like Revan who had faced the Neo-Crusaders in ages long past and a curious sense of triumph at how far the Mandalorians had fallen since then, from galactic terror to mercenary bands.

“No life signals they must all be inside, preparing to come around,” the Basilisks droid brains effortlessly turned the pilot intentions into movements sliding round to allow them to unleash a quick run to test the black tower itself.

There was no counter fire, no flak nor turrets – but nor did the Besalisks cannons seem to do any damage to the monolith into which the Ubese had fled.

“Set down nearby, Captain Berkan your commandos will secure the perimeter and entrance while my Sentinels head inside” Let them cower in their hovel, nothing would stop her now from restoring the Jedi’s lost pride – fitting taking down Ubese with Mando support, both ancient enemies under the Jedi heel once more.

<<<<>>>>

Meeda

As they traced the length of the central corridor they found more signs of sudden abandonment, still warm caf in thermos-canisters, tools left in piles beside sparking junction boxes…and still no sign of anyone. 

“This ain’t right…” Yon noted as they reached the last set of blast doors before the bridge, the breach team moving up with the laser lance to slice it open

“They wouldn’t just abandon ship like this…”

Oma’s explanation that they were going to make a last stand planet side seemed convincing at first but as they delved deeper into the ship it made less and less sense – Blood Remembers had clearly take a number of hits, and while the systems they had scanned were far from optimal, it was nothing a quick jury-rig couldn’t get operational in time to make another jump.

Her visors auto tint darkened the glum brown pannelin of the ship even more as te fiery white laser lance cut through the blast door.  A fist sized panel flopped out and the Mando beside the breached shoed his grenade launcher into the opening, pumping out three quick canisters – smoke, gas and flare into the bridge beyond.

“Firing in!” Karv called over the comm, implementing a similar tacitc on the bridges starboard door.
“Now!” Meeda ordered.  Two men behind her rushed up to the bast door as the green gas seeped out the small hole amidst flashes of blinding flares and obscuring smoke. In their hands the grav hammer- practised eas set it up on the door, a quick whirring charge and.

“BREACH GO GO GO GO” the hammer designed for industrial mining crumpled the door inwards spewing the smoke they had launched back out – but they were ready in sealed suits with visuals switched to thermal to avoid the bright but heatless flares they had launched in. 

She was first in as was fitting for the leader, her rifle sweeping over the semi-circle rows of consols finding no heat signatures apart from the dull greens of the machinery.  She kept her feet moving forward as her torso twisted seeking a target…surely they haven’t abandoned the bridge as well?

The answer to her question was worse that she’d feared.

At the back of the bridge around the command throne was a huddled mass of warm bodies, some standing, most rolling about oblivious to the anaesthetic gases they had launched in.

The light of the planet below beamed through the transparisteel, past the empty rusted trophy rack onto a veritable orgy of some kind.

Scores of blood shot leering eyes stared from sunken faces that scraped and clawed at their own flesh in depraved acts of devotion that painted the grated metal decking a brown red mingled with whites and clear slicks from their frenetic unrestrainable trysts.

Meeda was at a loss for words, Karv entering the other side stared in confusion along with the rest of the commandos   they paid not attention to anything but biting, pinching, creasing, fondling, penetrating each other as if under the spell of some God of Lust.

Yet as she watched the spectacle unfold she saw things that were…wrong…shoulders that branched in strange ways, bony outgrowths that looked jagged, distended limb and elongated jaws that lapped toward oversized sensual organs.

One finally seemed to comprehend her presence after staring for several seconds, a wet growl from its throat and the others began to cease their dalliances reluctantly…

A flash of claws that were suited more to a Barabel than humanoid Ubese as the creature lunged at her….

“OPEN FIRE!”

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #222 on: March 09, 2019, 10:00:27 PM »

Chapter 56 — Road to Hell — Locked From the Inside

Part 3

Oma

There was only one opening into the vast solid tower, a rectangular doorway that seemed to have no door.

The Sentinels entered tentatively, the force dead and quiet about them, but thin tendrils of life forces further in told them they were in the right place.

Black metal…or perhaps stone walls, flanked the corridors with thin time worn lines of some kind of script replete with hooks and barbs on each menacing glyph.  Oma was no expert in such forgotten lore, preferring to focus on the here and now and how that pushed forward in time.

As they penetrated deeper they activated their armour flood lights, noting thin channels carved where the floor met the walls, a gluggy liquid meandering along the channels, and occasional drips from the ceiling.

<Her course is set…>

“What was that!” she snapped

“Sentinel?”

“Nothing keep moving” cautious steps forward she gesture for the Temple Guard to take a left at the next intersection, checking the green glow of her wrist terminal that created a map of the place as they went along.

<Her ambition has chained her to this path>

The whisper seemed in her head rather than her ears, the dark and quiet getting to her after too many hours on the Mythosaur’s busy bridge she assumed.

“Watch for ambush…the Ubese are tricky like that…”

She gestured for half of her Sentinels to head down a right passage, leaving her with six.

<She was always alone>

“Any signs?” The comm bubble with static dulled by interference from whatever this tower was made of.

“None Yet Sentinel…no signs of anything…”

“They must be further in, stay alert for trip wires and motion sensors,”
<She plunges further…further…so far in she can’t get out>
“Shut up!”
“Sentinel?”
“Nothing keep moving,”
Oma was not a particular expert in telepathic manipulation, focusing on more practical martial aspects of the force – her focus determine her reality – her clear objectives and unwavering path to make the Republic Strong and the restore and build the Order a monolith of direction that such petty doubts would not breach.

She was nearly 40 metres in, still no sign when she began to hear the droning and scratching of nails on stone, quick gestures had her squad keep low and move silently toward a dim red light up ahead that flickered like lighting in a storm over Eadu.

As she crept forward she almost slipped over on the wet stone floor, the barbed runes filled with fluid coming from the lit room.  At first she feared it might be a flammable liquid the Ubese intended to light…but the copper tang in their told her it was blood.

The flickering lights ceased leaving them in the dull reflective light that came off the blood as she sent three men with hand signs to the other side of the door way.  She could feel the life presences just inside and tapped out a summons to the other squads.

She got the nod as her second rolled smoke grenades along the floor, she turned in with her pistol.

As the gases burst forth the room lit red once more and revealed she had just walked into Hell.
<<<<>>>>

Meeda

“FALL BACK!” She screeched for the 12th time at least into the comm.  Opening fire on the…were they still Ubese?....had been a massive mistake – they soaked up fire with indifference, even as limbs flopped off in charred lumps they kept coming at them a horde of at least a hundred naked deformed creatures.

Yet that was only the start of the horror.  When one of her Commandos tripped up backing out his repeater blaring they had shredded off his armour, bit into his flesh.  Moment later he joined them in their ecstatic charge still bleeding, his eyes wild with madness as loped forward.

It was all Meeda could do to put a shot through his skull – even as he crashed back steam rising from his forehead one of the maddened Ubese tried to mate with the corpse.

The empty destroyer had turned into a mad house of sex and violence, the mirror of a deranged gods wildest fantasies.

She couldn’t raise Dask on the comm, their escape route was clogged with more of the mindless beasts than they could destroy.  She didn’t want to risk any more of her men…but she had no choice…

“Tern, Hard Times…” she called into her mic

“Already on the way…”

<<<<>>>>

The Sublime and Profane


Lucovis stood amidst her wide red candle lit laboratory, the forge where she turned the drab clay of the Ubese into something more beautiful – some still hung on the hooks covered in ziost wyrms that hungrily fed on their flesh and pain – yet the Ubese smiled deliriously – Lucovis own pleasure and excitement so overpowering it infected their limited minds and overwhelmed their conscious thoughts, turning them to their natural state – creatures of pure instinct that sought only pleasure – and Lucovis gave it to them.

Oma nearly retched as the dozen or so Ubese being feasted on by maggot like creatures were also licked ad caressed by hideous twisted forms that were more animal than humanoid.  She did not understand what was happening – only that this perversion needed to be cleansed by fire without delay.

Seven Jedi arrayed against Lucovis, experienced and competent, minds hardened against such a passive assault on their emotional state as had overcome the Ubese. 

They were one and all capable warriors, Oma in particular hardened to adamantium by years of tough assignments and determination to be an example of Jedi strength to others.

They were nothing compared to the Goddess she had become. 

Lucovis wove through their blades and blaster bolts as if it were a carefully choreographed ballet, her movements fluid and graceful, indeed her golden armour only slowed and diminished what would’ve been the dance of nymph upon the lily pads had she been undressed.

Oma’s frustration grew as her blows failed to find purchase – she could tell this woman was toying with her, only incensing her more to be found so wanting against an opponent.  How could the Order show its strength if she as leader could not land a single blow on their enemy. 

Pivoting adroitly through the reams of pure energy Lucovis finally grasped one of the Sentinels arms in her delicately ferocious hand, lengthened nails easily puncturing the vac suits hard rubber joint seals and into the flesh beneath.  Warm blood touched her fingers exciting her with images of what could be created from this raw clay.  She pulled the Sentinel into her embrace as they twirled like lovers through a shower of sparks, her arms crushing the armour and bones beneath before releasing.

One down…Oma redoubled her efforts just trying to get any kind of purchase against the ballerina like performer.  If they could open their minds to a battle meld they might do better, but to do so was to risk finding themselves under who knew what level of mental assaults that had reduced the Ubese to babbling idiots even now panting and groaning as they fulfilled their lecherous desires on the floor.

One by one the Sentinels began to fall – it was not to overt assaults but seemingly accidental attempts to make them dancing – or sexual - partners – grasping ones arms over her head so quickly the shoulders snapped, lifting one as if to perform a theatrical throw then letting them fall, wrapping its gold armoured thighs around another’s waist and thrusting and squeezing till hip bones cracked.

All the while the energy blades provided a moving backdrop for the effortless avoidance of regal gold that exuded a sickening aura. Finally the last of her Sentinels was felled by a disgustingly graceful pirouette that spun the Abyssins body while leaving his head static.

Oma stood alone against the twisted representation of Chaos – violent, lustful, living for its own pleasure utterly disdainful of the consequences of its frolicking on others – no goal to higher thoughts beyond its own indulgence – it was everything Oma despised, undisciplined immodest, and out of control – and as the Ubese bit, licked, scratched, caressed, flayed and fondled each other the stench of blood, sex and refuse mingling with sweat and wet stone.

“MONSTER!” Oma growled tightening her grip on her sabre, this was the moment Order needed to overcome chaos, it was no exaggeration to say the entire Republic would be swallowed by the velvet pleasure of this creatures debauched offer of endless carnal ecstasy.

“Mortal!” It replied with equal fervour before rushing up as if to embrace her.

With all the strength and speed she could muster Oma swung and slashed with her strong Ataru-Juyo Variant, it was like fighting water, a golden flow that shifted about her with elegant indifference. 

Every time she tried to reach out with a telekinetic or other force based assault Oma was met by the same overwhelming sense of awe, Oma was not easily intimidated but the presence she was faced with was so much greater than her she dare not expose herself more than necessary. 

Her arms were getting tired, the lactic acid burning as her chest rose and fell painfully against the breast plate…still the golden creature slid around her with sinuous twists the extremities of speed and dexterity taking no toll whatsoever. 

Oma had come here to fight Ubese…to restore the Orders reputation…and walked into a trap devised by a being she had never even known was pulling the strings.  This realisation settled painfully as her movements slowed, she was caught with no way to escape.

So be it, better to die than be a thrall of that thing…

“ARRGHH” with a final burst of energy Oma lunged forward her left hand quickly under her breast plate to touch the concealed detonator.  As the golden woman slid to the side as Oma knew she would, Oma lifted her finger off the dead man switch and felt the heat bloom on her breast…

But she didn’t die…the heat concentrated against her, cooking into her breast sizzling skin but didn’t expand outward as it should – the Demoness laughed with sickening mirth as the explosive energy dissipated in the telekinetic cage.

Oma quickly rolled back up and entered a high guard as the creature leapt toward her – Oma threw a fusillade of heavy jabs and hooks that it swayed gently between indifferently.  Even as Oma tried to fend off the inevitable she felt the weight of her true defeat drag her down…all she had tried to achieve or the Republic, the Order would fall to pieces as quickly as she had tried to build it up.

Maybe she had played too hard, maybe she had pushed too fast – but the evidence of the need for a militarised Jedi…

Was literally now staring her in the face.

She felt her arms pinned and twisted up behind her back, her knees knocked out from under her – a tall woman even on her knees she came up to the golden woman’s breast.

“Shhhhh….” Lucovis hushed brining the defeated Sentinel to her breast like a distraught child…Lucovis savoured the taste of her defeat, the spice of regret and deep flavour of depression…

“…it’s over now...all your struggle all your pain…” yes there it was, when not overlooked teased and vilified…a martyrdom complex a belief her suffering made her the only one strong enough to lead the Order forward…she wanted to be special…

“You are special…” Lucvois whispered leaning down even now excited to work with force sensitive flesh to mould.

“You will become something….Sublime…”

The fingers pushed all too deep into Oma’s head

“…and Profane…”

<<<<>>>>

Soryu

They had not long been in the system when he insisted to Tern they needed to move – the sickening blackness was everywhere he reached out to sense.  It was in moments like this he envied those dead to the force – to not have to feel the full emotional force of hideous reality.

Yet this was the Jedi’s burden to bear.  In a chain they linked not to Blood Remembers but to Meeda’s ship on the outer side, racing through they found the Mando vessel populated by grossly deformed beings that burst upon them some with instinctual fury, some uncontrollable lust.

Soryu had no choice but to cut them down as quickly and cleanly as possible as Tern and the Super Commandos switched to shotguns and hand flamers torching the corpses behind them. 

Whatever had happened to the Ubese smelt of the darkside – but the pressures of the moment denied Soryu any chance to investigate as they sped through the halls toward Meeda’s blip tracker. 

Soryu lead the charge with his sunrider green blade his path sliced through naked flesh of the too far gone victims of some kind of…disease? Experimentation?

One by one he bisected or telekinetically crushed the beings he could not possibly heal.  He knew he would meditate on each and every crazed face and ask ‘was his death necessary? Was hers’

This too was the burden of being Jedi – yet now was not the time to carry it.

Skidding round a corner his elbow out to shatter a sternum before following through with his blade he saw blaster bolts fly from a door way piled half way up with dead bodies.

He came into the rear of the pack, the first that turned to notice him was decapitated before its eyes could even widened as he methodically demolished the baying horde.  Instead the Room Meeda and the survivors, a few injured held their fire as he pushed the makeshift barricade of bodies aside with the force.

“Come we need to leave,”
 
<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Lord_S_Gray
Knight Commander
*

Force Alignment: 428
Posts: 1903



« Reply #223 on: March 09, 2019, 10:06:39 PM »

Chapter 56 — Road to Hell — Locked From the Inside

Part 4

Lucovis

What was this?

She raised her head from her work as the Temple Guards she had ambushed thrashed against their chains, suppression hoods replacing their hallowed white and yellow masks.

“A Jedi…” she looked back down to what had been Oma
“A True Jedi!”

At last!

<<<<>>>>

The Light Holds


He stopped dead in the middle of the hall - the sweat soaking him nothing to do with running.

Blackness oozed through every thin crack in the walls – no not the walls of the Ubese ship…but the walls of sentience and consciousness.

<Come Jedi….come….> a thousand bloody black droplets grew mouths and sang to him.

Meeda stopped and looked toward him, her voice drowned by the hollow echoes of the shadow that surrounded him…no not just him…

It sought every mind out at once – its capacity seemed endless, the hollow between stars finally deciding to engulf the pinpricks of energy.

Tern too now paused shaking his head, heaving…panting…he might be old but he was not unfit…

Yon dropped his rifle mid stride, a Mando’a does not drop their weapon.

<Come to me Jedi…> the Darkness spoke as the trails of black formed into a figure only his minds eye could see, voluptuous – wet – warm – like pure oil used in ancient machines, nubile and trembling rounded bulges erotically blooming out then curving back into rich orifices pleading to be filled.

Soryu’s hands felt cold, his legs heavy…so alone…Milaea and Sofa Gone, Yoda even half abandoning all they had fought for…old friends…Odjina, Jo, Ho’li…and even the Jedi Order…murdering itself under Oma’s hand…

He was old…tired….time to rest in the darkness…….

Light
As if from some distant echo the word touched him
Light…
The voce had a familiarity, one he had all but forgotten till now recalled…
Odjina…my friend…
<touch me Jedi…> Darkness lured, its hot slithering fingers millimetres from him now.

“The Light Holds Me…” he whispered
“As I hold onto the LIGHT!”

A Sunrider Green blaze lit from his eyes ramming the oozing figure backwards.

“As I hold to the Light The LIGHT holds ME!” He called once again no with his voice, but with his very soul, slamming it back further…no nothing so violent for the light held no violence, the darkness merely could not be where it stood.

He stepped forward again,
“As I hold to the Light The LIGHT holds ME!”
The figure swirled back into a thousand tendrils each seeking out the Mando’a
He could not allow that
“As I Hold to the LIGHT THE LIGHT HOLDS THEM!:”

His body trembled as another burst of Light poured from his body illuminating the plane between the Physical Realm and the Force Realm.

Unwilling to touch the Light the tendrils slopped backward into the cracks in emotion and thoughts from which they came.

Meeda recovering ran up toward him, blind to the battle that had just passed in a second on a plane she could not comprehend.

He stared through her as he saw the deception played upon him, always with lies the darkness spoke, always falsehood it brought – it was not Soryu nor even the Mando’a it had been seeking to corrupt…

In the dying after image of his mind’s eye he saw the oil seep into the Jedi – no a Jedi would’ve recognized such and held to the Light – the warriors of the Order further out in orbit were not so discerning – contempt and anger at their disgrace at Valens hands, pride and blood lust from Oma’s militaitzarion…they had lost their ability to resist the slick seductive thoughts that twisted in their mind – a Jedi held to the Light but a member of the Order only held onto to…

“All Ships land at these co-ordinates and disembark,” Oma’s voice came over the tactical comms

Orders…

“Confirmed Sentinel , deploying,” The Temple Guards responded immediately – having left the Path of the Jedi, the Order was now walking straight into Hell.

“That’s not Oma…” Meeda noted – even she could sense this was wrong,
Staring into Soryu’s eyes he nodded
“…All ships belay that order move back to the jump point,” she instructed calmly and firmly as she helped Soryu stagger forward his skin feeling oddly oversensitive after the numbing power of the Force Light that had temporarily overcome him.

“Meeda Ordo you will obey the Sentinels Orders!” the Anonymous Temple Guard responded over the channel as they ducked into the Meteor transport, wounded Mando’a cluttering the hold tying off bandages and injecting stimms – there were only two type of Mando’a they said – the ones who learnt to use their med-packs…and the glorious dead.

“They’re moving to the planet as instructed,” Tern noted checking the long range scans,
He paused for a moment
“Should we fire?”
The question was directed more to Soryu than Meeda, the situation had gone beyond the otherwise capable woman’s ability to comprehend fully.

Soryu shook his head.
“Let them go…do you still have recordings from Blood Remembers
Tern nodded solemnly
“Hopefully the Council will…”
“The Sentinel will hear of your disobedience Ordo!” The Temple Guard screeched so high the speakers in the hold blipped out.
No she won’t….she is past all help now – trapped in a darkness of her own making within she could not see the darkness without clearly

A stab of doom struck him in that instant, that this was not the first, and it would not be the last time the ‘Jedi’ turned into Warriors of Order unable to distinguish between the True Path of the Light and the subtle call of darkness, quick and easy paths of conflict rather than compassion, threat over dialogue – so mired in their own concerns of the moment the shroud of darkness would blind them to its deep machinations.

He swallowed hard body still trembling as Meeda shut off the comm.

“Get us out of here,” she ordered “Set course for Ord Mirit, we pick up supplies at the hubs then see if we can at least score some of the credits we’re owed…”

Soryu did not begrudge her mercenary and narrow focus, she was not Jedi, he did not expect her to be…and yet the Light guided her still.

He could not face this darkness alone, the quick and easy path would be to blast the tower from which he sensed the creature from orbit – but you could not betray the Light to save the Light and aggression in the hearts of the Mando’a would be its path back inside their minds. 

Threads pulled toward Ord Mirit, the convergence point upon which the galaxy would turn…there the Light would blaze with the Fury of Gods, Wrath of Monsters…and he secretly prayed the Light of the Jedi

<<<<>>>>

Lucovis

How unfortunate the True Jedi had left, the twenty three playthings that the Sentinel once known as Oma had summoned were entertaining but Lucovis was yet to taste the nectar of breaking a real Jedi….

“Soon…” she whispered as the first subject chained to the altar spat blood and spittle into her face

“Soon…”

<<<<>>>>
Logged

Lord_S_Gray

Surik: "Kreia, what are you—are you a Jedi, a Sith?"
Kreia: "Does it matter? Of course it does, such titles allow you to break the galaxy into light and dark, categorize it. Perhaps I am neither, and I hold both as what they are, pieces of a whole."

Karmack
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Light side points please.


« Reply #224 on: March 11, 2019, 04:33:40 PM »

Building to a climax... 

Soryu!   The visualization of that battle was amazing.  Nicely done my friend!  A True Jedi indeed.

The complexity of this still amazes me even now.  I know you've been working on this for literally years, but it is still a wonder to behold.  Nicely written and well done, my friend!

But...  What of Yoda?   :-)
Logged

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Master Singer of the Mak'Tor

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