Remnant of the Aether

[TheDutchman]

Interesting juxtaposition seen throughout "Conflagration" (both the First & Second postings) where you have three disparate groups that have been engineered for conquest: the Tribals, the Remnant, and the Flesh Crafters.  Most telling is the fact that all three not only share a singular motive distinct from the others, but that their methodology very well could have been with the same results in mind.  Of course, the devil is in the details: whereas the Tribals and the Remnant share a particular fidelity to their own (further stratified by the "Old" versus "New" societies of People), the Flesh Crafters have but a single objective--the utter destruction of those impugning on Nal Hutta designs.   Thrown into the mix is a compromised Jedi (wonderful twist that) whose own motives are a double-edged sword: justice/revenge for the wrongs against the Jedi Order.  But Tnbu's intentions are far from laudable, even when you consider that he has come to his position during/after Kimar's own xenophobic orthodoxy has infected the Order proper (ironic given the propensities of the Aethans...or perhaps merely another reason that Valens--and by extension the Aethan groupmind--become so dogmatic against Outsiders).

Once again proving the point that things are almost NEVER simply "black or white."

Against this backdrop, we have the established relationships of the Remnant (being both Hollow in the Force as well as any Society), Sofa--her love for Valens, her People, and a visceral tolerance of Outsiders, a trait shared with Mili--thrust once again into the role of mentor for her former apprentice in stark contrast to the burgeoning newness of Mili's own (and finally realized!) feelings of love for Ari.  Conflating these relationships is the uncertain loyalties of the Trinity and the Ailron Six.  Despite a genetic imperative to obey Mili or even Sofa, the horrible experiences of the two groups have inured them to the expectations of the Tribal society (not to mention the gene editing of the Technocracy), to say nothing of the absolutely unreliable alliance of the Remnant.  Even united by brief circumstances, the Aethans are not enough to overcome the sheer numbers of an enemy that feels no fear, no pain, no trepidations.

There are reasons that the galaxy at large has outlawed fleshcrafting... Too bad that the Hutts couldn't care less about ANY sort of morality.  Only profits.

Still: I'm sure that even with this engagement, the aftermath will almost certainly NOT be definitive...which means that there is something else in the near/far future that will ultimately lead to further Conflagration between Aethan & Outsider.  And--as we've seen MANY times in our Forumverse stories--there will be at least ONE outcome/reason/ramification arising from the conflict that will NOT be planned nor easily solved.

Meta-note: Yet another awesome poster, LSG!  Can't wait to see what's forthcoming 

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 53 — Conflagration — Intractable — Part 1

Providence

<I Know>
Ari replied as the particle filled wind scratched against her armour in an endless hiss.

Of course she knew, she had always known. From the first time she had seen Milaea’s face, it was that very moment Ari had felt the electrical tingling need to know, touch, be with someone in ways she had never felt before.

She swayed in time with the hard banking as anti aircraft fire rose from below and locked missiles screeched at them from behind, her left hand gripping hard to the edge of the Vorynx fighter as Taryn did a triple loop and hammered the reverse thrust to send the missile shooting past then burst the Phrik cannons, the missiles exploding into blue-white flares that they sped through just after the most intensely destructive anti-heat had died.

The fire was thick and fast.

<Now> She demanded of her pirate friend.  Her vestibular systems warbled in annoyance as the fighter dove at a 70 degree angle toward the ground at twice the speed of sound, visual information flooding past at the limit of what her mind could process before she leapt.

Turbo laser bolts and PLEX missiles flew in the opposite direction as she free fell down, Taryn pulling up sharply leaving her to fall.

To her left and right Xani, Lyaea and Selaena likewise pulled up, their own hull riding passengers having leapt off.

The Four Vorynx fighters vanished far above into the maelstrom of fire as Ari pushed a wall of kinetic power ahead of her to cushion her descent and crush anything beneath.

She had heard Her not just hours but days - maybe even years! - before. 

Milaea finally fulfilling Ari’s own deepest wish by reciprocating her love, the declaration knowing no boundaries of time or space had finally blossomed fully in Ari’s heart mere hours before and led her here moments after.

The kinetic shield slammed down, splattering a whole squad of eight Ketka into the dirt, compacting them into twisted midget forms lodged in the rock as Ari landed in a crater, knees tensed that sprung her into a sprint.

Her sabers sprung to life as the Ketka turned to face her, the nearest having their faces melted by lighting from her eyes, the next severed into three hissing chunks as she pirouetted through them.

Milaea’s heart near burst with joy as she hurled her energy outward, sending Ketka flying off her, shouldering and stabbing her way through them.

Telepathic orders and astonishment across the battlefield were distant echoes to the rhythmic squeeze of their hearts as they tore through the Ketka that found themselves the unenviable barrier between the two women and subject to the full force of their desperate, ferocious need to reunite that would demolish any impediment with bloody grace.

Head and limbs flew from Ketka bodies, suits of armour trapped aether burning flesh within, entire squads exploded as telekinetic grips burst grenades on their belts. 

The blood and dust mist of the battlefield cleared as they ran toward each other, blades slicing open the handful of nearby attackers, till clear for a precious moment they ran to each other, helmets torn off in frantic need.

Ari and Milaea came together in a clink of armour, gripping swirling embrace and sweeping flutter of their hair that cut out the outside universe for a moment as their lips pressed together under the distant light of exploding ships in the dusk sky.

Time seemed to pause in the purple and red aura that spread round them as their kiss deepened and lengthened with the sway of their bodies.

Jarys bought them the moment - breaking Ketka two at a time, tough as the cyborgs were, compared to the Mighty Triarch - Lion of the Vhal’Dan Nurhl Båz-Rhadde -, they were child's play.

<I love you Mili> Ari poured out as the lovers parted, unwillingly returning to the galaxy of war about them unspoken promises to find that serene joy together once more hovering in the air between them.

Ari’s embrace was replaced by Jarys fiercely protective arm around Milaea’s shoulders, pressing his daughter's head to his chest before she could slip her helmet back on.

“Thank the Goddesses we got here in time,” the large aethans voice trembled with unconcealed tears of fear for his child, the heady emotions quickly fading beneath their species' cold combat hormonal and neurological systems.

“I’ll get you both to the ship,” Jarys insisted sword pointed back to the Hecate. 

To the South the Ailon Six, Lysan and Coryn staggering behind a wall of Kekta bodies they had used as mobile cover peered out to see Karintha’s Oblivion short swords dicing Ketka apart, savage fast blows interspersed with tortuous Malacia attacks that sent more distant groups of Ketka writhing as their already radically modified adrenaline systems were stimulated by the aether to go into complete overdrive producing hormones at three times the rate their muscles could absorb making it hit toxic levels.

“Karintha,” Kisaea whispered, astonished to see a woman she was sure had died leading their rescue.

“KARINTHA!” Kisaea yelled as if a battle cry rushing to join her in the attack on the tractor beam.

The four Ketka that had Sofa surrounded vanished in a single blast of kinetic energy as Valens landed on the battlefield to the north, with arrogant disdain for the imperfect Outsiders he loosed six arrows into twice that many heads, controlling them still as his sword appeared as if from nowhere in his hand to skewer a Ketka charging him. 

Three more were blasted or cut down before he reached his wife, wrapping his spare arm round her while the other blasted three Ketka with a torrent of lightning.

<About time,> Sofa complained with faux exasperation
He chuckled under his helmet as he let her go.
<We’re here to relieve you, head back to the Hecate we’ll deal with the Tractor beams> he informed the towering giants of the Remnant just behind Sofa.

Overhead Taryn wove through the skies, finger itching on the trigger for just the right moment, Xani, Lya and Selaena covering for him and taking gratuitous shots into the Kekta soldiers on the ground where they could.

Turbo-cannons bounced off the Tri-Repulsor shields of the fighter as he narrowed in on the Tractor beam - they had positioned it damn well, between a rocky outcrop and the miner dormitories, just enough line of sight to the Hecate to keep it down, but far enough and small enough to avoid getting shot at.

With a spinning twist he zeroed on and fired his two Shikkar torpedoes, gripping the ultradense missiles with his mind and winding them into the tractor beam.  The bore tips of the tropeoes shredded it into flakes of hissing metal as he triggered the proton bomb cores.

160 Kekta guarding the tractor beam were evaporated in their armour, an explosion that competed with those in orbit for luminosity as the Four Aethan Destroyers hammered the Hutt vessels in geosynchronous orbit seeking out the two interdictors.

Guided by Ari and Mili’s bond they had come out of Hyperspace dangerously close to the planet just behind the Ketka, the fighters leaping out to the surface as the Destroyers blasted the Ketka ships from behind.

Four ships fell quickly, but the rest turned about swiftly.  Green Turbo laser and Red Mega Maser fire was traded in the silent void as the Aethan ships stayed in a loose formation, just enough to ensure overlapping fields of fire to concentrate their blasts on two enemy vessels at a time, even then it took precious minutes to overwhelm the ketka shields.

The counter fire was already softening their shields, the Aethenaea started taking hits, Melron in command of the Persephaea in the lead grumbling as he fired a steady stream of mega maser fire into a frigate that was charging for a micro jump to escape.

“Allow me to board the enemy vessel! I will turn it to a Riix hound in Nerf hide!” Maekal demanded

“You just keep moving those bombs,” Melron shot the overconfident boy down, at least he didn’t think he could do it all on his own - but after the battering from the Cataphracts none were in any condition to be boarding a Ketka ship.

A fact Milaea was now noticing as they sprinted back, Jarys was slow, twitchy, the burst of energy from his arrival had worn out quickly, Ari too was less than half her usual stamina.

<Goddesses what happened?!> Milaea asked as they dodged fire from Ketka swoop bikes, hurling their sabers back into the machines where they could, Jarys taking a few shots with his rifle - but pausing to crouch and fire rather than on the run as he normally would.   

<It can wait, we need to go,>

The Ketka had not stopped coming - fresh troops re-enforced the remaining tractor beams while handfuls of survivors from the other conflict zones swarmed the Hecate seemingly determined to physically pull it to the earth. 

Arryn’s total control and the 30 meter levitation of the Hecate allowed him to use the underside point defence turret to blast the Ketka he could out of existence, but more were climbing the vast cranes trying to leap on board. 

With a satisfied exhalation Karintha hurled the third tractor beam into its own generator, the explosion washing red heat over them as the Aethans started running back without pause.  The red haze of limited function that flashed in her somatosensory cortices reminded her none of the People were recovered from Galtea, least of all her.

But as the eyes of the latest Aethan survivors looked to her for leadership she made sure to present Matriarchal staunchness in her half run half fight back.

<I need something to work with> Valens demanded, only Fifth and Ninth remained with him, the rest with Sofa in a fighting retreat to the Hecate.

<Gimme a sec!> Taryn complained, it was getting damn hot on this night cooling planet as Ketka fighters seemed to spring from the damn rocks.  He was out of torpedoes anyway.

<Xani give him a hand,>

The Youngest Aethan had by now flown dozens of missions in the Vhal’Dan war, the only difference here was the sheer number of enemy fighters…oh and they were a lot tougher!

<Can you cover me?> She asked her Aunty Sel, she hardly needed to but it seemed nicer to ask.

Spinning through the flak blasts Selaena covered her rear as Xani banked hard port and pivoted down to fire off a torpedo guiding it with her mind until Valens grasped it. 

All the Ketka’s attention on him, and without programming that considered telekinetic control of large projectiles at high speed a possibility Valens easily guided the torpedo into the Beam destroying the last tether on the Hecate snapping off more arrows to cover his retreat. 

The entire site was lousy with Ketka, every Aethan group slowed by the sheer mass of bodies that covered the ground.

In orbit the situation was no better - Jenaea was twisting the Aertemsisaea onto its side to shield the battered Aethenaea, Kassyndra turning the Aephrodaea about to keep the Persephaea from being flanked.   

<Gonna have to do a pick up,> Taryn realised, there was no way those on foot could get to the Hecate and jump up in time, and they couldn’t fly back up to the destroyers through the extra Ketka fighters coming after them.

On hard descents the fighters fired into the mass of Ketka bodies, most had reflexes too swift to be hit, but it served to clear the area around the Aethans.  Slamming on the repulsors that whined to go from 40 to 120 per cent in an instant they bumped barely five meters above the ground, coming up behind the others.

Ari and Milaea leapt first as Jarys shouldered Ketka aside, landing on the left wing of Lyaea’s fighter, further South Selaena's was nearly overloaded a eight Aethan leapt on under heavy fire from the Ketka, Taraea and Davys unable to fit on held up by the others. 

Three enormous bangs hammered Taryn's hull as more jumped on,

<Frell me where’d the Aethan Sasquatch come from!> he blurted seeing a Remnant for the first time.

Third glared at the Pirate briefly before reaching out to help pull Sofa up with a kinetic assist.

Arryn quickly opened the lower hangar blast doors to allow the overladen fighters in while keeping pressure on the Ketka above and below with the point defence cannons - the Hecate had started with 36, carefully placed along the triangular ships edge and hull for optimal overlapping fire. 

The ravages of Ketka fighters had reduced them to 17, the rest sparking wrecks leaving him struggling to overwhelm the Kekta fighters' shields even if he could track them. 

The first Vorynx fighters slammed into the hangar as the Hecate pivoted upward, time was running out as the Kekta fighters concentrated on the engines - rear shields held against the concussion missiles well enough , the blizzard of Laser fire was another matter, the stream so constant power had to be cut from weapons into the shields to shore them up. 

Scraping along the deck, Sofa rolled off Taryns fighter, the pirate leaping out of the cockpit an instant later and grabbing the former Jedi.

“Give me a hand with this,” he kicked a hatch on the underside of his fighter open exposing the red hot micro-ionization reactor

“Mynock dren crazy bastard, you’re not serious!” she snapped
“Dead Kekta serious,” he smiled testing the release, Sofa mirroring him on the other side, the enormous weight of the reactor a struggle for even two Aethans, the heat bleeding through the spherical shielded core as they dragged it toward the entrance in the floor.

“Let us,” Seventh insisted, taking over from Taryn, the giant Aethan with Six more easily lifting it knowing exactly what he intended.

As the Hecate passed over Valens, last on the ground, they tossed the reactor out, the Warchief leaping out of a scrum of Ketka absent half his armour, he switched to his bow as he passed it on the way up, Ari and Milaea’s purple-red wispy energy levitating him faster.

Quickly notching and drawing he zeroed the Rector with his arrow as it slammed in the midst of the diving ketka.  Then loosed.

A white hot flare erupted from the punctured micro-star that powered their fighters, the enormously expensive chiss micro reactor spilling its nuclear reaction across and into the ground as Ninth grabbed and lifted Valens to the deck, Arryn hamemring the acceleration to get the ship away from a hundred meter wide blazing sphere of energy that flickered and bubbled until its energy was expended outward instead of being reflected within its protection shell as was intended.

Over a hundred more Ketka were disintegrated, a massive crater of brittle glass left in the world's surface, energy eating down deep to mine shafts beneath.

It was mirrored moments later in orbit as Evyn and Evaea’s efforts in the Nexus unwinding their own stealth skills to find the interdictors finally succeeded, Maekal guiding his two Chiss Thermo-nuclear torpedoes into the vessels.

Blue-white cores of atomic fire cracked shield and immolated hulls, the Ketka having learned from the experience at Teta had their ships widely spaced enough to ensure only four other ships were impacted in a meaningful way as the Aethan Destroyers quickly pivoted to make a jump to hyperspace, the Hecate about to follow.

There was neither time nor firepower to get past the planet's gravity well and the Ketka blockade, with all the precision calculus his hears hooked to machines had painfully gifted him Arryn calculated the dangerous in gravity micro jump and pushed.

The Entire ship shuddered, even the Remnant knocked off their feet, the blackstone hull creaked and tore along weakened fissures cut by the Ketka fighters, Arryn sealed off sections, overloaded shields and breathed a massive sigh of relief when they dropped out between Providence and the next planet in the system. 

It would be mere minutes before the Ketka followed, Karintha skidded in beside the relative stranger to her, leaning over to input rendezvous coordinates.

“Will the ship survive this jump?”

“Not without damage,” he replied

It would have to do.

Pink, blue and green stars twisted into the tunnel of hyperspace as they fled deeper into the core.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 53 — Conflagration — Intractable — Part 2

“By the Force…” Knight Suratos gasped as they stood in the cavernous belly of the Glory of Prakith the midday sun streaming in where the hull had been torn off.

The entire area around the ship was a charnel house of Ketka and Prakith bodies.  The other Knights of Vigilance were searching among the corpses, a few into the mines, but as yet no aetherian bodies had been found, only tantalizing pieces of their fallen weapons and armour.

Against that disappointment stood two monoliths of Terror.

The Blackstone Obelisks had hooks and belts attached ready to be lifted but clearly they had arrived in time to prevent that, for that Tnbu was thankful.

“...What do you think these things do?” Suratos asked further, tentatively stepping toward the malign things then away again, even jumping from the shadow of the noxious things. 

Their height and dense gravity made Tnbu sway slightly, as Sullustan he was used to being surrounded by thick homely rock, but this was something indescribably evil.  He could not imagine the effect the full set of nine - based on the seven empty cradles - would have on a decent sane sentient.

“Evil most profound,” Tnbu replied wondering whether they should be studied or destroyed.

He settled on destroy.

[You are costing me dearly Jedi] came the Hutts voice from behind.  The Flesh crafter was of course on the Dreadnought at the edge of the system, a Six Honour Guard of Ketka carried with near religious reverence projectors to generate a life size Holo of the Hutt.

Tnbu seriously doubted that - the Flesh Crafters had millions of Ketka, hundreds of thousands of ships and could breed the three and half thousand lost so far in months.

[Still, you found the morsels - I offer you one of these curios as a gift] the Hutt gestured to the Obelisks.

Tnbu remained silent at the Hutts assumption the Obelisks were his dispose of, yet it was one that could not be denied, the filthy Flesh Crafter had no respect for Tnbu’s august rank as a Jedi and had more than enough Ketka to do as he pleased.

[It shall make a good centerpiece for a new garden on Pybus…] the Hutt mused

Tnbu stiffened

[A jest] the Hutt reassured

“They should be hurled into the nearest star,”

[If you can lift it yourself, feel free to] the Hutt chuckled wetly indicating he would not use Ketka resources to help Tnbu move his ‘share’

The Sullustan increasingly realised he had chosen his ‘allies’ very poorly indeed.

<<<<>>>>

Ygmir Giant

“...I recognise my errors and will not repeat them,” the gruff bloody and bruised face stared at the floor, broken vibro claws still on his hands

The Matriarch stood over Lysan and the other newly recovered People - the far easier of the latest Aethans to reintegrate - as they sought her blessing having shared the vast horror and few joys of their tales since the Devastation with her.
In the case of Lysan he sought forgiveness for not believing Milaea and Sofa - a serious transgression, but circumstances were against him.

Indentured to the Ailon, escaping, waging a one man war against Outsiders, encased in carbonite, escaping once more into a galaxy of confusion and chaos, confronted with two women he had never seen claiming authority, his suspicions were completely rational.

Flickering Lighting across his body Karintha spoke her tone firm.

“I accept the sincerity of your apology, a misunderstanding resulting from suspicion of Outsider interference. You will apologise to Sofa and Milaea…”  she shifted to a more consoling voice
“...then you may join your family,”
“Goddesses Mercy upon me, thank you Matriarch,” he snapped his head to the floor then moved faster than if a Vorynx were chasing him.

“Cousin, Matriarch, We are sorry we doubted…” Kisaea said next 
Karintha dismissed it
“This galaxy if replete with illusions and insanity propagated by the outsiders,” she stepped forward to raise her cousin up into an embrace

“We are all thankful you have survived and returned to Us…Mysaea, Jadyn and Korys too will not be forgotten, the Ailon will pay dearly for their deaths,” Karinthas voice darkened considerably, there was much vengeance to be had one day - at the moment they were barely surviving.

The Hecate bounced again as it passed another novae in hyperspace, the damage was not irreparable, but it was widespread and reduced the ships functionality by a third.

Now she turned to Coryn, his face familiar and strange at once, the young teen a young man now, half healed scars on his face and tragic longing in his heart.

“Is it true…is…” he said in a whisper
“Yorna is alive, you will see her soon,” Karintha soothed

“I couldn’t save…Ilnaea…I was too late…” he added bitterly

“Alone, with so little you could have done no more, and you enacted proper vengeance…” she parted from him contemplative

“Now let us join the others,” she gestured for them to rise from the furniture less cramped war room.

“Coryn one more thing,” she caught him alone

“...we need to speak further regarding this Jedi and Anzat you encountered in Wild Space past the Xoxaan Temporal Anomaly…for now speak to no one else of it”

While she would need to confirm with holo’s when the chance arose she suspected he had encountered Kazic Ovarug and Jedi Master Soryu from some years in the future by virtue of the Temporal anomaly.

It was a distraction Milaea and Ari did not need, heading to the Nature Deck, largely bereft given the Hecate had barely been finished, they passed the door to the cabin where the girls were ‘catching up’.

Sitting opposite each other, legs entwined, hands held on the cabin bed, Milaea and Ari had not stopped touching in some way since reaching the ship.

“I’m sorry I should have listened, you were right about everything,” Ari half pleaded
“So many died, Saani did die for a few moments…and Kazic…as soon as Anson was defeated he told us to leave, he used us…he used me...”

Milaea couldn’t bear to see her love so hurt, nor conceal her own regrets.

“I should’ve gone with you, I could’ve helped in so many ways…” she replied squeezing Ari’s hands

Ari shook her head, recalling what her mothers advice not to waste a moment at odds or apart, the last few days had proven how fragile the demi-goddesses both were, how fleeting their lives might be.

“It doesn’t matter any more, all that matters is we’re finally together and I never want to be apart again,”  she leaned forward for their 38th kiss.

Were they not exhausted and on a damaged ship retreating into the Deep Core from the Hutt Flesh crafters unstoppable force of Pure Warriors the kiss and gentle touches would’ve led to a far deeper physical exploration of their feelings. 

For now conserving energy to survive the inevitable next fight was more important. 

Falling together on to the bed the couple entwined themselves as much as possible, idle sensing the others moving about the ship toward the Nature deck - deep inside the Hecate it was undamaged.

“Should we join them?” Ari asked

Milaea sighed, finally resolving a tension she’d held too too long with a firm decision.

“Karintha is Matriarch, I trust her to handle it,”

That surprised Ari, of course Milaea had not opposed Karintha actively but there had always been an undercurrent of disagreement and the potential that Milaea might challenge if Karintha went too far in her more hawkish direction.

“After Dathomir, Galtea…and now this…Karintha knows how few and fragile we are, she won’t ever put punishing outsiders above rebuilding the People, and I…” she stroked Ari’s face
“I want to finally stop fighting and running and just live with you,”

Ari pulled closer - it was all she wanted too.

<<<<>>>>

He could not believe his own senses as he curled his wife’s hair round his fingers, Selaena’s face cracking with emotion to feel her husbands touch once more, Lyaea painfully gripping Xani’s hand as Taryn anxiously waited to meet his girls father, smoothing out the rough flight suit for no logical reason given they were all looking as filthy as a Falleen after a death stick binge.

Lynaea, Lysans cousin, was with them, across the large empty planters where one day foliage from their home would be planted to accompany them on trips across the stars, Jarys spoke with Davys and Daryn, Varan and Taraea quipped with Sofa and Valens.  Kisaea and Coryn talked in hushed tones with Karintha before the doors opened to admit the vast forms of the Remnant, Ninth as always at the head.

The People formed quickly into a chevron, Karintha at the tip flanked by her Warchief Valens and First Brave Jarys, only Arryn absent piloting the Hecate, and Milaea and Aresaea whom Karintha was glad had finally admitted their feeling to each other, and inferred their absence meant Milaea’s final confirmation of Karintha as Matriarch without question.

Ninth finished her march barely an inch from Karintha her sheer size failing to intimidate.

“Sofa has advised me of everything that has transpired…and your origin,” Karintha began
“I’m impressed by what you’ve made of Prakith, entire Legions and Fleets -They will make an excellent buffer state between Aethas and the Republic once the Ketka are dealt with,”

“You presume we will maintain control over them, and you will control us,” Ninth noted coldly

Karintha smiled confidently.

“I know you are driven by this Purgatio Astra instinct, I sympathize with its principles.  People and Outsiders can never live peacefully, Outsiders have dealt us too many wounds and are too rapacious for our bodies and souls for that,”

Sofa winced slightly at the blatant one sided view of history her Matriarch held.

“But one glance at our memories of Galtea, the recent battle against the Ketka all prove your mission is impossible to accomplish for the foreseeable future.  Both Vhal’Dan and Flesh crafters have shown there are powers well beyond our own operating in the Galaxy who can crush at with a glance.”

“You imply we should abandon it?” Ninth leaned forward, her physical bulk towering over the Matriarch.  Karintha knew her shrewd skills in managing People were far larger than the tactically ingenious but strategically blunt Remnant.

“I propose you achieve your goal across the span of centuries rather than decades.  Prakith could’ve conquered Teta, with the additional resources, a few core systems, but more than that before the Republic responded? I doubt it.  You would have to retreat and start elsewhere, a far more perfect solution is to rejoin the People fully.”

She gestured to her two greatest warriors.

“My Warchief and First Brave, hardened veterans, victors over the Triarch of the Cataphracts and Kage of the Vhal’Dan, dozens of Jedi, hundreds of pirates and mercenaries, just now two score Ketka each - how much more successful will you be with alegion of men like these backed by covens of witches as powerful as Milaea.

Of course not all our People are so strong, but that was the Technocracies goal - to perfect our species to universally be that strong and more then claim the stars we desired.  Cleansing the Stars is pointless without the People to claim them once empty. 

Join with us as our Verndari, Protectors, first defence of a unified Aethan People, as we will rebuild using Prakith, the Chiss and Vong as tools. Then with fleets of the most advanced ships, billions of Vong soldiers, hundreds of Obelisks arrays and Aether power beyond the Celestials launch a single comprehensive strike on every major civilization across the galaxy simultaneously.”

The Xenophobic, Geonicidal scope of Karintha’s speech sickened Sofa to the core. 

Images flashed across the group mind of Naqxuim bombs, Arryns vicious invention, detonating above thousands of cities at the same instant, the Republic rendered a husk in a day, Dovin basals planted decades before coming to maturity dragging moons and asteroids inexplicably to planet surfaces in Hutt space, Legions of Prakith armed in modified Chiss-Ailon Armour descending on far flung worlds of the Unknown regions beneath the Crusading Banner of the Shadow Lords, Triquetra tattooed Vong hunting through ruins for the last survivors.

Karintha was truly convincing, there was no finer master of illusionary magicka among the People, and this was her masterpiece.  How much was true and how much was fantasy impossible to tell.

The Matriarch needed to convince the Remnant that in some far flung century this could be achieved, and meanwhile work out a way to use the memory rewriting abilities - already used to suppress so much trauma and eliminate unwanted traits in Taryn, Maekal, Oran, Nyaea and others - on the Remnant themselves.

Karintha was buying time by the decade

Ninth’s emotionless tactical mind analysed probabilities with the vast new data acquired over the last few days, determining what course of action would most efficiently achieve Purgatio Astra.

In the absence of any further substantive information Karintha’s proposal was the most optimal.

“We agree to serve along side you Tribals so long as you expedite as far as practical Purgatio Astra,”

That was far easier than Karintha had thought, now she only needed to twist their minds when the opportunity presented itself. 

“Good, now we must merely deal with this Hutt and his Jedi friend,” Karintha said turning the conversation to the imminent danger

“The Flesh Crafter will not give up the hunt,” Jarys said grimly
“And they have near limitless soldiers,”
“Surely they can’t track us back to Aethas?” Kisaea inquired
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Varan ever the voice of doubt replied
“Plus They can afford probes by the trillion to find us,”

“I already have a plan for dealing with them, I need only to speak to the Flesh crafters themselves,” Karintha said

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 53 — Conflagration — Intractable — Part 3

The vast pink-grey Ygmir giant was the most dangerous hazard on the Byss run, pulses from the dying star forced vessels to take long detours around it.

To place one's ship within the glittering pink halo of its radiation and gas clouds was either comically suicidal or ingeniously strategic.

The Flesh Crafter could not decide which as he detected his bounty in the cloud of hydrogen isotopes peppered with uranium particles from a mass ejection.

The vast black ship sat in the midst seemingly indifferent, the dozens of tracking devices his Ketka had attached floating around it.  

Hundreds of Ketka vessels arrayed themselves at the edge of the cloud awaiting his order to enter.  The Blackstone ultradense hull of the Hecate could keep the eroding cloud at bay for several hours, the Ketka ships more conventional doonium perhaps a third of that time.

The Black ship sat just out range, but the Hutt had no qualms about sacrificing a few hundred vessels to the great Ygmir. More interestingly he could not detect the four ‘smaller’ vessels.

Rising from his mud bath his attendants began to pad off the delicious oozy coarse skin treatment, blobs of dead skin the rough texture had cleared off floating on the surface as he slid out over the tiles.

How he tired of this…with a resigned sigh he gave the order to advance, dozens of ships led by three Kapa Teesaw, medium cruisers, entered the Ygmir Halo.

<<<<>>>>

They had chosen their battlefield well.  As much as he hat…n…no a Jedi did not Hate…as much as Tnbu knew the Aetherians were depraved and beyond redemption, he never underestimate their marital ingenuity.

Bulbous Hutt ships shuddered as the Halo enveloped them, tabhatadi shields wavered to keep out the millions of high speed particles that would otherwise erode the vessels hull in an hour.

The white blue flare of a whasoka - Hutt frigate - exploding Tnbu feared the erosion might be much faster.

It was something far more desperate.  

Across their five destroyers the Aethans had 40 fighters and 20 Assault transports, 6 of the former they sacrified in suicide runs, annihilating two firagtes and a corvette before the Ketka deployed countermeasures, sacrificing their own Boarding Torpedoes and Fighters to screen the capital ships - the smaller vessels dying rapidly in Ygmirs noxious nova winds.

In the hour advance the Aethans had, they had laid all the traps they could, seeding Torpedoes floating among other debris, Jenaea and Kassyndra in the Aertemisaea Nexus grasping them as ships passed telekinetically and activating them.

Every Person was at work, Oran, Nyaea and Xani all projecting kinetic shields around their destroyers, the Blackstone hull responding to their desires to drastically slow the degradation from the Halo, Evyn and Evaea cloaking Transports that slid with boarding parties.

Mili and Ari clasped hands as they waited for the thud.  The Hutts wanted to board their ships - they would preempt them. Taran, Varan and Kisaea stood at the hatch in front of them, the former Varangian still bearing hideous scars from Galtea, but with the powerful Life drain witchcraft Lykana had infused him with proximity to the Ketka would soon change that.

<In Position> Kiraea spoke in their minds, her party with Coryn, Yorna, Taraea and Davys aiming for a Small Cruiser.

<Ditto> Taryns team was next, Maekal, Melron, Lynaea and Daryn with him.

<Here goes….> Sofa was less stoic in the face of danger, even backed by Lysan, Lydan, Selaena and Lyaea.

Ninth shifted behind Ari, the Aertemisaean’s bulk an uncomfortable reminder of Ksorallyne Apus, but at least on her side this time…for now.

<Hey, it’ll be ok,> Mili comforted squeezing her hand.
There were Five boarding teams, each with one of the new Verndari as the ultimate heavy support. The teams of six were lad by Kisaea, Kiraea, Taryn and Sofa, the fifth team consisted of just Valens, Jarys, Fourth and Third.
Ari squeezed back comforted.  

<NOW!> Evaea called out mentally at the hatch opened to a wall of doonium, the Twins having used their cloak of Shadow in addition to the Stygium cloaking system to get them right beside their target.

With a running leap they darted onto the side of the Ketka vessel, Taran and Ninth swiftly using their brute force to begin cutting the side of it open as Evaea peeled off.

There were dozens if not hundreds of Ketka on every vessel, those active and likely more in rank upon rank of Cryo tubes to transport them, they knew they couldn’t capture any of the Hutt vessels or wipe out the innumerable Ketka

The plan was more subtle.

In the Hecate Karintha stood in the center of the Seven Obelisks of the Remnants array spreading her hands to activate the powerful magnifier of her power.  She could not enact massive waves of death or teleportation like Milaea could, and the situation did not call for it.

The Flesh crafters were too numerous to be beaten, the Matriarch would use diplomacy and deterrents.

<In!> Jarys was unsurprisingly the first to breach the hull, boots stamping down and straight into the fire of the Ketka response party.

Compared to the sleek bulbous exterior the inside of the Ketka vessels was sparse and unadorned, a heavy sheet of doonium ripping free Taryn felt like he was on the Kyala again, the Space pirate noting the ships were built more like cargo ships that he had captured, ferrying the Hutt ‘Pure Warriors’ with absolutely no regard to their comfort and only the absolute minimum amenities.

<Ketka are hardly likely to complain,> Sofa quipped sensing his thoughts as she cut the first Pure warrior in two, Seleana firing sniper rounds over her shoulder, a counter charge of Ketka behind kinetic shields was met by a family advance, Lysan, Lydan and Lyaea rushing to meet them.

Sofa finally saw where Lydan and Lyaea got their more overt viciouness from compared to the ‘behind the action’ mutiliation and murder style of Selaena - Lysan rushed stright into the front rank without fear or concern, the Ketka rasiing their shields, he just rolled over them into the scrum trusting his children to free him momentarily by cutting the bodies apart.

They didn’t disappoint, arrows, naginata and blasts of lighting taking the Ketka two at a time.

Ari swept under Ninths legs stabbing both sabers up into a Ketka then rolling aside to let Milaea through, her own purple blade slicing the next one.  Ninth then stepped over the pair to slam her enormous Shatter sword clean through the skull and half the torso of the next as they carved a bloody path through, Kisaea on the right flank leading them, Taran and Varan an impenetrable defence on their rear.  

<Two tagged> Taryn said as Lynaea jumped back from a Ketka Maekal had pinned, the brash youth then over acting to allw the Ketka free to return to its comrades, behind them Melron hurling Ketka suciide bombers back into their ranks with the aether, Seventh in their midst Hades repeater shredding helmets to slag with a constant thump of fire in Taryns ear.

<Four> Jarys noted idly as he and his Brother stood back to back in what appeared some kind of disturbing ‘mess hall’ equivalent where Ketka were placed in booths and simply injected with nutrients into their stomachs - bodily wastes sucked out by nasty looking tubes that seemed to feed into the same vat.

They were surrounded now by ‘naked’ Ketka, though much of the body beneath armour was metal cybernetics anyway, more arriving as they kept their blows contained before Third and Fourth crashed into slaughter and secure the escape route.

<It’s not a competition,> Kiraea noted, completely out of character for her, Sofa raising a brow even on a distant vessel ducking under blaster bolts.

<Anyway I’m winning, Nine!> she finished twisting down from the pipe covered ceiling to hurl a shikkar with one hand and launch a glowing rune with the other - the first skewered a threat, the second hit an exposed patch of Klatoonian skin before Kiraea swept back behind Davys and Fifth.

Now it was time.  Drawing a small amount of the aether from the whole of People Karintha poured lighting into the Obelisks activating their communicative capabilities focusing on one of the few Souls among the Hutt ships not a bland blank half sentient thing.

A flare of blue appeared before him, not of a hologram but something more ancient the Flesh crafter paused in his ablutions.

[Aaaah…what is this marvel] he drooled as a woman appeared before him, attractive for a human he supposed, too few mammaries and too much hair for his liking.  

“We wish to propose a deal,” she spoke as Coryn and Yorna reached the frost encrusted ranks of Ketka waiting for activation, Coryn covering her firing crossbow bolts with uncanny precision into the Ketka CPU deep in their brain stems as Yorna crafted her Runes on the statis bound Ketka

The Hutt took his time slithering to his divan leaning back knowing beyond any doubt now - he had them cornered.

“Don’t be so certain,” Karintha warned in response to his thoughts.

[Nothing is certain…but usually when one wants to talk it is because one knows they can’t fight]

She didn’t argue the point, going straight to the bargaining.

“We took some valuable bio samples from you, We believe that and such a public destruction of your facility on Rorak are the cause for your seeking retribution - not the loss of Ketka and structures such things are meaningless to one as wealthy as you, but the reputational damage of being attacked openly…rather than waste both our time and resources on a conflict that will have no satisfactory ending we are willing instead to offer you compensation for your losses.”

[You think our wrath can be allayed with credits, our wounded pride healed with slaves] the Hutt grinned through thick mucus covered lips

“You are a Hutt,” Karintha replied simply.

<Getting too hot in here> Taryn grunted his shoulder giving out as he clutched the still sensitive hole the Cataprhacts had gouged in his abdomen only partially healed, Maekal ravenously ripping a Ketka head from a neck only to be bashed by termor swords to the ground whimpering.

Taryn gave Seventh a quick nod and the massive Verndari acted as the Protector he had agreed to be, smashing through the Ketka, giving Lynaea a chance to tag a few more, before hefting up Maekal effortlessly and pulling him out, Daryn and Melron already cutting an exit through bodies.

<We got 15, get us out silky> Taryn called Evaea for extraction.

[So I am.] The Hutts chuckle was of confidence and leering victory as he saw the enemies borders repelled on two ships, another suicide bomber fighter wiping out a whasoka - as if such ships mattered to him.

[Tell me your offer so I might be amused]

“The former samples you held will not be returned or replaced with equivalents, instead we can provide something far better - samples of Extragalactic species,” Karintha explained

[Extragalactic? Pleading and writhing to escape your fate is amusing, buffoonery is not]

“No jest. I’m sure you heard talk that Vigo Xithar of the Black Sun once possessed very unique specimens he was experimenting on - these have fallen into our hands since his timely demise,”

Whoever she was, she was well informed, but it could easily be a bluff, she had much to gain and nothing to lose.

“I concede there can be no proof their origin isn’t some far flung system in the Unknown Regions, but it doesn’t matter, the uniqueness of the physiology will please you.”

She was taking a big risk.  The Yuuzhan Vong that revered the Aethans were a critical and unique asset, sharing their biotech with the Flesh Crafters risked spreading it across the galaxy.  

But it was an advantage only until the Vong fleet arrived in who knew how many centuries.

Karintha had to trust the Flesh crafters reputation for not sharing their heinous knowledge and reserving their very best soldiers and technology for protecting the Bootana Hutta Throne Worlds.  

If the Flesh crafters acted in their typical fashion they would do whatever perverse experiments they liked on the Vong, enhance their Ketka and devise some bio weapons or the like then continue on as normal with their strange isolation.  

[Will it…]

The Hutt pondered drawing out the time well aware Karintha wanted to speed it up.

<Retreating> Jarys quickly snapped along with a Ketka arm, two tremor swords sticking out his side, mercifully Valens had had ensured not got near his still vulnerable neck.

<We’re getting out too> Yorna affirmed yellow blasts of energy slamming tagged Ketka down for her and Coryn to run past, Taraea and Davys barely holding the bulkhead as Fifth began ripping a hole in the hull, Kiraea sweeping from the ceiling pipes with Volurk like grace every few second to keep the Ketka off him. .

[...But then I should have to renege on my promise to the Jedi.  They say that is bad luck.] the Hutt mused, data coming through showed the desperation of their retreat.  More of the Blackstone ships were taking hits from his suicide boarding torpedoes, their eldritch shields slowly fading.

“And what have the Jedi offered you in exchange for your vast resources, and Time away from the bosom of the Bootana Hutta?” Karintha countered, her fingers never ceased writing careful runes in the air with the aether that glowed just out of the Hutts sight.

[Little,] The Hutt admitted
[Still I can hardly send them back to Coruscant thinking the Pohna Kakea do not fulfil their promises]

“They may not all survive the next battle,” Karintha suggested

<We’re getting slammed here!> Sofa snapped, Sixth was already carrying Lyaea and Lysan who had taken a barrage of auto-cannon fire to the knees by vent scuttling ketka, Lydan heaving with his Naginata only recently repaired fractured once more.

Karintha pressed on trusting the Verndari to serve as a bulwark against the Ketka ensuring the others escaped.

“Except two Jedi - one to tell the tale of a foolish expedition to the deep core gone horribly wrong, the other to rave madly to add credence,”

The Hutt grinned, he could have his Jedi and potentially new morsels too.

[Before even considering such a deal, I would need to see a sample of these wares] he warned

“Any moment now you will,”

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 53 — Conflagration — Intractable — Part 4

Shields overloaded, hull breached Boarding Torpedoes suiciding into it, the Ciy’Keueketka breached the Persephaea, Adaea the only Aethan on board the 300 meter vessel.

She stood on the nature deck defiant waiting for them to come, for though she was the only Person, she was not alone.

Orange sparks burst along the seams as the door was cut open, the Phirk falling with a thud blaster fire coming through instantly over the top of the Tremor sword and shield wielding Ketka.

Barely had they stepped foot inside when they found they could no longer move - the blorash jelly pinning their feet as Adaea drew her bow and loosed three arrows to the cry.

“Do-ro'ik vong pratte!”  two Vorynx pounced from the sides as twelve Yuuzhan Vong reared up throwing thud bugs and unleashing amphistaffs to snake along the ground that wound up Ketka legs and bit venom into their already noxious blood streams.

The Vorynx tore throats and limbs before concentrated fire and blades forced them back, but left enough gaps in the Ketka ranks for the Vong to get in with their lipless bloody grins ecstatic to be facing a new enemy.

Cybernetics eyes transmitting image to the Voy’Di’Cee Hutt Dreadnought went blank after flickering images of strange tattooed humanoids with skeletal faces wearing crustacean shell like armour wielding snakes.

For the Extolled it was an intoxicating fresh change after facing the Gray Jeedai.  Aboard every ship except the Hecate they revelled in facing new enemies protecting the Avatars of the Gods vessels. 

For the Warriors who, had they remained on the Fleet would have lived like their forebears another stale life training and sparring each other, it was akin to Yun-Yaaahnak, the Holy abode of Yun-Yammka where Warriors of Worth fought endlessly against the finest enemies revelling in Glory, rising chastised but renewed with each defeat.

The Ketka’s Tactical Programming and Psy-implantation was briefly stumped at the Vong’s uniqueness, the battle net disrupted by the Halo struggling to transmit information across the units allowing the thud bugs and amphistaffs to briefly overwhelm the first Ketka waves before localized neuro networks integrated the new enemy data more effectively.

The Ketka faced an enemy as relentless as themselves, the vong’s biot increasing strength and speed on par with the Ketka’s cybernetic and combat stimm implants, and genuine zeal in the Extolled gave them the edge over the servile mechanical Kekta.

[Perhaps you do not lie] the Hutt mused as Karintha heard the increasing panic as time dragged for her own boarding parties,Oran and Nya struggling to keep the kine shields around the ships protecting them from the eroding Halo of Ygmir.




<Coming back in!> Evyn piloting an overcrowded transport said as they bumped along in the harsh Halo, everyone on board worse for wear from the brief but crucial ‘boarding’ attempt.

<How many> Karintha asked quickly

<24> from Kiraea, <18> Valens, <17> Yorna, <Enngh 23…bitch> Sofa snorted Kiraea had beat her.

Only Kisaea’s team were left with a far more crucial role.  On a Kapa Teesaw - Large Cruiser - roughly in the middle of the Ketka fleet Ninth bashed skull after torso after skull to keep Milaea and Ari safe, Kisaea and Varan in tight formation firing Hades rifles with Ailon precision as Taran pinned a still struggling Ketka in front of the couple.

Hands held Milaea and Ari latched onto the Rune they had crafted onto the Ketka…then onto the dozens of others the People had planted on Ketka across the fleet to enact Karintha’s fiendish Curse.

Red and purple energies flowed around and through them as they linked the life energies in a chain.  Only those two together had the strength and skill to do this properly, and their bond now fully realized would make it all the easier.

“Do we have an agreement?” Karintha pressed as her Rune completed and she tensed with the power needed to project the curse across the vastness of space via astral projection.

[I cannot renege on my agreement with the Jedi…I must allow them the chance to hunt you personally…]

“They won’t come back,” Karintha said noting the word Them meant there need not be Ketka support.  With an effort as she felt Milaea and Ari’s joint power touch her own, a surge of tingling energy that gave her the final trigger to release the Hex.
 
[We shall see] the Hutt gargled as Karintha vanished dropping hard in the midst of the Obelisk array, the Hutt glowering as his Ketka were hit from behind by Taryn and Valens team relieving the Vong and Adaea on the Persephaea.

The witchcraft complete Taran hauled up the Ketka under his boot and threw it down the corridor past Kisaea, Ninth Shattersword cutting into the Hull to create an exit, the first gases streaming out into the void, Milaea and Ari turning their attention to throwing kine shields around the others and intermittently blasting Ketka back at the speed of sound into the others. 

Desperate and fast Evaea spun round transport ramp open, shielding behind hammered at the exit, Ninth without warning grabbing Taran and tossing him access the 50 meters into the ship, Kisaea following, then Varan, Ari hurled another wave of kinetic energy to unfoot half a dozen Ketka before leaping.

Milaea grabbed Ninth’s arm, the Aertemisaean almost recoiling at the touch, red energy covering her

“Let’s go,” Milaea insisted more elegantly, gliding them out on red fire wings.

<<<<>>>>

More fighting was all that awaited them on the Hecate .  Evaea skidded the ship across the deck, Taran and Ninth leaping out into the Ketka that had followed them in.

Every ship except the Aephroadaea and Aertemisaea had been boarded, all were now in ferocious fights to repel them.

Hundreds of Ketka Boarding Torpedoes had simply eroded in the Ygmir Halo, dozens had been shot down by Arryn’s precision co-ordination of the small Aethan fleet from his sealed cramped position beneath the bridge of the Hecate. 

The corrosive radiation and gases whorl had left the Ketka ships that reached the Aethan vessels stripped of shields and flaking away chunks of doonium, Arryn unable to capitalise as the Hades Mega-maser cannons fire was reduced to  third of its full potential by that very halo.

It left him with only projectile weapons of the point defence cannon phirk projectiles -  shorn of their energy coating - and Shikkar Torpedoes to send into the void to tear more flesh from the Hutt capital ships where he could, but overwhelmingly on the assault transports.

The Halo was destroying hundreds, his defensive fire dozens.

Scores were getting through.

The Hutt simply did not care how many thousands of Ketka needed to die to get what he wanted.  The Flesh Crafter had told Tnbu he had 10,000, and that was true of active Ketka. 

20,000 more were in the cramped Cryo stores on the larger vessels.

<I’m jumping!> Nyaea said panicked in the Aephrodaea, the ship was bleeding atmosphere and her Aether shield was gone, the girl alone apart from a dozen Vong couldn’t hold on anymore.

Karintha staggered up on the floor of the Obelisk array as Nyaea vanished out from between Ketka ships that now rounded on the Aertemisaea, launching hundreds of boarding pods.

On the Persephaea Valens and Jarys purged through the Ketka ranks that flooded in from cramped transports locked by nyal-steel grappling hooks to the hull, Third and Fourth moving on their flanks to cut the cords with their shatterswords, in a single instant the entire thirteen Ketka they were facing stopped, switched to ranged and and directed all fire at Third - Jarys and valens immediately took advantage slaying six in moments, but the bloody toll meant nothing, Third was blasted into the void, shatter sword falling from his hand, Fourth charged through the Ketka to grab at her comrade before the Halo gases at the Aegis armour apart.

Deeper in the ship Taryn, Melron and Adaea were the last one standing in the ruined nature deck, the Vong broken on the ground, Maekal in the hollow of a blasted garden bed covered in dirt, Seventh leg bleeding out over top of him.

Sofa cut through another troso on the Aethenaea back to back with Kiraea as they rushed to the bridge where Oran was holed up firing shots over the chairs at the Ketka who were trying to cut through the blast doors, Lydan and Coryn keeping Yorna covered as she used her tremendous ability to draw on the aether to hurl boarding torpedoes and assault transport back into the void, Fifth and Sixth dealing with those that got through - Selaena and Lyaea working crowd control so the two giants were not overwhelmed. 

<Arryn jump us all now> Karintha demanded

<They’ve doubled their interdictor fields and tractor beam strength, combined with the Halo and Ygmir itself we’d be torn apart - even a micro jump>

She clasped the door frame as she retched forth, searching for options to overwhelm an infinite foe. 

<They're on board!> Kassyndra hissed hurling bolts of lighting over Jenaea’s head, Maeson swinging into action Hades repeater eating through endless Ketka bodies.

It would require sacrifice but there was a way.

<Aresaea, Milaea get to the Array> Karintha ordered.

<I will see it done> Ninth responded first, Milaea sweeping up both her and Ari into her aura that seemed to slow time around her, but in fact made her move incredibly fast.

<I know what she wants me to do> Ari thought grimly as she smoothly slid her blades from another Ketka body then booster Evaea in her leap over three more so the assassin could come down hard behind them.

<But I’ll need one of them…> Ari added, Taran complying swiftly, the former Varagian slashing the arm rather than head of a Ketka, then grabbing and dragging it with him.

Milaea felt the deep seated worry, but knew not to argue the point.
It would hurt Ari, but she would survive, and more importantly Milaea was there to protect her, and Ninth to protect them all as they pushed out of the warzone the Hecate main hangar had become and into the corridors Arryn tracking their movement opening blast doors and sealing them behind to ensure they weren’t followed, Taran systematically slicing off more limbs of the Ketka to prevent it from fighting back.

The loss of so many bodies forced Evaea, Kisaea and Varan to abandon the hangar to the Ketka, vanishing into the service corriorids where the Ketka numbers could count from less.  Indifferent to their own losses or damage to the ship they started hurling grenades after them.

The Hecate began to shake violently from explosions within and more boarding cables and tractor beams latching without, the Flesh Crafter purring as he awaited the reeling in of his prizes to Tnbu’s vast irritation.

Leaping up a turbo lift shaft and skidding along the corridors they reached the vast doorway to the Array room where Karintha looked as if she’d been beaten by a Voursus.

She merely caught Ari’s eyes to communicate what was needed, Milaea sensed the approaching Kekta - despite Arryn’s efforts the Hecate interior was still far from finished making their progress easier.  She kissed and flowed a good half her remaining energy into Ari, Taran throwing the Ketka in before sealing the door.

Ninth took the center, Milaea the left, Karintha the right, Taran beside the outer door as the Ketka came to flank.

In the deep silence of the spent Array chamber Ari approached the most ‘energised’ of the quiet Obelisks.

While Ari was competent in many aether abilities, like all the others she had one skill she especially excelled at.

Tentatively used to pin Anson and his Sentinels on Galtea, truly enacted for the first time by pure instinct at the horror of what had been done to Myraea by Neuro-Saav Biotech, refined and strengthened by the time she used it on Ksorallyne Apus and now….

Her hands pressed the cold blackstone of the Obelisk that eagerly at the pure destruction energy Ari chained into it.  The Ketka limbless thrashed still alive by virtue of the otherwise toxic stimulants as she caught its pure ‘scent’ in the aether.

Arryn began fulfilling his role, remotely piloting the Aethan ships, and following in their wake, the Ketka vessels, as close to each other as possible, even the Aethan ultradense hulls were now starting to suffer under Ygmir’s halo, they had perhaps fifteen minutes before they began to rot - if they lasted that long against the Ketka.

Ari blocked out every dimming light of her People as they retreated, cowered or fell, the Verndari shouldering their immediate protection where they could behind massive bodies.

She even temporarily blocked the sense of Milaea just outside hurling red lighting into Ketka heads.

Ari felt the Ketka at her feet, even now trying to bite her leg, felt the similarity to all the others, let it flow into the obelisk, let that particular aura act as a guide on what to connect to, like the Array on Aeda it sought out those most similar life forces, the Klatoonian bade species of the Ketka and threaded them all together through the other Obelisks.

And like Kiraea had taught her Ari used her power to project death at length, charging the Obelisk, which served at the trunk connected to the thousands of Kekta roots, confirming at the last moment all those ships they had boarded earlier were out of range - the Flesh crafter not quite wasteful had drawn the damaged vessels back as soon as the Aethan boarding actions had ‘failed’.

She felt her entire whole at risk of slipping into the Obelisk, focusing herself in the warm depth of feelings for her mother, her People, her love. 

The antithesis of this, her raw anger for her treacherous father, the Flesh Crafters, the other Outsiders who had used the People became pure annihilating power that now flowed into the Obelisk.

Her eyes flickered pure white as purple energy boiled off her, tinged red from that donated by Milaea.

With a sharp exhale the Obelisk shattered.

Billions of micro fragments of Blackstone flaked into dust as Ari fell backward over the corpse of the Ketka as her destructive potential chained through every similar force presence to her prey.

It dissolved the fundamental bond between Flesh and Force that sustained both in the hollowed Ketka souls the Obelisk array had tapped, paltry as the connection was for the Pure Warriors - more carbon based machines than living forms - it was still essential for their survival.   

Bred from dozens of different lineages not all the Ketka were affected, but two thirds were, stopping dead still cybernetics whined with confusion as every cell in their bodies inexplicably seemed to surrender its will to live, bio chemical reactions continued for brief moments as pure reflex devoid of meaning before the biological components of the Flesh crafters creations ceased entirely.

The Hutt offered an expression of genuine shock as suddenly thousands of his Pure Warriors life tracker indicators turned yellow then red.

The Aethan and Vong counter struck hard and viciously.

Taran tore the remaining Kekta by the Array door apart with his bare hands, Maeson bashing them with his out-of-ammo repeater, Adaea rallied the Vong into merciless slaughter and trophy taking, Valens and Jarys hurling them to Fourth who elbowed them into the ground, a weary Taryn tag teaming with Evaea to cut more in two.

Arryn quickly boosted the sublights, directing his fire on the nearest tractor beam ships, the Ketka counter fire reduced to a third he managed to blast half away.

Milaea burst into the array room where Ari lay covered in grime, blood and blackstone dust, but alive, as the Hecate jumped to hyperspace.

<<<<>>>>

[TheDutchman]

Once again we see how despite being genehanced Force demigods, the Aethans are still entirely susceptible to the Ketka's zerg rush tactics (and given a deadly combination of the Flesh Crafters' virtually limitless funds, resources, personnel, and desire for vengeance, they can use their numerical advantages to overwhelm).  This also goes for the blackstone destroyers: while being much more durable, even Oblivion materials succumb to stellar halos and coronal mass ejecta.

Nevertheless, by these circumstances the three Aethan factions--the Tribals, the Trinity+Ailon, and the Remnant--have consolidated under threat of the Ciy’Keueketka (and non-too-soon).  Again, superior tactics and strategy bend under the mass of attacking Ketka, the Aethan's original plans not surviving the conflagration of battle.  In this case, it takes (and I mean this as an unmitigated compliment as there has been PLENTY of foreshadowing + earlier use of  ) a literal Deus ex machina in the form of Ari and the Obelisk Array.  While her first two tries at manifesting her eldritch power were done entirely by instinct, this Ari is older, wiser, more experienced...but I think that the most important fact is that she's finally admitted (and reciprocated) that she and Mili love one another.  It's as inspiring and heartwarming as it is terrible, the raw, primal fury of a demigoddess in the flesh.

Another wonderful scene: our "noble" Jedi Tnbu is skirting VERY closely to the Dark Side, regardless of motivations.  Something about "roads," and "hell," and "bad intentions..."    But the fact remains: he is more an agent of the Hutts than the Jedi; although, as we've already seen, the orthodoxy of the Order has been anything but honorable, much less laudable (consider the cover up of Sofa's horrible experiences at the hands of one of the venerable masters... I, for one, certainly cannot fault Valens his actions in that event...).  Time will tell if Tnbu can avoid the traps inherent in serving two masters.

Points to Karintha in her now-confirmed role as Matriarch with adding "Diplomacy" as another powerset to be exploited (not to mention turning Hutt treachery on itself).

Meta-note: VERY AWESOME scene where Ari just lets loose    After what she experienced with Anson and then her losing Myraea...yeah, I can see just WHY she would tap into that power^^  Now I see exactly what LSG was alluding to when he'd asked me to include "Ari's Power-Up" during CH.32, Part IV (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=44181.msg792572#msg792572).

Props to LSG for incredible planning!

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 54 — Conflagration — Insurrection — Part 1

Tnbu

“This is unacceptable!” the Sullustans high pitched voice reached near inaudible levels of whistling as he fumed

“Twice your attempts to capture their vessels have allowed the Abominations a chance to escape!”

Tiny thought Tnbu was he loomed as large as he could over the Flesh Crafter whose large glassy eyes simply blinked indifferently.

Tnbu stabbed a pointed finger at the oiled Hutt
“You are undermining our agreement,”

[As I recall] the Hutt gargled calmly
[Our arrangement was simply to bring Pure Warriors if you located the Aetherians…the Pohna Kaeka never made any agreement on what those Warriors would do…]

Tnbu should have known not to trust a Hutt as far as he could throw one, but what choice did he have against the anathema of the Aetherians when the Council would not believe they even lived!

[We have suffered many losses, it is fitting we receive some spoils as compensation,] The Hutt went on Justifying his plodding.

“Losses,” Tnbu bristled
“You have millions of Ketka, they are meaningless,”

[Strange a Jedi should value life so lightly] the Hutt purred at the irony

Tnbu straightened calming himself of his frustrations as best he could, in one way the Hutt had a point, more fundamentally the Ketka were hardly ‘alive’ in any meaningful way.

“We cannot allow them to escape alive again,” the Sullustan insisted.

[One might almost suspect you of hating them, Jedi] the Hutt mused leaning back on his fluid soaked sofa

“Jedi do not hate, but we do insist on Justice and Order,”

[Then take your Justice yourself,] was the fob off reply

[My Pure Warriors corpses Tracking beacons are already being received, soon you can face your enemy yourself and deal with them as you see fit…I will ensure they do not escape again,]

The Flesh crafter was well aware that would cost thousands more Pure Warriors, the Aetherians sorcery was remarkably effective and something he could not compensate for strategically - overwhelming force remained the safest course.

“I will prepare my Knights immediately,” Tnbu whistled low, turning away, feeling ever more deeply regret at his ‘choice’ of ally.

<<<<>>>>

Reeda

Clarity shuddered as it came out of dark space.

The Ro'ik chuun m'arh, a frigate analog bred from the husk of the long-range reconnaissance ship Eversight that had brought them to this galaxy ahead of the main fleet with a rare mutant Dovin Basal had been performing practice runs through Aethas and the near systems, the living vessels acclimatizing to space and learning to traverse the stars as a Chazrach might learn to walk in the first few hours after hatching.

Reeda Kwn gently stroked the bulbous controls, looking back to Nerak who lay in the pilot cradle, face obscured by the Tall-Yor - the cognition hood that made his mind one with the Clarity newborn.

He had been a pilot in the main fleet, ferrying passengers between worldships, then shamed for having the audacity to have ferried an especially pernicious guest to the Supreme Overlords vessel when he didn’t want to be distrubed.  That Nerak was just performing a role with no understanding of the pointless Fleet politics mattered not, his hands were broken and he was tossed to the pits.

“The infant does well,” he confirmed to Reeda, voice coming from vibrating chords of muscled throat-guls in the ceilings of the coral bridge, symbiote grasses and algaes growing quickly to furnish it.

“But it needs a few more days at least to absorb the sun's energy and solar ejection nutrients before going any further.”

Reeda bit back her annoyance, she may have been too hasty in declaring her apostasy…at any moment the Avatars could arrive, and while confident she could convince Milaea to allow her to leave once more, if Karintha and the others were present…

“We can’t linger Nerak,” she replied
“Can we go to a different system at least, harvest energy there?”

“This is the sun the Clarity grew under Reeda, you know that,” he replied - the living vessel had adapted to the radiation profile of this star, jumping to another and waiting for it to adapt could mean an even longer wait before leaving the core.

[Bloooorrrrpp] the ship trembled with what felt like a toddlers excitement.

“What’s that?”

“At the edge of the system,” Nerak said leaning deeper into the cradle
“They’re back…”

<<<<>>>

It did not take long for the vilip to twist into the form of Karintha’s face.

Clarity was still young but had felt the new vessels micro jump further in the system then split up, one of the Destroyers headed straight toward them.

Not understanding the living vessel thought it a playmate and was filled with as much excitement as Reeda was dread.

“Reeda,” Karinth said calmly
“Milaea tells me you and the others wish to leave to seek a new home,”

“This is true,”

Karintha sighed

“The rest of your people are aboard the Aertemisaea headed toward you, I assume your vessel can find a way to transfer them over, then those who wish to join you may do so before you leave,”

Reeda paused, she hadn’t expected such…hospitality.  Karintha likely thought they could convince some to stay.  Reeda was certain once she explained the Secular Truth to the others a majority would join her, the rest…like those currently sedated in the lower levels of the Clarity’s bow…would take more convincing later away from the pernicious influence of the Avatars.

“It does…I do not want you to think us ungrateful for all your people did for us, however it is time for us to chart our own course,” Reeda quickly added.

“I understand, your sacrifices for us have been great, your friendship valued, we hope it will continue,” Karintha finished before the link cut the villip returning to a leathery rounded sac.

Reeda felt the tension dissipate, the throbbing vaculoe of gas in her abdomen a reminder of the last resort, a poison gas she had created to kill Aethans and implanted in her own body to ensure it was not discovered by the Loyalists.

She hoped it would not be needed

<<<<>>>>

Karintha set the Villip down the weary fragments of her People behind her.  They had run from Ygmir, she knew there was nowhere to hide from the Flesh Crafters.

12 hours in hyperspace had allowed them to patch their most grievous wounds, eat and regain some semblance of marital capacity once more courtesy of their genehanced physiological recovery mechanisms.

Still…Maekal was struggling to walk, Jarys and Taran looked like sacks bashed against a rock, Aresaea was still sleeping off her Disintegration Flare, Milaea watching over her, herself depleted from the teleportation at Teta and massive defensive and healing support since.

Even the Verndari were reaching limits of their endurance.

“Home,” Ninth said beside her feeling the touch of the Aether about their home system with almost a trace of sentimentality on her aura until machine-like neuro-regorporamming instilled at her reactivation suppressed it.

“Leading the enemy here is reckless, we should jump immediately,”

Karintha felt the warm comforting press of the Goddesses power upon her, welcoming her back, gentle fingers of their six hands seeking to massage and soothe her cuts and fatigue as it would everyone.

“Here we have our best chance of success, the Flesh crafters would never suspect we will lead them to our home world, they will think it another random system or outpost,”

“You cannot be certain,”

“Nor can you, here we will recover faster, the Aether in this system is Ours, our power is magnified three fold - We will need all of it,”

Those same Divine hands and eyes now prickled over Ninths aura, observing, probing, before seeking to delve in.  The Remnant leader resisted.

“Those are Our Goddesses,” Karintha explained of the semi-sentient Aether power that sought to ‘welcome’ Ninth back.
“Not mere superstition,” Ninth noted still resisting

“Our Goddesses are real, they are not distant inactive deities,”

Ninth’s mind searched the vast trove of hypno-induced memories from her reactivation for possibilities on how this Goddess entity might have been generated.

“Milaea has a number of theories,” Karintha said in response to her thoughts
“That the coalesced souls of the dead Technocracy formed together after the Sith invasion, that the worship of the People gathered into a self aware Force entity within the Bloodstone core of the Planet. Aethena, trapped in the Blackstone Altar, slowly seeped latching onto the worship of the People to try and pry herself out unsuccessfully…an accumulation of all the living women of the Peoples thoughts, our Group Mind writ large and lingering….or perhaps some combination of all…it doesn’t matter they are a resource for Purgatio Astra,”

Ninth remained silent in the quiet of the War room some time….Finally she determined the needs of the moment outweighed her concerns, allowing some of the cloying needy tendrils to embrace her - Karintha scoring another small victory.

The closer their ships drew to Aethas the stronger the power of the Goddesses was - they had already sacrificed thousands of People in the Devastation, tens of Thousands in the Collapse before that - Karintha was certain her Goddesses would not allow the Remnants to fall now.

The door opened to Kiraea and Valens, the final plans to be set in motion.

“I have a particular task for you Verndari,” Karintha noted to Ninth

<<<<>>>>

Yhum had always been scarred.  Now his face was a cutting board of slices and patched pieces of skin, lipless he seemed to have a perpetual smile.

The vast senior member of the Warrior caste was first aboard the Clarity, his face unreadable beneath the extra damage from the last war fought for false gods.

More shambled in behind, none without some serious wound.

“The Vhal’Dan are worthy opponents,” Yhum said as Reeda stood before him on the other side of the boarding tube, the young connecting port pink and wet

“Our people have bled for the false gods for the last time,” Reeda said boldly

“You have allowed your doubts to grow like a cancer,” he bitterly in replied.

“Yhum you must know by now they are not gods, their powers are not unique, the Sith, the Vhal’Dan have the same abilities! Why fight for them any longer?”

He sneered

“They are Avatars, the Gods work through them more closely than others by their deeds not their glittery powers - first to free us of the chains of the old ways, now they bring us to glorious battle against foes no fevered dream of a poet among the fleet could grasp!”

She realised she was wasting her time, Yhum and the warrior caste cared only for glory in battle, and the Aethans provided that in abundance.

“You’ll be killed on some forgotten world, you think the Aethans care - they will not remember your name and deeds!”

He shrugged
“Yun-Yammkas Black Tablet records all deeds of Battle, that is enough,” 

The large still empty coral room, few of the internal walls had grown to full height yet, echoed his words.

“I will not abandon the Avatars, who stands with me!”

Dozens soon gathered with him, one warrior T’savok whispering in the remains of his ear.
Yhum merely nodded

“It is not enough to keep your heresy to yourself, you have bound and gagged believers!” he snapped suddenly at her amphistaff raised, the other Atheists raising their weapons in turn, T’savok had found the 36 Loyalists Reeda had ‘pacified’ with her toxins.

“No!” she snapped.  “There can be no more bloodshed - I’m sorry Yhum, but one day you will thanks me,”

She tense her calves in a rhythmic pattern, neurons linked to an Antohila queen nearby triggered the tiny bugs' attack behaviour.  All the Atheists had been bathing for the last few days with a special pheromone cream that marked them as Antohils - those returned from Galtea had not.

Hundreds of bugs swarmed from half a dozen Atheist Myyr-weed cloaks and throats, the swarm biting the returned Vong with anesthetic stingers that lodged into the skin and shut down their muscles.

Dozens slumped to the ground as Reeda secured her people from the Avatar’s clutches. 

“Nerak, quickly, cut the boarding tube and…”

Her eyes were filled by a vast black bulk coming through the tube at incredible speed.

Hierarchy was easy, those who talked were above those who listened - Ninth lifted the most talkative of the Vong by the throat and lifted her up.

The newly named Verndari of Aethas first mission was to put an end to this Insurrection of Outsider Vassals. 

The Vong traitors would no doubt be equipped to counter an attack from the Tribals - They had no experience or knowledge of the Remnant, the very reason Karintha had sent them.

Reeda kicked and coughed as the fist slowly cut off the air, biting her tongue in desperation to unleash the poison in her abdomen.

A hissing green gas belched from the Vong Shapers side, Ninth worrying the creature was damaged at first but the creature continued to fight before finally passing out.

Around her the Atheist vong struggled against the might of the Verndari, the enormous Aethans too fast and strong, there were only a handful of Warriors among the Atheists, half of these fell to their knees in repentance before the Verdari slammed them unconscious.

Just as Ninth had preserved as much of the Prakthians as possible, so here she ensured no living resources that would help further Purgatio Astra were wasted.

As abhorrent as the living vessel was to them she knew the biotechs worth was incalculable.

Working toward the bridge effortlessly knocking aside coufees and amphistaffs she suddenly felt faint.  A tingling numbness in her side near a small crack in her Aegis armour.

Moments later she fell to the ground.

“Ninth!” Sixth ran to her side as the poison took hold and the galaxy went black.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

Chapter 54 — Conflagration — Insurrection — Part 2

Tnbu

Heavy boots slammed into the brittle rocky ground,  the stomping Seinar mech suits cracked queer surface corals that lived in the ammonia atmosphere.

The Ketka fanned out around the still forms of the Aetherian ships, scouts rushing to the vessels as Tnbu waited anxiously on this Force forsaken world deep in the core.

The rest of the system seemed utterly devoid of life or infrastructure, they had followed plasma and radiation trails here directly, the path so strong it indicated their ships were bleeding fuel and resources and likely couldn’t continue in hyperspace….

In truth is was Taryn using an old Pirates trick of doubling waste venting to fake a retreat, ensnaring the less worldly Jedi desperate to believe this was the last desperate hovel of the Aetherians.

“No Life forms detected, thermal and physical tracks leading to the caverns,” The Ketka beside him finally spoke.

“We have them on the run!” Knight Suratos boomed behind him

“More likely a trap,” Tnbu cautioned “But a desperate one, the Ketka will flood in and spring it,” he looked to the Cyborg liaison who remind unmoved

“Pending” was all it said.

“Pending? Pending what?” Tnbu demanded, grateful as he was to be out of the stench filled aura of the Flesh Crafter he had not come to the surface to wait on the pontfication of the Pohna Kaeka before advancing.

“Confirmed,” the Ketka now said. 

As one the Pure warriors swept into close ranks and began to march back to their ships.

“What! What is this,” Tnbu hit the comm, static was his only reply.

A light shone at the side of one of the vessels illuminating half a dozen silhouettes.

The Jedi mechs charged weapons and snapped on over sized Sabers.

Lydan and Taryn shared a grin, Jarys narrowed on Tnbu, Melron spun his sword in wide practice arcs, Taran paced beside Valens both unyielding as the rock of the planet Alixaea they stood upon.

“Master Tnbu,” Valens said with faux respect.

“Traitor!” Tnbu’s Sullustan voice normal chiming became a hiss and he rammed his foot into the mechs accelerator pedal.

Tnbu went straight for Valens.  Jarys stepped in his path - his sword powered by vicious filial protectiveness sliced deep into the mechs knee plate, Jarys using the stalled momentum to launch himself up onto the Mechs back ripping at the arm with his bare hands, face feral beneath his helmet.

Tnbus twisted the control stick hard but the Aethan would not be shaken off.  He spun round and round catching glimpsed of the rest of the battle, each Mech taken on by two aetherians, the Shadow Warriors seeming to have appeared from nowhere as Yorna’s Veil of Mist lifted.

Oblivion arrows and Force lighting streamed all over the fifteen Mechs, the Jedi responded with gatling laser fire and heavy swings of overpowered sabers.

They suffered from two critical disadvantages. 

Few of the Knights of the Oath of Vigilance had extensive training with the mechs. More vitally the Aethans were  primed from fighting with Vhal’Dan Cataphracts, true experts in melding man and armour into a unified whole with years of training and experience the Jedi lacked.

It showed quickly - as half the mechs sputtered and died the Jedi leapt out to fight on foot.

The Knights of Vigilance were dedicated, had trained with extraordinary focus and intensity in the years since Ord Mirit to ensure they were ready to face Aetherians - never again they had sworn would the Jedi be taken by surprise and steam rolled by the nefarious demi-gods as they had been during the Night of Madness and on Myrkr and Ord Mirit.

Their ferocity caught the Aethans, still battered from Galtea, by surprise - Melron knocked to the ground saved by Lydans swift intervention from blazing yellow blades, an Ikotchi Jedi fending off Evyn, Evaea and Maekal at once with a monstrous saberstaff, only their numbers allowing the svelte Evaea to get in and ram a dagger into the back of his knee, still he kept them at bay.

Taryn locked with a Thisspiasian whose long slithering tail wrapped round the pirates leg upending him for a moment, Taryn used to Lyaea slamming him upside down against trees when he got too fresh managed to keep his control until Lysan came down on the Jedi plunging his borrowed sword into the meaty tail and slicing it open. 

The pair worked swiftly to lop off the Thisspiasians arms.

“Erm thanks…Dad,” Taryn said with an uncomfortable shrug, Lysan barely having processed his daughter was twenty five years older than when he last saw her, let alone she was paired with a male he had never met simply nodded then headed to assist Varan and Maseon struggling against a hissing Tandoshan who had clawed Varan’s face half open.   

Kisaea and Kiraea took a Bith Jedi apart, the cousins seamless in leaping over or rolling under his Saber-Tonfa’s drawing blood with each slice to inflict a death by two dozen cuts.

Sofa was adamant in her refusal to fight  real Jedi - Temple or Gray - the Orthodox Tnbu was outside of that immunity. 

The Sullustan finally managed to break Jarys off, battering the Aethan still injured from his fight against Nurhl to the ground, Jarys fended off the blows best he could, feeling still unhealed muscles re-tear - he was giving his sister-in-law time.

A Running Crane strike plunged Sofa’s aether lighting sheathed saber through the back of the Mech, cracking it open into orange glowing slices of metal.  Tnbu quickly ejected landing in a roll, Sofa already coming at him her Niman form set to aggressive Tnbu’s Crimson blade was locked in desperate defence in moments.

The Sullustan hissed with the struggle of matching the superhuman strength of arguably the most abominable of them all, the Jedi turned Aetherian! 

No he reminded himself, she was never a True Jedi, a fallen lustful pretender!

The fury channeled into a counter attack Sofa switching to a more guarded approach in line with a genuine True Jedi - her father in every way that mattered - Soryu.
Whatever these Orthodox quims had deluded themselves into thinking they were no more Jedi than she was.

No Jedi would be so depraved, or indeed so totally stupid, to ally with any Hutt, let alone the Flesh Crafters - so far as she was concerned Tnbu would only be reaping what he had sown.

The Jedi Master could sense the battle turning against him - his Knights were strong, dedicated but their tactics had relied on support from overwhelming numbers of Ciy’Keueketka to weaken the Aetherians - the perfidious Hutts betrayal left them utterly exposed.             

His knights fell one by one, Jenaea lopping off the legs of Hymmej, Adaea headbutting Ri-Quon-Simm unconscious, sensing none had actually died the enormity of the Hutts betrayal echoed in Tnbu’s head as surely as the vibration of his saber as it fended off the Heretical Sofa’s blue blade.

[And Jedi…If this is a fool's errand, you and your Knights return to Pybus with me.]>

The Hutt had played all sides and won.

Tnbu was not even surprised, angry yes, but not shocked.

When you lie with Hutts, you get muddy.

All about him the Knights fought valiantly against the vile Aetherians, but for every blow they dealt, every cut they scored more red lighting flickered round the abominations bodies quickly soothing and healing the wounds as if the very Force here belonged to them.

Teeth were crunched by Melron’s fist, limbs severed by Tarans Claymore, shoulder turned to hissing cauterized blobs by Taraea and Varan’s fire.

The end was slow but inevitable, Sofa’s back hand smacking the wide faced Sullustan off guard, her knee drilling into his throat - his short stature and her enhanced Aethan height letting her bear down heavily on him.

He staggered and whistled painfully hurling a blast of kinetic energy at her, she brushed it aside with malefic lighting that struck his blade, he drew on the Light to resist but found it came slow and sluggish as if resenting his tainted touch.

How could it resist him!

He was doing the Forces work fighting these vile creatures when the Council would not, had tracked them down, brought an army to bear upon them, he was a scion of the Orthodox!

His delusions of grandeur were met with Sofa’s hilt between his eyes, a sweeping kick plonking him hard into the rock, her blue blade hovering over his eyes as her foot stomped his wrist, his saber rolling free.

 “You’ll never win,” he trilled defiantly.

“You can only lose by fighting us,” Sofa sneered, kicking his skull into unconsciousness.

<<<<>>>

 

Loose Ends

“I told you there would be consequences,” Milaea said in the dark of the Coral forged room, the jittery obsequious Wnnask bowing incessantly before going about his work on the Twelve insurrectionists held in place by the Verndari.

While the others fought she had taken Ari to Aethas and picked up Wnnask from his hidden laboratory, fully knowing what Karintha intended. 

The Matriarch had decided to trade Vong for peace with the Hutts, even before the short-lived insurrection.   

Reeda stared back expressionless, unable to make out the false Avatar.

The Vong woman noted briefly the tools Wnnask was using, knowing the purpose immediately.  The false gods had been wise to hide the insane little Shaper from her.

“I could have found a way to let you leave peacefully,” Milaea went on knowing Reeda wouldn’t speak.

“You ended that possibility with the gas,” 

The bio weapon intended to kill the Aethans Reeda had unleashed struck Ninth directly, the toxin latching onto their carbon dioxide absorbing pores. 

It was Reeda’s bad luck, and Karintha’s shrewd move, to send Ninth and the Verndari to deal with the Vong, knowing the insurrectionists had no knowledge they even existed.

The creations of Project Aertemsiaea had fewer absorptive pores and a faster metabolism than the Tribals, less toxin entered and was washed out faster.

Even so Ninth was still in a critical condition, her survival uncertain at best.

Reeda’s fate was sealed with that attack.

Wnnask’s eight digit shaper hand dripped with bone melting acids to begin the surgery, he stood jittery before Reeda, hate in his eyes, tattoos of the ‘Avatars’ on his gaunt face.

“No pain for this one!” he snapped at the traitor to the Gods. 

The Vong considered pain a sign of life, a gift from the gods, anesthetization was an insult, however lost on the atheist Reeda.

Milaea, determined Ari would wake up with this chaos over at last, watched as the consequences she had promised were inflicted.

<<<<>>>

“Six male, Six female,” Karintha confirmed as Third and Fourth hefted the last of the traitor Vong into the Ketka vessel, the vast holo of the Hutt peering at them.

[Very unique indeed…] the Flesh crafter gurgled.

“There may be some minor damage during the…pacification.”

In truth there was more than minor damage after Wnnask had been at them.

Fanatical and ingenious as he was obedient he rapidly performed the surgeries to render them all but brain dead, removing the vaa tumor - the living databank of all the Vongs shaper knowledge - from Reeda Kwn, the leader of the insurrection. 

The Hutt, unaware of anything regarding Vong culture or biology would likely never realise.

[And to the Jedi as well,] he half burped with some displeasure. 

It was true some of her People had been more ‘aggressive’ with capturing the Jedi alive and ensuring they couldn’t try to escape.

Karintha pressed forward.

“Then our agreement is settled, all compensation paid and obligations fulfilled, our status toward each other neutral.”

If she knew one thing about the Hutts it was to ensure you closed any deal with them as quickly and comprehensively as possible.

[I think not,] the Hutt prepared to issue the order for an all out attack, he now had living unique samples and held the advantage with no reason not to press it.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Karintha intervened quickly, with a single smooth motion she drew, aimed, fired and then re-holstered her Hades pistol killing a Ketka with an overcharged head shot that went through the helmet.

The Flesh crafter retched viscous black gunk all over a slave dabbing his belly. His head swam as he felt his very soul seem to leak from his body.

Chubby arms flailed smacking the moisturising slaves off their feet, pain tingled and burnt from within.

[What…what witchcraft is this…] he burbled in genuine pain for the first time in centuries.

“Just that, look under your arm,”

He had a slave lift it, a stange circular rune with a triquetra in the middle that seemed to have been burnt into his flesh.

“That is a variation of a Dathomiri hex I put on you when last we spoke, it links you to a number of your Ketka we also hexed at Ygmir and some of my People…the essence of it is when one of them is injured the hex will draw Force energy from you to try and heal them - an extreme burst like that when they die…the effect is cumulative of course, should two perhaps three depending on your constitution die so will you…”

[A trick…] he claimed, uncomfortable at the wyrd placed upon him pointing to his scrubber to try and remove it.

“Do you want to take that chance?”

She knew he was already contemplating options, and how futile they all were.  Of course he could work out which Ketka were on the ships they had boarded at Ygmir and isolate them, but before the Aethans could strike them down?

And then if the Aethans were linked too how could he risk inflicting any violence on them, or risk them simply killing themselves?

The Aethans had proven twice to be able to unleash weapons of vast destructive potential with their magicka, while his Aniahiooy was at the edge of the system and safe, the Ketka were not.

[You are bluffing] he said with a groaning drone of resignation

“Ask a witch of Dathomir, a Fallanassi, a Bo’Marr Divinator, any who practice the Crafts of Old and they’ll confirm it,” she challenged his doubt
“But they cannot remove it…and we can hex any Ketka or other being we desire to you,”

Slowly recovering his breath the Hutt eyed Karintha once more.

[We shall see…] he bought time.  The Hutt was more than willing to sacrifice thousands, if not million of Pure Warriors…

But a single moment of pain upon his own person was not worth revenge, and he had at least something to show the other of his Sect for the punitive expedition in these ‘Vong’ and the Jedi to ‘play’ with.

It would have been easy enough for Karintha to kill the Flesh Crafter, with the Obelisk and a Trinity of the women she could have pinpointed his life force among the bland Ketka, extended her Telekinetic power and burst his heart across the system. 

But that wouldn’t deal with the Ketka, wouldn’t prevent more Flesh Crafter retaliation in the future. 

Guile and threat were the only ways to defeat a numerically superior and technologically equal opponent.

[You are a crafty one,] he finally admitted leaning back his skin briefly uncoated by the salves from his slaves drying out rapidly from his own advanced age that he sought to extend by any means necessary.

[We never wish to encounter your kind again]

“The sentiment is mutual,” Karintha replied, suppressing any outward show of relief.

The Ketka shut off the holo and strode, weapons still primed back to their ships, Valens and Kiraea coming to stand beside Karintha as the last remnants of the Hutt vessels on blue jets sped from the planet's surface.

<<<<>>>>

[Lord_S_Gray]

 

Epilogue

“...only we survived,” Suratos finished his debriefing under the harsh eyes of the Council, morning sun peaking through the skyscrapers of Coruscant to the east, he had begun his tale the previous afternoon, the Masters scrutinizing every detail and the Jedi himself.

The Thin human Jedi’s voice was now hoarse and strained from answering all their probing queries as he detailed how, believing the Aetherian Valens to be alive Master Tnbu had made a deal with the Hutt Flesh Crafters for troops and support.

Of course no such Hutt support ever came, it was Suratos thought, all in Tnbu’s mad imagination.

In the end all he had done was intervened in a completely unrelated deep core war between Praktih and Teta, then led his Jedi into the dangerous depths of the core, finding a rocky ammonia covered world on which they encountered a pre-space flight indgenous species that attacked them, killing the majority of the Jedi, Suratos and Tnbu barely escaping.

The Sullustan master - already mentally unstable - suffered Void sickness as their ship's seals had been damaged.

Even now Master Tnbu was in a Medical Isolation cell ranting about Valens, Sofa and others that the Council had seen die on Ord Mirit being alive.

High Sentinel Yshrrk leaned back raising his heavy furred brow to Grand Master Yoda, who without a word dismissed Suratos, not speaking until the door closed.

“I sensed no deception…but it does not mean his experiences were genuine,” Master Dillaa said, a Miralan, the foremost of the council in Mental Force techniques.

“Inconsistencies you sense?” Yoda asked

“Some, but whether due to manipulation, trauma or Void sickness it’s impossible to discern.  On the balance of probabilities I believe him,”

“Tnbu was never the same after the Night of Madness,” Master Nagasa agreed from Dantooine via holo, the esteemed master and Yshrrk were the last of the ‘Old Guard’ that recalled the time before Kimar and the Hyper Orthodoxy that he had coloured the Order with. 

A dying breed.

[We’ve recovered evidence that Tnbu did use the Advanced Communications array here to send two messages to Hutt Space, and received three communications from persons unknown in the deep core.  We haven’t recovered the transcripts or recordings, Tnbu was thorough in covering that up at least] Yshrrk explained of the investigation the Sentinels had undertaken internally.

“I find it hard to believe the Hutts would send troops to assist Tnbu’s private vendetta,” Fal-Te agreed, the Kaminoan’s tone ever even.

“Unlikely it seems,” Yoda agreed
“A Dark Path to even seek such aid, evidence enough of Tnbu’s instability,”

“But so many Jedi never returning?” Kyan Mir countered “Killed by tribals in the deep core?”

[The deep core is uncharted, as dangerous as the Unknown Regions some say] Yshrrk replied firmly
[The miners there frequently tell tales of Exogroths, Gargoyles and Star Vampyrs, undoubtedly exaggerations - but almost certainly based on real undiscovered species in the Danger Zone near the Black Hole - Trees only know what the true source of these myths are]

The High Sentinel was in a hurry to bury this. 

His last communication with his Nephew Ryshhk on Galtea had been…troubling -the war there was over but the means of its ending was horrific, Thought Bombs and ‘Shadow Warriors’ - the Jedi had no time for chasing ghosts in the core, for fear of what they would find.

A consensus was quickly built to leave the stone unturned.

Traumatized by the Night of Madness and Ord Mirit, Tnbu had gone on a mad crusade seeking dead men and found only void and blood in the Deep Core.

“Agree I do, suffered enough from the Aetherians ghosts we have, let Master Tnbu’s folly be the end of it,” Yoda drew firmly the line under that chapter of the Jedi’s history.

<<<<>>>>

They didn’t believe him.

Despite overwhelming evidence the Council preferred to put its head in the pumice while the magma rose to their knees!

Tnbu raged in his cell, subject to pointless counselling sessions for his ‘unresolved trauma and consequent waking nightmare delusions’

The slot on the door opened, the Padawan sliding the meal tray in.

When the slot didn’t close straight away he looked away from the corner to it.

A long Bith finger tapped on the tray then the hands left, slot closed.

Stepping forward Tnbu looked down on the Ryza-Rice Citrus bake.  The Corel-zest garnish on top was shaped in the form of ‘VGL’.

His mood calmed immediately. 

The Knights of the Vigilant survived.
 

<<<<>>>>

Rubbing her temples Li’I’Mack wondered how in the world Odjina ever dealt with the paper work!  Managing People, Training, all that she could deal with, but the Paper Work!

The chime of her office door offered welcome relief.

“Kage,” Zen’I’Na popped his head in
“A man was found this morning in the Temple District, alone barely clothed claiming he has come from the Deep Core,asking to speak with the Venerable Od’Ji’Na, peace be upon him.”

“Zen, I’m really not interested in drunken Koawans causing a scene have Mi’ke deal with it,” she replied taking up her stylus once more

“Kage…he claims to be Ar’On’Dir,”

Her stylus dropped.

That was a name she hadn’t heard in a decade and a half.  Ho’Li’s husband, Ha’Ona’s father - Maker! Li had been the Bridesmaid at the wedding! He had vanished when Odjina was still Kage on a scouting expedition to the deep core, long presumed dead.

“Show me,”

<<<>>>

He sniffed the clothes again, he never imagined he would smell so…clean…again.

Aron didn’t remember much, the Shadow Lords retreat, Chaos on the pads…he had…stolen a ship?...something…he had glimpses of faces, red haired women talking over him…were they nurses? 

Then the cold bite of the wind as he woke on a strange world before a Temple to the Maker, people staring until the Priest came out and covered him in his own robe, asking his name and story - also Aron recalled the Priest sniffing his breath to see if he was drunk.

Aron didn’t even know what planet this was until the Priest told him, M’Tzigon, one of two planets Odjina had planned to take the Order after the Exile, it was then something miraculous happened, somehow he recognised the Priest as Mu’Ran’Chillum, a Silver knight when Aron was young.

Things cascaded from there - and now…now he sat in the small wash room at the back of the Temple, clean and fresh awaiting the Kage. 

He felt afraid, he shouldn’t and yet…what if this was all a dream?

The Door hissed open, he stood seeing the robes of the Kage before him.  But they were not worn by the green skinned twi’leki with smile line wrinkles of Odjina.

“Li…” he rasped barely able to breath

She could barely believe - it was Aron! A miracle on the eve of S'Kar'Yom!

“Aron…how…what…” She realised it didn’t matter there would be time for that after. Racing forward she grabbed him so tightly he cringed.

“Maker we thought you were…”  dead…Oh Maker…Merciful Maker…how will I ever tell him about Odjina, Ho’Li…even Jo… the thought almost caused her to forget the young Teidowan behind her.

Light brown hair and curious eyes Ha’Ona’Mack wondered who this was that had gotten her Aunt Li so anxious and emotional.

Sobbing, Li turned around guiding Aron forward.

“Ha…Ha’na, this is Aron, Ar’On’Dir, your father,”

His Dream came true.

<<<<>>>>

Somewhere along the Velbari Run to M’tzigon, Sofa playfully tapped her husband on the shoulder as he sat eyes fixed on the black whorl of the hyperspace tunnel, his emotions a mix of irritation at the long trip and indignation at such ‘mercy’ shown to an Outsider.

“Who knows,” Sofa smiled,
“Maybe one day that’ll count for something,”

<<<<>>>>

“There,” The surveyor pointed to an unpromising patch of land on the archipelago, subject to frequent flooding from the tides.

Nurl Båz-Rhadde swept his cloak around his muzzle against the crisp sea breeze endemic to Zilior and strode forward, the sand and sea lapping on his boots as the morning sun shone harsh upon him from a cloudless pink tinged sky.

Beneath the armour he still felt the twinges of the old wounds.  His body was whole, but his soul would always be bleeding for friends and comrades lost.

He knelt on the shore and scooped up a handful of wet sand, allowing the grains to trickle through his fingers.  This island chain had been allocated by the newly named Zilior Hegemony as the location for the Cataphracts temporary head quarters. 

Despite Jorl’Taf and Raru Vinjaga’s efforts the Former Confederate Colony of Zilior had not unanimously welcomed the Vhal’Dan refugees. 

A considerable number of the more ‘Patriotic’ Archipelago Colony Local Governments had joined together to denounce the off world interference, mutual denunciations were flying thick and fast, minor acts of sabotage and trade restrictions stinging on both sides.   

The drums of war beating, Nurhl knew the sound well.

Too well

His hand closed into a fist he rose.  He had lost one home to treachery and defeat. 

He would Not Lose another, come Hell or Shadow Warrior.   

“Malja watan” the barest growl the Cathar axiom passed his locked fangs -  ‘may you always find home’ he wished for himself as the glowering sun burnt high above a strange world.

His home was not Galtea, nor Zilior - it was the accepting multi-species, omni-cultural unity of the Cataphracts and the Vhal’Dan.

A home the Cataprhacts would stand Sword and Shield for till the Galaxy faded.

<<<<>>>>

The physical damage was not the issue. 

Transfusions and Wnnasks assistance had rid Ninth's body of the Vong poison, now stored in a small vial ready for the development of countermeasures.

It was what to do with the mind while they had the chance.

Kassyndra and her small group of healing assistants, Xani, Nyaea and Oran awaited the Matriarch's word over Ninths cold naked form, a body raised from the dead once already.

“Memories linger around the villages,” Karintha said, the Bloodstone orb Aresaea and Milaea had created to transfer her memories and self across time and through nominal death in her hand.
 
“Sad, joyful…a full range…” 

She tossed the Orb to Xani

“They need a new vessel,” 

<<<<>>>>

Cool winds blew from the mountains across the valley, preceding the steady flow of melt water as spring spread its warm hands over the land, raising up the first shoots of new growth, the once white covered landscape now a vibrant green beneath turquoise skies.

Aresaea and Milaea walked along a grassy hill past an old statue of the Goddesses, the deities arms locked together.  The wind swept through their hair, entwining the crimson and red-tinged auburn strands together as closely they had been over the last few weeks. 

Genetically perfected senses felt the Valley come alive below, as 51 Aethans, including themselves, began their days.

Taran and Jarys were already training, sparring over obstacle courses of logs that a foot could barely rest on.  Maeson and Jenaea checking on the kilns, Lydan and Lysan tapping the Gormin toward the next pasture as Xani ran beside them carrying one of the spring calves she had taken a fancy to.

Sofa sitting on a rock continued to dictate exactly how she wanted her mansion to meld Alderaanian and Hapan designs as the Warchief Valens, with assistance from Maekal, grunting at the menial work, dug out the foundations.

Further down the Valley Kiraea would be pestering Kisaea to finally marry Daysn or asking Adaea when she would be having her first child, Daryn teaching his lost twins Evyn and Evaea their family arts of hunting and tracking game.

Melron and Kassyndra would be up taking food to the ‘Rorak Twelve’ - the six men and women who had been kept as breeding stock by the Hutts finally out of their stasis pods, Nyaea and Oran dropping by later for their daily healing sessions.

And finally at the coast Yorna and Coryn would be playing in the surf, Lyaea and Taryn probably still sleeping nearby after a long night, Varan and Taraea more mature but just as adolescent in their passions likely making breakfast for the whole group on the ‘“Lovers Shore’.

All watched over by the benevolent gaze of the Matriarch, and protected by the Verndari, the Technocracy warriors allowing the ‘Tribals’ to actually be Tribal by taking the pressure off them to always be on high alert.

This had been their life in the months after Galtea, and would be for many more years to come. 

Milaea’s seior powers had seen it.

The burden of the future was one Milaea could now fully share.  While her Grandmother had helped, that relationship could never substitute for a partner helping her hold the tsunami of intrusive possibilities back.

“Shall we head down the ovens before all the sweet-rolls are gone?” Ari asked swinging their hands playfully, her cousin Arryn after his hands had been restored finding the simplicity of baking and milling the Ryz-Wheat calming and ‘earthy’ after so many years linked to machines - and like everything to do with making things he was exceptionally good at it.

“Good idea, älskling,” Milaea said using an old Aethan term meaning ‘The one who holds my love’, a private nickname Ari had come up with.

Ari always loved how her parents had used the terms ‘Kan’pa’ and ‘Kon’po’ for each other.  For mixed reasons she didn't want to copy directly.  Ari felt those words were sacrosanct, unique to Saani and Kazic, and as non-Aethan words they seemed slightly out of place…

More truthfully they were a reminder of happier times now tainted by Kazics dismissal. 

Strange she hadn’t heard from Saani in so long - Ari could only assume piecing together the Vhal’Dan was consuming all Saani’s attention, and in the wake of the Lus’Phor holocaust the use of Link Orbs by an non Aethan would be terribly draining.

A sadness she refused to allow to darken her new life.

A cloud passed across the sun, and with it a Milaea felt for a brief moment a Shadow in the Aether, as if the essence of their power had for the barest fraction of an instant been somehow darkened by an infinitesimal amount.

So slight and quickly only she could have noticed.

“Something wrong?” Ari asked looking back

Milaea shook it off, it could be one of a thousand things, the Verndari tinkering with an Obelisk as they completed the Array on the Hecate, Karintha with a new Spell, even an old Blackstone Altar cracking from erosion in some hidden Technocracy vault yet to be uncovered by Melron.

Taking Ari’s hand once more, Mili squeezed it.

“Nothing when I’m with you,” she smiled as they went down to the Valley.

<<<<>>>>

<<<<<>>>>>

<<<<<<>>>>>>

A world of ethereal mists in the sky. Decaying ruins of a distant golden age of grandeur on the mountainous surface.

An ancient Stormhold that had stood nearly Twenty Millenia upon the crag overlooking the overgrown foliage of the equatorial jungle continent.

Servants in generations old hand me downs fussing over details of protocol and hygiene within, seemingly irrelevant considering the degradation of the world about them - living out the same fanatically obedient lives as the ancestors whose genetically passed memories were infused in their minds.

A pitch black sealed room where a lone figure sat in hibernation for decades.

Eyes caked in dust and dried sleep twitched, forming Shadows in the Aether.

<<<<>>>>

[TheDutchman]

What a conclusion!

Tnbu's revenge unsated, Reeda's plans for escape and poisoning thwarted, meanwhile Aethan mercy to an Outsider?  And with Ninth recovering, perhaps she'll become (at least partially) a repository for her People, where both Projects can be combined--or, perhaps put aside even--to bring real life to her as well as the rest of the Verndari.  Also good to see that so many of the People were actually (and finally) reunited with their significant others, most especially Milaea and Aresaea.  But will their love be enough to shift cultural and genetic imperatives?  Will Mili's nightmares via her Seior premonitions come to pass, foregone conclusions or one of many possibilities?  And while Li's happiness at seeing Ar'On returned, hopefully his own horrors are behind him, finally reunited with the family that believed him dead.

The fighting is done but the struggle continues...

The Flesh Crafters (or more specifically, the Hutts) have long lifespans with longer memories.  Eventually one of them will not be dissuaded by the threat of Karintha's Malacia curse.  And while Tnbu may have been rebuked, with Grand Master Yoda and High Sentinel Yshrrk agreed to close the book on the Sullustan's folly, there still exists the Knights of the Vigilant.  We also see that Zilior is not the ready-made sanctuary that the Ansonite Vhal'Dan had hoped it would be, the first salvos of the decades-long Consolidation Wars already fired.  And then...

Then there is the being, one who has existed for 200 centuries, long enough to remember the Great Manifest Period of the young Galactic Republic, one who has finally awakened, inaugurating the Shadows in the Aether.

Meta-note: Wonderful conclusion, tying up many of the loose ends, leaving some epic easter eggs, foreshadowing what's to come... Awesome!
Special thanks to LSG for the incredible narrative (and idea!) for the Cataphracts!  Not only was it great fun to collaborate but then to see what he did with the characters that we came up with... I can say without embellishment that the death of each Cataphract was heartfelt but the three that stand out even above them would be Midge (AMAZING Force Ghost surprise!), Soban (indeed the Cataphract's Soul), and Ravra (the Cataphract's Heart and the death that broke my own; I had NO idea what LSG had planned for her and when I read that scene...I was left speechless).  For obvious reasons, Nurhl has become one of my absolute favorite characters (and he was ENTIRELY LSG's making!) 

CanNOT wait for our next Cycle of the Aether story!!!