Skirmish A Monument to All Your Achievements | THR vs TSC | Jakku Enclave

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Jakku - Jakku Enclave

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't answer Isobel Serraris outburst, instead he stood there and let her speak. Some of what she said rang painfully true. Some of it, he couldn't agree with. Once, he'd have challenged every accusation, defended every choice, tried to convince her she was wrong. Not anymore.

He watched her disappear back up the dune. Through the Force, he felt the turmoil inside her finally beginning to settle. She was exhausted. Finished. Relief eased something inside his own chest. Whether she found her way back to the Jedi or chose some other path entirely didn't matter to him anymore. What mattered was that she was walking away from this.

His attention returned to Arris. She'd given him the same answer she'd offered on Corellia.

Ace's brow furrowed. "So instead of convincing them all to leave and going with them..." His hand swept vaguely toward the Covenant forces encircling the Enclave. "...you're just gonna keep letting yourself, and them, be miserable inside that cesspool? That's not protection, Arris. It's just stagnation."

The comparison to Aether lingered between them unanswered. Months ago, Ace would've agreed without a second thought. He would've killed for his brother without hesitation. Now... he wasn't sure it was so cut and dry for him.

As Arris gestured toward the Enclave, Ace's gaze drifted across the battlefield. Artillery thundered beyond the dunes. Crimson and blue bolts carved glowing scars through the smoke while distant explosions rolled across the desert.

Then the revolver settled between his eyes, but Ace didn't flinch. When Arris offered it to him, another battlefield, or the aftermath of one, rose in his mind. Coruscant. She'd offered him her revolver then too, with a similar choice. Back then, taking it had awakened something ugly inside him. The temptation to end everything with a single pull of the trigger had been stronger than he'd ever admitted.

This time... there was nothing. He accepted the revolver and turned it over once in his gloved hand, studying the worn metal in silence.

"Yeah..." A faint edge crept into his voice. "Of course that's how you'd see it." He looked back up at her. "I'm here to right my wrongs. Simple as that."

His thumb idly traced the grip before he stepped forward and placed the revolver back into Arris' waiting hand.

"But also..." His eyes never left hers. "I'm here for the people I care about too."

He trusted she was intelligent enough to understand the words he wasn't saying aloud.

A tired breath escaped through his nose. "Much as I hate to admit it... guess I'm kind of fond of you now."

There was a faint edge of dry humor in his tone.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
Down & Out
​

She accepted the revolver back as if it were nothing.

"Figures," she muttered robotically as she flicked the accelerator off and slipped the weapon back into the holster.

When he said he cared about her, too, Arris clicked her teeth together and huffed. By then, the coolant had congealed so much it stopped leaking altogether. Her bleeding, too, seemed to let up. The black metal hand around her gut was now covered in dark red.

"Y'know it's never been easier to kill me. First that Echani Jedi and now Isobel... They always aim everywhere except my head." She tried to chuckle dryly, but it just came out wrong again. "Unlike you, Ace - except you don't aim with a gun, or that," she gestured to his lightsaber. "You talk. But getting inside people's heads was the one thing I never taught you."

Not that she wasn't good at it.

"Short of just abducting them to some backwater and chaining them in a cellar until they come to reason."

Neither Nilira nor Kirie would trust her again. If they ever did.

"W-W-W-What am I supposed to do, A-Ace?"

She also didn't want to wake up one day and find a Republic back in the Core. Senators and Jedi holding hands, running the galaxy with half a personality between them until some deranged old man came along and kicked them to the curb again. That's how it was with the Empire, in her mind anyway.

"I can't let you wreck that siege line... and I'm sure you c-c-can't let me enter the Enclave, yeah? So what now?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Mercy Lysander von Ascania Sophelia Ardemark Zaiya Ceti Naniti

The titan sank beneath the swirling sands with such ease that Cora knew this would not, could not be the end.

Nothing with Mercy was ever easy. At least, not where combat was concerned.

The Dark thrummed beneath Cora, and all at once, a ring of sand and ichor exploded around the Jedi. Mercy followed not long after, bursting through granular earth with violent speed and that vicious arm pointed upward.

Cora had just enough warning to sidestep being skewered. Unfortunately, this put her just a hairline over the boundary of sizzling dark-side tar - effectively sandblasting the right side of her face.

The Jedi groaned and hissed as the siren song of Mercy's voice, warm like honey, slipped into her mind with ease. It wasn't a balm, but it wasn't particularly disorienting, either.

"You answered a question with another question," she rasped, teeth grit tightly together while blotches of corruption sizzled and ate away flesh. One eye closed, and the skin around her deepening wounds throbbed a painful red.

Her hands still moved, though. While Mercy was still in the air, carried by the momentum of her thrust, Cora reached into the breast of her robe and retrieved a small, crystallized stake thrumming with concentrated Light.

"That isn't how conversation works."

When what was up came down, she thrust the supercharged spear into Mercy's gut.

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

Objective 2
Silara IX
Armor in sig

A few droids had already left to his ship to drop off what they had, most where in the prosses of doing so. Novac only had himself and Kairo, who was currently a few meters away grabbing some old tomes with his sword on his back next to a large pack.

As the two of them filled their packs Novac heard the elevator coming down and didn't give it much thought other then 'good some of them are back already'. That was until his heat pits along his mouth sensed one heat source quickly followed by another, a person and a lightsaber.

Then as he turned to face the person he saw a few droids fall in two parts each, no matter, they can be fixed later. What mattered was the girl before him raising her arm and a surge of heat coming from it. He knew what that meant from his fight with Darth Strosius. Quickly dropping to the ground just moments before the lightning hit him, now just flying above his head.

Quickly putting his four sabers together he slithered forward at ignited his saber, its yellow blade a few inches from the floor. Charging foward he aimed at the girls legs.

Kairo was a bit farther away but would almost instantly drop his pack and grab his sword and run at silara attempting to stab at her side.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Jakku - Jakku Enclave

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace watched the coolant hardening across Arris' frame, the blood around her hand growing darker as it coated black metal instead of dripping freely into the sand. She was getting worse and every sentence seemed to cost her more than the last.

The remark about abducting people earned nothing more than a slow shake of his head. He couldn't tell if she was joking.

"I don't wanna get inside people's heads anymore." His voice was quiet. "I just wanna help, I guess."

Her vocabulator crackled again. Ace had seen Arris fight through injuries that would've killed most people outright. He knew better than to mistake her failing body for weakness. Even so... he didn't even want to fight her. Especially not like this.

When she laid out the problem between them, he found himself agreeing with it. She couldn't let him break the siege line. He couldn't let her enter the Enclave. The two objectives simply couldn't coexist.

Ace shrugged. "We can just talk." Another artillery blast rolled across the dunes. "It's what we're both good at, right?"

Without another word, he lowered himself onto the warm sand, drawing both knees up before resting his forearms across it. The skyline stretched before him beneath a haze of smoke and drifting ash. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his gloved hand.

"You never answered me, by the way." His eyes remained fixed on the burning horizon. "You hate the Covenant. The galaxy. 'Everyone.' But you wanna protect your family." He let the words hang for a moment. "You did me a solid. Convinced me to leave. I owe you for that."

Only then did he turn his head to look at her.

"So why aren't you doing the same?" His expression was calm, genuinely searching rather than accusing. "Why not just take them... and get the hell out of dodge?"

His gaze drifted back toward the skyline, where another distant explosion briefly illuminated the smoke.

"Forget the Covenant. Forget the Republic. Forget all this banthashit." His hand gestured vaguely toward the battlefield stretching across the dunes. "Take your family and disappear."

Silence settled between them for a moment before he spoke again.

"You asked me what you're supposed to do. Answer seems pretty simple to me."

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
Down & Out
​

When Acier sat down in the sand, Arris smiled. She let go, falling onto her back, arms sprawled slightly from her sides.

The Triumvir looked up at the orange-yellow sun beating down on her. Mercy, Meliant, and Lysander had all gone ahead. It was she left in charge of the siege line, but there she was, lying down in the sand instead of doing her job.

It was an interesting perspective... watching the artillery fire streak across the sky from her view. Like a reverse meteor shower. Only hotter, brighter, and with the lingering thought that every impact meant death for someone else.

"It's like I said, man. What am I gonna do, drag them out of there?" She asked. "Maybe you spent your time around everyone except the ones who mattered, Ace... Did you ever meet Nilira? Neriah, as she was once known. Did you see how broken she is?"

And if that wasn't the point.

"How about Corsell, when you trained her on Thrantin?" Arris never asked after Kirie past that point. They had last talked on Coruscant, and since then the two hadn't crossed paths. The cyborg wondered if the younger woman was avoiding her.

Arris frowned. Though it would've been difficult to catch from his angle.

"And it's like I said... There's new people. Every day, new people. Honestly, man, just ask yourself: what do you think happens to the Covenant if I'm not there? What do people like Meliant do in that vacuum?"

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

The crimson blade hovered close to wash the pair in its vibrant hue, but it was the violet Togruta as she pressed her face closer that drew Zaiya's attention. It was in this close proximity that Zaiya could almost breathe in the emotions bleeding from Naniti.

The Lovalla's opal eyes met Naniti's as the shifting colors over her skin went rippling into a quiet bronze edged with soft blue. Beneath the anger... beneath the conviction... there was something more.

"I don't think you're wrong because you've seen terrible things," she answered quietly, keeping her stance loose, ready to move the instant the blade did. "I think you're wrong because someone convinced you those terrible things were all there would ever be."

It was then that a sad little smile found Zaiya's lips, thinking back to the wretched amount of disaster and heartache she'd seen since her parents were killed on Commoner so long ago. Since she felt their connection sever and fade.

"I've seen the galaxy burn too." Her bracelets gave the faintest musical chime as her hands shifted, never lowering her guard.

"And every time... someone was still helping someone else out of the fire." The warmth in her expression didn't waver; instead, it seemed to only resonate in the way the colorful bioluminescence edging the patterns over her skin shone brighter.

"So maybe peace isn't believing everyone gets along." A quiet breath. "Maybe it's deciding not to become another reason they don't."

She tilted her head ever so slightly akin to that of a bird's, adding wryly, "...Though I would still very much appreciate it if you didn't try to cut me in half. I rather like being one whole -- whoaaa!"

The sudden rumbling and shaking of the ground around them as Mercy's draw of the Force sent a distant sinkhole to suddenly dip and make the surrounding ground around them shake and rumble. Debris began to fall around them, and Zaiya responded by widening her eyes, calling out, "Watch out!"

A surge of the Force drew up; the vines that Cora had primed to be at the ready suddenly burst through from the ground, Zaiya guiding them up to try and shield them from the debris even as the Lovalla tried to pull the woman away from the danger.

 

[Kadeon Virell]

Objective: Protect the Archives
Location: Jedi Enclave, Jakku
Outfit: Combat Ready
Equipment: Double-bladed lightsaber - Twin Verdict
Tag: Kaelyr

The Force crashed into Kadeon like the blast furnace of a starship engine. For the briefest instant his grip on Kaelyr slipped beneath the overwhelming heat radiating from the Sith. His hand instinctively recoiled as though he'd reached into molten metal rather than the Force itself. "He's burning..." The thought barely registered before crimson met emerald once more.

Twin Verdict spun with practiced precision, its twin blades tracing green circles through the cramped corridor. Kade's footwork remained light despite the confined space, years of athletic training allowing him to shift his weight effortlessly from defense to counter, denying Kaelyr the clean opening he desperately sought. Sparks cascaded around them in brilliant showers as each exchange rang through the archive like hammer strikes against an anvil.

Neither combatant yielded. Neither gained ground. Kade could see it. Every strike from Kaelyr carried enough fury to cleave through the stone itself, the cosmic flames extending his reach far beyond the crimson blade. Walls hissed and melted under glancing blows, chunks of ancient masonry crashing onto the floor. The oppressive heat soaked through his clothing, sweat stinging his eyes as every breath tasted of ash.

Yet for every murderous arc, Twin Verdict was there. A deflection. A redirect. A narrowly-timed duck beneath another flaming sweep. The corridor had become less a battlefield than a furnace. Then Kaelyr's intentions became painfully obvious. He wasn't trying to break through anymore. He was keeping Kade occupied. Every passing second was another second for something else to unfold deeper within the enclave.

"No..." Kade's jaw tightened. "I'm playing his game." Defense had served its purpose. The archives still stood. The Sith hadn't advanced another step. But if he remained reactive…Eventually fatigue would win. Eventually one mistake would be enough.

His former athletic coach had drilled the lesson into him years before he'd ever held a lightsaber. "If you're always defending, you've already surrendered control." The realization settled over him with startling clarity. His stance changed. Subtle. His feet shifted from rooted stability into something far more dynamic. The measured cadence of blocks disappeared as Twin Verdict accelerated, the staff spinning faster with every rotation until its emerald blades blurred together into a wheel of green light.

Instead of waiting—He attacked. Kade exploded forward through the lingering flames, trusting the Force to guide him through the narrowest paths between Kaelyr's burning arcs. Rather than simply batting the fiery blade aside, he met each swing with aggressive redirections, using the momentum of every clash to roll seamlessly into the next strike. High. Low. Reverse spin. A sudden thrust toward the Sith's centerline before the rear blade whipped around in a tight horizontal cut.

Each attack flowed immediately into the next, never lingering long enough for Kaelyr to dictate the exchange. His powerful frame became a whirlwind of speed and relentless pressure, Ataru's mobility blended with the disciplined counteroffensive principles he'd spent years refining. His objective wasn't reckless victory. It was initiative. To make Kaelyr respond instead of scheme. To rob him of the time he so clearly wanted.

"You've been trying to control this fight," Kade said between the rapid rhythm of clashing blades, a determined grin breaking through the sweat and soot across his face. "Let's see how well you do when you're the one trying to keep up."

Twin Verdict screamed through another tight rotation as Kade pressed relentlessly forward, determined to drag the Sith's attention away from whatever larger design he believed was unfolding beyond the duel.



​

 

[Meliant]

Lorn Reingard

Meliant's blade cut the air again, and he slapped the Jedi-carcass-piece aside with the flat of it. It went careening into the ruins. Even still, it left a trail of beautiful red blood splats across his armor. Nothing that couldn't be hosed off later. Just as quickly the blade came back around, intercepting Lorn's next strike and locking them together.​

​

"Almost!" he laughed at the Jedi, even as the lightsaber crackled and whined against Sith steel, "Yes, you're so... Close!"​

​

Meliant felt his heels being driven into the floor. Gone was the casual one-handed grip, Meliant now had the hilt by both hands. Despite everything, he was straining with all his might to keep from being driven back. His heels were driven into the floor, threatening to scrape backward...​

​

The Jedi was strong. Ideal. Meliant seemed to be gradually buckling, yielding to the power behind the blow, drawing Lorn in closer... And then something began to glow behind his mask. A terrible light was intensifying in that dark.​

​

"Closer!"​

​

Great tendrils of virulent red suddenly came crackling out of the eye sockets of that golden mask, threatening to lash themselves to the Jedi Master - draining him first of his strength in the Force, and then his vitality.​

​

 

[Naniti]

"You think people are inherently good. I think they're inherently selfish. Good is a byproduct of an attempt to fit in and convince others to give them what they want." Naniti's blue eyes narrowed as Zaiya spoke of people being there to pull others out of the fire. There had been someone there for Naniti, her Master that taught her how to become stronger and use the 'gift' she'd been born with rather than fear it and the world around her. Someone like Zaiya never understood where Naniti came from. They couldn't imagine what her world had been like.

The Togruta's visage didn't soften as a Jedi might expect. Or, perhaps, they didn't. Either way, there was no slight flicker to the eye or softening at the corners of the lips. No slight slump of the shoulders or downward tilt of the blade. Decide not to be a reason people didn't get along? Was she serious? It anything, her cheeks lifted, but not with a brow arched high with glee, but pulled down in disbelief.

A sharp tsk accompanied Mercy's overwhelming draw on the Force. Naniti shifted her footing as it gave way while her eyes darted from one side to the next to take in the rapidly changing field of battle. Zaiya's call for alarm didn't earn even a reproachful glance.

The crimson blade swept around; not at the debris, but at the vines that sought to 'help.' Naniti danced amidst the chaos. It didn't matter if the ground atomized beneath her feet. If it was thrown into the air to fall back down toward her once more. Or that they fell far enough that the surface became the top of a chasm rock sent to bury them there for all eternity. Her free hand sailed outward and around to Force debris away whilst she moved with precision to avoid the large chunks that could kill on impact.

The tip of her blade was thrust in Zaiya's direction. "Your altruism exists to convince others to your cause to justify your own beliefs. I stand on my own."

With the saber flipped behind her, Naniti's other hand was a blade centered before her as the Force swarmed. The skies darkened over head only slightly before a bolt of lightning shot from the heavens into the midst of the vines. Better to remove her adversary's advantage on the field before the clash resumed.

Zaiya Ceti | Corazona von Ascania | Sophelia Ardemark
Lysander von Ascania | Mercy

 

[Lysander von Ascania]

Naniti Mercy
Sophelia Ardemark Corazona von Ascania Zaiya Ceti

The sting of a slap preceded anything spoken, drawing a line through the noise of Jakku. What filled the silence after was blood pooling behind his back teeth, and he did not spit it out.

Mercy's words found him next, almost amused. Against his will, his focus migrated past Lady Ardemark, drawn against his will to where Naniti stood against the Zaiya. He knew better than to interfere.. and worse than to walk away. It wasn't a lack of faith in the Togruta, but the way his own disciplined strength began slipping. Tremors he'd buried years ago shivered back to life. Beneath that, a nameless dread, the kind that comes before a tragedy you can't stop.

Another fracture ripped through reality as a sinkhole yawned wide. Everything began collapsing into a sensory landslide. Naturally, he wanted to intervene, to tear the entire battlefield apart until his sister was safe, rather than watch her caught in a storm he helped build. The Light was the worst part; persistently there, still seeping through every crack he'd sealed shut.

Each breath was an act of treason; to his kin, to the man he was supposed to be. If this was strength, why did his feet sink deeper into the quicksand? If this was loyalty, why did every vow feel like a fresh cut? And if this future was his to claim, why must it insist on being paved with the lives of those he could not bear to lose?

Finally, he worked his neck side to side and put his eyes back on the other blonde noble. "Feel better now?" His jaw closed around the taste of iron. "If not.. keep going."

The dare ended as quickly as it began. Every protective nerve he owned hummed to life along the spine. Whatever found his sister, the sensation arrived first, image catching up a half step behind; by then, the sword was already leaving the ground. He didn't care. His lead foot drove into the sand and the body committed, blade tracing upward, the whole of everything narrowing down to the gap between them.

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Varin Mortifer​

The dragon roared. Flew at her like a snarling beast.

She answered back with her own beast. He seemed to be under the impression that flames would hurt her. It wouldn't. Rather than fight it, she allowed the flames and the smoke to engulf her, if only for a moment....

Before an eruption of wind blasted it, and anything inside, back from her. A ball of hurricane force wind formed around her, before she rocketed forward herself. She saw that lightshield, and saw an opening. Forward, she charged, before spinning into a violent display of acrobatics.

In his ear, Varin could hear her. The whisper of the wind.

"Lightshields are a neat gimmick, but only a gimmick."

The cortosis blade of her white katana aimed right at the light shield.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Jakku - Jakku Enclave

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Even now, leaking coolant and blood into the sand, she simply let herself fall backward as though the battle raging around them barely deserved the effort of staying upright. It was such an unmistakably Arris thing to do that, despite everything, Ace found himself almost expecting it.

Her argument, however... that was harder to dismiss. His eyes remained on the sky as she spoke Nilira's name. Neriah as he knew her. He quickly recalled Tapani and the detached expression on her face as innocent people died. The way she'd twisted his orders into an excuse to kill even more of them. Whatever had broken her, Ace didn't doubt it was real.

It just didn't erase what she'd chosen to become.

Then there was Kirie. From the little time they'd spent together, he'd gotten the impression she wanted out. Wanted something different. Maybe he'd read her wrong, or had only seen what he'd wanted to see.

Silence lingered after Arris' question. Only then did Ace turn his head toward her.

"What happens to you if you don't?"

The words were quiet and honest, followed by a dry scoff a second later.

"And fuck Meliant. He's an opportunistic parasite that got himself killed by two Acolytes. Only thing worth a damn about him is that he keeps coming back. You're giving that guy way too much credit."

The corner of his mouth tugged upward into the faintest hint of a smirk. But then the amusement disappeared almost as quickly as it'd come.

"But fine." He shifted slightly in the sand. "Let's say you're right. You can't leave." His gaze drifted back toward the smoke covered horizon. "You come here. Blow up some Jedi Enclave. Fight some pointless war with the Iron Covenant. Destabilize the Republic. For what?"

Another artillery round screamed overhead.

"To make things better for Nilira? Or Corsell?" He looked back at Arris. "Come on, Windrun..."

He gestured toward the battlefield spread out around them.

"...you're just keeping the people you care about closer to the fire."

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound
Down & Out
​

Arris snorted slightly when Acier called out Meliant.

But her amusement, like his, was short-lived as Acier kept retorting.

"No... No."

She sighed.

Arris sluggishly reached down for her holster. Again. Touching those guns was about as habitual as smoking at this point. She drew the firearm slowly, but suddenly its weight felt more real - more untenable - as if her strength was gone. It carried her hand down, like an anvil plunging beneath the ocean, but still... she managed to drag it up, and across her chest.

"No..."

Her voice was getting quieter.

She was tired of fighting. Tired of arguing. Tired of killing. Tired of hating. Tired of losing people. Tired of hanging on.

Her thumb pulled the hammer back. It clicked audibly. Slowly, the weapon rotated across her chest, pointing away from Acier until it stopped just shy of her chin.

Self-destruction was her favored coping mechanism. When things got difficult. When she didn't like what she saw on the board. It was easiest to just make a big mess and let someone else pick up the pieces. Better than becoming smaller. Better than withering away.

These were the uglier fears she fought with.

"Would you come with me?" She asked. "If I left, I mean. If I left it all behind. Would you come with me?" At the soft level she spoke, her voice found a semblance of humanity again. Perhaps that was just enough not to overwork the vocalizer.

But the thought of leaving earned distrust in her own heart. There was always a second wind. Always something that pulled Arris back. She could think of a few things, really. Beyond Nilira or Kirie - oddly, there was now Quinn who took an interest in her, and the taste of power attached. Something intrigued her about that woman.

"I miss having you around... I mean..." Arris managed a not-quite-broken-chuckle. "... It took two to replace you, did ya know that?" She smiled, eyes still cast to the sky. "They're both nice. Good women. Smart. Scrappy. In love with each other, can you believe that? Arris Windrun... Sith Master... and her two apprentices are some girls in love. A blonde and a brunette."

Arris frowned.

Her fingers scratched at the songsteel, inching a little closer to the trigger.

"Maybe I just need to take a break."

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Meliant​

Taunts and hollow laughter echoed off the stone walls, grating against Lorn's nerves. Frustration flared in his chest, but he channeled that heat straight into his muscles. Grounding his stance, he poured every ounce of his weight and strength into the blade lock, forcing the Sith steel back. The golden monster was forced to commit both hands to the hilt, its boots scraping heavily against the floor as Lorn drove through its guard.

"Shut your mouth," Lorn growled, putting his shoulder into the push.

Triumph flickered for a fraction of a second before the dark sockets of the golden mask ignited. A sickening crimson light swelled within the helmet. Before Lorn could react, crackling tendrils of red energy whipped out from the mask's eyes, binding tightly around his arms and torso. Vitality bled away in an instant, taking his strength and connection to the Force with it. His grip on the lightsaber withered, his boots sliding backward as the Sith began to overwhelm him.

Desperation took over. Snapping his head back, Lorn summoned a chaotic burst of willpower to break the physical lock, disengaging his blade and stumbling back. His lungs burned for air as his knees buckled. Reaching upward through the haze of exhaustion, he gripped a fractured section of the duracrete ceiling that had been loosened by the surface bombardment, intending to tear a single slab down on his attacker.

The weakened stone violently gave way. Cracks webbed through the archway, raining tons of stone and debris down into the vault directly over both of them. Energy drained and limbs heavy, Lorn could barely drag his feet as the ceiling caved in.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Jakku - Jakku Enclave

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace turned toward Arris at the quiet "No." His eyes followed her hand as it drifted toward the revolver holstered at her side. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly and a tired sigh escaped him. Of course. He'd almost allowed himself to believe this conversation might end differently.

The revolver rose, except it didn't point at him. It stopped just beneath her own chin.

His brow knit together. "What are you--"

The words caught in his throat as her question reached him instead. Would he come with her? For the briefest moment, Jakku disappeared and he saw Fatine standing before him once again.

“If you wanted to run, I would’ve run with you, Acier.”

He remembered the answer he'd given her then, and knew it hadn't changed. He never could. Running would've meant abandoning everything he'd done, pretending the blood on his hands belonged to someone else. The guilt alone would've hollowed him out until there was nothing left worth running away for.

As Arris continued speaking, telling him she missed him, telling him about the two apprentices she'd taken after him, his eyes never left the revolver. Only when she mentioned one was blonde and the other brunette did his gaze finally lift back to her.

"...Like you and Rox."

The observation left him quietly before his attention settled on the weapon once more.

"Wait. Stop." His hand came up instinctively, palm out toward her as though he could somehow halt whatever she was about to do. He knew he was too far away. He knew even the Force wouldn't be fast enough if she pulled the trigger.

"That's not fair." The words escaped him almost under his breath. Slowly, his hand fell back to his side. "You know I can't. I already abandoned the people I cared about once. Already ran from my problems once. I can't do that again."

His eyes remained locked on the revolver as he continued.

"And I can't just walk away from..." He gestured vaguely toward the burning horizon again. "...all this when I had a hand in creating this mess."

He was quiet for a long moment before looking back at her.

"But a break..." He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah. Could be what you need. Some time away from all of this... get your head right and maybe..."

The sentence trailed off before he could finish it. He hoped the rest didn't need saying. Maybe, once she was finally away from the Covenant, the endless wars, politics, the expectations, and the constant violence, she'd realize it wasn't worth going back.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Zaiya Ceti Mercy Lysander von Ascania Corazona von Ascania Naniti

Her palm rang with a stinging pain. And it didn't...make her feel better. And time did not allow her to follow the path where her emotions went. The earth shook beneath them and she stumbled, her shoulder bumping against the armor of Lysander's chest. A glance behind her showed the sith Empress popping out of the sand like one of those sand wyrms. A dark ichory spray followed.

A hiss of pain as the stuff made contact beyond her armor-weave and slid down the flesh of her neck.

Oh how it burned. Unnaturally and beyond any right it had to.

Bright eyes flickering with pain and worry snapped to Zaiya and Cora, almost forgetting about Lysander as a jedi transport roared behind him, settling into the Jakku sands. Head snapped back in his direction as he spoke. Eyes dragging toward his again. Soph only saw a murderous intent there. Bead dropped into her palm. The other color that Zaiya had gifted her. The stun one.

Five seconds.

His sword rose.

Four seconds.

He took a step.

Three seconds.

If she threw it. If she let it get between them, he might toss it away, like the other one. This was probably really stupid. Probably something she'd get a lecture on later if she survived. But she didn't see this ending well for him. Or her. All she saw was his sword coming at her. At those jedi, knights and masters, exiting the shuttle and running their way.

Two seconds.

"No," a response to his question and so much more.

One.

Palm opened and she let that sphere leave her hand, the metallic catching and glinting in the sun between them. The air boomed around them as the device detonated. The heat burned into the skin of her hand, just as the ichor had. Her feet left the ground and then the stun wave hit her, dark claws of unconsciousness trying to drag her under. She fought it, even as she lay against that hot sand, prone form unmoving except for a pair of stubborn eyes that refused to close. Blurry images that were quickly growing darker by the second. Boots of the jedi rushing over to her and Lysander. Him being cuffed and dragged upward and...away.

The darkness around her vision continued to spread. Was she being picked up? The world tilted and she couldn't fight it anymore as darkness finally won.

 

[Meliant]

Lorn Reingard

The Jedi went tumbling back. Meliant did not pursue, and the tendrils snapped back into his hollow eyes like a recalled whipcord. ​

​

"This is why we always win in the end, you know," Meliant said, taking the time to try and brush one of the blood droplets off his chest. It only smeared. "Because we get to do cool shit like that."​

​

There was no chance he didn't know Lorn was already working the ceiling to bring it down. It just didn't seem to inspire any urgency on his part. Meliant glanced up at the spidering cracks, and a small piece of stone plinked off his cheek. It should have come down then and there, but the Dark Side stirred still, well-fed, and held the largest chunks pressed back into place.​

​

"Already with the ceiling?"​

​

He looked back at Lorn, swished his sword lazily from side to side.​

​

"You'll probably escape. I will too, though," there was a mean smile to be detected in his words, even if it couldn't find his face. "And every Jedi I kill going forward... That's on you now."​

​

Finally the ceiling gave way, disgorging great chunks of duracrete that smashed into the ground around him. Meliant was at once vanished in the haze of fine dust that enveloped the room. ​

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His ugly hyena-laugh, even through the rubble, could be heard even once Lorn made it back into the hallway.​

​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound | Lily Rhodes | Vess Sadragen
Down & Out
​

'Like you and Rox.'

He was right on the money.

Then he told her to wait, but her finger had already reached the trigger. She was ready to pull it, but then he said it wasn't fair. Those words exactly bought a pause. Or maybe it was the way he said them. For a moment, the cyborg hesitated, and as usual, she listened. Arris was a good listener. Even if she didn't always make good on what she heard.

She felt sad when he agreed... that maybe all she needed was a break. But sadder still was how he believed that walking away was the wrong thing to do, that it burdened him with shame. It was exactly how she felt about Rox, in the end. Arris left, Rox stayed. Rox died. Arris lived. Banthashit arithmetic.

"What's the difference between fighting and walking away?" She asked quietly.

Slowly, Arris rose back up, struggling for a foothold. If Ace tried to help, she'd reject him with an impulse of the Force - the Force that erupted from her again, but it was less Dark than before. Kinda like when he saw her at the end on Corellia... but this time, it was powerful. That no matter how exhausted or broken she was, Arris still had a wellspring of strength to draw on.

Truth was - she carried a part of Ruusan with her always. The world lived in her.

"One act makes you feel like you're doing something. The other that you're abandoning something. But honestly, Ace?" She looked at him now, with a cold certainty born of her lived experiences.

"The hardest fight is to keep moving. Standing your ground with a weapon in hand is a copout. It gives you permission to lose... That somehow if you tried hard enough, fought well enough, that your death is a made sacrifice."

Her eyes settled on the Enclave behind him, and she frowned.

Suddenly, all the artillery walkers stopped firing. Seconds spent recalculating.

"But the thing is... Losing is just losing. Fighting is just fighting. Walking," she chuckled, and it crackled again. "Hell, you get the point I'm making." She said dryly.

There was a brief pause, and her eyes flicked back to him.

"I think if you can learn to stop fighting... if you can learn to let go... feel powerless and defeated... If you can go through that, and come out with your heart still beating," she glanced down at the gun in her hand, then back at him. "Then I think you'll finally learn why to live."

In unison, all the cannons began to erupt in barrage after barrage of violent finality. They meant to take down the Enclave at last, damning whoever might be trapped inside. Of course, there was still precious time to make a few final moves.

Her voice picked up to carry over the roar of cannon fire. It sounded glitchy and wrong again.

"E-Everytime we lose something, Ace... It g-gives us more reason to gain something new. T-That's why the Jedi won't defeat us. We're evil... irredeemably awful f-f-fucking people. But we don't t-throw in the towel. N-None of us know how to do that. T-There's no decisive victory against Sith! There's o-only slaughter! And if the J-Jedi want to win, t-then they'll find themselves strangling us in the mud, holding our heads under. A-And in that moment, to gain victory... They'll have already l-lost what they are."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Arris Windrun Acier Moonbound Vess Sadragen

Vess and Lily had slipped through it all, past the reinforcements running for the siegeline, winding their way through the maze of a temple until they’d found the vault. She’d kept her hand firmly locked on Vess's. The fangrawl tattoo on her arm tingled every time she pulled them to the side, when someone came around a corner, always pulling Vess slightly behind her.

It had been Skeevi Merrill's parting gift, stealth that was always available to her, quiet steps when she needed to sneak, a smaller presence when she needed to hide. She didn’t really understand fully how it worked, Velok had tried to explain to her once, but she hadn't understood enough of the force to be able to truly grasp the concept.

Jedi were doing their best to empty it and Lily and Vess wordlessly joined them, they didn’t look or feel like sith and in the chaos, they were just another pair of hands helping save the enclave's precious artefacts. This deep into the temple the battle felt miles away.

Dust that had been raining from the ceiling in intervals suddenly stopped and an uneasy feeling settled in her stomach. Lily drew her eyes upwards, fingers paused on a holocron, she stretched her mind, opening the psychic web around her, skimming along the minds of those around them and beyond till she found Arris and honed in, pressing past the angry static firewall to find the woman beneath it.

Sadness struck her, the kind that sat heavy on your chest and made it hard to breath, it wasn’t something she felt in Arris before and caught her momentarily off guard as the uneasiness in her own stomach tightened.

<< “Arris?”>>

Before she could ask, before she could follow up with any further digging the room shook, the thunder of artillery fire yanked her back, the holocron in her hands hitting the floor as the ceiling began to crack, sandstone crumbling above their heads. Lily grabbed Vess pulling her close and the vault vanished, the world folding around them and she teleported them out and into the sands where the roar of the artillery fire was almost deafening. The belly of AT-AT towered before them, smoke and fire rising above it, its legs shattered.

Lily turned away from it, looking for Arris. Gun in her hand, barely standing with a hole through her midriff. Acier just beyond her. She squeezed Vess's hand drawing her attention to it with a nod, before letting her go and moving towards the cyborg.

Had he done this to her?

Anger rose like bile in her chest, her lightsaber slipping into her hand, unignited but unmistakably ready as she stepped silently to Arris’s side a hand moving to touch the cyborgs arm, the same gentle fingers that had told her she was there on Hapes. Her eyes fixed on Acier, the quiet fury burning beneath them.

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