Private A storm in the sky

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan could see that Trix briefly contemplate a comment. Perhaps she would have made a complaint about the young ones being in charge.

Whatever she saw in Choli's eye's silenced it. Instead she kept one hand applying pressure to the outside of her thigh and followed.

That determination made it easy to remember what they had done to her. The strength with which she pressed on made it easy to forget. She was made of sterner stuff than himself.

"Or we'll steal the whole damn ship," he considered as they walked. Running would have been quicker, but invited death for their lack of caution.

The next door needed to be cut open. As it fell away the corridor ahead lit itself up. It revealed a row of tubes of pale blue liquid.

Each of them housed the twisted shape of a sith spawn.

"If this path wasn't worth defending, then it wouldn't be saving the sith spawn as a warning," Trextan said. He could sense it. They would only be woken up if they continued down this path.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli didn’t need to be strong in the Force to know cracking those tubes open would be a disaster. The whole space practically thrummed with danger, the kind that made her gut twist and her pulse hammer a little harder in her ears.

Rave Merrill’s handiwork. Just great.

She didn’t let her eyes linger too long on the twisted shapes floating inside. If things went south, then they shouldn’t hesitate to turn these monsters loose.

“Get to the vault,” Trix ordered, pressing harder against her wounded leg.

“Brassycc will handle the lock. We’ll cover you.”

There wasn’t time to argue. Choli exchanged a look with Trextan before moving, her pace quick but careful. They weren’t running yet, but the second the Ren realized they were this deep, they’d have a fight on their hands.

As they neared the vault, she cast a wry glance at Trextan. “So how’s your vault breaking game? Please tell me you’ve got more tricks than stabbing it with a lightsaber.”

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I've got no more tricks than stabbing it with a lightsaber," he immediately replied. At the far end of the chamber was a simple door. Beyond that was something much larger. A circular iris of a blast door with a simple port for a spike.

Brassycc had already started on the lock. Trextan turned his back to the vault door and looked outwards past the tubes. Trix and Arryk had taken up a position further out to provide cover.

Trextan narrowed his gaze. He tried to stretch out towards the vault. It was a blank void. Then he tried to stretch outwards.

He grunted in frustration.

"In the Force, this place is like a maze. It feels like it's drawing me away. I can't feel through the vault. I can't sense the Ren coming and..."

Trextan looked at the tubes.

"Didnt they all have a spawn?"

One of the tubes was empty.

Brassycc growled. The first lock had been opened. The outer iris slid open to reveal a more conventional door.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli's stomach dropped as her eyes darted to the row of tubes. The glass glowed an eerie blue, casting twisted shadows…yeah, one was definitely empty.

"Of course," she muttered under her breath, gripping her blaster a little tighter. "Because this wasn't hard enough already."

Brassycc grunted, focused on the next lock. The Wookiee worked fast, but not fast enough. Trextan had his saber in hand, scanning the shadows beyond. The others were holding their position, but Choli knew time was running out.

Then as the vault door hissed open a thin curl of gas began to flow, released from the threshold. Then chittering came. Sharp. Too fast.

Choli barely had time to react before the thing - - a sith spawn vornskr, but wrong, twisted - - launched itself at Trextan.

Choli swung her blaster up, but the thing was too close to Trextan.

Brassycc growled something, but Choli wasn't listening. The vault door was open just a crack, just enough to see the next layer of security. A set of reinforced conventional door, and in the middle - -

A pressure plate.

Figures.

She didn't get another second to study it before the vornskr's tail lashed out - - toward her.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan's left palm thrust forwards. The Force flowed through his organic hand more naturally. The telekentic wave struck the vornskyr across the haunches.

It's tail still swiped for Choli's face, but the sting had been removed from the strike. The beast was send skidding across the floor, trying to use it's claws to find purchase.

Trextan looked down at his chest. Three neat lines had been cut through his suit.

"So much for a seal," he muttered. He took two steps forward.

"Protect... "

A hiss came from his left. Another tube was empty. Another spawn emerged from the hatch.

"Trix, Arryk, shoot the damn spawn in the tubes!" Trextan shouted. He took a step back as two creatures closed on them.

Choli's light dagger wasn't as well suited to getting up close with claws and teeth like this.

He waved his saber from left to right to keep them at bay.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Trextan moved like a blur, saber flashing in arcs of green light as he kept the second spawn at bay. The thing was fast -- too fast -- slithering low, its sinewy muscles coiling like it was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Its eyes glowed, burning with something wrong, something unnatural.

Brassycc growled low, then slammed a brute-force override into the console. Sparks spat out, the panel flickering and dying, but it did the job. The vault door let out a guttural groan, locking mechanisms screeching as they started to release.

"Almost there."

Choli shifted instinctively, her grip tightening on her light dagger. Trextan deflected a wicked swipe, but the spawn kept coming.

Down the corridor, Trix and Arryk were tearing through the tubes, blaster fire scorching the air. Glass exploded, shards spraying like shrapnel. A shriek -- inhuman, raw -- ripped through the chamber as one of the containment pods failed, spilling its abomination into the chaos. A surprise for the Ren that was a double edged sword.

Then a chime.

The vault door slid open.

"Move!" Choli barked, shoving the Wookiee Brassycc through first.

Trextan twisted, feinted left, then spun toward the vault, his saber cutting a defensive arc as he backed toward safety. Choli was right behind him. But the spawn lashed out one last, desperate strike.

A crack.

The sound hit first, sharp as a blaster bolt.

Then the feeling.

A jagged line fractured across Choli's visor, spiderwebbing outward in slow, mocking splinters. Her breath hitched. The seal broke.

And the gas poured in.

She stumbled, barely making it inside before the doors slammed shut. Her pulse thundered in her ears, but the sound was wrong, warped, like it was coming from somewhere else. The gas curled at the edges of her vision, a creeping thing, twisting the dim vault into something unfamiliar.

Not Sith Poison.

No. This was worse.

The fear gas didn't just cloud the mind -- it peeled it open, dragging nightmares from the deep and making them real. Choli exhaled sharply, but the shadows were already shifting. And something was waiting in them.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan took a deep breath. His lightsaber hissed out of existence. He glanced around the dim vault. Against the wall was an array of small squares etched into smooth metal. If it was a vault, those were individual boxes containing artefacts.

"We'll need another way..."

The doors started to fly open. Fire licked outwards from each. A furnace on the other side of a wall. This was a trap and they would all be burned alive.

"Shit."

Trextan stumbled back to the wall. The fire was gone. The vault was as it had been. Brassycc was looking at them both.

"Choli!"

Her faceplate was cracked open. He looked down at the gashes through his suits layers. He placed his hand flat to them to try and seal himself from whatever was in his system.

Why was he so slow to pick up on these things?

"Choli?"

The scene twisted again. Choli was sat down, leather straps pinning her forearms to the chair.

"I won't ask again..."

A snap rang out as the imperial applied heavy tongs to her small finger and simply broke it at the joint.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Strapped to a chair.

Cold metal biting into her wrists.

A voice, a shadowed figure standing just out of reach.

"Tell us."

Choli gasped, her breath rattling. The vault. She was in the vault. Not a chair. Not a cell.

But the restraints, she felt them. Digging into her skin. She fought against them, but the more she struggled, the tighter they held.

"Tell us what you know, girl."

She squeezed her eyes shut. The voice was inside her head. No. No. It wasn't real.

Gas.

It was just the gas.

She forced her hands to move, palms pressing against her chest, as if the sensation of real fabric beneath her gloves could ground her. Her knees threatened to give, but she braced herself against the nearest wall. Her vision swam, the vault flickering between reality and that nightmare interrogation room.

"Not real. It's not real."

But the flash of fear must have shown because Trextan was calling her name.

Choli blinked, eyes wild, breath coming too fast. "Breach in my suit," she ground out. "Need a patch. Got any mesh tape?"

Keep moving. Keep talking. Don't let the visions take hold.

Brassycc was already digging through his kit.

She forced a shaky breath. Swallowed. Stay here. Stay in the now.

Because the longer the gas was in her system, the harder that was getting.

“Detox. Now”

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Not real. It's not real."

The gas was slow to work through the layers in his suit. He was aware that he was seeing a vision. It shocked him, how clearly his imagination filled in the scene he had walked in on.

The sound of bone snapping, the red welling in a swell on finger around the clean break, it was all so realistic. Drawn from the violence that had marked his life and used to show him what had happened to Choli.

“Detox. Now”

"Brassycc, fix her suit first," Trextan growled.

He could feel that his eyes were closed by the image persisted. A hammer fell upon the back of her hand and she screamed. Oh how she screamed. That has to be imagination. She was stronger than that.

He turned his focus inwards. Not to detoxify himself. Not yet.

He started by slowing his own breathing and then his pulse.

Only when he had dropped into that trance did he reach out.

Just as it always was for Trextan, when he was under pressure he could two into his power more easily. The toxin was welling up through Choli's pores within the space of a few breaths.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli's hands twitched as if expecting another blow, another hammer strike she knew wasn't real. But the memory -- no, the hallucination, whatever it was -- still burned behind her eyes.

"Gas. It's just the gas."

Her breath hitched, her mind snagging between the present and the phantom agony laced through her fingers. She swore she could still feel the crush of metal against bone, the raw, searing pain that followed. But no, her hands were fine.

Brassycc's hands moved with precision, patching the breach in her suit, sealing off the toxin's entry point. She barely registered it. Her focus locked on Trextan.

He had gone still, his expression smoothed over in that way Jedi did when they were doing something with the Force. Choli gritted her teeth. Whatever he was pulling, she could feel it -- like a current running through her body, stirring the poison under her skin. It made her stomach lurch.

Her fingers clenched into fists.

"I am not -- " She sucked in a breath. "I am not in that chair. This is not real."

But the way Trextan's face shifted, the faint crease between his brows -- he knew.

The toxin was being drawn out, and along with it, everything it had dredged up from the depths of her mind. Her fear. Her pain.

Her eyes met his for half a second before she wrenched her gaze away.

"Just get it done," she muttered.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan's concentration wavered at her voice. There was a pained resignation. He was battling with the visions that seeped in, but something about his determination kept him anchored in the present.

Trextan took one step forwards and very slowly placed his organic hand on her shoulder. He gripped her gently. He knew that she was still feeling the echoes of recent events, regardless of the gas leaving her system.

She was strong, but could not push through everything on her own. They had made many mistakes over the years and made them together.

"Take a moment," he whispered.

Brassycc turned to Trextan's suit. Trextan took his hand away and let the wookie quickly tape over the tears in the fabric before too much gas reached him.

He turned his focus inwards, finding the nefarious substance inside his own system and started to purge it.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli barely registered the weight of Trextan's hand on her shoulder. The warmth of it. The steadiness.

She was still caught between the then and the now. Between the cold durasteel of a chair that wasn't there and the thrum of the vault under her boots. Between phantom pain and the solid grip grounding her in the present.

"Take a moment,"

She let out a sharp breath through her nose. "Yeah," she muttered, voice rough. "I know."

But a moment was a luxury. They didn't have moments.

Her eyes flicked to Trextan as he stepped back, letting Brassycc seal the damage to his suit. The Jedi was already retreating inward, forcing the toxin from his body. That same stubborn focus. That same relentless drive.

She clenched her jaw and forced herself to straighten.

Whatever the gas had dredged up, she would deal with it later.

They still had a job to do.

While her face was a few shades paler and clammy, from behind her boarding helm, she growled out, "Okay what do we got in this vault." looking around.

Just what was worth torturing her for the navpoints and maps for?

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

She let out a sharp breath through her nose. "Yeah," she muttered, voice rough. "I know."

Force, she could be so stubborn at times. He knew that his own flash of frustration came from another place. From the remnants of the poison and the pain from his injuries.

He didn't know that in that moment she was reflecting upon his own stubborn nature.

Okay what do we got in this vault." looking around.

Brassycc tapped at a console. The black panels hissed and draws and cabinets slowly opened. Trextan murmured in surprise.

"How are we supposed to sort this?"

There were several old treasured that looked benign: an old coin with sith markings and a tablet of runes clearly cut from a temple wall.

There was a Sith holocron. That was obvious. Then multiple vials in different compartners. One drawer held a shallow cauldron. In itself it appeared as nothing more than an old lump of cast iron, except that the bowl glowed with an eerie blue light. A decade out here and there was still magic attached to it.

"Should have brought thermal detonators," Trextan muttered. He stood tall, hissing in pain as he approached the holocron.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli exhaled slowly, blinking against the lingering fog of the gas. Her head still felt off, like she was moving a half-second behind herself. But that wasn't an excuse. They needed to be quick, methodical.

"Be careful."

Her rough warning barely left her lips before Trextan hissed in pain, his stance faltering as he lifted the holocron. Choli's stomach knotted. That was never a good sign.

"Alright.. let's get these things and get out. We can review on the ship," she muttered, shaking her head as she grabbed a set of datacrons.

Trix and Arryk were working fast, sweeping up whatever looked worth the trouble. Brassycc grumbled something under his breath, still at the console, the eerie glow of the cauldron reflecting off his fur.

Choli gave the vault one last scan, eyes narrowing. Everything in here had weight. Purpose. Some of it whispered like static at the edges of her awareness. There was a shelf with datacrons and what appeared to be a metallic sphere. SLowly she walked towards it.

Choli's fingers hovered over the metal puzzle sphere, its weight balanced between delicate engravings and hidden mechanics. Her gut told her it wasn't just some trinket. Nothing in here was.

She wasn't about to stick around long enough to find out what would start screaming.

"You got that, Trextan?" she asked, nodding toward the holocron. "'Cause if that thing starts talking in your head I'll be tempted to chuck it to the void." Not that Chloe would approve of it.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan picked the holocron back up with his artifical hand. He didn't quite understand what it took, but he steeled his presence in the Force against it.

"I say we chuck it into the nearest star," Trextan muttered.

He felt a tug through the Force. Once again - despite the effects of the gas - he had to keep a grip on himself. Otherwise it felt as if he fell into the maze of the ship through the Force.

"They know what we did," Trextan said. "There is a powerful presence in the Force on this ship. We need to move."

If the ship felt confusing in the Force, it was only made more difficult carrying a collection of dark artefacts. No more sith spawn assaulted them on their retreat.

Trextan hissed in pain. He could feel the artefacts clawing at the edge of his mind. There was something worse.

A figure stepped into the corridor ahead of them.

Trextan's hand went to his lightsaber. The Ren spoke up.

"Leave the map and you may go."

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli's grip tightened around the puzzle sphere. Her pulse spiked.

Not because of Ren; no, she'd faced worse. It was the way Trextan stiffened beside her, the way his shoulders locked, like something was pulling at him, whispering just beneath his skin.

The holocron was affecting him.

And now this bastard thought they'd just hand over the map and walk away?

For a second they were at an impasse, Trix and Arryk flanked behind her, weapons up. Brassycc rumbling a low warning. The Ren tilted his head, unfazed.

"They know what we did,"

Trextan's words looped in her head, unease curling in her gut. Choli exhaled sharply through her nose.

Enough was enough.

Choli scoffed, shifting her stance. "Yeah, no."

And in that next instant, Choli snapped her hand up, yanking a panel off the wall to toss at the Ren's direction as a form of a shield.

"Go!" she yell'd at the rest, commanding them to move.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Choli scoffed, shifting her stance. "Yeah, no."

Trextan smiled at her words. Felt the Force move around her.

He couldn't remember a time when he felt he had been more determined and brave than her. His career in the Alliance had started in abject cowardice.

A flash of red light sent sparks of molten metal tumbling down the corridor. The Ren stepped forwards, sparks across his black armour and mask.

It had been some time since Trextan had faced a user of the Force more powerful than himself. In the stars there were few great sith warriors bothering the space lanes.

Copying Choli, he launched another panel as he turned. This one came to stop and came flying back down the corridor.

With his phrik arm he slammed it aside.

Trextan grunted. He and Choli couldn't turn and flee, but needed to slow the Ren down to cover the others.

"Get some distance!" Trextan shouted. If they could get to a control panel near the ship they could slow him down with blast doors.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli didn't need to be told twice. She spun on her heel, sprinting down the corridor as sparks hissed against the walls. Her pulse pounded in her ears, every instinct screaming at her to move fast.

Trix and Arryk were already ahead, blaster fire cracking back toward the Ren, but Choli knew it wouldn't be enough. Not for long.

Trextan was still holding the line, his phrik arm gleaming in the dim light as he batted away another piece of debris hurled back at them. He was strong. But so was the Ren.

Choli skidded to the nearest control panel, fingers flying over the keys.

"C'mon, c'mon --"

A dull thud of metal on metal made her glance up. Trextan had barely sidestepped a thrown crate. The Ren was closing in.

Choli exhaled sharply. No more second-guessing.

She slammed her fist against the panel, locking down the corridor doors in a chain behind them. It wouldn't hold forever but it didn't have to.

"Trextan, move!" she barked, already turning to sprint again.

They just needed to get to the Aurora.

"Chloe we are coming in hot!" she yelled out into her internal comm towards the Aurora.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

The barrier came down, but it wasn't going to hold the Ren for long. Trextan tried to reach out with the Force to batter the Ren backwards. They did something with the Force that he didn't understand, his attacks slipping around them.

"Trextan, move!" she barked

He turned sharply and rushed after the others. They were in a deadly situation, his heart already racing. Yet something in her sharp tone triggered something else as he ran. He felt an embarrassing warmth creep up the back of his neck. It was not the time.

"Get the next blast door closing!" he called out.

A blaster bolt lashed past him. The Ren, distracted by cutting through the barrier was struck in the centre of his chest plate. Distracted, they were not invulnerable.

"Chloe we are coming in hot!" she yelled

Apparently, he thought to himself.

He stood guard and waited before a set of more study blast doors started to close. He felt the Force stretch out towards them.

The Ren was trying to pull them into the closing doors.

Trextan planted his feet. This didn't require finesse or knowledge. It just needed defiance and strength. His boots squeaked on the floor. Arryk fell behind him.

Trextan grit his teeth, matched the Ren as he escalated. The Force snapped and he almost fell over backwards. The blast doors snapped shut.

"Run!"

 

[Choli Vyn]

Interacting with: Trextan Voidstalker
Armor- x x x x x | Gear x x x x x x x | Weapons x x x x x

Choli didn't need to be told twice. She bolted, her breath sharp in her lungs as her boots pounded against the deck. Behind her, she could still feel the Ren's presence like a shadow at her back, even with the blast doors sealed.

"That's not gonna hold him for long!" Trix shouted, his voice tight with adrenaline.

"No kidding!" Choli shot back, fingers already flying over her wrist com. "Chloe, tell me you are ready for us?!"

A burst of static crackled in her ear before Chloe's voice cut through.

[ Engines primed, boarding tunnel still looking good -- just get here in one piece! ] the Corellian had been busy while they were in the ship. Busy in the form of setting detonators. While she was part of the Order of the Selab, and was supposed to preserve knowledge, she knew that there were some things that they couldn't let the Ren collect if they couldn't save them.

Choli nearly laughed -- if she weren't so busy not dying.

Blaster fire lanced past her shoulder, close enough to singe fabric. She cursed, twisted mid-stride, and fired blindly over her shoulder. She didn't wait to see if it hit. Didn't matter.

What mattered was the growing pressure in the air, a weight that made her bones itch.

The Ren wasn't done.

She felt it before she saw it; the metal groaning, the deck plates shuddering beneath her. The blast doors trembled, as if something massive was pushing against them.

Not something.

Someone.

Choli swore under her breath. They weren't gonna make it.

Unless...

She gritted her teeth, veering toward the maintenance hatch on the wall.

"Trextan, get them in the tunnel!" she barked.

Brassayc growled out a warning.

No time. She wrenched the hatch open, yanking down on a mess of emergency coolant lines.

Arrak's eyes widened. "That's -- !"

"Yeah, I know!" she cut him off. "Just move!"

With a final tug, the system ruptured, sending liquid coolant sprayed across the corridor, flash-freezing into an instant, jagged wall of ice.

Not perfect. Definitely not permanent.

But maybe, just maybe, enough.

Choli turned and sprinted toward the boarding tunnel.