Faction Alpine's End [GA & Allies]

[Adhira Chandra]

Promises Promises
Inside Adhira's Memories // The Alliance Medical Facility // Coruscant
Auteme // Ryv // Aarav Chandra (in memory)

The image of Byss's incomplete landscape faded away and Adhira felt herself sink into the ground. She did not resist. He body would not let her. Particles of light swam around her in the midst of shadow and made her feel dizzy. Then, suddenly, she landed on the plus carpet of the Chancellor's Office. Her dark eyes were gazing out across the skyline where scattered fireworks shot into the air. There was something cold in her hand and she realized it was a drink, raising it to her mouth and taking a deep drink of the fragrant liquor.

She had just won re-election as Chancellor of the Alliance in a veritable landslide and she had just returned to the Executive Building following her triumphant speech in to the Senate. Her delicate finger traced lazy circles in the sweat on the glass. She went to drink again but the door to her office hissed open and she closed her eyes in frustration. "Just a few more minutes, please," she said, a note of annoyance in her tone at whichever assistant had decided to intrude.

"I'll come back then," Aarav's masculine tone made her turn in surprise and she smiled.

"I thought you'd gone to bed..."

"Yes well, I just could not get comfortable... may I?" Aarav reached for the carafe of liquor near her desk and she nodded with a chortle, amused that he would even ask. His much taller frame sidled up to hers and he drank too as they looked out the window together for a moment, but the silence between them was... uncomfortable. "This is the last time?"

"The last time what?" Adhira turned with a broad smile as if he were joking with her. "Two terms. That's what you promised." He wasn't joking. Adhira knew that her time has Chancellor had weighed heavily on her family. It had ripped them from their home on Balmorra, forced their family to be under constant guard, kept her from some of the most important moments of her grandchildren's lives. She looked at him for a long time, and then drank once more.

"I cannot leave, not while the Alliance needs me..." she said defiantly. There was a long pause that made her tense. When she finally looked at Aarav he was staring blankly into the distance. "Does the Alliance need you? Or do you need... this?" It was a conversation that had haunted her for years, but Aarav had never brought it up again. Neither had she. He continued to smile and wave at events, he continued to dutifully cut ribbons and accompany her to Balmorra for holidays. But deep down, she knew he still resented her... Maybe the Alliance didn't need her.

"I still need you. Just a little more, a little longer, and not- not like this." The voice came again, more clearly than before and Coruscant's magnificent view blurred. It made her yearn for waking, but as she strained against the injuries, the swelling in her brain, the medication being pumped into her veins to bring her sleep and healing, she failed. She could feel Auteme wavering, her guilt, her sadness, her uncertainty. She wanted to grab her hand and tell her it would be alright, but there was no strength anywhere in her body. Even the power of the Force failed her.

Then there was another voice, but this one echoed inside the Chancellor's Office that she stood in now. It was a voice she was all to familiar with, but one she had not heard in a long time and it made her glower at the ceiling of the office as if it had been responsible somehow. The telepathic voice did more than frustrate her, though, it refreshed her memory. It felt familiar to her and she strained again.

The frosted glass of the window seemed to tremble for a moment and then the switch flipped, allowing the warm rays of sunlight from the setting of Coruscant's star to shine in on Auteme and Corin. That was all the strength she had. There were no more swirling memories. Only darkness as she fell back into a deep, dark sleep.

​

​

 

[Auteme]

Adhira Chandra Ryv
​

With the arrival of someone new, Auteme stood immediately to face the man. "Who are you?"

Her eyes went to the door for a moment, then back. "Why are you here? How-"

The lack of any acknowledgement left her confused and startled by the sudden invasion of privacy. Where were the guards? She called out, "Security!"

Her gaze hardened, and she found some sort of strength in her release of emotions.

"You need to leave," she said.

 

[Ryv]

Corin couldn't keep the smile from his face at Auteme's confusion.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this confused," he chuckled and moved towards the door. "Don't worry. I'm not sticking around for long. I only wanted to check on a couple friends of mine while passing through."

He looked from the door to a window located on the opposite wall. Auteme's calling for security made things harder than they had to be. The confused guards he'd passed earlier wouldn't take kindly to finding out a random stranger bewitched them before passing through. More importantly, the chance his identity could come to light was even more concerning. Regardless of what Dagon told him, Corin didn't trust the personnel involved in any arrest wouldn't be in the pockets of someone who had an issue with his continued existence.

"I'm gonna just," he inched closer to the window. "Yeah... Have a good one."

The stranger whistled a jolly tune while he unfastened the window's guard. With one quick tug, he yanked it up and slowly crawled up onto the frame. Looking down, he was met with dozens of speeders racing by, thousands, if not tens of thousands of feet up in the air.

"Later."

And with that, he jumped.

Auteme ​

 

[Adhira Chandra]

Surrounded By Idiots
Inside Adhira's Memories // The Alliance Medical Facility // Coruscant
Auteme // Ryv

After expending so much energy to reveal her psychic presence to the two Jedi who graced her vicinity, only to have the two Jedi selfishly turn inward toward each other, the unconscious woman felt her eyes roll deep into her sockets in frustration.​

 

[Mirana Praji]

Goodness Knows
The Steps of the Senate + Avenue of Core Founders + Coruscant

Aerarii Tithe // Alliance Senators // Alliance Government Officials // Foreign Dignitaries

Mirana watched carefully as the massive doors to the Senate Building finally groaned open. There was a massive procession of cerulean dressed Senate Guard, a single black plume of feathers crowning their cap. She watched carefully as they lined the dais before here and then took notice as the double plumed members of the Chancellor Guard marched forward with Chancellor Aerarii Tithe among their number. As for Mirana, when the Chancellor approached the podium, she placed the Staff of the Speaker in the crook of her arm and gave a low curtsy, as a sign of her deference to his authority. Several Senators and government officials joined her in a low bow.

As the new Chancellor began to speak in his usual and disjointed manner, Mirana rose from her position of regard and gazed upon the man who was her superior. Per Chancellor Aerarii Tithe 's normal pattern, he gave a rambling and rather unusual speech, frequently working in the importance of the free market and referencing the sacrifices of the Chandra family.

Mirana Praji, in direct contrast to Chancellor Chandra and Chancellor Tithe, was a supremely unpolitical and thus uncontroversial member of the new administration. She spent the majority of her free time organizing charity events, attending religious services, or speaking out on behalf of the poor. As such, her popularity was rather universal in its reach. When the Chancellor had finished speaking, met with the reverberations of polite applause, she approached the podium for her own speech which was welcomed by widespread cheers among her home planet's constituency. "Thank you Chancellor, for your thoughtful tribute to the lives lost in defense of our Capitol, the Jewel of the Core."

Mirana held her staff out in the direction of the retreating Chandra as thunderous applause drowned out all remaining sound. Then, the golden haired young woman turned back to the citizens and the approaching procession. "We, the citizenry of the Alliance, have faced a frightening time..." she smiled out at the sea of faces as the black carriage that housed the body of former First Gentleman Aarav Chandra came parallel with the dais, "and there will be other times and other things that frighten us." Her voice was melodic, but mournful as her bright blue eyes scanned the wanting eyes of the people who had gathered on the Avenue of Core Founders.

"But, if you will allow us, the Chancellor and I would like to try to help... and together we will see peace and light restored to the Alliance..." a thunderous applause rippled across the avenue. "Here, in the shadow of the this mighty temple to democracy, let us honor those who gave their lives in defense of our freedoms and resolve ourselves anew to stand united against the forces that seek to rob us of our liberty. The promise of the Alliance is as potent today as ever it was and we are - each of us - responsible for its continuing endurance."

"As we lay these brave heroes of the Alliance to rest, may we reflect on their sacrifice and go forth, renewed by the power of the Living Force which pervades us all to face the challenges which lay before us," the caskets housing the bodies of the fallen soldiers lowered themselves into the stone apertures which were cut to serve as their tombs. Mirana frowned mournfully at the display, particularly as the ornate carriage of Aaarav Chandra dismantled itself and allowed the casket within to sink into the ground while his daughters looked on.

"May the Force Be With You..." the young blond spoke carefully, grasping the Speaker's Staff firmly in her hand, "and May the Force Be With Us All."

​

​

 

[Dagon Kaze]

His eyes narrow slightly at Damsy's snappy reaction, trying to understand what underlying message it carries but his mind remains blank. All he could think of was Coruscant. Saving it, helping it, fixing it. The spawns, the Sith, the criminals, everything that had been let loose upon the place he called home.

"I know, Dams'." a bare smile tugs his lips, the rain washing down his disheveled raven locks over his brow, "I was just saying that even she - Danika - could be saved."

"...and maybe you guys can help." he adds almost involuntarily as if the thought had only crossed his subconscious. "But Coruscant comes first. Kai, you already have them..." Dag reaches for his wrist-holo and flicks a set of data at Damsy's, "...these are all the locations of my safehouses in the under levels. Anyone displaced - bring them there."

Arlo Renard Damsy Callat

 

[Auteme]

Ryv Adhira Chandra
​

Auteme was stunned. She froze, struggling for words, for anything, but all she could do was watch him leave. When he left her sight she found herself rushing to the window. What could she say? What did she want from him? Him, her closest friend, someone who she hadn't seen in years, someone she'd missed desperately, and he had the audacity to walk into a room without a word of acknowledgement, bother the Chancellor, berate Auteme for being confused, and jump out of a window-

"HOW DARE YOU!" she screamed, but he'd already fallen out of sight. In an instant her anger soured to sadness. She slumped onto the ground, hand on the windowsill, and resigned herself again to tears.

What was that? Some cruel prank? He left, nothing for years; then a sudden, brief meeting with nothing for her, only pain. Anger rose in her chest again. The people closest to her seemed desperate to abandon her as usual -- Adhira, comatose; Ryv, out a window; Lucien- it was no fault of his, but nonetheless she felt the distance between them as he was pulled back to the Empire. Pain and sorrow threatened to drag her down again, but she stood-

When had the window opened?

Last she remembered the blinds had been down, but for the first time today she felt like she could see the sky. Beyond the shattered city below, Coruscant's sun shone brightly in the distance, even as it struck the horizon.

She turned back to Adhira. The Chancellor looked a touch annoyed, almost, but nonetheless it seemed any energy the woman had was spent. Auteme looked at the sun a little longer, then went back to Adhira's bedside and knelt beside it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, clasping Adhira's hand in both of hers. "Thank you."

Auteme rose again, this time in determination, and left Adhira to her rest.

 

[Damsy Callat]

"I know, Dams'."

Damsy shook her head and muttered, "Whatever…" as she swung one leg over the balcony barrier and stood up. She doubted he really did; they hadn't spoken about her condition since she first came to the Temple. She glanced down at her wrist holo, screen broken by dendrites of cracks and held together with translucent tape. The last time she had looked upon its light had been underground in the industrial depths of the Reef. Back what seemed already half a lifetime ago, she had been looking over a message from Dagon as well—only that one had many more recipients than just one.

She looked back up when memory had rolled down her face like the raindrops. Her brow knit. "'Maybe we can help?'" she echoed emptily. Between that—saving some Sith Lady—and what she herself had just endured and barely escaped—the Battle of Coruscant—Damsy was getting sick and tired of helping Dagon either directly or in-.

Still, she did. She had. She would continue.

: || Damsy. || :​

​

A duracrete explosion knocked her to marbled ground, jarring contact knocking hearing back into her head.​

​

: || Damsy! || :​

​

She couldn't bring herself to remember the name of her AI, though. The floor was cold and hard but a relief for her overheated and aching body. Any will to move drained like life from her skin. She sighed and straightened against the tile, prepared to surrender into failure.​

​

Five more minutes.​

​

Laughter sounded from somewhere nearby, warm like each degree of sunlight filtering through her eyelids. Familiarity lingered on the surface of her ear drum and the tip of her tongue, but somehow the name slipped back down her throat. Comforting hands, only a little calloused, massaged over her taut back before flipping her over. There, on her back, she cracked open an eye.​

​

Feth!​

​

A degree of cold, half shadow and half goosebumps, shivered over Damsy. Adrenaline rolled her over and propped her up on her knees; the Force pulled the collapsed haft of her trident staff into her right hand; and her reflexes caught the Sith's fiery blade between the prongs.​

​

He seemed content to let it remain there, smiling at her as she struggled with the leverage. "What's this?" Even if she had been in the mood to converse, all Damsy would have been able to reply with would have been a grunt. "I had heard about a Sithspawn on Korriban fighting for freedom."​

​

No way…! Damsy cast a glance to her left and spotted her broken amulet among the debris—two for two—wasting a prayer to a God she knew never even listened to the likes of her anyway.​

​

"But I didn't know I'd get to meet her."​

"Yeah, you'd sure need it," she said, pacing a few steps closer to him. Small golden flakes glinted in her eyes whenever the rain reflected them just right, pyrite in a streambed. "You'd do more damage than good all by your lonesome: try to save her, do your little crystal magic, then feth off to Denon, leaving her all the demons you said you could rid her of." Just like what happened to her. Kai too, more or less. Even if history, or bad habits, repeated itself just like that, there was no way in actual hell that Damsy would let Danika into the Reef, not considering what all she had just heard of her.

But maybe she might as well. She had not so long ago welcomed in an enemy ironically equal to the Sith.

A bang reverberating through the entryway preceded Damsy as she ran into the lobby. A rushed landing. Generator cables hung dead from the ceiling. Her eyes could adjust to the darkness, but she doubted the other Spawn were all so prepared. "Motina?" she called with a desperation she had kept at bay until the moment she had left Temple grounds. "Forerun—?!"​

​

"Damsy, Damsy!" She heard Arisso before she saw him, almost running into the Technobeast as she turned into the control room. "Yato, kam rast*?"​

​

"Blackout. Sith are here, hittin' us back for Korriban."​

​

"My God."​

​

All Damsy could do at first was nod and skirt past him. This room was more illuminated, if only by a little because of the emergency LED glow of the console buttons and gauges along one of the walls. "I can't stay long. We needa hold out." Nothing they hadn't done before in conception, but not quite like this. "Is anyone—?" Twin beeps from her gauntlet broke her thought process. She lifted her arm, HUD light almost blinding her in the near-dark. Scanning the screen, she cursed very much over her breath. "Chit."​

​

"What?"​

​

"Dag," was the simplest response, followed closely by turning around the screen to let him read the conundrum for himself—which she did too. The notification wasn't directly from the knight but rather a system heads up that he had sent her contact info out over the local Jedi frequencies, tagging it as an evacuation resource. ​

​

You really ain't gotta tie my hands like this…​

​

"I have to bring 'em here," she said sans cadence for argument, but he didn't have to say anything to raise his organic brow at her. "'Risso, I don't have nowhere else."​

​

"You have that apartment up on '97, yeah?"​

​

"Yeah, but a local girl's housesittin' for me. Good chick. Imagine she's doing some saviouring of her own." His look hadn't leached away yet. "What?"​

​

Silence.​

​

"No, what?" Damsy threw an arm out beside him, gesturing very vaguely to the way out. "You'd leave padawans out there to die?"​

​

"You're a padawan. You take care of yourself just fine."​

​

She retracted her hand to beat at her chest, fist over heart. "Yeah man, but I'm also Sithspawn. I have little qualms with tearing someone's face off if I gotta."​

​

"Kai's both too."​

​

"C'mon dude, that makes 2 out of, uh, a lot. Y'know I'm right; being Spawn's like extenuating circumstances. Stop arguing with me. Just 'cause most Jedi think we evil 'cause someone else made a fethed up choice for us don't mean Imma play inta that narrative. The factory bit is big enough for all us and then some. Y'all go down there, hol' up, don't come out tell I say so. We all have amulets on anyway," just not her right now; she'd have to pick up an extra or maybe two for good measure, "but there's extra dampening down there. Voodoo insulation. They won't know chit. I promise you, bro."​

​

"No," was the initial answer. Damsy's heart dropped, then whiplashed back into its normal latitude. "Not if we blockade the elevators."​

​

Damsy clapped his shoulder before disappearing into the qabbrat to tell the others.​

​

It was both completely believable and not that she had done that; the latter from the standpoint of her Sithspawn leadership, the former her incomplete New Order loyalties. She had found a way to compromise them together for now, but for how much longer would coexistence last? While Damsy had gotten so far in a dangerous galaxy by continuously pushing her own luck, she wasn't willing to risk the safety of her those refugees who had put all their hopes for a better livelihood in her.

"And you know what, Dag?" The gold sediments accumulated into small pebbles. They now flashed periodically by themselves while her voice remained strikingly even. "You askin' for a lot more than our help."

​

Candles had been gathered atop a table. Damsy hovered her open palm over the wicks, wriggling her fingers and sending down a shower of sparks. The miniature lightning strikes all took to wax rather than wood, orange flickers casting over the dingy factory walls one after the other.​

​

"You're not gonna do that upstairs, are you?"​

​

The Shifter laughed and handed a waxen stick to Arisso. "Believe it or not, I'm not actually that dumb, my dude."​

​

Stepping out into the Labyrinth, she likewise walked through an inconspicuous portal into an abandoned Veshok Terrace building. She had replied to Dag's Order-wide holo with a set of coordinates to a nearby hovercar parking lot. From there, she'd usher whoever had arrived down into the Reef. As she stepped out into the street, she said a quiet prayer for the safety of her people first and foremost—​

​

the same of his was secondary—​

​

to the only One she knew would listen:​

Bogan.​

"We're in danger from the Jedi whether we're on their side or not." Damsy canted her head, indicating the unfolding funeral. "If they knew about us what you do, we wouldn't be heroes. But you'd be for killing us. How's that fair? Tell me that."



**

Spoiler: ur-Kittât translation

* = hey, what happened?

Dagon Kaze | Arlo Renard

 

[Ishana Chandra]

Closing Eyes & Resting Head
Coruscant // Avenue of Core Founders
Ryv // Mirana Praji // Aerarii Tithe Memorial Attendees

As the funeral procession reached the foot of the staircase leading to the towering fungal figure of the Senate Building, rising high into the atmosphere, Ishana gazed upward in awe. She had seen the building hundreds of times. Usually from a distance or upon approach, but had never beheld it from such a vantage. The massive quadrupeds which pulled her father's carriage shifted as they were given direction to stand at rest. Even they seemed to marvel at the enormity of the Senate Building. This is what her father died for, she thought, this is why her mother was laying in a coma hundreds of miles away.

"Was it worth it?" she muttered to herself.

As the chants of the choirs crescendo'd and then fell silent, she watched as Chancellor Aerarii Tithe made his way into the view of the public, escorted by the Senate Guards. His speech was... interesting. He was clearly a bright mind that was not meant for public service, and yet there her was, in her mother's place. Ishana frowned at the thought of Adhira Chandra standing there, giving the eulogy for her husband.

When the Chancellor finished, the Vice Chancellor, a familiar looking young blond woman with a twinkling coronet set above her golden girls, stepped forward. She had been a member of her mother's cabinet. Praji. Her speech connected much better with the moment than Tithe's had, but even that felt hollow as she watched her father's casket lowered into the ground in front of the Senate Building. Ishana turned to look at her sister, all in black, sprinkling dirt over their father's final resting place. She wondered how far they had to dig to get soil from Coruscant, or if they'd made the trouble of going all the way to Balmorra for some dirt.
​

​

When the Vice Chancellor had finished her speech and joined Tithe in the Senate Building - when all the corpses had been lowered into their shiny new tomb - when her sister gave her a half smile before turning away with her family -- Ishana still stood there, staring at the stone slab that had filled the cavernous opening.. her father's tomb. Her eyes stung with tears once again and she sank to her knees, running a gloved hand over the seem of the stone and said a silent prayer.

"I wish I had been a better daughter for you, Baba," she pleaded, "forgive me."

​

​

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai’s eyes kept darting back and forth between Damsy and Dag, afraid that at any moment a full-scale shouting match would erupt, or something similar. But the crisis seemed averted, chalked up to a misunderstanding. Kai felt relieved—and weirdly disappointed. The tensions he sensed within Damsy, Dag, and among the other Sithspawn and Jedi wouldn’t simply go away. It would all have to come to a head eventually, if not now.

Dag suggested they help to bring the displaced to safehouses. Kai nodded in agreement, then as Damsy railed against the idea on the grounds that it would put the Sithspawn in danger, the doppelganger’s brow furrowed.

<Damsy, why are you—> being like this?, he was about to ask. But he stopped himself. She had a point.

Kai was finally beginning to understand just how fortunate he was. His body, while tainted, could bounce back from beatings, stabbings, and even dismemberment. He didn’t need to sleep to recover his strength or heal from wounds. The loss of the Jedi Temple had little effect on him—it was just a building, after all—and nobody close to him had been killed during the attack. He could keep going and going, saving people, protecting them. To tell the truth, that made him feel more good than any amount of reassurances from his friends that his troubled existence didn't need to be justified.

Dropping into a crouch, as if he were eagerly preparing to leap backwards off the railing and into action, Kai looked at Dag. <I could take over for you while you sleep. Like taking turns, except unlike you I won’t ever need to stop and rest.> He smirked at the Knight, though he seemed genuinely happy to be of service.

Turning to Damsy, he added, <If you’re that afraid of the Jedi, we don’t have to open the Reef to them. Just make Dag take it off the list. It’s only one building, anyway. Won’t make that much of a difference to the relief effort.>

Damsy Callat Dagon Kaze sleep is for the weak​

 

[Creuat]

K N I G H T
GALACTIC ALLIANCE
CORUSCANT
Zaka

“Not all supported the decision, but what little does that matter? Backstabbed by institutions that we defended and fought for, for their betrayal? Should the few that cared and opposed that radical decision, they would’ve taken matters into their own hands.”

Rhis was a radical thinker, many of the Order frowned at his extreme methods and Jedi orthodox beliefs. Still he was more pragmatic than most on how he approached situations. A warrior who strove for peace and fought for the general welfare of civilization.

Often confused for vigilantism by some individuals whom question and doubt the Jedi.

“Well, the Order is small especially from all the tribulations we’ve suffered. The war against the Sith Empire was a great toll, but it pales in comparison to the battle that occurred here. I can say it is a great fit for any Jedi whom wish to make a difference,” he still condemned many orders, such as the Silver Jedi, that did little to contribute to the Galaxy they swore to defend.

“Where do you come from, and what is your name?” he asked to his fellow Jedi, the two still observing the grieving in the streets from afar.

 

[Zaka]

EMERGENCE OF THE FANGED vol. I
Issue #4
Creuat

The Nautolan was an odd one, to put it lightly. The extremes seemed to be his go to. A with us or against us attitude, that drew placid looks from the young Jedi. "That is... Ridiculous," he said blatantly. It was the nature of republics like the Alliance to cannibalize themselves. There were never famous examples of a politician stepping down because they did not believe that the system was unjust, or wrong. It was a greedy institution built for those conniving enough to exploit to to their own ends.

"To what end should they have taken things into their own hands?" Zaka did not hesitate to challenge the Jedi. He did not believe in the Senate, or its system of institutionalized popularity contests that led to a specific sect becoming the rule of law. Nor did he agree with their decision to place the New Jedi under lock and key. It wasn't their place, but to what the Nautolan alluded to, was more than questionable. "Public outcry? Resignations? Forcefully removing their opposition? Even the Chancellor's Office if it were executive command?" He raised a brow in question at the Nautolan.

"The politicking of the Senate does not concern me," Zaka said dismissively, not bothering to wait for a response to the earlier question. He did not think this Jedi had the ability to restrain himself from uttering potentially treasonous statements, after already toeing so close to the line. "What does, though, is... The future of the Order. And you, Jedi...?" he deflected, the upwards inflection suggesting a trading of names. There was no point in further dressing down the Jedi before him, he was an outside entity at this point.

"I am N'Jazaka, born of a Thyrsian Clan."

Pausing, "Regardless of the Senate, the Alliance still requires the Jedi, and I will fight, for it is our duty to do so. Will you join me? To uphold the Alliance's ideals?"

 

[Creuat]

K N I G H T
GALACTIC ALLIANCE
CORUSCANT
Zaka

Zaka’s response to Rhis didn’t surprise the Nautolan. Typical to hear as many Jedi disagreed with his views. One took extreme methods when the current system was brittle and ineffective to helping the greater good of the Galaxy. If one saw corruption and did nothing to stop it, then what good were they of use? Even Auteme betrayed the Jedi as she agreed to confining the Jedi within the Temple.

“The politics of the Senate do not concern me either; only when they interfere in Jedi affairs it does.”

“As for this fight? I do not intend to back down from it, I am not weak willed unlike most in the Order whom are. The Order does need capable and strong warriors, after all. Your Thyrsian heritage will be of invaluable use to the fight, N’Jazaka.”

Impressive that a man of Thyrsian heritage would rather do a good to the Galaxy than pillaging settlements for his own selfish desires.

“I am Rhis, Rhis Fisto. I assume you’ve nowhere to stay?”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

When it rains, it pours.

The pitter-patter becomes a shower and each word Damsy utters turns the drops into daggers. Knives straight into the heart of his weakness - letting people down. It's always been an uphill battle, this life, but lately, it's become an unreachable peak. You climb, you hike, you claw your way up, and that crest's as far as a way it was yesterday. There should've been a witty remark, a light-hearted quip to keep the spirits high in his response but no response ever came. He just sits crouched on that stone railing with a somber face drowned in rain and wet raven locks and even Kai's pathological ignorance of the bigger picture seems to have been shattered by the siren.

The New Jedi went to the Sith Worlds, saved the galaxy, and returned as villains. A part of him felt the similarity between that and his and Damsy's relationship. A part of him was used to it, a part. He will carry this, too. Somehow.

He wants to say something, hell, he wants to say anything but this cold numbness borne of Coruscant's rampant destruction embraces him, this asphyxiating grip of failures holds his throat in an unyielding grasp. Kai reverts to the matters at hand and his lungs find air once more.

"I'm not sleeping anytime soon, but fine. Just so you know, I can fall asleep in seven seconds and only need two hours. So don't hesitate to wake me at any time." he nods to Kai, then arches an eyebrow at the mention of a place called the Reef. "The Reef?"

Dag shakes his head. That, whatever that is, can wait.

"You're right, Dams' - I am asking for a lot more than your help." the Knight stands up, his tone is as neutral as it could be, "I'm asking for your trust. Trust in me that I'll have your back when you need it--" yours, not the corrupted version of you, "--and trust that we can bring Danika Leventis back from the monster that has enslaved her mind."

A pause, then, "I'll find you both for that when the time comes." the naivety of his youth seems to evaporate, replaced by the merciless weight of duty.

And he leaps back to his haven, to his rooftops.

Soaring.

Damsy Callat | Arlo Renard

 

[Damsy Callat]

Trust.

They had had this conversation before.

"I know this is me asking a lot but--" he said, "--you need to trust me for this."

“You're cute, but it’s not that simple."

He was still cute,

and it still wasn't that simple.

Damsy steeled herself to not move under Dag's gaze. The moment he was gone again, like the wind, like he was actually part Kezi instead of all Kaze, her posture decoupled like a segmented tent pole. Only then did she glance over to Kai. "He didn't know that name, starfish," she said with the same eerily calm voice. If it wasn't clear by now that she was trying too hard, it wouldn't ever be.



**
Arlo Renard | Dagon Kaze

 

[Arlo Renard]

Just so you know, I can fall asleep in seven seconds and only need two hours.

<Is that normal?> Kai wondered, not so much out of concern as the curiosity of one who didn’t require sleep. But Dag had already taken off, leaving unanswered questions in his wake.

Kai was about to follow suit when Damsy mentioned that Dag didn’t know about the Reef. Blinking, Kai’s mouth formed a silent O as he realized his blunder.

<Sorry. It’s just—it’s Dag, you know?> he said, a sheepish smile curling the corners of his mouth. <He was bound to find out about it sooner or later. After all, he’s responsible for about half the residents.>

Whether he would come to regret his implicit trust in the man who had rescued him, both from a miserable life as a feral child and imprisonment by a vampiress, remained to be seen.

<I gotta get going. Bye, Mom.> Giving her a little salute, he dropped over the edge of the balcony—only to reappear moments later, shooting from rooftop to rooftop like a comet against the horizon.

Damsy Callat Dagon Kaze​

 

[Constantine Oliva]

Coruscant Orbit
ANV Revenge
​

“Captain Sorrene,” I said, straight to the point. “I want to know your opinions on what we should do with our fighters and bombers.”

After the disaster of Coruscant, I’d realized I needed a better idea of what to do with strike craft. I didn’t use them much at all, frankly, I was unsure of what to do with them. I’d been so used to the corvettes that fighters and bombers were forgotten. I’d defaulted to only using them to protect their carriers.

Captain Relynia knew what she was doing. Even if she didn’t provide a full doctrine, I knew I could trust my subordinate enough to give me a foundation to build on. Even without that trust in her ideas, I wanted her input. Afterall, she would be the one executing the commands, leading the fighters.

While I waited for her to answer, I ran through a quick list of other subordinates to meet with. I’d gotten almost every officer I’d requested under my command. Each was one I chose personally, either from my own experience working with them or from their stellar records.

There were those of course, I'd never get. Old friends and comrades, lost to the void. So many good captains and leaders. Chief among them was that crippled Corelian. One of the few I considered a true friend, Teica would have been at the top of my list...


Relynia Sorrene

 

[Relynia Sorrene]

[ANV Revenge - Coruscant's Orbit - Post Junction]
[Captain Relynia Sorrene]

---

“I want to know your opinions on what we should do with our fighters and bombers.”

"I see..." She didn't know how exactly to respond at the moment, rather bit down on her lower lip in silence.

The air group was caught tangled in a mess over Coruscant, tasked with conflicting, uncoordinated sets of orders from a desperate flotilla of light carriers. All culminating with a final, desperate charge into atmosphere. Already stretched thin, the effort had cost the lives of... She'd purposefully only skimmed over the death tolls when the reports came it, as if that would make the massacre above the Alliance's crown jewel lesser in how it weighed on her being.

Her efforts were ultimately futile... Almost on a daily basis, Relynia counted the empty seats in the pilots' briefing room. Worse, she could assign each to a name, to a face.

A far more unsettling development, she'd at times forgotten her involvement in the slaughter. Regardless of how Constantine organized his forces or assigned the tasks of his subordinates, it had ultimately been up to Relynia herself whether to carry out his orders to the pilots. She could blame his inexperience with starfighter tactics all she wanted -- and perhaps, rightfully so-- for the slaughters trailing the fledgling air group of the 253rd. And yet, she couldn't absolve herself of guilt, identify as an unwilling participant in the lines failings.

Right... Her C.O was still waiting a response.

"We need more-- and need to assign concrete roles to our squadrons," Relynia spared a slight pause as if to appraise the admiral's reaction; Maybe she was asking too much. Any increase in the 253rd's ranks would complicate logistics further-- take into account an extra line of starfighters, and... "Keep a specialized interceptor squadron-- or two-- back with the line at all times and out of the main assault." She clamped her teeth down on her lip again, considering. "And if we're looking to lead our own fighter attacks, keep the X-wings. But if we can get some B-wings, Maybe some dedicated torpedo bombers... Our fighters should be able to put a lot for damage forward, and hold their own with more success-" Relynia flinched.

"-sir." The captain added respectfully, a tinge nervously, lest her commanding officer or herself presume she was making anything more than a suggestion.

Relynia's hands folded in front of her.

---

Constantine Oliva