Behind Enemy Lines [Republic Remnant - PM to join]

[Hard Contact]

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Jaax's Squad: 25 Meters from the Remaining Crash Survivors​

Jordan's Squad: Dissarmed, 20 meters from the Remaining Crash Survivors​

McKinley & Co: Just McKinley. A lone mercenary north of the crash site.​

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Jaax's squad was finally starting to take casualties, and there were no more blaster shots coming from the trees opposite of his position, which meant that things weren't going well for Jordan's squad. They had to put on the pressure or all was lost. "Move up, Marve lay down some fire with that ridiculous gun of yours."

The Trandoshan smiled, showing his disgusting teeth, "Aye aye."

Marve pulled the rotary blaster cannon from his back and began pouring out blaster bolts from the weapon. The gun was capable of firing well over a hundred bolts per minute, but it made for a terrible general purpose weapon. Marve always relished getting opportunities to use it.

Most of the squad advanced under the cover of the Trandoshan's rotary blaster, but Ijaax stayed behind.

Ijaax had seen [member="Tekikyskei"] slice a blade through his friends skull, but was too terrified to say anything. He silently set his ARC-9965 to automatic, aimed at the giant armored figure, and held down the trigger.

​

[member="Mereel Vaun"] [member="Belizarius Krusi"]​

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Spoiler

Remnant Personnel still Active:

Rifleman - 20 - The Rifleman is outside of the rotary cannon gunner's FOV.

Pilot: 14 - The Pilot was able to get to cover before any shots reached her.

Deck Officer: 2 - The Deck Officer eats a dozen shots from the rotary blaster.

Mereel felt dozens of blaster bolts impacting the other side of the piece of durasteel hull he was hiding behind. He tried peeking out and aiming his rifle out of cover at a mercenary, any mercenary, but he couldn't look out long enough without a blaster bolt soaring inches away from his helmet.

At least he was faring better than the Deck Officer had against the rotary blaster. The poor sob had been turned into a charred heap after being caught out of position.

Thankfully, Belizarius had been able to get the second squad forming the pincer on the survivors to surrender. Otherwise they likely all would have been as charred as the Deck Officer by now. He peeked his helmet around the debris again just in time to see one of the rifleman's shots hit an advancing mercenary directly between the eyes.

"Kandosii! Kandosii, ner vod!"

[member="The Dark Man"] [member="Belizarius Krusi"] [member="Tekikyskei"]

 

[The Dark Man]

The Dark Man moved swiftly through the forests, the crackling pulse of blaster fire echoed through the trees sending alien and strange birds to flight. His gaze darted left and right and his senses shifted. Immediately the visage of the forest blurred and melted away, he was floating in the matrices of the Force. He saw shadows far and close, enclosing in on an entrenched position. Their blaster fire now sounding suppressed as though the sound were travelling through water. Voices spoke in muffled tones and wispy faces turned to look at The Dark Man.

Reality re-emerged and chaos erupted. A beast had just tore through one of the mercenaries and the others were advancing, another began firing a rotary blaster at the said monster in metal. With a snap-hiss the short golden blade of The Dark Mans ancient lightsaber ignited. Pulsating plasma spat and hissed, and then flew from his hand. Reaching out with the Force he guided the blade towards the mercenary with rotary blaster and hoped to strike him in his right scapula, the shoulder blade.

With a tug of the Force the blade would swiftly return to his palm, and without a moments hesitation The Dark Man turned to the nearest tree and seemingly melted into it, as he manipulated the very matter that made up his body, phasing through bark and tree until he was on the other side. He broke into a sprint for the crash site and advancing mercenaries. There was no doubt they would hear his coming, and the sound of his blade.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] - [member="Hard Contact"]

 

[Hard Contact]

Spoiler

Trandoshan Gunner Survival roll: 2 - KIA

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Jaax's Squad​

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A second Jedi had appeared in the middle of the squadron, threw a lightsaber at their gunner, and disappeared before the surviving two mercenaries eyes. They couldn't surrender or they risked being found and tortured later by Veralas. Jaax pointed his slugthrower to his head and pulled the trigger. The other surviving mercenary (not the one shooting at [member="Tekikyskei"] ) ran his vibrosword through his heart.

[member="The Dark Man"] [member="Belizarius Krusi"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]​

-------------------------​

McKinley​

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During the fighting, McKinley slipped away back toward friendly territory. Maybe Veralas would forgive him for reporting the failure of the two squadrons.​

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

Belizarius looked at the soldiers which committed suicide, they could of run but he knew that.... he knew that fear, they were scared of what would happen if they returned. He started breathing heavily as the possibilities started running through his head of what he could be facing. The Dark Man had managed to get the heavy fire off the squad and Mereel, the fight out here at this stage was practically over.

Sith? what use would he be.... he would probably get in the way while far more competent allies saved the day, a Dark Jedi would only be a slight relief but at the end of the day it would still bring his saber skills into question but in the end he knew what would have to be done and what was his responsibility. He was a Sentinel, his role was to combat the darkness and stop it's spread throughout the galaxy and he can't run forever from his responsibilities. He joined the Republic because he wanted to do something greater and this was it.

He turned and sensed a darkness from the North, his fear briefly kept him in place as he had no idea what he'd be facing if he went in that direction. His lightsaber was still ignited, he switched it off and took a deep breath. He started walking North.

[member="The Dark Man"][member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Tekikyskei]

The Gen'Dai was caught on surprise by the barrage of blaster bolts, leaping behind one of the tree for cover, it didn't take much for him to regain his calmness again, running rapidly across the forest and using the trees as cover, he moved close to the mercenary, who fired at his head.

He simply lept on the air almost as if instinct, his movements felt like he knew that the mercenary would fire, he then landed behind him, focusing for a moment as his body was surrounded by a orange aura, those who understood the force could feel that it was a more brute form of force weapon.

"Why didn't you run?" He spoke as he swung the blade upward, slicing the man's weapon in half before striking his chin with a jab to knock him unconscious. The Gen'dai then shifted his glaze over to the other two mercenaries, shouting for them to stop, only to see them shoot themselves.

A strange presence crept over his body, one of darkness, they did those things for a reason, and probably not a good one, what was awaiting for them there was probably as bad as the scum that he met on his life.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] [member="The Dark Man"]

 

[Hard Contact]

Map of the Cave:

Spoiler

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McKinley​

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McKinley reached the top of the hill and panted. He had left his blaster back where the Jedi had disarmed him, and he had no idea what had happened to his communicator after the Jedi had used it.

He was ten meters away from the cave entrance when Devok, the mercenary group's captain, walked out of the mouth of the cave. Two mercenaries carrying E-Webs followed behind the 40 year old captain who McKinley noticed was smoking a cigar as usual.

As McKinley straightened his posture and regained control of his breathing, Captain Devok got up in his face. "Report."

The two mercenaries that had followed the Captain out positioned their E-Webs on either side of the cave entrace and activated them. McKinley started shaking, "The Jedi stopped both squads Cap'n. There was nothing we could do against them. We needed bigger guns sir."

Devok pulled the cigar from his mouth and considered it for a second, "I'm glad you confirmed that there are multiple Jedi here, McKinley."

Devok took a step back from McKinley.

Then Devok punched McKinley square in the jaw, and pressed the foot of his cigar against McKinley's left cheek. McKinley cried out in pain and fell to the ground, cowering.

Devok turned around and started walking back into the cave mouth. As he entered, he gave one last order to the two mercenaries now manning the two E-webs, "Light him up."

Devok heard the two E-Webs roar to life as they focused their fire on McKinley. He didn't look back to see if the gunners' task had been completed, he had one more line of defense to set up for their visitors.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] [member="The Dark Man"] [member="Tekikyskei"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]​

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The sound of blasterfire finally ceased. With adrenaline still flowing through his veins, Mereel sprang back up. He lowered his rifle and examined the carnage around him for a moment. Fallen foes and allies littered the ground.

With the battle over, he started noticing the finer details of the injuries around him. A two meter Trandoshan with a rotary blaster had been cut from neck to shoulder by what he reasoned must have been a lightsaber, the Remnant deck officer with holes riddled around his torso from blaster bolts, a fallen human mercenary who had been shot in multiple times in the chest and then once in the head.


The Remnant rifleman shouldering his rifle brought him back into the moment and he looked away from the dead and dying.

"Great shooting man. What's your name? And you?"

The Remnant rifleman tiredly replied, "Alex."
The pilot also replied, "Saria."

Mereel patted the man on the shoulder with a gloved hand, "Once the Gnost Dural gets back to civilization, I'm buying you both fething kegs. "

Even though the fight was over, there was now a slight problem. [member="Belizarius Krusi"] had made a squad of six mercenaries surrender, and had then disappeared leaving the two crash survivors and Mereel to watch the lot. If he left Alex and Saria here alone with the mercs he could see the mercenaries resisting.

"One of you get the second RRATD on a commfrequency. I've got to go find the Jedi."

He opened himself to the force. He had felt Sith in the force several times before, and where he was now, he felt a familiar presence of darkness, it felt almost the same as those he had felt on Teth and the Jade Moon.

He raised his voice so that Alex, Sarai, and the mercenaries could all hear him, "If any of the di'kuts move, shoot them. They've killed enough good men today."

And with that he followed the darkness North. It was a slow uphill march, but eventually Mereel reached a place where the trees ended. About 30 meters ahead of him were two manned E-Web turrets guarding a cave entrance. Between the two blaster emplacements were six prone mercenaries, all scanning the tree line. He thought he sensed a lightsider, or maybe even multiple somewhere nearby, but he couldn't tell with his limited experience in the technique.

[member="Tekikyskei"] | [member="Belizarius Krusi"] | [member="The Dark Man"]​

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[The Dark Man]

"The Dark Man stared down the nine guns trained on him.
One by one, they lowered their aim.
And the rest of his life began - where,
in a few short years, so many others would be ended."

- - - - ​

The Dark Man halted as he heard and felt the blaster bolt ring out through the forest. A life extinguished, then another. His heart quickened and there was a pang of guilt that he should feel adrenaline and alive when theirs had ended. No matter. His finger slipped from the ignition of his lightsaber and the golden blade vanished, the plasma dissipating before his eyes. He turned towards the crash site and saw Belizarius move north, and soon as Mereel reconvened with the surviving members of his gunship also move to catch up.

The Jedi Watchman took to flight further into the trees, keeping his distance from his allies. He did not want to get in their way, nor they get in his. He stalked them through brush and bush, a spectre of darkness. He returned the hilt of his blade back into the folds of his robes and gathered his cloak about him. He submerged himself with the Force and began to manipulate his surroundings, concealing the sound of his footsteps and the motion of his movement. To the untrained eye they may mistake his wary movements for an animal, but one attuned to the Force could detect the subtle manipulations of energy.

Ahead the treelines ended and a cave reared itself before them. E-web emplacements guarded the entrance and mercenaries milled about. He turned his attention right and saw Belizarius approaching through the trees, and Mereel nearby. They'd be cut through if they attempted to make a bold attack. He wasn't quite sure if they were smart enough to consider the alternatives. The Dark Man would provide the distraction, they would only need to take the mercenaries down while they're distracted.

A violent shrill cry erupted from The Dark Man's position as he wove the energies of the Force into a high-pitch explosion of noise. Sure to turn heads. He brushed his cloak aside and unclipped it from his shoulders and as the fabric fell to his feet his hand rose, lightsaber igniting with a snap-hiss. Golden plasma burst to life. He felt their attention move, and sure enough their fingers squeezed on their triggers. Instantaneously The Dark Man was already sprinted dead ahead for the rock walls beside the cave entrance, but there was no where to go, or so it seemed.

Blaster bolts would arc overhead and those that nearly found their target would be deftly deflected away with an inhuman precision. His feet kicked dirt and he ran straight into the rock wall, and then vanished. His body seemingly melting into the rocks and vanishing from sight. His world was plunged in darkness, he could not even see the plasma of his burning lightsaber.

He was once again submerged in the matrices of the Force, plucking at strings of power and energy, altering the matter that made up his very being as he pushed through solid rock. He sensed with the Force what direction to go and he felt lost for a moment, but soon found himself re-emerging from the rocks and inside one of the cave tunnels by the entrance, behind the E-web emplacements. He was now behind them, his lightsaber burning bright.


[member="Mereel Vaun"] - [member="Belizarius Krusi"] - [member="Belizarius Krusi"]

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

As Belizarius looked at the cave, he saw the two emplacements and realized that his lightsaber wasn't going to be able to just block those shots like before. He sense Mereel coming up behind him and decided that he would move back since somebody with some range might have a better chance of distracting them. Him running in with his lightsaber would just get him shot to pieces and he wasn't in a mood to test his speed having tested it to the limit before.

He was still anxious but he was trying to not let that cloud his judgement, the darkness from the cave made him extremely uncomfortable and even sick in his stomach but it wasn't as dark as the Sith... he would never forget. He was staying low to the ground as he came up besides the Mandalorian.

"You wouldn't be able to make a few shots to distract them? If you can draw their fire over here and maybe I can flank them from the side. Grunts with blasters is one thing but I've gone against E-Webs enough times to know that you don't tackle those things directly" Normally what he would do is try to sneak up on the gunners and use the force to try and distract them but that takes time and he didn't know how much time they had.

[member="The Dark Man"][member="Mereel Vaun"][member="Tekikyskei"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel nestled his rifle in the crook of his arm while he listened to Jedi's proposal. Shortly after the Jedi had finished speaking, he heard a defeaning cry from somewhere nearby in the trees.

Mereel quicky looked to the field and saw a Jedi that he had seen at the Nadiem Enclave. The man seemed to have temporarily gained the full attention of the mercenaries guarding the entrance. He looked back to [member="Belizarius Krusi"] . "I think whoever that has their undivided attention at the moment. Which means I can do you one better than throwing a few rounds at them."

He slung his rifle over his back and raised his left armor gauntlet, holding it purposefully before Belizarius' eyes. A loaded wrist rocket protruded from the armor piece. "Should do the trick against one of those E-Webs. I'll blow one of them up, you move up on the side of the E-Web I'm about to destroy."

Mereel stood as he aimed his left gauntlet at the E-web on the right side of the cave entrance. Once he had centered the rocket on the middle of the E-Web repeating blaster, which he noticed was now turned around and facing the entrance of the cave, he spoke up, "Get ready to get moving, ner vod."

He slowed his breathing and emptied his thoughts. He fired the wrist rocket.

The wrist rocket soared through the air, but flew a foot wide of his target, and harmlessly detonated against a rock face.

Osik

The E-Web gunner began to turn the blaster emplacement toward their position, and Mereel unholstered his DL-18.

He ran into the field and activated his Z-6 jetpack. Holding a hover 10 meters above the ground, he began laying down fire at the E-Web's gunner. He hoped that his attack would suppress the E-Web gunner entirely, but if not at least he would be able to provide Krusi some time to advance.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] | [member="The Dark Man"] | [member="Tekikyskei"]​

 

[Hard Contact]

Spoiler

Perimeter Defense Mercenary Rolls:

E-Web #1 (Being Attacked by and turning to attack [member="Mereel Vaun"]) - 18
E-Web #2 (Turning to attack The Dark Man) - 2

Merc 1 Fear Roll: 13
Merc 2 Fear Roll: 6
Merc 3 Fear Roll: 11
Merc 4 Fear Roll: 18
Merc 5 Fear Roll: 10
Merc 6 Fear Roll: 3

The mercenaries guarding the perimeter defenses now found themselves under pressure from two fronts. A Jedi had suddenly materialized in the mouth of the cave behind them, and a Mandalorian in blue armor had fired a wrist rocket at one of their E-Webs.

Out of the six mercenaries armed with blaster rifles, four turned to face the new foe in the mouth of the cave. The other two mercenaries were new blood who had never dealt with anything of this nature, and had dropped their weapons to cower in terror. One E-Web gunner was also attempting to turn their heavy-repeating blaster to face the Jedi in the cave, but was having difficulties trying to get the gun emplacement to pivot about properly.

Two mercenaries were cowering in terror, one E-Web gunner was taking a wrench to his E-Web, and four mercenaries opened fire with their blaster rifles while aiming at [member="The Dark Man"].

Meanwhile, the second E-Web gunner was having absolutely no problem with his blaster emplacement, and was bringing it to bear on the Mandalorian now flying in the field that lead up to the mouth of the cave. He began firing the E-Web into the sky at [member="Mereel Vaun"].

 

[Tekikyskei]

The Gen'Dai had already climbed up the tree before they could even notice, making his way toward the door of the cave, only to pause for a second and extend the force outwards, noticing a sinister presence. It felt like the ones on that day, the ones of the sith who he swore to kill, he froze for a second, staring at the men as they coldly shot the mercenary with their weapons before being interrupted by a loud shrill, a figure appearing before seemingly phasing through a wall, was it some type of illusion? A cloud of dust was blown away from him as he landed from the tree, holding the weapon with both hands as he charged toward the man, he swung the gun to the figure running on his direction, diverting fire from the man wearing blue armor.

He drove the blade into the mercenary's chest, his ribcage being ripped apart by the shockwaves emanating from it as small cracks spread on the rocks behind him, the Gen'Dai then pulled the blade out, moving to the ones who were attacking [member="The Dark Man"]

[member="Mereel Vaun"] [member="Belizarius Krusi"]

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

Belizarius was running with all his speed around to flank the enemy encampments, this was far easier than normal as the poorly trained mercenaries seemed to be fighting a presence that he could barely even recognize through it all but it did feel familiar. Mereel has done his duty and distracted the other E-Web just to find that gunner now dead at the hands of the Gen'Dai. He joined him on the right side and moving towards the mercenaries attacking who he now recognized to be [member="The Dark Man"] One of the men saw his as he was approaching and started firing in his direction but these were poorly aimed as at this point they were practically being overwhelmed.

As he approached this mercenary on the left encampment he had to disarm him quickly, he quickly sliced off the mans hand and strongly forced pushed him into the E-Web on the left side of the cave to knock it off balance and practically render it useless.

[member="Tekikyskei"] / [member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Before the Gen'dai had disabled the E-Web gunner, the man was able to land several bolts against Mereel, several of which had hit the Z-6 Jetpack attached to his back. He was instantly aware of the peril that he was in, but had no possible way to prevent what was about to happen.

Besides the joints in his armor, the Z-6 jetpack was the absolute worst place he could be attacked, and the gunner had landed not one, not two, but three rounds on the side of his jetpack.

Mereel lost control, and the jetpack started spinning him wildly through the air. Up and down, left and right, he flew at dizzying speed until he crashed helmet first into a tree trunk. His vision faded to black, and his unconscious form fell to the ground meters below.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] | [member="Tekikyskei"] | [member="The Dark Man"]​

 

[Hard Contact]

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There were too many of them. The perimeter defense had been easily toppled, only managing to knock out one man.

The mercenaries couldn't fall back, or their Captain would kill them.. or worse, Veralas would torture them.

Djerek decided that the only action that would matter now was his own. He pulled a thermal detonator from his belt, held it above his head, and activated it.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] | [member="Tekikyskei"] |[member="The Dark Man"]​

 

[The Dark Man]

Blaster fire lit up the cavern. Golden plasma cracked and hissed, The Dark Man began spinning his blade as he deflected the fusillade of fire, the whirring of his lightsaber was becoming deafening as his reactions became super-human, such was the power of the Force. Yet he stood his ground, unable to move as he focused on such an arduous task. A rogue bolt of crimson skipped past his blade and burnt through his robes and left a perfect circular hole in its place, its edges hard and burnt.

The others were making quick work of the mercenaries as The Dark Man fended off their blaster fire. The armoured beast charged forward and began wreaking havoc to the men, their defenses were suddenly and quickly overwhelmed. A light explosion distracted the Jedi and his gaze turned to Mereel who had become airborne and was now out of control as his jetpack was leaking fuel and sending it spiraling out of control. A loud crack and the Mandalorian had hit a tree.

The Dark Man held his ground, unmoving against the tide of fire. Then it was all quiet. The mercenaries lay dead or dying bar a few. It was not the way The Dark Man liked to end a battle. He avoided death where possible, it was not the Jedi way to kill. In the silence of victory there came a beep from one of the mercenaries, a detonator held aloft. "No!" The Dark Man roared, his lightsaber deactivated and dropped to the floor of the cave. His hand stretched out, he tugged with the Force and pulled the detonator from the mercenaries hands. The detonator flew towards The Dark Man and ignited. A deafening bellow as it exploded outwards. An expanding particle field that atomized everything within five meters, then the violent sucking of air as it collapsed in on itself and imploded.

When the dust settled, The Dark Man was gone. Only his ancient lightsaber was left in his place.

[member="Hard Contact"] - [member="Mereel Vaun"] - [member="Belizarius Krusi"] - [member="Tekikyskei"]

 

[Tekikyskei]

The Gen'Dai rushed forward toward the bomb, only to see that The Dark Man had pulled it with the force, was it needed? He did not think so, but it was still a brave act, the explosion threw him backwards, his body slamming toward the wall. He screamed in pain, covering his face from the gust of wind blowing toward him before staring over to the area, the Jedi was...gone?

"Why?!" He shouted as he slammed his fist on the ground, why did the Jedi have to die? He did not know, but he knew that they would avenge him.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] [member="The Dark Man"] [member="Belizarius Krusi"]

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

Belizarius stood stunned at what had just happened, there had to be some other way? He was seething in anger, he sensed the bomb but hesitated in what to do with it... there were countless options of what he could of done to stop it going off and killing everybody. He was a Jedi and couldn't stop a thermal detonator going off? What use was he if he couldn't protect anybody from something so simple.

The anger emanating from him at this time was pretty strong, it was taking a lot of effort for the young Jedi to calm himself down to a point where he could start thinking clearly but even then the new problem was the fear of what he had got himself into. If he couldn't stop a thermal detonator and protect people from Mercenaries the how did he expect to stop a Dark Jedi.....

Belizarius fell back onto the wall with his grip tightening around his lightsaber to the point that his hands were hurting, he was sweating heavily and breathing just the same. "I can't, I can't" he mumbled as he looked at the battlefield around him. Everything seemed so open and it appeared as thought threats could come from anywhere and this just heightened his paranoia.

The Jedi Knight, was having a anxiety attack and on the verge of having a breakdown.

[member="Tekikyskei"] / [member="The Dark Man"] / [member="Mereel Vaun"] /

 

[Hard Contact]

Spoiler

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Mercenary Holdout​

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The grizzled, middle aged mercenary Captain stood in the middle of a chamber. Empty and half-filled supply crates were scattered haphazardly about the room. The Jedi hadn't given them enough time to set up a proper defense. The room of scattered boxes would serve as the remaining mercenaries' last stand.

Only two of his men were left, both were hiding behind crates next to the tunnel that lead to where Veralas and his Master were. The Captain threw down his last cigar onto the stone floor, and drew his two slugthrower pistols from their holsters. The Jedi had destroyed the company it had taken him years to make, and he would be damned if he didn't go down with his men now. He loaded each of the slugthrowers, and waited for the Jedi to enter the room.

Veralas entered the room first. The man had his crimson lightsaber blade ignited. "Decided to be useful for once?"

The Dark Jedi looked at the mercenary Captain with contempt, "You were supposed to subdue the Jedi. Instead, you have allowed them to march to our doorstep uncontested."

The mercenary Captain didn't offer Veralas a retort. He simply waited for the Jedi to arrive. One way or another, his dealings with the Dark Jedi were about to come to an end.

[member="Belizarius Krusi"] | [member="The Dark Man"] | [member="Tekikyskei"]​