Chaos is Everything. [Zombies on Pergitor. ORC]

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Thane Drexel"] [member="Anaya Fen"] [member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Leea Pandac"] [member="Sannika Brynn"] [member="Tugoro Taidarious"]

“This is Jorus Merrill to the Pergitor system. I’m low on words. The Sith Lord Anaya Fen is using miniature droids to spread the Denon virus in your dome cities. She's kidnapped my daughter and is having her tortured. I'm compromised every which way. Can't think about anything but getting my kid back right fething now, and that's the way it should be, and that's what Anaya wants. I'm giving operational control of the whole blockade to callsign Benefactor. He'll do a solid job and save who he can. This is a known strain. There's a cure and it's coming. And so am I. See you soon, Anaya.”

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The images of Mara stopped broadcasting across all comms, though the one on the roof top continued to play. Anaya turned her attention to it. "That'll do number three. For now." Mara's screams devolved into soft whimpers. Anaya stepped forward, closer to the projection, feeling for a moment like she was closer to Mara, even if she was on the other side of the galaxy.

"Hush child. Pain is a good thing, it strengthens us. It'll all be over soon, provided your father cooperates and the two of you can try and exact whatever revenge you see fit." She turned away hands clasped behind her back smirking to herself and pacing back to the roof edge. Parla followed her. "Will he attack?" She asked, her concern for the leathn's safety paramount.

"Not if he's smart. And he is. He wants Mara safe, and he'll do what needs to be done to ensure that. Afterwards though...." She trailed off with a wide smile on her face.

"I am concerned about your mortality rate, My Lady. Your insistence to piss off powerful people, that you can't necessarily beat is increasing it dramatically."

"Well, I have you to tell me when I'm being stupid don't I."

If Parla had been an organic, and not a HRD she might have punctuated her next words with a roll of the eyes and an exasperated sigh. Instead, he tone was matter of fact and cold. "Yes, and you never listen." Anaya ignored her and turned her eyes upon her reaver pet, who rose as she did and drew closer.

When Jorus came, it would be the reaver that disarmed him, and the reaver that would take any shots that were aimed at Anaya.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Moira Skaldi"]

 

[Moira Skaldi]

In another city, the package had been laid high up on the dome. The two replicants rapelled down the structure's wall. Anaya would have received a silent ping, but that was all the communication that took place.


While chaos raged inside the city itself, the ground was getting closer and closer. The hellish landscape of the desolate wasteland reminded Moira more than a little of Gehenna. The sky above them was blood-red, toxins clogged the air.


The package's timer hit zero. There was a loud, powerful explosion, as the blast tore through a section of the dome like a hot knife through butter. By no means enough to destroy the entire dome or cause serious damage to the structures it covered. However, the explosion was more than enough to breach the wall...and expose the sealed settlement to Pergitor's unforgiving, toxic atmosphere.


It would take a bit of time for the atmospheres to mix, but then everyone who was not wearing a sealed suit or had not been transformed into a zombie would have a rather unpleasant time. Moira hit the ground and disentangled herself. She still had quite a way to go. Eventually she would reach her vessel, hidden inside the wastelands, and then depart.


[member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Anaya Fen"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"] [member="Moira Skaldi"]

A split freezing second of blue-white yielded to starlines, then toxic clouds. A man in a space suit landed hard on the dome, not far from the new hole. He unslung a standard hull-breach kit, size large, the kind he used to pressurize a wreck. A blue lightsaber roared to life and sheared a hole in the dome. With salvage grapples and a grunt, he pulled the plug up and let it slide away.

As he dropped through on repulsors, he pulled a patch down after him, then deployed another patch on the inside. The metallic fabric melded easily with the red-hot edges. That ought to keep any winds or pressure differentials from unsealing the breach.

The rote task kept him focused, let him put aside all sense of himself. He needed to be empty for this. The risk here, and Anaya would know it well, was a fall to the Dark Side throwing everything for a loop.

And it seemed such a pedestrian concern, didn't it, next to saving Mara. For a couple of decades now he'd watched other Jedi Masters flirt with the Dark or fall outright. He'd held himself above them, but in the back of his mind he'd always known he hasn't been truly tested, not as a Jedi.

The repulsor belt deposited him on the penthouse roof. He gave his blaster and lightsaber to the Bando Gora reaver without comment. The holofeed of Mara - bloody and bound - held his attention. He barely glanced at Anaya until he was almost arm’s length away.

“Please,” he said quietly through the space suit’s vocoder. “Let her go. You have me.”

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya watched him, lips parted in smile as her drew closer, eyes on the holovid. Shivers of delight ran down her spine, finger tingling with anticipation. How long had it been since she'd tested a Jedi? Since she gave them a glimpse into the darkside, into what they could be. She'd once called it a fall, but time and experience had taught her that it was a great and terrible climb.

"Do you really think I'm going to make it that easy for you?" she extended a hand to her pet who handed her Jorus' weapons. She tossed the blaster over her shoulder and off the penthouse roof without so much of a second glance, the lightsaber she turned in her fingers for a moment, before looking back at him. "What do they call you these days? Captain? General?" she shrugged, "It doesn't matter really, the fact of the matter remains that you chose your own personal desires over that of the greater good."

Sh waved hand at the hologram, and Number Three stepped in to deliver one powerful strike across Mara's face. How much would it take to make the master of the hyperlanes angry? "So what does that make you?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

“You want to see what I'm made of, is that it? Hundreds dead just to push someone to the brink? You want to know if I'll break?”

Many emotions had physical components in common. His body felt wrong, energized, out of his control, like he was about to do something he'd regret. He couldn't look at Mara taking the hit. Couldn't look anywhere else, though.

“The answer’s probably yes, and I want you to think real carefully about what that means. I stick as close as I can to the Jedi path because I never grew out of the big question.” His hands were shaking. “Why are there people like you? What defect in the head - how twisted do you have to be? Why is the galaxy so broken, and why do you have to help it along? How can anyone with a soul not be infuriated by what you do? So yeah, you've got a decent chance of pushing me over the edge.

“If you do that, though, I promise you that deep down I'm the kind of guy who'll destroy everything you love, wreck your heart and murder you. You’re playing with something implacable that I'd rather keep in a cage. And if any part of you finds me intimidating, just know you've got no idea what my wife will bring to the table.

“Let Mara go. Leave in peace. You've had your fun.”

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya began to prowl, encircling Jorus, eyes bright and hungry, smirk lingering on her lips as he spoke.

"Thousands of people died to test a product, you, Master Merrill, are simply icing on he cake. This," she gestured at Mara "was an opportunity I simply couldn't refuse. To test the Master of the Hyperlanes, the famously humble Jedi who takes it upon himself to stick as many thorns as he can in the sides of regimes he does not agree with. Who inspires loyalty like no other and can draw dangerous and powerful allies to his aide if he so desired, and yet chooses not to. I am most definitely intimidated by you, but that's what makes it fun."

"As Sarge, I'm sure he'll verify that as fact. I've nothing to lose, that I haven't already lost through my own volition. I love no-one, and no one loves me." She paused in her prowling, head tilted to one side, her grin widening. "So by all means, come at me."

Anaya turned her back on him, deliberately. "Give it to her." A vial of the same virus currently raging its was through Pergitor's cities was injected into Mara's arm. "You've been infected by this virus before haven't you, Jorus? If my resources are correct, you were treated quickly and the cure was to hand. How many people do you think she'll kill before you reach her?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Jorus took a sharp and shaking breath as, far away, in some unknown location, an interrogator pumped his daughter full of the Denon virus. He froze, physically. At some level his mind kept working. For this to be a proper game for Anaya Fen, Mara would need to be reachable...wouldn't she? No, he couldn't make that assumption. And the Dark Side was so strong here that it clouded everything, blunting even Jorus' navigational senses. Mara might be in the city, he thought he could feel as much, but she might just as easily be on the other side of the universe. And he wouldn't know for sure until he got close. For all his arts, his Force senses generally came down to a sense of 'thattaway.'

Mara knew healing, not to any great level but enough to blunt the virus' progress. The old Denon fights and files suggested that might give her, oh, ten minutes before she lost it and went undead. As a prisoner, there was no way she'd retained the Ankarres Sapphire, which could have solved the problem entirely. Did Anaya's people have the Sapphire, or had Mara not been carrying it when captured? The question was currently irrelevant in comparison to whether he could find her in time, but if he could find her and the Sapphire, he'd have a cure. Whereas if he found her, he'd still have to get her somewhere safe. Could he manage a precision microjump again, into or near a medical ship, while carrying her, without a second spacesuit or the time to deploy a rescue bubble? Or would he be reaching her just in time to watch her die?

A bridge to cross when he got to it.

He put aside all desire to kill Anaya, as much as possible anyway, and jumped off the roof. No gun, no saber, just a space suit and a repulsor belt and some odds and ends. He hit the ground running by instinct.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Anaya Fen"] [member="Moira Skaldi"]

A Jast 3 Freighter disguised as a Gas Hauler shrieked its engines as it ripped through the toxic atmosphere. The call for Judges had gone out some time ago. At which moment, he had been tangled up stopping a ship jacking. Most of the other Judges were ranging the frontier between Outback territory and Unknown. None could be relieved of their posts.

And the ship jacking incident had left him with a sizeable wound on his left leg. But they were here now, and chaos reigned. Comm channels were blasting misinformation, and no one had taken control of the situation so far.

"What do we have?" He asked, wrapping a compression gauze around the bloodied leg.

Talson his hired pilot replied back.

"Looks like some ind of outbreak. Hold on..... Merrill's Girl is down there, and some kind of villain is blowing open domes."

Nathan grimaced, pressing his lips into a thin line.

"Bring us closer while I decide."

​

Help Jorrus? Or stop the Mad Terrorist?​

"Better make it quick, our villain is moving."

"Damn it. Alright then...." He lit a match on his boot heel and lit a cigar, letting the nicotine pump his heart full of adrenaline.

"Send a message to Jorus. Tell him we're going after the rogue wolf. Wish him luck."

"You ain't gonna help him?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow as they slanted and then rolled towards the next dome, where the landing pads were. He slammed his Judge pistol into it's holster and slipped on his plate vest. Last he pulled his dirty tan overcoat over his shoulders.

"No. He is a capable Jedi Master. Our mandate as Judges is clear. Deliver Justice."

As the Jast 3 touched down he pulled his pistol and spun the cylinder, then locked it back into the massive revolver with a flick of the wrist. Lock stock and barrel.

​

"Lower the ramp...."​

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya laughed as he stepped off the penthouse roof, the sound of his repulsor belt kicking in as he reached the ally floor. She turned to the Bando Gora. "Follow him, but do not engage." The beast of a man bounded off the roof after him. The HRD in the hologram slid into view and her twins drew closer around her. She looked to the one closest to her.

"Well played." the HRD commented. "I assume it was a ploy?"

Anaya smirked and placed a finger to her lips. "He doesn't need to know that. Did you feel the panic? Oh wait, of course you didn't, you're made of metal. Number 3, move her to Kaas. There will be enough dark side there to make it harder for him to locate her once her works out she's not on this lump of useless rock. Once she's secure, I want the connection ready to reboot at my command."

The HRD bowed and the holo image flickered and died. She rounded on the other two. "You, fetch us a ship." the second bowed and departed.
"Parla," the last of her minions blinked at her in response. "Let's go play with our new toy."

The blood trail Anaya had on the Bando Gora meant she would not be far behind Jorus, but she could at least take a leisurely stroll after him and re-engage when he came to the realisation that his beloved daughter was not here.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Jorus clung to mindfulness - being present in the moment - and to rationality. Neither was easy. Every innate instinct tried to point his attention at Mara’s potential futures and Anaya’s punishment. And wouldn't it be a betrayal of his core identity to ignore those instincts? What kind of a human being would he be if he didn't respect them in due proportion?

Two right-angle course changes verified that Mara was very far away. His sense of her direction didn't vary at all; triangulation suggested a location miles or light-years away. The more he tried to stay in touch with the light side of the Force, the more he suspected the latter.

Abruptly, he turned on his heel and stalked back down the barren street. He homed in on his Bando Gora pursuer, the one who'd taken his lightsaber. Not far away, undead groaned.

“Where is she?” Jorus snapped. “Where's my daughter, you perverted fethwit?”

Serenity didn't seem to be working out.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The Bando Gora sneered, eyes glinting behind the shining white skull it wore as a mask. "Not here." It responded, amusement in his tone as Anaya and Parla drew closer, the former practically skipping down the empty street, the latter stiff and alert as always. She could feel his anger, bubbling beneath the surface, desperate to be released but restrained by those would Jedi traits of his.

"I'm told its a terrifying thing to feel so helpless where ones child is concerned. Personally, I'd be questioning my own daughters intelligence if she was so easily captured." She came to a halt, just out of Jorus's reach, his lightsaber still in her hand, her own saber staff clipped to her belt, her mocking smile an almost permanent fixture on her face. Being out of arms reach was hardly a safe place to be where Merrill was concerned, but it was like dangling bait. Get too close and you simply give the game away.

"How far are you willing to go to protect Mara, I wonder?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

“There's a part of me,” Jorus said slowly, “that's just a baffled kid in pain asking why it hurts. If I value one thing it's a sense of proportion, and I'm just dumbfounded that you would torture and kill a person I love, a kid, just to see what I'll do. I shouldn't be surprised.”

A cold wind swirled trash around the street.

“I've got limits, Anaya; you're right. I can't stand the ethical dilemma you're putting on me. I don't want to have to decide between my daughter's life and just about everything I believe.” By his sides, his hands tightened into fists until his knuckles popped. He glanced at a flicker of blue and found himself looking himself in the eye, his own reflection in a broken window. “And I refuse.”

Space and the road tore around him, yielded to hyperspace, and accelerated. So did he. His sense of need overrode the limits of his instincts; his sense of direction aimed straight for Mara, wherever she was, no matter how far away. A storm of the Force, a hyperspace tunnel, swept him along faster than a starship. Bitter cold closed around him.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The cold winds rising around them rose goosebumps of pleasure over her skin. Did he think Anaya would let him walk without making a choice? The blue veil of hyperspace yawned around him and Anaya jumped forward to seize his arm as the force storm ripped up the street around them and Anaya felt a lurching sensation somewhere behind her naval and was careful not to make the mistake of letting her eyes drift to watch the rubble tear past them, her only focus was on the Master of the Hyperlanes and where they were headed.

The streets of Mirial's capital city reverted around them ripped apart by the power of the force storm that had brought the here. Hand still clamped tightly on his arm Anaya blinked and assessed their location. "Oh good, she's not left yet." she commented casually, the dark side gathering around her. She looked back at Jorus, and clicked her tongue giving him a look a mother might give child that had disappointing her, before lightning erupted from the fingers clasping his arm.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Between Sith fights and a long, long career in the guts of starships, Jorus knew electrocution like an old friend. His body tensed and froze. His mind went blank and stayed there. His vision blurred around the edges. When he lost his balance and crashed to his knees, he couldn't do much to manage the impact. Rubble rasped against the knees of his armored space suit, and its systems sparked and futzed into uselessness.

Not the military-grade repulsor belt, though.

He fumbled at his waist with a smoking glove, and the belt jolted him a good five metres into the air. The lightning had nowhere to go - no contact with the ground, and a distance a little too far to arc. And for that moment, before he descended again, maybe Anaya hung on or let go, but either way he could think straight.

She had his lightsaber; his blaster was back on Pergitor, half a galaxy away. Nothing in his toolbelt had a prayer against a Dark Lord of the Sith. But did he really have to fight her, much as he wanted to?

The belt kicked in again, accelerating him in the general, instinctively chosen direction of his daughter. That smashed him, and maybe Anaya, into a second-story window.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Do not let go.

Instinct made her want to as Jorus's belt launched them skywards, leaving her dangling from his arm. but if she relinquished her grip she'd lose every advantage she had. She clocked his direction and tensed at the window rapidly approaching them. Wood and glass splinted, finding purchase in her skin, pain made her release her hold and she sucked in a breath through her teeth.

Mala was secured somewhere down the corridor, but she had given her warden two very specific instructions. If Anaya died, kill her. If a rescue was attempted, kill her. The HRD would have to determine if the smashed window was a rescue attempt, and to do that she'd leave Mara unoccupied momentarily. The moment would be too good an opportunity for the likes of Merrill.

"Secure the prisoner!" Anaya yelled, climbing to her feet, clipping Jorus' lightsaber to her belt and retrieving her own. A free hand tugged a large splinter from her thigh, blood oozing slowly down her legs. "I think that's enough running around now, Jorus. I've a job for you."

At the end of the corridor, a HRD stepped out, Mara held tightly in her grasp, a bolter pressed against her temple. Anaya smiled. "And you will do it."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

MIRIAL
CAPITAL CITY

[member="Anaya Fen"]

There was a time, not so long ago, when the Ankarres Sapphire could have burned the infection out of Mara. These days the crystal hung on her wall, back at her castle on Kilia Four - a curio, not a miracle. Not in her hands. Now, as the HRD hustled Mara into the corridor with casual strength, she tore her attention from the bolter pressed against her temple, and knew she might die. The injection site had no feeling to it anymore, and her skin burned all the way up her left arm. She couldn't stop that hand from shaking. The pain was considerable. The adrenaline high felt dirty, wrong, as her body went into overdrive. In half an hour, maybe less, she'd be dead and walking.

"She's going to tell you to cut off my arm," said Mara through numb lips. "I'm fine, Dad. I'm fine."

No weapons, no tools, enough ixetal cilona in her blood to set her head spinning and quiet her Force connection. Options? Not many. For once, she saw her father do nothing, caught by indecision.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya gave a derisive snort. "Stupid girl." She remarked, "You lack imagination. This isn't about either of you really, but sometimes, in order to get a job done you have to push buttons." She looked at Jorus. "I expected....more from you. More of a fight.If i'd known kidnapping children was so effective at crippling I would have done it years ago."

She reached into a pocket and produced a small vial, holding it between finger and thumb. The liquid inside was a rich amber, a cure for the virus. She gave it a small shake then closed her fist around it. "There's something I want you to steal for me, Jorus, something your daughter is familiar with." she tapped her own cheek reflecting the spot on Mara's face that bore a trihexalon burn.

"I've reason to believe, that there is a rather large stash of it on Fondor. I've yet to confirm it but I will. And when I do. You're going to steal it for me."

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

"No, Dad."

Green fireball as big as a mountain. Deaths ringing in the Force. Splash damage right through her shield and her windscreen - she could still feel the scar burn on her cheek.

"Like feth is he going to do that. I'm not worth a weapon of mass destruction. He's not either. It's the wrong choice. Dad, why aren't you saying anything? Gorram it, Dad, tell her you're not gonna do it, tell her Dad, just let her do it, let me die, I need to die, I've been wanting to die ever since-"

She bit off her words; she'd actually said it.

"Since Ilum," said her father quietly. "I know. At some level I always knew. We'll get the upper hand, Mara, but it's not today. I wish I'd talked with you more-" He took a sharp breath and turned to Anaya. "I'll do it."

"No, you won't."

Mara pivoted her head sharply to the side and forced the bolter behind it - a tricky task at the best of times, let alone when high and sick and held in place by a superhuman droid. The bolter fired a split second later; the force of the muzzle blast ripped out hair and deafened her right ear, maybe permanently. For that moment, though, she wasn't a heartbeat away from death. The Force answered her call weakly, but answer it did.

Something futzed in the HRD, deep in its processor. Mara and the droid hit the floor at the same time.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Feth.

Anaya crossed the room in a flash, force spurring her to close the gap between her and Mara before her father could. The cure dropped from her hand to shatter on the floor as she split her saber staff.

Snap-hiss.

One extended towards Mara, its point stopping inches from her face, the other extended towards Jorus. "That was a very expensive droid, little girl. It'll cost you an arm." she spat before turning her attention back to Jorus.

"You will do it?"

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]