Faction Codes and Convictions | LS & TJO

[Feng Huang]

"Tell your cousins, no one outflies the Violet Pheonix in the Lightning Bolt!" Feng laughed and exclaimed back at Kyric .

Feng didn't have time for any more banter however as the TIE's were on her tail. Not for long however when Kael Varnok peeled off half the squadron. Feng nodded. Now all she needed were some sharp turns followed by a long wide street. Feng consulted her holomap.

"There that'll do" Feng muttered.

Feng hanged a sharp right, then left, then right again. A bit basic and predictable but she didn't have time to run the maze as it were. She checked her radar. She'd lost two TIE's on the turns.

"Time for some ballet dancer pirouette flying" Feng muttered to herself.

She hung a sharp vertical, boosting her hyper fuel going straight up. Two ties went straight past where she'd been a moment ago, the other two followed struggling to keep up. Feng shut the boosters off, but kept the controls on. The Lightning Bolt started falling. Feng turned the controls to angle The Lightning Bolt in a direct nose dive to the ground, then added a spin so it looked like a purple drill. Feng turned the boosters back on and started firing. Nailing both TIE's that had followed her in quick succession.

"Wooo Hoo!" Feng exclaimed in victory

She couldn't celebrate too long as the TIE's that had passed her were circling back around. These two were smarter than the others and had dropped standard swarm formation tactics. They were circling in rotation. Fortunately they weren't too smart as they were circling each other in clockwise fashion.

"With the right missile timing I should be able to double tap both of them." Feng murmured concentrating.

She wondered if she was being wise spending her missiles on two unshielded TIE's. Feng hesitated and sighed. She should save her missiles for more series starfighters. She'd have to make do with one of the TIE's. Come back round for another pass.

Feng shifted The Lightning Bolt into a counter clockwise circle, just before the TIE's got in range she shifted over to clockwise. Rapid fire sailed past her even as her own took out one of the TIE's.

The remaining TIE fled. Feng felt the urge to hunt him down angry with herself that this was the second kill to escape. Feng calmed herself with an effort.

A Jedi's purpose was not to kill or seek vengeance. She reminded herself.

"Gold Squadron, this is Violet Phoenix regrouping with you."

 

[Kael Varnok]

The Forkblade cut a vicious arc across the sky, contrails burning like scars over Hanna City. Kael's HUD blinked green as Feng Huang fighter fell back toward Gold Squadron's position.

He keyed the commlink. "Nice flying, Violet Phoenix. But save the hunt for another day—regrouping is the right call. Chasing scraps only gets you killed." His voice carried that rough-edged authority of someone who'd learned the lesson in blood.

For a moment, his pupils constricted again, slitting as the darker voice coiled in his head. "Weak. Let her chase. Let her kill. Why chain the predator?" He blinked it away quickly, jaw tight.

"Gold Squadron, form up on me," Kael continued, his tone sharpening back to business. "We've got evac ships to cover, and the enemy's bringing bigger fire. Stay sharp, follow my lead, and we'll keep the skies clear long enough to get those people out."

He shoved the yoke forward, the Forkblade screaming down like a hunting hawk. "Phoenix, on my wing. Let's show them how it's done."

 

[Vizion Trozky]

TIES THAT BIND
SHIRAYA'S SANCTUARY ☛ GALLO MOUNTAINS ☛ NABOO
​

Out of all of the members of the High Council, Knight Vizion Trozky was not typically one to be swayed by emotion, and yet… that harrowing feeling had provoked fear. Fear that had been more difficult to quell than it’d been in years, and a frisson of anger when he learned what had happened on Sepan, which had almost removed the woman he loved from his life.

An anger that quickly gave way to relief and thankfulness that her assailant had been dealt with, but the anger wasn’t forgotten in the wake of that solace, not when his training drove him to meditate on it, understand it, and turn it into something useful — the drive to continue his work in spite of what had happened.

He tried not to linger in the medical wing most days, knowing that Briana was in the capable hands of the people there… but it didn’t keep him from ruminating in his thoughts. There had finally been change in his relationship with her, an admittance that she felt the same as him. But still, it would take time, and by the time he came to find the group of Lightsworn and High Councillors, departing from his morning’s work in the silence of the council chamber, the present reality of his private life was squared away in his mind.

These concerns didn’t change anything for him, the itch to do what his training and beliefs demanded of him was still alive and well, as was the need to work to let go when called for. To not sit idly by, but to do what he could and must as an investigator and hunter to eliminate a problem.

And there was much that was problematic in the galaxy.

Having picked up on the conversation with enhanced hearing on the way to them, hearing the recent words from each of the Councillors, and how the Lightsworn representatives responded, Vizion let himself into the room with no fanfare, and looked first to Bran, then to Lorn (one the frequent detractor, the other often middling if not aligned with the former) before offering a tip of his head to their visitors.

“Masters Ashina,” he greeted, “Knight Vizion Trozky. Apologies for my late arrival.” He was one to spend more time listening, than speaking, but he had heard and seen enough in recent months. In recent years. “Here’s a thought... the head’s already been cut off of these particular snakes before, and they grew new ones. How do you suppose that will be dealt with?”

He frowned, faintly. Every time these Sith came at the Core, it put his family at risk. His and so many others, in that most populated region in the galaxy... but he also knew there was historical precedent. Two examples, at least, that were put to an end.

"That's all I need: to know there's even the possibility of a permanent solution, this time."

Brandyn Sal-Soren • Henna Ashina • Inosuke Ashina • Lorn Reingard​

 

[Kyric]

Seconds after Blue Squadron moved into position on the rooftops overlooking the position where Red and Green disappeared, another explosion rocketed the city. A plume of black smoke rose skyward, this time closer to the market square. Kyric scanned the terminal and discovered one of the soldiers had survived the mysterious attack, but their dot blinked rapidly. Their life support systems had activated in a last ditch effort to keep the milita-man alive.

The blinking stopped not long after. Still, they persisted on.

"Incoming transmission from Blue-3!" Oroia called out.

Kyric watched a projection manifest from the communications terminal nearby. The blue-white light depicted a ruined street, fissured by the continued explosions. Surrounding buildings had collapsed into rubble. Speeders shattered into fiery husks of burning metal.

"Blue-3 has switched off their life support, sir! He's using what's left to give us eyes on the creature!"

Blue-3's perspective put him half buried in one of the buildings—a library, maybe. Books were strewn about the room, the leather bound tomes and treated paper catching fire from a nearby speeder blown through the remnants of a window.

Marching away from the scene, directly for the square Kyric and the refugees inhabited, was the biggest, meanest, terentatek the Jedi ever saw. It was nearly double the size of the specimen he studied back on Naboo. And if that wasn't enough, sheets of metal were grafted onto the creatures shoulders and back. A massive plasma cannon grew out the creatures chest, affixed to the durasteel breastplate.

"By the Force..." Kyric rubbed his remaining eye with his good hand. "Where the hell did they get a terentatek?" Even as he said it, he knew the answer. Rumors circulated of a connection between the Syndicate and the Empire, and this all but confirmed it. Black Sun must've captured and transported one of the beasts to Solipsis' elite for modification.

---

Behind Knight Varnok, the remnants of Gold Squadron formed up in a V-formation of dropships. Their armored hulls allowed the slower-moving ships to shrug off some of the damage inflicted upon them by the TIE fighters.

"Master Varnok, on your six!" Gold-2 called over the commlink.

"On it!" Gold-4 answered, veering out of formation to directly ram the smaller starfighter streaking past. An explosion of shrapnel left the dropship's wing damaged and blackened, but the bird wasn't out of the fight. "Woo!"

"Back in formation, Four! We ain't done yet," Gold-1 ordered over the radio. "Varnok is right. You heard Karis. Evac is our prime objective!"

"Yes, sir!" Gold-4 shifted back into formation.

The six dropships unleashed a storm of turbolasers on the stormtroopers approaching the market square. Kael's Forkblade ran circles around their ships, cutting through enemy interceptors and bombers with a supernatural precision. It was captivating to behold—the Force in motion. But they had a job to do, and by the light they were going to do it.

"What the Nether is th-" Gold-6's transmission was cut short as a massive beam of blood red plasma erupted from the terentatek-artillery clomping down the throughfare.

"Scramble!" Gold-1 shouted in turn and the five remaining dropships arced out in a wide semi-circle for the plaza.

---

"Dammit," Kyric snarled at the sight of the sixth dropship blown out of the air. He stepped up beside Oroia and activated the communications terminal with his fist. "Varnok, Feng, hit that durned thing with everythin' you got."

The five remaining dropships descended into the plaza. In the distance, a larger freighter began its descent for the city. Had the Wake returned? Or did some passing spacer hear his plea and come to join the fight? Kyric couldn't be sure, so he dropped the matter entirely. Their position was minutes away from compromised and the protocol droid stationed nearby estimated another six hundred refugees scattered around the market and the nearby buildings.

"All remaining squads rendezvous on the market ASAP!" Kyric ordered.

"Aye-aye," White-1 answered. "We're half a klick out, sir."

"Thirty seconds, sir!" Black-1 said. "These S-IMP's won't know what hit em."

Even with the destruction wrought across the city, Kyric couldn't help but smile. These men hadn't given up. When faced with overwhelming force and monstrosities the likes that belonged solely to nightmare, they fought on.

"Avoid direct contact with the beast. I need every able-bodied soldier here holdin' down this position. Focus fire on the east and western sides. Knights Varnok, Feng, and I will handle the north."

Kyric took a slow, steadying breath and hurried toward the northernmost street leading to the market plaza. This was it. This was where they'd make their stand. If these people were to escape, the kiffar knew the Jedi had to deliver.

"Its do or die, Jedi," Kyric said, his words carried on psychic winds to Kael and Feng. They would feel his presence with them, requesting to be let in as the Jedi Knight borrowed his father's oldest, most devastating technique.

A Force Meld.

---

Tags: Kael Varnok | Feng Huang

 

[Kael Varnok]

The Forkblade screamed low over the rooftops, Kael's knuckles white on the yoke as Kyric's words settled into his mind like molten iron. Do or die. A Meld.

The surge hit him hard. For a heartbeat, the light flared—unity, brotherhood, purpose—then it curdled, like oil spilling into water. His vision doubled. Pupils slit, the predator inside clawing its way forward.

"Yes… meld us. Give me their strength, and I'll show you how a god of war bleeds prey dry."

Kael's teeth clenched, jaw trembling as he blinked hard, once, twice, forcing his eyes back to normal. But the voice didn't recede—it roared with him as the meld snapped into place. Energy flooded his veins, thrumming in time with Kyric and Feng's presences… only Kael's felt jagged, serrated, bleeding raw aggression into the bond.

"Copy, Karis," Kael growled over comms, his tone darker, harsher than before. "Gold Squadron, hold your line. Phoenix, stay tight on me. We'll carve that beast down to nothing."

The Forkblade dove like a rabid hawkbat, cannons shrieking against the Terentatek's armored hide. Kael did not aim for disabling fire. He hammered at joints, at eyes, at anything that would leave the monster in pieces. It wasn't precision—it was punishment.

Inside the meld, Feng and Kyric would feel it. Not just Kael's strength but his rage, a wildfire threatening to consume the harmony they'd called upon.


"This isn't defense" the split hissed. "This is the kill. And you love it."

Kyric Feng Huang

 

[Feng Huang]

Feng saw the Terrantatak.

"Holy cow is that a Terrantatak!"

Feng had always wanted to defeat a sithspawn in battle. She had always imagined it'd be with Master Wu with a lightsaber in hand, but if the thing was taking entire rapid fire passes from starfighters maybe it was better that she was in the cockpit for this one.

"Roger that Gold Leader." Feng confirmed.

Feng waited for her turn to take a run at the monster. Still half wishing she could fight it on the ground. In the jedi legends they had always fought the things on the ground right? A team of noble jedi or even rarely one brave one beating them against the odds.

Feng shrugged off the childhood nostalgia. Either way she was going to be able to claim a terrantatak kill right? Who cares how she did it?

Feng grinned, her heart fluttering with excitement.

This was even better than taking out a whole squadron of TIEs!

"Woo hoo!" Feng let out a double woop of a battle cry as she made her run. She lined the thing up, and launched a concussion missile at the thing.

"Woooo hooo! That thing is totally slagged! There's no way that thing survived!" Feng checked her rear view camera and radar for life signs through the explosions. She circled back round as she did so to get eyeline visual.

The terrantatak roared and came out of the debris angrier then ever.

"Oh come on! That's just no fair!" Feng exclaimed.

Then the Terratetek stumbled groaned and fell over.

"Woof" Feng grunted, slumped into a sigh of relief.

She was glad she hadn't tried to take the thing on the ground.

Kael Varnok Kyric

 

[Kael Varnok]

Kael's eyes narrowed as he tracked the Terentatek's furious thrashing through the smoke. The creature's roars echoed through the streets, shaking the ground beneath them. As Feng made her run, Kael's commlink flickered to life.

"Nice hit, Phoenix," Kael said, his voice steady, almost calm for once. The rage from before seemed distant, like it had been swallowed up by the force of his recall. "That thing's tougher than it looks, though. You ever fought one on the ground?"

The Forkblade soared low, his ship weaving between the buildings as he cut through the wreckage, evading flak and fire from the monster.

He exhaled slowly as his thoughts drifted back to a mission long ago, a shadowed memory he could still taste.

"Last time I ran into a Terentatek, it was on a scout mission, tracking a rogue Sith out near Onderon. The thing nearly tore a squad of local soldiers apart. It's no easy kill on the ground. You can bring the fight to them from the air, but up close… that beast will tear you to pieces if you're not careful. You're better off using the distance."

His voice softened slightly, as if the memory of that fight still lingered in his bones.


"But with that last hit… I'm not reading life signs on my HUD. I'd say it's gone for good." He paused, letting the quiet assurance of the moment settle in. "Good work, Phoenix."

Feng Huang Kyric