Private Communion

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Tegaea Alcori

Once again, the hangar had erupted in chaos. The walker was firing at anything that moved. Elpsis' hearing had slowly returned to her. Looking around, she saw Natalie was down. "Nat?" Her ears were still ringing badly and her body burnt.
"Kill it," a battered Natalie retorted. She sounded in pain, but tried to crawl away.

Then Elpsis heard Hasana and saw her charge. The pyromancer focused. "Champions, hit it with all you got." She had to quickly dash away as the walker fired and blaster fire hammered the ground. Pain shot through her flag and she stumbled. Fire burst from her hands. But it was not enough. It could annoy the walker, but not much more. Power flowed through her energy as she tried to draw upon the vestiges of energy she had left. She was tired and in pain, but it did not matter. She needed more.

In that moment, she felt Diona brush against her mind. Meld, the former Inquisitor spoke. All of us. For a split-second, an image floated inside her mind. Of three Tephriki Jedi attacking her in perfect unison, with Diona at the helm. Where she blocked one blade, two others swept towards her in a perfectly synchronised attack.

She also heard Rhea. I'm supposed to let you in?! She felt the Rattataki's anger and panic. Trauma that went back to her cruel treatment at the hands of her sadistic Master. She saw Hasana facing the walker, and her decision was made. Trust me. Trust us. Meld. Her barriers dropped. She felt Diona reach out. Mental tendrils spread from one Champion - the Force-Sensitive ones at any rate - to the next. She felt Diona, Nuroch, Rhea, Zhaleh and Sienn. Fuelled by all of them, a powerful Force blast rippled from her towards the mechanical terror.

Meanwhile, Vagt had recognised that his plasma cannon would do him little good and tossed it away the moment the walker entered. Then he bolted. This was probably a good idea since his cover was shredded. Thus he ended up at Phrana's hideout when the Qadiri started assembling the missile launcher. "I'll load," he said simply. Without further ado, they put the weapon together.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

Elpsis Kerrigan

Phrana suddenly had a large dog like creature appear beside her. The wonders of the galaxy and its many species were always a surprise to her. However, she knew he was a valiant soldier and gave commands with authority.

Instantly she continued her work, slotting the launcher together and locking it in place.

“Ready,” she said in accented Basic.



Hasana continued to hack at the legs of the walker. It wasn’t especially effective, but she was leaving cuts and burns over the legs, and clearly that was irritating the crew as they repeatedly tried to stamp on her. It was all she could do was avoid being trodden on.



Meanwhile the distraction was enough for the melding of the Champions. A final devastating blast of telekinetic power slammed into the front of the walker, tearing off the main guns and exposing a large area of the plating. This was the opening.



Phrana took aim. Vagt rammed the missile home. It fired, aiming straight and true for the exposed area….

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Tegaea Alcori

"Fire in the hole!" Hopefully Vagt's warning would alert Hasana about the fact that a big explosion was imminent and that she should get away. It came just as the Deathstrike missile was loaded into the launcher. Phrana took aim and depressed the trigger. The Lance roared and the missile soared through the air. Steered by a complex guidance system, it slammed into the walker's front, exploding beautifully.

The walker's outer layer of plating had already been breached, and so there was nothing stopping the Deathstrike from shattering its armour. A Model One Deathstrike could easily damage a heavy walker, and this was an AT-ST type construct. As a result, the walker was ignited as fire spread across it, and collapsed to the ground.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

Elpsis Kerrigan
Hasana heard and saw the actions and dived for cover, throwing the lightsabre away from herself as she did so it switched off. She didn’t want to land on it after all!

The missile struck with surgical precision and detonated. With a flare of flames and shower of debris it stumbled and crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar.



In the aftermath there was just the crackling of flames and the sounds of the survivors.

Hasana got up, retrieving the lightsabre and surreptitiously buffing it. She hoped Darana would not notice the scratches on the casing!



Walking over to the Champions as her survivors emerged she laid a hand on Elpsis’ shoulder.

“You did well, Lieutenant. Thank you. Now let’s blow this thing and go home.”

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Tegaea Alcori

"Yeah, let's go." Elpsis did not really respond to praise or hand it out. "We made a good team. Sienn, call the shuttle."
"Yes, ma'am."
Elpsis looked around. No member of the squad was not bruised, battered or bloodied in some way. Natalie could not walk unaided. Rhea and Reverence were hurt and she knew Nyssa was a mess back on the shuttle. Tahoka could need medical care and a stern word. And there were others. But they were alive. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, after a couple minutes, the shuttles approached the hangar bay. The Qadiri soldier called Xyral opened the doors and the shuttles came in to land. Soldiers from both teams started embarking. On her end, Elpsis the last one aboard. Once the shuttles had taken off and had built up enough distance, she depressed the detonator.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

Elpsis Kerrigan
Contrary to what one might think based on holovids or the ‘rule of cool’, there was sadly no sound in space. However, Elpsis’ actions caused a bright flare of light as the interior of the asteroid was gutted by an explosion. Moments later the FO planted explosives also detonated, reducing the asteroid to fragments.



Fortunately they had been able to recover both their shuttles, and in the confusion they could see some of the First Order fighters milling around in disorder. By activating their stealth features they could slip away.



“Ma’am, one extra shuttle seems to have left the asteroid just before it exploded,” Xyral commented.

“Some of the rats had sense to leave. Hopefully they didn’t get anything too valuable with them,” Hasana grunted.

At the least though they had seriously destroyed the renegade’s ability to make weapons, their stockpiles and liberated the slaves. It had been a successful mission.



The Qadiri had mostly been evacuated on the other shuttle for space reasons, but the reports coming in to Hasana were as well as could be expected.



When they were safely in hyperspace Hasana headed over to Elpsis.

“The ‘workers’ we rescued are malnourished and some have some injuries, but nothing life threatening. We’ll get them checked out and temporarily housed on the Arx before we resettle them. I’ll ensure there’s some medics waiting for your and my troops who need it. It was good fighting alongside you, we’ll have to do it again some time,” she said with a sigh.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Tegaea Alcori

The Firemane shuttle was overflowing with the wounded. Most injuries were not life-threatening, but the air was filled with the smell of blood, gauze and band aids. Nyssa's wounds looked ghastly when Elpsis approached her. The Pureblood's armour had been removed and Shikoba was seeing to her. Unsettling Force energies coalesced around the Vashyada. "Hey," Nyssa said tiredly, wincing in evident pain despite her best efforts. "Heard you blew up another bot. All these Firsties do is hide behind machines."

Elpsis did not reply. Instead she glanced to Shikoba. "How is she?"
"Her body has been leaking. Many spirits want her."
"They get in a queue," Nyssa grunted.
"They won't have her today."
"What the hell was that stupid stunt about?" Elpsis demanded.

"Saw a chance. Took it. Someone had to do it. You couldn't roast them both."
"And so you just charged the damn thing without any thought or coordination."
"Technically, I jumped," Nyssa said with a chuckle that became a pained cough.
"I'm not in a joking mood. It's not just the two of us anymore. We've got a bunch of trainees. If...something happens to me, you're the one they'll look to for leadership. Believe it or not, a bunch of 'em look up to you. Now they may no matter..."
"They do," Nyssa mumbled a bit too quickly. "If they got themselves killed through their own foolishness, it would reflect poorly on me as a trainer," she corrected. Elpsis suppressed a sigh, not knowing whether to slap or kiss her. It was a common reaction with Nyssa.
"But fine," Nyssa said rather irritably. "I know that look. It's the Elpsis self-flagellation one."
"It's not...self-whatever." Elpsis said visibly annoyed. "Should have questioned that Journey woman more and brought better ordnance."
"Deed's done. The Firsties are dead and we won."
"Yeah, we did."
"I do need to continue my work, ma'am," Shikoba insisted. "Undisturbed. A great many require my care. You are, incidentally, one of them."
"Carry on," Elpsis said flatly. Reaching out, she gave Nyssa's hand a squeeze and left. There were many more soldiers to see to and they had a long trip back to the Arx ahead of them.

FIN