Private Crash and Burn: An Invasion Story

[Kaila Irons]

Continued from the invasion...​

Location: Brosi, entering atmosphere
Wearing: Armor
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Tamsin Graves Rinea

<<"...Anathemous... going down... coordinates to... follow...">>

Fire swallowed her cockpit upon reentry into Brosi's skies.

Kaila just stared blankly at the clouds as they grew larger and larger. There wasn't any point in fighting it really, fate had won it's due, finally caught up like she knew it would. And though she could feel Tamsin Graves out there still, it was highly likely she'd sensed a corpse floating in the vacuum.

Let the force take her, she decided, slumping back in her seat.

She didn't want to live in a world where she'd failed failed her sister.

By blood or by oath, she was all Kaila had now, the last thing she was trying to protect from fate. Maybe the mission didn't matter anymore. Not the power. Not vengeance, not destroying the Force for everything it had done...

No...

"Aaagh!" Kaila punched the controls.

She wasn't dying here for some immortal tyrant and she wasn't giving up on killing the one who took her sister from her.

But first she had to survive.

The sentient starfighter shrieked as Imperial Confederation anti-air lit up the skies, flashes of green plasma and rings of black smoke cast an eerie sheen against the viewport as she wrenched control, trying to glide the ship into a crash landing even as flak shook her violently. Her single remaining Ion-engine continued to sputter and smoke all the while, painting a streak of smoke and flames across the sky as her craft went careening towards the spindly remains of trees that no longer supported life.

Candorian Blight had ravaged this world even before the war.

The virus meant her chances of survival were freakishly low, especially if the viewport burst on impact.

All Kaila could do was wipe away her tears and slip into her mask, carefully screwing in the oxygen tubes with a pressurized hiss, hoping it would keep the poison out of her lungs. From there she just had to survive the crash, and pray to the Fanged God someone could locate the SOS beacon.

Maybe then she could kill these Imperial bastards.

​

 

[Tamsin Graves]

OBJECTIVE III
// CALLSIGN: Ronin-2 //​

Location: Brosi, Entering Atmosphere
Theme: Monster
Wearing: Space Suit
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Kaila Irons | Rinea

In this moment a battle of wills was going on and the Demon and the Girl were intertwined one but separate. The Fighter called the Beast screamed into the atmosphere at the will of the girl, but the Demon tried to fight it at every inch they drew closer to the surface. It did not care if the sister died it cared not if anyone died life did not matter this reality was fake to it and needed to perish with all the wickedness and sin it had created.

Its war on existence and the torturing of fate was more important than a single life even its own if it meant it won in the end and the dark consumed this reality, taking it back to the primordial. The Girl fought against the demon with all its emotion and fury because one life mattered more than anything to her. She did not want a reality without her teacher, mentor, best friend, and most of all her sister.

Kaila Irons was her life ever since the fated day on Tatooine. Empires, Republics, Rebels, outlaws, and religious orders be damned. They, along with the worlds they inhabited could all burn to cinder in the fires of entropy for all she cared, as long as she and Kaila stood tall at the end of it all. The demon wanted to destroy fate, Tamsin wanted to outlive it with the one person who had ever given damn about her.

The Beast rocked through the atmosphere, shaking as the flames of friction scorched at its sides. It did everything it could to maintain control as the two voices battled for supremacy and control. Shouts of rage and fury even the beast in its state of torment hadn't felt. There was a destructive powerful swelling of dark energy in the cockpit, a beacon that could be felt long and far.

The beast was having a hard time keeping track of the falling ronin-1 but neither voice would let it slow its pace. It felt like it was going to break apart from both the external friction and the internal dark energy swirling. None knew the horrors of the hellscape bellow and as they came in fast as they approached anti-air began firing on them.

"I am coming sister…" A strained voice in the void of the mind reached out hoping the message would reach her sister. "Be alive or I swear I will kill you!"

​

 

[Kaila Irons]

// CALLSIGN: Ronin-1 //​

Location: Brosi, Blighted forest
Wearing: Armor
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Tamsin Graves

"WARNING: WARNING: PULL_UP-"
Kaila disabled the warning system in a flash.

The ground was coming closer and the ride bumpier as she and Ronin-1 continued to dive. The stick jittered every time she fought it for control, but still she managed to fall at an angle that was...

...well, her death wouldn't be instant.

She started to slip back into that steep dive as her vision became clouded, and tried to wipe away her visor, but her shaky hand barely lifted. It was in that moment, too little too late, she realized the jittery ride had more to do with her ailing strength than the atmosphere. She was becoming too weak to fight gravity's pull, but why?

The slow onset of pain in the back of her head clued her in. Right where the wires and tubes were plugged in.

"...chit..." she muttered from dry lips.

"I am coming sister…" A strained voice in the void of the mind reached out hoping the message would reach her sister. "Be alive or I swear I will kill you!"

<<"Tamsin... is that you?">> a psychic whisper was returned.

<<"I thought... you were... dead.">>

Her voice was weak, half way between a cry of relief and just a cry.

Kaila's telepathy was taxing however, stunted by her refusal to invade minds the way her master had.

"Nn."

<<"I think my ship is consuming me.">>

The tubing in her skull flushed red with blood and life-force being siphoned into the sentient beast's cursed circuits, supplying power where fuel was now failing. Her course became erratic as the young Darth reached for the tubing, twisting her head from side to side while she yanked the cord connecting her to Ronin-1.

"Nnh!"

It was trying to survive.

She didn't blame it, she'd have done the same if she were turned into a mechanical monstrosity, but right now getting back to her sister was more important and she would not allow her story to end as some beast's blood bag.

"Ngh-Gah!"

Finally the cord came out of her skull, sparks and blood spraying on her controls.

But without it's living battery, the ship was losing power.

<<"Tamsin, I can't keep her up. I'm about to hit the forest. diverting power to entropic-blade hull.">>

No sooner than the message went out did her ship slam into the tree tops, it's shielded hull slicing through trunks which may have crushed her inside otherwise. Branches snapped and splinters flew, followed by an explosion of dirt and stones as Ronin-1 slid through the ground, leaving a great trench in it's wake.

One wing bent, the other snapped off entirely.

But the hull continued to screech along unscathed until finally-

The ship reached a standstill.

​

 

[Tamsin Graves]

OBJECTIVE III
// CALLSIGN: Ronin-2 //​

Location: Brosi, Entering Atmosphere
Theme: Monster
Wearing: Space Suit
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Kaila Irons

<<"Tamsin... is that you?">> a psychic whisper was returned.
<<"I thought... were... dead.">>

The voice that called back barely a whisper but even with the turmoil of control of the mind Tamsin could hear it. It might have been the flow of Dark Magick flowing through her from the Demon that wanted control, or it could be her own determination to save her sister that she heard the calling out into her mind. All that mattered into the Girl was that she knew her sister was alive for the moment.

A tear of happiness at least a glimmer of hope rolled down her cheek as the demon called her pathetic and weak. It made her wonder if the demon cared about anyone but itself and its goals. It had, she could feel it that moment, a glimpse into the demon's life before just a moment, a glimpse that it had loved before, but that love left an empty pit when it faded.

<<"I can tell you later how I survived.">>

<<"I think my ship is consuming me.">>

"Nooo….!" She audibly said as she heard her sister whisper in that whisper, she could feel her pain and frantic nature of it. Regret why she had not shared the technology she had implanted in herself. The mind crown could have prevented it or at least controlled how much the machine could feed on its pilot. Why had she been so damn selfish….dammit why? She didn't know what to do, there was nothing she could do. The beast was going as fast as it could and dancing to avoid taking more damage than it already was. She was out of reach there was nothing she could do. So close but not close enough to pull her sister free from her demise.

Mentally this was all draining as she strained to keep in contact with Kaila. "Do something!" she screamed at the demon in her mind, and it only returned a simple "No". It did not want to let go but was having a hard time fighting against the girl's desire to save her sister. A sigh of brief relief passed Tamsin's lips.

<<"I think my ship is consuming me.">>

It was only a moment though as Ronin-1 hit the tree line of the forested area scorching across the tree tops lighting them ablaze as the ship was ripped apart. Tamsin could do nothing but looked on in horror as the world around her seemed to crumble all at once. She couldn't stop it, but she knew the power was in her to do it was just being blocked from her. She slumped back in her seat as the beast began to slow over the crash site.

Her eyes just stared out unto what she was sure was instant death. That one tear of hope turned into a flood of sadness and loss. As the beast came to a slowed landing in a small opening a little ways off from the crash site.

The demon cackled inside her skull which was pounding with a fully formed migraine. She began undoing all her harnesses and safety mechanisms. As she did, she could faintly feel her sister alive, but it was weak. Even then she couldn't image the damage that had been done from that crash. Still, it wasn't long before Tamsin stepped off the beast in her space suit and looking around the forest that was now smoke filled from the fires the crash had ignited.

She then gave a mental command to the beast as she was a few steps from the area her little legs wobbly from being in space but stable. Telling it to stay low but scout from above the demon had oddly gone quiet, Tamsin could still feel it and its power in her but it had given her the control she had been fighting for. It wanted to see this play out now.

<<"Don't let fate win, fight.>> The message filled with turmoil, worry and sadness that was to late or the message wouldn't reach. <<"I need you.">>

​

 

[Kaila Irons]

// CALLSIGN: Ronin-1 //​

Location: Brosi, Blighted forest
Wearing: Armor
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Tamsin Graves

The ship groaned like a wounded beast as the energized hull flickered, the last of it's power spent.

The machine spirit was ever present, she could feel it even still, but it was entering a deep slumber all around her. The sparks stopped falling on her head, the warning light flickered one last time, leaving her to rest slumped forward against the controls. Panels were cracked and lifeless beneath her helm, one of the straps keeping her safely in her seat having snapped under the metal-boned Darth's unnatural weight.

<<"Don't let fate win, fight.>>

Her fingers twitched.

<<"I need you.">>

<<"I'm... sorry...">> her last thoughts whispered into the force.

<<"I never completed your training.">>

Then all was still in that blighted forest. Gunfire rang distantly as the war raged on for more strategic battlefronts, the undead continued their inexorable march to feed on both Stormtrooper and Sith alike. But here, in these dying woods, the reaper's peace was almost serene.

Kaila did answer as her sister approached that grim wreck, her once imposing figure a mere silhouette in the dark canopy of a ship half buried in nutrient deprived soil, one gloved hand still on the dashboard, refusing to let go of the lever she'd been fighting to pull moments prior, to open the cockpit.

Even as consciousness faded, had done as her sister asked. What she had always done;

Fought.

​

 

[Tamsin Graves]

OBJECTIVE III
// CALLSIGN: Ronin-2 //​

Location: Brosi, Entering Atmosphere
Theme: Monster
Wearing: Space Suit
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Kaila Irons

<<"I'm... sorry...">> her last thoughts whispered into the force.
<<"I never completed your training.">>

As she marched through the burning forest those words hung heavy in her thoughts. It told her, her sister was still alive clinging on and fighting. Yet those words told her of the regret the plagued her sisters heart. She pushed past another tree, one that had not yet been burned by the scorched earth and into the trench of impact zone.

She wanted to tell Kaila that none of that mattered, she gave her something more. That her Kaila had given her the one thing she never thought she would have family. That through that Kaila had made Tamsin stronger than she had ever been. Tamsin fought with her family and for it, even with all training of proper sith etiquette and service to the Order it didn't matter, it never did. She would kill jedi or sith a like in the name of the House of Irons it was the one order she was truly loyal too.

She would fight Emperor's and God's if she had to and even die for the house that her sister had built. If there was a civil war tomorrow the only side she would stand on is the side her sister stood on.

<< "You made me stronger than you know. Just some slave girl on Tatooine an experiment of mad woman. I would be nothing without you." >>

She called out to her sister as she came to one of the ripped off wings of Ronin-. She stopped for a second and reached out to it with her gloved hand and touched. The wing still had a connection to the spirit within the machine. She could feel its pain and agony as she touched, it was dying, and it was fighting to live even in its painful existence of being a spirit trapped in wires and metal. Tamsin pushed further until she could see through it to her sister reaching out for the lever to open the cockpit.

She her mind through the Ronin-1's beast through it even in its weakened stated she pushed it to open the cockpit. She commanded it just getting a drip of the Demon's primordial dark energy. The beast of Ronin-1 tried to fight her, but it could not as it opened its cockpit. With haste Tamsin took off towards the direction of her sister for the fuselage she was in.

Through the trenches of the crash sight crater, burning trees on all sides of her. The ground beneath her feet uneven broken in soil of a dead or dying world. Off in the distances the thrums of war pounded over a world that wasn't even worth fighting for. Through the grounds the crater she ran her tiny legs carrying her with more speed than she knew she was capable of.

Her sights set with blinders unaware of the hordes of undead in the area that had turned their sights towards the crash site as well driven by their attraction to noise. As she reached the site, she saw a sight of mangled and twisted metal. She could feel the heat rising as she approached and she could feel the energy of dark sorcery that had bound the spirit.


She arrived at the now half opened cockpit door and reached down and with all her adrenaline induced strength pulled up on the door to open it wider so she could fit through and get to her sister inside.

She pushed past wires as she called out. "Kaila! Kaila!" until she saw her sister slumped and hanging there by her harness. Tamsin crawled to her pulling out her small knife from her utility belt and began cutting her free from the harness until she was free. Tamsin crawled up to her and held her sister. "Wake up, please wake up." She whispered through her helmet into Kaila's ear. "To any god out there listening don't take her from me." She sobbed as she whispered the words.

​

 

[Rinea]

The sound of an approaching starship joined the ambiance, otherwise composed of crackling flames and the distant thunder of war.

Sound that belonged to a lone shuttle of unmistakable imperial design. It moved at a rushed pace, one that would get all but the more experienced pilots scolded, seeing as its wings closed and landing gear deployed. This wasn't a simple flyby. It was a landing. As the shuttle's feet found purchase in the clearing, very near the Sith's wreckage, the loading ramp soon followed with a hiss.

Out poured a squadron of stormtroopers. At first glance, they may've been the enemy. Yet there was an uncanniness to their armor. Its design was not familiar, and one trooper - a sergeant of some kind - had the Union seal painted in black on his ivory helmet. Behind them was another, a Chiss officer in an all-white uniform.

Rinea noticed Tamsin Graves . She found the woman's body heat and signature to be familiar. With reckless caution, she approached the Sith.

"Is she alive?"

Kaila Irons

 

[Kaila Irons]

Wearing: Armor
Tag: Tamsin Graves Rinea

Light bathed the cockpit once more.

Solar rays revealed the state of Tamsin's sister and the ship as she forced open the hatch.

Blood and cybernetic fluid coated one side of the cockpit, some mixture of the two still spurting from the neural-jack and dripping down the back of her neck from whence it had been pulled.

Slumped there against the controls, her helm laid face first in a panel, the glass cracked and bent inward around it. Beside this lay another series of cracks, this one exactly the size of a gauntleted fist. When cut free from her harness, Kaila's armored body sank forward with a heavy clatter. Dead weight, to anyone unaware of those laminanium bones.

But holding her tight, if Tamsin paid close attention, warmth had not yet left the young Darth's body, nor pulse left her veins.

Outside in the poison air of that blighted forest, the wind carried with it a putrid scent. Movement at the wood's edge, slowly approaching the crash sight drawn by heat and sound.

No heat signatures, not even a discernible uniform.

The dead marched.

​

 

[Tamsin Graves]

OBJECTIVE III
// CALLSIGN: Ronin-2 //​

Location: Brosi, Entering Atmosphere
Theme: Monster
Wearing: Space Suit
Flying: 'Dûr'ashaarai' Starfighter
Tag: Kaila Irons | Rinea

She sat there holding her sister's heavy body against her praying to whatever gods existed. She could feel the warmth of her sister's body, a tiny bit of hope in a dark situation. What could she do? She knew she couldn't carry her sister to whatever safety might be beyond the battlefield. Her ship could only carry one and the beast would protest a different body in the cockpit.

She was at a loss holding her sister there, her mind on her sister and what to do next. Unaware of the hordes converging on them, her eyes drifting around the broken cockpit. The array for comms was damaged in the crash, though it seemed it was trying to transmit out a mayday in a futile attempt to save itself.

War was in full swing when wasn't it in the Sith order, that was their life endless war. The endless cycle the demon had spoken of many times. The broken reality it so wanted to abolish and the slave girl next to the one she declared her sister not wanting it to end not yet. Her mind called out to the beast floating above, telling it to send out a message to the sith to come rescue them though she knew they wouldn't come in time.

Tamsin held Kaila tightly as she promised she would protect her and be at her side in the end. "Hold on." She whispered between sobs and heavy breathing in her suit. She leaned her helmeted head against her sisters. She didn't know how much time had passed when she heard a voice at first thinking it was just a delusion of her mind or the demon playing tricks on her.

"Is she alive?"

She looked around and through broken wires and cockpit debris she could just make out the outline of someone. The voice muffled and distorted by debris and sounds of crackling she did not recognize it, and her senses were focused on her sister, so she did not yet realize who it was. Even if it was the enemy, she could not deny help if it had come, she knew it. She wanted more than anything to save her sister Empires be damned.

"Yes, she is hanging on but desperately needs medical attention." Tamsin cried out not caring if she was now captured by the enemy. "I need help to get her out of here, she….she." She wasn't sure if she should say but dammit this was her sister's life.

"She has metal bones so I can't carry her out, please help if you can?"

​