Crystal Clear

[Kiskla Grayson-Matteo]

Aeten II; Abandoned Mining Facility​

[member="Jacen Cavill"]
With the impending threat of war on the horizon, The Republic needed to buckle down and make sure it was stronger than the opposition. Considering Mandalorians had an advantage with their Beskar against lightsabers, it would begin to wear down on their weaponry. So the obvious rebuttal? More cowbell. And also, stronger weapons. Most lightsabers received their crystals from Ilum — it was a Padawan’s first voyage to test themselves beyond a physical nature. But with a little poking and prodding, the ever-curious councillor had discovered that the Aeten system hosted a wealth of stygium crystals that would assist the impending plight.

Explanations aside, that was why the blonde reconciler was touching down on the ashen terrain of Aeten II. It had been a long time since any mining had been undertaken on this surface, and Kiskla was prepared with certain prerequisites. Why had she been sent? Well, it seemed these days that she was the only one with a silver tongue who could ease the masses in times of unrest should anything go awry. When it came to wild space, there was no telling what sort of vindictive soul was out here with a hostile view toward The Republic. She had brought neither of her usual travel companions. Grandmaster [member="Carn Dista"] knew where she was, and that was all that was necessary for this mission.

There was a whine of decompressing air as the ramp of her Republic-lent vessel lowered. Immediately heat rushed toward her, and coloured her cheeks as her metallic convoy rolled out after her. Immediately, their scanners were alive as they followed the charted map for where the last reserve of stygium had been indicated by researchers after the graug plague.

They were in an isolated area as far as civilization was concerned. This excavation would be minimal and undisturbed, hopefully. As the droids went about their work, the blonde clad in black observed the features unique to the planet’s surface. Among them, were the mysterious mists which rose regularly from the ground where the heated lakes of lava splashed against the unyielding curves of mining walls and mesas. This fog in the steaming waste land added to the sense of abandonment. Neither the mists, nor the thread of agitated locals troubled Kiskla, however, as she made her careful way up the rocky arroyo to oversee the landing area that the droids were to begin working in. Up the arroyo, too far up to be seen from below, a pebble trickled loose from the stone wall. Kiskla paused until the tiny figure which had accidentally dislodged the pebble retreated mouselike into the shadow.

 

[Darron Wraith]

Aeten II; Abandoned Mining Facility​

​

​

Twisted and corrupted eyes viewed the destruction before him from behind the armor that covered his face and body. The heat from the nearby magma was intense, and threatened to cause his damp cape and hood to erupt into flames. Had he not been one who specialized in energy absorption, and enhancing his own physical abilities he'd be a bit worried about his survival. The circumstances at hand did little to even bother him, he had trained in far worse conditions. Smoldering ruins of a ship that had been near the facility he was trying to get beginning to die down as their wasn't much left. Bodies littered the area, the Mandalorian crew all lay dead. Craters in the ground around the ship revealed evidence of a battle that had taken place, and even larger craters were closer to the bodies of the deceased. Droids lay ripped apart, and a few soldiers had met the same fate. Others had the misfortune of having lightsaber burn marks on their Beskar and in other unarmored areas of their bodies.

What looked like a long drawn out fight had only taken less than a minute. Cavill literally had come in like a wrecking ball. The poor soldiers didn't know what hit them, to them he was a blur of motion and power. As precise as their shots were, he and his blade were too quick. Their armor was strong, but his aim with his powers and his blade was better. However much training they had received, and how strong they were mattered little. Darth Kryptus was Echani trained, and his physical abilities literally meant he could snap men in two if he got his hands on them. To their credit, they had fought as a unit and tried to get him within a kill box. All their little tricks might have worked had they been prepared for him. A box meant nothing if your opponent could fly out of it, and Jacen had repeatedly done that during the short little skirmish.

Still hovering above the scene, Kryptus descended to the ground. He had come here for the Stygium, he needed it for his own personal reasons. Blas-Tech needed more materials for more cutting edge weapons, and he wanted to get a leg up for his own personal vendettas. The lack of a stealth ship had almost been his undoing the last time he had publicly fought. That thought had been his entire reasoning for coming, and it didn't hurt to kill some Mandalorians. With the Empire gone, he was a Champion of chaos now, and he intended to make the galaxy play by his rules. The ground sank in with each of his hurried steps as he headed towards the facility, the doors ripping open with a wave of his hand.

Jacen was a true monster of the Force, and he felt something just as talented as himself coming close. Let them come, they can meet the same fate as those before them. Memories of the skirmish played in his mind, and his adrenaline continued to pump. Darkside energy coalesced within him as he fed the monster within himself, Cavill was craving more war. Hopefully he would get it.

[member="Kiskla Grayson"]

 

[Kiskla Grayson-Matteo]

The isolated area had felt isolated for a good half hour or so while the droids went about their business trying to track down whether or not their scanners were returning information on the stygium crystals. The depths of the resources were certainly impressive, and taking some time to uncover. During these handful of minutes, nothing had perturbed their hunt. That was until everything happened rather quickly.

From her perch within the abandoned facility, Kiskla gripped her stomach. She was not an empath, in fact she was largely blind to emotions unless people were dying. Guess what. People were dy—correction. Dead. People were dead. It happened so quickly, so severely, and so savagely, that Kiskla hadn’t the time to react even if she wanted to. Which was woefully ironic for someone who was so in touch with time and historic events as they occurred across the galaxy. She snapped to attention, finding her footing quickly as she skimpered along the perimeter walls that encircled the what-had-been-mine. From this vantage point, she could see her silver droids glinting in the heated mists, and make sure they didn’t tread too near to the small river of molten rock that ran singularly through the area; coming from a steady downpour from the an opening to the outside on one of the walls.

Once again, she didn’t have to wait long, nor did she have to initiate the investigation. With a telekinetic grip, the iron doors crumpled on themselves. A heavy, resounding footprint stomped forward and The Force rippled in indication to her that this was not a friend. It was in fact a signature she had felt before a while ago on Coruscant. She had been busily assisting the evacuation of Senators at that time—but this was indeed an echo of that presence.

Cerulean gaze fastened on the doorway as she adjusted a command on her hip, registering the droids below to activate whichever sort of weapons they were armed with. The Republic was supposedly a peaceful government, but they weren’t stupid. Everyone hand some sort of defence ability to them. After the droids below began to whirr and adjust their programming, her palm touched the hilt of one of her blades crossed at her lower back and she crouched, looking across and down at the entrance. She had the higher ground at this point, yes, but that’d never served her as optimally as one would assume.

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Darron Wraith]

[member="Kiskla Grayson"]

His path clear, Kryptus marched forth through the opening and into the Stygium facility. Smoke billowed from a few shattered consoles, and his crimson tinted HUD and visor had to lower in brightness for a moment from the sparks that were flying. The hum of his lightsaber and a few isolated beeps were all he heard within the facility, it was as if there wasn't a living soul. Marching forth, he began to look around for anything that would tell him where to go. Schematics and spies were only so good, and he knew that information could change within a moment's notice. With all the fighting that was going on, and the political tensions, Cavill took his informants words with a grain of salt at best. It wasn't as if he could ask them now if what they had said was still true, he had killed them both only a few moments ago.


Reaching deep within himself, Jacen let his rage seep out into the Force. What was stoic and full of life suddenly bent to his will, and the native of Serenno let that power reach out into the facility. Death was the first thing that stuck out to him, the second was that he wasn't alone in the slightest. His senses attuned, it took only a half second for him to look up at the level above him to where the light was emanating from. His throat cleared, and he was about to speak when a digitized voice sounded over the comm unit built into his helmet. "Sir, sensors have been triggered. A few ships are inbound to your situation." A quick glance at his menu muted his own helmet to where his words could only be heard to the droid speaking to him. "How long Mar?" More beeping echoed, and then the droid answered.

"Maybe ten minutes at the most, and they are bringing quite a force. Your odds of survival drop significantly for each minute you remain on Aeten II." Jacen scoffed, and arrogance and rage laced his words. "They will need more than some cheap guns to handle me, I will deal with them as well after this little distraction. Only use this channel if you have pertinent information. Kryptus out." The radio switched off in his helmet, and he turned the speaker back on that made his voice much grave and darker than what it actually was. Idly flicking his lightsaber, he realized the smoke was clearly further as he spread his feet into his Djem-So stance. Looking up at the source of the Force energy, he finally addressed what was above him. "I'm not here for you Jedi, but get in my way and I will kill you. Make your choice and prepare yourself to become a Mandalorian's prized possession or get the feth out of here."

Blasters then fired, and all hell broke loose as a hundred different things happened within a split second.

Pulling his rage back into him, Jacen made himself the axis of the Force as his energy flooded his own body. Darkside power flowed into every sinuous fiber of muscle and wrapped itself around him. Pulling off the living Force as well, he coated himself in his rage, making a shield from the energy barrage. Barely wrapped in that cocoon of power, Cavill's eyes turned yellow and red under his helmet as the world around him slowed down. He quickly assessed the droids, and he dealt with them in the same fashion a boot deals with an ant. A lightsaber slash here beheaded one, another two handed slash bisected another. As he whirred on those attacking him, he sprinted at one and planted a firm kick directly into it's chest. His boot went right through it's durasteel breastplate and through the back as he stomped it into the ground before beheading it as well.

One last droid ran up behind him with it's little staff, and Jacen batted it away before reaching to grab it's head with his free hand. It was based off the old Magna-Guards, and he could tell it wasn't used to being disarmed so powerfully and so quickly. "Ant, meet boot." Dark energy flooded through his hand, and he crushed the droids head in as it's systems came to a complete stop. Releasing his grip, he turned to the upper level and simply bent his legs and launched himself up and onto the area where the Jedi was. Pointing his red blade at the woman, he practically growled at her behind his helmet.

"You made your choice I see." Then he lunged at her too.

 

[Kiskla Grayson-Matteo]

As per Kiskla’s usual agitations, the droids proved useless and they were quickly rendered as such by the intruder. Or was she the intruder? Either way, he was definitely not a Mandalorian so in all fairness they were both intrusive individuals.
If not protection, the droids did provide one thing; insight. From her vantage point, Kiskla could trace the movements of the darksider and partially evaluate how he planned to dissect her. Djem So seemed to be his primary form, which he revealed without hesitation. Speed and brute strength were also two of his assets — one she was lacking. Conclusively, he didn’t second guess things. It was difficult to see anything truly revealing due to the armour, but then again, she was no Master Liadain and kinetic communications may as well be mute.

As soon as that carnage was over, the attentions re-focused to her. He likely intended for this to be swift, as it had been for the deaths she had felt minutes ago and for her droids. Alas, she was not a Mandalorian warrior nor a research droid. Time seemed to be something he enjoyed demolishing, whereas she intended to save it. Mandalorian deaths on mandalorian territory bode well for no-one, but his threat to become a prized possession rang true; but not if she could talk her way out of it. Detainment. That was going to be the objective here. He wanted death, she demanded time, but not in a cataleptic way.

His lunge met her own onslaught. A roaring wave of The Force that manifested as a telekinetic bellow before his blade was two meters from her. With this amount of time, she mobilized. Or, at least one of her did. She wouldn’t be Mandalorian property, nor would she be skewered. Kiskla split into two, visually. Weaving her visual representation into the folds and knolls of The Force, the woman manipulated a striking image of herself to remain where Kiskla had been. For added effect, the doppleganger ignited what looked like a cerulean blade. In reality, the vision was dead in The Force and nothing more than a poor mirage — Kiskla was not adept at White Current, but it would be enough to buy her more time; a guaranteed distraction as her actual frame disappeared from sight as she had been taught; manipulating her surroundings like an opaque veil. It wasn’t running so much out of cowardice, but to buy herself some more time. From what she’d assessed, he was fast and brutally strong without any sort of hinderance; whereas Kiskla had all sorts of hinderances. Never mind morality!

"Oh yeah?" Came the echoed voice of hers, that projected about the oval-curved walls of the facility. Her accent bounced from crevice to crevice, and was loud enough to be heard above the gurgling flow lava. "What's a Sith doing in Mando territory?" While she spoke, she conserved her energies and kept herself wrapped in the curtain of the white current while several meters away, yet still adjacent to where her doppleganger had been standing. There had been a rumour mill spinning whispers about the Mandalorians and Sith uniting as a singular brute Force. If she made it out of this alive, it could be just enough to report back to The Republic with confirmation.

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Darron Wraith]

Cavill lunged, acceleration met another Force. Well, the FORCE for that matter as it came roaring directly into him. Did it take him down? Why no, but it sure did slow him down to a halt as he braced against it. For all his rage, power, and the burning fury that powered him, he hadn't simply given all his effort into the lunge. Hermetic seals struggled against the blast, but his helmet held firm. Looking around at his surroundings, he saw that the little display of lightside energy had leveled a few crates. Rumbling from below let him know the lava deposits were still flowing quite well, and the facility was just as it was. Jacen's helmed visage turned to look at the woman before him, her cerulean blade now activated before him. Damn, must it always be the pretty ones? That thought was from the far distant part of his mind that was still the young noble from Serreno.

The creature from the darkside that had taken over was what spoke out loud for the man.

"What a monumental waste of the Force, and potential." Dark tendrils of power reached out, and grasped one of the crates on their level, while also grabbing an exposed pipe from one of the concave walls. Will power, and a lack of morality powered the furnace that was his heart. There was no hesitation as he stepped back from his opponent and let the objects fly at near ballistic speeds into the woman standing before him. A distinct crash could be heard as they went THROUGH the woman and instead hit the wall. Instantly realizing he had been duped, Jacen reached further into the monster that was Kryptus as the two became so intertwined they couldn't be distinguished anymore. The axis of the entire galaxy once again shifted, and behind his helm his eyes began to burn further red.

Kryptus was the center of the universe, and he was hunting for [member="Kiskla Grayson"] now.

His senses were reaching across the entire facility, but he could only hear her voice. "Very clever, you're smarter than most." Cavill's deep, augmented voice echoed across the chambers. Idle fingers turned a dial on his wrist band, and his acoustic sensors began to pick up more noise in the room. Block out yourself from the Force all you want, I can still hear you. Her location immediately popped up on his Heads-Up-Display, and the hum of his lightsaber immediately stopped as he clipped the hilt to his waist. "Sir, the Mandolorians will be on the planet within five minutes. You better make haste." Reaching onto his belt, he pulled two of the Thermal Detonators Blas-Tech made. Turning their detonation to "contact-mode," he responded to where his droid could only hear him. "I'm aware, thank you." A minute beeping sound could be heard, and without a second of hesitation he launched the explosives towards the corner of the room his Jedi pest was located at. The darkness powered their acceleration to near bullet speeds, and Jacen continued to walk into the heart of the facility.

"You're not the target Jedi, but you shouldn't ever get in my way." Just as the words left his mouth, he headed towards the stygium as the Thermal Detonators exploded on contact.

 

[Kiskla Grayson-Matteo]

Kiskla didn’t even have time to appreciate the hilarity of her genius. Her light eyes tracked his movements, making assumptions to his target after his explanation of her interference. At that instant, a powerful roar of flame erupted around her in a deafening shout — the kind Republic soldiers trained with, and how to continue when your ears were ringing from the pain. How did she know this? Because members of the RAF received similar training. Danger alerted all around her. Kiskla began telling time in a series of instants; the flames bubbled forth, hungry for their heat to make her skin boil and cause immortal anguish. Not this fire, nor the next.

Shavit.
Within seconds of her cuss, she became visible to defend herself — she had been made, anyways. Her palms snapped up to protect herself, summoning her greatest ally to her side. A culmination of light particles immediately snapped to attention, demanding that she form them into something worthwhile. Even as a mistress of Art of the Small, she couldn’t douse the amount of particles that were exploding around her. As soon as the ripple detonated, she willed The Force to weave a sphere around the detonating explosives. The fire scream and twisted, stopping a centimetre from her body as a shimmering film arched around the explosion, containing them from causing harm to her immediate person. She clenched her fists, tightening the pressure of her telekinetic bubble and restraining the brilliant miniature suns on either side of her. She couldn’t waste her energies on this, and she was suddenly envious of his helmet. She really needed something to protect her face, so her tattoos didn’t show and she could actually unleash her prowess.

His trying to kill her wasn’t what made her angry. It was his comment about being a waste of Force and potential. Her first master had said she was akin to a firework — but for the past year and a half, she’d heard nothing but belittling toward The Jedi and The Order. It was wearing on her last nerves, and she could not longer continue to be the stoic benevolent blonde that so many recognized her as. Besides, there was no audience here on Aeten II.

“Gah!” With a roll of her shoulders, Kiskla forced the fireballs away from her and into the blank space above the facility. The force-bubble curled away from the flames, and allowed the winds of hot, hot hate to radiate from the core of the Blas-Tech made weaponry and rain fire. The stretch was massive, and still licked toward her, heating the railing and the metal platform she stood on, while she still extended a protective bubble around her. He had his armour, she had The Force. This bubble met the onslaught of flames that twisted toward her, and she manipulated the current that they flowed through — shaping the flames like a spear; although it was temporary until redirected toward The Sith’s objective. The cavern’s wall of stygium. It rippled and spread upon impact, spraying explosively.

Arrogance would never leave her arsenal, and Kiskla jumped from her elevated position, landing in a crouch. She shouldn’t ever get in his way? Okay, hot shot.

Lava lapped at the trench’s rim beside her, and hissed as it touched the rocks. The air was still hot from the explosion, and things that had been unscathed before were burning bright from the heat, and some wildly aflame. Her own cheeks and hair were stained with the red dust from the facility’s stone walls, and bits of the rubble clung to her dark garments. The explosion hadn’t gone without impact. She coughed, and lifted a hand. That being a mistress of Art of the Small had it’s benefits. Although Kiskla was alchemically mute, and unaware of what many metals were, and what they were made of, she knew how to manipulate things on a microscopic level. Her senses peaked, and she reached out of the fabrication of his special suit (one she quite envied, and if she made it out of this, she’d have to get something for herself). It was relatively heavy to start with, and Kiskla’s brows furrowed as she concentrated, making the molecules that composed it heavier than before as quickly as she could. It was a similar technique she had used on Valik to make him immobile on Kiffu, and had caused another Sith’s blood to boil on Naboo. Her slender digits twitched under the strain to manipulate the weight, maintain the concealment of her tattoos and suppress the historic architect within her cuff. Unfortunate, because a haunting voice infected her mind with a threatening echo.

A waste, he said.

Kiskla’s concentration was focusing more on concealing her tattoo, and bringing The Sith down from the air, than the suppression. Son’s voice had never bothered her during combat before — not unless she ventured beyond shadows. Something gripped her — panic. With a final, definitive tug, Kiskla made sure the metal felt at least 60lbs heavier below the torso through a practiced focus of molecule dissection. That, plus the additional telekinetic pull would hopefully cause a vertical stagger to the air-born [member="Jacen Cavill"]. Like his mother, she was hoping to ground him.

“Well you got in mine.” Kiskla replied, tasting the dirt in her mouth with a slight wince. Gross. "And you destroyed my droids."

 

[Darron Wraith]

Being the axis of the universe was the very center of all Sith training. One had to forsake all others and indulge in the self, and give in to the pursuits that only the self wanted. Cavill had been so averse to it at first, despite his noble heritage. His whole life had been about the pursuit of learning to lead others, and do what was best for the people of Serreno. Granted, his peers weren't the best people, but he had never achieved the level of selfishness that the Sith required for their training. Years of training on Korriban, and abroad had changed his perspective. Jacen had only been one of thousands in that training class that he had been a part of, and Empires had fallen over that time. Millions of Sith soldiers had died, and everyone who had trained alongside was no longer among the living. It's what had made him the selfish man he was, and what had made him able to narrow his focus to be able to bend the very energy of life to his whim. That very selfishness could be a real pain in the backside when others simply wouldn't die when they were told to.

[member="Kiskla Grayson"] was proving to be a poor listener.
Her little display in the Force didn't even register on his radar, he was so focused on the Stygium before him. Mar, his bodyguard droid, had placed a small timer to show how long they had until the Mandalorians arrived. Seeing that his time was getting shorter, Darth Kryptus simply marched forth as flames danced around the room. Vibrations could be felt everywhere, and smoke was flooding the area as pipes burst and magma was being diverted from it's original course. That's not how the splash arc for my Thermal Detonator works, he thought to himself. Deep inside his soul, the monster that was Kryptus shushed him as they marched towards their objective. Their focus so singular that they didn't pay attention to a Jedi Master bending physics with the Force and giving up her advantageous position. Nor did they even bat a glance as the flames vaporized more and more of the room, even though the range on the explosive wasn't that great. All that was on the Sith Master's mind was Stygium, and how he was going to use it once he got back on Coruscant with the amount he needed. So solid was that thought he was already imaging the applications until the stupid wench ruined everything.

Where there had been precious stone, was now an empty void. Cavill knew what had caused it and why, and in an instant he had turned to face the Jedi Master. If she could see his face, she would notice how his tan skin turned sickly white. Blue eyes narrowed, and turned yellow and red in an instant, before beginning to burn brighter. Cavill's rage turned into Kryptus' power, and the Sith Lord stood to his full height as he summoned all the power of the darkness to himself. That selfishness was rearing it's head as he ignored the counter of the Mandalorian's arrival. There was no longer any reason for him to be on Aeten II, but now he had a reason to absolutely make the Jedi before him look like a Hutt's skinny child.

"I told you to move out of my way, you should have lis-"

His sentence was never finished as the flames immediately closed in on him, threatening to vaporize him. Clever, most clever, he thought to himself. Jacen felt no sense of danger, he merely acted. Reaching deep into himself, he pulled that rage out and combined it with the living Force around him. Wrapping himself in that energy, a field appeared a few centimeters high wrapped itself around him, negating what would have been his death. Jacen's flesh, armorweave body suit, lightsaber, belt, and gauntlet were all covered. As the heat dissipated, his form could be seen once more. Standing there as confidently as he had been earlier, only now his cape and most of the armor he had been wearing were gone.

Jacen's face was now exposed, and a smile crossed his handsome features as the darkside pooled even more within him. "You really, and I mean really, shouldn't have done that just now." The promise of danger was in his words as he calmly let the remainder of his armor fall off of him. Whatever her power had been to hold him in place, it was useless now that his suit was destroyed. Cavill's eye sockets began to burn, but he didn't let the energy stop building as he re-ignited his lightsaber. Pointing the crimson blade at the woman before him, the smile dissapeared as the energy build up.

Then it exploded out in a fury of red beams that vaporized anything in their wake, hopefully including her head if Jacen Cavill had his way.

 

[Kiskla Grayson-Matteo]

Well that definitely went better than anticipated. Suddenly, The Sith was exposed and his very, very angry features didn't quite match those of these rumoured shadow-slinkers. Still, he and Shorn had been part of the reason the senate had shifted to Anaxes. She would be stupid to underestimate him. He was a lot of big talk, and his confidence perhaps meant he could back it up-- but Coruscant had been a struggle in the rubble. Breaking bones and buildings did not a champion, nor a worthy opponent make.

He, once again, verbally indicated his displeasure to the Jedi’s actions, and she merely shrugged with a coy innocence that expressed just how unbothered she was by his empty promises.

The crystals weren’t ruined; she needed them too. They were just — more concealed and difficult to get to now. That didn’t matter, she had unleashed the Sith’s fury (despite him not looking like a textbook Sith; in fact quite unlike the things that went bump in the night. Just something one should bump in the night, ya dig?).

Instantly, her lightsaber snapped to attention in her right hand, horizontal and parallel to her face to slurp up the manifestation of what was akin to a powerful lazer beam. The outburst of energy from his core made the crystal within her light sabre scream, and Kiskla realized that it would soon be overwhelmed. It quivered within it's confines of the metal cylindrical hilt; her palms beginning to burn from the influx of an exterior source of energy. Still under the heat of his anger, the blonde was forced to make smooth and rapid transition. Her left palm lifted and she dropped to a knee; a shimmering bubble stretching out around her person and creating a circle of protection for the young master. This took her concentration for the moment, while his onslaught scurried about the shimmering surface of the metaphysical extension in a panicked frenzy. The result was that his orb-originating beam deflected about the facility, further causing damage like a wildfire.

She was concentrating on her self-made shield when the sound of the atmosphere being broken by a ship echoed throughout the area. This was, after all, Mandalorian territory.

[member="Jacen Cavill"]