Faction Delving into the Great Library. [The Fallen Order]

[T'zarna Khab]

Location: Ooroo Valley, Ossus
Objective: Find and explore The Great Jedi Library
Tags: Phyress Vaelor , Elyndrella ,
Tags: Braze , Aiden Porte

It was often said that the red sands of Ooroo Valley consumed everything left alone in its expanse. Sandstorms often raged across the desert plains, making travel through it exceptionally dangerous. Light from Ossus's sun barely cracked through the torrent of rust, leaving only hateful red particles as far as the eye could see. Yet and still, the caravan of small vehicles pressed forward, like a colony of steel insects crawling across through the rocky valley.

In the distance, illuminated only by the lights mounted on the vehicles, were stone walls adorned with likenesses of past Jedi. It had taken weeks of labor by excavation teams to uncover the timeworn structure. It was The Great Jedi Library, a place of learning once heralded as a beacon of knowledge in an dim galaxy. This was the prize that The Fallen Order had sought, and soon it would be theirs.

Unyielding black stones clashed with the backdrop of crimson sand, rising high above the desert, offering shelter to the weary. Workers had left the site, their task was done for now. Now came the unenviable task of sorting through the ruins of this lost place of learning.

Dark Jedi of The Fallen Order were not hear for simple scholarly pursuits however, they were here for the hoard of valuable information deep within. It was not about preserving history and knowledge, it was about plundering grave of Jedi for their own good! Such things were to be expected from the self serving and zealous followers of The Order. Dark Jedi in and of them selves were renowned for their exploitation of others to gain power. This would be what was needed for them to begin resurrecting the ways of old.

Figures in black moved from the transports, walking in meticulous steps towards the entrance of The Library. A statue holding a lightsaber loomed over them, as if judging the group. In spite of the stone watcher, the robed masses moved into The Library. Soon they began moving in smaller groups, carrying lights deep into the ruins. The various groups would move to different sectors, working to decode, research, and collect information from the various artifacts.

In the main lobby was a group dedicated to erecting computers and machines to sift through data. Overseeing the operation was T'zarna Khab, the Grandmaster of The Fallen Order. She wasn't necessarily the most technical, but she wanted to be assured that the work was being done. Setting the metaphorical foundations of her new hive was too important not to manage directly. For the other sectors, she would have to delegate to other members of The Order. It would fall to them to strengthen the hive.

 

[Phyress Vaelor]

The Great Library did not feel empty. That was the first thing Phyress noticed as she crossed the threshold. Not silent—no, silence implied absence. This place was not absent. It was layered. The air itself carried weight, as though every step stirred something unseen beneath the surface. Dust lay undisturbed across the vast expanse of the main lobby, yet the Force whispered through it like wind through buried leaves.

Memory. Not hers. Phyress Vaelor moved slowly, her presence a quiet contrast to the activity beginning to stir behind her. Equipment. Power sources. The low hum of reactivation as others set about resurrecting the digital remains of the Library.

She paid them no mind. Her path curved naturally inward, away from terminals and shattered consoles, toward the open expanse where the architecture rose like a cathedral of knowledge long abandoned. Her boots made little sound against the stone, her tattered, refashioned robes shifting softly—alive in subtle ways, the fabric settling just ahead of her movements.

She stopped near the center of the chamber. Closed her eyes. And listened. The Force here was… fractured. Not broken—never broken—but scattered. Threads pulled loose and left to drift. Echoes of hands that had touched artifacts, minds that had studied them, intentions both reverent and curious. The Library had not simply stored knowledge.

It had held it. Imprinted it. And even now, long after its fall, it remembered. Phyress exhaled slowly, letting her awareness sink deeper. Not searching the surface. Not chasing the loudest presence. That was the mistake of those who relied too heavily on instinct. Instead, she reached for what did not want to be found. A flicker. Faint. Gone.

Her brow furrowed slightly. “…You’re still here,” she murmured under her breath. Not a person. Not a presence in the way most would define it. An impression. Something once significant enough to leave a scar in the Force, now buried beneath time and neglect. Her eyes opened. Slowly.

Behind her, she could feel T’zarna—steady, distinct, a fixed point amid the shifting currents. Others moved as well, their intentions focused on rebuilding access, restoring systems, uncovering what data remained intact. Valuable. Necessary. But incomplete.

Phyress turned her head slightly, gaze drifting across the towering shelves and broken alcoves that stretched into shadow. “Records fade,” she said quietly, though not necessarily to anyone in particular. “Corrupt. Erase.”

Her eyes narrowed faintly, the soft glow beneath her skin pulsing once in response to something deeper within the Library’s unseen layers. “But this place…” A step forward. “…doesn’t forget.” She began to move again, no longer wandering. Following.

Each step guided by something subtle, something buried—not a call, not a command, but a resonance. The kind left behind by objects that had mattered. Objects that had been used. Studied. Fought over. Hidden.

Her hand drifted lightly along the edge of a broken structure as she passed, not touching so much as tracing the space just above it. Feeling the remnants of what had once been. Old. Powerful. Waiting. She did not look back as she spoke again, voice low but steady.

“If you’re looking for answers in the systems…” a faint pause, almost thoughtful, “…you’ll find what was left behind.” Another step. Another shift in the unseen currents guiding her forward. “But I’m not.”

Her gaze fixed ahead now, deeper into the Library’s shadowed interior. “I’m looking for what they couldn’t erase.” And whatever it was…It was beginning to answer.

Location: Jedi Library Ruins, Ossus • Objective: Artifact Recovery
• Company: T'zarna Khab | Elyndrella
• Adversaries: Braze | Aiden Porte

 

[Braze]

Previously on Ossus…

• Red Sands
• A Secret Meeting
• Constellations No Longer Charted [Ossus]
• A Friendly Spar [Ossus]
• Search for a Friend
• Between Fire and Memory [Ossus]
• Shards of Memory [Ossus]
• Shadows Without Memory [Ossus]
• The Smallest Presence [Ossus]
• [TDF] Between Exile and Hope [Ossus]
• Comeuppance [NJO]
• Fashion Victim, Force Edition [Ossus]
• Ruins of the Great Jedi Library [Ossus]
• Songs by Firelight

Tags: T'zarna Khab Elyndrella Aiden Porte Phyress Vaelor ​

After establishing a small renewal project on Dantooine, Braze had very much set his sights on restoring the Great Jedi Library to its former glory. There was still an immense amount of work to be done on Ossus, and Braze knew all too well the dangers that still lingered there. It had been some time, and the Imperials were no longer loitering over the territory surrounding Ossus, allowing his attention to turn there once more. He would have to see for himself what had changed in his absence.

What he found was that he was not the only one with designs on the Great Jedi Library. He did not know who these people were, nor was he convinced they were friendly. Having spent the early part of his exile living within the old structure, he was fairly familiar with its layout and the dangers hidden inside. He had little trouble slipping in unseen, veiling his presence as he watched the newcomers and tried to discern their purpose, putting his Jedi Shadow skills to use.

He inspected several of the vehicles and pieces of equipment they had brought, hoping to glean some hint of their intentions. At the same time, he listened closely to the chatter of those at work, gathering what information he could from the voices drifting through the ruins.

Braze decidedly settled his attentions on one of the older containment systems near the relic vaults and scroll chambers, where ancient safeguards still clung to usefulness in spite of the ruin around them. He brushed a damaged relay with practiced care and fed a small thread of power into its old heart.

Suddenly a set of shimmering barriers sprang unevenly to life around a nearby alcove, caging several intruders within and drawing sudden confusion from those around them.

The disruption did exactly what he needed it to. Voices rose, as attention shifted, and bodies moved toward the containment flare in hurried response. While their focus gathered there, Braze stepped through the distraction like a passing shadow. He lifted an access code cylinder from among the equipment without ceremony, then slipped away toward one of the deeper corridors before anyone thought to look elsewhere.

 

[Elyndrella]

Location: The Great Jedi Library (Abandoned New Imperial Inquisition Headquarters) - Ossus
Mission Objective: Secure the Chamber of Antiquities.
Tag: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Braze

The secrets of the Great Jedi Library and by extension, the abandoned headquarters of the New Imperial Inquisition awaited the hive. With the collapse of the Empire of the Lost and its successor state, the Imperial Confederation, on the surface, there seemed to be little capable of stopping the Fallen Order from claiming the location. However, with her mind imprinted with the extracted knowledge of two Zeison Sha Masters, Elyndrella knew intuitively that hidden dangers might lurk in the shadows, and that situations could shift as abruptly as the volatile extremes of Yanibar’s climate.

Thus, the small-statured Quendesh pressed deeper into the Library’s shadowed interior with all due caution. Her photoreactive eyes adjusted to the low light almost immediately, pupils narrowing into vertical slits as she scanned the surrounding hallway. Sensing no immediate threats within the vicinity, she continued forward, soon passing through the Hall of Knowledge before slipping through one of the entrances into the Chamber of Antiquities.

The automatic door slid shut behind her with a soft hiss, her ears twitching at the sound before she casted her gaze ahead toward the relic vaults and scroll chambers beyond.

Her ears twitched again as a piece of ancient equipment whirred and hummed back to life, followed by a series of shouts and protests.

Elyndrella broke into a sprint towards the source of the commotion. There, she found a damaged relay device, powering a set of shimmering barriers around an alcove with workers trapped inside. She glanced at the relay’s terminal and pressed a button to deactivate the barriers. Sighs of relief echoed throughout the chamber as the workers stepped out, with a few offering her murmured thanks and grateful smiles.

She returned their smiles with a gracious nod, before turning her attention back to the alcoves, her gaze narrowing as she scanned the area. Her metaphysical senses reached out in the process, searching and probing for anything beyond the pale.

Her brows knitted. Someone had been here. There was an intruder moving in the midst of the hive.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Assimilation Shroud
  
  • Arms
    
    • FAE/M-02 Energized Forearm Vibroblade Mk. II - R Wrist
• Unity Halo
• FAE/MDE-01-S1 Semiautonomous Seeker Thermal Explosive (4)

 

[Ra'Shayne Vorr]

OSSUS | GRAND LIBRARY
TAG: T'zarna Khab Elyndrella Phyress Vaelor Braze Aiden Porte

​

Shay crossed the red sands as she watched her workers digging, there had been a collapse of the roof of one of the buildings and now her people were frantically trying to dig their way through the sand dune that had piled in. They had made it most of the way and the supervisor wished to be the one to show her the breakthrough, in the hopes that he earn her favour. She smiled under the wrap that kept the sand out of her face. "Good, you are through, I will proceed along. Once your people have finished, arm them and have noone follow me. she instructed as she walked past the slave and tossed him a half empty water bottle that he quickly opened and drank.

The last few sands she reached out with the force and parted the sand to show the corridor in front of her. She had an intent here, she knew that, she could feel it. What the intent was, might take a little longer to reveal itself fully. But she had time.

She felt a shift in the force as nearby a small group of workers were trapped within a forcefield. Of course she didnt know why they were scared, only that there was a wave of fear emanating from their direction. Did she feel something else? Yes she did, there was a lightsider about, she knew Jedi, how the felt, how they smelled. Her ears twitched as she listened for movement.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Allies: Braze
Enemies: T'zarna Khab Elyndrella Phyress Vaelor​

Aiden Porte did not enter the deeper reaches of the Library quickly. He stepped across the fractured threshold with measured calm, his awareness already stretched outward through the Force as he felt the quiet disturbance layered beneath the silence, something older than fear and far more patient than the violence he had faced on worlds like Korriban. He steadied his presence as a small beacon of living light against the drifting shadow that clung to the architecture.

The darkness here was not aggressive, yet it watched. Aiden moved forward anyway, each step deliberate as he allowed the Force to guide him toward the same subtle fracture in the current that others had begun to follow, recognizing the unmistakable signature of something hidden rather than destroyed.

He felt the familiar presence of one nearby. He wondered if he too felt the call, whatever shadow lingered here. It must be destroyed.

 

[Kali'ka]

​

Tag: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Elyndrella Ra'Shayne Vorr Braze Aiden Porte

The very idea of violating the once Great Jedi Library was delicious in it's own right. But the opportunity to discover what the greedy jedi had hidden there, hoarding it from the galaxy, made it all the more tempting. Those arrogant, self-appointed gatekeepers of knowledge surely possessed texts full of secrets deep in the archives. Now, a new order would liberate that knowledge from it's tomb under the sand.

They entered the unburied structure. Grains of that crimson sand clung to her black robes, but Kali'ka paid it no mind. She simply lowered the hood, shaking her thick mane of raven-black hair. The robe was allowed to fall open, revealing glimpses of black leather and bronzed, inked skin.

The sorceress followed behind T'zarna Khab, but at a respectable distance. It was the Supreme Leader who drew the wandering Kiffar to the Order. A creature beautifully horrorifying, brutally raw in her unslaked hate, luscious in her Darkness, Kali'ka was draw to T'zarna Khab like a night moth to hellfire.

Entering with them was the Gorathi. Whispered secrets said she too had been a young, promising jedi, abandoned by her master, just as Kali had been. They were like sisters, both incinerate in the crucible of betrayal, purged of the jedi corruption and set upon a new course of life. Kali watched as Phyress wandered, her lips breathing hushed words, certainly weighing the gravity of the place in which they stood.

Others were there too, she knew, somewhere. Elyndrella had proceeded them, her spritely form disappearing down one corridor. The Cathar was about too, but Kali knew not where.

Kali'ka too drifted away from the staging of equipment to skulk in the shadowy recesses of the chamber. Her fingers, ungloved, grazed the old stone as she drifted by, feeliing their gritty texture against the pads of her digits. Then she pressed them against the cold block more firmly. Mahogany eyes slid shut as she felt with more than her tactile senses. In her mind's eye, she saw shifting images. Jedi passing through the chamber in it's height, glorious and pristine. Others followed, darker, imperials. Some visions were clearer, some mere shadows. Her hand lifted away.

The place was not empty, it was full of memory.

Kali strode up behind Phyress. "Shall we see what secrets await us in this library's belly?" She uttered, her voice a smooth oil, coaxing her comrade to allow her to join her in the exploration.

 

[T'zarna Khab]

Location: Ooroo Valley, Ossus
Objective: Find and explore The Great Jedi Library
Tags: Phyress Vaelor , Elyndrella , Ra'Shayne Vorr Kali'ka
Tags: Braze , Aiden Porte

Chaos was spreading through the library, some sort of trap had been sprung on them, no doubt their presence had been discovered. A setback, but not entirely unthinkable. Wherever there would be darkness, the light would inevitably be drawn. At the moment T'zarna only sensed one singular entity coming their way, it was unlikely there weren't others, but they had to move quickly to complete their work.

"I shall trust in you Phyress, and you Kali'ka. Defend this place well, continue the work as I handle the oncoming light."

Her words carried little emotion, she remained stalwart as she strode into the barely lit corridors of The Grand Library. Her right hand opened, drawing her lightsaber to it through The Force. With a snap-hiss, her lightsaber ignited it's three prongs, radiating red light against the black of the hallway. With an unnerving, unblinking gaze, she scanned the room.

"You enter a den of predators Jedi, death surrounds you. Should you cast away your order, I can promise you safety. Reveal yourself to me, and we can end this without needless loss of life."

She couldn't see Aiden, but she knew he was in the dark somewhere. This man was willing to brave the unforgiving desert, and a horde of enemies just to protect ancient holocrons and stores of books. Dedication like that to a cause, it was enticing! If he could be swayed to the dark, then it would be an incredible boon to their side.

There was a tense silence that filled the air, enough to make one forget the smell of musty tomes. This unassuming record room would be a scene of an important conflict for The Order, one that would help shape their future.

 

[Braze]

Tags: Phyress Vaelor Elyndrella Ra'Shayne Vorr Kali'ka Braze Aiden Porte T'zarna Khab​

Three of the five vehicles became his next targets as he moved through the stone rafters of the old structure, circling back toward the front. His manipulation of wind came subtle and exacting, as sound needed air to carry it, and by worrying the currents around himself into disordered eddies, he spoiled the clean passage of each footfall and rustle of his robes until his movements were swallowed by the ruin's hush.

He reached out with pin-point focus, letting his Force presence uncoil and surge from his small frame, pouring outward with careful restraint. Beneath the engine shrouds, the connector terminals on three of the speeders' batteries slipped free under delicate telekinetic pressure, severed with ease. Next, the drain plugs for oil and coolant were pried off, letting the vehicles bleed out.

The engines of the remaining two roared to life in an instant as their headlights turned on.

Driverless, they lurched forward suddenly as the engines snarled, tearing across the broken floor and surging toward the entrance. Both vehicles gathered speed in a reckless rush before colliding at the threshold. The crash struck like a bomb going off in a confined space as the screaming sound of rending metal and broken glass burst outward in glittering sprays.

The whole entrance heaved beneath the force of the intrusion as they caught fire shortly after. One front end crumpled inward with a violent crunch, the other rode up at an angle as they slammed together, folding hood against hood in a mangled knot of twisted plating, hissing coolant, and smoking engines, with an array of various liquids leaking out from their guts. The impact hurled debris in every direction, chunks of stone and shards of headlamps skittering across the floor while the old structure threw the sound back in rolling echoes throughout its old bones, hard enough to send a shaking tremor through the immediate area.

The shrill wail of alarms tripped by the damage emanated loudly from the dying speeders. Smoke began to billow up in dirty gray streaks touched by vivid orange where sparking wires spat and snapped beneath the crushed chassis. Dust shaken loose from the entrance drifted through the air in a thick veil, turning the flashing hazard lights into blurred red pulses within the haze.

The ensuing chaos came as comms lit up in response to the sudden, violent burst of the two speeders.

Smirking with a faint little laugh, Braze moved away from the entrance, covering his signature once more and slipping through old breaks he had mapped out throughout the ruins long before, moving through the structural sections near the stone rafters.
Braze made his way up to the topmost office through a simple shortcut he had fashioned through an old elevator shaft he's broken open, for prowling the maze-like, labyrinthine corridors of the building. The gardens that remained here were almost offensive in their beauty; white stone, now over grown with some surviving greenery. The office and gardens had been perched above the place built for control, secrecy, and fear. They were meant to impress, and crown the summit with grace… but to Braze, they only made the rot beneath feel uglier.

This was the heart of it, the proud, cultivated face set atop the rest of the structure, and that made it very useful. He knew that if power, access, and oversight gathered anywhere, they gathered here.

He was intent on bringing the old generators back online. With them came possibilities of terrorizing the intruders further. He headed for the control room, quick and eager, already reaching ahead in his mind for which systems he might coax awake first.

 

[Phyress Vaelor]

The Library shifted. Not physically—its stone and ruin remained as they were—but in the way the Force moved through it. What had once been scattered threads now began to gather, pulled into motion by something deliberate. Something… alive.

Phyress felt it before she saw her. A flicker—sharp, vibrant, hungry. Her head turned, and for the first time since entering the Library, something close to genuine excitement touched her expression. “Tch…” A quiet exhale, almost amused. “I knew our paths would cross.”

Her gaze settled on Kali’ka, not with suspicion—but with interest. Real interest. The kind that hadn’t stirred in her since before the coven, before the years lost to something that had tried to reshape her. There was something there. Not clean. Not ordered. But alive.

Phyress took a slow step forward, her robes shifting subtly ahead of her movement, as if they too were leaning into the moment. “Frinally something worth—”

T’zarna interrupted her banter before it could truly begin. The words didn’t need to be loud. They carried. Phyress paused. Not out of obedience—but recognition. Her eyes shifted, just slightly, toward T’zarna. The command wasn’t harsh. It wasn’t even unexpected. Still. There was a flicker of something there. Disappointment. But Phyress would overcome.

A smirk followed it. Slow. Subtle. “…Of course.” Her gaze returned to Kali’ka, the interest still there—but now tempered. Focused. “Just give me a moment,” there was a smile for Kali’ka and a slight tilt of her head, almost acknowledging what could have been.

She exhaled softly and shifted her stance, the moment passing—not lost, just delayed. “Fine,” she continued, voice calm again, measured. “I’ll keep the worker bees from getting themselves consumed by ghosts.” A faint glance cast back toward the scattered efforts of the others—machinery rising, systems booting, minds focused on data. Short-sighted. Necessary. But still… limited. Her attention drifted again—not to the people, but to the space between them. And there—Something changed.

Her expression stilled. “…There’s more.” The words were quieter now. Not meant for command. Not meant for defiance. Just… observation. The Force within the Library had shifted again—but this time, the sensation was different. Not buried. Not hidden. Present. Subtle. But unmistakable. “…Light.” The word lingered, uncertain—not in meaning, but in origin. Her brow furrowed slightly as she searched for it—not outward, but inward, tracing the way it refracted through the fractured echoes of the Library. It wasn’t strong. Not yet. And she could not place it. “…I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”

That was enough. Her hand rose slowly to the talisman at her neck. The motion was deliberate. Chosen. The moment her fingers closed around it, the air responded. Not violently. Not chaotically. But with intention. A thin veil of mist began to seep outward from her position—at first barely visible, then thickening in slow, curling tendrils that drifted across the stone floor and into the spaces between shelves and broken structures.

It moved like breath. Like something aware. The faint green undertone within it pulsed once—soft, controlled. Not to obscure. To listen. “To warn,” she murmured quietly. The mist spread wider, slipping through the Library’s expanse, brushing against unseen edges, feeling for disturbances—not darkness…but anything that did not belong to it. Anything that burned too clean.

Her hand dropped from the talisman. The mist remained. Alive. Waiting. Phyress turned back toward Kali’ka, her expression settled once more into that calm, measured composure—though the spark of earlier interest had not faded.

It had simply… sharpened. “Go on, I will follow,” she said, with a slight gesture forward. A small smile followed—faint, knowing. “Let’s go in search of secrets.”

Location: Jedi Library Ruins, Ossus • Objective: Artifact Recovery
• Company: T'zarna Khab | Elyndrella | Ra'Shayne Vorr | Kali'ka
• Adversaries: Braze | Aiden Porte

 

[Kali'ka]

Tag: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Braze

The workers behind them busied themselves with setting up their equipment. They attempted to keep the noise low, not out of reverence for the structure, but an apprehension of either displeasing the Supreme Leader, or disturbing ghosts. Regardless, Kali'ka paid them no mind, her attention reaching first into the shadows beyond, but then to the figure before her.

The horned Gorathi barely moved, her dark-maned head turning enough to lay eyes upon her sudden companion. Kali'ka felt a dark satisfaction in the nature of the woman's gaze. Not judgement, nor apathy, not even curiosity. It was as if something anticipated had come to fruition, and its manifestation met expectations.

Kali'ka's eyes did not avert, but fixed upon the witch. Phyress' gaze was met with a dichotomous glance, one eye dark, one eye an eerie red. The sorceress had not activated her cyberoptics. She preferred to study something, or someone, like Phyress with natural perception. The Gorathi was glorious, with regal horns and the tantalizing glimpse of bio luminous tattoos at the edges and hems of her robes. But it was her presence that licked at Kali'ka's being. While T'zarna's was intense, raw, like leashed savagery, Phyress was a wave of viscous darkness, inviting, dangerous.

But a pest was detected, threatening their work. T'zarna gave her instructions, Phyress' subtle acknowlegement was answered with the smirking grin widening slightly, eyes never wavering. Their gaze lingered for a delicious moment, then broke to watch the tall Blood Carver stalk into a shadowy corridor to address the fly in their ointment. The glow of her lightsaber appeared, then faded as she disappeared down the hall.

Phryess' attention seemed to turn to it's previous focus. Not on the work going on around them, but in the atmosphere, at the whole. Kali trailed close enough to hear the murmured words, never quite knowing if they were intended for anyone other than their speaker and the Darkness. While Kali'ka's gift lay in discerning a place's past, Phyress' seemed very cognizent of the present. Her soft words revealed another presence, more light...

At the urging of her companion, Kali'ka took a step towards their own shadowy passage, only to halt at the cacophany erupting at the library entrance behind them. Kali'ka didn't flinch, didn't experience a rush of fear at the defeaning noise. She only turned. Over Phyress' shoulder, she saw the workers scattered, the burning wrecks of the two speeders in a mass of gnarled durasteel in the cracked entry way.

Kali'ka sighed in annoyance, the opportunity to become acquainted with her comrade again interrupted.

She calmly strode passed the Gorathi and the alarmed technicians and their gear to the wreckage. A hand reached to lay against the twisted metal. Eyes closed as ethereal vision faded into her mind. The speeders parked outside. She saw no one tampering with them. But, ah, yes. Hands didn't directly sabotage the vehicles, they were manipulated.

"Our little light was out there, but not anymore. Bent on being a gnat in our wine, I believe." She crooned, turning to Phress.

 

[Phyress Vaelor]

The shift came all at once. Not the explosion—that was noise, surface, distraction. The absence. Phyress felt it the moment Kali’ka turned, the moment attention fractured. The presence she had sensed—the faint, probing light—withdrew. Not gone. Moving.

Her fingers tightened around the talisman at her throat. “…No.” The word slipped out low, almost a warning to something already beyond reach.

The mist responded immediately. What had once drifted now stretched—tendrils of ichor-laced vapor pulling outward with sudden intent, slipping through corridors, climbing fractured stone, threading through the bones of the Library itself. It did not disperse.

It hunted. Phyress’ head tilted slightly as she listened—not with her ears, but with the way the mist fed back into her awareness. Each strand carried sensation. Each curl of vapor brushed against absence, against movement, against the faintest residue of something that did not belong.

Her lips parted. A whisper at first. Then more. The chant was quiet—but not weak. It coiled around itself, syllables drawn from something older than language, shaped more by intent than sound. The air thickened as she spoke, the mist deepening in color—green edged with something darker, something heavier.

Her grip on the talisman tightened. The glow beneath her skin pulsed once. Twice. The mist surged farther. And then—

Nothing.

A sharp hiss cut through the chant as it faltered. “Slippery little—” Her eyes snapped open, frustration flashing across her features for the briefest moment before it was buried again beneath control. The mist recoiled slightly, not collapsing—but losing the trail. The light had moved too quickly, too deliberately. It hadn’t stumbled into their reach.

It had avoided it. Behind her, Kali’ka’s voice carried, calm and certain. Phyress didn’t turn immediately. She already knew. “Our little light was out there, but not anymore.” A slow breath left her. Of course.

Her hand finally dropped from the talisman, though the mist lingered—coiled now closer, tighter, no longer stretching blindly outward but waiting, ready to move again at a moment’s notice.

Phyress turned then, her gaze settling on Kali’ka, the earlier spark of interest now sharpened into something colder. More deliberate. “They’re not just observing,” she said quietly. “They’re testing us.”

Her eyes flicked briefly toward the shattered entryway, then back again. “And they’re careful.” A pause. Measured.

“The artifacts…” she began, voice steady, before cutting herself off with a slight shake of her head. “No.” The word was firmer this time. Decided. “They’re no longer the priority.” Her gaze hardened—not with anger, but with clarity.

“If that light gets control of this place—” A faint glance around the vast, memory-laden chamber. “—then everything here becomes a weapon.” Not for them. Against them.

The mist shifted again, tightening subtly around her form like a living cloak, its edges drifting outward in slow, watchful patterns. Phyress stepped closer to Kali’ka, her presence steady, grounded, but carrying that same quiet danger.

“We can hunt relics later,” she said, tone low, certain. “But if they’re already moving pieces…” A faint smirk touched her lips—thin, controlled. “…then we stop them from playing the board.”

Her head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing as she reached outward again—not searching blindly this time, but waiting for the next misstep.

“They won’t stay hidden forever,” she added softly. Not hope. Not guesswork. Expectation.

Phyress’ gaze met Kali’ka’s once more. “Shall we go find our gnat?” The mist stirred at her words. Ready.

Location: Jedi Library Ruins, Ossus • Objective: Artifact Recovery
• Company: T'zarna Khab | Elyndrella | Ra'Shayne Vorr | Kali'ka
• Adversaries: Braze | Aiden Porte

 

[Kali'ka]

Tag: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Braze

As the dust from the commotion settled, Kali'ka's eyes shifted to her Gorathi companion. Phyress' reaction was no more dramatic than her own. In fact, it was as if the woman was reacting to something on another level, deeper...unseen. Her fingers clutched the talisman around her neck. It was similar to Kali'ka's own, but without the marring crack.

Eerie movement distracted the Kiffar sorceress. Phyress' mystical vapor formed into more distinct fingers, then long tendrils, until the inky shadows stretched into dark corners and down black corridors. The horned woman's delicate eyes remained shut, as if listening to something Kali could not hear. Then they snapped open, and after a breath, her attention returned to the room in which they stood, and to Kali'ka.

The mist shadows returned to their mistress, adorning her like a shady cloak. Phyress shared her discovery about their foes, and the shift in their own priorities. Kali'ka wholeheartedly agreed. The light must be extinguished before any treasure was sought.

The mysterious Gorathi's proximity tantalized Kali'ka. A dangerous smirk touched dark lips. "A-hunting we shall go, friend." The tattooed woman replied. She lead the way down on dark passage. She didn't use any illumination, at first, allowing her cyber-eye to cycle through it's range of vision modes, nightvision, infrared, life scan. It was a wide passage, revealing nothing initially. But she wished to see the features of the architecture in greater detail. Retrieving the collapsible phrik shaft from its place on her back, she extended the haft and ignited the red plasma blade at its tip. The lightsaber pike cast an eerie crimson light on the walls and ceiling before them.

"I have a feeling we should make our way upwards." She surmised, casting her gaze back at Phyress, a hand open at her side, as if inviting the woman to join her at her side as they proceeded.

 

[Braze]

Tags: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Elyndrella Ra'Shayne Vorr Kali'ka Aiden Porte ​

Braze found the main power supply area behind old service doors and half-dead access panels, then forced the abandoned complex awake by hand, flipping breakers, dragging levers into place, and feeding stolen clearance through terminals that answered him with faint chimes. Deep below the floors, machinery turned over; relays snapped behind the walls, conduits drank power in uneven surges, and the Great Library stirred beneath the Fallen Order's boots as floor strips burned white, overhead lamps glared and failed in sections, and smoke from the ruined speeders crawled through newly lit passages where every broken statue, hanging cable, and open doorway offered another path to follow.

Ventilation screamed awake next, hurling ash, stone powder, and old machine stink into the halls as fans dragged smoke deeper through the complex and pressure shifted from corridor to corridor. Archive shutters and blast doors followed with grinding force, some slamming down at the ends of halls, others dropping halfway and shrieking against warped tracks, cutting workers from guards and hunters from clean pursuit while mist, foam, and old water burst from the fire-control grid to swallow footprints, slick the floors, spit sparks from exposed panels, and turn every hurried step into a risk.

Then the warning system came alive in a storm of Imperial evacuation commands, archive breach alerts, older alarms, access denials, containment warnings, grinding doors, rushing vents, and the mechanical complaint of a place dragged back into motion. Elevators lurched between floors, doors opened onto bare shafts, cracked remotes drifted from wall cradles, containment fields snapped across selected thresholds, and terminals filled with false indexes, corrupted maps, dead-end catalogues, and mismatched vault numbers as Braze gave the building motion, noise, light, smoke, water, locked doors, bait paths, and enough old anger to make the Fallen Order pay for every step they took inside it.

Braze sent an access ping toward the upper gardens, then left it behind like bait and slipped into the service gallery above the atrium, where irrigation pipes crossed the ceiling in old iron ribs and maintenance panels hung loose from the walls. From there he could see the marble paths below gathering water, the glass fogging white at the edges, the lift doors opening and closing out of rhythm as the building called to anyone hunting him with a hundred false invitations. He settled behind the pipes with one hand near the next access panel, breath held low in his chest, waiting to see who followed the lie.

 

[Phyress Vaelor]

The Library woke angry. Phyress felt it before the lights flared. A violent pulse rolled through the structure beneath her boots—old systems coughing themselves back to life in uneven waves. Power surged through forgotten veins hidden in the walls, and suddenly the dark was no longer quiet. White strips of harsh light ignited overhead only to sputter and fail again. Ventilation roared awake like some ancient beast drawing breath after centuries buried beneath stone.

Dust exploded outward. Mist twisted violently. And somewhere deeper within the Library, machinery began to scream. Phyress stopped mid-step. Her eyes narrowed.

“…Clever.” Not admiration. Recognition.

The corridors around them transformed instantly into something hostile. Doors slammed shut in distant halls with bone-rattling force while others shrieked halfway through warped tracks. Water burst from old fire suppression lines in sputtering arcs, turning polished stone slick beneath their feet. Smoke crawled through the ventilation system in thick waves, swallowing visibility and distorting sound. Noise. Too much noise. Not chaos. Manufactured confusion.

The ichor mist around Phyress stirred violently in response, curling tighter against her robes as though recoiling from the sudden assault of movement and heat. Her fingers brushed lightly against the talisman at her throat—not activating it yet, simply grounding herself against the flood of sensations now surging through the Force.

Because beneath all the machinery…There. The light moved again. Not fleeing blindly. Guiding. Her lips parted slightly in realization. “…He’s shaping the terrain.”

Kali’ka’s voice cut through the cacophony beside her, calm and smooth despite the madness erupting around them. “A-hunting we shall go, friend.” Phyress’ gaze shifted toward her instinctively. And for the first time since entering the Library, the Gorathi did not feel alone within the dark. Not truly.

The crimson glow of Kali’ka’s saber pike washed across the corridor, staining ancient stone in blood-red light as the Kiffar suggested they move upward. Phyress’ eyes tracked the open gesture offered toward her, lingering there for the briefest moment before something subtle softened in her expression.

A dangerous thing, trust. But perhaps not impossible. A faint smirk touched her lips. “You read currents well,” she murmured. Not flattery. Observation.

Another violent shudder rolled through the Library. Somewhere above them, an elevator screamed against rusted rails before slamming to a halt. Archive warnings blared in overlapping layers—Imperial commands mixing with older voices and corrupted static until the Library sounded less like a place and more like something dying badly.

Phyress tilted her head slightly. Listening. Not to the alarms. To the intent behind them. “He wants us moving,” she said quietly as she stepped beside Kali’ka, her robes trailing low through drifting smoke and water. “Fast. Blind. Angry.”

Her eyes lifted upward toward the higher reaches of the structure. Toward the gardens. Toward the bait. And there—A pulse. Faint. Controlled. Watching.

The mist around her shifted again, thinner tendrils slipping outward across the floor and along the walls—not searching wildly this time, but testing paths ahead of them like feelers probing for traps.

“He’s young,” she murmured after a moment. “But disciplined enough to think asymmetrically.” A pause. Then, quieter: “That makes him dangerous.”

Phyress’ gaze flicked sideways toward Kali’ka again, bioluminescent markings beneath her skin glowing softly beneath the red saberlight. “The light usually mistakes conviction for superiority,” she said calmly. “This one doesn’t.”

Which meant he learned. Adapted. Planned. That annoyed her. The frustration surfaced as a faint hiss beneath her breath before disappearing again beneath composure.

“He thinks noise creates control,” she continued, stepping fully alongside Kali’ka now. “But all he’s really done…”

The ichor mist thickened briefly around her ankles before stretching upward along the corridor walls. “…is wake the dead parts of this place.” And the Library remembered things. Her eyes narrowed upward toward the higher levels again.

The gardens. Yes. That was where he wanted them. Which meant that was exactly where they needed to go. Phyress finally turned her head toward Kali’ka fully, calm returning to her posture despite the chaos erupting around them.

“Then let’s stop chasing relics,” she said softly. The faintest dangerous smile touched her lips. “And hunt the one trying to weaponize them.”

Location: Jedi Library Ruins, Ossus • Objective: Artifact Recovery • Company: T'zarna Khab | Elyndrella | Ra'Shayne Vorr | Kali'ka • Adversaries: Braze | Aiden Porte

 

[T'zarna Khab]

Location: Ooroo Valley, Ossus
Objective: Find and explore The Great Jedi Library
Tags: Elyndrella , Ra'Shayne Vorr , Kali'ka , Phyress Vaelor
Tags: Braze

Beneath her feet, T'zarna saw white lights illuminating the floor of the library's foyer. It was blinding at first, then her lidless eyes adjusted to the brightness. She growled under her breath, stomping a foot before turning to the door. She knew their had to be threats already deeper in. It was an embarrassment that could not be allowed to stand! She would disembowel these intruders herself if need be...

As she walked, the whole library seemed to go haywire! Pipes burst, and hoses sprayed foam everywhere. These were obviously here to distract or even slow down her people. Such was a valiant effort, but she wouldn't allow any Jedi to escape so simply. If they wished to draw their deaths out, then so be it!

"Get me a slicer! Reroute the security functions and shutter the exits! No one comes in or out until we've found these Jedi rats..."

T'zarna's buzzing voice was loud enough to be heard over the blaring alarms and screaming systems. It would take time to get past the old security subroutines and hack back into the controls. That was time the Jedi could use to wipe sensitive data from the memory banks, or worse! Whatever it was they were after, it was going to be at odds with The Order's plans...

For that they would be crushed!

 

[Kali'ka]

Tag: T'zarna Khab Phyress Vaelor Braze

The environment had turned upside down, from dark silence to a clamor of noise and shifting light. Kali'ka glanced at Phyress, seeing the dark miasma she possessed hastily cling to her. While her dark shadows were alarmed, the Gorathi showed no reaction to the sudden change.

No, she was listening, looking past the distractions their prey attempted to employ. Kali'ka enjoyed the sound of Phyress' voice. Calm, deeply pensive yet confident...perceptive, with a tone like rich zaffa oil. The fact that her companion shared her observations, or at least spoke them aloud, suggested a measure of trust. That spoke much to the Kiffar. In her experience with the Sith, everyone was a rival, everyone strove to destroy competition. That is why she abandoned them and their kind and followed T'zarna and the Fallen Order.

So, their quarry was drawing them. Kali gave a nod, agreed with Phyress. The garden would be their destination. With the staggered lighting illuminating their path, Kali deactivated her light pike. Phyress' shadowy mist again snaked out along the corridirs. Kali paused a moment, accessing her ocular implant as it connected to the techs' database set up near the entrance. A layout of the library appeared in her HUD, and she traced a path to the gardens.

"This way..." She offered, glancing to her companion with a small smirk before leading them towards the library's gardens. She attempted to temper her eagerness to engage the troublesome jedi.

 

[Braze]

Tags: Kali'ka T'zarna Khab ​

Braze made his way up—higher and higher—until he reached the very top of the building, slipping outside with practiced ease. The wind hit him tugging at his robes , and strong breeze flowing through snow white hair as he stepped onto the exposed edge. He pulled Gidgit from his pocket and gave the tiny droid a gentle shake, sending it hovering upright.

"Hey, buddy… take this back to the ship, okay? Let Aether know I might get caught up."
He pressed the data cylinder into the small droid's grasp of tiny deploy-able arms that came out to accept it.

G.I.D.G.I.T.
═ ✦ ═══ ✦ ═
(General Integrated Droid for Guidance, Interaction, and Technical Support)

"Task accepted, Captain Braze!

[SYS]: Data cylinder secured. Return route to ship plotted. Message for Aether queued: [I might get caught up.]

[NOTICE]: That phrase has been historically associated with poor choices, unsafe architecture, and dramatic delay. Recommendation: avoid capture, avoid heroic last stands, and avoid being ominous on rooftops.

Also… please come back soon! I am a guidance, interaction, and technical support droid, not an emotional support droid, but I can multitask in emergencies!"

Gidgit zipped upward, climbing fast into the sky. Braze watched until it was little more than a glint, vanishing far from the danger below.
"Don't get shot," he murmured with a faint smirk.

Only once Gidgit was clear did Braze turn back toward the building, drawing the Force around himself with disciplined control as he felt through the walls beneath his feet, expanding his perception and marking movement, voices, and the narrowing paths of pursuit.

Then he stepped forward towards the edge of the building, and over and off, falling for a time before using the Force to his advantage, bleeding away his momentum as he angled toward a fractured maintenance gantry below and landed light as a whisper. If they thought they were hunting him, they were already behind...

 

[Beltor "Bell" Cyrus]

Ooroo Valley, Ossus
Objective: Be a Rancor sized pain in the arse to these interlopers.

"Avoid direct confrontation, your still too new to your path to stand up to them. Fight only if cornered."

Well, his mentor was clear, do not directly engage. He was not at a level where he could do much more then not die in a direct confrontation.

What he did have was a small arsenal of high explosives, anti-armor weapons, and means and know how to use them properly.

The 74-Z speed along the winding goat path up the ridge in the hills over looking the temple and its entrance at nearly 200 kilometers per hour. The wind causing his robes to ripple and whip in the wind.

Getting to the waypoint he had set for him self, he killed the engine and set the bike down just out of sight over the ridge. Getting on his belly, he army crawled forward, his rifle dragging in the dirt, and his binos attached to his helmet.


Getting Comfy, he got a good, solid look at the gathering intruders as they made their way in side, and even seeing his mentor get up to some feats of infiltration. Gidgit, how ever, was a welcome surprise, the little droid diverting course and hovering over him.

He smiled, putting a thumb over his shoulder at the RPS-6 launcher and box of shells secured to the back of the speeder bark. "Gonna give them a warm, Outcast welcome, little buddy." It made a series of whistles and beeps at him, and he chuckled quietly as the little droid flew off back to the ship, to get Aether, likely to add the fact it's master had more allies near then thought.

In truth, he wasn't supposed to come, but the Doctor of History in him was incensed that Braze had left out the fact he was coming to the temple of Ossus and leaving him out of it.

Of course, he wasn't counting on the sith and or imperials being here, and had to make a trip back to the Jade Finch, safely landed and hidden some kilometers away, to get the tools of his trade.

Now he crawled back. First came the rifle, freshly rebuilt. Then came RPS launcher, freshly loaded with HEDP. He grabbed three shells as well, figuring at nearly 600 meters he could still hit the area around the building, while being well over 200 meters outside typical rifle range. Getting to his knees, he sighted in the temple front, and the various marked vehicles around it, and began doing the mental math.

The targeting binos told him the range was 630 meters, but the reticle of the launcher's sight only had a mark at 50 meter increments. Sighing. He chose to just walk it in with the first shot.

Muttering the lyrics to a song he dialed it in the best he could, and fired the launcher. With a swoosh rocket lanced out from the tube on a wide arc, landing short and detonating between two of the ground transports, its large HE warhead doing little upfront damage, but setting both alight from ruptured fuel cells and fragmentation effects. Keeping the quiet singing going on, he slammed the second rocket in to the tube and shouldered it again.

Breathing, he adjusted his aim and fired again, the rocket lancing out and impacting damn near right at the entrance, amid a group of gathered people he didn't have the magnification to truly see. He couldn't confirm any real casualties, not from this range, but he swore he saw an arm fly up. By the time he got a third round loaded and shouldered, the initial shock of the RPG attack began to wore off, and bursts of rifle and pistol fire began to sporadically lance out at random angles as troopers and ground personal began to fire back at where he thought they were.

Chuckling to him self, he spoke. "Probably gonna be the last one. Shame, I have a dozen of these warheads." With that, he squeezed the trigger and fired the launcher a third time, the rocket lancing out and actually flying high. It impacted in the top right corner of the entrance it self, the old stone cracking and giving way with a thunderous crash.

He lowered the launcher, watching the dust cloud mushroom out, and it occurred to him he hadn't seen Braze actually leave the temple yet. "Well, Frack." As if to further illustrate the unintended consequences of his actions, the blaster fire towards his little ridge significantly increased in both rate and accuracy, and he cursed as he dove back down and made for his bike. "Oh sithspit they've..." A blaster bolt that was defiantly either a high powered anti-tank rifle of a stray E-web burst cracked over head and he started going faster.

"Yep they've seen me, time to go." He strapped the launcher down, kick started the 74-Z, and bolted at near max speed down the ridge and out of sight of the temple, fading in to the swell of the evening dust carried on the wind....

For now.

 

[Phyress Vaelor]

The Library tried to drown them. Light flared, died, flared again. Ventilation howled through ancient ducts, dragging ash and cold air in violent currents that twisted the corridors into something disorienting, alive. Water slicked the floor in uneven sheets, pooling in shallow dips, reflecting broken strips of illumination like fractured memory. Phyress did not look at any of it. Her attention was elsewhere. Always had been.

Kali’ka understood. That much was becoming clear. Phyress felt it in the way the Kiffar moved—not reactive, not distracted by the noise or the shifting environment. Focused. Purposeful. When Kali spoke, offering direction, Phyress’ gaze slid toward her with a faint, measured approval.

“This way…”

A small smirk answered it. “Yes,” Phyress murmured, voice low beneath the screaming systems. “He wants us to feel like we’re choosing the path.”

Her eyes lifted, just briefly, toward the upper reaches of the structure. “But he’s already decided it.”

The mist stretched outward again—thinner now, more precise. It no longer hunted blindly through the chaos. It traced intention. Flow. Where movement should have been disrupted—but wasn’t. And then—A flicker. Not below. Above. Gone just as quickly.

Her lips parted slightly. “…Up.” Confirmation.

She fell into step beside Kali’ka without hesitation, her robes whispering across wet stone as they moved deeper into the Library’s spine. The corridors shifted around them—half-closed blast doors, sparking panels, open shafts that dropped into darkness—but none of it slowed her. The mist slid ahead of them, tasting the path. Testing. Listening.

“He’s shedding weight,” Phyress said after a moment, her voice quieter now, threaded with thought. “Stripping himself of anything that slows him down.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Information. Tools. Attachments.” A pause. Then, faintly amused: “Smart.”

Her head tilted again, catching the faintest disturbance far above—air displaced, movement controlled too carefully to be natural. Not panic. Not flight. Positioning.

“He’s not running.” That much was clear now. Her gaze flicked sideways to Kali’ka again, that same subtle tension of interest still present beneath her calm. “He’s shaping pursuit.”

The mist recoiled slightly, then surged forward again—this time threading upward through gaps in the structure, slipping through broken lattice and exposed support beams. It brushed against empty space. Then—A void. A space where something had been. Recently. Her jaw tightened faintly.

“…He cleared something.” A breath left her, slow. “Sent something away.”

Her frustration surfaced again—not uncontrolled, but sharp. A quiet hiss slipped between her teeth before she reined it back. “Then whatever he wanted to keep…” her voice lowered further, “…is already gone.” That didn’t stop her. If anything—It sharpened her.

Ahead, the structure began to open—vertical space widening, the oppressive corridors giving way to the skeletal rise toward the upper levels. Faint natural light filtered down through fractured architecture, mixing with the artificial glare in uneven patches. The gardens. Close.

Phyress slowed slightly—not from caution, but from calculation. The mist gathered closer again, coiling at her sides like something waiting to strike rather than search. “He thinks we’re behind him,” she said quietly. A faint smirk returned. “He’s not wrong.”

Her eyes lifted upward, tracing the broken pathways, the gantries, the fractured lines of movement that would carry someone agile across the upper reaches unseen. But unseen didn’t mean unfelt.

“We don’t chase,” she added, almost to herself. Her gaze shifted once more to Kali’ka. “We intercept.” Another step forward. Deliberate. Controlled.

“Let him think he’s ahead,” Phyress murmured, the faint glow beneath her skin pulsing once in quiet rhythm.

“He’ll come back into reach.”

Location: Jedi Library Ruins, Ossus • Objective: Artifact Recovery • Company: T'zarna Khab | Elyndrella | Kali'ka • Adversaries: Braze | Aiden Porte