Duel Duel on Dentaal | Darth Strosius vs. Arris Windrun

[Arris Windrun]

DENTAAL
Darth Strosius
Down & Out​

Arris Windrun's criminal operation had been running smoothly for some time. From 1313, everything from weapons, spice, outlaw tech, and information flowed. And nowhere was it more profitable than the dwindling bit of free space trapped between the Sith Order, Covenant, Kestri Mandalorian, and Republic borders.

On the graveyard world of Dentaal, amongst the crumbling remains of cities abandoned, her people had established a most lucrative smuggling network - siphoning off the flow of trade from Abregado-rae now blockaded by a ghost ship that swallowed trade fleets without a trace. It was part of the Covenant's ongoing strategy to starve these rogue Mandalorians of much-needed resources. Everything from the goods to the crews (as prisoners, perhaps slaves) was brought to an outpost on Dentaal, just outside the ruins of Calif City, before it was transferred to the Core.

Arris was brooding alone atop her tower in Coruscant's Empty when a distress signal reached her terminal. There was no message, only code, as was often the case for underworld communications, and it said one thing: The outpost is under attack. There was only one way to gather context, and that was to show up herself.

She arrived well ahead of the relief force sent to investigate, flying there in one of the fastest ships she could grab.

The courier touched down on a cliff overlooking the outpost, and from where she stood, it was obscured by a mess of black smoke.

"The hell..." She murmured and made the climb down to get a closer look.

The cyborg was very much alone. Never in the company of guards or soldiers. And she was armed only with the pair of heavy pistols that jangled at her hips.

Her eyes were quite blind as she traversed the smoke, but her co-processor's extrasensory telemetry picked up on movement and activity.

Already, anger boiled beneath the surface; she pressed forward, intent on finding the source.

 

[Darth Strosius]

It had been a rather mundane affair, all things considered.

Some scavenger and smuggler operation that He'd traced a trail of funding and missing convoys to, one that had proven all too easy to eliminate. It was almost as though they hadn't been expecting an attack at all, comfortable with whatever victories and safety that they'd probably bought with their little "business" ventures. Darth Strosius had led a small strike force which had few issues knocking out any means of escape and most of their communications within but a few minutes of their initial assault.

Most being the key word, as until a few minutes ago He'd assumed that they had indeed destroyed all communications before the real fighting had started. Yet while His soldiers were extracting what components and fuel they could He had discovered a hidden compartment at the rear of one of the outpost's buildings, sat within was one last injured smuggler with a communicator in hand. He had drawn his last breath still clutching onto the device even with a lightsaber blade burning a hole through him.

It would have almost been admirable had it not been so inconvenient. This was meant to be a simple smash and grab sort of deal, not anything drawn out. While the forces that He'd brought were of course eager to engage whatever reinforcements might be on their way, they were also without any support of their own. As such Darth Strosius had them leave the system, at least for the moment, while He remained at the outpost site to arrange a surprise for whoever decided to answer the call for help.

He had just placed the final charge on a reserve fuel tank when He felt it, a presence in the Force that had made it planet side. No mere mercenary or other criminal scum to be certain, rather they even almost felt familiar though He couldn't recall exactly who they might have been. They were certainly no Jedi at the very least which was somewhat surprising given that they must have been responding to a distress call. Who else would come to the aid of a bunch of criminals?

He wasn't sure but He sensed that He was about to get His answer. Darth Strosius made His way out of one of the outpost's hangars, now pockmarked with blaster burns and half caved in on one side, with His lightsaber in hand but not ignited. While His dark robes and attire hardly stood out amidst the smoke rising from across the various structures of the outpost, the pale tendrils trailing from His back were hardly hidden at all. Death seemed to coax them into visibility, although by now they were mostly translucent once again.

He saw no need to drag out the pleasantries even without laying eyes upon the new arrival, whoever it was had come alone. A potentially fatal mistake. "You've arrived too late I'm afraid. There's nothing of value left to pilfer, I assure you."

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Darth Strosius
Down & Out
​

"Pilfer?"

The cyborg stepped through the smoke, appearing clearly before the Sith Lord.

"Why would I steal what's already mine?"

Her eyes fell upon him with hawkish suspicion. Likewise, he seemed familiar; the way he spoke, most of all. It didn't take long for her gaze to flick to the unignited lightsaber in his hand.

"I recognize you..." Arris pondered. "Thrantin, right? The Governor of Brosi's arm candy."

Her head panned across the wreckage, with a frown that hardened every passing inch, and by the time it returned to him, it had become a bitter fucking scowl.

"So," she began, "I take it that you're responsible for this mess?"

Truthfully, this situation wouldn't have been so bad under normal circumstances. Annoying, yes, but not detrimental. However, the Covenant had been quite busy planning their campaign against Abregado-rae - Mercy's campaign. The Core Empress had sent the cyborg on errand after errand, demanding all of her attention on a campaign that was soon to be executed. Suffice it to say, a hiccup like this at the eleventh hour was exactly the kind of straw to break the ronto's back.

Windrun's left hand twitched inches beside one of her pistols, while her right balled into a tight fist.

"Care to explain the logic behind your mistake, man?"

Anger rippled through the Force despite the calm in her voice.

 

[Darth Strosius]

There was a slight incline of the masked Sith Lord's head as she stepped through the smoke, recognition flickering in His hidden gaze. Followed by a click of His tongue in distaste as she claimed that this outpost already belonged to her. That was a rather...inconvenient state of affairs whether true or not. More than likely A'Mia wasn't going to be pleased if word filtered back to her, she had been very particular about Him making good impressions and all that.

Darth Strosius never did have much luck when it came to other Sith. "Arm candy?!" The accusation made Him scoff, idly thankful that His mask hid the brief flare in warmth across His features. "I am no mere accompaniment! A'Mi-Lady Madrona simply prefers to lead conversations and introductions." Something about Him coming off intense or some other excuse, not that He minded of course.

Unfortunately it seemed as though the Sith before Him definitely did mind, in particular His destruction of her operation. A frustration that He could certainly understand and sympathize with even if it was inconvenient for His own sake. Darth Strosius slid His thumb to rest on the ignition switch of His lightsaber, His free hand propping against His side near where His word was tucked away in its sheathe within His heavy robes as He noticed hers twitch near one of her pistols.

"I wouldn't call it a 'mistake' really. It was quite the simple event until you arrived, your operation didn't put up much of a fight. My condolences for their loss." His measured tone made it difficult to discern if He was being genuine or not. "I'd be willing to discus compensation and even recompense however I'm afraid I'm a little light on resources at present so I'll have to keep what my soldiers have taken from here. Knocking over smuggler and scavenger dens like this one is one of our few sources of such things, I'm sure you understand."

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Darth Strosius
Down & Out
​

His reaction to her remark invoked a small bit of self-satisfied smugness. If she had known he blushed, too, that would've been all the sweeter. Of course, his fumbling over how to address the Governor was rich in itself.

Her brief joy, however, was fleeting, as the Sith Lord proceeded to dismiss her complaint, regard her people as lousy fighters, then offer mock condolences for their demise. Then finally, to add insult to injury, he threw the thought of compensation out there, only to dismiss it before she could get a response in. Claiming that somehow he needed the plunder as if he were scraping poverty's edge otherwise. There was the slim chance that all of that was somehow genuine, but she couldn't imagine a Sith Lord would be so half-assed in his affairs... a startling thought that she might be wrong to think so.

"Naw," the Talusian drawled. "I actually don't understand."

Cybernetic eyes fell upon the weapon in his hand.

"You go around killing with that Jedi's toy?" She asked in mockery, then drew her left-hand revolver.

The gunbelt slouched to her right side now, as she twirled the songsteel firearm like some kind of gunslinger from the holoflicks.

She scanned the outpost's wreckage all the while, trying to assess the scope of the damage and her losses. The most notably absent feature was the captured crew. Mercy's orders were to have them sold as labor to some megacorporation. The records recovered would've undoubtedly revealed that fate for them, if he had bothered to read.

"Now we had some prisoners kept around here. Y'know, upright, walked on two legs. Couldn't have gone far in this dump. Did you kill them?" She considered for a moment, then shook her head. "Went ahead and sold them to some slavers? I bet that'd turn a quick credit for you, charity case."

 

[Darth Strosius]

He clicked His tongue at her dismissal. "Then you must be very fortunate. I cannot say the same." Darth Strosius bristled at the insult and scoffed, igniting the crimson blade as she drew one of her guns and twirled it about. "The lightsaber is a Sith invention and it is no toy! Its certainly more effective and skillful than any simple pistol. You even have to reload that one by hand, don't you?"

A revolver of all things was hardly practical in this day and age after all, even if they were reliable. There was only so much that they could offer in comparison to a more modern gun after all, the sheer difference in how much ammunition could be stored and utilized at any given time had always been the most damning quality in His mind. A consideration that He'd had to make several times during the weapons developments of His forces and company.

He still remembered the long conversation He had to have with His engineers about engravings and their tactical advantages.

The question made Him pause and incline His head, idly debating whether or not to simply lie and agree with her assumption. Her next remark caused Him to physically recoil and reflexively respond however, His words dripping with pure vitriol. "Of course not! What kind of vile man do you take me for?! The prisoners were either released or recruited, we had no qualms with them and it was their distress calls which summoned us here anyway. It would have been in poor taste to just murder them for no reason, they weren't guilty of anything worthwhile."

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Darth Strosius
Down & Out
​

She was surprised by his defensive remark about the lightsaber. Also, this was the first time she had heard it was a Sith's invention. Then again, Arris Windrun didn't care at all about the history of Sith or Jedi. She felt such things were a useless pursuit by those who didn't have real hobbies.

Yet, that wasn't the most surprising twist. His reaction to her comment about the prisoners, particularly her second assumption, struck her as interesting. She immediately formed an educated guess as to why - now it was time to test her hypothesis.

"Really?" She leveled her handgun at about his midchest. "Because you have the whine and attire of someone who was brought up by slaves." If that made him angrier, then she wondered if he'd take her bait.

"You were some noble's brat, yeah? Fed and clothed by slaves. So accustomed to their service and worship, that it only felt natural that the whole galaxy should serve you?"

Arris fired the revolver, propelling a heavy metal slug in his direction. To be clear, she held no belief that it would ever hit its mark, or if it did, that it would drop the Sith dead or anything like that.

She just wanted him to respond with his rage, because she didn't want to take out hers on him unless he was serious.

 

[Darth Strosius]

His lightsaber was pulled up to be held in front of His chest, a mere reflex of the weapon being aimed His way more so than an intentional movement. He doubted that one shot could pierce His robes to any meaningful degree of course however there was always the chance that He could be wrong. Not a high chance of course but still existent He supposed.

Darth Strosius grew rigid at the accusation, although the stillness didn't last. In fact it only served to herald a shaking of His whole form that began with a twitching of His armored fingers. "What?" The word was hissed more than it was spoken, dripping with venom and just barely escaping through clenched fangs. "You think I'm some blue blooded wretch!? Who do you think-"

Of course He couldn't quite finish His insulted response as the firing of her gun more than interrupted Him. The slug itself would of course not be all that bothered by His lightsaber being held in its path, depending on what it was made it there was even the chance that it might just pass right through and plow into the masked man with a shell of molten metal and all its velocity still intact. So He simply chose not to make use of His lightsaber in this instance.

In a flash His sword was drawn in His free hand, flipped around as He shifted His stance, and served as a tool for batting the incoming round away from Him and into the ground beside Him instead. Darth Strosius straightened and idly glanced over the slight dent in the sword's blade before fixing His hidden gaze back on her. "Clearly you have no idea who I am, allow me to enlighten you." Violet arcs of lightning crackled from His fingers along the hilt and then the blade of His sword as He raised and leveled it towards her.

"I am Darth Strosius, Prophet of the Order of Wonosa and one of the last true Sith left within the Sith Order. I am no aristocratic tyrant, I am a proper Sith Lord! I don't bind and shackle, I liberate and avenge. And I revel getting to spill the blood of the wicked just like I did with everyone in this pathetic little outpost of yours."

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Darth Strosius
Down & Out
​

Her round ricocheted off the sword with a distinctive ping. She noted the splash of dirt where it landed.

Well, that was tough.

And even went right back to talking. The cyborg listened - steam rising from the barrel of her weapon as it fell idly to her side. She wasn't expecting the whole speech: name, job, employer, and self-declared legitimacy. Under different circumstances, she might've smirked when he declared himself the 'last true Sith' left within the Order. Yet, the whole situation found her unamused.

He took her bait, though, and that meant she was right on the money. "Liberate... Avenge..." She threw her revolver-clad hand up dismissively. "Listen, man. We're all delusional."

She looked around the carnage and took a few lazy steps forward. "Made you feel big and strong, yeah?" Her eyes found their way back to him, that electric arc and his mean sword. She met him; that calm in her eyes replaced by a cold fire.

Arris stopped and leveled her gun again slowly, taking a stance that looked more like a professional lining up her shot. Side profile, one arm behind her back and everything.

"It's okay - however you rationalize your entitlement is your business. I get it. You wanna feel self-made, instead of propped up."

Her thumb flicked the accelerator. It whirred.

"Bring it."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Beneath His mask, an eye twitched at the nonchalant response. "Delusional? You've brought a gun to face a Sith and you think I'm the delusional one?" She simply had to be joking in some manner. Perhaps she was buying time for additional forces to arrive? Venturing forth first to aid against what was presumed to be some pirate attack made sense, it would certainly explain her lack of preparation for a real threat. Even if her handgun was rather...potent in its power given how it impacted His sword.

No matter, Darth Strosius wasn't one to be cowed regardless of what she wielded. Though bringing to bear additional forces was a concerningly real possibility. "You really are misinformed. If you want to see a bunch of entitled propped-up layabouts then I'd recommend looking at the so called 'Dark Council' cowering behind the Blackwall. Unlike them I am a proper Sith Lord, ssve your barbs for the ones that fit them." She had taken a stance towards Him, readying another shot yet by the time spoke her invitation He'd already moved.

Darth Strosius surged forwards with a speed that seemed improbable given His heavy robes and armor yet was certainly occurring regardless. Though running straight towards the barrel of her weapon wasn't His strategy. Each step made the smoke around them shift until suddenly it surged around them all at once in a strong gust of wind, shrouding the ground between them and obscuring His path until a bolt of violet lightning flew from the smoke towards her. The masked man Himself followed after it, but not running. Instead He'd leapt, bearing down from above with both blades beared to cleave into her.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Darth Strosius
Down & Out
​

The rest of his words fell on deaf ears. Arris didn't need to discuss it when she (by her account anyway) had him exactly where she wanted him.

As soon as the Sith Lord threw himself into an attack, Arris did fire. And she quickly holstered the gun after that. It was quite a split second between the iron dropping back into the holster and the lightning ripping through the smoke. The cyborg braced herself. She wasn't sure if this was just his move, or if he assumed that because she was cybernetic, a bit of electric fun would seriously trump her.

In the past, it might've, but things changed when you grew accustomed to Quinn's storms, or a Jedi's ionization, or, if you were a twisted freak like Arris was, and meditated at the center of an energy yard, with great pylons summoning tendrils of lightning across the gaps.

Still, it was too late for her to do much when that same Sith Lord came crashing down with his mighty blade. An instinctive choice had to be made.

Rather than attempting to dodge, she decided having him close was her best option. With what little room to maneuver she had, Arris twisted her body ever-so-slightly until the blades cleaved into her left side. One separated the arm entirely from her body, and the other cut deeper into her shoulder, crushing its way down into her torso, awfully close to where her heart was encased. It was ugly - the sound of metal being torn from her body. There was a crunch, too, where reinforced bone beneath that was broken and shattered.

It was maybe a stupid sacrifice, even liable to kill her, but her body would become the sheath to hold his weapons steady - if even for a few seconds only. Enough time for her right arm to bend at the elbow, in the motion of a draw. But there was no gun in her hand. No, that remained holstered at her hip. If he looked down, he would've seen nothing but thumb and finger, in the shape of an L, pointer in his direction.

"Bang."

She stole that fashionable move from one Vestra Tane.

The railgun-like blast of hateful energy would likely pound into his torso. Perhaps sending him flying back. She wasn't quite certain it would obliterate him on the spot, though that was acceptable, too.