Elemental

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Oh," Jacen replied. Clearly that news slightly bemused him. He slid the ice pack from his face and tried to prise his eye open and sight down the pistol towards the floor. With a grunt of annoyance he gave up and swapped to his left hand.

"Fifty shots, I should be able to hit something with that," he said. There was no point making any bold statements about the fact that they stood between thousands of people and a grizzly death. That had become the norm in recent years. Voidstalker had never had the raw talent or abilities of many Jedi, least of all Aela. But stubborn resolve, that he had in spades.

"Let's go. There's a small station far side of the first class accommodation deck. Might meet one or two on the way."

Whilst he was comfortable with a side-arm, he would have very much liked his sabre back.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The force pike was kept in her hand as they headed towards where Jacen had indicated. Surprisingly they met no one on the way, in fact the Cruise Ship almost felt completely devoid of life. She couldn’t help but frown as she poked her head around corners and checked for any activity. Each time when none was found she motion for Jacen to head into the next hall.

It was slow progress, but safer than it otherwise could have been.

”I don’t think they’re searching for us.” Aela said quietly as they reached another deck, her head peeking back from the open doorway. A pit had long ago formed in her stomach, if only because this situation was getting more and more odd the longer time went by. She frowned and looked at the Other Jedi Marshall.

”We haven’t even seen another one of them.” Perhaps they didn’t have the manpower to patrol the ship, or perhaps they were planning something. ”We need to get to that security room.”

The longer they went without encountering someone, the more suspicious Aela became.

They passed through two more decks unabated, then as they passed through the doors of the final stairwell voices rang out beyond.

”They’re Jedi. There’s no need to chase them. They’ll come to us.”

Aela immediately threw her hand back, grabbing Jacen and pressing him against the wall.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

As she pressed him back he found the wall with his heel. Pressed back into it, he kept his pilot up. With his arm against the wall and elbow cocked it pointed for the ceiling, but he could move around Aela easily enough. Would need to in fact; she was too tall for him to shoot over.

The state of the ship supported his second theory of the passengers having been gathered up. They needed to find out where. They wouldn't find out by walking into another ambush of course. But down in the lower decks they'd been gathered around their cargo. Now they had an entire ship to control and twelve thousand hostages.

He thumbed off the safety catch. A slow, deep breath centred himself. If he could find his connection with the Force he could make his mark with both eyes closed.

"How many?" He whispered.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

”Three.” She had confidence that they could have taken one, perhaps even two, but three? That was stretching it. On any other day with their lightsabers Aela would have said she and Jacen could take on half an army, but right no they were tired, injured, and neither of them had their weapon of choice.

That wasn’t even to mention that they still knew very little about these men. The one that had been guarding them had known Teras Kasi, a technique specifically developed for fighting force users. These three wore the same armor, and thus Aela could unless guess that they were trained in the same technique, taking them head on was...well she was leaning away from that option.

”Let’s see if we can’t lure them away from one another.” It was the only way they could take them on without too much risk. ”See If we can get one alone.”

How did she propose to do that?

”Head one floor above and shoot a power junction, when they run towards you I’ll grab the one that lingers behind.” There was always one, Aela knew that from years of fighting Sith and Thugs.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

He did little more than murmur his agreement and slink back away from the door. The route back to the stairs was taken very cautiously, it could have been three plus two sentries afterall.

On the corridor above he found a maintenance panel, but the question was whether he could find somewhere to mount an ambush. Their were plenty of rooms on either side, but if they were good they'd be careful, check the corners. It would all come down to a fraction of a second.

The maintenance panel was pulled loose and he stepped back away from it, taking the opportunity to check his aim. The junction was disintegrated in a bright flash. Jacen took a room between the stairwell and the junction and waited.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

While Jacen went and played bait, Aela sat back and hid within the darker parts of the stairwell. She made herself as small as she possibly could and then used the force, not to make herself invisible, but to make herself less noticeable. It wasn’t the skill of an assassin, nor was it an illusion, rather a trick of the mind.


The guards wouldn’t notice her unless they looked closely, mostly because their minds would be pushed towards noticing other things.


It was a trick that her mother had taught her, usually used when you were standing in a crowd. The idea was that you simply became a part of the scenery, rather than outright hiding. A trick that worked so often because Humans, and organics in general, tended to only notice things when they were directly in front of their face.


Her theory was proven right when two of the guards went rushing by her and up the stairs.

The third lingered behind, finishing the task that he had been told to complete. Aela stepped out of the darkened corner and into the hall, watching the man for a moment as he set up what appeared to be a laser fence of some sort. Before he had time to notice her, Aela fell upon him.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen waited. Legs crossed he sat in the corner of his chosen room behind some storage crates. His eyes were closed. It wasn't much time, but it was enough to quiesce his mind. A sense of calm, of purpose washed over him. The pain receded to a dull ache.

The Force connected all life forms. Even the two coming up the stairs. At least there were no Yuuzhan Vong. That would have been a test too far for the wounded Jedi.

He slid to his feet without a sound, padding to squat behind a create next to the door. Better to be out of sight in case they kicked this one in first. They didn't.

He heard voices outside. They were concerned, suspecting an ambush. They went to the door opposite him. Jacen didn't approve of taking lives needlessly, but his Jedi training was built around the foundation of a practical soldier. His door was eased open.

Fwoom, fwoom. Two bolts in quick succession. From a metre away he couldn't miss. One had a power pack and a model of blaster pistol he preferred. Combat webbing and a holster too. He took them all and dragged the bodies out of sight of a quick inspection. Then he went back to the stairs. His new sidearm was held before him, whilst the spare hung in his holster. A flashbang would have been good, he reflected.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela had knocked out their third man without much difficulty. Surprise and, well, a bit of guile helped out quite a bit.

She struck hard and fast, taking the mans breath through a choke hold and a small press of the force to his lungs that brought him down within a matter of minutes. The guard hit the ground with a solid thud, putting him into a deep slumber. She lingered above him for a few moments and then looked around, hearing the commotion upstairs and quickly shifting to drag the now unconscious guard into a nearby room.


Aela frowned as she tugged him into the luxury apartment, poking her head out as she waited for Jacen to reappear on the floor.


She saw him trot down onto the stairwell.


”Jacen!” She whisper shouted at him, attempting to grab his attention without being overly loud.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

He brought his left hand up, away from the grip of the pistol, to acknowledge her call. What he didn't do was lower the weapon. He had, by necessity, made quite a noise on the floor above. The cruise ship was enormous, but there was still a chance of there being more nearby.

At least some of the welling had come down around his eye. Focussing was still a little tricky but at least he could get a reasonable sight down the pistol. This was a nice heavy model, the kind he liked that could punch through a good bit of armour at close range.

"Security room might have some binds we can put on that one," he suggested. "Let's go find out where the passengers are."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela gave the fence like contraption a glance as they passed it by, inspecting it for a few moments as she considered what they could be using it for. It took her a second, but after a moment it became rather obvious. ”They’re cutting off sections of the ship.”

She frowned.

It made sense in a way. They likely didn’t have thousands of guardsmen to keep the civilians all together, so by putting up these fences it was a way to keep everything relatively secure, if someone tried to breach the perimeter...they would end up trapped. She frowned slightly as they turned down another hall.

”Smar.” She said quietly. ”They must have been planning this for a while.”

As they headed up the stairs once more she couldn’t help but grip the hilt of the force-pike a bit tighter, a weariness growing in her chest as they came closer to the security room.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Spinning his head to check both directions as he stepped out into the corridor was a bit of a mistake. He saw no targets, but when his head stopped moving his vision didn't. Hopefully Aela would assume that standing still for a few seconds was just a measure of caution, not him waiting to get his bearings back. Each step was slow as he headed towards the security station. He reached out with the Force and found himself unable to detect any nearby presence. That could have meant nothing. He was exhausted and there were Yuuzhan Vong working for the terrorists.

He paused at the door, focussing on his hearing. Nothing. It might have been undefended but the door was locked. Each security station was also reinforced by thick durasteel. They'd given him a code, but if the terrorists had changed it they would have to blast their way in.

He checked the corridor again. "Keep an eye out," he whispered. He tapped in his eight digits. The light went green and the door slid open. There was no one inside.

"Right, they didn't lock me out but if they've got the master system they'll have seen that access. Let's find out where the hostages are quickly and keep moving."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

A part of her still thought that the best option they had was grabbing one of the strange guards an interrogating him, but for now she would go along with Jacen’s plan.

They were outnumbered, so it made sense, but they lacked so much information.

”There.” She pointed to one of the many screens within the security room. On the screen there were hundreds of people, all huddled in place, or sitting at tables. Most of them looked relatively comfortable, only a few were bound by their hands. Guards in bright Red Armor stood among them, each of them were helmets. Aela gasped slightly and came to a realization. ”I recognize the armor.”

She had always prided herself on her ability to do research, remembering things, and in general being a healthy source of knowledge. Red armor was fairly common throughout the galaxy, so the mistake was understandable, it was the helmet that really made it all click in her head. ”They’re Royal Guard.”

”One Sith.” She further explained. ”Part of their elite units before the Alliance even formed. They fought in the early days of the war with The Republic.”

Though after their Master had fallen at the hands of another Sith the group had faded into obscurity.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen took a slow breath in through his nose. There were quite a few guards as well. Some others in plain clothes or staff uniforms. "There's another Yuuzhan Vong," he observed. He recalled something about a number of their kind being convinced that the Dark Lord was an avatar of one of their pantheon. He continued to flick through the security feeds available. Nothing from the bridge, no hint of whether the biological weapon had been moved or was still down in the lower maintenance decks.

"Let's take the one you knocked out and get a distance away before we wake him up and start asking questions," Jacen said. As exhausted as he was he couldn't keep some of the dismay out of his voice. "That's more guards than we can take down with brute force without losing a lot of hostages. We either need to disable or remove the bio weapon and let the GADF handle the hostage situation or a better plan."

He holstered his second blaster pistol and prepared to do the heavy lifting.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

”These guys are well trained.” She said, backing up his statement that they couldn’t go around trying to take out every single one of the guards. That plan simply wasn’t realistic, and more than likely one of the two of them would get hurt in the process. They needed a way to bring this to a quick close, otherwise it would likely help with a lot of people getting hurt.


”The Royal Guard were an elite force.” Served one of the Hands, as Aela recalled. ”If they have Yuuzhan Vong with them…”


She trailed off as they turned another corner. ”Maybe something connect to the One Sith?”


The government, at least the official system, had been brought down entirely now. There was no more Dark Lord, no more council, nothing and nobody leading the vast forces that were still scattered around the galaxy. The Alliance had mostly cleaned it up, but certain pocket resistances still existed throughout the galaxy.

Was this another one?


But then why the bio-weapon, it didn’t make any sense.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen grunted as he heaved the man up over one shoulder. He took a pause to stead himself before starting to trundle on. Hopefully there were no stairs between them and their destination.

"This was supposed to be a well funded group of fundamentalists. Either someone more organised piggy backed on the operation or they were careful to hide their footsteps and out Intel got thrown off. There are Yuuzhan Vong weapons that could strip an entire world of life as we know it. This could be a strategic move rather than just making a noise. All..."

His grip on their captive slipped and he veered towards a wall.

"...conjecture of course. But the stakes are higher. Just like Atrisia. More than meets the eye. More sith lurking in the shadows. We should have done more to round them up instead of celebrating." There was a pause as he considered something. "We'll have to deal with Panatha."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela let out a sigh.


”It was easier when they were all in once place.” It was half a joke, but it also held a truth to it. The One Sith had been a sort of centering point for many Sith in the galaxy, they had all gathered, and they had all mostly stayed in the same place. It had been easier to fight them, easier to stop their tirades, but now...now things were more confused.


Sith still existed, but finding them was getting harder and harder. Isolated moments of chaos like Atrisia had sparked all over the galaxy, and predicting them, keeping people safe was more difficult than ever.


”I don’t like this.” She said as they rounded another corner. ”We don’t know enough. Not just about this cruise, but about who's behind all of this, what cause Atrisia, even Panatha is a bit of a mystery.”


She agreed that the world had to be cleansed of Sith, but what Sith?


Lord Vornskr, or whatever he called himself now, had long since dwelled within the pacanth reach, but who was with him? What other Sith lurked within the folds of that sector? They didn’t know. They needed more information.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen echoed her sigh emphatically. The spaces between the doors had become longer, which meant they were walking past some of the larger suites. Utilising the additional weight of the man on his back he shouldered open the next door.


“Close that,” he added - likely redundantly - but just to be sure. The suite was huge, several connecting rooms. With short steps he headed for the bathroom, dumping the man rather unceremoniously in the ceramic bathtub. There was barely a groan.


“Sorry buddy,” he apologised as he took the cuffs he'd taken from the security room and bound him. It wasn't good for you to be knocked unconscious. Jacen was fully aware of this fact; his view of the world still had a habit of shifting even when he was stationary.


With a heavy sigh he leaned against the refresher room wall and started to check over his new blaster pistol. He knew this model well, could tell from the weight that it was reasonably full of gas before he conducted a manual check, could tell from the internals that it was well looked after. It was unnecessary, but it kept his hands busy with a calm, familiar routine. Now they just had to wait for this one to gain enough faculties to answer questions.


Aela was young, he reflected when he cast his eyes over her. He had been young when he'd started fighting too. Perhaps she wasn't the right person for this conversation, but he started it anyway.


“What would you be doing if they all vanished tomorrow? No more fighting, no more wars. Let's assume crime goes down to almost nothing. What would you do?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

It was odd that he would bring something like that. It was a subject that Aela had been considering more and more as of late. She had not fought for as long as others had, but...it had been well over a decade since she’d started to fight the Sith, or train to fight them anyway. Her early efforts had been a bit silly, naive even, but she’d still tried even back then. A frown settled on her lips for a few seconds.


”I.” She began quietly, thinking for a moment as she cast a glance towards the guard.


”I’m not sure.” It was a concern that her parents had always had with her. She didn’t have much of a life in all honesty, few friends, no romantic prospects, and her hobbies basically confined her to her room with a stack of books. That wasn’t necessarily a bad life, but it wasn’t a very exciting one. ”I’ve been thinking about it, and weirdly enough because of who I am I have plenty of options.”


The Taliths had more than enough money for her to do...well anything. ”But I don’t know. I don’t think I could just sit on a beach for the rest of my life. I would be happy in a Library, but...well I don’t think many would consider me wise for staying there.”


She frowned.


It was a good question, but unfortunately it was not one that Aela had an answer to.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"And there's the rub right?" Jacen said with a wide shrug. "I'm thirty eight and I haven't the faintest idea what I'd do if I could retire from the front lines altogether."

He shook his head and chuckled, but there was no mirth in that sound.

"I understand what I gave up, don't get me wrong. They were going to roll over the galaxy and a lot of us made the choice to make that sacrifice. We had to give everything or it would have been taken from us. I suppose if I could let myself feel annoyed I probably would be at what they made me." He idly scratched at the side of his jaw.

"Don't get to this age without an answer for that question I guess," he added and this time there was genuine warmth in the smile. He silently chastised himself for starting such a rant. Clearly getting beaten put him out of sorts. "Tell you what, if we push them all back to the deepest corners of the galaxy we'll go on an extreme sports holiday or something..."

He was interrupted by their guest starting to stir. "Right then, how did you want to play this? One ask the questions and one read?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

”Maybe all Jedi are like us.” She shrugged. What else were they supposed to do? ”My mother settled down well enough, but I don’t think that life is for me.”


At least not any time within the next century

Aela had no idea if she would even enjoy an ‘extreme sports’ holiday, in fact part of her wondered if she hadn’t already lived one. She and Adder had been shipwrecked on Naboo for a while, and that had been extreme enough for her. Perhaps he meant skydiving...but they’d already done that in the form of orbital drops. She just had no idea what life outside of the Jedi, outside of this fight could hold.

”I’ll ask. You read.” Aela said shifting her weight.

She might not have seemed intimidating, but she was in her own odd little way.