Elemental

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Finding the last few switches went easily enough. now whoever was patrolling down here was locked in with him. At least two of them that he was aware of.

It took previous time to get dressed in his suit, but it could not be avoided. He trusted Aela and she always seemed to have confidence in herself, but he had no clear idea how many guards were left on the ship. There couldn't be too many, not if they'd only left six on the bridge.

Once he was done he took just one pistol and his saber and found a hatch that took him down closer to the hull. Or rather, hulls. Most windows had field projectors that could seal themselves, but the hull itself was two distinct layers of durasteel. Even a saber would take time working through that.

He was on the lowest level now and stood tall his head barely reached the level of the floor. That was a problem as he couldn't see anyone coming. There was something to hook a cord from his belt to, but it was a loose fit. When he pierced the hull he would be pulled through to his waist and at the mercy of anything dragged through the hole. That couldn't be helped.

snap-hiss

He plunged his saber into the first hull and started to slowly work it around in a circle.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The woman laughed, it was a loud, boisterous laugh that bothered Aela to her very core.

"Perhaps not."

That answer surprised the Jedi Marshall. Usually these types had all the ego in the world. They were more liable to hit her than actually answer any questions she might have, yet this woman laughed. That was unusual. She frowned for a moment and was about to open her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by the woman once more. Her eyes narrowed and there was a certain smugness on her face that made her look like she had already won.

"We've heard stories of you Miss Talith, about your adventures on Bastion."

Oh.

Ohhh.

It didn't take her more than half a second to make the connection that the woman was hinting at, and in truth it only surprised her more. Why be so open with her? Why offer that hint. She frowned slightly, and then quickly understood when she saw the bright flash of the edge of a blade.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

It was starting to feel a great deal like Jacen was digging his own grave. The heat radiating from the circle of durasteel was immense, leaving him soaked in his suit. As he reached the start of his cut the circle didn't immediately drop down. The path he'd started was rapidly cooling and had begun to reseal. It started to sag instead.

Too hot to touch he gave it a mental shove and it dropped a foot to the second hull below. He held up a hand with two fingers extended and swiped to the side, sending it skidding out of sight in the space between hulls.

Jacen barely had time to react to the force like that lanced through the air. The tip sparked against the metal behind him as he rolled his shoulder away. It was then slammed into his shoulder like a club.

Jacen looked up at the guardsman, bringing one arm up and wrapping it around the polearm to hold himself steady. The guardsman's visor canted to one side when he realise that arm held a blaster that was pointing back down the length of the pike.

His first assailant fell away, but poking his head up, he could see two more coming. He fired several warning shots at them and then dropped down to the next hull. This was bad. If they had a grenade he was finished. Had to cut fast.

Letting the Force guide him, he pushed the tip of the blade into the hull, not quite piercing it. He planned to cut shallow all around and then breach it in one go rather than being sucked against a tiny hole and tearing his suit.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela stared at the knife, her lips turning into a frown.

The blade was...well it wasn't at all practical. The blade was curved and spiked, the hilt was all metal and shaped like an odd sort of reptile, but...well it was still a knife. The intent of it was clear, and slowly the Jedi Marshall stepped back. She moved away from the woman once, twice, and then found herself bumping into the broad chest of one of the guardsmen. She looked up at him, eyes widening slightly before she looked back at the woman.

"Come now Marshall."

She hissed, stepping closer.

"No thanks." The force built in her in an instant, and then suddenly she pressed out. The guard behind her was tossed clear, her palm came up, and half a second later a bright translucent bubble formed around Aela. The woman with the blade took two steps forward, attempting to reach and stab Aela before the bubble formed only for the blade to bounce harmlessly against the newly formed shield. Rage fluttered over the womans face.

"Come on Jacen." Aela said quietly. "They'll get around this."

The guardsmen were already scrambling all around her, some grabbing weapons, others explosives.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

The Yuuzhan Vong didn't try and take Jacen out with a grenade. He leapt into the shaft and landed upon Jacen with his full weight. The saber cracked before flying from his grip. The golden blade buzzed for a fraction of a second before the safety cut out activated.

Jacen's hearing was filled with a high pitched whine, but his thoughts were interrupted by the Vong grappling, kicking and strike as fast as it could. It was quicker than him, stronger too. Jacen did his best to get his elbows up and weather the blows.

He realised that the whine was because his saber had opened a miniscule hole on the outer hull. It had to be small, tiny. The Vong seemed heedless of the slow decompress taking place. Jacen could retreat, he was still tied to a clip in the shaft above.

Couldn't give up now, he was too close. He dropped his weight and slammed his shoulder into the Vong. An old school tackle from his sporting days. His left hand took a knee and drew it up as he toppled the Vong. It screamed. Its neck had landed against the half centimetre wide hole. Jacen drove his fist into its temple again and again. Then he called his saber back to him.

He raised it high and plunged it down, but not into his enemy. He finished the job in a quick swipe and gathered all his strength to blast the circle of hull out into the void.

The Vong was pulled straight from the ship and Jacen followed.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The woman had by now realized that the force bubble wasn't something she was gonna get through. To try and stop this...or rather to try and get Aela to drop the force power she had dragged one of the hostages in front of her. Aela frowned, her lips turning into a bare scowl as she watched the Royal Guardswoman slowly hold that ugly knife to the hostages throat.

"Stop." Aela told her.

What was she supposed to do? She was supposed to stall, but if she dropped the field they'd kill her...and if she didn't they'd kill the hostage. Her heart began to pound, her fingers shifting slightly, her eyes setting on the guardswoman.

"I'll drop the field." Aela said slowly. "Just let her go."

The Guardswoman dropped the knife ever so slightly away from the womans throat, and that was all the space Aela needed. She shifted slightly, and dropped the bubble. The force whirled around her, and almost instantly she pulled the lightsaber on the table towards her. The blade smacked into her hand and ignited in an instant. Almost at the exact same time the ship went dark. Lights went out, the hull shifted, and red alarm klaxons began to blare as Jacen's handiwork took effect.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Sit still!" The crisp, clear voice of the guardsman rang out. The cruise liner held thousands of civilians and keeping them in line had been a difficult task without the lines shutting out. Dresslin had seen the female Jedi held captive down the far end of the main hall. Had she turned out the lights?

"That's an automated warning," shouted one of Dresslin's companions. The civilians became restless, several were shouting demands. There was crying and movement.

"Sit down!" Dresslin shouted at the top of his voice. There were thousands of civilians here and a handful of guardsman. If they panicked and ran or mobbed the guards things would get very difficult indeed.

One of the crew was trying to stand up. "We need to see what that is! That sounds like a breach alarm!" Several more passengers were standing up around him. There were more moving behind them, Dresslin could see in the darkness.

"Everyone stay calm! Sit down." Dresslin lowered his like and drew a blaster. There were cries of terror. He waved it back and forth and the passengers clamoured for the deck. In the darkness he saw another hostage on their feet.

"You! Sit back down with the others."

The figure kept walking. His pace was quick but irregular as if carrying an injury.

"I said..."

"No."

There was a flash of gold and Dresslin saw his blaster cleaved in two. Up close he could see the grim, swollen features of the man. The determination in his eyes. That saber swing around again but was launched sideways. It buried itself to the hilt in Dresslin's companions. He reached for his pike, but the last thing he saw was an elbow swinging for his head.

Jacen called his saber back to him and moved through the crowd. He expended some of the last of his reserves trying to exert a calming influence on those close by. The hostages were close to breaking point. He still had most of his space suit on, having abandoned only the helmet in the airlock.

Across the hall he could see Aela's saber moving. Just a thousand or so hostages and a handful more guards between him and his goal. He didn't know of the boot was dead or even if it had already infected everyone. But at least it was sealed away now.

Jacen did what he could. That was all he ever did.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She didn't like this.

There was too much risk. Too many what ifs, too many buts. The hostages were screaming now, but Aela wasn't listening. She couldn't. It may have seemed impossibly harsh, but Aela knew that if she listened to the screams she'd never be able to focus. So instead she just put her mind to the task at hand; The Royal Guard.

She moved swiftly.

Her lightsaber flicked and moved faster than any of them could follow, it sliced through the joints in their armor, the weak points, anything that she could bite at. The darkness within the room helped her, letting her slip around and move about the guardsmen before they could even strike her once. As she tore the second man to the ground she could swear she heard the igniting of another saber, though before she had any time to pay attention the Guardswoman was upon her.

"YOU WILL NOT RUIN THIS!"

Her voice boomed through the grand hall, Aela's lightsaber coming up just in time to guard against the odd hooked blade.
For a second Aela faltered, barely able to hold back the woman's blade. "Already..."

Her voice trailed off as her free hand flicked to the left. The lightsaber that had been taken from her earlier slipped from a Guardsman's belt and flew to her palm, slapping into place and igniting in an instant. The bright violet blade slipped through the woman's ankle, leaving a deep cauterized gash and sending her falling to the floor.

"Have." Aela said as she stood back upright.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Put the weapon down!"

Jacen kept walking.

"Put it down now!" Came the call again. This time a warning shot was fired. Jacen plucked it out of the air with his blade. His pace was slow now, his reserves dry. But he could still put one foot in front of the other and the day was not done.

The guardsmen turned their blasters on nearby hostages.

"We'll kill them, we're prepared to die."

"I'm prepared to kill you," Jacen replied. He kept walking forwards. For the first time he sensed some determination slip away from the guardsmen. They looked at each other. They dropped their weapons. The hostages immediately surged up and dragged them down, clawing their weapons away.

Jacen turned on the spot. That appeared to be the last of them.

Outside the vessel a medical nebulon and two Hammerheads appeared in hyperspace, escorted by two Thranta frigates.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Was it over? The guardsmen fell, the Hostages screamed and dispersed but...it seemed like it was over. She frowned slightly, whirling and kicking the guardswoman as she attempted to stand from her place. She had to send out the word, she had to stop this. Her lightsaber swung towards the womans neck, though stopped just inches from it. "Order them to lay down their arms. All of them. You've lost."

The woman seemed to hesitate.

Aela could understand it, losing didn't come easy to anyone, least of all these people. For a moment more the the woman did nothing, but the half step Aela took forward was enough to prompt her into action. From her belt she pulled a communicator, quickly screeching orders for the guardsmen to lay down their weapons. All around the room those men that had yet to surrender quickly dropped their blasters and force pikes, the realization hitting them that they had lost.

The mood of the room seemed to shift.

The hostages cheered, the remaining crew began to clap.

Aela frowned slightly, looking towards Jacen who was standing on the other side of the room. Again she couldn't help but wonder if this would ever end, if the Sith would stop fighting, if the madness would be brought to a close. She shook her head slightly as she shut off her lightsabers.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Hi," he managed weakly as she approached. It sounded as if it took all of his willpower to summon the single word. That wasn't far from the truth. He was on his knees already. Jacen slowly unfurled one leg and then the other and shuffled his back to the wall.

Fresh welts were clear on his face from the Yuuzhan Vong that assaulted him. Yet his last act had been to stop the hostages from seriously harming the guardsmen. The ship's security team had started to secure them now.

"Just gonna have... A little rest..." He said, leaning his head back against the wall. "Had a little walk outside the ship. Alliance medical convoy here. Not...Not enough capacity for the whole crew. Guess we get an extended stay here...in quarantine."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela looked down as Jacen slowly slid down the wall. She smiled and patted him on head. "You rest."

Surprisingly, Aela felt pretty good.

There was a certain rush that came over after victory, she couldn't really explain it. A part of her no longer wanted to do this. She didn't want to fight, she didn't want to run around dealing with Sith, Guardsmen, and whatever else was thrown at her, but...well she couldn't help but admit that a piece of her enjoyed it. There wasn't an equal that she found yet, even flying on the back of Malfegor paled in comparison to the experience of winning a battle.

She frowned. Perhaps there was something wrong with her.

"I'll make sure the hostages stay calm." She told Jacen with a smile. "Coordinate with the Med-evacs that show up."

Aela could handle all that while Jacen rested.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

“Aela ,” he called out after her. “I have always admired your conviction," he suddenly admittedly earnestly. "It's always seemed to me that you pick your path and stick to it, even when others - myself included -” he added with a raise of his brow and a shrug. “- might waver. I would hate to think my idle musings affected that.”

He grunted in pain and tried to find a more comfortable position to sit in. Jacen didn't have the concentration left to rebuild those mental walls between himself and his pain. The dam had broken and he was treading water. One of the hostages walked back towards him and set down one of the emergency med packs. One of the ship’s nurses had tried to treat him but he’d waver her away and told her to deal with any of the passengers who needed treating first.

“And I don't just mean continue the fight,” he said. He managed to smooth out the grimace from his expression and turn up to meet her eyes. “Just whatever it is you do next, approach it with the same dedication you gave to putting the One Sith away.”

Jacen pulled up his shirt with one hand and reached for the medkit with the other. A myriad of colours bloomed across his ribs, from almost fluorescent yellows to deep purples. The cord had caught him on the way out of the hull, but his momentum had carried him back into the ship. It had turned out the hull was not particularly smooth on the outside where he had cut through.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

For a second she didn't say anything in return. Aela had never really tried to let anyone, or anything, stand in her way. She had a mission and she completed it. That was simply who she had been ever since she was a little girl. Part of her thought she might have inherited that from her father, the other thought it was simply who she was. Still, Jacen's words hit a little close to home, and she couldn't help but tear up just a tiny bit. She smiled and looked down at the man. "I'm no through yet."

She said simply.

Aela knew that this life wasn't for her. She knew that the Jedi...fighting the Sith, it was a good cause, it was the right thing to do, but she knew that she wouldn't do it forever. In the back of her mind she had already made up her mind a long time ago. She would fight for as long as she could, she would help the Jedi, the people of the galaxy, but eventually she would walk away.

She knew that now.

"Take your rest." She told him, looking at the cut. "I'll send one of the medics to you."

With that she departed.