Elemental

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

At somewhere between a jog and a skip he followed after her. Both hands on the heavy blaster He was no spy or covert operative. That much has become quite apparent on their attempt to dismantle a large criminal organisation from the inside.

He took a moment as he covered each of her advances to consider what he would do on the other side of this conflict. Hard to imagine; they genuinely had true faith in their purpose and dark master. They weren't sending out search parties as the ship was too large. But that didn't mean they'd want to remain blind. Limited numbers... A large ship to cover. Some camera coverage over the open areas. They would still patrol, but confine it to the regions around their strongholds. Bridge, hostages, perhaos engineering.

"Take a right," he whispered when he caught up to her at the next intersection. "Maintenance corridor that runs port to starboard down there on this deck should be abandoned." It would also take them to a stairwell that went up near the comms array. There was a big difference between a vehicle and starship mounted comms, but there was a good chance he could rig something up.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela nodded and followed Jacen’s directions.

She had never really been great and finding her way around starships, in fact it was a habitual issue when she was on board the Alliance’s different carriers and destroyers. She often found herself getting lost and ending up in different areas than she had originally wanted to go. It had gotten so bad that Aela had resorted to taking a map.

Jamie had made fun of her.

Either way, with Jacen telling her where to go it was at least easy enough to actually get to where they wanted. She still moved as quietly as she possibly could, peeking around every corner, checking each section before moving on ahead. There was unfortunately no real way to tell if the guards were lurking behind the next corner or not.

”Do you think this will ever end?” She asked quietly as they slipped into the maintenance tunnel, Aela standing up a bit taller as they realized of running into anyone would be very much decreased within these tight corridors.

”The Sith I mean.” He had asked the hypothetical question before, but did he truly believe they could win? ”It seems like every time we deal them a blow...they just come back.”

Granted there was nothing as strong as the One Sith around now...but they were still around.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"I naively thought so," Jacen murmured. A resigned sigh followed. "The sith were gone for thousands of years in the past but the dark side still returned."

He slowed his pace. Each step went heel to toe and he turned his ear towards the corridor ahead. It was just engine noise. Whilst his head was still spinning slightly it was beginning to feel as if the Force was closer. Not enough to rely on it warn him of impending danger.

"It's not as if I wasn't aware of the Sith Empire which came right before. When I think about it, it feels a little hard to swallow," it was about as frank as he'd ever been on the subject since the One Sith had collapsed. "We live such short lives and I'll probably go down not knowing if we really made a difference."

His pistol came up in a flash and he stood firm. Just a shadow. "Just ignore me, feeling a bit defeatist today. All a bit silly of me really?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela sometimes forgot that Jacen was only human.

She forgot that about a great many of her comrades.

Aela, unlike the others, wasn’t exactly human. She was a great mix of many species, and as a child genetic screening had told her parents that she’d been lucky enough to inherit those traits that would allow her to live significantly longer than a regular human. She wouldn’t outlast her father likely, but...well she’d live several centuries at least.

It wasn’t something she thought about all that often.

”I don’t know.” She said quietly. ”There were periods in galactic history where the Sith didn’t do much of anything. Either they were broken, or half beaten.”

She remained quiet as she took another few steps forward. ”I suppose thats the best we can hope for in the end. That we silence them for a time.”

It was a depressing thought really, that there was no actual victory, just a small push back that would allow them few precious moments of peace.

She looked over at Jacen.

”I’ll make sure to visit your grave to tell you about it.” The joke was rather macabre, but oddly fitting.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"You'd best not..." He fell silent as they reached the intersection. He moved to the wall opposite the corridor they would head down and sidestepped very cautiously out. Just as he would with swordplay he avoided crossing his legs. If there were any guards there he could fire off a pair of shots in a fraction of a second. It was clear.

"...Skimp on the flowers."

Coast clear he lowered his blaster a little and struck out. The maintenance corridor was narrow and dark, but he would be surprised to find anyone patrolling it this far from any vital systems.

"It'd be nice to break them. And then enjoy a peaceful retirement. Teaching," he said suddenly. "I quite enjoy teaching. I could do that and find some trivial things to fill the time.

"Let's break some sith."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"I'll bring the finest." Aela said quietly. "Jamie apparently likes to pick them, and what are padawans for if not running errands for you."

She smiled.

Teaching suited Jacen, she could see it. Perhaps when this war was done he could join the Jedi Academy network. It was something that she could see him do, something that he would be good at he thought. She shifted slightly and hitched up the force-pike. "Could always go now."

Aela said quietly.

"Don't think anyone would blame you." She certainly wouldn't. "The Sith are still here...but they're weaker."

It wasn't much of a consolation prize, but worth thinking about. As they moved around the corner she spun the hilt of the force-pike in her hand, gripping the weapon and then standing tall as Jacen ended the conversation. He was right. Now wasn't the time to talk about their futures. Now was the time to free this ship.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"I'll start with those operations I've been putting off," he whispered. They'd been piling up with each battle where his body took a hammering. One shoulder and one knee were overdue. Bacta and the Force could only go so far, but he hadn't given himself the luxury of painful surgery and slow rehabilitation.

"These stairs," he said. Two quick steps took him inside and he checked up and down the well. Again it felt for the time as if they were the only people on the ship. But it wouldn't stay that way.

"Once they realise what's going on we'll have company quickly. I'll send a small text packet and put it on repeat until they block it. What details do we need to cover?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

It was a good question.

They had learned a lot since they’d first boarded the ship. The entire situation was different than they had thought it would be and...well the threat was much bigger than they had initially estimated. Including it all would make the message too large, leaving out some of the detail would take away from the urgency.

”Include the Royal Guard.” She felt that was most important. ”What they’re trying to do, and say the weapon is a biot.”

It would have to be enough. ”Maybe tack on a few exclamation marks.”

This was no joking matter of course, but...well the situation still appeared to be pretty grim. Even if the Alliance could mobilize in time it would still be a few hours before Aela and Jacen saw their help. The truth was they had to take this situation on by themselves. They had been in worse situations, but that didn’t make it any easier.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen gave a curt nod. It was going through his head now. Military training putting together all the key bits of information and trying to make the report as small as possible. In his mind he took a standard report and condensed it down.

"Well, if they cut us off the message will just look less urgent I suppose," he grumbled, matching her tone. "Most important thing is that they know they need to isolate and quarantine the ship no matter what. The hostages are our business now."

The entrance to the maintenance deck was locked, but not in any significant fashion. Rather he managed to draw on the Force to pull the locking mechanism open on the barred gate. The maintenance deck didn't have the nice panelling or bright lights of the passenger areas. Bare metal bulkheads and IR activated lighting.

"Need a panel with an uplink cable behind it. Big thick cables with a white wrap normally."

He holstered his pistol and found a maintenance box, taking out two hydrospanners and tossing one to Aela.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela was far from gifted when it came to matters of engineers. She knew about as much as...well a womp rat. Engineering, and anything that had to do with tools was really not her cup of tea. Still she took the hydrospanner and set to work, though her tactic was rather ineffective, and after a few minutes she more started to tear at the panel then actually do anything useful.

Despite that however, they eventually managed to uncover a series of wires all tied in neat little bundles. Her nimble fingers picked through the different wires until eventually she found the one that Jacen had described. With a gentle tug she pulled it free of its bundle and exposed it for her partner.

”Do your thing.” She told him, taking a step back.

Aela doubted that anyone would come looking for them here in the maintenance halls, but she still gave watchful glances in both directions just in case.

Letting down their guard now, in any way, would have been a big mistake. They still weren’t quite sure what the Royal Guard could do, much less what they were capable of. It was better to be watchful than complacent.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Voidstalker was no slicer. Had this been a military ship with encryption on the wire and tamper protection he'd have been no use. But when it came to getting comms up and running in bad conditions he had a reasonable grounding. He liked his head into the recessed chamber and tried to see where the cable was headed.

He found a junction box with a diagnostics terminal a few compartments down. A firm hand and a hydrospanner gave him access.

He set the blaster down on the floor beside himself. If they caught wind of what he was up to and sent guards he didn't want to catch it on the holster.

"When they realise what I'm up to, they might sent people. We can run, or we can set an ambush and take a chance at taking a few more out."

He tapped away at the console, managed to get into the engineer's diagnostics screen. He crossed two wires to piggyback onto the main array. A few taps and the compact message was being set. He added just two exclamation marks.

"That's away," he said, turning to Aela with a grin. The tight swollen skin on one side of his face made the expression distinctly lopsided.

There was a beep. The terminal went dark.

"Got out fifteen repetitions of that message before they caught on and locked it down," he said. "Got my ID in and the main message. Could have added more exclamation marks," he added with a shrug.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

”I think they’ll get the urgency.” Aela said with a smile.

Now...well now came the hard part.

”We need our sabers.” There was no way around it. If they were going to cut through the hull a plasma torch wouldn’t do. It would take too much time and the exposure to vacuum would likely break them anyway. ’Maybe a pair of space suits.”

They had to be careful after all.

Their plan hinged on a certain few things, not the least of which would be their ability to keep sneaking around like they had been. The Guards were already stretched thin with the amount of passengers on board, but eventually Aela and Jacen would run out of luck, she wasn’t looking forward to what happened then.

”Come on.” She motioned for him to move.

There wasn’t any time to dawdle, and she had a sneaking suspicion she knew where their lightsabers were being kept.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

There it was, a tingle at the back of his mind. They had beaten him, drugged him, but he was slowly rebuilding his walls one by one. Asserting control over his own mind. That small brush was gentle, but he could feel a tremor through the Force. A warning.

He stopped in his pursuit of Aela, sending his focus ahead of them and then behind. It was hard, he had to force his conscious thoughts to a low whisper to hear the guidance offered by the Force.

"Press on," he whispered at a confused glance back. "They're coming, but from the other direction."

He knew where they could find spacesuits. There would be plenty in engineering and likely some emergency ones near airlocks. But as for their savers...

"Where do you think they'll be?" He asked, risking a glance back over his shoulder. The impending danger was receding, the Force falling silent again. He hoped that was a good sign.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

”The Royal Guard never used lightsabers.” Some of them were supposedly force users, but none of them had ever used the famed Jedi and Sith weapons. Perhaps it wasn’t in their style, or perhaps they didn’t care for it, but either way Aela was confident in saying that.

”So they aren’t using them.” Simple. ”That means someone is holding them.”

Again simple logic. ”I’m willing to bet that someone is a little bit too important to be standing guard over a bunch of hostages.”

She turned down a hall.

On the wall Jacen would be able to see a small sign that read ‘bridge’. The move was a tad.. Forward perhaps, but it was a place they had to go anyway, and Aela was pretty confident that they would find their lightsabers there. Along with whoever was leading this operation.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Ah."

He followed her reasoning easily enough. How many men would their leader have sent to the comm array? That depended on how many men they had. Not one. Two to four. That either left the hostages unguarded, or the bridge vulnerable.

Well it would be unexpected. And any defensive posture was only as good as its potential to become an offense. It wasn't a Jedi philosophy perhaps, but one drilled in to him from a young age. As applicable to saber combat as it was to any skirmish or war. Jacen fought to win.

He had no need to pause to Centre himself. He detached his mind from the simple act of advancing and watching for pursuit. A mantra repeated in his mind as he found his focus. His physical ailments became petty, insignificant things. He was with the Force.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She was sick of running.

It was that simple.

Aela liked being the one doing the chasing, not the other way around. The Royal Guard might have outnumbered them, but they weren’t going to expect this. At least she thought so. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of the Force-Pike, her other hand unfurling from a tight fist as the force began to flow through her.

’Let me go first.” She told Jacen as they approached the bridge.

Jacen would be able to sense the intent behind her tone. He would also be able to feel the well of power that had been growing since before they entered the hallway.

As they approached the bridge Aela’s back stiffened, her eyes set forward, and the force pike slowly extended from its hilt. She gave a wave of her hand, the door suddenly opening to reveal a rather surprised looking man behind it.

Before he could say a single word or utter a single sentence Aela used the force to rip him off his feet and send him flying into a nearby wall.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen had no complaints on the matter. He could feel the determinations. When she focussed like that she picked a direction and became unstoppable, the flow of the Force billowing behind her in its wake. There had been times where he had reached such clarity of conviction.

Royal Guard were exceptional soldiers, handpicked from the vast forces that had once been available to the One Sith. They didn't panic, but they did react first to Aela's presence. Two from her left, one from her right.

"I've got right," Jacen called. If he'd attempted to shoot both on the left and missed one she would have been assaulted from two directions at once.

The guardsman started to slow his charge as the second Jedi emerged through the door with a heavy blaster. Jacen didn't think about the shot, the Force guided his hand. Two particle bolts struck the chest, the third hit the visor. Jacen moved for a nearby console for cover to assess what they were up against.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela moved as swiftly as she always did.

Fighting had been something she'd always been good at. Her Uncle Cameron had taught her hard lessons in the subject, never taking it easy, always pushing her to the brink. As the two Guardsmen moved to attack her Aela lashed out. The force pike stabbed first, it's crackling shock jumping forward as she stabbed the needle like blade forward. The guardsmen tried to deflect it, but it was too late. The Pike went stabbing through his thigh, a roar of pain escaping him.

Before he could move however Aela was upon him. Her fingers latched onto his arm, using the Pike as leverage to pull herself forward. The flat of her palm crashed into his exposed throat, her knee coming up to smash him in the face as he began to topple to the ground.

The guardsmen hit the floor with a loud thud.

His partner rushed to avenge her, Aela's pike pulling free from the first mans thigh and quickly rounding. The rounded edge of the weapon came smacking against the helmeted Guardsmen's face, smacking him hard and sending a surge of electricity through him. Within half a second Aela was upon him as well, a snap of the mans wrist and a quick sweep of her legs sending him to the ground even as he tried to grapple her.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

A blaster bolt hissed over head head, leaving a foot wide scorch mark on the reinforced bulkhead behind them. Jacen kept his head down and fire a couple of high shots. He didn't really want to destroy half the bridge in their assault. He had confidence that Aela would deal with the pair she'd engaged, but he cast her a glance out of the corner of his eye.

The guardsman with the blaster turned it in Aela's direction. She could normally absorb several bolts with her mastery of Force barriers, but he wasn't taking the risk. He drew himself up from cover and fired twice. The guardsman went down, but it seemed as if his armour had taken the blunt of the blast.

Jacen hadn't expected the final member of the bridge crew to rip a console from the deck with the Force and launch it in his direction. Exposed, he had a fraction of a second to try and divert the missile but it struck his shoulder heavily. The next moment his face was flat to the deck.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She twisted.

Her palm came up, half an opaque bubble began to form, blaster bolts catching against it before it quickly disappeared. She saw Jacen fall, and then reacted accordingly. She moved upon the last guard with extreme speed, her form blurring for half a second as she closed the gap in half a second.

"What th-"

The man didn't have time to finish his sentence before Aela was upon him.

Her legs intertwined with his, the flat of her palm struck against his throat, the other hand grasping his wrist. The man tried to fight back using his superior strength, but by then it was already too late. They fell towards the floor together, Aela wrapping herself around the man so that her arm slid around his throat. She applied pressure, pulling the man neck back and half choking him as she cut off the air to his lungs. He struggled, the force pressed from him, but it was already too late.

A minute passed, another, and then his body went limp.