Elemental

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

His jaw seemed to hang limp, leaving his cheek pressed against the deck of the bridge. Realising where he was and how critical the situation was, was the first step towards regaining control. His head had taken a beating today and another blow had scattered his thoughts.

He seemed disconnected from the hand he saw pull back towards him. The fingers spread out and tensed. Still disorientated and with a high pitched whine cutting through his head, he became aware of the fact that he was slowly getting back up off the floor.

His other hand went for the blaster pistol. The room was quiet. That was either good or bad. As he came back to his feet he could see Aela wrapped around a guardsman. His first thought was to go to her and ensure the man didn't break the lock. Then he caught movement to his right. The guardsman he had shot was still going.

One slow breath recentered himself, pushing all the physical distractions aside. The guardsman was crawling towards a weapon. A stun bolt might have done little through that armour. A lethal shot seemed unnecessary. Fortunately helmets did nothing against concussion. Time for someone else to have ringing ears.

Jacen took three long running strides and administered a swift kick to the side of the head. The wounded guardsman fell quite flat to the deck.

He turned towards Aela as she started to untangle herself from the guardsman. He offered a weak smile and held a console for support.

"Door," he whispered. Others could be coming to investigate the racket and they needed to cover themselves.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Before she checked the door Aela had something else planned. The man that she had just knocked down, the force user, had rank tags on his shoulder. She frowned for a few moments and searched him, eventually finding a small satchel at his side. She popped it open, pulling the leather free. The Jedi Marshall dug around the satchel, pulling out two lightsabers.

One of them was hers, the others Jacen.

A frown immediately pulled at her lips. "There should be three."

Her other lightsaber was missing. Her lips thinned, head shaking as she searched through the satchel a second time, even flipping the man over to see if her weapon was beneath him. When she found nothing she couldn't help but let out a curse.

"Kark." She said quietly. "Someone else has to have it."

She stood and tossed Jacen's lightsaber towards him. "Let's go."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

For a foot the lightsaber followed it's looping arc. In stark contrast to his tired, hunched form his right arm snapped up, palm open. The hilt shot towards his hand following a straight path. As his fingers wrapped around the hilt his shouldered straightened. His lightsaber was a plain, functional thing. It suited its master well.

Jacen didn't move. He looked around the bridge and pursed his lips.

"I don't suppose you know how to bring a vessel this size out of hyperspace?" It couldn't be all that difficult, he hoped. Most small ships he'd been on had a fairly large lever that acted as an emergency reversion control. But a ship this size had a good five crew stations. If they couldn't it would mean a trip to engineering. He wasn't going to try and cut through the hull whilst they were in hyperspace.

He had every intention of going to take a look. But he would start with the console that was currently taking a good fraction of his weight.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"You're kidding right?" Aela asked as she looked towards the different consoles.

"I can't even fly a speeder bike without crashing it into the side of a tree." She told him. "Why would I know how to bring a starship out of hyperspace?"

Aela, or rather, the entire Talith family was entirely unable to fly a starship. It was a result of a strange...well she didn't want to say Curse, but odd twist in the force that made them simply unable to do it without ending in some sort of wreckage. Her father had never really been able to explain it, and she'd long since stopped questioning it. Kaili was able to overcome it with a necklace that their father had made...but replicating it was apparently impossible.

"The moment I star fiddling with controls I pretty much doom us." She was rather cynical about this.

She looked out the door and checked the hallway for goons before turning back to Jacen.

"Seriously." She was really driving this home. "I touch something, we drop out of hyperspace, we run into the nearest asteroid field."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

It wasn't the right moment for it. He knew that even as he looked towards the floor and chuckled. A deep rumbling sound that filled the bridge. It stopped with a grunt of pain and his free hand moving to his ribs.

"Alright, alright," he said, flashing her an apologetic glance. "Keep an eye on the door. If they sent a couple to check out the comms they could be coming back here."

He limped towards the console towards the front of the bridge. One of the young men who had manned the station was on the floor beneath it. Andark red stain spread from the centre of his crisp uniform.

Taking them out of hyperspace was a risk. Particularly for the other passengers aboard as their guards would immediately realise the bridge had fallen. But right now he was thinking of the entire alliance population that was at risk.

He was relatively certain that the largest level pressed forwards was hyperspace. However he found a safer option. A data stick was in the console next to a large button under a clear plastic case. Emergency stop and master key. He pulled out the key, flicked open the case and slapped the button. He pocketed the key as the cerulean swirls evaporated to reveal the only darkness of realspace. They would need the key back to start them on their passage again. Just to be certain he fired a bolt into the console.

"We should be broadcasting distress now," he said as he limped back towards the door.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela put a hand on the door frame as the odd sweeping lurch of dropping back into realspace rolled through her.

She managed to keep herself upright, a small mercy, though her fingers curled around her lightsaber as a reaction to the odd pit in her stomach that quickly formed whenever she exited hyperspace. She heard Jacen firing a shot, the loud buzzing of the console sounding out throughout the bridge before there was a quiet 'pop' of electronics shutting themselves down. She frowned, and then peeked out the door once again to ensure no one was coming.

"Brilliant." She said quietly.

Then thought of something.

"So..." Aela looked at Jacen. "What happens if someone else besides the Alliance hears us first?"

Like Pirates, or the First Order, or...whatever Allies the Royal Guard had.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Alliance should be here first," he reasoned. Then a notion occured to him. "Unless they sent an escort ship to trail the cruiser. But then..." He tilted his head back and forth as he weighed this up. "They weren't even planning on revealing themselves until we tried to bust up the party."

The blaster pistol was holstered, bit the lightsaber remained in his grip. It was a reassuring weight in his hand. Jacen looked to the single saber Aela had recovered.

"Let's get back down to the lower decks. We've got a lot of doors to check are functional before we can breach the ship."

 

[Aela Talith]

Aela wasn't at all reassured by Jacen's words, but she decided it was best not to argue.

If somebody else stumbled upon the Cruise Ship before the Alliance reached them then they would simply have to deal with that when they got there. She let out a sight, and then quickly headed out the door behind Jacen. She clutched her lightsaber tight, her fingers latching around the silver hilt. "Someone else has my other lightsaber."

She told Jacen.

It was the ancient blade, the one that she had found on that desert world. It wasn't anything special really, in fact most people would see it as a piece of junk, but the lightsaber was thousands of years old. It had a special, almost sentimental quality to it that Aela rather liked. She would be remiss to leave the weapon behind.

"Have to find it when this is all over." They turned down the stairs. "I like that saber."

She quieted down as footsteps echoed down the hall.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"I understand," Jacen replied plainly. And he did. Every weapon he had ever owned or used had been a tool for the job. Except for his lightsaber. He could still taste the air as it had been on that misty evening when he had assembled it in his quarters at the Coruscant temple all those years ago. He understood the need to find it, was what he said, and that they both knew the hostages came first.

"We can take a lift, or the stairs," he said. They were high up the ship now. Not far from where the hostages were being held. He'd already settled on stairs a moment later - hard to break out of a lift if they posted a guard - only to find they'd already disabled the lifts.

"More stairs it is," he sighed.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"Try not to fall down them. I know you're getting on in years." She patted Jacen on the back as she passed him by.

Aela knew that now more than ever, speed counted.

The Royal Guard would very obviously be aware of their presence upon the ship now, their plans were falling apart and things were starting to come loose. That would mean panic was setting in, and even with well trained and disciplined soldiers that fact tended to...accelerate things. Aela and Jacen had to get things ready quickly, they had to stop these men.

"They'll be moving faster now." Aela said as she practically leaped down the stairs. "I think it's time we split up."

She was feeling better, they had their lightsabers, well almost, now was the best time for them to move separately.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"How?" Jacen asked plainly. "Head in from each end of the ship sealing the lower decks or one of us deal with the hostages?"

Either was viable, but Aela would be more suited to dealing with the hostage situation unless he could get a rifle. She was fast. The moment he asked the question he came to the conclusion that if they were going to tackle the hostage situation both of them would be required to minimise casualties.

Before he could voice this he was interrupted by the intercom.

"Now where have you two got to?" The feminine voice rang out across the ship from every speaker. "It stops now. Give yourselves in or a hostage dies every minute, on the minute."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She frowned, looking up at the closest intercom. "I'll go."

It was really the only intelligent option.

Jacen was needed to seal the decks properly to kill the bio weapon, Aela didn't really know how to do that. She was also faster and could handle herself a bit better at the moment because of Jacen's injuries. It made sense that she would go.

"I'll distract them." She told Jacen before he could even respond. "Get them to focus on me, you close the decks and kill whatever that thing is down there...Maybe if we stall long enough they Alliance will get here."

At this point that was really their only hope.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

"Send them on a merry chase," he grunted. If the situation was different they would have both gone to deal with the hostage situation, put an end to this. But there was more at stake, much more.

"May the Force be with you."

What Jacen hadn't yet worked out was how he was going to cut through the hull without being ejected into space himself. One atmosphere wasn't a huge depression, but enough to send him out into space if he couldn't anchor himself to something. Cutting hull was a two handed and slow job. At the end of the day, he wouldn't have much time to dedicate to the problem. What had to be done, had to be done.

He shouldered his way through the door onto the stairwell and started to head down.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela had every bit of faith in Jacen, she knew that he could accomplish the task somehow. A deep breath filled her lungs, the lightsaber in her palm was placed into the holster on her thigh, and quickly she began to wander towards the center of the ship.

It wasn't long before she encountered a pair of Royal Guardsmen, both of them wearing full armor, both of them carrying force-pikes. She approached them, their weapons immediately raising as they prepared for a fight. Aela simply shook her head and slowly raised her hands up, a sign of surrender. The two guards were more than a little weary, but slowly they began to approach her, one reaching for her lightsaber and quickly plucking it away from her. "Hang on to that.

She told him with a smile.

The Guardsmen gave his brother a look but didn't say anything.

Oddly enough neither of the men touched her or even said a word, instead they simply pressed on her back with the end of the force pike's hilt, apparently either too afraid to harm her or having orders not to. Either way Aela wouldn't complain.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

His first stop was an airlock. Too high up the ship for his purposes, but it had something he needed: an emergency space suit. For now, he kept it bundled in his arms and carried on down the stairs.

As he descended he could taste something in the air. Something foul. He hoped he wasn't inhaling the spores that were potent enough to wipe out an entire planet. If he was, they were too late. It was likely the entire crew would be quarantined either way for a time, but if they'd already been infected the chances were they would die there.

At the lower levels he stepped out of the stairwell. This wasn't far from where he and Aela had been taken in the first place. He kept his ears and eyes open, if there were any Yuuzhan Vong they would be down here he figured.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela was lead back to where the hostages were being held.

The center of the ship was much in the same condition as she had first suspected it would be. People were crowded together and held in one place. There were dozens of Guardsmen, far more than she had first suspected there would be. She looked at everything she possibly could, trying to find exit points, guard positions, everything that would help her. She frowned slightly until she spotted one figure in particular; a woman in Red Armor.

Likely the voice they had heard over the intercomm.

Aela frowned slightly, looking up at the guard that was standing by her side. He seemed...uncomfortable.

The Jedi Marshall frowned slightly, then began to walk up the steps at the far side of the grand hall. The Female Guardsmen turned away from a small data tablet that had been laid onto a table. She looked at Aela, her frown matching the one worn by the Jedi Marshall.

"Welcome, Master Jedi."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Even in the low lighting he could make out the fine tendrils wrapped around the pipes. They were drawing on the heat that flowed through them. He didn't know if the main body of the creature was between decks or somewhere in particular. In truth he didn't much care.

Finding what he was looking for, he tapped at the console until it came to life. There were heavyset mechanical keys next to the small monochrome display. No fancy technology down here. He tapped at the keys until it brought up a flashing view of the main doors between the lower decks and the passenger areas of the ship. But only for the forward segment of the vessel.

Jacen opened the box next to the console and grapes the heavy lever inside. A firm yank and the display stopped flashing. He heard a series of clunks echo down the corridors above.

That noise would attract attention if anyone was down here. He scooped up his suit and continued on through the darkness. Several hundred metres and four more control boxes to go.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"Where is the other one."

"Lost." Aela answered immediately. "He has a terrible sense of direction, getting on in age, terrible."

She offered a weak smile, though the woman was clearly not pleased with the answer she received. That didn't matter so much of course, her job here was to stall, not necessarily to win. She searched the woman up and down, trying to see if there were any distinguishing features about her. She had raven black hair, one of her eyes was a deep white, and a long scar ran across the length of her throat, as though someone had tried hanging her. Aela frowned slightly, then peered past her.

On the table besides her datapad was Aela's second lightsaber.

"No matter, we only needed one of them. Double patrols, find him."

Aela's lips thinned. Why didn't it matter? Was this a part of the plan? Were they part of the plan somehow? A pit began to form in her stomach, her eyes darting from the lightsaber and back to the woman who was now holding a very confident smirk.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen paused in his walk. He got the vague sense that somewhere, someone was being rude about him. Not the best use of the Force.

The following tremor was more helpful. Danger. Jacen looked back and forth for an exit. There wasn't one and now he could hear footsteps. There was a wide pipe running adjacent to him. He dropped onto all fours, pressing himself into the deck.

Jacen shuffled sideways, the heat of the pipe searing the back of his neck. He had to breath in to get under the widest part. Once past he rolled onto his side and unholsteted his blaster. This would be an awful spot if they saw him.

With his free hand he very carefully unclipped the safety, muffling the sound in the palm of his hand. A pair of red boots became visible. They marched in time down the corridor. They didn't even slow their pace as they passed his hiding space. Once he could no longer hear the boots he shuffled back under the pipe, checking both directions. Just one more protocol to trip and then he had to get as close to the hull as possible and cut.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She tried to piece things together. Aela and Jacen had learned that this was all some sort of plot to bring back the Dark Lord. They wanted to sacrifice the people on this ship and everyone at the destination in order to return him to life. So why did they need-

Oh.

A curse broke through her mind. It was obvious. They thought that by sacrificing a force user, a powerful one, on top of all of this they would add to the effect of whatever ritual they were trying to enact. It made sense in a way, when you looked at how Sith operated, but...these men weren't Sith. She frowned slightly and peered about, eyes wandering around the room as she tried to find...well something or someone that could tip her off to who was actually leading this.

For some reason she didn't feel like the woman was actually the one in charge. "So where's your boss?"

She decided it was easier to just ask.

"I mean." She tried to don a cloak of Micah. "You guys don't exactly look clever enough to plan this yourselves."