Objective: 1 – The Archduke Hazzard
Location: The Spire, Geonosis
Outfit:-X-
Tags:
Jax Thio
|
Vulpesen
|
Shade
|
Casaana
|
Connel Vanagor
The correction came before the confidence did, and for a moment Jayna almost missed it entirely. Not because she disagreed—because she was overwhelmed. Everything around her pressed in at once: the crack of blasterfire, the shifting sand beneath her boots, the constant movement of bodies advancing and falling in the same breath. Her thoughts were trying to keep pace with all of it, scattering instead of focusing. Then Shade’s voice cut through—
breathe—not loud, not forceful, but placed with such precision that it slipped past the noise and landed exactly where it needed to.
Jayna inhaled sharply at first, too quick, too shallow, the kind of breath that fed panic instead of control. She caught it halfway through and forced it deeper, dragging it down into her center the way she had been taught, the way she had practiced a hundred times in quiet rooms that never tried to kill her. The difference between those spaces and this one was staggering—but the instruction still held.
In… move. Her foot stepped forward again, more deliberately this time, and even that small adjustment shifted something. Not enough to fix everything, not even close—but enough to give her something to hold onto.
Another bolt came in low, and instinct surged to meet it, her arms wanting to snap into place the way they had moments before. This time she stopped herself.
Shorten your grip. Her fingers loosened—just slightly—resisting the urge to clamp down harder as the pressure mounted. It felt wrong at first, like giving up control instead of gaining it, but she forced herself to follow through.
Guide, don’t force. When
Sen’kara dipped to meet the incoming shot, the motion carried differently. The impact didn’t slam into her arms—it moved through them, redirected instead of resisted. The blade hummed, steady, responsive, and for the first time since the fight began, it didn’t feel like something she was struggling to command.
Her eyes flickered with a brief, surprised awareness.
That was different.
That was better.
She exhaled into the next motion, letting the breath carry her forward as
Vael’kora came across her body in a controlled strike. It wasn’t faster than before, but it was cleaner—less correction, less hesitation. The movement connected to the one before it instead of interrupting it. The rhythm Shade had pointed toward began to take shape, fragile and incomplete, but real.
“I—okay…” she murmured under her breath, not loud enough to carry, just enough to keep herself from slipping back into scattered thought.
A Geonosian dropped from the wall ahead, angling toward her exposed flank. This time, she felt it sooner—not early enough to claim confidence, not with the clarity Shade carried—but sooner than before. She pivoted just enough, resisting the instinct to overcommit, and brought
Sen’kara up in reverse grip to intercept. The contact disrupted the creature’s path, buying her space—but her follow-through lagged. She hesitated, just for a fraction of a second, and the opening remained.
The creature pushed through her guard.
A blaster shot cut it down before it could reach her.
Jayna stepped back half a pace as the body dropped, breath catching again as the reality of that near-miss hit harder than the movement itself. Her chest tightened, the old rhythm threatening to collapse again under the weight of what had almost happened—but this time she caught it faster.
You are not behind.
The words settled differently now. Not reassurance. Not comfort.
Instruction.
You learn now.
Her grip adjusted again, consciously this time, finding a balance between tension and control instead of swinging between the two. She drew in another breath, slower, steadier, anchoring herself in the moment instead of everything around it. In, move. Her foot stepped forward again, and she held her position near Shade—not hiding behind her, not drifting away—just within that edge of presence that kept her grounded without taking her out of the fight.
Jax’s call carried through the tunnel, sharp with urgency, pushing their advance forward.
Jayna’s focus snapped ahead, locking onto the path in front of her instead of the chaos surrounding it. She didn’t try to track everything anymore. She couldn’t. Instead, she narrowed it down—one angle, one movement, one decision at a time.
“I’m here,” she said quietly, more to anchor herself than to answer.
The next bolt came—
And this time, she wasn’t waiting for it.
Jayna Ismet-Thio
