Location: Ossus, Wreck of the
Red Dragon
Tags:
Atlas Drake
|
Valery Noble
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Lyssa Io
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Jerek Zenduu
|
Starlin Rand
The power indicator on the side of the fusion cutter sank like a duracrete bantha. Junker Jonn held it out even more forcefully as the light at its tip began to flicker, little whimpers tearing themselves loose from his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the sight of the possessed creatures about to rip him limb from limb - or eat his soul, or turn him into one of them, or whatever tribesmen being skinridden by undead Imperials liked to do to their victims. But he found it no more comforting to
not look at them, still knowing that they were there, than to stare them down as they waited for his light to gutter out.
"B... bad way to die," the scavenger babbled.
"Oh, it's a b... bad way to d... die..."
The sound of his own terrified voice didn't help either, so he shut up... and heard a new sound coming up the corridor. Looking past the pale shapes that crowded around his flickering circle of illumination, he saw something else on the move, something distant but drawing closer. At first he feared that the possessed wretches hadn't been held back by his light at all, but had only been waiting for whatever horrible Sith demon was their master, the creature now pounding up the corridor toward him. But no. It was a much brighter circle of light, the glow of a fusion lantern - and of a radiant lightsaber bobbing along behind it.
"Oh, thank feth," Junker wheezed, barely daring to make a noise, as if his expression of relief might snap him out of a hopeful dream. He watched as Atlas stepped forward through the crowd of possessed creatures, lantern held high, forcing the pallid things back with hisses and growls - or bodily throwing them aside through the Jedi's invisible power if they failed to scatter fast enough.
"Come with us if you want to live," Atlas told him, and Jonn - who was both heterosexual and uninterested in humans - could have kissed the handsome rogue.
"Oh, you came to get me! Thank your Force or whatever, you actually came to get me!"
Just behind them came a
different kind of light: a light from within, without an apparent source save the hands of the Jedi who wielded it. Those hands held back not just the pale shapes, but the shadows themselves, literal and figurative. The ghosts
within each wretched creature cringed back from that light, their spectral faces twisting in pain and rage as the power of the Force drove them back. The brightness of it stung Jonn's eyes, but he couldn't look away. He was too mesmerized by this display of power, power he would never be able to
understand, let alone wield. This was why the Jedi were legendary. This was why their stories were told.
"Whoa..." Junker wheezed. Maybe hanging around with the Jedi hadn't been a
total mistake.
Junker scrambled to catch the energy cell Atlas tossed his way, fumbling it in midair twice before he finally caught it.
"Sorry," he mumbled,
"nerves. I'm glad they're not eating us, don't get me wrong, but I hate that they're watching." And they
were watching, their bloodshot eyes rolling back in their heads and yet still clearly staring into the Kubaz's very soul. With a shiver, Jonn popped open the fusion cutter's housing, ejecting the dying battery so that he could replace it. He trusted that the others would lead him to a way out, or at least somewhere safer than
here. He wasn't too picky at this point. Simply
not dead sounded great.
"Non hostile. How may I be of assistance?"
Junker jumped a solid meter and
shrieked, dropping the energy cell Atlas had just given him and shrinking back against the wall.
"W... where the f... feth did you come from?!" he jabbered, eyes as big as saucers behind his goggles. When he saw that Lyssa was
not one of the possessed, he managed to calm himself enough to bend down and pick up the power cell, slapping it into the fusion cutter's housing. No one else seemed overly bothered by the woman's sudden appearance, so the scavenger just shut up after that, letting Valery do the talking. This was probably normal stuff for Jedi. For him, not so much. He just wanted
out.
His fusion cutter glowed brightly once more.
"Yeah, sure, the bridge, let's go." Anywhere but here.
Despite the refreshed glow of the tool, Junker stuck pretty close to Jerek. The others were doing well enough at
warding off the possessed, keeping them back with saber and lantern, but Jerek was the one who had actually managed to
banish one of the things, fighting off a spirit separately from its body. Every last bit of this was
way outside Junker's experience, and he had no idea what to do or expect, so it seemed best to stick close to the guy with the glowy hands and clear supernatural power if he was going to be faced with supernatural enemies.
"None of this makes any sense," the scavenger whispered to Jerek,
"but you seem to have it under control."
He shrugged, looking back nervously at the possessed crawling in their wake.
"Well, kinda, at least."
