Public Ghosts of Ossus (The Scar Worlds)

[Atlas Drake]

SITH CRASH SITE
OSSUS WASTELAND
THE SCAR WORLDS
Jerek Zenduu Mishel Kryze Romi Jade Junker Jonn Yula Perl
Valery Noble Kaia Starchaser Starlin Rand

​

"Sorry," he mumbled, "nerves. I'm glad they're not eating us, don't get me wrong, but I hate that they're watching."

"Poor devils," Atlas agreed, "Keep it together or you might wind up on their menu."

Another wave of possessed came at them as if incensed by the light and for a moment he feared even with Master Noble's help they would be overwhelmed before the timely assistance of a stranger. She looked human, but Captain Drake had never seen one move that way. Having so little experience in such matters he assumed she was another Jedi.

"Non hostile..." she said simply to them. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Thanks for the rescue," he wasn't about to question her motives under the circumstances, "We got separated from our people. Valery's right, if they're still alive they should be on the bridge. Watch our backs."

While the possessed continued to stalk them through the wreck Atlas retraced his steps to reunite with the expedition. His relief when they reached the bridge was pierced by another chorus of ghostly cries. Turning only to fire stun bolts at the corrupted tribal pursuers Drake and the others ran for already closing bulkhead doors. They crossed the threshold just in time followed mere seconds later by thumping echoes of possessed pounding uselessly against reinforced blast doors.

"Drake, come in—you guys still alive?" Hopefully the comm signal would still be able to reach him, but just to be sure she bolstered the signal using the Force. "We're almost to the reactor. Did you make it to the bridge or did the Sith ghost eat you?"

"Yula? Thank the rift you're still alive," Drake could barely make even her boosted signal out, "We've reached the bridge. Looks like everyone's accounted for. Did you say Sith ghost? We've had a few close encounters...of our...own..."

Someone managed to get the lights working and Atlas trailed off. They were not alone on the bridge. He raised his blaster before the captain realized this trio of black robed figures who writhed in seeming agony posed no immediate threat. An unholy darkness connected them like strangling tentacles. Captain Drake wasn't sure if this was real or merely an echo. He wasn't sure it mattered.

"We need more light," he muttered in numb terror, "Yula, get that reactor back online."

As if sensing his plans, a sliver of darkness coiled its way around his leg and swept Atlas off his feet. His head hit the deck hard enough to stun him, and the captain was slowly dragged toward the anomaly which appeared to be a living remnant of the Red Dragon's final moments. A ritual interrupted but never finished.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

When Yula mentioned that it could be her mother out there screaming, the Mirialan grinned. That would be bad for any Sith that were popping up, especially ghosts. Maybe Joza was probably worse for Sith than Coren, especially if the Perl Gerls were involved. At least then Joza would come out to help her father. Was Coren a bad dad?

Yeah, he really was, wasn't he?

Still, Yula calling to Mishel snapped her back. "Yeah, get up here, even if just to stop Yula from sounding like her mom!" Kaia shouted, a bit of a laugh and the sound of a smile on her features as she called. But the following flames? Well, maybe Mishel was a bit better than damn near everyone in the Force. Not a skill she learned from Coren, his was more solar light. Kaia couldn't do it, not beyond blinding. Her skill was gravity.

Why wasn't she being more useful? Well, Mishel did say to move first.

Looking to her wrist datapad, she nodded. "Close, yeah. Still never thought I'd be in one of these ships and not bound." Kaia grabbed her rebreather and fixed it up, placing it over her face, it'd allow her to breathe but still able to talk to her team. She was watching Mishel, and trying to get any kind of view of her in the Force, she was aggressive but didn't seem to reach into a dark place.

"I can fix the direction. Been working on a fancy trick or two with the Force." She called it a gravity point, not really a full on well, but enough to pull them where they needed to go.



Yula Perl Mishel Kryze

 

[Jerek Zenduu]

(Post Soundtrack: "Last One Standing" by WAR*HALL)

The bridge was supposed to offer sanctuary. A respite, even briefly, from the madness lurking beyond. The Sith warship had promised danger and traps, what had materialized was a living hell instead. Souls were destined for the netherworld after death, not to linger among the living. Perhaps the veil between the realms was thinner here, weakened somehow by the instantaneous deaths of so many strong Force wielders among the crew of the wrecked starship. However it had happened, the fiends and ghouls had stormed their team and had been forced back. The doors to the bridge should have held off another assault for at least a little while.

Jerek breathed in relief along with the rest, even allowing himself a moment of levity again. He tossed a grin at the Kubaz, who might have been the latest victim of the possessive spirits within the difference of a moment. "Believe me, it doesn't make much sense here, either. But I've been in worse."

Not by much, though, but still worse than darkside spirits out to steal his body and soul.

The appearance of the lights was a welcome sight, quite literally, for the team who had made it to the bridge. The comms sparking to life with the voice of Yula Perl was a sound to join in the welcoming chorus. For the briefest of moments, it seemed like this day might actually work out for them. With this moment on the bridge, they could regroup and plan their next move, maybe even find a way to totally eradicate the darkside fiends beyond. At the very least, they would have time to prepare themselves for the next attack.

At the center of the bridge, the trio of dark figures had very different plans for their time.

Jerek sensed it a moment before it happened. He was too late for him to protect Captain Drake from their newest —and perhaps their worst— adversary this time. The Jedi moved quickly, pulling out his lightsaber this time. There was no more room for negotiation, only action.

His green-hued blade lowered to an angle aimed down and away from the Jedi's side. Channeling the Force through his lightsaber, Jerek sped toward a point between the hooded trio of darkness and Drake, toward the snaking tendril of darkness that was pulling the spacer captain closer to his doom. No physical weapon could hurt a lasso of darkside energy, the Jedi could sense that. With the Force imbued in his lightsaber, there was a chance he could cut Drake free that way.

As Jerek passed over the tendril, he picked up his feet and lowered his blade into the floor. It dragged without resistance, drawing sparks and turning a narrow trench of the deckplate to slag. When it met the tendril of darkness, his lightsaber hissed and lurched, as if meeting another blade of its own kind. Jerek held fast, applying constant pressure to pull his blade through the tendril.

Finally, it seemed to waver, and then the tendril unwrapped from Drake and withdrew into the trio. It hissed and smoked as the energy snaked around the edge of his blade, yet it had refused to cut.

Jerek quickly doubled back, switching off his blade as he knelt down by Drake's prone body. The spacer captain wasn't speaking, wasn't looking, but he was breathing. That was something. Hooking his arms under the captain's shoulders, the Jedi began to drag him again, this time back towards the rest of the team and away from the darkside trio.

"Wake up, Drake." Jerek told the captain as they drew back to what might be only slightly safer. "We need you with us!"

Atlas Drake Mishel Kryze Junker Jonn Romi Jade Valery Noble Yula Perl Kaia Starchaser Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

As it turned out, the bridge was also infected by lingering remnants of whatever ritual had been performed on the ship. Atlas Drake, the leader of the group, was swiftly attacked by the dark entity. The long-haired blond whom Starlin had helped earlier managed to free the captain, who was left stunned by the ordeal.

While they tried to revive Drake, Starlin leaped into action. The Jedi Knight slashed at the tendrils with his enchanted shoto, cutting into its body with every strike.

Despite his valiant efforts to kill it, the entity merely changed course, reaching back toward the rest of the crowd. Ishani, who had been hanging back with the others in hopes that she wouldn’t have to deal with this very scenario, quickly reached into her pocket and retrieved a small vial of liquid. It was the same anti-spirit perfume she had been hawking to the reactor crew in hopes of alleviating their superstitions about the ship being haunted—superstitions that turned out to have some basis in reality.

She sprayed the liquid indiscriminately, aiming both at herself and the people standing near her. The air filled with an almost sickly-sweet smell, like candy, but that was its only offensive quality to living noses. The entity, on the other hand, recoiled from her, put off by the perfume now clinging to Ishani and those in her general vicinity like a purifying incense. She wasn't sure what exactly the entity was, however—and that meant the perfume might only temporarily distract it before it attacked them again. Either way, somebody needed to do something, and fast.

Yula Perl Jerek Zenduu Mishel Kryze Junker Jonn Romi Jade Atlas Drake Valery Noble Kaia Starchaser Lyssa Io​

 

[Yula Perl]

Mishel Kryze | Kaia Starchaser | Atlas Drake | Jerek Zenduu | Valery Noble | Starlin Rand | Romi Jade | Junker Jonn

Fortunately, the vent they were traveling through opened to the floor of the reactor, not the ceiling.

"Oh, thank the Force."

Yula clambered out of the shaft, relieved to no longer be in an enclosed metal space full of fire and screaming. While Mishel had successfully flayed the banshee following them, the heat from her flames had made things more than toasty. By the time they'd made it to the reactor thanks to Drifter's navigation, the Zeltron had stripped down to her undershirt.

While some of the electrical components appeared externally damaged, the reactor housing had nary a dent. Yula whistled low. "Doesn't look too bad in here. Let's move in with caution; we don't know how it looks on the inside." She stepped towards the reactor carefully, almost in reverence of its size and alleged power. One scan with her datapad later, and her dark brows furrowed in surprise. "Quadanium? Guess that explains why this thing doesn't even have a scratch on it. Fuel rods are reading as super dense, can't even get a good register on them." In case the numbers were scrambled, she gave the datapad a good whack. The readout didn't change.

"We need more light," he muttered in numb terror, "Yula, get that reactor back online."

"You sure you need it? The reactor looks, uh, dangerous. No offense."

Her hand pressed against the control panel of a wall-mounted terminal, using the Force as a conduit to her diagnostic senses. "These systems are too damaged internally—they'll take way too long to repair, and trying to start them on our own is too risky." Pulling her hand away from the wall, she turned to Mishel and Kaia.

"I'm going to try and start the reactor directly."

As if that was any less dangerous and stupid. On cue, a ghastly wail echoed from somewhere close by, just outside of the reactor.

"And keep whatever that is away!"

Both hands pressed to the reactor's housing, Yula inhaled deeply, breathing in the Force as she did so. Each time, the ethereal power surged to her stronger, like a wave building in height. Then—she fed it slowly into the reactor, concentrating on working her way through the solid agrinium plating. "K-rrrt!" With a clenched jaw and pointed momentum, she pressed the ethereal tendrils past the housing, sending the fuel rods into a lurch.

The lights began to flicker and settled on the dimmest of glows. Incensed, Yula pressed further, exploring the core of the reactor…

 

[Junker Jonn]

​

Location: Ossus, Wreck of the Red Dragon
Tags: Atlas Drake | Valery Noble | Lyssa Io | Jerek Zenduu | Starlin Rand

​

"Keep it together or you might wind up on their menu," Atlas told him, and Jonn bristled at that a bit. He was pretty sure that these... things didn't have panic-based vision; every last one of the poor idiots who'd stepped aboard this awful wreck were already menu items, and they just had to do their best to keep themselves from being served up. But then he supposed he had no right to get testy about it. He was the one who'd run off on his own, after all, nearly getting himself killed. He deserved a rebuke, and a reminder that he needed to stick close to the people who - more or less - knew what they were doing when it came to the undead.

Or just crises in general. Jonn was good at a lot of things. He wasn't good in a crisis.

The little group's pace steadily picked up as they neared the bridge, until they were sprinting all out for the bulkhead doors. Jonn sputtered and wheezed as they raced toward that narrowing gap, the bulkhead doors grinding steadily shut like the jaws of some beast snapping closed. He was pretty strong, and could work long hours without complaint... but cardio was not his thing. Only the threat of imminent, certain death if he stopped kept him running, and when he finally tumbled through the doors into the bridge he doubled over, gasping for air. A moment later, the possessed hit the bulkhead, slamming their fists against the barrier.

Junker yelped, flinched, and then slowly slid down the wall, head in his hands.

This was all entirely too much, was his first thought. His second thought was holy chit there's more, because that was when he saw the other occupants of the bridge. "Oh no, no no no, whyyyyyyyyyy," the scavenger pant-whined, curling into a terrified little ball as tendrils of darkness reached out and snatched Atlas up by the leg. He had no idea what to make of the twisted, dark-robed figures at the center of the command deck; he'd scavenged a whole lot of ships in his day, and seen a whole lot of weird chit, but he'd never before found one that had "deathless cultists trapped in eternal agony and dark hunger" as a feature.

Thankfully, Jerek was considerably bolder and more decisive. His blazing green laser-sword slammed into the tendril of darkness, and Jonn fully expected the thing to split like overripe fruit. But it didn't. Instead it held up against the attack, as if the Jedi's weapon had clashed against another of its ilk, and Jonn moaned in terror once again. But eventually - it was only seconds, but it felt like eternity - the vile tentacle released its grip. Jerek scrambled forward, dragging Atlas to safety... and Junker, doing his best to shake off his panic, pushed himself up from his miserable crouch and hurried over to help. He owed Atlas big, after all.

Junker Jonn didn't understand this Force mumbo-jumbo, but he did understand debts.

The scavenger captain did his best not to even look as the others fended the thing off, spraying that perfume he would've sworn ten minutes ago was snake oil but somehow seemed to actually work. Instead he focused on Drake, helping to drag him away from the thrashing mass of darkness. The man had been hit pretty hard when the tentacle had slammed him against the deck... but that was the kind of problem that Jonn actually knew how to help with. Scavs took hard falls, or heavy impacts from objects floating around in zero-g, all the time. Trying to steady his own breathing - and keeping his back to the fight - the Kubaz broke out his medkit.

First, check for concussion. There was a tiny light in the kit, he now realized, though probably small enough that it wouldn't have fended anything off. Jonn raised it up and held it in front of Atlas's face. "Hey," he said, getting up close to get the spacer's attention. "Follow this with your eyes." He waved it back and forth, mostly as a distraction... because with his other hand, he was jabbing a stim into Atlas's thigh. Just a little special blend to help with shock and reduce bruising or - Force forbid - internal bleeding. He'd found that people dealt best with needles when they didn't know they were about to get stuck with one.

"Sorry," he said, though he wasn't. He needed the spacer on his feet. "You back with us?"

Please say yes.

 

[Atlas Drake]

SITH CRASH SITE
OSSUS WASTELAND
THE SCAR WORLDS
Jerek Zenduu Mishel Kryze Romi Jade Junker Jonn Yula Perl
Valery Noble Kaia Starchaser Starlin Rand Lyssa Io

​

Boundless pain.

It only ceased once the two Jedi Knights leapt to Drake's rescue and hacked off the tentacle which gripped him. Still he drifted in and out of consciousness while Jonn dragged him clear of the phenomenon. An injected stim forced the captain violently back into awareness, painkillers and adrenaline now coursing through his system.

"Sorry," he said, though he wasn't. He needed the spacer on his feet. "You back with us?"

"Something like that," Atlas groaned.

His comlink buzzed on the bridge's deck where it lay forgotten. With a herculean effort he picked it up.

"Whatever it takes, Miss Perl!"

Expecting the others to deliver a miracle was a faint hope, so Captain Drake tried to focus on their immediate survival. Starlin and Jerek could hold off the grasping void for now but the anomaly seemed in some way aware of their presence as well as angered by the wounds delivered. Like the kubaz scavenger Atlas was a little out of his depth.

"If we can reach that auxiliary station," he pointed out a terminal with only minimal damage to Jonn, "We might be able to siphon enough juice to power a containment field."

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Ossus​

Valery: Appearance​

Outfit: Factory Link​

Lightsabers: Link!​

Ship: Factory link​

Tag: Atlas Drake Junker Jonn Jerek Zenduu Starlin Rand Yula Perl Mishel Kryze Kaia Starchaser Romi Jade Lyssa Io ​

​

Having heard the trouble up ahead, Valery dashed onto the bridge just in time to find Atlas being rescued by one of the Jedi and dragged off by the spacer who she could have sworn she heard screaming not that long ago. After a stim was applied, he seemed to be doing better but whatever had attacked them still lingered. ​

​

She could feel its dark, twisted presence.​

​

"Is everybody alright?" she quickly moved up to join them and held a single lightsaber in her hand, the blade not yet ignited. She didn't ​

​

Her attention then shifted back to the Captain who, despite sustaining a nasty hit, seemed to be taking control of the situation again. She nodded in response and looked over at the station he pointed at, before turning her gaze to the other Jedi that were with the group.​

​

"We can protect you against...whatever that thing was, while you set up the containment field." she looked at the other Jedi once more and readied herself to help them in any way she could. The pair seemed more than capable of defending the Captain, but she figured any bit of help would be welcomed.​

​

 

[Jerek Zenduu]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hope of Morning" by Icon for Hire)

A trinity of darkness had visited upon Ossus, that terrible day of the warship crash.

Destruction...of the new temple.

Death...of the world's defenders.

Despair...

The last remained unbroken, hanging above the land like a cloud of darkness. It assaulted Jerek's every sense, baying at the edges when it couldn't penetrate through. The young Jedi had mounted a stalwart defense since he landed, he had come prepared to face the unrelenting dread that the Sith wrought upon everything they touched. This despair was different, though. It ate at him, chewing slowly through defenses as he faced fiendish spirits and a horde of the possessed.

He could feel it now, a palpable sensation in the wake of the darkside trio. It was from their hooded essence that despair radiated, oozing forth in waves more deadly than the tangible darkness his lightsaber had touched.

Jerek drew a breath, and nearly shook with the effort. It took intentional concentration to ward against the despair, lest it infect him and cripple his efforts. It was despair that could make a man weak enough to be possessed, despair enough to make him flee this world, never to return. He breathed in again. Jerek had fled this world in times past, he would not be driven back again.

"Keep doing that," Jerek told the woman, some companion of Starlin's who seemed earlier more like a merchant than salvager. This might have been a terrible moment for a product demonstration, if that very same product hadn't been causing the hooded trio to draw back. The Jedi sniffed the air, and his eyes watered while his nose enjoyed the scent. A sweet perfume that drenched the air in a cloying, saccharine odor, one that caused the darkness to recoil. "Whatever that is, it's working!"

He stepped forward as the darkness fled back, advancing toward the front of the bridge. At the time of battle, that had been the command center, a focal point for the action. Now Jerek hoped it could be one again, a place to aim their efforts to defeat the hooded trio.

From the sounds of the discussion behind him, Drake had a plan to do just that. The Jedi Knight was relieved to hear his voice again, he had only glimpsed the Kubaz salvager moving to take over the captain's care earlier. His mind only mildly absorbed the highlights of their strategy, something about a containment field. Jerek's mind barely paused to consider if the ray shields could even work on this mangled corpse of a starship anymore, he had more immediate concerns in front of him.

He did pause to look down as his foot found a new perch. The platform, from which the darkside trio had retreated. The moment his foot made contact, Jerek could feel a surge inside him. A power, hidden before but now accessible to his every whim; he need only tap in. The young Jedi realized what this was, sparing a glance back to his fellow lightsiders to share his find.

"Come over here, I'm standing on some kind of amplifier. I can feel it waiting to channel my energy, this must be for some kind of Force ritual." Jerek wanted more of a moment to analyze it more, his initial conclusion seemed naive. There was more at work in this platform, if only he had the time to explore it. He barely had time to beckon towards the others to join him. "With all of us together, I think we can defeat this."

If they couldn't defeat it, then at least they could contain it long enough for the others to contain it.

And then Jerek gave the amplifier his energy to channel, letting the Force move light through his hands and out towards the hooded darkness.

Atlas Drake Mishel Kryze Junker Jonn Romi Jade Valery Noble Yula Perl Kaia Starchaser Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

The blond Jedi hollered something about a platform and how they should all stand on it. Starlin couldn’t think of a better solution, so he yelled back, “Got it!” and leaped up onto the platform beside Jerek.

Looking down at the others, he could see Ishani still frantically spraying her perfume. Eventually the small sample vial ran out, and she had to pause and fumble in her pockets for more, struggling to read the labels in the dim light of the bridge. Considering that he could smell it from here—in all of its licorice, pralines, cherries, vanilla and chocolate-y glory—he didn’t think it was really necessary to keep spraying at this point, but who knew how the dark tendrils would react.

“You said this thing would amplify the Force?” he asked Jerek. Reaching inside himself, his body started to glow, a physical manifestation of his inner Light. Hopefully the others would do the same.

Yula Perl Jerek Zenduu Mishel Kryze Junker Jonn Romi Jade Atlas Drake Valery Noble Kaia Starchaser Lyssa Io​

 

[Lyssa Io]

Lyssa, still disguised as a pink Twi'lek, was an efficient combatant that kept the Possesed away from those she escorted, careful not to do anything in front of Starlin Rand that might give away what she was, even making sure to keep generating that electrical field that could fool Force Users into thinking she was a biological being. Her moves were never lethal, merely throws, never punches. A punch from her could turn a head into a garbage bag. This reduced her to Yeeting people into other people as a strategy.

She retreated with the others though, making sure to stay close and keep herself between them and the Possesed. But they came endlessly, so much so that Lyssa was really starting to have a debate with herself over whether or not to go lethal.

Nuetralizers do enjoy killing their enemies but things got dicey when it wasn't clear if something or someone could be defined as an enemy. The sons and daughters of Xiphos had generally accepted the reasoning Xiphos had given for her actions at Rhand, destroying the Worldship...it had been coordinating hundreds of slaving operations and the Universe only knows how many other foul things of repute. Disrupting their slave supply would affect them for months and make it extremely difficult for them to resupply in the short term, which would likely give thousands more than what was lost a fighting chance. Even if the reports were true, that the Maw had been ready to destroy it themselves, it was still a plus...destroying the Worldship on their terms and not the Maw's was nothing less than a message, a slap to the face of those degenerates. They had crippled the slaving operation so much they were getting reports of the Maw now using vat grown clones to compensate, who were quite stupid.

That said, every one of the Children of Xiphos was shaken slightly by the act once they had time to process it. They knew that logically, there hadn't been time to seize the ship. It had been close to escaping, and even if they could have evacuated the slaves the ambush fleet would still have arrived. Their superweapon might have killed even more CIS Personnel had they not been forced to an early evacuation.

But none could forget that Xiphos might have tried to save those slaves once. Oyokai and Kerest had changed her, made her even more determined to defeat these hidious threats to the Galaxy, even if it meant plowing through their hostages. The Maw embraced Total War? Fine. She and her children would shove it down their rotten throats.

As she yeeted possessed into more of their fellows, she couldn't help but note that this might actually be the perfect time to try and kill Starlin. But Xiphos had declared hands off...she wanted to kill him personally for making her relive the deaths of her parents as a witness.

It was a bad habit of Mother's...she took things too personally with some, like Coren Starchaser ...her feud with the Order was particularly ugly...she had given her citizens traveling abroad authority to kill Jedi by any means at their own initiative and discretion. Soft targets. Padawans. Low ranking Knights. Simple solutions, like approaching with a Ysalamiri were used. Few citizens had any real compunction about it. As far as they were concerned, if they had to lose their children to the Lobsters and the Savages, then the Jedi Order could afford to lose a few of their own...that it bound them more tightly to Xiphos and the fate of House Io, showing such intense and open hostility to the Jedi (who they made a point of specifically targeting over other light side groups, which were ignored due to the overwhelming hate most of her citizens had for the Order) was an afterthought.

Lyssa remained silent as they reached the bridge, keeping silent, her motives as opaque as possible. But it was clear even here it was deadly...some three robed figure made of evil tentacles was attacking the crew...

While the others fought it, the Possesed cut off at the moment, Lyssa calmly analyzed it's attack capabilities, realized the lethal threat it posed and weighed her options carefully... attacking it at full strength would surely be a distraction the others would need to finish it, but it would mean exposing her true nature to the others...

But the situation was dire. That thing needed to be stopped quickly, and whatever other methods the others were using was slow going.

Besides, if worse came to worse, she could always retreat if the others didn't want to see reason...

Lyssa did not hate Jedi per se. She regarded them as their own worst enemy, so dedicated to being the hero, they consistently, and ultimately, finished last place in the game, everybody dancing circles around them until the universe took pity and threw the Jedi a bone. Their obstinate nature had all the deliberateness of a labor droid's programming, stubbornly dedicated to fulfilling their primary function without consideration of the situation around them.

But there were bigger threats right now.

Lyssa's arms turned into blades, and she sprinted at superhuman speed towards it, bladed tendrils forming from other parts of her body as she took her own form once more slicing and slashing at terrible speeds at every exposed part, cutting away at tendrils as quickly as they formed, preventing them from striking at others...

Jerek Zenduu

Yula Perl

Kaia Starchaser

Junker Jonn

Atlas Drake

Mishel Kryze

 

[Junker Jonn]

​

Location: Ossus, Wreck of the Red Dragon
Tags: Atlas Drake | Valery Noble | Lyssa Io | Jerek Zenduu | Starlin Rand

​

Something had finally gone at least a little bit right, because Atlas was conscious again.

Junker Jonn let out a sigh of relief, sounding something like an out of tune trumpet playing a downward scale when filtered through his Kubazian nose... right up until Atlas gave him something to do. That wasn't supposed to happen! Atlas was supposed to heroically leap to his feet and dash about saving them all! But despite the stimm that Junker had hit the man with, it seemed that he was still fairly out of it; in fairness, he had been slammed into the deck plating pretty hard. Deliberately looking away from the thrashing mass of unholy darkness still occupying the middle of the bridge, Junker followed the spacer's pointing finger, then swallowed hard.

It was a ways off, but if the Jedi could keep the... thing back as promised, he just might make it.

The scav captain shook his head, eyes so wide they nearly expanded past the limitations of his goggles. This was not what he was supposed to be doing! He was no hero; he was just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe, and he steered clear of situations like these. No doubt there was some moral lesson to be learned by the fact that his greed had gotten him into this mess, stirring up his fear that the Jedi would steal some rich prize out from under him and prompting them to accompany them into the bowels of this haunted derelict... but that was the kind of thing he'd like to reflect on a long way away from here, preferably with several shots of whiskey on hand.

The Jedi did pretty much what Jedi in the holovids would do; they raised their hands before the thrashing mass of darkness, driving it back with the light they called forth from... wherever Jedi light came from. Also perfume, which still struck Jonn as extremely weird. The fact that what had seemed like total snake oil was actually kind of working was the strangest part of the whole insane situation. Or it was, until the Twi'lek who'd snuck up on them back in the ship's darkened corridors turned her arms into blades and charged the monster. Jon stared at her, mouth agape, as she began to slice into the tentacles of darkness that the Jedi were holding back with their magic.

He'd tried some serious hallucinogens when he'd been younger, and this was weirder than anything he'd seen back then.

But again, there would be time to reflect on the insanity later, when his life was not in immediate danger. Forcing himself to his feet, his legs wobbling beneath him in sheer panic, Jonn took a few unsteady steps toward the auxiliary station Atlas had pointed out. When he wasn't immediately flattened or grabbed by a tendril of pure evil, he gained a little confidence, and managed to more or less sprint the rest of the way. Unlike evil rituals and shapechanging Twi'leks, this was something he could understand. He'd rerouted power so many times in his life that he could pretty well have done it in his sleep, and sure enough, the Red Dragon still had some juice left in it.

A few wires moved, a few switches flipped, and the containment field was ready. "Hit the switch!" Jonn shrieked at Atlas.

 

[Yula Perl]

Atlas Drake Valery Noble Jerek Zenduu Junker Jonn Starlin Rand Lyssa Io Kaia Starchaser

A brief surge of power wasn't enough. Even if it was, it wouldn't be satisfactory for the Zeltron. In how many lifetimes does one get the opportunity to probe around a reactor this unique, this complex?

Granted, the ship was liable to collapse with one wrong move and there were ghosts and possessed scrubber droids about, but those all fell to the wayside. The power she'd managed to generate from her ministrations was barely a blip, enough to get some of the most basic systems running. Captain Drake and co. needed more time, if the screaming over their comm channel was any indication.

So Yula pressed further. The technopath couldn't take her time and implore every fuel cell or explore the configuration of the dark matter chamber; instead she simply pushed. Mechanical parts whirred and strained under her manipulation, ministrations careful and calculated but not too careful, because who had the time for that? Pressure was building, a signal of what was to come. Yula braced herself.

The reactor surged to life; lights burned brighter, secondary systems booted, and the housing that they were in began to rumble. An arc of energy pitched from the reactor, striking Yula at her core and sending her careening into a wall. As she slid down the durasteel dent, her hands fumbled for the comm at her ear.

"We got maybe uhh…15? Before this thing blows."

Scrambling upwards, she limped her way towards the door. The reactor sizzed with instability, discharging energy in short bursts across the chamber.

"Let's go, ladies!"