Graves

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She pulled herself up almost immediately, it was fast, liquid, smooth as water flowing over a rock.

Aela gave him no time to rest, no time to take any other action. Her clothes were muddies, but they didn't slow her as she once again was upon him. The flicker of her movement could be seen by those watching, the odd blur of her body as she swept towards him. Her lightsaber remained on her hip, her hand closing into fists.

He dropped to one knee, and she answered.

Her left hand came up, her palm opening and reaching towards the wrist of his lightsaber hand, grasping for it to place it in a vice like grip between the fingers of her crushgaunt. At the same time her leg popped forward, it's shin protected by a thin line of armor made by Vanir Technologies. Her foot projected forward in a sweeping kick, aiming to knock him from his perch and face first into the mid where she would twist his arm and pin it behind his back.

One smooth liquid motion, a break of his momentum and a disabling of his body.

Cold dispassion played across her face as she moved, disappointment in her eyes and anguish pouring through her soul.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"Argh!" he grunted as the hard pull on his arm shifted his ribs. The pain was excruciating now where the bolt had burned deep into his side. Now the anger had subsided the calm centre he usually found to block out pain would not come to him.

It seemed unnecessary to him for the girl to pin him down when he had offered up his blade. But with his cheek pressed into the stones he looked back down the palisades to the chunk of wall he had ripped apart, tapping power through the Force had never reached before.

Jacen stayed as relaxed as possible, hoping she wouldn't shift him about any further and antagonise the wound. There was no blood, so it had probably already been cauterised. "I've been shot," he murmured quietly.

He felt nothing but pain and shame. Deep, burning shame.

 

[Kaili Talith]

Nodding and staring at that nose of [member="Karen Roberts"]’. The silence certainly hung around and in no small part due to the young one’s disinterested in any real conversation. She needed action, something more palpable than small talk about the countless dead bodies next to them and Karen provided. Either look for more graves or see what they made the graves with. Not that the two were mutually exclusive, but out of the two options she was given she saw the one that would fit her the best.

“I’ll think on it.” Kaili nodded at the other woman. “Thanks.”

She wasn’t really thinking on it. Her mind had already been set from the start and as far as Kaili was concerned she’d have a lot more of an easier time finding trucks than more dead people. At least if her own well-being was to be accounted for.

Kneeling down to let Henry crawl up her arm she gave Karen a nod. The universal sign of “I got it” and “Goodbye.”

“We’re going to find the machinery they used for this, Henry.”

< “Okay.” >

“Then we’ll destroy them.”

< “...Okay.” >

“Then...” Kaili sighed. “Then I hope we can go home.”

The droid got closer to her cheeks as his chassis tilted in an almost comforting way. Kaili did the same as her head slowly leaned on top of the right row of the spider droid’s legs. A small tear ran down her cheeks that she quickly wiped away.

It wasn’t lost on her that her best friend was a creation of her own making.

 

[Relit Vandal]

Would they listen the small Jedi, words of wisdom pouring out? Or would it fall upon deaf ears, enthralled to a purpose not their own. That silence before the storm, windows battened down for the trepidation, preceding the calamity. Relit brought his saber down to mid level slowly, not looking towards Vaet. He did speak though, quietly, to his new found ally.

"We must spare their lives...they know not the weight of their actions."

A sith, that would have been a different matter. And even leaving the ziggurat, Relit had taken an adept with him on the sense that redemption was there, was possible. He felt the yearning for it but where it was once screamed, he now merely heard the whispers. But even an ounce of willingness, the threat of judgment lingering in the future, was enough to push the common man to a righteous path. And here these men stood, solemn for the moment, in contemplation of a path that wasn't their own. But here, in the cradle of darkness, redemption would be near impossible. The Jedi needed to remove these men, take them far away from the temptation, to bring them back into the fold of grace.

And as if the words he had spoken were the adder to the war, shots fired out from the nest of stormtroopers. The purple beam swung down and over, a bolt flying to the ground, another back towards the hand that pulled the trigger. He spun and backhanded another back at the shoulder of another stormtrooper before flicking upwards, sending another upwards into the atmosphere. It was then that the turret circled around, a rider upon it's back, who was intent on causing damage. But as the Jedi Master fought, the Rattan followed the injection of the force, as it traced through the cracks and divots before shooting upwards through the duracrete.

The vines wrapped around the barrel, surging through the heat guard and rails. And as the man fired, it was evident that nothing came out, charring of wooden vines, barrel thick, dismantling the purpose of the gun. As it overheated, it turned hot red and molten before erupting, sending shrapnel through the nest of fighters as they shielded their eyes. The metal, the flash of light, and the sacrifice of the Rattan. All enough to distract for the moment as Relit began charging forward, lightsaber dropped to a dove tail guard as he moved.

[member="Vaet"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Aela Talith"]​

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“Agreed.”

At this point Vaet opted to switch to a very light and soft telepathic message. Followed by a simple nod at the end to convey additional understanding - because it simply meant that there would be no killing, if they couldn’t help it.

Killing was easy… to be in a real battle and not kill? That was the true testament of skill. It meant precision, coordination, it meant having tactical insight in the heat of battle and also a clear mind. It meant not allowing your feelings to cloud your judgement, not allowing yourself to become a tool of vengeance, instead choosing for true justice for the victims.

It was difficult, but it was right. And that was all that mattered for Vaet. Life wasn’t worth living, if it meant sacrificing your honor and beliefs, because they made you into what you was.

Abandoning that? You were less than a man, less than an animal, you just… were - without direction and without purpose.

The Vaetling knew before he saw, his body moving into action with the silver beam already redirecting the shots as best as it could: difficult as the blade was shorter than a regular saber.

In this? His role was to aid [member="Relit Vandal"] and have his back. Protect him. This was his duty for the defining crux of the moment.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Aela pinned Jacen to the floor, her body contorting in such a way that her knee was pressed into the small of his back, her hand still holding the disabling twist on his arms.

"You also almost killed a man in cold blood." There was a bite to her words, a tone of disappointment laced with anger at what he had done. She had felt the spike within him, the searing rage and hatred, had watched him nearly fall. Her lips were thin as she looked down at him. "I think that makes up for it."

She held him down, her eyes casting all around her.

Slowly the fighting was beginning to die down. The Southern wall had now been breached, the north had been completely torn open. Alliance soldiers were now pouring into the compound and more and more stormtroopers were beginning to surrender and large sections of the fortress were compromised. Aela was surrounded by a rush of troopers, protection against anyone that would interrupt the two Jedi and their conversation. "I saw you Jacen. You know what I have to do."

Her free hand reached towards the small of her back, drawing out the force cuffs that sat there.

 

[Jsc]

Clean Up Duty

It didn't take long for the probes to make their deployment and immediately be set to work. They scanned the graves and relayed their findings to the medical decks in orbit. GA Intelligence could take the data and handle it from there. With no more use for the grave itself, Karen had her men cut away swaths of earth with their lightsabers. Then together they lifted the great heaps over the top of the mounds and buried their findings for good. Then they excused themselves from the field. Allowing the other NJO Marshalls to reroute their efforts likewise.

By the time they finished their duty, the siege would be well and underway. [member="Kaili Talith"] would just have to relay her findings back with the other NJO teams. RnR had done the dirty part.

/ex

 

[Roth Tillian]

Roth blinked in surprise as [member="Aela Talith"] just climbed up the wall with her crushgaunt and then he shook his head in even bigger surprise as [member="Relit Vandal"] walked up the wall on an escalator of vines and plant stuff. Now that was stuff he didn't see very often. To be precise, he had never seen either of those happen before. He let out a low laugh. Perhaps it was better that he was sticking mostly with the Navy and SpecOps. Who knew what power they would offer him if he was solely with the New Jedi Order? He wasn't so sure he wanted that plant-power thing. It was rather unsettling. Other troops, soldiers were advancing up behind them. Excellent. He peeked over his debris cover and ducked back down as blaster bolts scarred it. Wonderful. He took aim and squeezed off another few rounds, pausing to reload.

There was cover up ahead. He took a deep breath and reached out with the Force, tensing himself to jump. No, actually that was crazy. There was another way to manage that. He crafted an image in his head, of himself performing a different action and pushed it out to the stormtroopers. Hopefully that would work. A few of them started shooting at where he supposed his mental apparition double was visible and he sensed a pause of confusion as people tried to figure out what was going on.

Then he darted out past the edge and flung himself into the mud behind the next piece of cover, dragging his bolter in behind him. Some shot at him, but not enough to kill him instantly. That was a relief. Sounded like conflict was quieting down up above. Excellent, and the wall on the opposite side had crumbled under the assault by the looks of it.

"Drop your weapons!" He called out. "Surrender and we'll treat you with all courtesies and behaviors required by intergalactic laws of warfare!" He sensed some more uncertainty. "Don't throw away your lives for a fallen fortress!"

 

[Relit Vandal]

The blinding light, that instant of flash, that was all that was needed for him to be upon the nest of stormtroopers. He had no time to make sure Vaet was nearby but for the time they spent, he could sense the proximity. The vaetling was offering aid where it was needed and for the time being, this Jedi Master would take the lead in storming this cluster. Slicing upward, he cleaved the barrel from an aimed weapon and grabbed at what remained. As he reversed the grip of the saber, he extinguished and punched forward, breaking in the face plate of the helmet. As the figure recoiled away, he flung the remains of the weapon back and reignited the saber, amidst the entourage.

Lifting his left hand upward, he spoke with the lingering trace of indifference. He was the calm that Vaet had wished for, speaking words of surrender. "Lay down your arms..." Or be disarmed. He had no time for words of succeeding or winning, they were beyond that. It was time for these men to consider their survival. They likely wouldn't realize that Relit would falter to the very edge of his own survival in order to ensure their salvation here. But the corruption wouldn't be cleansed so easily, not without bloodletting.

The man in front of him pushed forward first, attempting to fire at point blank. Relit grabbed the barrel and kneed upward, hitting the man in the gut. Slashing to his right and over, he chopped through the body of the gun pointed at his abdomen. Unfortunately, he also cut through the thigh of the attacker, de-limbing him. Punching back to his right, the hand holding the blaster found a loss of leverage at the broken forearm and with an elbow to the face, the man fell back into the pit. The last man, the one to his left, caught Relit in the face with the butt of the gun, breaking the spectacles. As he stumbled back, he pushed out with the force, smacking the man hard against the debilitated turret. The man slumped over, unconscious, as Relit pulled the broken shades from his nose to reveal the emerald pupil-less eyes that hid beneath. Walking over, he checked the mans pulse and looked towards Vaet.

"We must go, padawan..." He looked towards the courtyard and ran out of the nest, and came to a sliding halt as he viewed the Jedi Marshall on the back of Voidstalker. She was pulling cuffs from the small of her back, that much he could guess. "What is the meaning of this?" He said loudly, looking towards Jacen. He trusted that man, had fought with him against the Darkside Adepts. But he sensed the integrity of the woman, her resolve towards the light. This contradiction confused him, the likes of which were expressed in his manners and body posture as he extinguished the amethyst blade.

[member="Vaet"] | [member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Jacen's breathing was quick and laboured. Why wouldn't the Force come to him now? It should have been a simple act to fortify his mind against the pain and turn his focus inward and start to accelerate the healing process. Despite the amount of times he'd been shot, it wasn't something you became accustomed to. Apparently the Yuuzhan Vong had learned to truly embrace pain, and could take phenomenal amounts and keep fighting.

He stayed relaxed as Aela cuffed him, only moving to get his feet underneath himself. His eyes turned to the toes of his boots, however. He suddenly found he could not meet the eyes of the Talith sibling.

"I know," he said quietly.