Private Keeping a Promise

[Dhalinar Greystar]

Allies: Sōla Taan

​

Dhalinar was a white blur among the crowd, his lightsaber deflecting bolts either up or back at their source when he could and launching them out of the way with the Force when he couldn't. There were too many civilians here and too many of the Sons mixed in.

"You should be helping us Jedi!" someone shouted. Dhalianar acted before he could think, unclipping his second shoto and activating it, the white blade springing to life just in time to catch the edge of a beskad. The telltale high-pitched ring of Beskar on saber rang out over the crowd.

"Drask," Dhalinar growled between clenched teeth. The leader that had been spotted in the cams stood before him, large beskad clenched between two powerful hands. Drask was powerfully built Klatooinian, taller than most of his species, taller than Dhalinar even. His stubby canon-like muzzle was filled with razor-sharp teeth, his close-set eyes glowed like brown pinpricks of rage beneath layers of leathery flesh. Dhalinar had seen the man's record. One of the few survivors from Kolene when Corellia was nearly destroyed in the Cataclysm thirty years ago, Drask had worked as an orphan on New Kolene, one of the many asteroid cities in Socoro's Belt. His family had come to Corellia to escape the Hutts who still preyed on the weakened Klatooinian diaspora only for them to be vaporized in the blink of an eye. Now he fought for the supposed freedom of his new people. Fighting for causes like this was in his blood.

Drask pushed on the master's saber causing the beskar to heat up and glow white as the Jedi's own weapon. Dhalinar pushed with the Force, sending the large man sliding back, a look of shock on his face.

"You don't have to do this Drask. You're putting all of these people in danger. Stand down." Drask flinched at the commanding tone in Dhalinar's voice but only growled instead.

"This elevator will only make the suffering of the Belt greater! Harder work, same pay, no protection from our own home! The people of Corellia deserve to feel the same fear we do up there toiling away for their frivolities!" He lunged, but now that Dhalinar was back on his feet, the battle was far less even. Drask was stronger sure, but the technique and skill that came with decades of training put him far above what the revolutionary could hope to combat. But he held back. He could see NetherOps moving in under Jaina's orders to line up a shot. All this for one man? Dhalinar moved between Drask and the NetherOps firing squad.

"Your people are dying too. Was your plan to ruin this moment worth their lives? For a few shards of broken glass and a few wrecked speeders?" Drask's brows rose in surprise.

"You still haven't figured it out have you?" The NetherOps agent moved to get a better shot. Dhalinar cursed and moved again, deflecting a blow.

"Figured what out?"

 

[Sōla Taan]

Dhalinar Greystar​

Screaming, the holo crews fled. Sola was immediately back at it, picking at the fringes of the crowd to separate civilian from terrorist, providing a target for the Sons so the people could escape. A very mobile target, small and crafty and brimming with the Force. The NetherOps team was exchanging heavy blaster fire with the Sons from the other side of the room, very near where her Master was engaged in combat with a Klatooinian wielding a beskad. Drask.

Still too many civilians mixed in with the Sons. Gotta thin the herd.

She danced between scorching bolts of unstable plasma and dove into the press of bodies, a tiny blur of fists and feet and elbows. She couldn’t deflect the particle beams, so she didn’t try- she weaved and ducked and danced around them instead, blurring with the Force. She felt like a leaf being carried by a tempest. Every shot that missed her hit another Son, and as each second passed, more civilians were able to escape.

One of the Sons abandoned his rifle and rushed her, shoulder lowered to plow her over. She spun aside the wild charge and struck out with a foot. The man tripped, falling into another Son who’d been attempting to grab her from behind. She ducked beneath a particle beam, jumped over the next, pushed another off course. She was driftwood in a sea of the Force, carried on waxing tides.

Another Son pressed near, reaching out to grab her. She took hold of his arm, swung herself up, and cracked his face with a jet-boot enhanced kick.

The two men were up, too close to bring their rifles to bear. She leaned aside a wild punch, spun away from a kick, and snapped a Force enhanced jab directly into the Son’s privates. He dropped with a strangled yell, eyes bugging out of his head. His fellow paused, as if he had shared in his brethren’s pain.

Sola flattened him with a jumping front kick to the front of his face. She felt his nose crunch beneath her boot.

Her brutal display gave the surrounding Sons pause. It wasn’t every day that they witnessed a tiny girl beat the chit out of a grown sentients.

More civilians fled, and Sola turned her stony gaze upon the room at large. Her Master was still engaged with Drask, but not, it seemed, because the Klatooinian was skilled, but because he wanted the terrorist leader to talk. The troopers were lining up to shoot Drask, but her master kept getting in their way.

They want him dead, not captured.

Sola found her face curling into a mighty frown, indigo eyes narrowed into slits. She wanted to help her Master, but she still had civilians to save. She pulled her saber from her belt and her jet boots flared to life.

​

 

[Dhalinar Greystar]

Allies: Sōla Taan

​

Dhalianar couldn't tease any more information out of Drask. The klatooinian was closed-mouthed, his teeth clenched in concentration as Dhalinar parried blow after blow. His attention was drawn from his duel to his padawan for a moment when he heard an unfamiliar sound. His years of experience in war and around tech in general told him it was a rocket of some kind and- Were those ROCKET SHOES?

"Very impressive," he muttered to himself. His amusement was interrupted when the telltale rumble of repulsors rumbled through what was left of the elevator lobby. A transport, Corellian in design with a long central storage wing and off-center cockpit rumbled into the gaping hole left by the first bombs. Its blaster cannons seemed to pin-point Dhalinar, its gimbaled mount shifting the barrels right at him.

"Karabast," he muttered. He made a mad dash for cover as it spat green bolts at him. He tried to lead it away from where civilians were fleeing but inevitably the bolts strayed and cut down security droids, civilians, and one of the NetherOps soldiers in its bid to kill the Jedi Master. The vessel's cargo ramp hissed open to reveal several more of the Sons, their blasters already firing out into the crowd to give their brethren cover as they tried to retreat. Drask gave Dhalinar one last glance before running towards the ship, the last one out. The Klatooinian jumped and was caught by the Force in a tight grip that cracked his arms, sending his hands into impossible positions.

Dhalinar looked sharply at Sola thinking she was the culprit but no. From the smoke Jaina strode confidently towards the captured Drask, her hand outstretched. There was silence as Drask howled in pain.

"Go! Do it! I'll be fine!" The ship began to pull away, almost apprehensively. There was another explosion. This one, far louder than before. It shook the entire loby platform. The people screamed in terror as they lurched. Even Jaina seemed worried, her hand still crushing Drask.

Before the transport could make it to the horizon two starfighters streaked past, proton torpedoes cracking the engine and then the cockpit, sending the transport up into a flaming wreckage to crash into the city below.

"NOOOOO!!!!!! Noo...nooo" Drask howled, this time no tin pain but abject horror and profound sadness. There was another explosion and the platform rocked again but this time it began to careen to one side.

"What have you done?" Jaina hissed. Drask only whimpered in response.

Dhalinar looked to his padawan. What a first day on the job.

 

[Sōla Taan]

Dhalinar Greystar​

Sola knifed through the air, blaster bolts whooshing by, soaring like a Bonegnawer in flight. She spun about in mid-air, lightsaber flashing, slapping bolts aside as she landed near one of the larger groups of fleeing civilians. She covered their rear as they fled, and watched, somewhat stunned, as a Vev Star Thrust roared through the massive hole left by the bombs and opened fired on her Master and the crowd! By the Force!

She did what she could to mitigate the loss of life, but she was not equipped to take on a star ship. More civilians died, their living souls released into the Force. Sorrow swelled in her, but it was nothing beneath the righteous fury and sharp conviction singing in her veins. The ship swung about, spewing green bolts of death, and its ramp opened to reveal a team of Son’s with blaster rifles already shooting into the crowd. Murdering more civilians. She snaked out a clawed hand and launched a large chunk of debris at the Sons at break-neck speeds, smashing a pair of them deeper into the transport.

From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Drask rushing to the ship, only to be caught mid-air in a crushing grip. She looked to her Master just as he looked at her, catching his eyes. She hadn’t stopped him. And then Jaina appeared with an outstretched hand, something insidious in the lines of her face. Sola was not surprised.

The Force flashed a warning. She lurched into the air as a deafening explosion rocked the lobby platform. The transport attempted to depart, only to be shot down by CorSec starfighters. A third explosion sounded. She heard the durasteel columns groaning as if in pain. Slowly, the platform began to lean. Force be good, this can’t be happening.

She caught her Master’s eyes again. Her expression was deadpan at first. She was supposed to be settling into her quarters and learning the layout of the Saber. Instead she was on a collapsing elevator platform thousands of feet above the ground. Emphasis on collapsing.

This is going to suck.

​

 

[Dhalinar Greystar]

Allies: Sōla Taan

The platform was lost, the elevator destroyed, and soon much of the seaside port the elevator was constructed in would be destroyed. All those lives. His eyes fell on Jaina. There was an angry snarl on her face that took away from the calm, cool beauty she had tried to express before, the expression marring her features. Even over the rumble of the collapsing elevator he could hear Drask's piteous cries. Dhalinar couldn't say that he felt bad for the man after what he and his terrorists had done here today and he knew it would only harm their cause even more.

"Sola!" He shouted. He didn't have orders for her. He just needed to make sure she was alive. The remaining terrorists had likewise given up after seeing their transport and comrades destroyed. They needed to get them out too now. But how?

The Emerald Sunspire roared up to the elevator, its boarding ramp down, a pair of KJ Page Droids holding onto the hydraulic struts, hands outstretched.

"Thank the Force," Dhalinar muttered.

"Men! Round up these terrorists and get them on that ship now! Double time!" Jaina shouted over the roar of the Sunspire's engines. Dhalinar did not miss her lack of concern for the civilians left in her destructive raid. Dhalianr nodded to Sola. Get the people on the ship. Dhalinar looked out the windows on the other side of the lobby. They were falling, thankfully, towards the ocean. They didn't have enough time!

"Everyone! Hurry!" There was no helping the stampede that followed.

 

[Sōla Taan]

Dhalinar Greystar
​

"Sola!" He shouted. He didn't have orders for her. He just needed to make sure she was alive. The remaining terrorists had likewise given up after seeing their transport and comrades destroyed.

She didn't bother to try and yell back over the raucous din of the collapsing elevator and the panicking crowd. She flared her presence in the Force instead, flashing her aura like a twinkling star. I'm here, she said. I'm safe...relatively.

They were about to freefall to their deaths, after all. Her safety was, at best, temporary. But then she heard, like a rising crescendo, the roaring hum of a starship engine. Is that-

Salvation.

It came in the form of a sleek dagger-class corvette, its boarding ramp already lowered. The ship drifted over the platform, kicking up massive winds. She held up a hand to shield her eyes.

"Men! Round up these terrorists and get them on that ship now! Double time!" Jaina shouted over the roar of the Sunspire's engines.

Sola glared at the callous operative. She hadn't shown a lick of concern for anything but her task. Real woman of the people, this one. Jaina might not be a Sith, but she certainly wasn't of the Light.

It fell to Sola and her Master to guide the civilians into the ship.

"Everyone! Hurry!" There was no helping the stampede that followed.

The people surged as one, scurrying like a herd of panicked sheep, and rightly so. It wasn't as if any of them could fly. Sola pushed and shoved and yelled, trying her best to quell the panic as she hovered over the crowd. As the civilians piled into the ship, all but bowling over the NetherOps soldiers and their terrorist captives, the platform crumbled and accelerated into free fall.

There were still civilians on the platform.

No!

The young Jedi reached out, grasping...

And the Force took her hand.

She didn't know if she sped up or the world slowed down. Power surged through her, gushing from her outstretched hand like a geyser. A wave of kinetic energy swept the last of the civilians into the ship, all but throwing them on board.

The platform fell.

​

 

[Dhalinar Greystar]

Allies: Sōla Taan

The platform fell.

That was it. The weight had caused the tower below to give out beneath them. Time seemed to slow as the platform fell out from under him. There were still a dozen people at least left. And his padawan. Dhalinar gritted his teeth and gathered power within. The Force pumped through his veins like it hadn't in years. He felt young again, alive. He shouted and with incredible control over the Force he yanked Sola and the others up, throwing them past himself and towards the edge of the corvette's boarding ramp.

He couldn't see if they made it. He could only hope. The ship was behind him. He gave a nod to Sola as she flew past him. This wouldn't be it for him. He had to try and remain alive, if not for himself, for her. The platform was starting to tilt now as it fell. His gloves skimmed the floor as he reached down and yanked his lightsaber back out and lit it in a single motion. His emerald blade carved into the floor, slowing his descent and giving him a precious few seconds to orient himself. He need to do something or he would be shredded when the transparisteel hit the water and that rush of watery blades rushed up to meet him.

"Blast," he muttered, the wind blowing his short cape around his face.

 

[Sōla Taan]

Dhalinar Greystar

​

Sola felt herself pushed through the air as if shoved by invisible hands; with her jet boots activated, she accelerated perhaps a bit faster than her Master had anticipated. With the wind whipping in her face, her eyes found her Master's amidst her rapid flight. He nodded solemnly, and in that single gesture she read a script of a thousand words.

Surely he didn't mean to sacrifice himself-

!​

The boarding ramp was coming in fast- too fast. As the young Atoan soared past the edge of the ramp, she reached out a hand to snatch the lip, lost her grip, and spun wildly into the transport, a startled yelp slipping out of her lips.

She crashed into a droid, slid across cool metal plating, and tumbled into a roll that ended with her lying flat on her back, stars dancing in her eyes. Distantly, she heard the dull thumps of the last of the civilians landing on the ramp and the whirring servos of the droids trying to help them up.

The stars faded and she sat up, scrambling quickly to her feet, and pushed past the civilians and droids crowding her to the slowly rising ramp.

Master Dhalinar was still on the platform.

"No! Wait!" she shouted, reaching out a hand to do...

Nothing. The ramp had closed shut.

​

 

[Dhalinar Greystar]

Allies: Sōla Taan

​

The platform rumbled as it crashed into the sea. Dhalinar had made it behind a counter around the center of the platform and now he watched as the water rushed up to meet him.

"Now how am I getting out of this," he muttered. He reached out in the Force to the ocean and searched. "Maybe...?"

------
​

At the docks CorSec and first responders swarmed around the remains of the elevator. Coronet Chppers hovered low scanning for survivors or injured in the buildings crushed and damaged by the falling debris. The water surged as a massive multicolored kyprin as large as a GR transport rose from the depths. It landed to the surprise of all around with a wet thud that thundered around the docks. When the fish opened its mouth Dhalinar Greystar walked out of the fish's mouth covered in seawater and fish slime.

"I would like to never do that again," he muttered to himself as he 'admired' his ruined uniform and cape.

 

[Sōla Taan]

Dhalinar Greystar​

---

Whatever sorrow Sola might have felt was kept at bay by her certainty that her Master was still alive. They hadn't been together long enough for a Padawan-Master bond to form-- it hadn't even been a full day yet-- but the first inklings of it were there, the foundation from which they would build their connection, and it was through those inklings of a bond that the young Atoan sensed her still living Master, like a distant star that was far, far way, twinkling in the darkness.

Tension she hadn't known was there left her. She ached still, from her exertions during the attack, but those were mere physical ails, pains that she could soothe and relieve in the Force. For a moment, she had feared that Master Dhalinar would go the way of her previous master's, but now that moment had passed, leaving her feeling light--almost giddy-- and strangely empty.

But then she noticed Jaina idling with her troopers, and felt the fires of righteous anger rekindle. Her disregard for the lives of her own people was anathema to the young Jedi. Part of her wanted to confront the woman then and there, but she refrained. She was just a Padawan...it would probably be best if she left the confronting to Master Dhalinar.

---

She found him on the docks, in the center of a crowd of first-responders, soggy from fish-spit and stinking of the sea. His shimmersilk cape, once the height of fashion, was withered and wrinkled. Ruined. The kyprin had already disappeared back into the depths of the ocean. Sola slipped casually through the crowd to stand in front of him, her arms folded behind her back. He wasn't dead. She wasn't dead: It was quite the auspicious beginning to her apprenticeship, as far as she was concerned.

"If you wanted sushi, Master, you should've just said so."