It had been many years since that first meeting with Morris Crownwraithe. They had encountered each other a few times since, and he had always found some reason he couldn't stay. And The Kaissereich would plod along, regardless, making more believers. And Morris's legend would grow and grow among the people of Ession as his acts grew more and more heroic, yet whenever she met this great Jedi, this hero of Ession, he was the most frustratingly opaque man she had ever encountered. He never let slip anything personal. Never anything more than polite. But she had kept tabs on him. Such a powerful servant of The Goddess must always be watched, guided from afar, if necessary.
She had been surprised that all his talk of Emotion being an enemy of the Jedi had culminated in him taking a wife: perhaps her warning had gotten through...or perhaps he had decided it independently.
Today, an exception was being made. She was going directly to him. Because he had given so much hope to the people of Ession, she had resolved to try and do the same for him.
The Goddess had whispered it in her meditations: Morris Crownwraithe was going to die at the hands of a mutual enemy. No one could save him, no one except the people he had been an inspiration to.
Morris Crownwraithe's only hope was the welcoming arms of the people of Ession and her church of Ashla. The Goddess had whispered he had basically 007 weeks left.
She had flown her TIE Reaper to where the Crownwraithes were said to be in hiding, guided by only the Light Side to their hiding place in the hills of Odessan, a small, hand built house shaped like a dome, their Dynamic Class Freighter nearby. It was sunset, and flowers bloomed, a soft breeze rustling the petals and the grass.
She felt them, three very powerful signatures, partly masked by the presence of blue Kyber growing every where.
All three pulsed with the Light...Elaine was shocked at the power as she got closer.
Morris came out of the house, his black biker leathers worn and scuffed. He still looked relatively young, but now there was a streak of gray running through his temples.
That Deer-in-Headlights gaze of his fixed on her as he walked out, a single bladed lightsaber in hand.
Lysandra Crownwraithe, a woman who was chalk white with ebon hair, looking like an unscarred Laertia Io, poked her head out. Elaine was given brief pause at her beauty before refocusing on Morris.
"Morris? Who is it?!" Lysandra called out.
"Stay inside." He replied flatly, not taking his eyes off Elaine, who smiled at him as she walked up in her hooded, armorweave green gown.
"Hello, Morris. It's been some time since we last spoke." Elaine said warmly.
"It has."
"You look well."
"So my wife tells me."
"I can't walk through the roads in the area I live without running across a poster of you. You're very popular with the children of Ession. I see them imitating you all the time."
"What are you doing here, Tear?"
Elaine frowned. Hd never had been one for small talk but that just now...that was just plain rude.
"I thought that would be obvious. The Goddess has shown me a great many things recently. Things of you. Your family. And the murderous doom stalking you."
Morris gave zero reaction. His lack of facial expression baffled and frightened her on some level, but she hid it.
"Darth Phyre's my problem. I'll solve it."
"No Morris. No you will not." Elaine said, brutally honest. "You will lose if you face her with only your wife. The Goddess has shown me this. The Jedi Order proper is still recovering from the Plague. And Darth Phyre is stronger than most Adepts. Their attempts to protect you will be scattered and limited in scope. Few others will dare Phyre's wrath. I have searched Ashla's wisdom, and in every future I see, the only ones where you live, where your family lives and stays together, are the futures where you accept the protection of The Ashlan Church."
Morris did not react.
"You sense it, don't you?" Elaine pressed when his silence dragged on longer than was reasonable. "You sense the truth of my words. I can see it in your eyes. The Goddess has been whispering the answer to you for days...and yet you remain here."
"There's a lot of places in the Galaxy besides Ession to run to."
"And nowhere that can keep you as safe from Phyre as we can. Ession is steeped in the Light and the faithful. Phyre and her horrible cult will find no purchase there. And together, we would be powerful enough to finally put an end to her evil."
"And if I refuse?"
Elaine blinked, not comprehending his response.
"W-why would you?! I'm here as a friend--"
"But what would you do if I refused? Would you try and Force me to go with you?"
Elaine was completely taken aback.
"I...I of course cannot protect someone who doesn't wish it." Elaine answered carefully. "No, Morris, I would not force you or your family to come with me."
"Then I refuse."
Elaine looked at him in surprise and shock.
"Morris... your family need not die. The Ashlan Church is more than capable of protecting you, giving you the support and resources you need. The Graysons themselves would see to your families protection."
"The Kaissereich would launch a crusade of blood and fire throughout the Tingle Arm if given half the chance."
"Only to burn away the corruption of The Bogan! Never for greed!"
"Blood and Fire is still Blood and Fire."
Elaine sighed. "Even if it freed a world, a people from true evil? Even if it establishes a peace that would stand long after you and I have joined with the Goddess?"
"Conflict is never so cut and dried. Peace won in such a manner will be lost in the same manner."
"Not if it is properly enforced, and enforced so well that The Bogan has very little chance to do damage."
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals." Morris replied tersely. (Where's that Lion?: 90 XP)
"I don't believe that. Not after the evils I have witnessed when The Bogan's agents are placed in charge."
"Nothing I have seen in your Kaissereich says that what they dream of doing won't blow up in their face."
"Morris, I swear, I only came here as a friend."
"You are many things. A friend of mine is not one of them. Will never be one of them." Morris said in that same flat and even tone he always used with her.
"I'm trying to save your family--"
"I would sooner kill them myself than let my daughter grow up in a world where you are teaching her how to nail people to crosses when they disappoint you."
Elaine stepped back, frowning. So this was it. The real divide with him she had never been able to breach.
"You and I have never really seen eye to eye on what constitutes Justice and fulfilling the will of The Goddess--"
"There is only the Force. It has no need for crude, silly personification." Morris interrupted.
"Morris, The Goddess has seen the people of Ession through the worst of disasters, and it granted you your immense gifts! And now you deny her?!"
"I never acknowledged her to begin with. Because she doesn't exist." Morris said. "The only use your 'Goddess' has is to whip people in the present up into enough of a religious fervor, that they'll teach their children to die in wars against those your church decides to designate Heretical."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing! Morris, you're a hero to your people! You have been for years! They reach out to you, to give you the hope and protection you've provided so many others, and you slap away their hands?"
"Yes."
"Why?!" Elaine pleaded, uncomprehending.
"Because if I gotta choose between death at Phyre's hands, or owing a bunch of fanatics who will turn my child into a weapon and use me as a propaganda tool to support their pogroms against all they think their Goddess wants them to kill, I'll pick me and my family getting killed by Phyre." Morris answered with near emotionless finality, before his blue Lightsaber Blade went active and he pointed it at a crestfallen Elaine's throat.
His next words contained perhaps the only genuine emotion she had ever heard from him, and it manifested as a venom filled snarl.
"Now you get the feth off my property and don't come back, you Crucifixion-Happy Psychopath."
Elaine left the world of Odessan dejected and in pure disbelief. She could feel The Goddess equally surprised, equally disappointed as her Reaper jumped into hyperspace...
Present.
The dead The Battalion raised slowed the advance of the Ashlan Crusade and NIO across large sections of New Adasta.
The Nuetralizers marched in all fronts, into the thickest fighting, supported by the use of tanks, and the fierce lightning strikes the Witches summoned, inflicting terrible damage on enemy forces as their laser fire saturated the very air, Squads of Model 2 using the continuous sonic cannons in their chest as area denial tactics as they marched against the enemy, a TIE Oppressor occasionally inflicting heavy laser fire strafing runs on Ashlan Crusader movements, The Model 1's leading Swarms of Sith Legionnaires into battle alongside pissed off Zombies filled with the spirits of soldiers and Civilians cut down by The Crusaders. This wasn't typical Sith magic control. There were genuinely vengeful undead swarming over hoardes of Crusaders and NIO like they'd just spotted a long haired Brad Pitt. Women, Children, all cut down, all finding their own snacks in the invading army...it seemed they were destined to fight for Ziost dead or alive.
Every major force of the invading armies came under attack from this savage force. NIO and Crusader alike were shooting in all directions now, even as they got strafed from above by TIE Oppressors, two of which were finally downed by rocket fire, but the Nuetralizers piloting those chose to brutally crash and burn into a line of Crusader tanks. Which caused an even larger explosion that took out nearby troops.
The Battalion surveyed the glorious damage she had helped caused from one of the very few tall structures, feeling the death, the suffering, and fed on it, growing stronger, and more powerful in the Darkness.
She smiled, feeling Xiphos teleport to her.
"Has the Lord Commander taken the bait?" The Battalion asked.
"He has. Got his men good and desperate. He's going to go for the Bastille directly, and we intend to spring what we have been prepping since a week ago for."
"Then we must prepare. Get in the ritual circle." The Battalion advised.
Xiphos nodded, and got in the red ritual circle, runes composed of her own blood. The Battalion got in a ritual circle of her own. The magic they would perform was both Complex and Devastating.
Xiphos knew that even with her tricks, the Armor of the Blue Hearts would be extremely difficult to defeat.
She got out her comlink. "Amy, get ready."
"You know, you're going to have to resolve chit with her one way or another." The Battalion muttered.
"I know how it resolves." The Black Knight replied.
"Will you at least admit that Amy only wants what she feels is best for you?"
Xiphos did not answer as she sat in the ritual circle, staring at The Battalion.
The Witch smiled at the killing machine she openly lusted for.
"Don't worry. I'll help you realize who your true allies are.
You can pretend I'm her if that helps."
Xiphos didn't give into her rage this time.
"I won't need to pretend anything. Especially when I strangle you."
"Promise you'll tie me up first. I like feeling helpless during a good throttling. Gets my Hyperdrive
humming."
Xiphos ignored The Battalion's
epic Troll Face and concentrated, chanting. She bore the sudden pain surging through her body. She had to, if she wanted to harm the invaders as much as possible.
A teleport wave rushed out from the building, the horror the NIO had experienced at her hands rushing back anew, while for others it would be a first time experience.
Small buildings, destroyed vehicles and tanks, even fresh, inert corpses, much of it would be teleported above the city in select parts where the Ashlan Crusade presence would be thickest, at a very high height...and then it would drop down upon them. Multiple IED's would be detonated by Xiphos's children, the teleport attack serving as the signal as the buildings, wrecked vehicles, and corpses fell, threatening to kill whatever was beneath.
Multiple tanks and infantry were exploded as heavy blasts went off throughout the city, every Nuetralizer in very thick combat now, their crab bombs sent ahead to kill scores more as the little droids rushed up to enemy troops and detonated, though scores of them were blasted apart before they could reach their quarry.
The Battalion concentrated, chanting, amplifying the rage and physical strength of New Adasta's defenders across the city, making them hopefully much more resilient and able to take damage.
Xiphos concentrated, stretching her will out to where her Sons and the Blue Hearts of
DECEASED Erskine Barran
were locked in mortal combat (They were even performing Fatalities on each other.)
The Nuetralizers had made a show of being on the back foot, slowly but surely retreating towards the Bastille, making it as though Proost's divide and split up strategy to the other walls being attacked was driving them back. But it was in fact a well organized retreat, the Witches now joining the fray directly, ripping the life force from Multiple Enemies to fuel now severe lightning strikes that had become red, powerful enough to rip through the shields and Impervium hulls of the Cataphracts easily, flash vaporizing anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the strike nearby.
The Nuetralizers could see it. The Witches could see it. The Blue Hearts had a ragged edge to their fighting, as savage and as merciless as it was.
They were tired. Surprised, angry, bloodied. Only their hope of an end to the war kept their rifles and swords in hand through an attack that would have shattered almost any other. They had clearly stopped using Barran's rulebook. Naked survival drove their every action. They were desperate to win, desperate to plant their flag over the Bastille as their crowning triumph.
Part of Xiphos's strategy was to use that very desire against them. And against everyone else trying to take the structure.
To that end, a magic tether had been set up between here and the Bastille, days in advance to facilitate the deadly trap. Considerable logistics had gone into planning, it's execution.
Her children were mass teleported by her will along with the Witches, into the inner defensive perimeter of the Bastille.
At the same time this happened, a familiar whine was heard over the skies. A TIE Fighter. But not just any TIE.
It was a TIE/IN,
retrofitted for modern performance and piloted by
The Amalgam
.
"Bringing me in for a surprise attack in a TIE is the best idea anyone's had since someone thought to give
Jerome Valeska a Lightsaber!" The Amalgam exclaimed to herself, giving a mad cackle as she let loose with her Blaster cannons, shredding a few tanks in Proost's armored lines surrounding the walls while her two TIE Oppressor escorts began further shredding into NIO infantry battling all the Zombies, as well as fresh reinforcements of Legionnaires, one time use teleportation runes painted on them as they began a violent assault on those attacking and trying to storm the fortifications. But this still wasn't the true trap, in spite of it's incredible viciousness. That would happen when Xiphos and the Battalion would arrive.
As they both got into a third rune circle on the roof top, with a matching rune circle deep in the heart of the Bastille, Xiphos tried not to stare at The Battalion's face. The Battalion responded by standing centimeters from her.
"So, Beautiful, what's the feature you find most attractive about me?" The Battalion asked mischievously.
"The
only thing beautiful about
you is the Blade work." Xiphos snapped coldly.
"Oh, be generous..." The Battalion chuckled, fingers pulling Xiphos's hand to brush against her stomach.
"The catsuit so skintight it might as well be painted on has to earn me a
few points..." The Battalion replied suggestively, dragging Xiphos's non responsive hand up to her face, letting her lips brush the Black Knight's armored fingertips.
She leaned into Xiphos's helmeted ear.
"Or would you rather it was
Amy's catsuit? I think she'll let me borrow it if I ask nicely. Of course, be prepared for some funny stares from her when I explain
why--"
Xiphos said nothing at this, instead struggling to control her severe anxiety over the statement while concentrating, and after a moment they were warped to the Rune Circle's twin within The Bastille, close to it's outer defense perimeters,
Xiphos stared above, spotting, of all things, a bit of mistletoe hanging from a fixture overhead.
"My idea..." The Battalion admitted.
"It isn't Winter."
"It's winter on a planet
somewhere." Ths Witch replied flirtatiously.
"Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it."
The Battalion snarled, pulled a surprised Xiphos's arm around her waist, pulling herself close.
"And a kiss can be even deadlier if you
mean it." The Battalion replied lustfully, pulling Xiphos's other arm around her waist. (Meow: 90 XP)
Xiphos felt two very different sides warring in her. The side that wanted to remain loyal and loving to Syd, and the side that wanted to tear The Battalion's Catsuit off and indulge in the flesh of one of the fiercest warriors she had ever met.
The side that truly, deeply loved Syd Celsius won out. Barely.
Xiphos pulled away from the Battalion in an act of superhuman willpower.
"I understand why Amy selected you." was all Xiphos said as she walked off to prepare the main portion of her trap.
The Battalion sighed and followed.
"For Feth's sake, just how much of a bonus to her Will Saves does this lady
have?" The Battalion asked as she sighed.
She was not disappointed to find battle waiting for her and Xiphos. Various Special Units had already busted in, each team trying to sabotage vital security. The Battalion slaked her thirst for Blood and Suffering, carving through elite soldiers at Xiphos's side, their blades dancing and weaving between each other as the invaders were butchered. She felt Xiphos's power and conflicted nature brushing against her own darkness as they slaughtered those who would free the Bastille's prisoners, killing their way to a chamber that had been hidden by the Cult of The Brain Demon with enchantments and black magic, never stirring the senses of any Jedi who passed by the hidden chamber, so artfully had it been disguised.
It was an old torture chamber thick with suffering, the perfect place to lay down the enchantments for their perfect magical trap.
007 gravity Generators had been placed in the center, black magic enchantments having been carefully applied to amplify their power over the whole of the Bastille and it's outer regions, now fervantly being attacked by The Blue Hearts, believing they smelled blood, as they and their own reinforcements relentlessly assaulted it's outer walls, surrounded the Nuetralizers now defending it with everything they had, slowly and steadily being whittled down now by the Blue Hearts furious, vengeful assault over all Xiphos and the Nuetralizers had subjected them to.
They had learned nothing from Vjun. They had always failed to learn the Drawback to relentless aggression, because it had always worked for them.
That ended today. Should Barran and his Blue Hearts survive, a lot more than his or even Proost's rule book might be completely thrown out. Already they were rattled, caught off guard by the sheer savagery of Xiphos's assault against them, of how all their old standby tricks were a chain around their necks rather than a rope to climb to Victory.
Multiple Witches got into a meditative circle with the Battalion and Xiphos at the center of the ritual circles with the gravity Generators.
The Dark Powers swelled in the Witches, joined by the warped, twisted Light inside of Xiphos as she concentrated, chanting.
So, how's the fourth date going, Julia? The Amalgam called out mentally to Xiphos.
Feth you. Xiphos replied.
Ohhhh, you've touched her lips already! That's adorable. Don't be ashamed. I did it too. The Amalgam replied trollishly in Xiphos's head as she ripped open another line of NIO Armored units with her Starfighter Cannons, flying low to inflict the most severe damage possible as she fired, though it got her fighter some significant dents and scratches, but nothing too serious.
Xiphos snarled in annoyance as she concentrated with The Battalion.
The Power of the Gravity Generators, tainted with Dark Magic, spread out through the Bastille and a large radius beyond that, The Bogan and Xiphos's warped Light crackling the sky with power.
The enchantments were such that no one who fought for the Sith would be affected by the sudden,
powerful slowing effect they created,making those not strong enough to resist move like molasses,making them easy prey to be cut down by defenders. Invaders already inside the Bastille and beyond began dying in droves as they were slowed possibly to a crawl if they failed to overcome it's intense, powerful effects. For Force users, it would pose a significant challenge, but much more difficult for those who could not feel it.
All around the Bastille, the Blue Hearts, so utterly committed to storming and seizing the Bastille where they erroneously believed was a final stand, even with the constant, horrific losses they continued to suffer from the Amalgam, the magical quick sand, Legionnaires reinforcement, the terrible Lightning strikes, had no answer for being slowed to a molasses like crawl en masse as the magical gravity wave spread throughout attacking forces. Their losses began to double, than triple, far too many Blue Hearts and their armored units no longer fast enough to dodge incoming fire or lightning from above as they were cut down ruthlessly by the renewed savagery of the defending Nuetralizers and the Witches.
Xiphos flexed her will, added it to the gravity wave to keep the effect going as long as possible.
"You could be one of the Sith's greatest heroes..." The Battalion cooed. "You only need the courage to embrace it."
"This... isn't about me. It's about The Galaxy..." Xiphos struggled to get out as she felt the Blue Hearts start to be genuinely slaughtered even more than they already had been. Xiphos would make the NIO pay for every inch of land in the blood of dozens of their soldiers at a time.
The Battalion reached out to Xiphos, stroking her faceplate...
Cedric Grayson
Aaran Tafo
Ishida Ashina
Geiseric
Ingrid L'lerim
Starlin Rand
Isla Draellix-Kobitana
Noel Strasza
Kolson Vrask
Julian Qar
Sephi Karneh
Dagon Kaze
Zark San Tekka
Pietro Demici
Mrurh'en'lase | Hel
Ulrich
N
Nyxeris
D
Darth Malus
Eva Betrik
Maynard Treicolt
Loske Treicolt
Djorn Bline
Eldaah Aderyn
Amadeus Blackwood
Laertia Io
D
Darth Malus
SF-3335
The Battalion
