Liquid Deception (Archangel)

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"], [member="Amara Zarides"]


The Lightbringer drifted through the fathomless blue tunnel of hyperspace while Enyo made her way down one of the stealth ship's corridors. The floor was pristine and polished to perfection. An HRD marched past her with mechanical precision. Outwardly he looked like a Wookiee, but in truth he was a facsimile, proof that order could be brought to the most primitive, animalistic minds.


Enyo paid the droid no mind, confidently making her way towards the training room that was located on this level. Having completed her morning rituals, which consisted of meditation and physical exercises, she wanted to check up on her clone sister. It was important to see how she was doing before they embarked on their righteous mission to fight for truth, justice and the Archangel way.


The young woman's life had been changed consideraly since Amara's birth. To be sure, her sister was a bit...odd. She was eccentric, gregarious and overly emotional, but Enyo loved her dearly. She also meant responsibility had been placed on Enyo's shoulders, since she was responsible for training her and Amara looked to her for guidance. However, it was not a responsibility Enyo shirked from, rather she embraced it.


So far the training progressed well, Enyo reckoned. After two long weeks, Acolyte Amara Zarides was starting to make her first steps towards Sciia. The girl had received flash learning, but this could only teach her so much about her preternatural powers because droids did not understand them. The Force had to be experienced, harnessed and utilised in the field. It was to Amara's benefit that she'd not been exposed to the teachings of the Jedi or Sith, meaning her mind was an unpolluted blank slate, but Enyo could not help feel a bit insecure about her ability to guide her, though she kept these thoughts concealed. She was sure Amara would do her proud.


Having reached the training room, she gave the blast door a knock before opening it. It was probably unnecessary, but she was politer than her mirror. Unlike Siobhan Kerrigan, Enyo opened the door the conventional way instead of using the Force. She saw no reason for frivolous displays when her own hands could do the job just fine. The door opened with a hiss, and she stepped inside.


"How are you progressing? I've just received word that they've made the last modifications to upgrade Vess. We should be at our destination soon. Eager for your first mission?" So far Amara had not seen the world outside of the Archangel base. It would also be a test for the liquid metal HRD Archangel had been working on for a while.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Enyo probably would not expect the reaction she got, which was a flying tackle from a blonde girl. Amara was excited. This was an understatement.

"Enny!" she cried happily. She frowned. Fortunately the training room had a padded floor. "Uhh...sorry, didn't mean to like tackle you. I am just a little excited. It'll be great!"

She helped her clone sister up. "So, uhh, Vess is getting the liquid metal put in place, hmm? Now, that'll be fun! I wonder whether if we poke her we can poke through the liquid metal?"
Poking an HRD was not a wise move usually. Unless you were Enyo....

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Enyo was suddenly overwhelmned by Hurricane Amara. Coincidentally, the blonde was a good deal taller than she was. As it happened, Enyo was tackled to the ground. Good thing the floor was padded. The clone was more than a little embarrassed and a bit annoyed. "Do please control yourself more, dear. This is not a game. It'll require your complete focus if you want to come out unhurt," she said in her best prim and proper, big sister tone. She did feel rather protective of her little sister.


"I am glad you're in good spirits," she added in a softer tone as if to avoid upsetting the girl, and patted her on the shoulder. For some reason Amara's comment about poking the HRD made her flush slightly.


"I'd advise against poking her. It would be inappropriate. She should be ready now. Our gear is waiting in the armoury." Their target was a lovely factory planet called Balmorra. It was nominally under the control of the One Sith, but they were busy unleashing bioweapons on Metellos, which they also controlled. It was good to see that the Sith were being good space nazis by applying the Nero Order and following in the footsteps of Darth Malak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0jgE8aTY0​

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara looked a bit contrite and embarrassed, even upset by the rebuke. She rallied quickly though.
"You can count on me, Enny! I will give my full focus to the expedition, I promise!"

They headed to the armoury where Vess was standing. She was examining her arm curiously. As they entered the arm's colour and clothing changed. A chrono appeared, then vanished in the quicksilver sheen.

She turned. "The transfer is complete and the liquid metal is responding properly to my commands," she acknowledged.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


"I know you'll do fine," Enyo said reassuringly. She was not one for pep talks, but noticed that Amara looked a bit upset. Anyhow, the clone duo headed off to the armoury and eventually came across Vess.


Enyo looked intrigued when the colour of Vess' arm and clothing changed right before her eyes. Truly, this was proof of how amazing machines were. Archangel would remake the Galaxy one day. There was a part of Enyo that could not help having some rather dirty thoughts about the new, more flexible Vess.


However, she quickly rallied. It would not do for her still rather innocent, but awfully trollish sister to pick up on them. "Just in time. We'll be out of hyperspace soon. Our target is the Balmorran Arms Factory. We need to infiltrate it, raid what we can, and blow it up. They're supposed to be working on a powerful prototype droid. The planet's still held by Sith loyalists."


Enyo wondered whether it would be a good or a bad thing if the Sith mistook her for her mirror. "I considered there's the possibility they might confuse me for Siobhan, unless I wear a mask of some sort. That could be good or bad."

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara pondered the last puzzle. “On the one hand they might run in panic. On the other, they might death charge at you to try their luck. I think masks might be wise…to start with anyway.”

“Anyway, where does Vess come into this?”
“I will go ahead and use my new abilities to infiltrate the factory and allow you both to enter with inside help.”
“So you’ll take the form of a guard and lower the defences? Good! Now, Enny, I’ve got my lightsabre and the blaster pistol here. Anything else you think I should take?”

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Enyo considered the question, then nodded. "Agreed." Being mistaken for Siobhan could be useful, but also a big pain in the arse. She felt more than a little awkward about wearing her face. "Take a couple ion grenades, a vibroknife and a shatterpistol. The pistol's concealable, silent and the rounds have a lot of punch behind them," she advised Amara. All very practical in her mind.


At this moment a bland, computerised voice came through the intercom. "We are entering reversion. Stand bye for return to real space. Infiltration team head towards the shuttle." In other words, they were about to arrive. The adventure was off to a good start!

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara gladly selected the weapons requested and stored them in a little bag she carried.
Swiftly they headed towards the shuttle and as they passed over Balmorra they could see it was already aflame. Sobrik burned as rioters and revolutionaries overthrew the toppling regime.

A quick scan revealed that the Balmorran Arms Factory, a virtual fortress, was besieged by further revolutionaries. It seemed likely that it would be a hard place to get into…without someone on the inside.

Vess certainly had some advantages, not just with shape changing, but also with being able to go places organics couldn’t. In this case, she would enter through underwater pipes, assume a new identity and work her way through to command.

Meanwhile Enyo and Amara would approach to a specified door and it would open when Vess was in place.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Archangel had received intelligence indicating that civil unrest had broken out on Balmorra. However, evidently the planet had erupted into full-blown revolution during their trip through hyperspace. However, the opportunistic machine cult could adjust and use the situation to its advantage, assuming they did not get caught in the crossfire.


The Arms Factory was under siege, so the trio separated. While Vess made her way through the underwater pipes, Enyo and Amara had to approach the factory the conventional way. It did not take long for the duo to become acquainted with the explosive climate on Balmorra.


Bodies littered the streets, rioters were looting and revolutionaries clashed with stormtroopers. People had been hung up on lamp posts, gunned down in alleys or simply blown to bits by artillery. "Get down!" Enyo yelled, pulling Amara down behind the wreck of a speeder when a gunship flying overhead in the sky dropped high explosives. The earth was shaken as if struck by tremors, the noise caused by the explosion was deafening.


Rebels and rioters were incinerated. However, the Sith Gunship's triumph was shortlived, for a moment later it was blasted by an RPG and sent tumbling down to the ground. Enyo shielded her sister, making sure she was safe while an orange-yellow fireball rose up into the sky and a thick cloud of smoke billowed up. It seemed some of the gunship's crew had survived, but the rebels fell upon them when they crawled out of the wreckage.


Stormtroopers who'd taken heart when they saw aerial support tried to escape, but were cornered by the rebels, who could finally take revenge for years of oppression. A fierce melee developed between the two opposing forces as they clashed with guns, vibroblades and bayonets.


"You ok? You know...this whole looking like Siobhan thing could work to our advantage, after all," she said calmly, expression thoughtful while she took stock of the situation, peering out of cover. These rebels might be people they could use.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara followed her sister in a daze. When she was pulled down behind the wrecked speeder she came face to face with a dead civilian. It was the first time she had ever seen a dead person.
She paled. “Oh…golly…” she said weakly. Dead bodies in pictures had been decorously place, not like…this.

Flash learning couldn’t prepare you for this. Simulations couldn’t help you. All that could help you was surviving, keeping calm, and listening to advice.

So, despite being terrified, the young clone controlled her breathing and sat beside Enyo.
“I…I’m okay. I won’t let you down,” she said determinedly. It was just as well she had an empty bladder.

“You want to pretend to be her and fight the troopers?” Amara asked, astonished. “What about keeping a low profile?”

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


"No, I want to make use of the rebels. There's two small armies between us and the factory and we can't sneak past them all," her words were interrupted by another round of shelling and blasterfire. Screams were heard, more people on both sides died. "Who better to direct them than the 'heroic conqueror'?" she asked rhetorically, with a strong tone of sarcasm to her voice.


The rebels were gaining the upper hand over the beleaguered stormtroopers, but the Sith were not without backup. Two AT-STs emerged from opposite alleys to reinforce the cornered loyalists. Their blaster cannons spat crimson beams of doom, slicing through revolutionaries like a hot knife through butter.


A rebel leaning out of a window perch with a missile launcher took out one of the walkers, but was then blasted himself and fell over dead. The wreck of the majestic walker crashed to the ground, but the second one advanced, firing at anything that moved and did not bear Imperial colours.


Heavy blaster fire splashed close to the speeder the clone duo had sought cover against as rebels fled. Like it or not, the walker blocked their path. "Ok. We're taking that thing down, understood?" Enyo gripped her sister's hand. "Its legs are vulnerable to lightsabres. All it takes is cutting the knees. We'd be fast enough with the Force. I'll take the lead. Cover me against shots."

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara nodded, white faced. “Understood!” she squeaked.

Emerging separately, they moved forward. The walker driver wavered a second between targets before turning on Amara. That brief hesitation was all the duo needed.
They rushed forward, but the heavy cannons opened up, far too powerful to block with a lightsabre so Amara just ran.

As she ran, feeling like crosshairs were tightening on her she reached into herself and found the Force and ran.
Heavy blaster bolts tore up the ground behind her, staggered her, but she did not fall. Rather she sprinted perpendicular to the walker so that it lost her in its aim.

This though allowed Enyo to get close whilst it was distracted and deal with the walker from below….

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


With speed enhanced by the Force, Enyo ran. In terms of appearance, she was identical to Siobhan Kerrigan, but though her gruelling training had taken place on the hellish world of Gehenna, she mostly lacked her scars and injuries. The real Siobhan had a bad limp and was rather immobile, her clone was not.


So she gave herself to the Force and ran, weaving a pattern through the hailstorm of blasterfire like some sort of swirling dervish to make herself more difficult to hit. Stormtroopers unloaded blaster bolts in her direction and heavy blaster fire tore up the ground, but she kept up her pace, throwing in a Force-enhanced leap over debris.


Finally she was close to her target and broke into a roll to end up beneath the walker. Her lightsabre blazed with a burning, purple light and hummed when she sliced through the walker's knee, drawing upon her strength to do so. Sparks flew, there was noise as the walker seemed to struggle to maintain its balance. Then she cut through the other knee. Hopefully she'd be able to get away before the walker fell and buried her beneath it!

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
The walker tottered, stumbled, and then fell with an almighty crash. The screech of metal filled the air before silence descended.

Slowly, Amara crept forward, seeing that Enyo was safe was a relief. However, she was drawn to the ruined cab by the moans inside.

A wounded crewman was inside, badly hurt by the impact, but still alive. He looked up with imploring eyes at Amara.

“Help me…please…” he whispered.

Amara didn’t know what to do. Her lightsabre was still in her hand, but she couldn’t bring herself to kill someone.

“I…what can we do?” she asked Enyo softly.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Against all odds, both clones were still alive. The mighty walker had collapsed. There was a loud screech of metal, smoke rose into the air, then there was silence, soon broken by the cheers of the rebels when they emerged from their hiding places, swarming the few surviving stormtroopers and cutting them down.


Enyo was more than a little relieved that she'd not been buried beneath the walker. "Amara, are you alright?" Concern was strong in her voice, but she was also drawn to the scene of the ruined vehicle and the wounded, begging crewman.


"Mercy...please..."


"He's as good as dead. We give him a quick death. It's a mercy kill. The rebels would do worse," Enyo spoke quietly, almost in a whisper. Rebels had shown no pity to captured Sith troopers, as mutilated, beaten or crucified bodies showed. Did that make it right? It was a convenient rationalisation.


She stepped towards the man who looked at her with imploring eyes. For just a moment, Enyo wavered, as if something stayed her hand. There was something like hope in his eyes, then the clean slash of her violet lightsabre ended his life forever. It did not take long for rebels to reach the walker.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara’s hands trembled as Enyo spoke, and then performed the deed. Suddenly…suddenly it didn’t seem so much fun and adventure now people were dying.
“I…yes, I understand. He wouldn’t have survived. It’s a hard choice though.”

Before they could say any more people were crowding around them. Amara was jostled off to one side, but was happy in a way for that to happen.

“Hey look, it’s the Kerrigan!” one of the rebels said in shock.
“What’re you doing here on Balmorra?” another asked.
“Have you brought reinforcements? We sent out a call for aid against the Sith but no one had come until you had!”

Amara bit her lip thoughtfully. Would Enyo tap into her mirror’s fame and notoriety?

“Are you with Lady Kerrigan?” a woman asked.
“Broadly,” Amara replied vaguely, not wanting to give too much away before Enyo decided.
“I’ve been wanting to meet her for years! Are you Tempest the Destroyer? No, wrong colour, no offence. Elpsis the Firebrand? Lyra the Fierce?”
Amara peered at her. “The…what?”
A battered copy of ‘Blasters and Blades’ was produced and shown off, showing the Fire Order in action. It seemed unlikely that it was an actual advertisement put out by Firemane yet there it was.
“Oh, I’m Amara the Secret. I’m in all those pictures, but hidden.”
“You’re not hidden now!”
Amara snapped her fingers. “You will be satisfied with my reply and leave here happily. You will tell everyone you met Amara the Secret.”
“That’s great, this will be something to tell the kids! I got to meet Amara the Secret!” the woman said, leaving rapidly.
“Glad I was the highlight,” Amara grinned. That had felt good. Petty, but good.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Suddenly they were surrounded by a crowd of cheering, expectant, demanding and in some cases awfully fangirlish rebels. It seemed that Siobhan had fans even here. Somehow Enyo was not surprised that Firemane would use such crude means to advertise itself. But the clone recognised that she could use the rebels' delusions to her advantage.


"Yes, I am Kerrigan," she declared, stepping onto the wreckage of the walker so that they could see her. It was an awfully melodramatic pose, and seemed like something her mirror would do since she loved being the centre of attention.


"Firemane is battling Sith on many fronts, but I couldn't let Balmorra's request for aid and its noble struggle for freedom go unanswered. I have come here to lead you to victory over the oppressors. They'll drown in their own blood." The real Siobhan would probably not have said the last sentence, unless she was drunk, but whatever. "Amara is one of my best acolytes and a master of stealth." The mirror of Kaelin Isandros had absolutely no reason to suffer from performance anxiety.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
Amara gave a cheery wave to the crowd.
“The vile Sith oppressors have trampled on you for too long! To arms! Overthrow the hated repressors!” Amara called excitedly. She clambered onto the walker, ignited her lightsabre and pointed dramatically to the distant Arms Factory.

“Advance! We will be with you!”

There was a cheer, but none of the rebels charged off blindly, they were clearly waiting for their heroes to aid them.

And so Amara dropped down to the ground and started to lead the way forward. Of course they wanted to rebels to attract attention rather than them, but after some fighting she reckoned they’d be able to break off and move directly on the secret door.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"]


Alas, the rebels were not in the mood to death charge...yet. Nonetheless, they could provide suitable meat shields once they came across the inevitable Sith troops. How ironic that Enyo was not above using other people as expendable pawns, even she claimed to hate Siobhan because her older sister had seen her as something less than human, a toy.


Moral myopia and doublethink were in full effect. Thusly, Enyo joined the band of plucky rebels, leading them forward. She discreetly activated her communicator and sent a silent ping to Vess, informing the HRD that they were on the way. By her estimate, the shapeshifting HRD ought to have infiltrated the distant Arms Factory by now. So far, all was going well.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"]
The Balmorran Arms Factory was a significant installation, as prized as a fortress and as tightly secured as one.

Entry was nominally only possible through the heavily guarded front gates.

The Sith had withdrawn inside, and the few droids outside were easily disposed of by the rebels.

Amara pulled Enyo aside.
“I got an idea!” she whispered excitedly. “We tell them that we’ve got a secret way to get inside and promise to open the door. But of course we don’t, so it blackens the name of Siobhan and Firemane for flaking and not being that helpful! Especially when they see news reports of her swanning around with fashion and things on the other side of the galaxy.”