First Reply Putting the Wrong Foot Forward (TSC)

[Brool Koon]

HYPERSPACE​

The last week of Brool's life had been the hardest thing he had ever been through. Memories of his master flashed through his head anytime he closed his eyes. Sleep had become a forgotten luxury nights ago, and he still wore the bloodied shirt beneath his robes. It was the only piece of his master that Koon had left. The only thing of the Jedi that Brool promised himself he would keep. That and the lightsaber he had just constructed. He wasn't getting rid of that so easily.

The adrenaline of running had long since left his body. Running from the Sith whose hyperlanes he had to use to get to Dorin. Running from the Jedi he had abandoned during a combined attack by the Sith. Running from the realization that when he left, he had chosen solitude. At least until he got to Dorin. Even there, it wasn't guaranteed he had any family left.

The few memories he had of his parents were harder to access now. He could still see his mother's face, but his father's had become blurry. The Dark Side tainted the memories, blurring their edges like watching an old vignette.

Whether it was the sleep deprivation or the depression clouding his judgment, Koon had gone too long between fuel stops. It wasn't until the ship's systems started whining at him that he snapped out of his pity and paid attention. He had enough fuel to stop in a nearby system, but not enough to choose which one.

He was in Sith space in a Jedi ship. He had done his best to change the ID, but he wasn't a professional slicer. Brool cursed himself for not paying more attention when he passed the last neutral fuel depot.

RAGOON VI

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A million thoughts a second passed through Brool's head as the ship came tumbling out of hyperspace. It wasn't the softest exit ever, but the Kel Dor was a better pilot than he was a slicer, so he managed to even the ship out. Ragoon VI was what came across his scanner. There wasn't much information available, but it seemed like there were worse places to land. It wasn't overly populated either, which meant it was less likely to be watched by the Sith, or so the Padawan thought.

The ship wasn't in for a rough landing, but he needed to land close enough to civilization that he could refuel and far enough away that he wouldn't have to register the ship. He was hoping he could find some kind, unsuspecting civilian willing to help him get fuel back to it. That meant aiming for a patch of ground not covered by trees just outside a little village.

Flying was easy for the Kel Dor.

Landing was the hard part.

Even if the Sith weren't looking for the Padawan, the trail of smoke his landing produced would tip them off that someone was in the area. Now, more than fuel, he needed repairs. There was damage to parts of the ship he hadn't known existed until now, and whatever he had broken was keeping him from flying.

Frustrated, he opened the cockpit and used the Force to propel himself out and into the air. The beautiful trees created a near-perfect barrier around him, leaving Brool unable to tell exactly how far the village was from his landing site. He landed solidly against the ground below him.

He grabbed the lightsaber hilt from his hip and inspected it for damage. It seemed fine, but he didn't dare ignite it to test the theory. Bringing a bright blue blade to a planet in Sith territory was a surefire way to get himself killed. Instead, he tucked it beneath his tunic, close enough to call to his hand at a moment's notice but hidden well enough to be easily missed.

Brool knew there would likely be some sort of search- Sith or local- for the ship that had just crashed, and he didn't want to be there when they arrived. He started down the trail leading toward where he thought the village was, keeping himself far enough off the path that he could disappear into the trees if he needed to.

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OOC: Looking for a Sith from the Covenant to kindly capture my runaway Jedi Padawan, please
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[Anet Raine]

Brool Koon
Robes | Mask | Lightsaber​

Aboard the Vilia Calimondra, over Ranoon VI...

"Ma'am - there's an active call to investigate that ship."

Anet sighed; she had been poring over astronavigation charts for hours now in preparation for their maiden voyage into the Unknown Regions. Ragoon was just to be a pleasant stop on their way.

Despite her mild frustration, she actually liked the idea of getting her hands dirty. It was something to do other than numb her mind collating hyperspace data in search of new routes.

"Leave it to me," she said.

The Sith Knight readied herself. She donned her mask and robes, clipping her lightsaber to her belt. She took a shuttle down to the sparsely inhabited world below. She knew Ragoon was beautiful by reputation, but only after seeing it up close did she fully appreciate nature's majesty. A passing thought led her to wonder if Madrona A’Mia would have wanted to hunt specimens with her.

Whoever had survived the crash would likely spot the shuttle, of imperial design, land somewhere in a nearby clearing. Within intercept distance of his approach to the village - a mining camp, actually.

 

[Brool Koon]

The tropical world seemed to be quite the beauty, and if he hadn't been hunted by half the galaxy, Brool might have stopped to enjoy it. Since Thyferra, however, he hadn't been able to enjoy much of anything. Another flash of Master Sol-Ari's dead body pierced his thoughts. He cursed the Jedi again under his breath. He vowed that he would never allow himself to feel that weak again.

Beneath his coverings, one of his four-fingered hands gripped his saber hilt tightly. He didn't feel anyone through the Force, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that meant he couldn't be ambushed. Falling back on his Baran Do training, Koon pushed outward with the Force, attempting to glimpse what waited ahead.

Instead, a dark flash of pain shot through his head, cutting the vision short. The only thing he saw was another ship. For just a moment, its shape twisted and stretched until it resembled a serpent, and then the vision disappeared entirely. Brool shook away the lingering pain and continued deeper into the forest.

It wasn't much longer before a noise cut through the relative quiet the trees provided. When he looked up, the Kel Dor saw an Imperial vessel passing overhead. Just as he had feared.

They had likely identified his ship and were coming to collect whoever had crawled out of it. Luckily, the shuttle appeared to land far enough away to give Brool a bit of a lead on his pursuers.

The Jedi knew that if the Imperials were this close, they were almost certainly in the village too. He had to decide quickly, and his options were dropping faster than his ship had out of hyperspace. Pushed against a wall, Brool decided to think outside the box. Instead of trying to find somewhere else to run, he would go up.

The forest was large and dense. The thick green foliage overhead, especially beneath the heat of the afternoon sun, would provide enough cover if he could stay still.

Centering himself within the Force, Koon climbed one of the nearby trees. He pulled himself high into the canopy and disappeared among the leaves.

They had only just settled around him when he heard the snapping of branches below.

Then footsteps.

Someone was coming.

TAG: Anet Raine

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[Anet Raine]

Brool Koon
Robes | Mask | Lightsaber​

Anet stepped down the ramp with a pair of large droids. "Search the ship. Alert me if you find anything," she commanded them, then departed towards the mining camp herself.

Where the Sith walked, a Dark presence crawled out, casting a shadow of pride and horror over the jungle. Abregado-rae had left her hungry. Perhaps that is why it did not take her long to sense it. A troubled soul. One who battled with Darkness, but hadn't yet been consumed by it. There really wasn't anything quite as exquisite to her as someone on the brink of truth. It reminded her of Kirie and Calyx Sundrift ; the joy of experiencing their potential, of guiding them down the Dark path towards total realization.

Could this be another?

The possibility swelled her with arrogance, adding fire to her steps as she picked up the pace.

She walked through the thicket just at the edge of the village, only...

Anet slowed.

Then she stopped.

Though she did not look anywhere but ahead.

"I can feel it, you know." She spoke almost too sympathetically. "Festering like an infected wound. Violence."

 

[Brool Koon]

Time felt like it came to a stop as he braced himself in the treetops. Brool did everything in his power to keep as quiet as he could. Each step brought the looming darkness closer, like a rain cloud blotting out the sun.

Quiet and subterfuge had never been the Kel Dor's specialty. Normally, he would have dropped from above and tried to kill whoever was approaching with his lightsaber, but this darkness felt different. It felt like it was drawing from the very trees surrounding Brool. Whispers of hunger and rage rang through his skull, breaking his focus on what was happening below.

Before, when faced with the Dark Side, the Padawan had his master with him to steady his thoughts. This time, it felt like the first time he had truly experienced the crawling temptation he had studied so intensively in the Jedi Order.

It felt different than he thought it would. More familiar- warmer, even.

There wasn't dread when it teased him. Instead, it played at an almost sour nostalgia, whispering about what could have been if he had allowed himself to learn the powers of the Dark Side before.

This time, all Brool Koon could do to snap himself out of it was tighten his grip on the branches, letting the bark dig into his leathery skin. He was too smart to die here and now just because he was faced with a little temptation. Instead, he focused on the uncomfortable pain coursing through his muscles, still raw from the crash landing. He focused on the ground below him and the signs of the inevitable approach of whatever was responsible for the gnawing darkness bleeding into the world.

His thoughts briefly returned to his ship. It was likely being boarded and searched already. Bad slicer or not, the Padawan wasn't green enough to leave incriminating evidence aboard a Jedi ship anywhere near Sith space. There was little more than typical traveler gear aboard, standard clothing and rations. The Dorin Gas canisters filling part of the storage bay would tell them their pilot was Kel Dor, but there was nothing he could do about that. Anything sensitive had been encrypted and buried beneath a copy of the ship's base systems.

If everything worked as intended, whoever searched it would hopefully believe he was nothing more than a traveler using an old Jedi vessel.

The woman's voice broke his train of thought. It felt like the maw itself was speaking to him.

The darkness from before, the vision of the serpent, all of it came shooting back into Brool's mind. She called out to him, touching on everything he had been worried about without even seeing him. It took everything in his power not to give in to instinct, wait for her to stand beneath him and drop with his saber already ignited.

That kind of foolishness would get him killed. Instead, using what little movement he could afford, Brool shifted his hand. Through the Force, he reached toward a loose branch on another tree several meters away.

He pulled.

The branch snapped free and crashed through the foliage.

If she turned her attention toward it, he would have a narrow window to move across the semi-flat branches around him.

From this vantage point, Brool could see the makings of what he had mistaken for a village. It appeared more industrial from here, likely a mine or refinery. If he could get enough distance between himself and the woman, he could take his chances in the mine shafts.

Then another branch broke, further away this time.

Brool froze.

That one hadn't been him.

TAG: Anet Raine

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[Anet Raine]

Brool Koon
Robes | Mask | Lightsaber​

When the first branch fell, Anet's attention naturally shot in that direction. Then there was a second snap, but that wasn't what drew her predatory instincts.

Brool froze.

Doubt. Fear. Second-guessing. Call it whatever you'd like, but it had a register in the Force, too. Especially when one was already heightened.

The Sith turned to where she felt it - a sharp, distinct ping from the rest of his heart. She stretched out her hand and pulled with the Force, bending the canopy inward like a trap. Branches snapped and leaves burst.

 

[Brool Koon]

There was silence as Brool sat motionless, his mind racing a million miles a second. He found it impossible to fall back on Jedi training when there was a predator circling you.

Then the silence gave way to cracking and leaves rustling as his hiding spot got ripped from beneath him. As the Kel Dor fell, limbs cut him and tore at his clothing. By the time he had fallen to the forest floor, he was worse for wear. He had overestimated his abilities to hide from a Sith, and therefore he had overestimated his chances of survival.

Thinking quickly, Brool used the Force to expel all of the limbs and branches that had created his tomb back toward whatever it was that was looking for him. He hoped that the commotion would give him some space to escape. He let the Force flow through him and allow him to move with a sense of urgency even though he could tell he had a bad cut on one of his legs. It would need medical attention if he got away.

In these moments he thought back to Master Sol-Ari and what he would have done to save their lives. Though, Brool feared his Jedi Master would have never got them in this situation in the first place.

TAG: Anet Raine

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