Private Snow and Static

[Vess Sadragen]

Set during the events of the Abregado-rae invasion

Vess had no idea how long she'd been walking.

It couldn't have been very long. A few minutes, perhaps. She sought to convince herself, though she had begun to distrust her ability to judge much of anything as one ruined street gave way to another, and the sounds of battle stubbornly refused to grow any more distant; she kept moving anyway.

Find the rear. Find a comm. Find Lily.

The words had become something of a mantra, repeated silently whenever she found herself staring at something without remembering why she'd stopped. Her good hand remained close to the wall as she walked, occasionally pressing against broken duracrete when the ground seemed to shift unexpectedly beneath her feet. Her other arm stayed tucked tightly against her body, every careless movement of her shoulder rewarded by a sharp reminder not to do it again.

The bleeding hadn't stopped either.

Vess had tried wiping it away once, only to smear blood across the side of her face and discover several minutes later that another warm line had already worked its way down past her temple. The cold helped, she supposed. Snow melted against her skin and mixed with the blood until both ran together beneath her collar, leaving her shivering despite the heat of distant fires burning through the storm. She stopped at an intersection and stared down both streets.

Neither looked familiar.

Vess frowned. She'd been certain the rear was this way.

Hadn't she?

Her eyes drifted back over her shoulder toward the street she'd just followed. Nothing there looked familiar either. The blizzard had swallowed almost everything beyond the nearest buildings, red spores and ash moving through the snow until the world beyond a few dozen metres ceased to exist. A distant explosion briefly illuminated the clouds. Vess flinched and immediately regretted it when the sudden movement pulled at her shoulder.

"Kriff..."

She leaned against the nearest wall and closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to settle. The ringing in her ears had faded enough that the battle was beginning to return in pieces now. Blaster fire somewhere to her right. Something heavy firing farther away. The unmistakable mechanical howl of a Basilisk passing somewhere overhead. Vess pushed away from the wall and chose the street to her left. She made it perhaps another block before something occurred to her.

Hadn't she already come this way?

Vess stopped; a shattered speeder lay on its side near the entrance of an alley, half buried beneath rubble. She stared at it, trying to remember whether she'd seen it before. There had been a speeder. She was almost certain of that.

Maybe.

Her brow furrowed as she tried to force the memory into place, only for the effort to make the throbbing behind her eyes worse.

"Okay..."

She drew a slow breath; she needed to think, which was normally the easy part. Her gaze moved across the street, searching for anything useful. Most of the buildings had suffered badly enough that identifying their original purpose was difficult, and the few civilians she might have asked were either gone or dead.

Lily would find her. The thought came with considerably more certainty than anything else had managed in the last several minutes. Lily always found her. All Vess needed to do was stop wandering around long enough to give her the opportunity. She turned toward the nearest building that still looked reasonably intact. The front had partially collapsed, but an alley running alongside it offered some protection from the wind and, more importantly, from the increasingly frequent flashes of weapons fire somewhere beyond the storm. Vess slipped into it, keeping close to the wall until she found a recessed doorway beneath an overhang that had somehow survived the fighting.

It wasn't much.

Right now it looked like a resort. Vess lowered herself carefully against the wall, using her good arm to control the descent until she was sitting beneath the overhang with her injured arm resting across her lap. The simple act of sitting sent another wave of dizziness through her, and she closed her eyes until it passed.

Just for a minute.

She was just resting.

Her fingers drifted toward where the comm should have been before she remembered it hadn't survived the last few minutes any better than she had. Instead, she found the pistol at her hip, Arris's gift, and let her hand settle loosely over the grip. She didn't lift it, just let it rest across her lap, muzzle drifting toward the mouth of the alley. Then she looked down at herself properly for the first time.

Blood had stained the collar of her clothes and one side of her jacket. Dust and ash covered almost everything else, interrupted by streaks where melting snow had cut through it. Her left shoulder sat visibly wrong beneath the fabric, and the sight of it made her decide that perhaps she didn't need to inspect herself any further.

"I've had better days."

Vess let her head rest carefully against the wall behind her, immediately shifting when the contact sent pain through the wound near her temple. She settled for resting the uninjured side instead, watching the snow and crimson spores blow past the mouth of the alley.

She wondered where Lily was.

That thought had never really left. Vess could picture her suddenly appearing at the end of the alley, probably furious that she'd gotten herself hurt, and the image managed to pull the faintest smile from her.

"I'm here," she said, though there was nobody close enough to hear it.

Her eyes closed.

Just for a minute.

All of this was stupid. She just wanted Lily.

The next explosion came close enough to rattle the doorway, and her eyes snapped open with the pain rushing back into her shoulder and skull at once.

"Oh, kriff off! All of you!"

The words came out louder than she meant them to, enough to carry past the alley and into the storm. The sudden exertion was the final straw; the doorway tilted, or she did, and this time, when her eyes closed, she didn't fight it.

​

Direct TAG: Allyson Locke
Indirect Direct TAG: Lily Rhodes Arris Windrun

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Vess Sadragen //:
//: Attire //:

War was profit.

War was devastating.

War lined the pocket of a certain Corellian.

Allyson whistled under her breath as she ran her hands over different machines. She waited to hear them speak, let them tell her what was working, what needed repair, and what wanted to go with her. There was too much death tied to some of these pieces of metal; as she walked by them, they screamed. It was horrible; she could almost feel the death of their cores.

This was the worst part, but also the best. It meant whatever she found she could improve or sell. But sometimes, the machine only wanted to tell its story.

She kept working, pushing bodies off different vehicles. The bodies stopped being a problem long ago. They were only an obstacle, no longer the people they once were. A particular vehicle drew her attention as she shoved a few of the unlucky patrons, possibly its owners, trying to escape as the Sith descended onto the world.

Allyson tried not to think about it.

She ran her hand over the hood, and she felt the bit of life that called out to her. Kneeling down, she crawled under, pulling different processing cores and wires. She dug deep, looking for the one piece that screamed at her. It was a small capacitor, one that helped the engine draw power from the battery cores and the fuel. The metal attached would fetch a good bargain.

She shimmied out from underneath and shoved the capacitor into her pack.

At that moment, she heard the yell echo through the quiet aftermath. Blinking, Allyson instantly fell into the shadows. Hiding her presence from sight and sound, she crept slowly, hunting the source of the outburst. Unfortunately for Vess, if she was trying to hide, trying to protect herself — she did the opposite.

Allyson snuck up and dropped her protection, seeing the girl fall face-first into the snow. Hopefully she hadn't been there for too long; if so, her face was probably frostbitten to hell, and that would be unfortunate.

No lips? Oops?

Kneeling down, Allyson grabbed the collar of the girl's jacket or shirt — at this point she couldn't really tell, as the snow gathered from the storm.

"Hey hey, this isn't a good place to sleep, kid."

Allyson stood up, letting Vess just hang from how Allyson was holding her. She gave the girl a few good shakes, hoping it would stir her awake.

She was heavy, and Allyson wasn't in the mood to carry dead weight.

"I just heard you yell, wake up, come on."

After a few more shakes, the other brunette just slumped.

 

[Vess Sadragen]

She didn't hear the woman approaching or notice the presence slipping through the alley or even feel the first tug against her collar until she was already being hauled upright, her head lolling forward as blood-matted hair fell across her face and her boots dragged uselessly through the snow.

The first shake earned no reaction; the second pulled painfully against her injured shoulder; by the third, Vess came awake with a sharp gasp. Pain tore through her left shoulder with enough force to cut through the fog in her head, her good hand snapping up instinctively to catch the stranger's wrist.

"Stop!" she hissed as her good hand reached across, cradling the wounded shoulder.

Her eyes opened, though focusing them was another matter entirely. For several seconds, the woman holding her was little more than a dark shape against the falling snow, resolving into one person, then two, before gradually becoming one again.

Vess blinked hard.

It took a few seconds for her to get her feet under her, only for her legs to prove considerably less interested in supporting her than she was. Her good hand caught the stranger's arm before she could fall, a wave of dizziness forcing Vess's eyes closed as the alley tilted violently beneath her.

"Just..."

She swallowed against the nausea.

"Give me a second."

Blood still ran sluggishly from the wound near her hairline, staining one side of her face before disappearing beneath the collar of her jacket. Her left arm remained tucked protectively against her body, shoulder visibly displaced beneath the fabric, while the cold had long since worked through clothes that had never been intended for standing around in a blizzard.

When Vess opened her eyes again, the stranger remained mostly where she'd left her.

She stared at the woman.

No name surfaced through the fog. No memory of a face or voice followed it. Whoever had found her, Vess had never seen her before. Her eyes moved over the stranger instead, taking stock as best she could. Weapons. Clothing. Anything that might tell her which side the woman belonged to.

Unfortunately, thinking remained considerably harder than it had any right to be.

"Who are you?"

There should probably have been another question before that, something about whether this woman intended to kill her. Then the thought she'd been carrying since the barricade pushed its way back to the surface.

"Lily."

She straightened too quickly and immediately swayed, fingers tightening around the stranger's arm before she caught herself.

"I need a comm."

The urgency returned before the clarity did. Vess glanced toward the mouth of the alley and the storm beyond it, apparently forgetting for the moment that she had absolutely no idea whether the woman she'd just asked for help was someone she ought to trust. She looked out at the ruined street, then back the way she'd come, trying to reconcile either direction with whatever map still existed inside her head.

"...I think I got turned around."

It was a considerable understatement given the blood running down her face. Vess released the stranger and placed her good hand against the wall instead. She managed one unsteady step before stopping again when the ground shifted unpleasantly beneath her.

"Lily disappeared from the line. I couldn't reach her. She's probably with Arris." Vess looked toward the storm again, trying to find some trace of the battlefield she'd left behind. The plan remained simple enough that even now she could hold onto it. She pushed away from the wall.

"I need to find them."

​

Direct TAG: Allyson Locke
Indirect Direct TAG: Lily Rhodes Arris Windrun

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Vess Sadragen //:
//: Attire //:

Allyson waited after hearing the girl's words. Her eyes looked away for a moment to keep an eye out for any stragglers, mando or undead.

"Who are you?"

Usual question. Usual answer.

"Allyson."

The plague seemed to have receded for the most part, happy and content with what it was doing. Cohabitation was always the goal, right? She straightened up as her grip loosened on the girl's collar. There were injuries, but Allyson could take care of that afterward.

The name Lily came, as the girl looked at her.

"Lily."

"No, I'm Allyson." She paused. "Al-leh-sun"

Lily? Allyson didn't know the name, so she waited and let the girl finish. She was frantic and obviously lost. At first, the Corellian assumed she might have been a civilian caught in the mess. Still, with the weapons or what looked like weapons — she figured she knew something of survival.

Though face-planting in the blizzard's snowy aftermath was not a good plan nor a good idea for survival. But Allyson didn't say much more and let the girl cycle through her emotions, frantic, and let logic settle in. She continued rambling, and Allyson pulled out a slender cigarette and lit it quickly. Her nose wrinkled slightly as she blew the smoke out and nodded along with the girl until she spoke a name Allyson actually knew.

"Arris?" She pulled the cigarette out from between her lips and tapped it lightly, letting the ash burn the snow under their feet.

Allyson knew of the annoying little cyborg, but she had lost trace of her. The last time she had seen her, she was slumped over and having a pity party. To know that she was still surviving made the Corellian smirk.

"I know that little chit," Allyson huffed, amused. "Comms are still down in the area; we'd have to leave." Though the Corellian knew she could push a message through, she was too lazy to do so right now.

She took another drag of the cigarette, and when she noticed that Vess was still talking and now trying to stand, she offered her hand and helped her up the best she could. Allyson took stock of the girl and then rummaged through her pack for a small bit of bacta.

"You're bleeding; let's go to one of the drop sites, and I can get a message through." She nodded her head. "You first."

 

[Vess Sadragen]

"No, I'm Allyson."

Vess blinked.

"Al-leh-sun."

Her brow furrowed as Allyson carefully sounded the name out for her, and for several long seconds Vess simply stared at the woman. Somewhere beneath the concussion and the persistent throbbing behind her eyes, she slowly worked out what had just happened.

"I know."

There was a pause.

"...Lily is someone else."

Under any other circumstances, the correction probably would have carried considerably more bite. Instead Vess just sounded tired. She watched Allyson smoke while she tried to collect the pieces of her thoughts again, keeping her good hand against the wall as the other woman listened. Lily was missing. Her comm was destroyed. She'd been looking for the rear, though the continued sound of fighting suggested she'd done a spectacularly poor job of finding it.

Then she mentioned Arris.

"Arris?"

Vess's attention snapped back toward Allyson.

It was the first thing the stranger had said that managed to cut cleanly through the fog.

"You know her?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly when Allyson called Arris a little chit, studying the woman with renewed interest. That didn't necessarily mean anything. Arris had been involved with enough people that knowing her wasn't exactly a guarantee of good intentions, and Vess had no idea what relationship existed between the two of them.

More importantly, Allyson confirmed what Vess had already discovered about the comms. Leaving the area wasn't particularly appealing when Lily and Arris were both somewhere behind her, but if there was no way to reach either of them from here then continuing to wander around half-conscious wasn't going to accomplish much either.

She pushed away from the wall again, accepting Allyson's hand when her balance immediately reminded her why that had been a bad idea. The assistance pulled at her injured shoulder and Vess sucked in a sharp breath, instinctively drawing the arm tighter against herself.

"Careful."

She looked down when Allyson started rummaging through her pack, only then seeming to remember the blood that had continued to work its way down the side of her face. Vess touched her temple with her good hand and frowned at the fresh red staining her fingertips.

Right.

That too.

"You're bleeding; let's go to one of the drop sites, and I can get a message through."

Vess looked toward the storm going farther away felt wrong. Every instinct she had left told her to turn around and find Lily herself, though considering she no longer knew which direction around was, the thought lost some of its appeal.

"If you can get a message through..." She trailed off, gathering the thought before looking back at Allyson. "I need to know they're alive." It was quieter than anything else she'd said. Vess glanced toward the bacta in Allyson's hand before nodding once. She could accept that much. Getting her head to stop bleeding seemed sensible, and getting a working message to Lily or Arris was considerably more useful than freezing to death in an alley.

Then Allyson nodded ahead.

"You first."

Vess stared at her. Her gaze slowly shifted toward the ruined street ahead of them, then back to Allyson.

"I don't know where we're going." A faint crease formed between her brows. "That's sort of how I ended up here."

​

Direct TAG: Allyson Locke
Indirect Direct TAG: Lily Rhodes Arris Windrun