Stand On The Horizon

[Sol Andraste]

One. Two. Three more. Five.

She sat atop her nest overlooking an abandoned fort, one used long ago to house and send off troops if the threat was nearest them, and in the midst of this fort she had counted five. Five unidentified men. Clipped to their belts what appeared to be lightsabers but only one of them appeared in any way mature. The pup of the group, a fifteen year old boy, paced back and forth as the others talked and laughed. The other three somewhere between twenty to mid twenties. Then finally, the one that would likely be the largest threat, a man seemingly in his thirties, scars his medals from past battles. Andraste took a deep breath and remained watching. She had called for aid in regards to her situation. Five force users who had taken this former Republic outpost for themselves and now appeared to be waiting for some thing. Just as she was. She was given the go to lethally engage if the situation required it but considering how terrible of an idea that was, she opted for waiting at the moment.

Donning her all-purpose armour she found herself stuck atop this former anti-air strike post, now just watching her enemy wait. The tower connected to the wall of the base that circled around the men, a ladder located on both sides of the tower, one in their view and the other not. Sure, she could get down, but what if they moved? She preferred it up here. At least she could watch the horizon on this planet. Ord Janon. An otherwise forgotten world other than its former use as a military outpost, and one of the earliest planets to be attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. Now in the clutches of a criminal syndicate. That of course placed her, technically, far out of her jurisdiction. But jurisdiction in her job was more so a guideline. She had been sent here to retrieve pivotal data, if it was still here after so long. Now she had received an alternative mission. Eliminate these men. Apparently former Sith apprentices and a single Sith Knight.

Resting to her right against the railing of the tower balcony a sniper rifle, while strapped to the front of her chest piece two WESTAR-34 pistols. Resting on her tailbone an extendable sword crafted from some lightsaber resistant metal. Beskar, or some thing. A Mandalorian metal. It had to be good, right? For now it appeared more so a dagger. Nevertheless, she kept her eyes on the five, awaiting her backup. Any minute now, she thought.

@[member="Antares Windu"]

 

[Antares]

He walked along the wall as if he owned the place. He really didn't but confidence was something that troops needed. Even if his partner for this mission was a single lone agent. "Agent." Were his only words as he came up onto the anti-air strike post that she had taken as their base of operations. There were only two of them and their ships were located a few miles away. If they failed here, there was most probably no escape for either of them. "Keep the Apprentices off of me." He said and he stepped up onto the wall. He turned his head to the side to look at her, he threw his black hood up over his head and dark brown eyes tired looking eyes looked out at her.

Then the dark Jedi was gone and he had leapt with the aide of the Force off of the wall and ten meters away from the grouping of the Sith. An impressive leap and when he landed the ground that he had crashed into cracked a little. Barely, and he pointed his hand to them. "Drop all your weapons and you will be trialled." He said simply. It was quite evident he was a Jedi, though he was an Agent for the Republic at this moment, he always had to apply Form Zero. No matter what.

@[member="Sol Andraste"]

 

[Sol Andraste]

Her eyes flashed to him as he appeared, and like that he was gone again. Ensure the apprentices did not stop him. That was... four people she needed to control, or remove. Of course they would send a Jedi. Cursing momentarily under her breath and she was off. Although none had noticed his approach they certainly noticed his arrival. The ground beneath him buckling under the sudden momentum and weight. The eldest of the five stepping forward, the apprentices a mixture of emotion. One was fearful, one angry, and the others a confusing cocktail of surfacing emotion. But it was the eldest that was completely calm. Lightsaber in hand it however was ignited, the four apprentices backing up to be in a way behind their master and partially circling them if there was to be a fight.

Her feet quickly shuffling she rested her rifle against a nearby wall, still not yet in the same area as them.

"Trialed? Under what jurisdiction? This isn't Republic territory any more Jedi," he spat the word Jedi with venom "you shouldn't be here. Just like us." A light mockery tone left his lips, dark clothing falling to the ground, his short black hair a bit messy, and finger trained over the ignition of his weapon. Eyes sickly with a yellow tone, the apprentices around him sharing the quality albeit not nearly as dark as his were. One of the apprentices heavily breathed out, panic igniting his insides, and his hand upon his lightsaber. He looked to his master and then to the Jedi. The words illuminated within her mind. No, no, no. Not now. Not now! The apprentice began pulling his lightsaber. "Ouch!" he yelled, blood suddenly evident on his weapon hand, his lightsaber now slowly rolling off to the side. Andraste had abruptly appeared behind the apprentice, boot stomping heavily into the man's calf, and now directly behind him as he fell to his knees. Razor sharp blade directly against his throat and a WESTAR-34 pistol pointed at the other nearest apprentice. She had cloaked herself both physically and through the Force to ensure none of them would know she was approaching. Her own training.

"If any one even thinks about making this situation ugly, I will kill you," and with a moment of suspense now having their attention "and trust me. I will know if you intend to."

@[member="Antares Windu"]

 

[Antares]

The Jedi Knight shook his head. "Why didn't you stay on the wall?" He said as if he were sighing at the same time as if he spoke. Though he ad actually spoken first, and sighed right after. He was quite annoyed. "Place your weapons down upon the floor." He said simply. The Sith Knight who was apparently the leader was still calm, he wasn't going to move, he didn't think. Would he? And then he acted, his hand flashed forwards and a crimson lightsaber flashed towards Antares's face.

He was there for a moment before he turned his face to the side slightly and the blade passed within inches of his face, and then Antares had backed up and his lightsaber fell from his sleeve and into his hand. Within one motion his hand was already rising to try and strike at the Sith Knight just as the azure beam of his lightsaber was being ignited to try and cleave the Sith Knight in two. Quick and easy, no fun times to be had. There was information to be had, they didn't know if there were other Sith Operatives within the facility just yet. "Under my jurisdiction." He said when the Sith batted his lightsaber away.

Antares danced with the lightsaber when it was parried as if it were his partner, and brought his lightsaber to bare when the other two apprentices in front of him swung at him, one high, one low, there was still room to maneuver but he was surrounded at the moment. It was going to have to be quick movements.

@[member="Sol Andraste"]

 

[Sol Andraste]

She groaned. She hated working with Jedi. She hated dealing with Sith. Both religions were constant annoyances and would leave the galaxy in ruins over their religious disputes, disputes that only mattered between them. Now here she was. A Jedi more akin to a loose cop, and a few Sith too blind to notice they was no good ending for them here. She told them. She would kill them if they moved. What do they do? Move. Her blade still pressed to the apprentice's throat, her gun still directed at the apprentices, her hand was forced. As the two apprentices moved to interfere on the Jedi and Sith she fired two quick shots, her gun specifically designed to be deadly at this range, shots that forced them to stop and deflect the attacks away. Simultaneously the blade whipped across the throat of the apprentice, a trail of blood splattering a distance as the body slumped to the ground. One dead. Andraste would have to feel the theft of his life after this - for now, she had to practice.

Moving in a jogging formation she rushed one of the apprentices, the dagger extending into a sword, and clashed with one of the apprentices. The Jedi would just need to deal with the other one. Either way, they were all illegal here, and that meant this situation would need to be resolved quickly. Discard the body, stealthily grab the information, and get out of this territory without anyone noticing. Although this wasn't some other government they were dealing with. This was a crime syndicate. So their actions wouldn't need to be justified. Frankly, no one back home would even hear of this. There just wasn't a government on this side to report it. Nevertheless, may as well try to make this as smooth as possible. Having holstered her blaster she now wielded the sword with two hands, although it was light, it wasn't as light as a lightsaber. Except it was much more balanced. Keeping up with the lightsaber she continued pushing this apprentice further from the fight.

@[member="Antares Windu"]

 

[Antares]

His lightsaber flashed around his bac when he sent his free hand ahead of him to the Sith apprentices. The lightsaber parried the strike of the Sith Knight behind him and the Force push was just moving in the direction of @[member="Sol Andraste"] with prejudice. She had Sith in front of her, and he was certain she could handle a little bit of the Force.

The force push was directed at the Sith apprentice that the Agent had left, and when he was still unbalanced, he force pulled the Apprentice to him, when his danger sense pricked along his spine. He swayed around the overhead chop of the Sith Knight, and it split his apprentice in half. A gruesome sight, to deal with your own ally in such a way, but they were Sith, and Antares opened up his hand, the hilt spun in his grip until it was reversed, all within the space of less than a second, and he plunged it behind him into the Sith Knight's chest.

No hesitation, quick and easy.

The azure beam eviscerated the Sith Knight, and Antares guided the blade upwards and tore it out of the Sith's throat. No hesitation. And the evisceration of the Sith was probably taken too far when his only chest was cut open, and his throat was also burnt to a crisp. But it was too late to go back now, his mind was calm and he felt nothing. Except maybe a bit of sadness for having had to have killed the Sith. And when the Knight fell backwards as Antares turned off his lightsaber he turned to look at the Agent combating her own opponent.

Antares only shook his head and turned to look at the structure and walked to where he thought the closed entrance was. He felt like he sensed other presences within the structure, though he was going to need the Agent's verification when she was done with the Apprentice.

 

[Sol Andraste]

The Force pushed her, a tinge of annoyance striking at her, but it happened to also shove her opponent. At least it didn't push her directly into a lightsaber. Matching the quickness of the lightsaber she managed to push her opponent back, and taking a page from the Jedi, she struck diagonally upwards with the expectation the apprentice would match her. He did. Except just as she had extended it to a sword with a push of a button, she did the opposite. The lightsaber making contact with nothing as she spun while simultaneously moving low, his momentum momentarily off, and as she brought herself to a knee the blade again extended. Directly into the apprentice. He gasped, his body falling now to his knees, and she unloaded another blast into him. This time killing him. Looking to the progress of her ally she quickly noted he had left her with the other apprentice.

Her sword clashed with yet another lightsaber, a quick movement as she moved to his side, and then to his surprise moved in close enough to shove an elbow directly into his throat. He gasped, stumbled back, and coughed. The blade vertically slashing down on his lightsaber hand, the weapon dropped, and he stumbled again as a small stream of blood flowed from his wrist. "Wait, wait, please."

"What?" her tone cold, her gun now pointed directly at him.

"Please.. don't. I'll.. I'll go quietly. Tell you what I can."

"How many more in there?"

"Half a dozen. Two knights. Three promising apprentices. They have prisoners."

She sighed lightly. This had unexpectedly become a rescue mission. "Right. Thank you." Peering up at her he saw the last thing he ever would. The flash of energy penetrating his skull. She had shot him. His body hit the ground and again her sword was sheathed as a dagger and her WESTAR-34 holstered. Turning away from the Jedi she began contacting her handlers. A bit of murmured speech later and she started approaching the Jedi. They had a moment at least and she figured they should at least decide what to do. Although first grabbing her sniper rifle and slinging it over her shoulder. He did not strike her as most other Jedi, but then, she rarely actually met them. Religion was some thing she preferred to avoid in most cases. Deciding which philosophy was better than the other always seemed... silly. But then, the Jedi never did try taking over the Republic, so they had that over the Sith at least. Turning to the Jedi now, "I'm Agent Andraste. Who're you?"

@[member="Antares Windu"]

 

[Antares]

He finally made it to the entrance to the facility. His lightsaber found it's way onto his belt and his tired looking eyes found the agent's gaze. "Knight Windu." Was his answer, when his head rolled lazily on his neck and looked back to the door.

"Find a way to open the door." He said softly. He always spoke softly now, it was more or less to see if people were listening to him, and by speaking quietly it forced them to have to strain to actually hear him. In his opinion, it also commanded respect, not that he needed it to finish this mission. At the end of the day, he was still a Jedi Knight. No matter what he did in daylight hours.

He didn't even wait for her response before he closed his eyes. It was quite evident that he didn't want to cut a hole open into the door. If you did that, suddenly everyone would know you were there when they saw a blue plasma blade melting a sphere into their door.

"Be as discreet as possible." He said and he focused upon trying to conceal her presence within the Force as well. If both of their presences were concealed it would help them out quite a bit in the long-run of this mission.

@[member="Sol Andraste"]