Swarm Surge: Prakith

[Kylraya]

Muse
Swarm Surge: Prakith - Surge Impulse Factor 2​

Objective The Seeding of Prakith.
Location: Prakith, Mount Targos. Underground Biosect Hives
Time: Noon, Dry, Too Dry
The Long Conflict - Directive 15.

Seeding, reaching, searching and expanding. Byss was always a hotspot for Keth’s creations, the nearby significant system of Prakith would soon bend to their designs as well. Though it had not come about subtly, for the One Sith’s own greed had given them this window and opportunity. A former heartland for their kind, not all the facilities had been eliminated by the GA, and with their fall, their vigilant watch had ended. Kethenites still lived, still built and now still died.

Hordes of Surge Drones, from nowhere, at least the One Sith Remnant forces still garrisoned on Prakith mostly thought so, unaware of their commander’s folly. Fighting in the biodroid hives, the tunnels littered with machine and biological matter. They had failed to contain the drones they were breeding as shock troops. The situation was beyond salvaging, and many screamed their last breathe before the day had even begun, consumed and left for dead in the tunnels below. Greed and lust for power. They had not the manpower to truly sustain the biodroid hives anymore that they once had, so their advantage in containing this outbreak was at a minimum. If any female drones got free, it would be a problem they couldn’t fix easily.

None of that mattered to the Swarm Mother, who had rallied the call of the Hive's focused attention, acting as a node here to those around her. She saw Keth’s creations cut down around her and felt nothing but the will of the collective to see their threat removed once and for all. Her own exoskeleton now completely covering her body, and one with the Swarm. She was empowered, in unity with the Hive Mind and the drones now slaughtering Sith Troopers around her. Several of the strongest Sith had made their last stand in a compound up ahead. A fortified location, the swarm would move there, feed there and grow there. They came out of the tunnels they had dug, like locusts ready to feed off the landscape. She walked among the thriving mass, feeling their call within her, and bonding to the closest consciousness, which only strengthened her own perception.

It was not a natural surge, there had been no integration into the environment, there had been caged confinement, and a release of pressure.

​

​

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One Sith Remnant Forces: 400 Biosect Droids MKII | 150 Troopers from the 775th Legion​

Surge Forces: 8,000 Swarm-Surge Drones | Various Infected Organisms TBD
Personal Gear: TBD | Personal NPCs TBD

 

[Akestos]

SURGE

Ground shaking.

SURGE

Earth Splintering.

The Impluse in the Firstspawn's mind could not be resisted.

Thousands of drone's continued to burst out of the earth, out of the tunnels streaming toward the metal fortress. The One Sith fought with fire, flame, and a will to survive. They killed many, and many more came over their bodies. Screeching and roaring as they were hit and cut to pieces. The Hulking Firstspawn, all four of his swords drawn, crashed through the drones charging with them as they closed on the fortress. Every inch of that ground was another drone body hit by laser fire and cut down. The One Sith metal fortress loomed high, firing, firing, down into Surge. Blowing chunks of earth, bug, drone, and organic matter into the ground. His large form took a shot, glancing to the Terminus armor, Akestos snarled upward loudly and then it really began.

So many of them. So many. The sun went dark.

​

​

Clouds of them. Blotting out the sky. Flying Slicer Beetles, too small to be hit by their weapons at this range, though they tried. Whatever they hit, the gap was filled with more. A black tide across the sky. They reached the positions up high, latching on to the armor and cutting, chewing, clawing. They were brushed off, clever troopers used fire, but how did you set fire to the entire sky? Retreating into the compound, the Surge followed, Akestos leaping onto a balcony with a heavy thud and slicing through two troopers, his four huge swords a whirling mask of death. The biodroids did not all retreat, leaving many to cover the troopers, their black shifting faces going hand to hand with the drones now climbing up onto the walls, climbing across the rock, metal and their own. Slicer beetles still poured in, but in the tunnels the Sith Troopers held them.

Collectively the Surge held, the impluse was for more to arrive, for the thousands at their back to run over their dead and pour towards the compound's tunnels. Grenades, blaster-chainguns, flamethrowers piled the bodies up high in the doorways, blocking the way. Cutting another droid clean in half, the Surge Lord picked one up over his head and snapped its body, to send metal everywhere. The Surge's Impulse building enough momentum behind them, enough pressure, building, building and then...

GO

​

Muse
​

 

[Kylraya]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7bHqDrcMoo​

A powerful leap took her soaring high and into a heavy landing. Her two extended armored talons, pierced straight through the armor of one man as she hit the ground. She pulled him apart, rending the armor, flesh, and bone. Surging forward into another, hand extended, and crushed him into a wall. His body cracking against the mountainside to shake loose stone. The Swarm Mother felt every death around them, bonded as she was, and the rage that grew inside of her fueled her telekinetic attack.

SLAMMING HER FISTS DOWN and propelling the force in a wave forward.

The shockwave cleared several drone corpses, that were piling up in the nearest doorway, and sent two biodroids guarding it off their feet. She looked up and the nearest drones already knew her will, because it was the swarm’s own will, chomping and biting through the droid’s torso’s, sparks, rips, and tares. Their DNA was that of the GA prisoners Keth had taken, now that DNA would find its way into the hive. She would end this cycle herself, the Hive wanted what was here.

Rising to her feet, someone turned a gun on her from inside. She extended her hand and force crushed his throat, throwing him against the roof of the tunnel and then back into his comrades. The drones knew the opening was there, and they poured in through the doorway with a screeching howl. Even as the first ones chittered, hissing their deaths, more came, more and more and more.

The Surge had breached the fortress, it was just a matter of time now till they reached what was inside… The clock was ticking down.

 

[Akestos]

Surge Factor 2?

More of their kind reached the balconies, climbing upward and over their dead. They had the outer fortress and they had breached the doorway. Sadly the drone bodies just piled thick inside the corridors again. No matter how many openings they cleared, the One Sith blocked them with their own bodies and sheer mass. Stopped again, the Hive drew upon what was already here, use what you have.

It had heard the Surge Impulse and it came. Driven. Propelled forward from somewhere on the planet's surface.

There was no mistaking it. Rumbles of the earth, a constant shaking, cracks appearing above the ground as it closed, and then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-obMyf4qmQ​

What exactly is a Factor 2 Surge? This.​

A massive surge worm smashed upward, earth went everywhere, soaring into the fortress head first, it cracked against the rock and metal, the sheer weight and bulk of the creature smashing inside. At around 70 meters long, it was not the largest of its kind, but then this was only a Surge of magnitude 2. Pray the galaxy never sees a 3,4,5 or 6….

Drones began to run across its body, and Akestos jumped with crash down on its prone form, beginning a lunging run amidst the blaster fire and shouts of panic. The worm had gotten through, but against metal it found itself dazed. The huge beast ripped open its mouth, rending more of the wall, shots cut into it and it ROARED in pain. From inside of its mouth there were screeches... drones burst out, passengers for the ride.

Now they were in.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Kylraya"] [member="Akestos"]

Distress calls weren't unusual in the Deep Core. Distress calls from Sith were another story.

Quill's Incom courier slid out of hyperspace in high atmosphere, a little closer to the planet than he'd meant to get. The old ship's sensors fussed, trying to make sense of the fight down there and the insect swarms that probably blotted out the sky. The sensor presets flicked back and forth between 'lifeform' and 'weather phenomenon' and settled on the latter. If Quill remembered right, the system's judgment criteria centred on air pressure and turbulence. That swarm was so massive it might actually create a storm front. Not a good sign. Not by a long shot.

The courier ship angled over the besieged Sith fortress, and Quill got his first proper view of the ground battle. Huge insectoids rushed everywhere. Those looked like tunnels -- had those been part of the original construction, or were the attackers digging into the foundations?

The Force whispered of anger and hunger and plenty of fear. Quill's mouth twisted, but he slid through the siege and touched down in an open hangar on the fortress roof. Razor bugs splatted constantly against a doomed containment field.

A squad of soldiers aimed weapons at him as he came down the ramp. "Easy," he said, hands high and empty. "I'm the one who got your distress signal. I can evacuate your wounded. Let's talk."

 

[Taresa Kae]

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]
Arrogance brought low. A wounded Kethenite was evacuating some of the personnel to the shuttle. Carried along by one of the troopers. She looked in a word shell shocked. Judgements arrogance had overextended her reach once again. Maybe it was part of some greater plan, but she did not know what that plan was. Clearly injured, the Echani woman looked up, her usual black mask ripped in half by a claw mark, clutching her wounded side. Many she had killed on his orders, even after her Master’s death. “Its too late, they are in.” Was it too late or was there hope.

How were they going to get them out now, she had no idea. Looking over at the fortress as drones continued to pour in around the huge worm’s corpse. Her men lowered their weapons, the poor girl had seen enough, too much bloodshed for ten lifetimes. Do not pity her for she had taken many lives before exposing herself to the galaxy. There was clearly so much darkness and death in the One Sith's eyes. The assassin, slumped against the shuttle's ramp, while other troopers were brought out of the fighting.

There was a biodroid or two among them but not many. Most had stayed with the troopers inside to make a final stand. “Echani, Sun Guard, Mightnight Guard. All their DNA is in there, the breeding chambers, they are going to get it all.“ All the Echani Sith Lord’s creations, if the Hive got off-world with them. “We can’t let them take it.”, she coughed, lying prone.

For the first time in the history of the galaxy, those dozen or so One Sith Troopers, a [member="Mythos"] and [member="Nyx"] clone or two among them, were about to follow a Jedi's advice. Wonders never ceased.

OOC:

Spoiler

Consider all the remaining One Sith Forces now under your command.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Taresa Kae"]

Quill ran a hand over his mouth and rested his chin in his palm, considering. Down through the hangar's containment field, he could see some indication of how thoroughly the horde had breached the outer defences. A handful of turrets still blasted away from cracking pinnacles, but they wouldn't last long and would accomplish precisely nothing.

So: priorities. Wounded Sith troopers had already filled the courier. It wasn't standing-room-only in there, but it would be soon enough, and he'd have to trust his crappy old Incom boat to handle that much lift mass. The beings with them felt...not animalistic, but not sapient either, not exactly. Some kind of insectoid cyborg, apparently, more machine than intelligence. In a pinch -- and this was definitely a pinch -- they were probably a lesser priority than the surviving troops. Disposable. The word twisted in his gut like a bad meal or a bad knife. If he was wrong, if he was just discounting aliens as lesser, then he'd have to live with that.

And if he was wrong, he couldn't just empty his ship and refill it more equitably, now could he.

A military-grade comlink, still hooked to the local command lines, gave him a pretty decent idea of just how many people were hurting. Not where, but who, and how, and that was something. The Sith remnant garrison had started with about a hundred and fifty. Of those, at least half were already dead, a dozen-plus were shoring up a final redoubt not far below, and the rest had crammed into Quill's ship. And now, yes, it really was standing-room-only in there, except in the cockpit. He was rather glad he'd locked the cockpit, or he got the feeling one of them would have tried to fly away by now.

The injured Sith girl's words resonated oddly. The Force tugged his attention that way. Something about her goal wasn't just stubbornness or spite. Unspecified bad things would happen if the horde got those genetic samples. The samples might even be the reason for this entire assault.

But compared to a ship full of evacuees and a dozen holdouts, the gene banks didn't strike him as the highest priority.

"Boys," he said on the channel the last dozen used, "my name's Quill. I have an evac ship on the top floor, just about crammed to the gills with your wounded. How far are you?"

Most seemed too busy setting up their last line of defence, but he got the gist: they'd holed up at a good choke point in a spiral staircase maybe three floors down. Them and the last couple dozen of what they called 'biodroids,' and his conflicted feelings eased a little.

"Boys, if you can buy me ten minutes, I can make enough room for you. Fighting retreat, get up here before we need to go. And I'm not sure where this 'gene bank' is, but if it's nearby, feel free to burn it if you can. Maybe a thermal detonator." He savoured the irony of an old quasi-pacifist telling Sith veterans how to destroy something. "I've got a Sith lady onboard who seems pretty keen on denying that mess to the enemy."

These kids were nothing if not loyal. A pair of them, with a squad of biodroids, split off from the barricade for what was almost certainly a suicide mission. They had low-yield thermal detonators and incendiary grenades, enough to torch the gene bank down to the last base pair. Whether they'd get there in time was an open question.

 

[Kylraya]

The Swarm Mother acted as a convergence of intelligence for the creatures to receive commands. On the upper balconies still, she saw a ship land, the concept of one, or many were the same. Metal landing was what the hive noted, even if she saw a singular ship. Metal, pressure, and outside force, arriving behind them drove her on, focused intelligence from the greater mind compelling her to move. Almost all the drones converged on the building, the Jedi Master might find a few headed his way, more from natural instinct than focused direction. Nothing unmanageable, in fact, the One Sith with him were probably helping cover his ship. A day for firsts.

Inside she pushed, ripping a hole through a wall with her talons. Closing so fast, unnaturally fast on what were six limbs plus the tail. Shots flew past her, drones hissing as blasters tore them down, the stragglers from the facility were being ended. Those inside at the stairway were a problem. She avoided what she could, knowing how important this impulse was. Then nothing. Minutes passed. Pressure building again to surge, always the way. A pause and then. The weight of bodies piling ready to charge down the stairs, the walls, the ceilings. Charge they did, straight at the defenders, falling down the stairs, many leaping to their deaths on top of their own dead and blocking the way. SHE SNARLED.

There was a hole blown out to make an exit and a new entrance in. Movement from inside toward the Jedi Master, clones taking the cue to try to get out. A potential saving moment because it gave the brave clones trying to get in a chance as well. The force giving them hope, perhaps through one Jedi Master's timely intervention, many more lives than he'd ever know had been saved. There were creations inside that should never see the light of day. Trouble was there was a whole lot of drones at their back as they exited the fortress. Headed right for [member="Jend-Ro Quill"] . Could he make a distraction, save the stragglers, help get the team in? It was going to be close. For all of them.

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]​

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

The Force strongly suggested urgency. Quill took a small service hatch into the equally small cockpit, skipping the crammed-full hallways in his ship. He'd just left the courier idle rather than shut it down, and now that drones were clawing into sight, he was grateful that he'd kept at least a little presence of mind.

The fortress rumbled, and the courier's landing struts squealed, as a whole lot of baradium went off in or near the gene bank. Death carried over the airwaves as a static squelch. Quill cursed -- mildly, but more than he ever did -- and dropped the comlink. It rattled down beside the pilot's seat. The gene bank team was almost certainly gone, leaving half a dozen survivors outside the ship. They ran like the gorram wind, straight for the courier.

The hangar's containment field imploded under repeated impacts. A torrent of razor beetles slid in. The last clone troopers tangled with them and passed out of his line of sight. Instruments suggested that someone was closing the cargo doors. Quill toggled an aft camera and saw that, yes, while everyone who could get aboard was aboard, several drones were wedged in the door and trying to force themselves in.

He jolted the courier's repulsorlifts and swung the ship within the hangar's confines, scraping and smearing the drones against the wall. The cargo door shut, mostly -- it'd be a cold ride back there. He goosed the engines and the courier launched into the razor-beetle swarm. Shields went up, for what they were worth, but beetles smeared across his canopy.

[member=Taresa Kae]

 

[Akestos]

5, The Firstspawn sliced clean through a droid, then went shoulder first through the drone bodies ahead of him, clearing a path with brute force.

4, Closing, almost hoof-like sounds of symbolic Armageddon fast approaching. The beasts legs churning up the metal ground behind him.

3, The Nyx clone ahead succumbed to the horde of drones, bravely cutting several down with her in a grenade, the explosion rocked nearby Akestos but he carried through the shards.

2, Akestos could SEE the gene bank, three doors away, the last biodroid was impaled through one of his blades, dragged along behind him as he charged.

1, The final Mythos clone turned his head, holding the trigger in his hand, raising his chin.
And blew it all to hell.

Three doors away, the metal doorways, the walls, the heat atomized everything ahead of the first spawn, turned to dust in a gigantic hole. Then the shockwave for the machines that were half there half not ruptured. Impacting the exoskeleton around him with both biological matter and torn machine. Spared the worst of it, he was not spared it entirely, blown back through the rubble to the outer facility wall. Thankfully his natural armor was highly resistant to heat, otherwise he may have suffered more.

The Surge Impulse as a collective entity ROARED again a thousand voices outside the facility in unison, many trying to cling to [member="Jend-Ro Quill"] ‘s ship as it took off, falling below or gradually being ripped away. One Echani Sith girl lying prone on the floor tried to speak to him, coughing and clutching her mouth from her wounds, “what now?” What now indeed. What now? For her, for the troopers and for what was below. Below?

Rushing past the shuttle a mighty space predator descended almost running into [member="Jend-Ro Quill"] Covered in what looked to be organic shell, the beginnings of something more sinister in the force. Echoes of what was to come, its bulk hit the ground with a thud, sending a dust cloud that stretched miles, perhaps sparking that storm he had worried for. The First Spawn along with several others swarmed towards it.

OOC:

Spoiler

I appreciate you giving me some back and forth, thank you.

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]​

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Akestos"]

'What now?' had all kinds of answers. If 'now' meant 'right this second,' Quill had a space whale to dodge, large bugs to shake off the hull, and a hyperjump to plot. If 'now' meant 'where are we going and what will you do with us when you get there,' that was a whole other conversation. One best suited for after the space whale bug swarm situation resolved itself.

Like most Jedi, Quill knew what it meant to use the Force while piloting. Your instincts improved, you got the benefit of prescience, and your situational awareness spiked. With a wiggle and a jolt, he shook the last bugs off the hull and keyed a short blind jump. The courier shuddered into hyperspace and out again half a light-email later.

He touched the intercom. "This is Quill," he said to the few dozen mostly wounded Sith troopers that were treating his ship as a sardine can. "We're away. I'm going to drop you all off at a hospital on Byss, soon as I can find one. Might not be your destination of choice, but it's the closest stop, and my life support systems weren't designed for this many lungs. That's all."

He glanced back through the hatch at the Echani girl who was probably an actual Sith. Not one he'd seen on any WANTED signs, though, plus she looked young. On balance a little compassion might do more good than, say, a prison cell in Silver Jedi space. "That work for you?"

 

[Taresa Kae]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHohV9-KjmY​

After all the One Sith had done, none of them expected any clemency. It had been a long time. Maybe the galaxy had begun to forgive and forget. There was mistrust in the kethenite but she was in no position to do much but clutch her side and lay there, trying to control the pain, a trooper beginning to patch her up, as the other clones and individuals were dealt with also. They were taking a very careful look for infection, but thankfully they were larger cuts not small beetle pincer bites, she was spared that fate.

None of this extra information was given to [member="Jend-Ro Quill"], though they were not exactly able to hide the fact they were paying very careful attention to each man’s wounds. As he mentioned Byss, Taresa recovered some of her composure. Practiced at shaping her face, expression and manner to fit her mission, she had been on this road for an age. Named well. [member="Hana Kae"], [member="Teyla Ee'everwest"].

Pushing past her comrades, despite their attempts to keep her there. She stood to her feet to hobble over to toward [member="Jend-Ro Quill"], whatever was still Echani behind the Killer’s eyes, whatever was left in the girl bowed her head. Which surprised the men behind that tried to follow. [member="Jend-Ro Quill"] may sense Byss was dangerous, something wasn’t right there, but then Byss was always dangerous and not right. However, it was where they must go next anyway, so the force aligned well here. Most of Keth’s creatures existed on Byss, and she still had a duty to perform.

“Thank you.” She said, meaning it. Her voice calm and collected. Focus behind the sharp eyes. Old and not old, asleep through most of time, a strange mix or relic, like everything that was happening her. History remaking itself. "When you need it, this debt will be repaid." Whether he wanted it or not, the pact within her was made.

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]​

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Taresa Kae"]

"Nah," he said slowly, as the hyperdrive spooled up for the jump to Byss. "What kind of man would I be if I expected something in return? You and yours don't owe me anything. The Force sent me. If you're going to repay anything, repay it in that direction."

That had come out a little more enigmatic than he'd hoped, but he couldn't find better words. He slid a silver handle down the control panel. The courier jumped to hyperspace. None too soon: the air was going stale, environmental controls overloading. The ship had been designed for a handful of people, not dozens.

"Any chance you could tell me about those species? I saw at least three or four, all working together."

 

[Taresa Kae]

His response confused the One Sith in her a lot. She was used to dealing with favors, usually lives for other favors to get by. That or killing on instruction. After a pause, the Echani girl looked around. Having an assassin sit down somewhere behind you in a chair probably wasn’t the most comfortable feeling for anyone, but sit she did, gingerly given how sore she was.

Stale air yes. Reminding her of her times in the biodroid hives. Too long locked underground overseeing his creatures. She breathed it surprisingly normally, but would not think twice of sending some of her escorts to vacuum if air became an issue. If she didn't need them so much for what was ahead. [member="Jend-Ro Quill"] would also need an answer, and she’d have to make it a good one. “Malformed Hssiss, working in a pack.” She lied, it wasn’t a bad lie in her mind, pack creatures working together on mass. Darkside in origin, they were about the size of Hssiss too. “They. We. Were trying to bioengineer a new breed of foot soldier. Since the war, we’ve lost almost everything.” Truth mixed in with the lie to sell it. They had almost run out of manpower, there was little left to call their own. It had been years and years since the One Sith were a name to fear, their resources were running to nothing. Pirates and warlords on the rim, petty criminals and small dictators fighting over scraps.

The assassin leaned back in her seat, head back. “Prakith is turbulent, when everything started to move we couldn’t stop them.” She realised her folly when she talked about DNA chambers earlier, so stupid and weak of her to give that much away. “There was another Sith there, you might have seen her on the balconies, she wanted the DNA to carry on the experiments.” Half right, half-truth, it might work. Time to deflect. "You are with the Republic?" That would dictate how much she thought this might be a trap.

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]​

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Taresa Kae"]

Hssiss struck him as unlikely unless they'd been very, very ambitious -- hssiss were reptiles, and at least two species had been insectoid. But time would tell, and for the moment he didn't care how much truth he got out of one injured young woman. The important thing was getting her to the hospital station he'd pinged over Byss. Emotion spiked out from her, but it radiated from dozens of nearby casualties too, one big mess of anger and pain. No real fear, though. Finally.

"Which Republic?" he said, voice dry. "But no, I'm largely independent. Just passing by. My ship has good radiation shields, so I was running an errand for a friend. The Deep Core..." He drifted off, checking and double-checking internal readouts. "We're lower on oxygen than I'd hoped. Good thing we're almost there."

 

[Taresa Kae]

Which republic? Some of her laughter returned in a high pitched tone. She was a cocky one, an old One Sith joke. It hurt to laugh, and she certainly deserved it. Her eyes looked over the instruments of the ship, studying. She didn’t pickup whether she was successful or not in her lie, not experienced enough or sensitive enough to the force yet. Her Master had died far too early, all she could do was rest to regain strength.

Time passed in silence

Then click your fingers, she snapped to awareness. A footstep was in the cockpits doorway.

“Commander, we’ve secured who needs to be secured.” A trooper put his head in, and she looked at him in a way that could cut metal for his idiocy. He backed away very slowly and went back to his business. Just passing. “Lucky for us.” The Echani girl’s voice confirmed. Checking something on her wrist, a small hologram which she kept to herself. A map device of some kind, dots, starlanes. Planning a way to counteract what had happened. She was getting no orders at all on her wrist, which was troubling. No reports from Byss, nothing.

There was little tension or signal that she was concerned, so practiced at her work and mission. Yet the force did not often lie. Independence “I envy you,” somedays, days like today. Switching her wrist device off, “when you drop us off, flush the ship. Clean” She didn’t say why. She didn’t even know why she was telling him any of this or as much as she had. It was nice though, to be able to speak freely for a second between missions. As free as a One Sith was able. “Can’t be too careful.” She’d add if he asked, or looked, otherwise keeping the comment to herself.

As they neared byss he might pick up chatter on the communicator at the nearby gas giant of Kissarm. Manic chatter. Odd voices, half formed words, vague thoughts or ramblings. Ships in some form of chaos above. Not hive ships but One Sith ships, a ragtag fleet. Painted red, orange and black. Their hulls looked half formed, half organic. Nothing about them was particularly enticing, but they also kept their distance at the gas giant, not heading toward Byss.

[member="Jend-Ro Quill"]​

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

[member="Taresa Kae"]

The old courier ship came out of hyperspace over Byss, without the orbital velocity to match the medical station. Quill steered that way and burned hard.

The Force unsettled him here. Byss, like Prakith, had an earned reputation for evil. The combat ships over Kissarm didn't help. From here, they were just blips on the long-range sensors, but impressions came his way uninvited. Sights, smells, noises, emotion. The sooner he left this solar system, the better.

The girl's enigmatic warning didn't help. Belatedly, something clicked: how carefully the passengers had checked themselves and each other for injuries.

He eased the courier into a docking bay, where nurses and medical droids would offload everyone and treat them and so forth. The question of payment wasn't something Quill could address. Presumably some would-be Dark Lord would pick up the tab in one way or another.

"Safe travels, kid. Pay it forward."

 

[Taresa Kae]

Byss. Time for judgment to get to work, or to a medical bay. Medical bay first. The hospital would be useful. They had a chance to contain this getting any worse. The One Sith troops started pulling out and under the dark skies of Byss, blue light usually from the sun left the atmosphere in eternal midnight. Which is where she was headed next. One of them even saluted the Jedi, though most just walked out thankful to be alive.

They couldn’t stop this in numbers, but not every battle needed a horde or a legion. Standing by the entryway as the wounded and able men and women left the ship both. Taresa Kae watched the Jedi Master, locking her weapons about herself, despite the wounds she readied for more. Pay it forward. There was a look which wasn’t a killer. A pained smile. “Very well.” For a second an Echani looked back at him, then she was gone. The pistol clip clicked into place, and a fresh helmet was handed to her, sealed over her head. She’d need thicker armor ahead, but first, bacta. Lots of bacta.

"Don't die." That was perhaps the biggest compliment she'd given anyone for a lot of years. Walking, still holding her side out into the conflicts to come. [member="Jend-Ro Quill"]

A signal was sent. A ship and a hunter would be needed. First treatment.
Fin for Taresa
OOC:

Spoiler

Thanks again for the fun!

Continued here