Terminus [Siobhan]

[Qae Shena]

So a vagrant and a mercenary walked into a bar. Kidding. They weren't walking into a bar, they were walking out of a spaceport. This is what happens when I am hyped up on coffee with second wind and a small mountain of things to get done and enough motivation to do at least some of them.

Terminus. A planet deep in the Outer Rim, a busy world, near Protectorate space. Colonel Kerrigan was out here investigating the truth to the rumours of a Bando Gora cult hiding somewhere on this planet. Today, instead of Omega troops, she had a friend!

Qae Shena, ladies and gentlemen!

"You know, it'd be nice if that ship had more hot water than, say, five minutes for a shower," mumbled the squid as they walked down a busy street. Stupid Protectorate transport; it wasn't the Sky Dancer II or even remotely as luxurious. Which was saying something, considering the Dancer II wasn't built for comfort, more utility. And it worked nicely. "How hard is it to get a hot shower? Or a humidifier?" It was wreaking havoc on his skin, man.

The Adventures of Qae Shena and Siobhan Kerrigan were off to an awesome start.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Can't take the cold, can you? Five hot minutes is more than enough for my needs," Siobhan quipped cornily, implications obvious because, well, this was Siobhan, ridiculously oversexed Omega officer. Alas, although terribly skilled with a blade and endowed with some very interesting tentacles a certain sociopathic agent had appreciated, Qae possessed the wrong parts for her purposes.

"I'm sure you'll be able to relieve your frustration on a pack of Reavers soon. Maybe a High Priest's waiting in the wings with a chainaxe sword somewhere," she joked. "Or a daemontte!"

Qae had been recommended to her by a certain Captain Skaldi. Much as Siobhan was quite certain that the woman was an untrustworthy, duplicitous queen, she had taken her advice and hired the Nautolan, having heard of his skills as a blademaster. She could have taken an assault force of Omega troopers, being a Colonel and all - since apparently for some reason her battalion kept fighting all the important battles, while the other four presumably just twiddled their thumbs - but intelligence had only found rumours of Bando Gora activity.

So far everything seemed normal, the spaceport was teeming with activity. Some words with the control officer at the reception ensured that their activities would not be questioned and that they got out ahead of any other visitors who had formed a long queue in front of it. Force persuasion made him completely forget about them, so that their vessel would be off the books. Given rumours of Bando Gora infiltration this was probably for the best.

 

[Qae Shena]

"Not so much 'can't take the cold' as 'I like warm showers'. I like nice and humid environments. Can't get that humidity with a cold shower. Comes from being an overgrown fish and all." Oh the truth was delicious. But don't fry Qae, he's not.

...Well... ...Let's not go there, actually. Anyway!

Needless to say, on a planet as busy as Terminus, it was easy to get lost in the throng and blend in. A Nautolan with a big white tattoo on his face didn't tend to blend without a cloak, and he came dressed appropriately; travel cloak with Kalahira underneath, ready for use at a moment's notice. Not once had they been used to fight an actual opponent yet, and part of him was looking forward to that moment just for the sake of fighting. The rest didn't so much care.

"So, let's recap. What do you know about the Reavers this far out that might help us?"

And for all you crazy stalkers, yes, we're doing a short story recap so you don't flip out and go all psycho murderer on us. The things we do for you. You're welcome.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"I'll call the Lady Protector and tell her my Nautolan needs hotter showers. I'm sure she'll oblige. Word on the street is, she likes Nautolans. I'd give you her number...but she likes her privacy," Siobhan chuckled as they walked through the busy streets, packed with civilians going about their business, though so far none bore the Mark of Chaos. She wore olive brown cargo pants tucked into heavy combat boots, a black trenchcoat over a white tank top. Her blue lightsabre was hooked on her belt, two heavy blaster pistols were holstered by her thighs, not to mention the knives and grenades she had hidden.

At his question she shrugged. "Bastards got routed at Bespin and we blew their logistics centre at Torfan to Chaos. Average Reaver's a wild beast and the True Reaver's little better but bastards are fanatics. Fought a Primarch, once, not something I'd like to repeat. Bastard was a fracking powerhouse. But this Cult seems different, low profile until now. We tracked a batch of their shipments here. Corrupted spice, slaves, rumour has it a holocron. We got a tip off from a contact in Terminus Shipping about cultist activities, looks like they might be setting up a new base."

Terminus was a heavily trafficked shpping centre, sitting at the intersection of the Corellian Trade Spine and the Hydian Way, ideal for their smuggling activities. However, generally subtlety was not in the Bando Gora's vocabulary. "There's this club Afterlife, rumour has it we got Bando Gora activity there. Biggest crime lord on the planet runs the place. Word is she sports the Mark now."

 

[Qae Shena]

Qae gave Siobhan a bemused grin. "Well, as much as the idea of sleeping with your Lady Protector may be amusing, I'm very happily taken. The thought's appreciated, though." Lor would probably murder him if he slept around, not that he would; there was a certain poignancy to being a relationship with someone who actually understood a Nautolan by, you know, actually being a Nautolan.

Her rundown was pretty solid. "Right. We've had some run-ins with the mindless cultists, the zombie drones - once in the Cloak of the Sith and once over Rishi. Less the cult groups I've heard about, more the... unmarked rabble."

So as they walked, Qae considered what Siobhan said. More cults here. Apparently there was no space safe from the Bando Gora any more. "Which Mark? I hear there are four, but we don't know much about some of them. Think we're facing a new one?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Then our poor Lady Protector shall remain deprived until a single Nautolan hunk comes along to gallantly sweep her off her feet and carry her off to the realm of tentacle love," Siobhan said sardonically. Apparently she had seen certain holomovies.

"Could be. So far I've encountered the 'blood for the blood god' types. Big on being battering rams and slaughter for the hell of it, that's the ones the Primarch led. Well, those and plague types on Bespin. That monster they made was frakking big," she said thoughtfully. The rank and file had christened it a Great Unclean One, she found the name fitting.

They might potentially be walking into the unknown, uncharted territory, but then that was part and parcel of the job, an occupational hazard. Musings were cut short by sudden shouting coming from further away.

A human male covered in rags, his clothes tattered and cut, with greasy hair and a dirty beard, was waving what seemed like a pamphlet of sorts, shouting as loud as his lungs would allow it. One side of his face was covered by a primitive metal plate, presumably to hide burn marks, his lip was split and his eyes milky-white.

"Repent and turn away! The end is nigh! The Beast has arisen and shall devour all who in its path. All of you...you are like dust struggling against cosmic wind, but you do not comprehend the inevitable. Turn away while you still can!" Some of the pedestrians stopped and shot him bemused glances, others called out to him to shut up, but he would not be stopped. Suddenly he locked eyes with Siobhan and Qae and jabbed his finger at them.

"You there, you are damned. So confident you are, but I see that you are already entrapped in his web. With every moment that passes you become more his creature. It is his cry that wakes you in the night, his body that crouches in the shadow. You are the puppets that dance to his tune. Vanity, vanity, all of this is vanity and dust. You exist because he allows it and will be changed because he demands it. Leave this place now!"

 

[Qae Shena]

"Pretty sure my twin brother's single," Qae said with a grin. "Jae Shena from the Corellia Rogues grav-ball team. He's got a foot on me and he's built like a rock. She'd probably be into him if she likes Nautolans. I reckon I could get her into the change rooms or something after a match."

And hey, Corellia was nice and convenient for Cira. New one night stand? Probably. Qae'd totally hook his brother up. Not even kidding, if she was actually into Nautolans, Qae'd do it. It'd be funny as hell.

And then... cultist. Qae recognised the symptoms of someone Force-addled; his head-tresses were going crazy with pheromones of a changed mind. It was something he recognised, from many of the cultists he'd so far encountered, but this one was... different. Something was off in his head, like someone'd flicked a switched and said 'hey, you, be mindless cattle' and he was doing it willingly. Whatever it was, it was powerful magic. Not of a type Qae recognised, though, even as Spencer's student - and that unsettled him deeply.

He tugged at Siobhan's arm and looked away from the prophet of madness. "Come on."

When they had enough distance, the blademaster cast a glance over his shoulder at the psychotic preacher. "I've never felt anything like that. Something's wrong here and I don't know what. This isn't something I'm used to seeing. Don't know if I want to be used to seeing it. Is this... I don't know, normal, for what you see?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Cultists were drug-addled loons driven to insanity, prone to ranting. But this one seemed different, stretching out with her senses Siobhan could feel the Force at work, like someone had drilled into his mind and his madness was the result of getting his brain cells smashed. Or he had seen something so mind-blowing he had been overwhelmed and submitted.

When she tried to get a reading on it was like a void, as if he were nothing but a puppet directed by invisible strings, dancing to the tune of an illusive composer. Siobhan was not easily spooked but it unsettled her. Of their own accord thoughts drifted back to Shadow and his manipulations before she followed Qae as he tugged at her.

"Tried to read the guy and it was like a void. Bit like staring at the zombies at Denon or brainwashed Clockwork types. Whoever's frakking over minds here has some serious mojo, like a Sith spirit called Shadow, but he's in the void," she frowned. "It's not the standard Bando Gora M.O. I've encountered. Looks like we got a new group. Only thing you feel from Reavers and most cultists is bloodlust. We gotta get answers and Afterlife's our best best."

Words were cut short when she was suddenly hit by what could be described as a psychic onslaught, flooding her mind like the tidal waves of an ocean, sweeping aside all that stood in its path. "It is his cry that wakes you in the night, his body that crouches in the shadow. All is dust," it resonated in her mind but like a whisper as opposed to the force of a hammerblow. She was hit by an overwhelmning wave of nausea and dizziness, her mind reeling before she managed to steel herself against the unexpected assault, then she felt a cold chilling to the bones as she felt cold emptiness creep into heart.

However, just as soon the sensation was gone and she felt something else, power, sheer dark power beckoning to her, feeling much like the rush caused by spice, yet eluding her as she unconsciously reached out to grasp it. Before her eyes she saw the flash of an image, a ring of fire, she heard the maddened chanting of hundreds of voices, all speaking in perfect unison in their alien tongue, disgusting and enticing at the same time.

Finally the sensation was gone and her mind was clear. She breathed heavily, rubbing at her forehead as if nursing a bad headache as the painful throbbing, unsettled as she looked at her Nautolan companion. "You felt it as well?" it was more a statement of fact than a question.

From further away they could hear noise.

 

[Qae Shena]

These were all things Qae didn't have much experience with. The complexity of the Bando Gora he'd encountered essentially amounted to 'braaaaaaaaains' and that wasn't any particularly good sign when they started actually having them. No, he was used to the mindless enemy. When they started getting smarter, things got worse. Right then.

However, his thoughts were disturbed by the voices and images, told by the innumerable images and words flowing through his mind. His blocks were strong, but this was stronger; a chorus of unity sung by the mad voices of psychotic dreamers. Their elegy rose into the heavens as Qae struggled to fight off their temptation, but he succumbed. Ravaging his mind, the mentalist in him knew that this just wasn't right. In fact, it was so many kinds of wrong that he just couldn't fight it off.

A slow breath out and Qae steadied himself, though the visceral horror would not be leaving him any time soon.

He looked at Siobhan, equal parts pain, discomfort and anger clouding his dark gaze. "Let's get this over with."

Qae wanted to get to the bottom of this, no doubt. No Reaver had attacked his mind before. This was new. This was disquieting. This would not be tolerated.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan did not like, she did not like it one bit. The cold so chilling to her bones, the feeling of both pure helplessness and covetuousness as her mental barriers were overwhelmned and she was inundated with a flood of sensations, images, voices. The chorus of madness had been deafening, so many voices crying out in unison, so loud it seemed like it would turn into force scream powerful enough to tear a roof asunder.

Siobhan was a potent Force Master, but not a mentalist. Inevitably her mind drifted back to Shadow and the madness his influence had made her succumb - the one man in the Galaxy she was afraid of, if he could be called a man.

Well, it was not happening again. She would find whoever was behind this and crush his windpipe, just as she would shred his minions and crush them beneath her boot. There was a new thought that popped into her mind, powerful magic like this had to be the work of a strong sorcerer...destroying the Cult must be a terrible blow to the Bando Gora.

"No one messes with my mind. We'll find them and destroy them," she declared grimly in response to Qae, her expression darkened as she steeled herself, trying to focus her mind, the anger just bubbling below the surface. If there were deadly sins that Siobhan was endowed with then those were lust and wrath and right now she felt a sense of unfocused anger forming inside her, fuelling her instinct to seek out her enemies and kill them.

Club Afterlife was clearly the place to be on the planet. Even at a distance one could hear the loud music booming out of the loudspeakers, flashy neon signs promised entertainment beyond imagination. The holographic projection of a sultry looking Zeltron, promising ravenous delights, was displayed on a wall, beckoning customers to come in. The booming voice of a Hutt lauded the club's small arena, where guests could watch gladiators bash their skulls.

Siobhan could not get much of a read on the bouncers as she stretched out with her powers to scan them, she did not detect the madness that had been emanating from the crazed prophet, but her danger senses tingled as they got closer. Once more she felt the chilling cold from the psychic onslaught. There was no chorus, no alien whispers in her ear, just a distinctive sense that something was not right.

As she reached out she felt the cold presence of the dark side. It was strong here, emanating from the centre of the club, but it effectively blocked her attempts to reach beyond what her purely physical senses could perceive. The power beckoned to her, yet eluded her grasp, as if meant to taunt her. It felt much like a veil had fallen before her eyes, but she was resolved to tear it from her eyes and purge this den. Several Weequay and Wookiee bouncers were standing sentinel outside, frisking patrons and occasionally turning a few aside, for a club the security guards seemed quite heavily armed.

"We scout out the place. Take the backdoor entrance, I'll go take the front," she said quietly as they approached, checking her twin blasters and her lightsabre, running her bionics through a last check.

 

[Qae Shena]

She wasn't happy, that much was obvious. He wasn't exactly a traned mentalist, but he had some basic, working know-how; he knew what kind of mental attacks could home, how hard they were, and most importantly how to resist them. Given his natural weakness to them, that was important to Qae. He knew that he was going to have to be on top of his game today.

Afterlife itself was your standard nightclub; he'd seen plenty of them across the Galaxy. Hell, he had one on his station and all, thanks to Anaya Fen. There wasno way he'd be able to stop and enjoy the moment, to let his tresses down, because they were here on an extermination mission. It came first.

He nodded, a silent affirmation of Siobhan's plan. She was the professional here, a mercenary and commander. She knew her tradecraft and Qae was not one to question it. Without another word, the Nautolan was off, Kalahira rattling gently under the folds of his ebon cloak. How much blood would his blades see this time? The Bando Gora were not known for their concepts of mercy or quarter, after all.

Two guards stood near the back entrance as maintenace crews worked to clean up the inevitable messes that could be seen out the back of any club; broken glass, the occasional vagabond trying to sneak in, and-- unsurprisingly-- a quick fix job of a patron who decided to get a little too mouthy. He couldn't afford to help the guy, despite his best intentions. They were low on time, and the throbbing in his skull was back. There was something about this place that was very much not right.

He waved a hand in front of the two guards right at the door. "I'm here with the maintenance people. You want to let me pass."

"I want to let you pass," said one, while the other opened the door for him. Qae flashed them a very Nautolan grin as he made his way into the building, and into the thrum of life, sound and music that could be found in the distance. Right now, he was in a storage room for alcohol. He could probably name every last drop here right now, but that wasn't the problem. First, he had to find them a clue. Unfortunately, in a booze cabinet, there weren't any to be had.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

On the surface Afterlife was your traditional club, albeit just a bit classier than the dens Siobhan had so often frequented. The floor was certainly a lot cleaner, the tables less stained, the couches made of leather. Loud edgy music blared out of the loudspeakers, the dance floor was filled with patrons making merry, Twi'lek and Zeltron dancers gyrated acrobatically on poles or on the laps of certain patrons, many of whom looked like gangsters.

Bouncers eyes Siobhan warily as she walked through, a few Trandoshan toughs seemed to flinch and immediately part ways as she approached them. She recognised their marks, Red Suns, a pirate gang. Good. They had every reason to be afraid of her, but today she was not here to cut down a few corsairs, that could wait and be done later.

A red Twi'lek raking herself on a pole locked eyes with her and blew her kiss. 'Hey, hun, lookin' for a special show," a Zeltron, dressed in some leather outfit that left little to the imagination and gave an enticing view of her bust, purred softly into her ear, hand running up her back.

"Busy now...maybe later," Siobhan grunted distractedly, pulling herself away, but the girl took ahold of her shoulder, trying to pull her back.

"Oh, but I can make it unforgettable," she insisted, licking her lips. Was it just Siobhan's mind playing tricks on her or did she see the eyes of the woman turn crimson, her fingers into crablike claws and her teeth into fangs. It was for less than a second, in a flash, then as Siobhan wanted to lash out she only saw the Zeltron before her. "Tough soldier like you needs some release," the girl pressed on, grinding herself against Siobhan. "I can..."

"No," Siobhan snapped, pushing her way with more force than intended, the girl cried out curses. A few bouncers glowered at them, but the death glare Siobhan shot them deterred any action. Then the painful throbbing in her head returned, mercilessly pounding into it with the force of a hammer, it was difficult to focus, especially with the large crowd and the added auditory onslaught coming from the music.

The ring of fire flashed before her eyes once more before she shook it off, steadying herself. She was not a trained mentalist like Qae, but she knew about the need to keep her barriers up and so she pressed on further through the club, her bionic eye flaring up for a moment as it sized up her surroundings, scanning individual patrons, sizing up exit routes.

"Qae, something's not right about this place. Be on your guard," she whispered. Then there was the sensation of power again, the dark presence emanating from the club, taking her to the stairs that led to the VIP section of the club.

"Big players only. No admission without password!" one of the guards, a burly human dressed in a black suit that seemed rather ill-fitting to his muscular physique, declared.

"Ambrosia," Siobhan spoke, feeling on edge. Suddenly the whole hall seemed a lot smaller, like the walls were closing in and all eyes were upon her, whispers, fingers pointing.

They are here, it suddenly resonated through her mind.

"She's with them! She's here to kill us!" the barkeeper suddenly shouted as loud as his lungs would allow it, then grabbed a loaded shatter gun that lay beneath the table. Siobhan spun as she felt the warning in the Force and as he squeezed the trigger a telekinetic grip ripped the gun out of his hands and called it towards her.

"They are everywhere!"

Before she could even register the words she felt an overwhelmning chorus of voices in her mind, images and reality blurred. Someone hurled an axe towards her and she dodged, the guard was less lucky as the weapon smashed into his skull.

She called her lightsabre into her hand and the dazzling blue blade sprang into existence. Charging down from the stairs she saw Reavers, snarling bestially and pouncing at her. Siobhan backflipped to avoid an axe being swung at her legs then launched a powerful force push to slam the creature into the stairs, then spun to impale a Reaver dressed like a security guard.

Guests screamed and fled, others shouted like lunatics or grabbed blasters and whatever weapons they could find, throwing glasses and chairs at one another and the Reavers that had suddenly appeared. Before she vanished in the throng of Reavers Siobhan saw the Zeltron girl from earlier, smirking and with the Mark of Chaos glowing brightly on her forehead.

All hell had broken loose and pure instinct took over in Siobhan. Blaster bolts were slashed out of the air by her lightsabre, furniture was thrust into the air and hurled at the advancing abominations by a force repulse, then their limbs flew in a shower of violence. She hacked a chair that was hurled at her in two, then with a wave of her hand stopped a couch in mid-air and threw it back at a group of bouncers.

To her it seemed like the entire throng was swarming her, as if driven into insanity by some sinister force. She knocked guests charging her out of the way with force pushes but they kept coming with reckless abandon. She tried to focus but the faces of the insane patrons blurred with those of Reavers. She sought to blot out the voices and clear her mind, but the chorus was deafening.

Something was terribly wrong here.

"Purge the unclean!"

 

[Qae Shena]

As soon as the cry of 'She's here to kill us!' reached the Nautolan's ears and weapons were drawn, the fight was on. No more pretense. No more games. Qae was, finally, back on comfortable ground - in the middle of a fight. Kalahira came to his hands easily, with little more than a thought as she was summoned and activated, twin dazzling sea-green blades glowing and lighting up the sky. Those immediately around him stepped back, as if not expecting the unassuming Nautolan at the bar to be a warrior - but they soon poured on, treating Qae with the same malice that they did Siobhan.

Unlike her, he was not a telekinetic specialist. What he was, instead, was an expert in the art of motion and the art of the lightsaber. Literally the twin saber-tonfa blades became two endless blurs as he turned into a frenzied whirlwind of destruction. Twists of hips and flicks of wrists, turns of the torso and full-body spins, blending the wonderful styles of Ataru and Shii-cho together to make the destructive miasma that was Qae's chosen saber form.

Reavers died. And died. Their limbs went flying and bodies piled up as they tried, miserably, to come at him.

Actual guests were running by now. When two Jedi (at least, that was what common sense said) were going crazy and killing people with strange tattoos and marks and maybe a bit of 'bllluuuuuhhhh' action going on, they needed to get the hell out. And that they did. This left Qae to fight off the waves of enemies coming for him and not worry about harming the innocent. That was not his way. Instead, he was having fun dishing out beatdowns. The two blades of his tonfa flickered on and off as they passed his body, deactivating so as to avoid slicing himself into ribbons. The incessant hiss of lightsaber blades was staccato, unlike his motions.

"Siobhan!" Qae called as loudly as he could over the din. "Plan?!"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

There is no death, there is the Force. Thus it was written in the Code of the Jedi. It was quite an irony that the members of a non-religious order devoted to peace so often found themselves acting as death dealers, their lightsabres blazing a trail of cauterised flesh across the stars in their holy war with their opposite, the Sith. It was truly a philosophical conundrum.

Needless to say such philosophical debates were beyond Siobhan now as Qae joined her in the fray. The gods and goddesses of war called her blade into action and she answered the call. The brilliant blue blade of her lightsabre hummed and hissed, cutting a bloody swathe through ranks of Reavers. A hall full of Reavers and no innocents to get caught in the crossfire, she was in her element now as she moved in for the kill. When it seemed like she would be swarmed she somersaulted as creatures lunged at her, leaping high into the air before landing on the far side of the room. Furniture, corpses and plates were enveloped in a maelstorm as her powers created a whirlwind of destruction and swept it across the hall, then she charged, holding her lightsabre high above her head to deliver vicious swipes as limbs and heads flew.

All around them there was pandaemonium as guests took flight, screaming for their lives. Siobhan was not intent on harming innocents either. "To the VIP room! That's where I sense the disturbance from and our gang lord." The one who supposedly bore the Mark of Chaos etched upon her forehead.

"Qae, take cover!" Reaching for her belt Siobhan plucked free an incendiary grenade and hurled it into a group of Reavers, telekinesis guiding the deadly ball of fire and destruction through the air towards its targets where it exploded. White smoke rose up into the air, Reavers screamed as they were ignited by the flames.

Deftly wielding her lightsabre Siobhan moved closer to the stairs that would take them upward to the VIP section. The sensation of dark power emanating from it was palpable, once more the chorus of madness resounded, but this time she was prepared. They would get their answers, or so she thought.

What neither could know at this juncture was that their little rampage had hit the waves, so in retrospect it seemed like a logical assumption. One of the frightened guests, huddled somewhere in an alley behind the club, had made the bold decision of comming the police. Soon in the far distance sirens would be incessantly howling into the night as speeders were shooting out into the sky at top speed to reach the club.

Unfortunate, but then everything the two heroes were doing was for the cause of justice...

 

[Qae Shena]

Qae didn't need telling twice. If he had to go upstairs, then he'd go upstairs. There was no doubt in his mind; after all, the Reaver cultists had fired the first shot here. It was a shame this place was just becoming a damn killing pit, playing right into the hands of the Darkness as sacrifice after sacrifice was made in their unholy name utterly unwittingly, but such was the power of the Bando Gora and their convictions.

The Nautolan shoulder-charged his nearest opponent, rolling through to the cover of a flipped table, and crouching behind it as he took quick stock of the situation while the incendiary grenade went off. It was now a furious melee as the Reavers dogpiled their way towards two opponents that they couldn't quite touch, being sliced to pieces. However, the blasters were starting to come out, making it slightly more difficult to handle. Well. That needed to be fixed.

Off up the stairs, Qae was the rear guard to Siobhan's charge, protecting her back as she made her way up, deflecting more than one blaster bolt away from her just so she could survive. The Master-at-Arms snarled as this tonfa became a whirling shield, deflecting two bolts away into a Reaver and then the shooter. Nothing would get by them.

A roar, a bloody kiai, a centering of his being, and Qae stood beside her, ready, waiting. For the moment, as they hit the stairs, there was a moment's pause.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he said hurriedly, resetting himself into a low crouch stance, ready to spring off and leap headfirst into the next wave of Bando Gora fools.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"I'm mostly making it up as I go along," Siobhan responded as she charged up the stairs. With Qae providing the cover to her charge, his his whirling shield expertly reflecting back blaster bolts to Reavers - evidently they had gotten a bit smarter, commonly they just death charged their opponents - she could concentrate on the offensive.
She felt a warning through the Force and whirled around to swing her sabre and slice a Reaver's arm off. In a fury the creature charged, screeching like the beast it was as it lunged at her and jumped, but in a blur of movement Siobhan had moved out of the way, though its boot made contact with her face and knocked into it, but the Force Master spun as the Reaver slashed at her with its claws and raked her lightsabre across its back, burning through. But then she was already in motion again, moving in a fast blur as they got ever closer to the room that held the VIP section.

She felt a strong pounding in her eardrums, her concentration slipping as it had the feeling of a hammerblow striking her, as sonic rounds came her way, a hard beating into her skull before she steeled herself and dodged just in time to avoid an axe being thrown her way in a wide arc, training taking over as she held out her hand to rip the sonic gun out of the hands of the Reaver, turn it in mid-flight and fire, the Reaver rolling to dodge under a table as it was blasted before a rather raunchy portrait - did the enchanting lady who was exploring the flexibility of a Nautolan's tentacles look a bit like a daemonette? - fell from the wall and on top of its head.

Below them there was pure mayhem as their combined prowess as force warriors and the chaos generated by the incendiary grenade had wrecked a good portion of the hall, leaving it littered with corpses, but Reavers kept charging up their stairs, any serenity being broken by their bestial roars and screeches. Some went for Qae, charging him with swords and axes, others began to lob in grenades. "Reavers with brains, how annoying," Siobhan snarled, managing to force push a grenade back through the air before a concusssion grenade landed at her feet and knocked her back, the shockwave driving her into a table that under the impact hit a wall, a slug round grazing her shoulder so that she stifled a cry.
At this moment the door opposite to her was blown open by an explosion, flying towards her as she tried to regain her bearings, before in the last moment a wave of her hand halted its flight as it came to a halt just in front of her face before she with a push she sent it hurtling back and smashed into the Reavers coming up the stairs. Thoroughly annoyed Siobhan plucked a grenade from her belt and threw it after them. If it blew up the stairs, they could always use the window.


There was a loud explosion, then it was overtaken as once again the chorus of chanting voices arose, she fought to resist it, for this time she was prepared, but then as abruptly as it had come it vanished, replaced by the siren whispers of a voice that was almost as melodious as it was repulsive. Yes. You are so close. Come into my web down the rabbit hole. What the hell did that even mean?

Siobhan had little time to ponder this for as she got to her feet, lightsabre in hand she beheld a little red dot on her chest For a moment she was perplexed then leapt sideways just in time to avoid a shot ringing out from a slugthrower sniper rifle and shattering the window, it smashing into the wall behind her instead with such force that suggested it was armour-piercing. Were it not for Force enhanced reflexes it would have assuredly killed her.

An ominous roar was heard, heralding the arrival of a Gunship. An aged, out of date model used by what passed for this planet's equivalent of a special tactical response team for the police. Gun barrels of a minigun rotated, then what was left of the window was torn apart and the walls perforated by hundreds of bullet holes as the gunner fired a minigun. His face was twisted into an expression of viciousness, scarred by gashes and around his neck he wore a necklace with the Star of Chaos emblazoned upon it.

Yes. Destroy them. Destroy them all. The Bando Gora have extended their tendrils across the planet, the siren spoke.

Outside a dozen speeders had landed, gendarms and troopers clad from head to head in body armour, faces hidden behind visors, took up position, securing the exits, heavily armed with flechette launchers and repeaters....

 

[Qae Shena]

The chaos turned into a calamity, very suddenly. Blaster bolts and grenades were flying with considerably more frequency and the shots weren't just intended for Qae and Siobhan now - there were just shots everywhere. The chaos ended up with bodies, and body parts, flying everywhere, Qae on his back, and struggling to get back to his feet as the air tried to make its way back into his lungs.

Not to mention the voices in their heads were roaring whispers, so loud in their silence that it was deafening. This kind of mental attack was less intrusive but by no means any less powerful than a raw, all-out attack. Whoever was doing this was good. Spencer-good. He wasn't sure how to resist, fight, and dea lwith the incoming onslaught all at the same time. It was just hands-down impossible. So, instead, he took cover behind the pile of bodies as the wall was shredded around him.

He wasn't the soldier Siobhan was. He wasn't used to the cacophony of war; he was more suited to the dueling grounds, to taking an opponent apart one by one. This was all-out warfare. An open brawl. Something Qae just was not yet equipped to handle. Good experience for later, though, right? Probably.

The police had arrived and were out for cultist blood - or intruder blood, in the case of the Omega and the squid. Needless to say, this planet was going crazy and it was time to get the hell out.

"We need to find some evidence! Hold on!"

The staircase was empty and, while Siobhan was left to do her thing, Qae could use the deafening din to sneak into the VIP room and ransack it for something. moving through the the nimble, lithe speed of a dancer. In moments, he was in and gone, searching the room for something-- anything-- that they could use.

A Star of Chaos sat resting on a bench, and that was perfect. Qae snatched it up and in that instant let out a heaven-piercing scream as his mind came under attack by the million twisted voices of the Lord of Change. It was an unrelenting, endless assault, directly attacking his mind in ways Spencer could never have prepared him for - but the Lord of Change knew how to keep him screaming in endless torture.

Qae fell to the floor, unable to pass out.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan was, to be blunt, pissed off. Extremely pissed off. Her common reaction in such a situation, or when faced with opposition that merited such a response from her in general, was to tear anything apart that stood in her way. Right now she faced the problem that the opposition had exactly the same idea.

She could hear sirens howling, the thumping of boots and shouts, both from the police response team as its operatives stormed into the hall below them, and of the voices inside her head. Siobhan had not received the same training as Qae, who had learnt from a mentalist extraordinaire, so if Qae was not used to all-out war, then she was not used to fending off attacks that were not directed against her body but her mind.

Except when she had faced Shadow...and she had lost. She had been caught inside his web and made his queen before he had been exorcised, to this day she did not quite know how she had been freed, but she would not let anyone control her like that again!

However, there were more pressing concerns that called her attention, such as the minigun-equipped Gunship that was shredding the wall with a seemingly unending hailstorm of automatic, highly dangerous rounds. Siobhan gave it her all as she sank into the Force, running fast, flipping and dodging, rolling under a hail of rounds as portraits, furniture and the wall were torn to shreds. Portraits on the wall rained down upon her and she was struck and forced down. Pieces of the wall, perforated and shredded to such an extent one could look into the room behind, came undone and fell upon her. Siobhan thrust out with her hands, trying to construct an invisible wall upon which they fell, a telekinetic shield of sorts.

For a moment it seemed like she would succeed, the heavy objects having stopped just above her, then there was the loud thunking of a heavy duty grenade being shot out, namely from a trooper on the Gunship wielding a grenade launcher and the wall was blasted. Siobhan was hurled through the air by the shockwave, objects raining down left and right and crashed into the wreckage of a wall, parts of which soon fell on her as the minigun fired relentlessly. Siobhan just lay there for a few moments that seemed like ages, while Qae was subjected to the painful onslaught of the Lord of Change.

Dimly she could hear voices, the sound of boots, further away a window was blown open as a police speeder came to a halt in front of it, special response operatives climbing in, armed with blaster rifles and slugthrowers. Her head pounded from the hard hit it had taken, everything seemed to hurt, but for a moment at least the siren had fallen silent.

She took a breath then suddenly the large piece of wall on her was thrust into the air. Police fired and it was riddled with blaster bolts and automatic fire, but she held it in front of her like a shield, beads of sweat dripping down her forehead as she concentrated, then with a battle cry she gave it a push and sent flying towards the Gunship. The minigunner saw the incoming danger and redirected the focus of his volley, blasting it on full auto so that the improvised volley was ripped apart, but this had been the distraction Siobhan had needed, much as she would have liked to slam the volley into the Gunship and she sprung into action as surprised police man closed in on her, breaking into a flurry of kicks, punches and force enhanced dodges.

One got a heavy boot into his knee, the kick powered by the Force, then she sprung and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around and seizing his blaster pistol, firing and hitting another cop in the arm. Strictly speaking the coppers were here because they thought Siobhan and Qae were the cause of evil here, but with an armoured Gunship having blown the hall apart and everyone intent on killing them, this was no time to play nice. Using the copper as a shield she fired, then kicked him forward so that he collided with a comrade, using the moment to call her lightsabre towards her with the Force. One cop tried to stop her by jumping into its trajectory, but she was faster.

Snap-hiss.

Blaster bolts flew everywhere as she deflected. Admittedly she was not making much of an effort to deliberately hit the coppers, but not really holding back either. As the policemen retreated under the onslaught, pulling back down to the ruined stairs, she ran after Qae, hearing screams, dodging slug rounds being shot her way.
Things had seriously gone FUBAR.

"What the hell..." In the room she found Qae, lying there, then beheld the Star of Chaos. His ear-piercing scream filled the room, as Siobhan stretched out with the Force she almost lost her balance and then was forced down when she felt just a touch of the dark power emanating from the artefact. Her vision turned blurry, before her eyes she saw the ring of fire, voices beat their way into her skull with the force of a hammerblow and so she lay there on the ground, her mental barriers being broken down.


She sensed death, decay, destruction, power, then managed to raise her chin and behold Qae, then the Star. She felt her powers weakening in the presence of the Star, but then lashed out with her powers, a telekinetic assault fuelled by her rage as she tried to rip the Star out of Qae's hands and hurl it into a wall. Given that the move was uncontrolled, it would probably knock him around as well, but that was better than being subjected to what seemed to be emanating from the Star.

 

[Qae Shena]

All he knew was to scream. To beg for mercy, as twisted nightmares were flyng into his mind. It wasn't even coherent; it had the power of staring into the mind of an Old God and their power consuming and controlling ever fibre of your being. Not a part of Qae was left to be unravelled, twisted, stretched, torn apart and tormented for what felt like a literal eternity. Nothing Spencer could have done prepared him for this kind of total onslaught. This was his mind breaking.

You're nothing.
You're through.

Qae had no idea where or when he was any more. All he knew was to scream.

There was a very sudden sensation of rolling, then the sound of crystal shattering against a distant wall as the dull edges of consciousness began seeping their way back into Qae's psyche. The Star had been destroyed, and with it, the unholy control over his mind had broken. Qae, for now, was safe - thanks to Siobhan.

He was barely able to rise to his knees, hands still on the floor, blue skin an utterly pale shade almost as light as his tattoo, sweat rolling from his body like an oceanic torrent. Cold sweat. The kind you experienced in your worst nightmares, ten thousand fold.

"I-I..." Qae could barely manage, hardly able to stutter a response. He was cold. Oh so cold. Oh so unable to answer, to find a meaning of truth. He couldn't lift his voice to Siobhan, much less raise his head to speak to her properly. He had no anchor to the world. In a moment like this, when they were in the middle of a battle, this was not the time to be experiencing such mental distress. Nor was it the time to be flaking out, but when you stared into the abyss of eternal annihilation, what more could you do?

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

In space no one can hear you scream. Unfortunately, this was not space. Qae was free now of whatever torment the Star had subjected him to, something Siobhan did not understand and deep down it scared her. They were clearly not dealing with the usual Bando Gora Cult she had fought.
No, this was something far more sinister. Temporarily the chorus of voices had fallen silent, the spell seemingly broken now that the Star had been shattered, but the Lord of Change was patient. His plots could span millennia, too complex for the mind of a mundane to even hope to understand, as he led them into his web and made them willingly embrace the madness he induced into them. For the first time in a long time Siobhan felt real apprehension and fear.
Qae seemed knocked out of it, unable to rise out of the horrific nightmare the sorcery of the Lord of Change had subjected him to. Siobhan could hear voices coming from outside, the cops were storming up, this was no time to get wobbly. "Qae, snap out of it. We gotta get the frak out," she approached him and delivered a slap across his cheek, an attempt to wake him up. Perhaps he might hit her back but that would at least be a reaction.
She grabbed his hand and roughly hauled him up and pulling him along, not much for a pep talk as this point. It was not a moment too soon for the ominous roar heralded the coming of the Gunship. It had been forced to retreat temporarily when Siobhan threw a wall towards it, but had emerged unscathed and had now come to assault them once more. The minigun barked as rounds were spewed out with breakneck speed, shredding the luxurious furniture in the room and blasting a pillar and blasting the walls. Siobhan hit the ground, trying to crawl under the hail as rounds whizzed above her head.
Her heartbeat quickened, she could hear the sound of speeders racing towards them, evidently intent on storming the room through the windows while the Gunship kept them pinned down. "Qae, I'll draw its fire. Run...now!" At the clench of her hand the bench where Qae had found the Star of Chaos was raised and thrust towards the Gunship, as it shredded it to pieces Siobhan arose and, sweating and with adrenaline going into overdrive, she grabbed two grenades in hand. A thought was turned into action as telekinesis pulled the pin and she hurled them across the distance directed to crash against the wings and explode.
However, in the heat of combat Siobhan had failed to notice the police speeder that had closed in. A police sniper had taken aim, his laser rifle trained on her. In the same moment she spun to turn, not waiting to see the effect of the grenade, but the shooter was faster and squeezed the trigger, sending a powerful laser bolt that connected with the back of her right leg. Siobhan felt a burning pain and cried out as she fell over and toppled to the floor.