Invasion The Bacta War | Sith Order Invasion of High Republic Thyferra Chapter 1

[Darth Strosius]

Equipment: Lightsaber - Sword - Dagger - Robes
Tags: Lina Ovmar / Madrona A’Mia / Open!
--------------------------------------------

Lina's words of comfort were welcome and, given the Neti at her side, rather convincing as well yet Darth Strosius found Himself displeased all the same. There were worlds that were far more deserving of wanton destruction and the full wrath of the Sith than Thyferra, Naboo itself for example or any other Mid-Rim world were all but worthless especially in comparison. He could only hope that the rest of the war against the High Republic would prove just as ruthless as the battle this day was already shaping up to be.

It was what the Mid-Rim worlds deserved after all, He'd lost His chance to partake in ravaging the Core but He wouldn't miss the opportunity to do so to their suburban sibling systems. Nor would He restrain His followers from enacting their own wrathful reprisals either of course, this day would be the one and only exception. He took a moment to break from His musings to appreciate the shroud that arose around Him, felt more than seen, before setting foot onto Thyferra.

With both of His beloveds at His back He was far less inclined to rush too far ahead and carve a path for His soldiers as He typically would have, especially with A'Mia being relatively underdressed for a battlefield, however with the missiles and fire from orbit still ravaging the surface He was wary to move forwards very much at all regardless. Darth Strosius surveyed the burning fields, trailing His hidden gaze up to the nearest refinery before glancing back over His shoulder as the Legionnaires and droids filed out behind the three Sith.

"Begin sample collection immediately, there might not be much left to scavenge for before long. Engineering teams, remain in the rearguard and be ready for infiltration. They may already be awaiting our arrival and preparing defenses. Move quickly but carefully." Remaining in the open wasn't ideal of course even if they didn't have to reach the refineries quickly before any of their contents were sabotaged. He wouldn't put it past the Jedi and especially not past the rest of the Sith forces not to destroy the precious equipment before it could be salvaged and removed.

"I don't think today will be a day for 'citizen' anything, malul. Are you sure you don't wish to remain with the shuttles? Its barely been any time at all since Abregado Rae."

 

[Seren Gwyn]

Location: On the ground of Thyferra
Allies: SO and their allies
Enemies: THR, their allies Aiden Porte

Seren had seen worlds at war before.

That did not make Thyferra any easier to look upon.

From the descending transport, the world below seemed to have been divided between fire and storm. Great stretches of the Alazhi fields burned beneath a sky already darkened by smoke, their flames spreading in brilliant veins across the landscape while rain fell uselessly against them. Beyond those burning fields rose the refineries, immense structures of durasteel and machinery that had somehow escaped the destruction surrounding them. That alone told Seren something about the purpose of the invasion. Whatever else the Sith intended here, they had not come simply to reduce Thyferra to ash. The facilities mattered.

She stood near Tobias as the transport descended toward the surface, one hand resting lightly near the weapon at her side while her amber eyes watched the battlefield through the viewport. Seren had known Tobias long enough that accompanying him had required little explanation. There were people she trusted more readily than others, even among those who walked paths similar to her own, and familiarity counted for something when entering a battlefield where half the planet seemed determined to kill the other half.

The transport shuddered beneath another distant impact.

Seren steadied herself without taking her eyes from the ground below. Something about the situation bothered her, although it had nothing to do with fear. The fighting around the refinery did not possess the sprawling disorder she would have expected from two armies crashing against one another. Movement was narrowing. Routes that should have remained open were gone beneath collapsed structures, wreckage and fresh craters, while troops farther ahead appeared increasingly concentrated toward a smaller number of approaches.

Someone down there was shaping the battlefield. A faint frown touched her features. "They are funneling us."

The observation was offered quietly to Tobias rather than as a warning shouted through the compartment. He was capable of seeing the same battlefield she was, and Seren had no intention of pretending otherwise. Her gaze shifted toward the western side of the refinery as their transport continued its descent. It was one of the few approaches that remained comparatively intact, which made it immediately suspicious.

"That route is too convenient."

The landing came hard enough to send a vibration through the deck beneath her boots. The doors opened moments later, and noise flooded into the compartment. Rain struck metal in a relentless roar. Weapons fire cracked somewhere beyond the landing zone, joined by the deeper concussion of explosions rolling through the refinery district. Smoke drifted through everything, carrying the acrid scent of burning machinery and something more organic from the fields farther away.

Seren stepped down into the rain.

Water immediately darkened her clothing and gathered in strands of her blue-black hair, but she paid neither any attention. Her senses stretched outward instead, carefully touching the currents around her. The Force was strange here. Crowded. Fear, anger, and pain bled together from thousands of people caught within the battle, making individual presences difficult to distinguish beneath the sheer weight of it all.

For a moment, she simply listened and felt.

There were Jedi here. She had expected that much. Thyferra belonged within the High Republic's sphere, and no invasion of this scale would go unanswered. Yet she did not immediately reach for any particular presence among them. There was no need. Whoever had arranged the battlefield ahead of them had already made their intentions perfectly clear.

They wanted the Sith to come through the western approach. Seren glanced toward Tobias, then toward the narrow corridor of refinery structures waiting beyond the smoke. A small smile touched her lips. "I suppose it would be rude to keep them waiting." She moved with him toward the refinery.

Seren did not draw her weapon yet. There would be time enough for that. Instead she walked into the rain with the quiet readiness of someone who understood perfectly well that the path ahead was a trap and had decided to enter it anyway.

Somewhere beyond the smoke, their hosts were waiting. And somewhere else upon Thyferra, another presence had yet to cross her path.

 

[Velda Nar-Donna]

TAGS: Brandyn Sal-Soren / Bastila Sal-Soren
OUTFIT: Black Sith Robes
WEAPONS: 2 Lightsabers hidden

Rays of sunlight seeped through the crack of the front blast doors, which were ajar as aged water dropped against rusted durasteel in a slow, relentless meter.

Drip, Drip, Drip....

All that mixed with mildew, the dust, the slow decay of death.

Brandyn’s sudden charge into the fight had been a rather marvelous turn of events.

She had only spoken one sentence, and already, he attempted to strike her down. As ill-fated an attempt it was.

The ignition of his emerald blade was all the signal of intent she wanted to see. All she needed to say.

He lifted off, into the air, toward Velda’s direction.

Velda didn’t move and didn’t ignite her own blades as of yet. Instead, she tapped into the Force. And with the insidious, invisible hand of the darkside. She clutched Brandyn in mid-air. And sent him flying off to her right somewhere in the distance.

~And yet, here I am. Such a delightful attempt but quite ill-advised.~

It was so classically Brandyn, in the best way possible. And she rather adored that.

Her next words she spoke out loud were in High Sith… she ever so slightly turned toward Brandyn’s direction. And yet kept her hidden dark eyes on Bastila and as she spoke the words she made sure to translate them in Brandyn’s mind out of pure spite to him.


J'us shiyi tuti sari ir ri atswara diâ shiyi tuti tsosûtaiyi ...norit.


Even now, she mocked him as she turned her attention to Bastila.

Velda’s face, hidden within the black void of her hood, watched Bastila quietly.

She nonchalantly raised her hand and brushed off the dust and debris from the bunker's roof that had been knocked loose by the thunder of the bombings and rained down on her shoulders and hood with the elegant grace of a royal.

She didn’t make a move on Bastila or Brandyn just yet. Compelled to watch and wait for their next move. And whatever foolish attempt they choose to bring upon themselves.

 

[Akhenaton]

​

THYFERRA
Objective 1: Hunt The Sith
Equipment: [Lightsaber] | [Plasteel Armor] [Vibroblade]
Opposition: The Sith Order

Fire, smoke, and death. The Sith had come. The fields of Alazhi burned. From the sky, choked with smoke, Sith transports landed in the burning fields while the sound of batteries firing echoed in the distance. From a wooded ridge, Akhenaton watched the fire sweep across the fields in great crimson waves. The Dark Jedi watched motionlessly for several minutes, his dark purple cloak fluttering in the wind. Dark chrome armor made of plasteel hid the warrior beneath it. He was a man forged in the mines and fighting pits of the Outer Rim, a man with the discipline of a Jedi.

Many worlds had burned. The flames and those who started them were different. The reasons were always the same. The Sith knew only conquest. Fear. Fire. Destruction. Death. The Sith would congratulate themselves on this endeavour, claim mantras and titles, and speak of their personal glories. Hollow achievements. For any rampaging beast could strike fear into someone and kill, and any child with a match could burn and destroy what had taken others years to build and complete.

Nearby, an explosion rocked the trees. The shock wave shook the branches overhead, causing the winged creatures to take flight. Akhenaton's gaze shifted to the dropships as they came in and landed. Soldiers who fought for the Sith Order. Like a predator, the engine of Akhenaton's bike roared. He pointed the speeder down the slope and hit the accelerator. Ash swirled up behind him as the bike raced off.

Three Sith soldiers advanced through the undergrowth, their rifles raised. They had mistaken his stillness for ignorance. Akhenaton on his speeder bike quickly came into view, engine roaring. The first scout fired.

Akhenaton jumped from the bike as the bolt passed through the space he had occupied. His boots struck the earth, and his violet blade came alive in the same motion. A second shot met its edge and returned through the scout's chest. The remaining two split in different directions. One circled toward the speeder while the remaining soldier continued firing. Akhenaton advanced behind his blade, turning each bolt aside with short, controlled movements. He seized the rifle with the Force and pulled. The scout stumbled forward. Akhenaton met him halfway, driving the blade through his armor before casting the body aside.

The last soldier reached for his communicator clipped to his belt. Akhenaton extended one hand. The power of telekinesis wrapped around the scout's throat and lifted him from the ground, a force choke. The communicator slipped from his grip and fell to the ground. He struggled for breath as Akhenaton approached, his expression untouched by anger or excitement.

"How many are behind you?"

The scout answered with silence. Akhenaton tightened his grip until the man's neck broke. The body fell among the ash.

The Sith could come, and when they did. They would find the darkness waiting for them.

 

[Aiden Porte]

OBJ:1
Location: Fields-Hold The Swarm
Tags: Seren Gwyn​

Thus the enemy came, quicker and faster than he dared to admit. However, the Jedi Knight met them with equal fury, resilient and stubborn hope that stuck with him to his core. He didn't deny that the events that had transpired weeks ago weighed heavily on him, because they did. It was a new lesson, another test. It was almost, in a way, a terrible, terrible game the Force would play.

The Jedi Knight's blue blade moved with solid precision and perfect togetherness as members of his retinue took shots at those who were left around Aiden. They were best together, that was his belief. Not just his group, but all of them. He despised the splinter the Vanguard left within the Order. But for all that recklessness, it seemed they were together again now. It always took something terrible and drastic to happen before things could change. He wished, he hoped, that the drastic and terrible thing didn't have to happen.

"Aiden, we are taking a lock on these shipments moving in. Locations are being triggered across the area."

"Good, you know what to do."

Briana Sal-Soren battle meditation was aiding them greatly. And now another presence approached from afar, one known to him only briefly, one he had met along with another known as Varin.

There was no need for splendor or gallant words, just a warning.

"Turn around, go home. Your only chance."

 

[William Thule]

ALAZHI FIELDS​

"Begin sample collection immediately, there might not be much left to scavenge for before long. Engineering teams, remain in the rearguard and be ready for infiltration. They may already be awaiting our arrival and preparing defenses. Move quickly but carefully." Remaining in the open wasn't ideal of course even if they didn't have to reach the refineries quickly before any of their contents were sabotaged. He wouldn't put it past the Jedi and especially not past the rest of the Sith forces not to destroy the precious equipment before it could be salvaged and removed.

"I don't think today will be a day for 'citizen' anything, malul. Are you sure you don't wish to remain with the shuttles? It’s barely been any time at all since Abregado Rae."

Engaging: Darth Strosius | Lina Ovmar | Madrona A’Mia
With: Andromeda Demir

A hand rested on Andromeda’s shoulder, “We have little time for training, Knight Demir.”

Still, he was proud of her and what they’d done here. Both with the bacta research mission and now.

Eyes went toward the horizon, following an incoming vessel that touched down nearby, then to the squad of Republic troopers. “Sergeant, round up the farmers and marshal them as best you can. Split them in half. Some with us and your squad, the rest stay behind. Pick a soldier to help keep them in order. I feel a presence nearby…”

William frowned.

More than one.

And… something else. Deep beneath the earth, so deep that he almost missed it. A tremor.

William’s frown deepened, but they had no time to waste.

“Knight Demir,“ the Jedi Master took hold of his curved lightsaber and unclipped it from his belt. In a lower voice, “I don’t want to lead them into butchery. If I become preoccupied with the enemy and the farmers seem of no use, pull them back. Please.”

***

Moments later, Jedi Master Thule and his cohort moved through the terraced paddies until he felt the Sith. And then he saw them.

They appeared busy collecting something from the fields.

“Sergeant, eliminate them. Knight Demir, we take them together.”

Then his blade came alive in his hand, a bar of prismatic silvery-blue and shimmering indigo.

He spoke no words of warning. Said no idle banter or self-righteous order to surrender. This was war now and they were Sith. They had made their choices, likely long ago.

William charged across the alazhi paddy, boots sloshing, fungus puffing where he moved with Force-Enhanced swiftness. His dark robes fluttered around him. The air smelled of smoke. And the Force reeked of the Dark Side this close to these beings.

Blaster bolts whisked past him, many of them wild fired by untrained Vratix farmers who simply wanted to defend their homes. Others were far more accurate, aimed with the cool precision of Republic troopers to take out the Sith science team.

 

[Bastila Sal-Soren]

Brandyn moved before Bastila could stop him. His emerald blade ignited with a sharp snap-hiss, filling the decaying bunker with sudden colour and noise. Its light caught the suspended dust, the beads of condensation clinging to the ceiling and the rust bleeding down the walls in long, dark streaks.

Then he was airborne, yet not in the direction that he had just leaped from; Brandyn crossed Bastila’s peripheral vision with brutal speed before vanishing into the deeper reaches of the room. Something metal buckled in the darkness and the impact that followed a fraction later was heavy enough to shake loose another veil of dust from the ceiling.

Bastila did not look towards him, against every judgement and every instinct that was screaming at her to turn, to check that he was moving, to run to her brother as she had done in one form or another for most of her life. She forced herself to remain still, ensuring that her blaster remained levelled at the darkness beneath the woman’s hood.

Bastila had felt the Force move through the chamber. Not with the blunt violence of an explosion, but with the effortless certainty of fingers closing around a throat. This person had caught a charging Jedi in mid-air and discarded him without so much as shifting her feet.

The pistol suddenly felt very small, yet against all odds it did not lower.

High Sith spilled from beneath the hood, each word laced with malicious cruelty. Bastila did not or could not understand the words themselves, but she understood mockery well enough and the sentence was full of it. More importantly, she felt the violation beneath it; it was one of the fine-tuned parts of the force that forever remained a mystery to most, the fact that as his sibling Bastila completely felt the thin, invasive pressure of this assailant forcing meaning directly into Brandyn’s mind.

A chill passed across Bastila’s sweat-soaked skin as outside, artillery rolled through the jungle. The light between the blast doors flashed white, casting the hooded one into silhouette before darkness folded around them once more.

Bastila’s free hand moved slowly towards the lightsaber at her waist. She took it in hand but stopped short of igniting it. Igniting the weapon had already cost Brandyn the first exchange. She would not repeat his mistake simply because this Sith expected Jedi to answer every threat with coloured light.

A bead of water struck the floor between them.

Drip.

Bastila shifted one foot backwards, placing herself between the Sith and the direction Brandyn had disappeared. It was no defence against the Force, but the movement was instinctive and she despised herself for how easily it betrayed her.

The receiver inside her mask crackled.

A burst of overlapping voices broke through the interference, distant and distorted. Coordinates. A warning repeated twice. Then three clipped tones indicating a priority command channel had opened somewhere beyond the jungle.

Bastila’s stomach tightened as the realisation came in that the operation was moving more quickly than it should have. Which meant someone, somewhere, was running out of patience.

She silenced the receiver without taking her eyes from the Sith. Naming the other threat would accomplish nothing here. Brandyn knew what was at stake. If the High Republic chose to use the weapon, there would be no argument Bastila could make from inside this rotting bunker that would stop them.

Whatever time they had believed remained was disappearing.

“Take the shot,” Brandyn had announced moments before he had been sent across the room, and yet here she was still having not taken it. Her thumb eased the blaster’s selector into its highest setting. The soft mechanical click sounded obscenely loud beneath the dripping water.

Drip

Her fingers closed around her lightsaber hilt, and she took a deep breath, the muzzle of her blaster unwavering. The shot that came from it was hard and fast, aimed straight at the hooded being, but she already knew it would mean nothing. So moments after the sound of the blaster echoed through the chamber the crack-hiss of her own lightsaber filled the silence and the violet haze of her blade made the darkness of the chamber take on a whole new hue. The action came more steadily than how she felt inside.

Another detonation sounded outside, close enough that the blast doors groaned inward against their corroded runners. Sunlight briefly widened through the gap before the metal settled again. The scene gave her time, she started to close the gap releasing one, two, three more blaster shots.

Crack

Crack

Crack.

OUTFIT: XoXo | TAG: Brandyn Sal-Soren Velda Nar-Donna EQUIPMENT:

​

 

[Tobias Dib]

Allies: Sith Order
Enemies: Everyone else
Tags: Connel Vanagor , "Ariel" , Seren Gwyn , Aiden Porte

The silence in response to his ultimatum drew a cold smile across his face as his helm tilted down to look at the woman standing beside him. "Their silence is meant to instill the idea that they have capitulated to our demands. My faith in this temporary ceasefire is limited only by the time required to mount an adequate response to our actions. The clock is ticking." There was no humor in his words double-meaning, though there was truth. Nemesis was unsure how much time would remain before the enemy's response, so he took advantage of the lull in battle.

"Torin, take two squads and retrieve the barrels. Bring them to me. Bell, with me." His helm inclined to the dark-skinned woman at his side to welcome her to join him. As they arrived on Thyferra, her thoughts mirrored his own, with concern about the narrowing passages and potential ambushes. Instead of her unease spilling out like fear or cowardice, she relayed her desire to spring the traps with full preparation in mind. She was a worthy companion in this battle. Hard as beskar. If she lived, perhaps he would begin to foster a tentative friendship with the dark woman. Or, at least, a mutually beneficial alliance of potential goals.

You could never have too many assets, allies, or friends with enough shared secrets that offered a mutually assured destruction should either party cross the other. Why? Because blackmail, threats, and torture would only extend so far. Better to have shared skeletons in the closet. And even better to have skeletons the other party believed were shared when, in reality, it was nothing further than the truth. Wisdom said never to risk yourself when you could risk everyone else. His helm turned to bring her into view for a moment as he reasoned that this outing would decide what category the woman fell into. If she didn't fall on Thyferra between then and now.

The two Sith, or at least Sith-adjacent, stood beneath the tall towers with many of his Ronin wandering through the offices and labs, collecting every byte of information possible, every data core, all samples of new strains, and even finding backdoors in through the network into various other types of businesses before transferring files to reliable backups. Several of which were on his person. "I have a few plans to set in motion. Including possible avenues of escape should we need them. If you would, my dear, see the barrels delivered to the location we've previously discussed. Once your mission is accomplished, return so we can implement the next stage of our plans." A measure of warmth lay beneath the cold, calculating voice, small though it was.

Torin's arrival, leading the squads that had retrieved the barrels, was the catalyst for their temporary parting. Another tilt of his helm was all the farewell he offered. As she led the way to her portion of the objective, Nemesis checked the timer still ticking at the corner of his HUD.

5.39.54
5.39.53
5.39.52

Only ten minutes had passed since the completely unfortunate incident with the twenty-five thousand souls. Entirely unnecessary until his hand was forced. Deaths that were due to the interference of those seeking to supplant his purpose for being on Thyferra. Overwatch checked in, the different outposts echoing their codes in the background. Everything was currently going to plan. But he knew how quickly that could change. The need for alternative plans was always part of his contingencies. The first wave of freighters landed, and the many vratix who survived the forest fires were ushered into cargo holds that smelled of livestock. Technically, the freighters would still be transporting livestock—merely a different variety.

The first wave of freighters ignited their repulsors, then their ion drives, to escape the planet's gravity as another group of freighters arrived to accept more of the sentient chattel. Several more clusters of freighters waited in low orbit for their turn at the cattle pens his detachment secured. It was easy enough to implement. The ships offered escape from the madness that now infected their planet and destroyed their homes. Self-preservation was a powerful motivator ... as was wealth. Nemesis turned his attention to the new Ronin at the computers within the towers as the hackers and slicers delved into systems with no bearing on the planet's military capabilities. Some worked at other forms of terror while the rest secured information only Nemesis had commanded.

Time crept along as he kept an attentive eye on the timer and the other areas of work. More shuttles arrived outside the industrial park, though far fewer than should have arrived. Blaster scouring marked many of the hulls, proof of the resistance of the planet. "Bring the new troops into the industrial park. Have them placed so each team can see the next. No surprises. Also, send snipers into the towers. And get all the non-essential personnel we've captured and place them in the shuttles. I want them in the air acting as screens for possible attacks. And also ..." After his commands were obeyed, he looked at the timer.

5.24.47
5.24.26
5.24.25

Then one of his Overwatch commands stopped responding. Nemesis allowed a small smile to cross his lips as he merely listened to the issues whispering over the comlink. He opened the frequency to Seren. "The defenders are responding. Accelerate and return. But make sure the objective is complete." He closed the channel and waited for the inevitable next attack. He didn't need to wait long. Another channel opened. "Send a shuttle at the armored enemy on a collision course. Either they shoot the ship full of civilians down, or it crashes into the armored enemy. Oops, this was on an open channel. I assume they know what's coming now. Darn my accidental misstep." He smirked as one of the shuttles angled toward the REEK and accelerated. Regardless of the effectiveness of the run, the shuttle had a proximity alarm tied to a self-destruct device. If the shuttle even tried to land, game over. A win-win scenario.

His fingers tapped a holoscreen on his gauntlet and silently mused if any of the attackers were still near the Overwatch outposts. Either way, this would be entertaining. He triggered the self-destruct on every Overwatch. Timers set for a mere three seconds. Nemesis counted in his head until explosions rocketed in the distance, gas from the barrels within spreading in a cloud. The loss of life under his command meant little. They were all expendable anyway. The timer continued ticking down.

5.13.12
5.13.11
5.13.10

 

[Judah Lesan]

WEARING: Robes
WEAPONS: 2 Lightsabers
ALLIES: Lorn Reingard | Acier Moonbound
ENEMIES: Srina Talon | Mercy

Judah Lesan had survived the crash, which was probably the important part. Everything after that felt considerably less organized.

He spent the first few minutes outside the wreckage taking inventory, though that proved difficult when he could not always remember what some of the inventory was supposed to be. The stolen blaster was still on his hip, both arms worked, and nothing felt broken badly enough to stop him from moving. His head hurt, but that had become common enough over the last year that Judah was beginning to think of headaches as more of a personality trait than a medical concern. One boot, however, was missing entirely. Judah stared down at his bare foot for several seconds before looking back toward the burning remains of the transport.

"No."

Whatever explanation existed could stay in there.

The more pressing problem was figuring out where he was going. Thyferra remained clear enough in his head, as did the fact that there was a war happening, which had been difficult to miss even before his ship had been unceremoniously removed from the sky. Beyond that, Judah's thoughts became considerably less cooperative. He knew he had come here for a reason, something involving the Republic and finding someone, but the details had apparently decided they were optional. He made it several steps before stopping with a frown.

"Jedi. Right."

Find the Jedi. That was simple enough.

The landscape around him was doing very little to support his optimism. Smoke rolled over portions of the horizon while fires continued chewing through the distant fields, and the sounds of fighting carried from somewhere ahead. Judah had no idea which direction qualified as safer, but that particular decision was made for him when something bright suddenly pressed against his awareness.

He stopped and closed his eyes, concentrating on the sensation. Someone nearby had opened themselves to the Force so completely that even Judah's battered mind could find them through the noise. The presence was steady, deliberate, and impossible to miss. Judah smiled faintly as he opened his eyes again.

"See? Still got it."

Whether he meant the Force or his ability to walk in approximately the right direction was unclear even to him.

Following the presence was easier than thinking too hard about anything else. There were moments along the way when his purpose slipped, nothing dramatic, just brief gaps where Judah would catch himself staring at a burning structure or listening to some distant explosion and realize he had forgotten what he had been doing a few seconds earlier. Each time, the bright presence ahead gave him something simple enough to hold onto.

Jedi.

Go there.

It was not much of a plan, but Judah Lesan had survived considerably worse ones.

By the time the refinery came into view, Judah was covered in dirt, blood had dried along one side of his face, and the stolen jacket looked like it had lost an argument with the crash. The missing boot had also graduated from mildly irritating to personally offensive. None of that mattered when the presence he had been following became stronger.

Someone was inside, and whoever they were felt right.

"@Cambria Zadira… is that you?"

Judah approached carefully enough to avoid being shot by anyone who might mistake the heavily disheveled man carrying an Imperial blaster for someone important. When he finally found the two men near the refinery defenses, relief reached him before any attempt to identify either face. He looked between them, took in the preparations around the refinery, and lifted both hands slightly away from the weapon at his hip. "Please tell me one of you is a Jedi. Actually, don't tell me. If you're Sith, I'd rather enjoy the next five seconds."

The corner of Judah's mouth twitched. For the first time since waking inside the wreckage, he felt like he might have made a good decision.

Then something familiar touched the Force behind him.

Judah went still.

There were entire portions of the last year he could not remember. Conversations disappeared halfway through recollection, faces sometimes arrived without names, and names surfaced without any idea why they mattered. There were days he could not remember whether something had happened yesterday or months ago. Srina Talon required none of that. His mind might have been full of holes, but apparently she had made certain none of them were large enough for him to forget her.

Judah slowly turned toward the direction of that familiar presence and muttered…

"Oh, crap."

Of course she had followed him. Or had he followed her? Why would anything about today have become easier now? He rubbed a hand over his face and briefly considered whether pretending not to notice her might somehow work. Given the events of the last year, he doubted Srina would appreciate being defeated by the ancient Jedi technique of looking somewhere else.

Then Judah became aware of another presence with her.

His brow furrowed.

"Well… that's was new."

He narrowed his eyes toward the approaching figures while his mind attempted to determine whether this was an actual development or simply another example of something important having fallen through one of the increasingly large holes in his memory. There was Srina.

Judah knew Srina.

Beside her was someone else, someone considerably larger, whose presence did absolutely nothing to improve the situation. Judah looked from Srina to Mercy and then back again, visibly working through the problem before glancing toward the two Jedi he had only just found.

"I'm having some memory issues, but I'm pretty sure there was only one of her before." He studied Mercy for another moment and shook his head. "Nope. Definitely would've remembered that."

His hand settled against the stolen blaster at his hip, not because Judah thought it was going to solve anything, but because having something to do with it seemed preferable to standing there wondering how his escape had somehow become progressively worse. He had found the Jedi, so that part of the plan had worked. Unfortunately, Srina had found him too, and apparently she had brought company.

Judah looked at the two men standing close to him once more before turning his attention back toward the approaching Sith. Somehow, despite everything, something resembling his old grin managed to surface.

"So…. any chance you two are having a better day than I am?"

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

For the second time in the last few days, Brandyn was sailing across the room — thrown by the Force. This time, thankfully, he did not reopen the wound on the back of his head. Instead, he came sliding to a stop against he wall, the ground producing friction burns along his arm and side.

"Kark it all," he muttered.

Getting up again was slower than normal. But more for the humiliation of it, than actual pain — that part was already being dulled by the Force. His comms filled with the urgent, frantic response of military and Vanguard alike. The assault had begun, and his connection to Velda had acted as a beacon to out he and Bastila before they could contribute meaningfully to Thyferra's defence.

For a moment, he considered tugging at the dyad for strength, but dared not endanger Briana in this moment — not knowing what peril had befallen his elder sister. The other option was still there. The left side of his face still felt off, and reminded him of the source of strength that was right there, even at this distance, the subtle thread of the dark side that he could pull on from Meya Liefi was so very tempting.

Neither option would be taken. Brandyn made a promise to himself, though the thought left him entirely unconvinced.

The words of his tempter filtered into his mind, followed by a wave of foreign shame. The mockery, the bile, the dark side whispering that he wasn't enough. Velda forgot one pivotal matter: Brandyn already knew he was unworthy.

Crack

Crack

Crack.

"Velda!" Brandyn yelled for the sake of distraction. Bastila might know the name, but the Sith's time on Naboo with the family was largely when Bastila was an infant, or toddler. Unless either of his other sisters had been blabbing about them.

The realisation he had on Eliad played in the back of his mind. For months now he had pursued the fragments of the Unblessed, when all along it made just as much sense that Velda was the the villain of this tale. Velda might have Gianna. Her showing up on Thyferra, right here...right now. Only added fuel to this suspicion.

He stalked back towards her, blaster coming to hand, as he unleashed a volley of his own.

"Bast...be careful...this one doesn't play around..."

Bastila Sal-Soren Velda Nar-Donna
​

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

Objective One
Industrial Complex Refinery
Outfit: x x x x x | Equipment: x x x x x x | Weapons: x x x | Companion: Domxite
Interacting with: Revna Marr

A message crackled through Zaiya's encrypted earpiece, telling her that Sith forces were moving into the industrial complex.

"Okay. Got it."

Except nothing about this was okay. Not for the Lovalla, for the empath -- because Zaiya could feel Thyferra around her.

Had it not been for the extensive training she had in maintaining her mental shields, it would have crippled her. Fear and panic crashed against anger, pain, confusion, grief. So many emotions overlapping that normally she might have struggled to pick one from another. Over her rosy golden skin, the mottled spots flickered bronze and worried yellow as the edges furled in a muted, silvery bioluminescence beneath the smoke-stained light, her heart squeezing painfully.

Why? Why do this?

The sickly-sweet scent of burning alazhi filled every breath, dragging memories with it. Thyferra. Coruscant. Back when she had barely understood what the Force was, much less Jedi and Sith and why they seemed destined to keep doing this to each other.

But Zaiya understood more now. She was older. She had faced many things. She was now a Jedi Knight -- which honestly still felt strange sometimes because surely Jedi Knights were supposed to know exactly what they were doing and not occasionally wonder if they were making things up as they went along.

But she did know one thing; she had promised to protect people.

"There is movement ahead." Zaiya's attention snapped forward as she called out, feeling the Force direct her to the most immediate need that sent a rush of warning. Through the smoke came soldiers escorting several containers toward the refinery. Sith Troopers. And among them, a woman with a lightsaber in hand.

And from the way her aura seemed to swirl in a curious cloud, Miasama drew a purse of the Lovallas' brows. But it was the way it was streaked with another curious hue that made Zaiya tilt her head in curiosity. The tiered earrings at her ears gave a soft chime as she stepped forward, one hand lifting toward the Republic soldiers behind her; they brought up their weapons at the ready.

"Wait."

Bright against the ash and smoke, Zaiya looked almost painfully out of place. Her thick braid spilled over one shoulder in magenta, teal, and cobalt, while silver embroidery shimmered across her spidersilk tunic and pants. Blacka nd white pearls glittered along her belt and dozens of bracelets crowded her wrists.

Usually there would have been bouncing, even a wave of hello. Maybe a curious question... or five. But not this time. Not now. This was too serious. And it was obvious as ocher tones of focus rolled through her mottled spots, followed by dark yellow determination. And while her lightsaber remained at her belt, her stance never faltered. Opal blue eyes settled first upon Revna, then those containers, then the refinery beyond. Whatever was inside those crates, the Sith wanted them there, and Zaiya planted herself directly in their path.

"You are not welcome here." There was no accusation in her voice. No anger, only certainty. But as another explosion thundered somewhere behind her. Zaiya flinched despite herself, spots flashing startled yellow before stubborn ocher swallowed it again. Enough people had been hurt already, and her chin lifted again, the kyber crystal hairclip attached along the thick braided plait of her ombre magenta, cobalt, and teal hair starting to flicker brightly in response.

"Leave."

The dozen phirk bangles and cuffs at Zaiya's wrist gave a tiny musical jingle as her fingers curled at her side.

"Now."

 

[Seren Gwyn]

Objective: 1
Allies: SO and their allies
Enemies: THR, their allies and Aiden Porte

Seren had not questioned Tobias when he sent her away with the barrels. There had been little reason to. Whatever reservations she might have possessed about the rapidly changing situation on Thyferra, she had agreed to stand beside him in this undertaking, and that meant trusting that the pieces he placed into motion served a purpose beyond what she could immediately see. The Ronin accompanying her moved quickly through the industrial complex while Seren remained alert to everything beyond them, amber eyes occasionally lifting toward the towers and the smoke-darkened sky as the distant sounds of battle continued to roll across the city.

The sudden crackle of Tobias's voice through her comm drew her attention immediately. "The defenders are responding. Accelerate and return. But make sure the objective is complete."

"Understood."

There was no hesitation in the answer, nor did Seren immediately turn around and abandon what he had entrusted to her. Tobias had been quite specific about that last part, and she understood why. Returning quickly meant nothing if she returned having failed to accomplish the reason he had sent her away in the first place.

"You heard him. Move."

The command sent the accompanying Ronin forward with renewed urgency. Seren remained with them until the barrels reached the location Tobias had previously designated, watching as the last of them were put into position rather than assuming someone else would finish the work in her absence. Only once she was satisfied that Tobias's instructions had been carried out did she turn back toward the industrial park.

By then, the atmosphere had changed.

It was more than the distant explosions that rolled across Thyferra or the increasing chatter over the communications channels. Seren could feel it through the Force. The defenders were no longer probing the edges of Tobias's operation. They were closing in, their collective presence pressing against the darkness that had descended upon the industrial complex. Somewhere in the distance, another explosion thundered through the city, followed by several more in rapid succession, and Seren quickened her pace.

She needed to get back to Tobias.

Then she felt him.

Recognition came before sight, carried through the Force in a presence Seren had encountered only once before but had little reason to forget. Chalcedon returned to her in fragments: oppressive heat, rattling chains, cages crowded with frightened people, and a blue lightsaber blazing through a marketplace built upon the sale of sentient lives.

Aiden Porte.

Their first meeting had hardly been pleasant. He had arrived at the slave market as a Jedi with every reason to distrust the two darksiders he found there, and Seren had possessed equally little patience for being treated as though she were one of the slavers simply because of what she was. Yet beneath the suspicion and threats had existed one inconvenient truth neither of them could deny. They had wanted the same thing. Aiden had torn into the slavers openly while Seren and Varin used the resulting chaos to free their captives, and eventually they had reached an understanding that was less an alliance than an agreement not to interfere with one another.

Stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. Apparently the Force possessed a sense of irony.

Aiden's warning reached her across the distance before she saw him. "Turn around, go home. Your only chance."

Seren slowed.

For the briefest moment, her amber gaze shifted toward the direction she had been traveling. Tobias was somewhere beyond Aiden, along with the Ronin and everything else rapidly unfolding throughout the industrial park. Her orders had been to complete the objective and return.

The first was done. Aiden was now standing between her and the second.

"You told me to stay out of your way the last time we met."

She doubted the quiet observation carried far enough for him to hear it. Perhaps that was just as well. Seren continued forward, leaving those who had accompanied her to the barrels behind as she followed the familiar presence through the industrial complex.

Smoke curled between the towers and crawled across the walkways, periodically illuminated by distant blaster fire. Seren moved through it without rushing, one hand hanging loosely near Voidstar while her senses stretched outward. Battle meditation touched those arrayed against them, something subtle yet pervasive beneath the violence, lending coordination and resolve to the defenders. She could feel the difference it made even without knowing who was responsible for it.

Eventually the haze thinned enough to reveal the blue glow she remembered. Seren stepped from between two refinery structures and finally saw Aiden properly. For several seconds she said nothing.

There was something strangely disappointing about finding him here. On Chalcedon, whatever else had existed between them, Seren had seen a man willing to throw himself against people who bought and sold lives as casually as others traded machinery. She had respected that, even if she had never told him. Perhaps under different circumstances they might once again have discovered something upon which they agreed.

Thyferra offered no such convenience.

"Last time you told me our goals happened to align, but that didn't mean we were allies."

Her gaze remained fixed upon him as she stopped several meters away, rain and moisture collecting against the dark strands of hair framing her face.

"I suppose now we know what the alternative looks like."

There was no mockery in Seren's voice. No grin accompanied the words, nor did she seem particularly pleased by the prospect before them. Aiden had given her an opportunity to leave, and perhaps some part of him genuinely expected her to take it.

She couldn't. Tobias had told her to return. Seren's fingers curled around Voidstar's hilt and slowly drew the weapon free.

"I can't turn around, Aiden."

The saber ignited with a sharp snap-hiss, its crimson-cored blade casting its glow across Seren's features as she lowered naturally into the balanced foundation of Niman. She did not charge him. There was no need for some dramatic rush merely because their positions had finally placed them on opposing sides. Instead she gave him the same consideration she would have wanted from him: one final opportunity to understand exactly where matters stood.

"On Chalcedon, you had your purpose, and I had mine. We stayed out of each other's way because we could."

Her eyes briefly moved past him toward the industrial park before returning to the Jedi.

"This time you're in mine."

Seren raised Voidstar between them.

The unfortunate understanding that had existed in a slave market was gone. Whatever respect might have survived their first encounter did not change what either of them had come here to do.

If Aiden intended to keep her from returning to Tobias, Seren would have to go through him.

 

[Rik Perris]

CELESTIAL RESONANCE​

When Briana joined up with the advance on Thyferra, arriving from wherever she’d been without so much as a word to anyone, the urge to question her had been on the curious side of nil. Operational focus meant he compartmentalised the issue, much as he was doing for more than just that one thing; there had been a grating lapse in communication within the Vanguard, far too often as of late, the definition of necessity stretched, but it could wait.

His want to know what became of Jakku, to assuage or wring his heart, too, could wait, as he crouched low in the damp climate of the Thyferran jungle, listening over the bud nestled almost-inconspicuously in his ear to the Vanguard teams, as they finished settling into starting positions while she went off for final preparations—he assumed—allowing himself only the scant wonder if what he saw in her face on arrival had anything to do with that need. But again it could wait.

When the other Knight returned, he gave a cursory glance to her approach, the not-so-indeciperable look on her face, and skirted his gaze away, his head turning as if keen towards a sound. But there were many sounds, natural to this place and not. The Vanguard for the most part, waited for when, or were in the process of pressing towards it. There was no if, not when the acrid scent of smoke began entering the air, and chatter came in that the Sith were putting Alazhi fields to the torch, elsewhere. As if the humidity wasn’t enough to contest.

Not that this was unfamiliar to him, either. Thirty-odd years, most of it Jedi, and it had put him in the jungle plenty enough. The underlayer of his armour modulated his temperature anyway. The fire and smoke was a concern, but nothing he hadn't lived through before. Briana settled back in next to him in their somewhat concealed spot, and he afforded her a sidelong glance as she relayed readiness to the Vanguard teams, then sunk into something deeper.

This was what was agreed, short as the discussion was to bring her up to speed once she was boots to ground in this place. But as he went to look away, again, he thought better. The ministrations of her meditation impacted him immediately, the boon a familiar thing, and if he was going to lie in wait all the same?

A firm hand came to rest on her nearest shoulder, as breathed in, out, and recalled the peace of countless moments, the most recent on the day he met Oryn Selvar , taking in the summit view as the sun crept over the horizon and that Nabooian valley awoke. A centering state, from which he followed with offered refreshment in the face of whatever it was she had come from. It was another moment before he finally spoke, low, quiet, and slow. Focused.

“Don’t know what you were told, but a man died bringing us this intel.” The slight edge to his otherwise distant voice—it was so, due to the trance of serenity—betrayed his thoughts toward the fact. “Don’t let it be in vain.”

He left his hand there and maintained feeding the boon, while fingers of the other hand went to his ear as further reports filtered in, word of movements—enemy personnel, and strange, sealed containers—while a particular kind of filth, solid, potent, entered the edge of his awareness, unparsed as yet by the teams under his and Briana’s tandem command. And it was on the move.

Nobody was wasting their time here, least of all the Sith. As for the Vanguard, they knew what they had signed up for, as he had. He keyed the comm with a touch to the earbud, and began disseminating instructions to Vanguard teams in the vicinity of the complex.

<< Be advised, darkwalker on approach, >> his tone even and of a distant, trance-inflected quality still, but with just enough volume for the comm to catch as he relayed what his senses caught, << engage what it’s brought along, but funnel that darkwalker to our location. Do not engage it. >> He looked again at Briana, brown eyes skirting her way. << And get us more on those containers. >>

Confirmations began rolling in, and Vanguard teams began to move out from their placements to engage the Legion, but before the teams set to approach the containers did as such, another report tailed shortly thereafter from that location.

<< What? Repeat? >> Well that was unexpected. << And then she vanished, >> he deadpanned while his brows rose, his gaze still on his partner. What sort of antics was Kitt Solo up to? << Take advantage of the opening, but beware reinforcements to your location. >> Every little bit helped. << We'll thank her later, Force willing. >>

LOADOUT
TEMPLAR-Class Jedi War Plate • 2 x Jedi Imbued Kolcta Grenades • 1x PGEM "Gravetail" Vibroblade • 1x Blue-Bladed Lightsaber

ALLIES
Briana Sal-Soren

THE WOFL AND THE BEANPOLE
Gerwald Lechner • Varin Mortifer​

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Staff | Monsters
Allies: Madrona A’Mia Darth Strosius
Engaging: William Thule Andromeda Demir

"Lovely day for some citizen science, don't you think?" She quipped, grinning brightly back at Lina like a school girl giddy for the day ahead.

Lina let out a low chuckle, A’Mia’s enthusiasm infectious as always. No matter how dire things might be, the neti’s bright smile and sea green eyes always served to brighten her mood. She drifted closer to her, linking her arm with hers. Were it not for the echo of battle beyond, the deep tremors of darkness in the force and the smoke that washed over them occasionally, one might have thought they were simply out for a stroll in a garden.

"I don't think today will be a day for 'citizen' anything, malul. Are you sure you don't wish to remain with the shuttles? Its barely been any time at all since Abregado Rae."

Lina clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Ever the worrier, ki Sosûtudas.” she lifted her gaze fondly back to the A’Mia.

“We so rarely get the opportunity to be together, why should we let the Jedi take that from us?”

Another shift in the winds obscured their view as thick smoke washed across the path, carrying with it the scent of the battlefield beyond, and in the brief darkness, the Kinisirsa she had tied to the Wonosan Legionnaires shifted, lifting their noses and drawing in the scent of blood.

William charged across the alazhi paddy, boots sloshing, fungus puffing where he moved with Force-Enhanced swiftness. His dark robes fluttered around him. The air smelled of smoke. And the Force reeked of the Dark Side this close to these beings.

Blaster bolts whisked past him, many of them wild fired by untrained Vratix farmers who simply wanted to defend their homes. Others were far more accurate, aimed with the cool precision of Republic troopers to take out the Sith science team.

Then it was gone, the haze drifting to reveal their enemy ahead of them, the shadow walkers sinking back into the natural shadows of their hosts. Lina paused her head tilting, emerald eyes scanning them for a moment before the opened fire, two Jedi charging towards them. She released A’Mia’s arm, stepping slightly away from her as she reached beyond the veil.

Where death was rampant, the Nether was always close and it filled her, veins darkened, pulsing with every shred of power she drew, her eyes shifting from piercing green to glittering obsidian pools.

She tipped her staff forward and from it darkness spilled. Swallowing the three of them and spreading rapidly to shroud the wonosans, racing for the Jedi and their militia beyond. It wouldn't do for her pets to be restricted in their movement after all.

“I had something I wanted to run by you, ki manatsa” she continued conversationally.

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
ALLIES: Irina Jesart | ENEMIES: Kito​

“Stop it.”

Aerik’s eyes shifted toward Irina.

He knew exactly what she meant, which spared her from having to say anything more. His attention had wandered toward her shoulder more than once since they began their advance, and the bond between them made hiding the rest considerably more difficult. Irina had never blamed him for Brosi, but forgiveness had done little to change the memory of what his teeth had done to her flesh.

“I know.”

It was the only answer Aerik gave her.

Irina was right. His thoughts had become a distraction, and indulging them here would accomplish nothing. He could worry about what might happen until the moment it actually did and still be no better prepared for it. Prazutis had taught him more than that. Whatever test waited for Aerik on Thyferra would come whether he spent the entire march anticipating it or not.

His focus returned to the advance.

The transports continued through the burning fields with the Second Legion surrounding them, their sealed cargo moving steadily closer to the refinery. Aerik began paying more attention to the terrain ahead, measuring the broken stretches of ground between their position and the facility while his senses searched beyond what the smoke allowed him to see. The blood remained, but he stopped examining what its presence meant for him and allowed it to become another piece of the battlefield instead.

That was when something changed.

Aerik felt the darkness before he understood its source. The Force seemed to gather somewhere above them with such density that his attention snapped upward, every other concern driven from his mind by the sheer weight of what was forming overhead.

He knew that presence.

Darth Prazutis .

The realization came only moments before Irina shouted for the transports to halt.

Aerik moved immediately.

“Aerik, get the other one!”

He was already running.

The second transport had barely begun bleeding momentum when Aerik reached it. His boots struck against the side plating once before he hauled himself onto the roof, turning toward the approaching devastation as the power unleashed by his master struck the surface several klicks away.

For the briefest instant, Aerik simply stared.

He had experienced Prazutis’s power before. He had trained beneath it and felt what it was like to have the Shadow Hand’s attention fixed entirely upon him. None of that prepared Aerik for seeing his master turn that power loose upon a battlefield.

The ground disappeared beneath black-red light.

Aerik dropped his center of gravity and reached for the Force.

The barrier came into existence around the transport just as the shockwave reached them. It struck with enough violence to drive Aerik backward across the roof, his boots scraping against the plating while the shield around him shuddered beneath the impact. Dust, shattered earth, burning vegetation, and pieces of debris hammered against the barrier in a deafening torrent. Aerik clenched his jaw and pushed back, pouring more of himself into the shield as the transport rocked beneath him.

For several seconds, there was nothing beyond it but destruction.

Aerik held.

The worst of the pressure finally rolled past them, though debris continued striking the barrier as the devastation traveled farther across the fields. Aerik maintained the shield until those impacts became scattered rather than constant. Only then did he allow the Force to recede.

Smoke and dust had swallowed everything.

Aerik remained crouched on the transport roof while his senses reached outward. His ears rang from the impact, and the air tasted of pulverized earth and ash. Somewhere through the bond he could still feel Irina, which answered the first question that entered his mind before he could waste time looking for her through the haze.

She was there.

Good.

Aerik rose slowly.

The landscape ahead was not the one they had been approaching moments earlier.

Where defensive positions and obstacles had stood between the Sith advance and the refinery, Prazutis had carved devastation through them. The route was hardly clean. Fractured earth and scattered wreckage covered the approach, while fires burned among whatever remained standing, but the resistance that had occupied that ground had suffered considerably worse.

Aerik stared at the destruction for another moment before looking toward the distant figure of his master.

There were lessons Prazutis taught with words.

Others apparently required several square kilometers of Thyferra.

Aerik dropped from the transport and landed beside it as the Second Legion began recovering from the blast. His attention went immediately to the vehicle itself, checking the repulsors and exterior before looking toward the sealed cargo it carried. The transport had survived. That was what mattered.

His eyes found Irina through the settling dust.

“Still here.”

Whether he meant himself, the transport, or both was left for her to decide.

Aerik turned toward the route Prazutis had opened for them. The refinery was closer now, no longer merely a shape obscured by smoke in the distance. Whatever defenses remained between the transports and their destination would have little time to recover from what had just struck them.

They had been given an opening.

Aerik climbed back onto the transport and looked toward the soldiers around it.

“Get it moving.”

The repulsors began to whine beneath him as the column pushed forward once more, carrying its sealed payload across the broken ground toward the refinery.

 

[Daegon Corvinus]

WEARING: This | WEAPONS: Lightsaber
ALLIES: Seraphina Corvinus | ENEMIES: Jaun Smyth​

The aide had not been gone long enough for Daegon to expect good news when the man returned to the library, and the expression on his face confirmed as much before a word was spoken. Heaven's Gate possessed enough surveillance equipment to make privacy nearly impossible whenever its master decided he wanted someone found, yet the bombardment had turned ordinarily reliable systems into a flood of competing alerts. Sensors were tracking movement across the estate, defensive protocols were activating in response to distant impacts, and personnel were moving through the mountain as Heaven's Gate prepared itself for a war Daegon had hoped never to see reach Thyferra again.

"Sir, we're still trying to isolate her location."

Daegon's stare hardened. "Then try faster."

He was already moving before the aide could answer. There was no reason to remain in the library while someone else searched for Seraphina, and certainly no reason to pretend reports from Xucphra deserved his attention more than she did. The Senator could wait, the corporation could bleed credits for another few minutes, and the latest projections could accumulate unanswered until the holotable drowned beneath them. None of it mattered while the one person Daegon had built Heaven's Gate to protect remained unaccounted for somewhere beyond its walls.

Another distant impact rolled through the mountain strongly enough for Daegon to feel the vibration beneath his feet. Heaven's Gate itself remained secure, but the knowledge offered little comfort when Seraphina was not inside it. His people had confirmed that much, and every passing second narrowed the possibilities he was willing to entertain.

"Her comm?" Daegon asked.

"No response."

"Security detail?"

"They're searching."

Daegon stopped so abruptly that the aide nearly walked into him. A measured breath passed through his nose as he stared toward the corridor ahead. He could send another dozen people outside, redirect every sensor surrounding the estate toward Seraphina's biometric profile, and blanket the mountain with security droids until there was nowhere left to search. None of those options satisfied him when they had already failed to provide the only answer he wanted.

"Keep them searching," Daegon ordered as he resumed walking. "Have my transport prepared as well."

"For the Senator?"

"Eventually."

The transition from the polished halls of Heaven's Gate to the grounds beyond brought the war into sharper focus. What had been distant reports and trembling stone within the mountain became something considerably more visceral outside it. Sound traveled strangely among the crystalline formations under ordinary circumstances, each unusual trunk and formation catching some portion of it before sending it elsewhere. The bombardment had transformed that natural resonance into something harsher as every distant concussion fractured through the forest and returned from angles that made distance difficult to judge.

Daegon understood immediately what that would mean for Seraphina.

Her world depended upon sound, and the war had made that world lie to her.

The realization did something unpleasant to his temper.

"Seraphina!"

His voice traveled into the Crystal Forest only to scatter among the formations. Her name returned to him from several directions at once, distorted enough that Daegon swore beneath his breath before continuing deeper along one of the paths she favored. He knew where Seraphina liked to walk when the weather permitted it, where she preferred to sit when she wanted quiet, which paths gave her wings the greatest freedom, and which parts of the forest produced the sounds she found most beautiful. These were details collected through years of loving someone closely enough that remembering them required no effort.

The knowledge helped, but it did not find her quickly enough.

Another explosion thundered somewhere beyond the mountain, and Daegon's patience finally exhausted itself. He slowed beneath the crystalline canopy and closed his eyes, allowing the mask he presented to the galaxy to become irrelevant for a moment. The technology he had purchased could continue searching, but Daegon Corvinus had never been limited to the tools a wealthy executive was supposed to possess.

The Force had always been easier to conceal than people imagined. The galaxy expected Sith to announce themselves with crimson blades, corrupted eyes, and violent demonstrations of power, as though darkness became real only when someone was foolish enough to advertise it. Daegon had built much of his life upon the opposite truth. Power was most useful when everyone around him believed they understood exactly how much of it he possessed, and very few people on Thyferra had ever been given reason to suspect what existed beneath the cultivated sophistication of Xucphra's owner.

There was no audience here that mattered.

Daegon allowed his awareness to extend beyond himself, searching through the confusion surrounding Heaven's Gate without reaching farther than necessary. The echoes ceased to matter because he was not listening for Seraphina with his ears. Surveillance systems and disrupted scanners were equally irrelevant when what he sought was something infinitely more familiar than a biometric signature.

Seraphina was not merely another living presence for Daegon to distinguish among many. He knew the sensation of his wife near him as intimately as he knew the sound of her voice, and when something familiar finally brushed against the edge of his senses, he recognized her immediately.

He also recognized the fear.

Daegon's eyes opened, and whatever remained of his patience disappeared with it.

He ran.

There was no measured stride now, nor any concern for the dignity expected of Daegon Corvinus. Crystal formations and familiar paths passed around him as he followed the presence he had found, the distance between them shrinking far too slowly for his liking. Another detonation rolled through the valley while he pushed deeper into the forest, and somewhere beneath the confused echoes came a sound that stopped every other thought in his mind.

"Daegon...!"

His name fractured through the crystal around him, but this time he had no need to determine which echo was real. Daegon changed direction immediately and moved toward the presence he could already feel until the scene emerged between the crystalline trunks.

Seraphina was crouched amid the chaos with her wings drawn around herself while the world she ordinarily navigated with such effortless confidence betrayed her with every returning sound.

Daegon slowed.

The anger that had propelled him through the forest did not disappear when he saw her, but it became something quieter and considerably colder. Seraphina frightened was a sight capable of stirring instincts in him that had earned the Demon of Thyferra his reputation many times over, yet none of that could be allowed to touch her now. The Angel needed her husband rather than the creature the rest of the galaxy occasionally discovered when it gave him sufficient reason.

"Sera."

He crossed the remaining distance carefully, deliberately keeping his approach controlled once he was near enough for her to distinguish him from the violence surrounding them. Every instinct demanded that he simply gather Seraphina into his arms and carry her back to Heaven's Gate, but Daegon understood enough about the way she navigated the world to know that another unexpected presence rushing out of the confusion would only make matters worse.

"It's me," he assured her, placing every ounce of control he possessed into keeping his voice calm. "I'm here."

Another concussion echoed through the Crystal Forest, but Daegon never looked toward it. His attention remained entirely upon his wife as he extended his hand within easy reach and allowed her to decide the final distance between them.

"Come back inside with me."

There would be time once Seraphina was safe for Daegon to concern himself with the rest of Thyferra. Xucphra's losses would need to be measured, the damage to the alazhi fields would need to be understood, and the uncomfortable irony of Srina Talon's Sith Empire ravaging the home of a man who concealed the same darkness beneath considerably finer clothes would eventually have to be considered. Senator Jaun Smyth would also receive the visit Daegon had intended, because the reports from the government had done little to suggest Thyferra's representatives possessed any greater understanding of what had happened than the people they represented.

Daegon and Seraphina would still go to the Senator's office together. They would still demand to know what the High Republic had known, what preparations had been made, and what its government intended to do while one of the most important bacta-producing worlds in the galaxy became a battlefield yet again. Smyth could account for whatever answers he possessed now that Daegon had found Seraphina, and there was no reason to leave her behind while he dealt with the matter personally.

Until then, the Senator could wait. Thyferra had called Daegon the Demon and Seraphina its Angel for years, an irony that had always been far more accurate than most people understood. The Demon had spent a lifetime acquiring wealth, influence, and power enough to make himself feared when circumstances demanded it, while his Angel had somehow remained the gentler half of everything they had built together.

War had come for Thyferra again, but Daegon would deal with the people responsible soon enough. For now, he had found Seraphina, and nothing beyond the Crystal Forest mattered until they had her safely back within Heaven's Gate.

 

[Aiden Porte]

OBJ:1
Location: Fields-Hold The Swarm
Seren Gwyn
​

"I can't turn around, Aiden."

"This time you're in mine."

"So be it." Aiden responded easily and steadily, his voice coming out as resolute as could be. She clearly had a destination beyond his, so the next course of action was to keep her away from it. If that meant ending her, then it would be done. The Jedi Knight held his hand up, motioning to them. A different formation, tactics that had stayed between them after a long time fighting together in battle. While they did choose to stand beside him, he didn't want to lead them needlessly.

The Jedi Knight called upon the Force as he moved toward her. Blaster fire came his way from the sides around her, troopers closing in to take him out. An invisible shield materialized before him, absorbing the blaster fire that came his way. He walked forward, the barrier doing its job, until he acted once more.

A quick push forward, and the shield erupted into a shockwave that surged out toward them.

It hit the Sith troopers and was aimed to hit her too.

 

[Briana Sal-Soren]

The Force and the steady rhythm of her breathing became her constants through the eye of the storm, slipping deeper into meditation as battle meld continued to press the Light and its strength outward, stretching its reach mile by precious mile; piercing through the veil of fear and uncertainty, to strengthen and bolster.

When Rik spoke, their own time drawing near, Briana did not open her eyes, but his words washed over her all the same, and for one brief instance, a shudder passed through the Force, a dip in what was otherwise a steady rhythm.

It was always a grief, to hear that a comrade became one with the Force. Someone she might have worked beside on countless occasions. Someone who’d carried hopes and dreams, just as they all did. Questions crowded the edges of her concentration. Why? How? But then she felt Rik’s hand settled upon her shoulder, and a wave of serenity and peace flowed through her, bolstering her, even as a single tear slipped down her cheek.

This was the choice each of them made when taking up the cause for the Light, and choice was always a double-edged sword. For each victory, there were always unforeseeable consequences, unmentionable heartache. Loss of friends to war, loss of sleep, loss of laughter.

We must all stand firm, in our integrity, and in the choices we have made. Let the Light do its work here.

Her answer was meant for Rik, but it thundered through the battle meditation, carrying along every web she’d woven through the Force.

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<< Be advised, darkwalker on approach, >> his tone even and of a distant, trance-inflected quality still, but with just enough volume for the comm to catch as he relayed what his senses caught, << engage what it’s brought along, but funnel that darkwalker to our location. Do not engage it. >> He looked again at Briana, brown eyes skirting her way. << And get us more on those containers. >>

Cahir had once again been given a mission.

Once a Jedi Knight of the New Jedi Order, he’d fled to the Republic like so many of his brothers and sisters, seeking shelter after the collapse of the Alliance and the purging of the Empire. He’d joined their Jedi Order on Naboo, picking up his work and responsibilities there, but always with a restlessness he could never shake. One that didn’t quiet until he’d decided to follow Lorn and the others into Vanguard. At the end of the day, the togruta was a warrior, and settling into the stillness of the Sanctuary never settled him like it did the others. Where some sought peace after their lives were upended, he sought out the easiest pathway to strike back.

Lifting his comm, he signaled to the others around him in the grass, his voice coming in low and deliberate.

“Affirmative, Commander. We’re moving in.”

Cahir's jaw tightened, every muscle in his body taught as they began to move. He would see these Sith ground into the dust beneath his feet, before their ilk could claim this world, or die trying.

After years on the battlefield, the cacophony of machines and warfare was little more than white noise. With the Brotherhood, there was always expected chaos. With the Sith Order it was always more organized, but still wanton with destruction and rage.

Cahir lifted two fingers, and the Vanguard personnel around him separated without a word.

The majority peeled away through the grass to intercept the Second Legion’s advance, spreading into staggered positions along either flank. Their purpose was not to hold a rigid line, nor to throw themselves against the Darkwalker Rik had warned them about. They would strike at the soldiers surrounding him, collapse upon his flanks, and surrender ground through the center.

The first Vanguard volley tore from the jungle before the Legion could fully consolidate around the refinery. But it wasn’t the drawing of lightsabers they were met with first, but a hail of blasterfire raining down through the cover of smoke that’d risen from the fields, all from opposing angles, concentrated upon infantry and armored support. Explosions were set off in the second wave around them, churning black soil into the air while the Vanguard displaced between bursts..

If the Sith wanted the refinery, they’d give their commander the impression that the shortest path ran directly through Briana and Rik.

“Keep pressure on the Legion,” Cahir instructed through the comm. “Take away every other approach.”

Cahir watched only long enough to make sure the plan was taking shape, then turned toward the opening Kitt Solo left behind.

The woman’s abrupt arrival and equally abrupt disappearance scattered one of the formations guarding the containers. Several dark siders remained sprawled across the scorched ground, unmoving, while most of those still standing were distracted by the attack closing around the Legion.

He surged from the grass with two Vanguard operatives at his back, the Force lending speed to every stride. A crimson bolt flashed toward him, and his lightsaber snapped into his hand and ignited, batting the shot aside before he drove his shoulder into the nearest guard. The impact lifted the man from his feet and to the ground, where he drove his blade deep into the man's chest - ensuring he would not get up again.

“Don’t open it,” Cahir warned, though he hoped that went without saying, as they approached one of the first containers. “Not until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Reinforced plating. Sealed catches, but no indication of what warranted the armed escort surrounding it, save that the container had been constructed to withstand both impact and contamination. But he knew that whatever the Sith brought with them, it wasn’t any good.

Cahir crouched beside it, his montrails twitching as he studied the seams without touching them. He couldn’t determine whether the reinforced shell was meant to protect the contents from the outside world, or the outside world from whatever waited within…

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Far beyond Cahir and the advancing line, the Jedi answered Briana.

Not in words, nor in anything so distinct as individual voices, but through impressions carried back along the luminous strands she’d cast across the darkness threatening Thyferra. Courage met courage. Resolve flowed into faltering hearts, only to return strengthened by those who accepted it and made it their own. Jedi reached for one another through the currents, adding their presence to hers until the meld no longer felt like something Briana carried alone, but a living constellation.

Each point of Light burned separately, yet together they formed something greater, an ever-expanding web of shared purpose.

Then, at the furthest edge of Briana’s awareness, something moved violently against the current.

It was cold, inquisitive, but did not strike out or attempt to tear apart the connections she’d forged. It merely looked upon them, like a beast prowling, its attention passing across the battle with unnerving precision before settling, however briefly, upon the Light gathering around Briana.

Recognition spread across the gulf separating them, the two wills shaping the same battle from opposing sides.

Briana did not reach toward it, but kept her focus on reinforcing the web and every response flowing back through it, until they had to move.

OUTFIT: XoXo | ALLY: Rik Perris | ENEMY: Gerwald Lechner HONORABLE MENTION: Taeli Raaf
EQUIPMENT: Jumpsuit, Astor Daary's Blade, Springloaded Gauntlets, Echo Stone, Force Blinding Flash Bang, Jedi Imbued Kolcta Grenades x2, Lightsaber
​

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

WEARING: This
WEAPONS: Ferrum Solus | Blodmåne | Strømafbryder
SHIP: Vigfjall
ALLIES: Darth Prazutis | Varin Mortifer | Srina Talon | Mercy | Seren Gwyn | Irina Jesart | Aerik Lechner | Helix | Velda Nar-Donna | Darth Strosius
ENEMIES: Briana Sal-Soren | Kitt Solo | Rik Perris

Kitt Solo made certain Gerwald saw her.

That much was impossible to mistake. The Second Legion had continued its advance through the smoke and burning fields surrounding the refinery when the Jedi struck. Telekinetic force tore through the formation ahead of him, wrenching bodies from their feet and scattering soldiers across scorched earth. The ground buckled beneath another violent expression of the Force, breaking what cohesion remained among those caught nearest the attack. Fear followed through the ranks, something unnatural crawling through men already surrounded by fire, death, and the suffocating haze of Thyferra burning around them.

By the time Gerwald reached the fractured section of the advance, several legionnaires were down and others had broken from their positions entirely. A few still fought against the panic Kitt had pushed into them while officers struggled to reform squads that had been whole moments before. Gerwald saw her before she disappeared, and he saw the wink as well.

For the briefest instant, the Dread Wolf simply watched the place where she had been. The gesture had not been meant for the soldiers she had cut through. It had been meant for him. Kitt wanted Gerwald to know who had done this, perhaps hoping the provocation would be enough to draw him away from everything else unfolding across the battlefield.

The faintest trace of amusement touched the Dark Councilor's expression before it vanished. Gerwald had soldiers who needed him more than Kitt needed chasing.

"Reform the line."

His voice carried through the nearby command channel while Gerwald stepped directly into the disruption she had left behind. The Dreadguard moved with him, becoming the point around which the damaged formation could rebuild itself. Gerwald caught one retreating legionnaire by the shoulder and turned him back toward the others.

"Find your squad."

There was no anger in the command and no attempt to pretend Kitt's attack had done nothing. Men were dead. Others were wounded, and fear still lingered among those she had touched. Gerwald had spent too many years commanding soldiers to confuse discipline with the absence of terror. Discipline was what remained when terror arrived.

His personal guard tightened around him as the Dreadguard spread through the fractured formation, their controlled aggression lending structure to the chaos Kitt had left behind.

The Republic did not give them time to finish.

Blasterfire ripped through the smoke from the flank.

Gerwald turned as crimson bolts cut across the formation from opposing angles, forcing legionnaires toward whatever cover the shattered terrain provided. A second volley followed before the first had completely faded, joined by explosions that churned black soil and burning vegetation into the air. Armored support began returning fire toward movement concealed beyond the haze, but the attackers were already displacing between bursts.

Someone had chosen the moment well.

Kitt had broken the formation open. Now another force was striking before it could properly close.

Gerwald's lightsaber snapped to life as a bolt crossed too near, the red blade sending it away while the Dreadguard shifted around him. The Second Legion answered the attack, but Gerwald's attention was already moving beyond the immediate exchange. Fire hammered the flanks while pressure through the center remained conspicuously lighter.

They were not trying to stop the Legion everywhere.

They were trying to shapt it.

He grinned.

A report broke across the command frequency before Gerwald could issue the first adjustment.

"Payload Aurek-Seven compromised. Escort is down. Republic forces have reached the container."

Gerwald's eyes hardened.

Kitt's disruption had given someone an opening, and they had taken it. One of the sealed containers was now in Republic hands, or close enough to make the distinction meaningless.

"Mark Aurek-Seven compromised. Nobody attempts to open it from our side."

The officer beside him looked toward Gerwald as another burst of Vanguard fire struck the formation.

"And recovery?"

"If an opportunity presents itself, take it. Do not sacrifice the operation for one container."

The answer came without hesitation. Thyferra mattered more than a single payload, and Gerwald would not allow the Republic to decide where the Sith committed their strength simply by capturing something valuable.

"Redirect the remaining carriers. Separate their escorts and put empty transports onto the abandoned routes. If they have decided the containers matter, give them more containers to chase."

Acknowledgment moved across the command net while the Legion adjusted under fire.

Another report followed almost immediately. A defensive sector farther along the refinery approaches had been devastated, fortifications and vehicles torn apart with enough violence that Gerwald needed no explanation for who had been responsible.

Darth Prazutis rarely required one.

The blast had caught part of the Second Legion's advance as well, including the Emberguard and their transports. Gerwald's expression tightened until confirmation followed that Aerik Lechner and Irina Jesart remained in the fight and their payload had survived.

The father in him registered the first fact. The commander in him seized upon the second. The Dreadwolf reached out over the comms.

<<< "Have the Emberguard exploit the breach before the Republic recovers. Keep their transports moving and separated. Do not redirect them toward us." >>>

The transmission closed, and Gerwald returned his attention to the battle immediately around him.

There was something else now.

He had felt it beneath Kitt's fear and the violence rolling through the Force, but the pattern had become clearer as the Republic attack developed. Their responses were too clean. Courage returned too quickly where pressure should have fractured it. Units that could not possibly share the same view of the battlefield adjusted with an almost instinctive sense of one another.

Gerwald reached outward.

The battlefield opened around him through the Force, and beneath its rage he found something luminous spreading through it. Threads of presence crossed distance and confusion, touching Jedi and soldiers alike before returning toward a distant center. It was not a simple transmission or command network. Someone was carrying resolve through the Force itself, reinforcing the defenders mile by mile.

The Wolf followed the strands, not to tear them apart.

Not yet.

He merely prowled along their edge until his attention found the presence gathering them together.

Something looked back.

For a moment the burning fields, Vanguard fire, and movement of the Second Legion became distant things beneath that recognition. Another will was shaping this battle from within the Force just as Gerwald shaped his own warriors through command and the Howl.

Interesting.

Gerwald withdrew without striking at the connection and opened the broader Sith command frequency.

"The Jedi are linked through the Force. Do not mistake their coordination for conventional communication. Expect units to react faster than they should and from positions that should not know where pressure is developing."

That information mattered more than discovering the identity of whoever sat at the center of the web. Names could come later.

Another explosion rolled across the flank, followed by fresh reports concerning pressure against the Sith scientific contingents elsewhere in the production region. Gerwald listened while watching the battle unfold around him. Pulling those teams back would have protected them, but it would also collapse the invasion toward a single contest around the refinery.

"Nearest reserve moves against the Republic flank. Do not withdraw the science teams. Force their defenders to decide which position they intend to keep."

Gerwald finally looked toward the avenue being left open through the center.

The pattern was undeniable now. Vanguard fire continued chewing at the soldiers and armor surrounding him while yielding the ground directly ahead. Whoever commanded them wanted the Second Legion stripped from around the Dread Wolf and Gerwald moving toward a destination chosen for him.

The former Lord Commander could appreciate the attempt.

He simply refused to give them the army with him.

"Break the column into smaller elements. Armor stays outside the central approach. Real payloads take secondary routes and the reserve remains dispersed."

Gerwald looked toward the Dreadguard as they closed around him, the Howl binding their aggression into the same disciplined purpose that had carried them through the opening assault.

"The Dreadguard stay with me."

The western approach waited through the smoke, suspiciously open while battle raged along either side of it. Someone beyond that haze wanted Gerwald badly enough to kill everything around him and leave the Wolf a road.

His hand tightened around the hilt of his lightsaber.

"We take the road they were kind enough to leave open."

Around him, the Second Legion began changing shape. Real payloads disappeared toward alternate approaches while decoys continued through routes the Republic had already shown interest in. Reserves shifted toward threatened Sith operations, the Emberguard continued exploiting the devastation Prazutis had opened, and the Legion refused to collapse into the corridor prepared for it.

Gerwald stepped into that corridor with the Dreadguard around him.

Whoever waited at the other end would get the Dread Wolf they had asked for.

Spoiler: SUMMARY

• Kitt disrupts the Second Legion; Gerwald restores order instead of chasing her.
• Vanguard attacks the flanks and tries to funnel Gerwald toward Rik and Briana.
• One payload is compromised; Gerwald reroutes the others and deploys decoys.
• Prazutis opens a breach; Gerwald orders the Emberguard to exploit it.
• Gerwald detects Briana's Battle Meditation and warns the Sith about the Republic's Force-linked coordination.
• He sends support toward threatened science teams without collapsing the wider assault.
• Gerwald takes the bait personally with the Dreadguard while keeping the Second Legion and payloads moving elsewhere.

 

[Mantys Thranx]

ATTN: Gerwald Lechner Darth Prazutis Irina Jesart Aerik Lechner Helix Revna Marr Darth Strosius Madrona A’Mia Briana Sal-Soren Kitt Solo Rik Perris Jaun Smyth

Doctor Mantys Thranx sat at one of the laboratory's powerfully built terminals, the pale blue glow of a holoscreen cast over his insectoid visage. The monitor spat out a series of numerals and aurebesh glyphs; incomprehensible gibberish to everyone who hadn't spent their lifetime immersed in the particulars of alazhi transvection.

"Doctor!"

A technologist appeared next to the terminal, breathless. Her expression was one of panicked horror, even without the monitor's wash of cool blue light. "The Alazhi fields…they're being burned! And," she added nervously, tone lowered, "the Sith are moving closer to the refinery."

"Oho." The doctor adjusted his spectacles, never having taken his eyes from the screen. He spoke with a calm lilt of interest, as if the tech had just introduced an unknown variable into his equation. "I see, I see."

As if on cue, the laboratory shuddered with the residual shock of a nearby blast. Technologists in their stark-white coats and blue-gloved hands all paused, exchanging anxious glances before their collective nerves landed on their supervisor.

Mantys reached one barbed foreleg into the breast pocket of his vest, and fished out a keycard. One scan at the terminal, a few taps of the screen, and the projection flickered to a multi-view security feed.

The laboratory held its collective breath as images fire and steel flashed across the monitor, all emblazoned by the ferocity of the Sith Order.

"Rarkos," the doctor said. An Anzati woman, short and rounded with dark hair fixed into a neat bun stood to attention at a nearby fume hood. "Monitor the vat sensors. Record the introduction of any foreign substance and purge it, if necessary."

Dr. Thranx adjusted his spectacles with the spines of his forearm. "Ah, but do try and take an imprint of anything strange, of course! Ensure that we have enough reagents to run a rapid genome in the case nothing in our library matches."

The Anzati dashed to a nearby terminal, typing rapidly as she called out for the lab aids to take stock of their chemicals.

"Famel, re-encrypt our SOPs. Take care with molecular and machinery schematics, sensitive as they are. Quality metrics, logs, and all data pertaining to protein modeling and population datasets should be handled carefully."

A stocky Duros who looked more like a linebacker than a nerd jogged to the far end of the lab, nearly knocking over an anxious Devaronian.

"Do not engage them," the doctor warned as if he were advising the nervous technicians of what to avoid on a restaurant menu. "What is in this facility is not worth the knowledge and skills you've acquired. Do leave the fighting to the Republic and their security forces."

Mantys waved a spindly forearm. "We will shelter in place for now. Secure all laboratory equipment and check the generators. But first…"

Dr. Thranx turned back to his monitor, keyed in a sequence, keyed it in again, then pressed his palm to the sensor mounted near the door.

A low, slow rumbling trembled beneath the once-white tiles of the laboratory floor. Blast doors began to shutter over pertinent areas of the refinery, including the entrance, bacta vats, sensitive machinery and laboratory spaces.

Mantys turned to the Devaronian who looked as though he were about to lose his lunch, if he had not skipped it.

"Do contact Senator Smyth."

Spoiler: TLDR

• Blast doors are being sealed over areas of the refinery.
• Bacta vats are being monitored for tampering.
• Sensitive data is being encrypted and stored.
• Dr. Thranx calls his sugar daddy.