The Flame

[Romi Jade]

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See timeline...​

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Location: Coronet City​

Objective: Investigate Missing Jedi​

Enemies: [member="Zhorbak Kubaza"]​

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The Confederation had been dealing with internal struggles, but she kept feeling like something was going unnoticed. Her attention had mostly been on face-to-face diplomatic negotiations between varying members of the Corellian Council and their associates, but her role as an advisor had been consistently plagued with reports of missing Jedi. She'd been wrestling with this dilemma for a bit before she could actually look into it...

She'd been into two battles prior to this...and had only just been making her way back to Corellia.

She was a lone figure slinking away, pacing down into a public square that was surrounded on three sides by groundquake-damaged structures. This portion of the metropolitan area had been evacuated in one of the terrorist attacks probably. The light from above, wherever, hit the side of one duracrete wall at an angle -- her body had been split down the middle, in-between light and shadow. From a distance she appeared the relatively short figure and she moved with the stealth of an executor.

Hmm...

Taking a moment to touch Guhnan's lingering signature, she paced for a another meter or so before vaulting from higher up to a lower platform.

She stopped, scanned several exits, and then followed the path around a toppled end of a high wall. Pacing through obsolete stands where holographic towering trees would have been, she followed on a zigzag path down into what was likely a commons-midlevel area of open space supported by the sprawling cityscape overhead.

What all she could muster of Master Guhnan's presence had led her here...

But...

"What is that...?"

The ground was covered with dead beetles? Approaching a compound, she saw one living beetle as it was slowing down. Then, that's when she spotted the cylindrical shape just off to the side...

Kneeling down, in one swoop she was able to collect her clue. Tucking the weapon near her face, she tried to quell her thoughts.

 

[Zhorbak Kubaza]

Standing within the abandoned facility Zhorbak cackled or at least came as close his species could come to one. The bellowing laughter echoed off the walls, the clicking of his mandibles audible for all to hear. The groans of his captive drowned out in the wake of Zhorbak’s joyous expression. “Oh you Jedi… Always so fun.” Zhorbak said walking up to the elderly Jedi Master that was spread eagle. Thick durasteel hooks dug into the man's limbs, both his legs and arms. The grey-haired individuals head hung limply as he continued to groan.

“Where is all that talk of the force being with you? You were so adamant it was mere hours ago. Given up already?” Cackling once more Zhorbak went over to a control console. “You see, unlike my brother I like to take pleasure in the little things. Victory over my adversaries, the look of utter defeat on their faces as they realize survival was never an option.” Fingers dancing over the control panel Zhorbak’s vibrant green eyes stared into the Jedi. “Hearing their screams.” Finishing the command sequence Zhorbak was rewarded with just the reaction he wanted.

Guhnan's head leaned up suddenly his mouth agape, eyes bulging from the sudden pain he was feeling. The hooks embedded in his flesh began to pull in opposite directions. There were a series of sharp pops before the machine stopped Guhnan’s ragged breathing being the only sound within the complex. The subtle gasping and wheezing causing goosebumps to rise up on the alien man’s skin.

A sharp chirp came from the Nalrithian’s side where he reached down snatching up the communicator. “What?!” The absolute audacity of people to interrupt Zhorbak’s time. But quickly that anger that had been setting in brought a smile to the alien’s face. “Let them come, I’ll be ready and they won’t get anything.”

Turning back to his captive Zhorbak’s head cocked slightly to the side. “It seems your disappearance is bringing another to my nest. I have to thank you for that.”

Guhnan’s head raised weakly looking into the Nalrithian’s eyes. “So I’ll kill you now rather than saving you for later.” Entering the command once more Zhorbak turned his back on Guhnan’s who’s screams reached a peak echoing off the walls of the chamber. Nightmarish howls of agony followed Zhorbak as he left the room and quickly fell silent with a single audible squish.

[member="Romi Jade"]

 

[Romi Jade]

She held on to his lingering presence -- it was like gripping a thread. Holding his lightsaber gave her the friction she needed if only temporarily, but at some point in her focus the presence swelled and then vanished altogether; she lost her grip on the thread. Her head lurched back, and fell from her trance almost immediately.

Hmm...

Musing over the carcasses of the bugs in her head, she didn't believe in omens-or any kind of future-telling at all, but she decided to take this as a sign. Everything was lining up...and it brought a sense of dread over her. What was really going on? From the looks of it, hundreds of HoloNet and holodrama publishers had kept offices here before the attacks, along with most of the major media bureaus. For that reason, Romi was certain she was more familiar with the area-even in ruins.

So she went ahead...

The deeper she descended, the darker and danker became the surroundings. Romi had already decided that her investigation would continue until she would find something else she knew to be present. The pursuit led ever downward, into darker levels, where fetid water dripped from cracked ceilings, and the only light was that which found its way down through gaps in the crushed buildings and the riotously verdant areas that now roofed them.

Then she found blood -- remnants of it.

A chill ran up her spine...

[member="Zhorbak Kubaza"]

 

[Zhorbak Kubaza]

Cloaked in the darkness of the ruined buildings, back pressed to a wall Zhorbak simply watched his prey. The way she made her way through the building, a woman with a mission. One who knew how to watch their back and kept their senses sharp expecting an attack. Zhorbak’s mandible’d maw spread in a horrific imitation of a smile as the excitement within him swelled. With a blink, the Nalrithian’s vision shifted spectrums allowing the creature to keep Romi in his sight through the Vong Implants. His plan of attack relatively non-existent. Unlike his brother Zhorbak didn’t plan ahead for his encounters with others, part of the enjoyment for him was the challenge of overcoming a foe out of his sheer combat prowess.

Reaching over his shoulder and pulling down what appeared to be a long tube with a handle and trigger attached Zhorbak loaded three oval-shaped bugs into it. The bugs of the Vong, the warriors preferred way of fighting. Ever since learning of the biots the Nalrithian had completely forsaken basic technology in the name of what he viewed as superior. Shouldering the chitin carbine and staring down the tube that was the barrel Zhorbak fired.

There was no sound except the buzzing of a small brown-colored bug that flew through the air towards Romi and would go right over her head before detonating in an incandescent flash of light and a deafening roar meant to blind and disorient the woman. Pulling the trigger once more there would be a second bug following the path of the first this time aimed at the center of Romi’s back. This one had a black shell and was far wider than the last, what were commonly referred to as thud bugs and capable of knocking a full-grown individual off their feet and to the ground.

[member="Romi Jade"]

 

[Romi Jade]

A chill...

Suddenly her danger sense flared, the abrupt stillness in the world around her triggering it more. The metaphysical energy she commanded was circle of unnatural smoothness on edge. She froze, ceasing her investigation. There was a faint buzzing . . . and as she waited, she heard it again.

The soft, rough buzz akin to some insect-like in the air.

The flared again; but even as she spun around she knew it was too late. Her head whipped around in reaction to something flying past her head -- the bright flash following the collision forced her frantically dance back and to one side.

Uhnn!

Her right ear and eye would take majority of the damage. Temporarily blinded in one eye and deaf in her ear, she drew her lightsaber and continued her dance as she twisted and parried. Fighting through the momentary disorientation, she took a shot at the second projectile, but it dodged, and then she had to dive aside, once and then again as it swooped around. It started to loop for a third pass, but this time, she carved a path down the center of its body with her lightsaber.

She spun about, aligning herself back on the path with which she was attacked. Removing her hand, everything was cloudy in her right eyes and her ear was ringing. Widening her stance, she opened herself to the ebb and flow of the force. She let the current of power build and the fall around her in a rippling wave that she'd cast out in a sphere around her -- expanding her senses.

Her scarlet blade illuminating the surface of her gear in an translucent sheen, "It's always nice to meet new people who try to kill you..." she teased, "I'll admit, you almost got me there. But now I know we aren't playing fair..."

Vroommm

Her scarlet blade hummed as she rolled over her left shoulder, and was on the move as she fell into a sprint. Her figure faded as she disappeared into a gap of a crushed building just adjacent to them.

[member="Zhorbak Kubaza"]

 

[Zhorbak Kubaza]

Watching the Jedi struggle brought a sense of elated joy to the Nalrithian who hid in the darkness. The upper pair of his eyes rolled back out of the pure, unfiltered, enjoyment he got out of it. A shiver retreating up his spine. Zhorbak’s mother had raised him not to play with his food, yet in the end, it was the best part of the meal. So few forgot the importance of the build-up, they hopped straight to the hunt and in the end were left empty and hollow. Those other hunters could go about their mediocre and worthless lives, but Zhorbak would make every moment of it one to remember and pass onto his clutch one day.

It was comical that the Jedi assumed that the first shot had been him actually trying to kill her. That was just a warning that she was against an Apex predator. It was an intentional alert to danger. If he had wanted the follow up to the snap bug would’ve been a blast bug to blow the Jedi apart. Yet where was the fun in that? Within the confines of the Vonduun crabshell, Zhorbak’s muscles rippled, his hair stood on end and he leapt allowing the Jedi to get a head start into the crack.

Landing on the ground the bits of duracrete cracked from the oppressive weight of the Nalrithian and his armor. His steps slow, deliberate and calculated. Bits of sunlight that cascaded down through the cracks illuminated bits of the hunters armor as he moved. Within his hands the carbine was reloaded, a bug similar to the thud one loaded in. Yet smaller, more compact. “Nothing is fair in this life Romi.” Zhorbak called out to the Jedi down the hole she had fled. If she truly thought him foolish enough to go in alone then the Jedi was slightly more dim-witted than Zhorbak thought.

Raising the carbine he fired, the bug shot down the confines of the hole and a second later exploded in a plume of flame and kinetic force that blew the walls out. What had once been a crack in the wall that Romi had retreated through was now a large gaping hole. Within it flames licked at the walls of a freshly widened hall. “Don’t tell me you’re dead yet!” Zhorbak called out as he entered within his left and a glob of golden good held and waiting for use.

[member="Romi Jade"]