Location: Jedi Temple Entrance
Objective: Assist with Silver Sanctum stewardship of Ossus
Post: 1/20
Allies: Silver Sanctum / Jedi Order, Galactic Republic / Jedi Order
[member=Théodred Heavenshield]
[member=Matsu Ike]
[member=NPCs by Corey]
Ali tossed the scattershot rifle onto the stone floor at her feet. It clattered loudly, the sound echoing in the empty corridor of the Temple lobby. Ali lifted her head and breathed deeply. Smoke filled her lungs as the spice coursed through her veins, leaving the cigarette in her lips. She stood in shadow, all the non-essential power sources were shut off, which included the primary lighting. Surely the Silver Sanctum would have things up and running within days.
She tapped her feet impatiently, though she wasn't exactly waiting for anything either. "Ma'am, the rest of the Temple has been flushed, and we've got a copy of the archive records." Ali looked up and wiped a thumb across her lips; she'd been off spice too long and now even a light dose was eating at her nerves. "Yeah, that's great. Get it out of here, put it on the shuttle." The Republic Commando who'd addressed her nodded, pushing the repulsorcart along as his partner guided it from the front. The large memory core they'd extracted from the Archive databanks sat in a cooling chamber. The Commandos keyed open the Temple's main doors, which began creeping open slowly. The heavenly beam of harsh sunlight that cut through the darkness blinded Ali for a moment, the spice dilated her eyes and weakened her vision for a time.
"Fecking hell..." she muttered, pulling on her cigarette again and letting the smoke flood her lungs before being flushed through her nostrils. The tendrils encased her armored body and seemed to cling to the blood on her hands. She hadn't washed since Contruum, nearly a week ago when their forces had been pushed out of the system. Since then, Ali's life had been nothing but chaos, struggling to maintain order in the southern half of the Republic that had been cut off from the Capital.
Outside, she heard voices, and for a moment the Galactic Republic's Supreme Commander struggled to decide if they were real or coming from within her own mind. The two Commandos walked passed the gathering Silver Jedi, leading the Archive memory core down the steps and toward the shuttle that was resting on the grass outside. Ali stood up and dragged on her cigarette once more, leaving the scattergun resting on the floor where it lay. She grabbed her Verpine AR and clipped it to her shoulder, then made her way outside to greet the new protectors of Ossus and the Jedi Temple there.
Ali was garbed in the same armor she'd arrived on Contruum with. Her plates were stained with blood and dried mud, and the cuts on her face were slow to heal in her depressed, drug-induced state. Her buy'ce was clipped to her belt, a great crack ran down the T-shaped visor. The result of taking a punch to the face from one of Draco Vereen's heavily armored Mandalorian soldiers. She looked like hell, but she did her job, and no one thought it their own place to complain. Ali didn't mind. She didn't care.
So when she walked out onto the steps of the Jedi Temple, revealing her presence to the Silver Sanctum Jedi, Ali very much represented the state in which the Galactic Republic felt.
Ali watched the Commandos continue on with the memory core. All around the area, Larty Gunships and MAT-TE walkers carried on the burden of security. Ali's own Commandos were assisting with uploading of supplies and equipment. Republic forces had arrived some days ago to secure and evacuate the Jedi Temple, though the Ossan natives had opted to stay. Ali was sure certain elements of the Republic's own Order would remain behind to maintain a presence. Ali looked away from the various Republic forces and turned her attention to the lead Master, a certain [member=Valiens Nantaris].
"It sure is famous..." Ali interjected bitterly as she caught Nantaris' words on the fly. "What a fecking failure..." Ali muttered, dragging from her cigarette again and looking over at the gaggle of Force Users. She let the smoke trail from her nostrils as she continued the thought. "If you want a tour, I could do it...we're not up to much at the moment." Ali grimaced; she tried to smile, but couldn't remember how. "Good to see you here, I'm sick of looking at Force Users, but at least you're not here to kill civilians." Ali let the words hang in the air before she put a hand on her sidearm and gave the Silvers a once over. "You're not, are you?" She asked, only half-joking. It seemed every other Force User took a hiatus from being a good person to be a psychotic killer (for which they were promptly forgiven by all). Ali wondered why the Republic hadn't simply put them all in chains and left them to fight each other on some backwater world.