Private The Last Bridge

[Lorn Reingard]

Following: Remnants
Tags: Acier Moonbound​

He had prepared for this, he wasn't stupid. Shiraya's Rest was far too visible now. Reaching out to known Jedi contacts had drawn a sharp line in the sand; some shared the vision, while others vehemently condemned it. With the prison break, the final bridge back to the Republic and the Jedi Order lay in ashes. A new sanctuary was required, and the emerald plains of D'Qar possessed the bare bones needed to sustain a crusade against the Sith.

Green and blue hues filled the cockpit viewport as the starship broke through the planetary atmosphere. Glancing over his shoulder from the pilot's seat, Lorn studied the slumped form of the young wolf. The midnight breakout and weeks of confinement had clearly taken their toll, but exhaustion wasn't the only thing weighing the kid down. Ever since the prison shield fell, the dark side had been clawing at the edges of Acier's mind, a constant hum trying to break free. Watching him closely became a silent vow; the kid wouldn't be left alone until he could trust his own grip on the Force again.

An overgrown landing clearing appeared below, a relic of an old base long forgotten by the wider galaxy. Gripping the flight controls, Lorn intentionally bypassed the dampening thrusters to bring the ship down with a deliberate thud. The heavy vibration rattled through the deckplates, a harsh alarm clock for the early morning hours.

"We're here," Lorn said, switching off the engine hum and letting the silence of the plains take over.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Sleep hadn't been kind to him. The prison had taken many things from Ace, but strangely enough, it had given him one mercy. Behind the Force dampeners, the dark side had gone quiet. Now it was back.​

​

He dreamed of Coruscant, Balmorra, Tapani, Humbraine. The faces he'd long since stopped remembering while he'd been in the Covenant, now returning one by one with unbearable clarity. Men and women cut down by his blade. The screams. The smell of burning durasteel. Gold eyes staring back at him from polished transparisteel, looking more like Isley Verd than Acier Moonbound.​

​

No matter where he ran, the nightmare always ended the same way. Standing alone atop a mountain of bodies.​

​

Then...​

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THUD.​

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Ace's eyes snapped open. His hand had already found the familiar weight of his lightsaber, the shoto clutched in the other before his mind had fully caught up with reality. His breathing came heavy for only a moment before he recognized the cockpit, the silence beyond the engines, and the unmistakable feeling of solid ground beneath the ship.​

​

He exhaled slowly. One hand came up to rub the bridge of his nose before dragging back through his white locs, trying to shake the remnants of the dream loose.​

​

"You're a schutta." He muttered toward the cockpit, his voice thick with sleep and obvious irritation.​

​

He leaned forward, peering through the viewport. Dense emerald jungle stretched across rolling hills beneath the early morning light. Nature had reclaimed almost everything. Between the trees sat the weathered remains of what looked like an old forgotten outpost.​

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His expression lingered somewhere between curiosity and uncertainty. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if he'd made the wrong decision. He'd escaped prison... only to become a fugitive again. A different mentor. A different hideout. Another war against the Sith.​

​

Was this really any different? Or was he simply convincing himself, again, that this time would somehow end differently?​

​

The thought stayed with him as the loading ramp lowered with a mechanical hiss. Cool air rushed inside and Ace stepped down onto unfamiliar soil before slowly turning in a full circle, taking in the endless greenery, the abandoned structures, and the silence surrounding them.​

​

After a long moment, he looked back toward Lorn.​

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"So..." His brow lifted slightly. "This is it?"​

​

Lorn Reingard ​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Unclipping his harness, Lorn ignored the kid's groggy irritation and moved straight to the cargo netting. Survival out here required immediate work, not catering to moods. He hoisted two heavy military-grade rucksacks, tossing one directly into Acier's chest with enough force to ensure the kid was fully awake.

"Seems like a good enough place," Lorn replied, his boots clanging down the metal ramp.

Cool morning air carried the scent of wet moss and ancient stone. Rusting solar arrays tilted blindly toward the dawn sky, and thick vines choked the skeletal remains of old prefabricated command modules. Walking toward the nearest reinforced bunker, Lorn tossed his pack onto the dusty floor inside the entrance. The place was a tomb of old tech, but it had solid bones. They could survive here.

Turning back to the young wolf, the veteran Jedi crossed his arms over his chest armor. The time for tiptoeing around reality had ended the moment the prison holos went dark.

"I have left the Order," Lorn said simply. "And what we just did was treason."

Finding a relatively stable chunk of duracrete rubble near the entrance, Lorn sat down. He pulled a encrypted datapad from his belt, finger tapping the screen to broadcast a secure waypoint signal to a select few.

"We will be joined shortly by those eager to join our cause," Lorn stated, before looking up to lock his eyes onto the kid. "How are you feeling?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace adjusting the rucksack securely across his shoulder, and a familiar series of electronic chirps echoed from behind him, drawing his attention.

Ace turned just in time to see Tic emerge down the loading ramp, the small BD-unit moving with his usual eager energy. A genuine smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, buddy."

He crouched down, one knee settling into the grass as his hand came to rest atop the little droid's head casing, rubbing it affectionately. Tic answered with another cheerful whistle and leaned into the touch as though no time had passed at all.

Despite everything they had endured, including the months apart, the prison, and the nightmares that still lingered, just having Tic beside him again brought a quiet kind of peace that little else could offer.

Eventually, Ace rose back to his feet. His eyes met Lorn's as the older Jedi spoke. His admission was not entirely unexpected, Lorn had always walked the edges of what it meant to be a Jedi. He questioned, challenged, and refused to simply fall in line because tradition demanded it. Leaving the Order was something Ace could understand, even if it carried weight.

But the statement on treason gave him pause.

"Yeah." Ace replied quietly.

His gaze drifted toward Lorn as the veteran settled himself onto a chunk of duracrete and began tapping away at an encrypted datapad as though they had been there for days instead of mere minutes.

Ace frowned slightly. "Who else is coming?"

The question lingered only briefly before Lorn asked one of his own. Ace let out a long breath, one hand reaching behind his neck as he tilted his head back toward the brightening sky.

"Been better." He admitted, fingers absentmindedly rubbed at the tense muscles there. "I can feel it." He continued, searching for the right words. "Like it's gnawing at the back of my mind. But I'm managing, I guess."

Silence settled between them, heavy but not entirely uncomfortable. Ace lowered his head again until his eyes found Lorn's. Uncertainty was written plainly across his face.

"Old man..." He hesitated, struggling to find the words. "You sure we're doing the right thing?" His jaw tightened as he continued. "Back then, I committed treason too... thinking I was doing the right thing." His eyes drifted away toward the ruined outpost in the distance. "Then..."

He didn't finish the thought. Lorn already knew how that story ended.

Lorn Reingard​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

"Whoever we can get," Lorn admitted, his fingers still clicking against the datapad interface. "Before I knew you, before the Empire and their superweapon, Jedi were already trying to rally for this sort of proactive crusade. I always stayed away from it back then. But it's needed now. Old friends, former colleagues, wandering Jedi... they'll come from all corners of the galaxy."

Listening to the kid describe the dark side gnawing at his mind, the seasoned Guardian kept his focus on the screen but nodded in grim understanding. The recovery process would be brutal, but the kid wouldn't face it alone.

"We will work on that," Lorn declared, intentionally shifting the burden to both of them. "It will be hard, but we will try."

The question of whether this was truly the right path brought the typing to a sudden halt. Looking up from the datapad, Lorn locked his gaze onto the anxious young wolf. A calloused hand rose, thick fingers tapping firmly against the left of his own chest armor, near his heart.

"It feels right," Lorn admitted, his rough voice carrying the absolute conviction of a man who had run out of alternatives. "We cannot sit back anymore. We will finish what you started, together."

Letting the silence linger, the veteran allowed them both a moment to breathe. This quiet dawn on D'Qar might be the last peace they would see for a very long time. Business quickly reassumed its role, and Lorn leaned forward, his expression turning sharp and tactical.

"What do you know?" Lorn asked, changing the subject to the war tracking across the stars. "These Mandalorians from the Outer Rim have Windrun and Star-Arm on their back foot. Did you learn anything regarding the Black Wall?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

The mention of the Empire and its superweapon drew an unconscious reaction from Ace. His prosthetic fingers curled into a loose fist before slowly relaxing again. For just a moment, his thoughts drifted back to Ravoch, but the memory came and went almost as quickly as it had surfaced. It no longer carried the same weight it once had. Some wounds never truly disappeared, but that one had long since healed.

His attention returned to Lorn. It was strangely humbling to learn that, long before he'd ever walked into the Covenant believing someone had to take the fight to the Sith, there had already been Jedi who shared a similar philosophy. He had spent so long believing he was thinking differently from everyone else that the revelation forced him to reconsider how much of that isolation had been self-imposed.

As Lorn spoke about helping him overcome the lingering grip of the dark side, Ace found himself looking down to Tic at his side. The little BD-unit bumped gently against his shin before letting out an expectant chirp. Ace crouched without really thinking about it, resting a hand atop the droid's head casing and slowly rubbing it in familiar circles.

"...Like getting an addict off death sticks, right?" Ace asked, his voice carrying none of its usual dry humor.

Lorn's answer to the question of whether they were doing the right thing lingered in Ace's thoughts long after the words had been spoken. He respected it, respected Lorn. But he couldn't ignore the quiet voice in the back of his own mind. Everything had felt right before, too. Walking into the Covenant, the compromises, the lines crossed, the sacrifices justified. None of those choices had felt evil while he was making them. They had felt necessary.

But he kept those thoughts to himself. If there was anyone left in the galaxy whose judgment he was willing to trust over his own, it was probably Lorn's.

Silence settled over the abandoned outpost. Ace remained crouched beside Tic, absentmindedly continuing to stroke the little droid's head. The simple familiarity of the moment gave him something to focus on besides the constant pressure lingering at the edges of his mind.

Eventually, Lorn broke the silence and Ace's hand stopped moving. The question itself wasn't what gave him pause.

Keep in mind, anything that weakens the Covenant puts people at risk."

His gaze never left Tic as his fingers slowly resumed their gentle motion across the droid's head casing.

"They're not my brother's." He said at last. "All I know is they hit us on Humbraine carrying a grudge that goes all the way back to my father's time."

He paused before continuing.

"As for the Blackwall... I don't know anything you don't already know."

The words left his mouth easily enough, but what followed did not. His thoughts drifted toward certain people he'd left behind. He no longer saw them as faceless Sith, but as individuals he believed were still worth saving. That made every piece of intelligence he shared feel heavier than the last. His loyalty belonged here now, he knew that, but some lines remained difficult to cross.

After a long moment, Ace finally lifted his eyes from Tic and looked back toward Lorn.

"...I do know one thing." He hesitated, carefully choosing his words. "Mercy's not as batshit crazy as I thought."

"All I am doing... is inserting a little bit of uncertainty into the Galaxy. A little bit of chaos to make things interesting."

"She sees the Jedi and Sith trapped in an endless cycle. Her endgame isn't winning, she just wants to shake up the board. Whether she's lying... whole 'nother story."

Lorn Reingard​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

The subtle clenching of the kid's mechanical fingers didn't escape Lorn's notice. While the veteran had spent the tragedy of Death Star III fighting down on the surface, Acier had been trapped inside the belly of that massive planet-killing beast. It was a wildly different trauma to carry.

"Exactly like an addict," Lorn said, a small smirk breaking through his rugged features to soften the mood. "We'll just have to handle the withdrawals and the cravings as they come. But you'll get through it... if you listen to me."

The smirk vanished as the kid laid out what little he knew of the shifting galactic front. Nodding slowly, Lorn processed the details about the Mandalorian offensive in the Core. Having met Mand'alor the Iron once before, the Jedi respected the warrior's strength but never pegged him as a conqueror looking for the headache of highly contested Core worlds. If these attackers weren't Aether's people, it meant a dangerous unknown faction was roaming the stars.

"A problem for another time," Lorn muttered, cataloging the threat. The lack of data on the Blackwall was par for the course, an obstacle they would simply have to force their way through when the time came. It was the mention of Mercy, however, that made the Jedi pause.

"Chaos is a natural state for dark siders, but surely there is something she stands to gain," Lorn questioned aloud, his brow furrowed in skepticism. Power, credits, or a seat at the top of a broken galaxy - something tangible always drove people like her. Shaking up the board was never just a game.

Standing up from the rubble, Lorn put the datapad down and looked down at the young wolf.

"Which one of them should we focus our efforts on first?" Lorn asked, genuinely curious to gauge the kid's tactical instincts. "Who do you think is the bigger pillar holding up the Covenant right now?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace watched as Lorn rose from the broken masonry, his own eyes never leaving the older Jedi. For a few moments he remained silent, replaying conversations and faces that still lingered uncomfortably fresh in his mind.

"Probably." He answered at last. "All I know for sure is... she wants to 'escalate the game.'"

The words felt strange spoken aloud. They weren't his. They were Arris's, a quiet explanation she'd offered on Corellia. It wasn't conquest for conquest's sake. It was something far less tangible and, because of that, far more dangerous.

Lorn's second question settled more heavily. Who held the Covenant together? Ace didn't answer immediately. His gaze dropped toward the ground as his thumb and forefinger hooked around his chin, his brow knitting in thought. The silence stretched for several seconds while he turned the problem over in his head.

"The Covenant's grown beyond Mercy and Arris now." He finally said. "Mercy can disappear for months, and Arris just... picks up the slack."

His eyes lifted to meet Lorn's. He already knew where the older Jedi's instincts would lead. Decapitate the leadership. Remove the strongest figures. End the threat.

"But it doesn't really matter." Ace continued with a small shake of his head. "There's a whole Council now. People ready to step in if anything ever happens to Mercy or Arris."

His hand slid back through his white locs before falling away again.

"Just to make things easier..." A weary breath escaped him. "The biggest pillar is still Mercy. Arris isn't far behind, but..."

Silence settled between them once more and his teeth caught his lower lip as uncertainty crept across his features.

"I think--" He faltered, searching for words that refused to come easily. "...Arris was the one who finally convinced me to leave."

His fingers began absentmindedly fidgeting with one another. Beside him, Tic let out a soft, sympathetic trill, the little BD-unit sensing the shift in his mood.

"She could've killed me." Ace said quietly. "Instead... she just told me to leave it all behind. She told me I still had people who cared about me."

His eyes found Lorn's again.

"People like you."

The words hung between them before Ace swallowed.

"She's done... horrible things, but..." He exhaled slowly. "I think there's a chance she can be saved."

Lorn Reingard ​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Utter confusion twisted Lorn's features into a deep scowl. A prominent leader of the Covenant Council had simply let the young wolf walk away. The possibility that the enemy had expanded past their ability to contain it was a sobering realization, and a quiet wave of self-reproach hit the veteran Jedi. He kicked himself for not advocating for what Acier had clearly seen long before the rest of them. It was beyond them now.

The gearwheels in his mind ground down a darker path of what-ifs, stopping on a cold, unreasonable thought. What if this was exactly what Arris Windrun had planned? What if the kid had fallen so far that this entire escape was a calculated play to turn him into an agent against the Republic and the Vanguard?

Shifting his weight, Lorn took a deliberate step back, his hand dropping closer to his belt as he reached out through the Force. He sank into the kid's presence, carefully sifting through the layers of his mind. A profound, somber mood answered him, thick with genuine conflict and exhausting grief, but lacking the jagged malice of a trap. Lorn could never be entirely certain in this war, but everything in him wanted to trust the boy.

"Do you think it could all be a play?" Lorn asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral as he monitored the kid's immediate emotional spike. "That they could be using you to get to us?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: D'Qar

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Lorn's concern was reasonable. He'd asked himself the same question more than once since walking away.

His gaze drifted toward the ground as the conversation on Corellia replayed itself once again. "Keep in mind... anything that weakens the Covenant puts people at risk."

The words landed differently now. Not because he'd misunderstood them before, but now Lorn had given them a new context. His brow furrowed and a quiet realization settled in his stomach. If Arris had wanted to make sure he never revealed anything that could seriously endanger the Covenant... reminding him of the people still inside it had been the perfect way to do it. She'd caught him at his lowest point, when guilt, doubt, and exhaustion had stripped away every defense he had left.

Ace slowly looked back up.

"She's crafty." He admitted. "Craftiest person I've ever met. If she's got some sort of angle... and I'm one of the tools..." He gave a faint, humorless shrug. "I wouldn't put it past her. But..."

His thoughts drifted elsewhere. To Corellia and Talus, to conversations that hadn't sounded rehearsed. He remembered the glimpses she'd given him of the woman she'd been before the Covenant, the scars she'd carried long before he'd ever met her, and the rare moments where the mask had slipped just enough for something painfully genuine to show through. He couldn't convince himself those moments had all been lies.

"I've seen things from her." He said quietly. "Believe it or not... there's a human buried beneath all the rot."

He rubbed the back of his neck, uncertainty creeping back into his voice.

"I just..." His shoulders rose and fell in a small shrug. "I don't know."

The honesty hung between them for a moment before he finally sighed.

"We'll just have to stay vigilant, I guess."

Lorn Reingard ​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

The lingering suspicion refused to fully dissolve. Even as the kid's honesty bled through the Force, Lorn couldn't shake the gritty, veteran instinct that they were missing a piece of the puzzle. Arris Windrun playing the long game was a terrifying prospect, but dwelling on a ghost of a threat wouldn't win a war.

"We will stay vigilant," Lorn agreed, finally letting his hand drop away from his weapon hilt. He accepted the reality of the gamble, moving his focus to a more immediate tactical advantage. "If you think Windrun is buried under all that rot, what about the others? The acolytes?"

A cool breeze swept through the crumbling doorway, rustling the overgrown vines outside. If they were going to build a functional resistance on D'Qar, they needed numbers, and pulling disillusioned acolytes from the enemy's ranks was a dangerous but necessary strategy.

"Can we make a move on some of the people you met there?" Lorn asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Are there others worth saving, or are some too far gone to risk a hand? Why did so many of them gravitate toward the Covenant in the first place?"