Private Things Fall Apart

[Tom Kovack]

Inanna Yomin stood alone in the bedroom of her house on Erakhis. Her clothes and hair were smoothed and perfectly in order, and she had carefully hidden any evidence of the panicked sobs that had wracked her only minutes earlier.

Before her stood a blue-tinted hologram of Tom Kovack. The distance between stars made his countenance flicker intermittently, and sometimes the audio cut out, but she could still make out what he was saying.

“I’ll look for everyone. Anyone I can find, I promise. I’ve had a vision of Tammuz calling to me. I think he’s mounting a fight against the Brotherhood, to try and take back our world from them.”

Our world. How could he say it with such passion and conviction? It had been years since he’d lived on Lao-mon. “You don’t have to do this,” Inanna replied, her voice thin and disgustingly weak. “Don’t risk your life. You’re safe where you are. There’s too much craziness in this galaxy as it is.”

Tom shook his head. “If there’s even a chance that he’s still alive, I have to be sure of it.” Frowning, he added, “I expected you would… accept this, at least. It’s your father I’ll be tracking down, after all.”

“My family is here now,” she whispered, fiddling with her wedding ring. Not too long ago, she’d had a vision of her own. Her parents had appeared to her, beckoning to her, pleading. Come home, Inanna. But now it seemed there was no home to go back to. The Brotherhood of the Maw had come and overtaken her homeworld, subjugating the Shi’ido they could and forcing the rest into hiding. For the first time in centuries, they had been invaded, and by a force which sought to eradicate all life in pursuit of a suicidal “renewal”.

“I won’t be alone,” he said. “The Jedi will come with me. I may even have a new master by the end of this.” The ghost of a smile flickered over his face. “Tammuz was always begging me to find someone else who could teach me all the things he couldn’t.”

“I wish I could go with you,” Inanna blurted suddenly. “I would, if I didn’t have… no. I could never give up what I have here. But I just…” She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back renewed tears. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Stay where you are,” he said gently. “There’s nothing wrong with staying. Your children need you, Inanna. I’m not asking you to leave them.”

“But you want to leave Miri with me.” She hugged her arms. “You must think there’s a possibility that you won’t come back.”

“There’s always that possibility,” he murmured. “I know she’ll be safe with you.”

“Will you stop by for a little while before you go?” The thought made her stomach flutter, a sensation that filled her with nervous dread.

“No, there’s not enough time. I’ll send her along to you. Just be there to pick her up at the starport.” After a few moments of silence, he asked, “Is there anything you’d like for me to tell your family when I see them?”

If he saw them. If any of them were still alive. “Tell them… tell them I’m all right.”

***​

Province of Rhamnusia, Lao-mon
Sometime following the invasion…

A ship had arrived from hyperspace in the system. Cloaked and hidden from the Brotherhood’s sensors, it landed on the far side of the world, away from the slaves and their overseers busy gutting the planet for resources at the Goshen War Camp. From there, the crew had traveled by speeder bike toward Rhamnusia, the province in which the ravaged capital city, Goshen, stood half destroyed. There, they hoped to find survivors hiding in the wilderness. They knew the Brotherhood had taken to these woods in order to hunt and capture them, so it seemed as good a place as any to start the search...

Tom Kovack crouched in the underbrush, breathing in familiar scents. The jungle was thick around him, obscuring his body amid velvety green, vibrant purple, and bloody orange leaves. Turning toward his companions—a motley company of Jedi eager to fight this loathsome new Sith cult and Shi’ido travelers lured by grief and rage at what had become of their home—he addressed them in a low, quiet voice. “Watch the ground where you walk. There are plants here that will grab at your feet and devour your limbs with acid. They look like mushrooms surrounded by delicate webbing. Whatever you do, avoid stepping on them.” There were other predators to worry about, but they would be a much more obvious threat than a hungry fungi.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

There was an uneasy amount of darkness floating among the group that had assembled in the jungle of Rhamnusia. Some of the young Jedi were itching for a fight, and then the Shi'ido that had joined them ranged from peeved enough to do something all the way to bloodthirsty. The powder keg of emotion gave Ala a sense of disquiet. It was controlled disquiet, but disquiet nonetheless.

Clothed modestly in a knee-high brown sleeveless dress, Ala tugged at the leather girdle that held her loaned lightsaber. It still felt a little too heavy for her, and made the leather rope sitting on her hips sag just a little more than was comfortable. Some say she would have to return to the world where she had met the Draelvasier Argaloth and seek out her two shortsabers if they even survived the last ditch efforts to escape the raging beast.

She pulled up alongside Tom, and pushed down on the large frond before her. Glaring into the distance, she sought out any indication of beings, sentient or otherwise. The jungle was teaming with life. Ala could feel the virbating chords of connection between the plants, the insects, birds and mammals that made the jungle home.

"I am beginning to question the degree to which our band of brothers are acting in good conscience," Ala whispered, "there is revenge in the eyes of many of these that follow."

Casting a glance back across the group that followed, she now began to question her own wisdom in joining the crew herself. Tom's greenness had impressed upon her the need for training when in the caves Draemidus Prime. She had agreed to this venture, if only to get to understand him, and perhaps offer a role in training. This training had already begun in subtle ways. Testing his thoughts and reactions with comments of hers that seemed rash, or unjustified. With this she tested the ease with which his ego was bruised or his impression of her clouded. She had randomly tossed him objects with the hope of testing his reflexes and foresight. Most of all, she had told stories, jokes and just tried to get him to relax. Her experience with Padawan in the past had taught her that no one was a lost cause, but she at least wanted to know what she was getting herself into.

"The Brotherhood are evil. But we must not stoop to be like them in order to defeat them. If we lose ourselves in the process, then we lose the greatest battle there is," she said, continuing her thought that had paused for an elongated moment.

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

Tom turned to look at Ala as she spoke. He had met the Jedi Knight during a suicide mission to Draemidus Prime, homeworld of the Bryn’adul, and since then she seemed to have grown rather attached to him, like a teacher to a struggling pupil. Her attempts at testing his reflexes and abilities during the voyage hadn’t gone unnoticed, along with her pressing the limits of his pride and ego. Some of her more blunt comments had gotten under his skin, but he kept his feelings bottled up and for the most part didn’t respond to her provocations.

Before he could reply to her, a voice from somewhere behind them snarled, “We can hear you, you know.”

Tom glanced back to find the speaker, a young Shi’ido. Like many of the others in their group, beneath the anger, vengefulness, and sense of injustice which pervaded his surface emotions was a profound sense of loss and survivor’s guilt. They had all been offworld when Lao-mon was attacked, and now they were trying to make up for it. Tom pressed a finger to his lips, then spoke to Ala in the quietest whisper he could manage without becoming inaudible.

“Talking like that around people who may have lost entire families isn’t going to get us anywhere,” he said. Raising the volume of his voice slightly, he added, “Right now we’re here to look for survivors. We’re not waging open warfare on the Brotherhood. That would be suicidal.

“According to reports, most of them are hiding here in the wilderness, disguising themselves as animals and even plants. We think they’ve set up a refuge in the mountains, over that way.” He pointed northeast. “There’s a network of underground caverns there where they could take shelter. There’s also a canyon...” He gestured west. “With ancient structures carved into the rock high above the valley. Both are about equal distance from our current position, though the terrain is slightly different—hills with fewer trees leading up to the mountains, and thick swamps leading to the canyon.”

Tom turned to Ala, clearly hoping for her advice or input as to which location they should try first. He had been in positions of leadership before during expeditions, but never had he been in charge of something like this. The weight of responsibility on his shoulders was a heavy load. Whenever he could defer to someone with more experience, he would.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

Wincing, Ala fought to keep her cheeks from growing more red than they had become in that instant. They had heard her? Apparently Shi'ido had better hearing than she knew. Noted for next time, and possibly a helpful thing to know when looking for beings that could be disguised as anything.

Despite Tom's assurances as to the purpose of the trip, Ala still felt on edge. There was still the possibility of emotion getting the better of those that had lost so much. Tom may not do something foolish, but he had no control over the others in the party. The Jedi at least had training and distance from the situation emotionally, but even then they could be caught up in the emotional surges from those around them. The galaxy had seen too much of Jedi doing so-called wrong in order to do what they thought was right.

There were clearly many paths forward, and Tom was looking to Ala for assistance in picking a path. However, he already knew which way was best to go, if he could just reach the point of surety.

"All I will be doing is trusting the Force, Tom," she whispered, quieter this time, "you can do the same thing. Reach out. Sense the vibrations of the Force's connectivity between the plants...the animals...the insects...through these vibrations you will get a sense of which way invites you to its path. Trust that instinct. I will follow your insight, without hesitation."

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

“Well shoot, I was gonna let you pick,” Tom drawled under his breath. But she had told him to trust in the Force. After all, that was the Jedi way.

He took a few moments to center himself, closing his eyes. It was hard to tell what the Force wanted of him. Sometimes he thought he heard it clearly amid the vibrancy of life around him, while other times it sounded too much like his own inner voice and desires were pretending to be the voice of the Force. Sure enough, when next he opened his eyes, he still didn’t have much of an answer to the question. Oh well.

“We’ll try the caverns first,” he announced. The crew gathered up their gear and fell in behind him as he led the way through the woods. Given how close they were to the Brotherhood’s territory and how noisy the speeder bikes were, they had no choice but to abandon their vehicles and resort to walking the rest of the way. Reducing their noise output would not totally remove the risk of an enemy encounter, however.

They tread carefully, watching the forest floor for traps. Progress was slow. One of the Jedi approached one of the Shi’ido and spoke in a whisper, “What are we more likely to find first, cultists or predators?”

“Predators,” the Shi’ido replied. “You know, the Brotherhood is supposed to have repurposed them into war beasts, so I suppose it doesn’t matter. But it could also be civilians disguising themselves…”

“We will trust in the Force for guidance.”

“Yeah, you do that. Try not to commit any more war crimes while you’re at it.”

All of the Jedi in the group seemed to suddenly snap to attention. “I sense something,” one remarked, looking to the west. Tom turned, but saw nothing. He did, however, feel something viscous trickle onto his shoulder from above.

“Chit!” someone yelped, pointing a blaster upwards and firing as Tom scrambled to get the Urartu off of him.

“What is that thing?!”

More of the dark jelly-like creature dribbled down, hiding in the underbrush and slithering across the dirt around their feet. Amid the chaos and terror, someone kept repeating, “Flamethrower or CryoBan! Hot or cold!” over and over again desperately.

One of the Jedi finally got it and pulled out her lightsaber, cutting at the creature, while a Shi'ido fired incendiary rounds at it. The Urartu’s body produced a foul-smelling smoke as it burned. Tom checked himself repeatedly for any remaining globs, shuddering at the memory of its lukewarm touch.

Several of the Shi’ido among the group seemed to have mysteriously disappeared, though the Force Users could still sense them; they had instinctively shapeshifted to blend in with their surroundings, motivated by primal fear of an ancient enemy. They didn’t start to reappear until the Urartu was definitely dead.

The entire incident had resulted in their making an ungodly amount of noise, and it had definitely drawn the attention of something else in the forest. The Jedi could all sense it. At this point, the Shi’ido could hear it skittering through the underbrush.

“We have to get out of here,” Tom said. “Now.” He was angry that they had already blown their cover, but what’s done is done. Abandoning stealth, the crew broke into a run, scattering as they attempted to escape their pursuer: a Brotherhood-conditioned Branchlurker.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

She felt quietly pleased with herself that Tom had taken on board her advice so quickly, and with only a slight amount of sarcasm. Considering Padawan she had had, all two of them, he was quite the gentleman so was earning brownie points to a likely mentorship already. And the reality of the situation was, that he probably need more confidence in trusting his instinct than the Force.

Hey, I would have just been taking a semi-educated guess based on subtle vibrations within the Force. Your local knowledge is just as good a launching point, she said through the Force to her compatriot.

They walked on, towards the caverns which sounded oddly ominous, and there was a considerable amount of talking for a stealth mission. Still, she trusted Tom with the levels of sound that were acceptable for the environment. She kept her head down and plowing through the forest until she heard some words that truly spiked her punch.

“Yeah, you do that. Try not to commit any more war crimes while you’re at it.”

Stopping, and spinning about, Ala sought out the Shi'ido that had all the Jedi's attention due to his comment. Her finger was already seeking a target to point out. "Those that did such things...are not Jedi. They may carry the name...but they do not carry the spirit of the Jedi. Just you watch..."

The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she spoke. At first, she thought she was actually allowing the moment to make her angry, but then she realized there was something, some creture, with hostile intent nearby. What happened next happened faster than she could control, and in a matter of moments a burning lump of goo lay on the ground, and the forest still vibrated with echoes from their yelling and blaster fire.

"Dang fragnabbits," she muttered. Not only was the acrid smell of the burning Urartu possibly burning its way into her nostrils, but they would have most certainly have attracted attention.

Tom was already recommending, and indeed breaking into a run, by the time Ala looked up. "Take lead Tom...I will follow behind...you two, with me," she said pointing to the two closest of the Jedi that stood with the group, "we will take up the rear."

The motely group of moving shrubbery, rocks and tree stumps that were one by one reforming into bipedal beings, quickly joined the Jedi and Tom in their sprint in various directions. The two Jedi looked instantly terrified, eyes widening with a fear that they were struggling retain control over. Ala could sense the malevolent being approaching. "Fine...RUN," she said in resignation, herself resigning to scattering and not standing her ground as well.

She quickly noted that in times of peril she would not be relying on these two Jedi again. The Jedi, Sol Miggs and Vaarel Mortha, were a liability. People she would have to protect to get them back home for more training. If this was the state of the order, rather the orders of Jedi in this age, then she started to understand why they had begun to receive their reputation for cowardice and even evil.

Now severely behind, Ala knew that the creature was just about upon her, drawing her saber hilt and igniting with the tradition snap-hiss, her cerulean blade shone out giving the approaching creature a clear target to aim for, and she turn and ran. Hopefully, if the creature followed her it would not be following Sol, Vaarel, Tom or the others in their party.

She would figure out what to do about herself a little later. If there was a little later to enjoy.

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

Tom heard a lightsaber ignite and sensed Ala running away from the other Jedi. Drawing the Branchlurker’s attention to herself wasn’t exactly a wise decision, but at least it was done with good intentions—

The Branchlurker crashed through the underbrush, avoiding the still-burning Urartu corpse. Massive and colored to match the jungle, it jolted forward, razor-sharp forelimbs stabbing at the Jedi. Every instinct in Tom screamed at him to abandon them and join the Shi’ido, who had slipped back into camouflage. His survival might depend on whether or not he changed form, imitating a plant and blending in with his surroundings. But instead of obeying his terrified Id, he drew his beamer and turned to face their foe… just in time to sense and narrowly dodge a blaster bolt coming from another direction.

A Brotherhood hunting party had intercepted them. A crew of gruesome looking cultists covered in tattoos, runes, and other markings, they burst into the chaos, bellowing war cries amid the barks and yips of their hounds.

Tom raised his beamer and fired just before they closed the distance. The weapon’s sensors registered multiple targets, and adjusted to fire a wide, powerful beam. The entire first row collapsed. Smoke billowed from the cooling compartments as the beamer overloaded. Tom dropped the device, it had gotten so hot to the touch.

Somehow had his lightsaber in his hand and activated before the rest of them reached him. Viridian light collided with a vibroblade, bashing against the metal until the plasma burned through flesh. He heard the Branchlurker stomping and skittering behind him and the cracks and sizzles of a lightsaber slashing at its chitin. Then, the air was filled with animalistic howls and growls as a Lao-mon menagerie on the loose seemed to appear out of nowhere. One leather-skinned beelzebork charged a female hunter, barking and yipping before sinking enormous fangs into her leg. Meanwhile an andesite stabbed viciously into another’s back with its stinger, tentacled mouths plucking at his eyes. These were obviously not real animals—their attacks were too well-aimed, breaching the weak spots of armor and deftly evading blaster bolts and swiping blades. The Shi’ido had changed form again, this time becoming monsters to fight against monsters.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

The party had been dispersed and the branchlurker was following her as intended. Not intended was her leaving the party behind to face a raging hoard of Sith cultists. Had she understood that this beast was under the sway of such beings, she may have taken a different course of action. But it was now what it was. The Force had willed this and she needed to make the most of the moment.

A fallen tree stump provided the necessary cover for Ala to turn and take the fight to the branchlurker rather than just run from it continuously. When she jumped to the farside of the stump, she spun about facing the branchlurker as it burst through the undergrowth. It's large front legs came down hard onto the top of the tree stump. Impaled upon the left most leg was one of the Jedi that had been in their party. She groaned, with eyes rolling back in her head and arms falling loosely to the side. Ala could hear her cry of anguish through the Force, causing the elven Jedi's stomach to churn.

It was not enough to prevent action though. Even as the branchlurker bent down to attack Ala with it's mandibles, Ala jumped, with hand outstretched and pushing a shockwave of Force energy from her outstretched hand towards the back of the beasts head. She landed atop its grotesquely spiked thorax, slipping and only just attaining purchase with her free hand.

The beast roared, its wings starting to flutter at high speeds to ward off the predator upon its back. With a quick twist of her wrist, Ala brought her sabers edge to bear on the crusted exoskeleton of the branchlurker. The cutting was not smooth, but rather jagged as it was slowed by the toughned exterior of the beast. She made it almost through, when the exoskeleton cracked, ripped and the head and front legs of the creature ripped unpleasantly from the rest of his body.

Now headless, the thorax and abdomen of the branchlurker lived up its name, jumping upwards towards the treetops and tangling the Jedi into the foliage with harsh scratches across the back of her neck. The creature had been bisected, but still functioned, though now in a more chaotic fashion as its secondary and tertiary brain functions began their death throes.

It started to slow, and then moments later it fell with Ala clinging to its ribbed back. She winced, knowing that the impact would be painful, but decided to take her chances with the foliage below as she jumped from the creature at the last moment, tumbling across the undergrowth of the forest.

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

Caught in a fight of his own, Tom was only vaguely aware of Ala doing battle with the Branchlurker. He sensed her presence moving upward, then suddenly plummeting downward, and the death throes of the beast as it began to die, split in two by her saber.

Tom’s momentary distraction over her fate was interrupted by the sensation of a stun tip pricking his spine. He slumped forward on the ground, paralyzed by the blow, but still alert enough that he could see what was happening around him.

Compared to the Jedi, the Shi’ido fought with far greater brutality, yet they lost greater numbers. The Brotherhood hunters tried to capture them using various stun weapons, including some of Shi’ido design and make, but the shapeshifters aimed to kill their opponents, forcing many a hunter to resort to lethal measures in self-defense. It was a vicious battle that seemed to go on for far too long.

But once realization that the Branchlurker was dead spread through the ranks, the hunters started to fall back, retreating. They didn’t leave empty-handed, however—those Shi’ido and Jedi they had managed to stun were promptly seized and stuffed into repulsor cages and even primitive nets, which the hunters dragged behind them as they ran. Tom felt hands grabbing him, his body slung over a broad shoulder, the world tilting and his view replaced by that of a heavily scarred and tattooed backside. He was unable to fight back as he was carried away, though he kicked and roared within his mind.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

The plant she landed in made an odd sound. Sound? It was something akin to an oof. Reforming around her, Ala soon found herself in the arms, where once there were fronds, of a Shi'ido. There was some muttering about blasted Jedi but Ala paid it no mind. "Apologies, my friend," she said in whisper as the two watched several of their comrades being lugged off towards the direction she could only assume was the caves.

The jungle had fallen silent for a good ten minutes before she dared speak again. The sound of the cultists was no long gone, but the ever looming possibility of there being some lying in wait kept the young Jedi quiet. It was the Shi'ido that spoke first.

"Damn lot of good it did having Jedi here to help," he muttered.

"We lost people too," Ala whispered, "good people."

"Good. Pfft," came the spitting reply.

Ala ignored the comment, and set about to planning her next move. She could feel a handful of Jedi still in the vicinity, maybe only three. She reached out further, searching for the the darkened presense of the cultists, but no dark spots showed up in the sweep save the darkened spirits of the Shi'ido and Jedi contingent.

"We bury the dead," Ala said with certainty, "then we gather what Forces we can muster. We will assault whatever nearby cultist stronghold they have gone to...just before daybreak. That is near the end of most customary guard rotations. They will be groggy after a long humid night."

"Fine. But we had better have more of a plan than just attack by the time we get there," said the surly Shi'ido.

"Well, that's where you come in," she said, as he looked suspicious, "just how small a creature can you replicate?"

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

In response, the ill-mannered Shi’ido—who went by the name McGill, keeping his true name secret—shrank to the size of a large predatory bird, perhaps a hawk or falcon. “If I were older, I could shrink down even smaller,” he chirped, fluttering his wings. "And I could do it faster, too."

One of the Shi’ido, an older woman named Ishtar, was weeping. She forced herself not to make a sound, but her flesh writhed and crawled over her bones, skin turning inside out in her grief. On the ground before her was her son’s corpse, black-blooded guts spilled out where the Branchlurker had sliced him open. The others gave Ishtar a wide berth as they set about burying the dead.

“I take it you mean we’ll be continuing on to the caverns, then,” another of the Shi’ido, a man named Enkidu, spoke in a low voice. “We can get more forces from among the survivors in hiding.”

“What if we get to the caverns and there’s no one there?” McGill snapped. “We’ll have wasted a day walking for nothing, and we still won’t have enough people to fight the Brotherhood.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

McGill scowled. “No.”

“If the caverns are deserted, there’s still the canyon ruins. If those are empty too… we’ll just have to figure something else out.”

After the dead were laid in earth, they set out again, headed for the caverns. They stuck close together now, staying quiet, watching out for each other and for predators lurking in the jungle. The further away from the camp they went, the less likely they were to run into another hunting party.

It was evening as they drew near, one of the Shi’ido broke off to scout ahead, checking the cave entrance. They waited impatiently for him to return. When he came back and gave the all-clear, the group seemed to collectively sigh in relief, then they resumed their march. Along the way they passed a visitor’s center that remained intact, and signs written in both Basic and Shi’idese detailing the natural wonders of the cavern. They were on park land, reserved to protect the wildlife and environment, but the Brotherhood had already trampled the borders, eager for the resources it had to offer.

The air inside the caverns was cool and humid… and pitch black. Museum-esque light fixtures installed inside had long since gone out, devoid of power. Flashlights clicked on, shining beams on the limestone interior. There was a paved path with railings set up, which they followed.

“If you see any plants that glow, avoid them,” Enkidu warned the offworlders among them. “They release poisonous fumes if you get too close. Most only grow in dark corners out of the way of the main path, but be careful. The park rangers normally keep this place clean for tourists, but they haven’t had the chance since the invasion…”

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

The bickering was unhelpful. But tensions were high, so she really couldn't blame them for it. She just wanted it to stop. "We go to the cavners. That is settled," Ala said, calm-ish.

She looked at the bird at her feet. It was small enough, but airborn was risky for her intentions. "You got something...mammalian there...buddy?" She said with a frown, "that is amazing...no doubt...but I was thinking that something small, and land based...would be a more efficient scout."

"Well, you could have been more specific," McGill grunted at an apologetically shrugging Ala. He then proceeded to twist and contort until his body came into the form of a six-limbed reptile, just a little bigger than the bird. "Does this meet your fancy, Jedi?"

"Muchly. Thank you," she said with a pert smile.

A moment was taken before departure for Ala to tend to the grieving widow. She sobbed for what turned out to be her only remaining child. Ala attempted to console, but Ishtar's body moved in such a way that it was impossible to create an embrace without the feeling of being on an ocean, going up and down with the near random morphing of the woman's body. Ala stopped trying, and just sat with them for a time.

"We are ready to move on," said one of the Jedi, Claine Harrex, by Ala's memory.

"We need to say a few words before we do," she said to the young Jedi, who already seemed to be losing his hair in the back. He replied with a nod, and a step back with a hand directing towards the graves of the fallen Jedi. Ala had not expected to have the responsibility, but it had been her idea. She stepped up to the foot of the three graves.

"The Force is with you;
in life it guides, in death it embraces.
Be free, children of the Force,
of your burden of temptation,
the dark pulling at your soul.
Live forever in the Light.
Free of this mortal coil.
Free of this mortal toil.
You are one with the Force."

There was a quiet pause, uncomfortable in its length, but also filled with uncertainty as to who should be the one to break it. Ala finally opened her mouth to get them moving, but it was not her words that were heard.

"Let's get moving already," called the lizard, McGill.

------​

Their trudge through the jungle finally brought them to the edge of the caves. Warnings were issued in regards to some plants with some luminescent properties. Ala would note that, and gave 'the look' to each of her Jedi compatriots to make sure they had noted this as well. She received a few looks of acknowledgment and at least one that said, "Of course I heard".

"Yes mummy," came the annoying voice of the lizard that was scampering back from further in the cave, "you should have seen the look on that other Jedi's face. He doesn't like you." There was nothing discreet about his tone or volume. Ala gritted her teeth in frustration.

"What did you see further in the cave?" She said, changing the subject as quickly as possible.

McGill took a moment to reform into a more human appearance. The transformation process looked painful, but she heard no complaints. The oddness of it was starting to become a little more rote to the Jedi present. They didn't seem as impressed, nor concerned by it.

"Ah...well, there are no refugees here," he said with a groan that spoke more than any degree of I told you so, "and the cultists have definitely set up shop here for a while. Found a corpse lying next to some of the plants back towards the eastern tunnels. Looks like they may have decided to abandon this as an outpost after that, or for some other reason." He shrugged at the end.

Murmurs came about from the Shi'ido in the party, mostly from those that had been with the party the longest. However, they found willing ears among those that had joined the group along the way. Comments of, "I told you it was a waste of time," and "Stupid Jedi leading us on an andesite hunt."

Ala spun back around with a stern look on her face, that she instantly regretted for the school-mom nature of it. the expression did not last long as a look of horror washed over. She had not lead them just on a wild goose chase. She had lead them into a trap. Cultists, barbs in ears, eyelids, noses, foreheads and any other visible place to pierce, were creeping behind the party of Shi'ido and Jedi.

"Jedi! Behind you!" Her call came more as a war cry for the cultists than the Jedi, as the Cultists charge into action, the Jedi and Shi'ido barely mustering a counter attack.

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

After what seemed like hours of being carried around, Tom was unceremoniously dumped in a universal energy cage. He heard voices speaking nearby.

“This one’s a Jedi. Carried a lightsaber like the rest of ‘em,” a male voice was sneering. “I assume he’s here to rescue his clan. Tch. Damn the planet, only their loyalty to their clan matters. Cowards.”

A female voice asked, “Do you wish for me to break him?”

“Be my guest. You’ve done excellent work with the others.”

His footsteps departed. Tom tried to wiggle his fingers, then his toes, willing sensation back into his paralyzed body. Not that movement would do him much good in such a confined space.

A figure entered his periphery. He assumed this was the female. She was clearly a Shi’ido, but she had a bland, nondescript humanoid appearance—gray-skinned, hairless, barely feminine in shape, with no physical distinction which would identify her. As she walked past him, he glimpsed her back. She had two jagged cuts running the length of either shoulder blade, scarred and blackened with careless cauterization. Coming to a stop directly in front of him, she stood still, waiting for the stunning effect to wear off.

Tom worked his jaw and found that he could speak, albeit in simple, halting sentences. “Where… am I?” he asked first, speaking Basic.

“You are in a Brotherhood camp,” she replied in Shi’idese. “Do not try to fool me. I know what you are.” She raised her chin. “What clan are you?”

“It doesn’t matter. My family is... dead. I’ve been away from home... for too long.” He paused. “What’s... your name?”

“I don’t remember.” Her reply was brisk and cool for something so distressing. “If you have no family, no clan, and no home, why are you here?”

“I’m looking for someone. A great… Jedi Master.”

She began to stalk the length of his cell. “Perhaps he was with us once, and died here. Perhaps we have yet to catch him. Or perhaps he perished in the jungle, or in a raid. Then you will have come here for nothing, except to be captured.”

“Do you intend to remake me, Mician?” he asked. It was a gamble, but those scars on her back seemed to be telling him something. The only Shi’ido clan with wings were the Micians. “The way they remade you?”

Halting, she turned to stare at him. “I will make you forget, as I have. Then you will serve the Brotherhood.”

***​

With a roar, McGill morphed into a truly hideous creature, covered in spikes with clawed feet and jagged teeth. He lunged at the cultists, all points, stabbing anyone who came near and slicing the rest to ribbons.

His changeling brethren took on similarly monstrous forms and fell upon the Brotherhood like ravening wolves. Added to their number were Shi’ido who had been surviving in the jungle for days, weeks, months since the occupation began. In that time, all but the barest vestiges of civilization had fallen away from them. They had begun to mimic the predators rather than the trees, hunting instead of hiding, determined not to fall prey to the wilderness.

Horrific sights were hidden in the darkness of the caverns. Ishtar, the one who had lost her son, took a cue from the Urartu and smothered one of the cultists in the gnashing bulk of her body, spitting him out mangled and bloody. Another became like a Branchlurker. Though he had to be considerably smaller in the cramped confines of the cave, he gored several with his front appendages. Enkidu simply turned his hands into weapons—a hammer and an axe—and beat them into a pulp.

In the chaos, suffering, and death, the Jedi felt Darkness swirling around them like a maelstrom. “Stay focused!” Claine Harrex called to the others as he fought. “Don’t lose yourselves!”

A Knight was forced into a corner by her attackers. Backing away, she stumbled over a scraggly plant, glowing faintly. There was a popping sound, like that of compressed air suddenly being released, and the corner the two were fighting in suddenly filled with poisonous gas. The sounds of choking and gasping echoed through the caves as both succumbed.

“Get out of here! Now!” Enkidu yelled, realizing the danger. He made a dash for the nearest exit, followed close behind by his comrades, pursued by the cultists.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

The battle was horrid. The Shi'ido were particularly vile in their animalistic display. Ala spared no thought in the moment for what was becoming of the 'heroes' of their story in an attempt to best the 'villains'. There was only time to fight or die.

As her blade slashed through a cultist, Ala felt something odd within her, namely nothing. There was no grief for the fallen. No tears for the loss of life. There was no remorse. It just was. The pure carnage of the events unfolding about her washed over her with a cold matter-of-factness that should have startled her, but it didn't. Months of encounters with the Bryn'adul had done their work on her, and now as her blade cleaved a female cultist from hip to shoulder, Ala felt numb.

Spoiler: flashback

"But I don't want to fight, Caltin." She had barely managed to pick up a blade at the time. It felt so foreign, and uncooperative in her hand. It was said to be a tool of defense, but she knew in her core that it was a tool of great destruction as well. "I would rather run away...or talk to them...or something." Something about having to defend others? The taking of life being an unfortunate, but hopefully only occasional necessity in this endeavour. "Not for me. I would rather die than kill. It just all seems so, abhorrent."

When the call to evacuate came, Ala responded immediately. She paused only for a moment to glance backwards, and noted the gasping of two of her Jedi compatriots. What would have normally compelled her to go back and attempt some foolhardy rescue attempt, was met only with a head dipped in resignation. They were already dead, even as they gasped their last breathes. The cold, calculation of it was only just beginning to dawn on her when she exited the cave.

With beasts of varying type picking off cultists as they fled the gaping mouth of the cave, Ala turned her attention to her dwindling crew of Jedi. "Focus on the roof of the cave...bring it down," she said as a lump slowly rose in her throat and threatened to choke out her words.

Hands of Jedi stretched forth towards the cave's roof, and battle honed focus was drawn to a fine point. The roof cracked. The Jedi flexed their collective mental prowess, and then the roof came crashing down on the remaining cultists, trapping many inside the cave as the poison wafted its way towards them.

"There will be more when those do not check in," came McGill's voice from the centre of a blood soaked mass of teeth, "we must leave now."

There was no response from Ala, as the hollowness from the moments just passed began to engulf her mind. She could not be that person. She could not allow herself...no. Where had she gone?

"Jedi," came McGill's voice, now from a humanoid form, "Ala...we have to move...now."

"Right," she whispered, "let's find Tom and get the hell off this planet."

| Tom Kovack |​

 

[Tom Kovack]

Night had fallen by the time the group made it to the edge of the Goshen War Camp. The glow of jungle lamps and the smoke of fires within drifted over the jagged barriers that had been erected around the perimeter of the camp.

Trying to find the refugees elsewhere had been vetoed in favor of rescuing their captured comrades from the camp. Their numbers were dwindling; it was best to retrieve Tom and anyone else they could find in the camp’s prisons, then head back to their ship to recuperate. Or, as Ala had requested, to simply leave the planet altogether. Many of the Shi’ido in the group intended to stay, suicidal as it might sound—but they were that desperate to find their families and continue the fight against the invaders.

Enkidu, who had more or less become the representative of the Shi’ido half of their forces, turned to Ala, speaking in a whisper. “Tom told me the Jedi had devised a way to hide themselves with the Force. Can you or any of your troops do that?” Otherwise, the Shi’ido would be the ones leading the extraction, using their abilities to disguise themselves as members of the Brotherhood. A few among them had already transformed, morphing into grunts at the bottom of the food chain—the faceless kind that tended to be forgotten by superior officers. In the twilight, specific features couldn’t be easily picked out anyway.

The plan was to use their disguises to sneak inside undetected, get to the prisons, and smuggle the prisoners out. A scout had already determined the structure which housed the prisoners—one of many primitive huts built by the cultists—was located almost directly in the middle of the camp. There would be no easy way out once they freed everyone, which was why anything which could hide the prisoners from view would be especially helpful.

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

With all the different things that could kill on this planet, Ala was starting to wonder why the Brotherhood would dare come to this place. Perhaps they were as crazy...wait...yes, they were crazy. She had fought them after all. Trudging through the depressing dark with a dwindled group of Jedi and Shi'ido, Ala found herself having to calm the heightening anxiety of Sol and Varaal in particular.

"We shouldn't have come here. This place is death."

She didn't completely disagree with Varaal, the tall lanky Pau'an.

"This place is worse that death. It is hell."

Sol was not as accurate. Lao-mon was not that bad. Not yet anyway.

"Quiet you two, this place is the Shi'ido's home. Do not disrespect this," she almost hissed, showing agitation.

With their arrival outside the encampment, Enkdu approached and asked about the Force ability to cloak ones visual presence. Ala simply shrugged and looked back at the 5 Jedi that remained with her. They all shook their heads. Apparently this was something missed in all of their training. Disguising her Force signature, creating a suggestion in the minds of the guard to cause distraction or waving her little hand to simply walk past, sure she had plenty of experience with all of that. Completely cloaking herself?

"Sorry. If that is the plan. It will be all you, I'm afraid," she said with a not insignifigant pang of guilt rising within.

| Salamander |​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

The Shi’ido glanced at each other, then shook their heads. So much for the Jedi being useful.

“Let’s go,” Enkidu said. The group fell into formation behind him as they headed for the camp entrance. Ishtar brought up the rear, acting like she was in charge of the Jedi “prisoners”.

As they approached the gate, someone called out, “Halt!”

“Hunting party,” Enkidu replied gruffly. “Returning with captives. These ones are tricky, we need to get them to the prison at once.”

McGill stared up at the guard who had stopped them, his gaze intense. The guard hesitated, then said, “Well done, brothers and sisters. Open the gate!”

Doors of splintered lumber and metal spikes were dragged open, letting the group inside. “Move it!” Enkidu called over his shoulder, leading the way toward the center of the war camp.

At night the interior of the camp looked far more eerie than during the day. The primitive huts and jagged fencing took on an air of menace, and the air was filled with choking fumes from machinery and forges. They scraped the skies and scarred the earth to feed the Brotherhood’s war machine, fueling their spread to other planets.

Enkidu took in the shadows that surrounded them, here in the heart of darkness, but pushed on for the sake of the others. They were close. All they had to do was get their captured comrades out of here alive, and hopefully survive the rescue themselves…

***​

The nameless female Mician watched as the green-skinned Calabrian torturer held up an object, stained black with Shi’ido blood, to the dim light of the chamber. “What sort of trinket is that?” she asked. It looked like a charm hanging from a string.

“Not a mere trinket,” the Calabrian said. “An amulet. Taozin, from what I can tell. Although this one not only hides his presence in the Force, it disguises it as someone else’s.”

“Can you see him for who he truly is now?” she asked, gesturing to the prisoner.

The Calabrian nodded. “Oh yes. Quite an interesting subject. No wonder he needed a more thorough disguise.” He tossed the amulet onto a nearby table, where it smeared black blood across the surface, then turned to the prisoner. “Who are you?”

Raising his head from the floor of his cell, the prisoner rasped, “Padawan… Tom Kovack.”

“That is not your name. We have torn off your mask, you cannot hide anymore.” The Calabrian crouched before the prisoner, eyes glowing yellow with corruption. “You know what I am. You know that I can reach into your mind and pluck out what I want to know. You think you can bide your time, but I will tire you with fighting. You can’t outlast me.”

The prisoner glanced over his shoulder at the Mician. She stared back, her face without expression. “Tom Kovack isn’t real.”

“He was real,” the prisoner replied.

“Was.” The Calabrian seized the prisoner’s arm, pulling him towards him. “Not anymore.” He seized the prisoner’s head in his hands, fingers splayed across the prisoner’s face, charred with burn wounds. Inflicting damage had proved ineffective, so they brought in the dreamwalker, the mind killer. “Who are you?”

The prisoner gave no answer.

“With your silence you admit you have no identity,” the Mician said. “Yours is as false as the rest of your race.”

The prisoner grinned at her, only to be jerked back forcefully by the Calabrian, who locked eyes with him, holding him in a hypnotic gaze. “You are no one,” he said. “You are nothing but your circumstances. You cannot make anything of yourself.”

“You made yourself into a traitor,” the prisoner spat back.

“Yes. That is what I am.” The Calabrian pressed harder. “You have some knowledge of telepathy. Try to assail my mind. The insults bounce off. You tell me what I am, and it means nothing. You pierce me, and I do not care. I have nothing to hide, no pride, no ego. I am no one. But you… you are very easy to wound. So overcomplicated.”

The prisoner gasped, trembling from the strain of fighting the Calabrian’s telepathy. Each could see into the other’s mind. The Calabrian’s was a void, emptied by another nameless torturer, who had themselves been emptied. He was little more than an automaton, carrying out orders, devoid of memory or personality. A tool of the Brotherhood.

The Calabrian speared further into the prisoner’s brain. He cried out in pain. The Calabrian smiled. “There you are.”

“Have you found him?” the Mician asked.

“His Shi’idese name is Arimanes Bosch,” the Calabrian replied, adjusting his grip on the convulsing prisoner. His smile faded. “But there is another he clings to. He is hiding it from me. Protecting this other identity.”

“Another false one?”

The Calabrian’s features twisted downward into a frown, puzzled. “He does not consider it so. The hidden one is more real to him than the Shi’ido. But it is nothing I cannot reach. I’ll just have to try harder…”

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

"Hey. What squad were you with?"

The voice from behind Ala startled her even though she had sensed the ominous glare from the individual in question moments before they spoke. She didn't dare turn to see who it was. After all, she was merely a prisoner. Best to keep up the ruse of being subservient as long as possible. Marching into her view from the left side of view was a loin cloth girded male Zabrak. His jagged swirling tattoos covered head to toe, piecings filling his brow, ears, forearms and the very horns of his head.

Before Enkidu could open his mouth to answer, the impatience of the Zabrak had already born its fruit.

"I said. What squard were you with? You seen Tren? He was in the crew that went to the caverns a while back. He hasn't reported in."

Again Enkidu went to open his mouth, but the Zabrak was already stepping closer. Eyes narrowing and glaring through the ambient light of the Brotherhood camp. Enkidu seemed unsure how to respond, or whether or not just to take this as a lost cause and take whatever element of surprise was left them for them.

"Maw SLIME!" Ala called out from the back, rolling her tongue she tipped back slightly, scrapped her throat with a harsh intake of air and shot globulous projectile into the Zabrak's face. Only a small nudge with the Force was necessary to push it over Enkidu's shoulder. "This planet is not yours. We will keep coming back until you all burn or depart!"

The Zabrak reached past Enkidu, who had a hand quick to the Maw brother's chest to try holding him back. The Zabrak's hand was around Ala's throat, lifting her off the ground with ease given her height and weight. "I will burn you with great pleasure, Jedi witch," he hissed through clenched, unkempt teeth.

"Brother. There are other things...we can do with her before roasting her on the spit," Enkidu said, but Ala, though choking, sensed uncertainty in his Force aura.

The snarling Zabrak glared back at Enkidu without releasing his grip on Ala. "You saying we should take her to the Calabrian?" He said, clearly looking a little disappointed at losing the opportunity for spitroasted Jedi.

Enkidu's face drooped noticeably. Ala did not understand why, but was starting to lose focus, her vision closing around her as air was restricted from getting to her brain. Enkidu spoke just as Ala blacked out. "Sure...the Calabrian," he said, voice filled with ominous dread.

------​

Ala awoke to find the brotherhood cleaning up after a battle. She did not know how long she had been out, but she quickly ascertained that her feet and wrists were in shackles. Had she been out during the whole attempted rescue? Where were the other Jedi? Where...who was that?

A dark, shadow of a figure approached from out of her periphery. Yellow teeth were revealed in a sinister smile. "Hello pretty thing."

Ala's brow narrowed into a frown. "Who are you?"

"No one."

"Liar."

The smile broadened as the Calabrian stepped into the flickering glow of the fire in the distance that burned the corpses of Maw brothers and sisters fallen in the attempted, or partially successful rescue. "The other Jedi that were with you were so uninteresting. But you my dear. I have seen your dreams."

"Stay out of my head," Ala said, tugging at her restraints in a futile attempt to escape them.

"How old...are you?" She asked while moving into a position immediately in front of the young Jedi, "you can't be more than 30 human years...but your mind speaks of times...of the New Republic? After the fall of Palpatine's Empire?"

"You have no right to invade people's minds. Those memories are not yours to see," Ala said, lips curling and mind racing to find some object to lift with the Force and through at the beings head. But she could feel a dark presence looming in the recesses of her mind. Pushing back on her attempts to reach out.

"Oh. None of that. We will be here...for a long...long time," said the Calabrian as she stepped forward, eyes boring into Ala's skull.

Needles of intrusion pressed in on Ala's temples, invisible probes of the mind trying to access her thoughts. Her eyes closed as she fought back, pushing the tips of the probes away with her will. She found herself more fragile that she had assumed though. Soon thoughts began to leak out. Secrets of the ancient order of the Students of Light. Access codes. Faces, locations on Yavin 8. Names. Sith Lord...Hydrocus Venetia's face flashed before her mind's eye, filtering into the mind of the Calabrian who's smile only grew broader with each revelation. The Calabrian grew closer to Ala, devouring the knowledge that sprayed forth from Ala's mind as water from cracks in a dam.

Outside of the mental battle, and in the physical realm, Ala felt the touch of something cool and metallic upon her finger tips. At first she flinched away from it, the distraction causing the cracks in her mind to deepen. Her mouth dropped open in agony, breathing becoming a secondary concern. The coolness of metal again caressed her fingers, but this time was more purposely pushed into her grip. Ala's hand wrapped around the cylindrical object by instinct alone. A small button could be felt with her thumb.

The Calabrian stepped within a few inches of Ala's face, glee across it's face as it plumbed the depths of her victims thoughts. And then. Blue light. A snapping, hissing sound was followed by the tip of a blue beam of energy protruding from the back of the Calabrian's left shoulder. The Calabrian gasped. It's mental grip on Ala's mind dispating in a flurry of it's own fear. Dropping to the ground, the Calabrian fell through the blade splitting itself in it's death.

The restraints fell off Ala's hands and she crumpled towards the ground, only to be caught by Enkidu as he shifted again into a near human form.

"Don't die on me now, Ala. There aren't many of us left."

| Jacen Nimdok |​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Do we free them all? Or just ours?”

The prisoner raised his head, unable to open his eyes. Sleep would not come, and neither would healing to the myriad wounds which covered his body. He had already considered the possibility that he might die here, heavy as it made his heart. His loved ones at least would be taken care of.

Miri…

One hand clutched at a painful wound in his side as he dragged his body across the rough, dirty floor of his cell. He heard voices. Hope rose in him.

“What about the ones who can’t walk out of here? Are we gonna carry them, or are we gonna fight?” McGill was saying.

“I… can turn into a soccer ball and let you kick me out of here, if need be,” the prisoner rasped.

“Cais nedjin,” McGill said—a Shi’idese exclamation that defied direct translation. “Who is that in there?”

Enkidu shushed him. The prisoner sensed the leader of the Shi’ido forces approaching his cell. “Who are you?”

For a terrifying moment, the prisoner could not remember any name which belonged to him. “Nimdok,” he answered. “I am… Professor Errik Nimdok.”

“Name sounds familiar,” McGill murmured. “Is he famous?”

Enkidu ignored him. “Well, Professor, do you think you can walk out of here?”

“As you can see,” Nimdok said, gradually settling back into his identity again. His tone was grim and humbled, but at least he could speak with some degree of dignity. “I have been blinded by my captors, among other tortures.”

“You’re a misshapen lump,” McGill replied bluntly.

“Nothing that can’t be fixed for us,” Enkidu said. “We’ll let you out.”

There was a whir of circuitry as the universal energy cage was shut down. Nimdok stretched out a hand, cautiously feeling the empty air, only for Enkidu to grasp his arm and haul him to his feet.

“Come on then, Professor.” To McGill, he added, “Cover me. Let’s get out of here.”

Ala Quin​

 

[Ala Quin]

What Ala had mistaken for Cultists burning their dead had turned out to be Shi'ido warriors, well, makeshift warriors. Apparently fighting for ones home was all the motivation that was needed to turn ordinary sentients into killing machines. Their victory had been swift, and deceptive with the Shi'ido taking the form of the killed cultists while hiding the body and then declaring the Shi'ido to have been 'run off'. The ploy had worked long enough so that the Calabrian, so focused on the Force Users in the camp, had been distracted enough to be decieved.

Ala stumbled out into the glow of the hideous bonfire, and the smell of burning flesh assaulted her nostrils. The reflex was to gag, and Ala found herself on her knees dry heaving and clutching at her chest. A hand fell on her shoulder. It was Sol, and Kaarel stood to his left. Sol stooped to Ala's ear and whispered. "The smell becomes more bearable in time." His words were a horrifying comfort.

After a few moments, the heaving eased, and Ala's soul crushed just a little with how quick her body was to adapt to a smell of such vulgarity. If she could physically adapt so quick, would she become calloused to the smell at the same rate? She stood to find her shoulders slumped in a sign of some form of internal defeat.

Looking about the camp she found only Sol, Vaarel and herself alive from the Jedi that had come to Lao-mon. Even Tom had gone.

"We. We buried the our brother and sister Jedi after the manner you showed us, Ala," Vaarel said, sounding almost like a puppy hoping to please its master.

"Good. Well done, Vaarel," Ala said in a gravely tone. Vaarel seemed to puff a little with her words. Only a little.

Though they had taken the cultists camp, there was not a single thing about this moment that felt like victory. There was only...violation.

Noting McGill and Enkidu, two Shi'ido Ala had come to greatly respect, Ala also quirked her head in recognition of a third man. One whose face she recognised after she had come across a breakdown of recent atrocities in the name of 'Jedi'. "Professor Nimdok?" She said, sensing something about him that was familiar, though shaded in hues that confused her Force senses, "how did you get here?"

| Jacen Nimdok |​