Unified in our Purpose

[Laira Darkhold]

The transport Draco used for long duration missions was a simple Sigma-class Shuttle, nothing special or fancy. It could hold a Starfighter in its belly, not that it did him much good, but it had a hyperspace capable escape pod, long range capabilities with a solid hyperdrive and navigation computer. In the old era it was the craft of Emperors, and so its service would not see end.

The light of the hyperspace tunnel tore away, the pin pricks of stars returning across the view screen. The Mandalorian piloting the vessel, turned his head as the ship arrived, plugging in access and landing codes as he looked at his co-pilot. Solid numbers, easy access. This was friendly territory after all. "We've arrived above the planet. No incidents." The warrior relayed to the passenger compartment.

Draco clinked his gauntlets together with a smile. They would be testing an insertion technique on their way down. Nothing special, just a HALO drop from just within a planet's atmosphere, from as high up as they could go without risking re-entry. Standard jump packs and grav-boots, standard sensor negators on his armor. The colors conforming to the night sky at his command. A good solid test run of a plan he had for he and his friend, along with a good way to put commandos on the ground of hostile territory.

"Its going to feel different, you know." The mandalorian said, looking to the smith across the passenger compartment from him. "Not having the Force is one thing, not realizing you can control it and losing it, its not that bad." More green lights flicked on in the command control pad on his gauntlet. "But having it, knowing it, feeling it flow through you and around you. Accessing the web of energy, and then losing it in one instant. It will be disorienting, like getting a flashbang to the senses. It will take a moment to adjust. Our jump packs aren't so good that they can save us if we don't have the where-with-all to turn them right side up."

Draco wasn't sure how much Ijaat had experienced with the Force, all the ins and outs, the oddities of the Force. All he knew was that he knew how it felt to lose touch with the Force, and it wasn't the nicest feeling. Being prepared, one could shunt much of the pain and disorientation away when it happened.

But, the one thing Draco worried about was the native fauna, the Vornskr on the planet that hunted their kind so fervently and viciously. They were dangerous, even to fully armored Mandalorians.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

His nature was changing, bit by bit by little bit. First the assignment for Ke'dem whilst Draco recovered and dealt with homelife. The expedition to Exocron. Things were being seen, being experienced, which he could not altogether ignore. Senses once intuitive were becoming almost painfully sharp. In battle he moved like a vornskr and struck like an enraged rancor. But gone was his legendary fortitude, the new body simply just not made that way. Visions came semi-regularly now, clearer, easier to understand. Whereas once he toiled endlessly at the forge, or range, or pell... Now if anything were dominant amongst his peace-time pursuits it were meditation and study, Immersing himself in the lore of his new powers. There was no time to waste.

Silently he came out of his waking dream and to reality from deep revere, and nodded to Draco. Thanks to memory exercises in the holocron he had been given, he was prodigious at learning and recall. Between it and the cybernetics he was almost frighteningly smart really. And they helped unbelievably with the exercises of technometry [member="Spark Finn"] had taught him, the process coming naturally and faster the longer he went about things. Placing his helmet with a hiss, he waited as seals hissed and popped, sucking closed. Finally when his voice spoke, it was tinny and broken by the annunciator of the ancient beskar'gam he wore. And the words were oddly different, if not in cadence then in choice.

"It has been a constant companion for me these long few months... I have gotten used to its' embrace and caress... The warning is appreciated, it would have likely driven me out of focus and possibly to harm"

Clenching his fist, the crushgauntlet micro-servos whining, he nodded to Draco then as he stood and made his way to the back of the craft where the jump point was. As the portal opened, a black visored gaze met Draco's. For a moment, there was a flare in their shared bond, of friendship, brotherhood and the Force. It was a steady, rolling pulse. Deep and calm and implacable as the Ocean during a wave, but carrying the strength and rage of the tsunami deep in it's beating pulse. Novice compared to Draco though he might be, his raw power was deafening in a certain manner, though inversely it seemed the more he trained the less these displays happened, becoming more focused and pointed. The lesson of listening or shouting, of sense and power. Just as the Holocron taught.

"Oya...!"

Turning, he left his back to the opening and dropped, wind rushing up to cradle him as he fell free to the atmosphere.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The reason Draco wanted to test this pattern of entry, was because stealth ships made an imprint when hitting atmosphere. No matter how good the ship, once it atmosphere it was much easier detected. Noise, exhaust, efflux trails, and air displacement were all present. But if a ship only skimmed the atmosphere and returned to space, it would be detectable for a much shorter time and traces of it would be reduced by the short time in atmosphere. The short re-entry could protect its passengers from having to push through atmosphere themselves, and stealth armor was much more affordable than stealth ships.

Once in atmosphere, the commando needed only fall until he hit minimum safe distance, then engage his jump pack and grav-boots, and slow his descent with a safe level of inertia. It could be done at very low altitudes, below passive radar and scanners, and could be, arguably, the most surefire way to put boots on the ground prior to an invasion, allowing a strike force to disable serious planetary defenses for the main force. Granted, Draco knew of ways to counter the strategy, as they existed already and were numerous, however it was useful. And Draco had plans to use it in a real situation in the future.

"Oya, ner vod." Draco said watching his friend drop out of the back of the shuttle. "Go land at the city. We will meet you there for departure." And with that, the Mandalorian plummeted towards the ground from the shuttle. Sensors and scanners put display on his screen around his face. Minutes of free fall, dropping faster and faster until wind resistance slowed them as they hit the lower atmosphere.

Plummeting towards a jungle was surprisingly peaceful, with their only known information being that this sector of the planet contained their prize, and that it was also home to at least one Kur'yida Edee. Murder Tooth. Six meter tall reptomammals with fifteen centimeter teeth, retroviral bites, absence in the Force, and skin that could deflect lightsaber strikes, bones twice as tough. In addition to vornskr, that thing possibly roaming the area would ward off most travelers. Even most Mandalorians without proper equipment couldn't handle such a beast.

"One minute until the jungle floor." Draco said over comlink, watching the timer tick away and watching the ground rising up to meet him. Any second that disorientation would strike, right before they would need to pull their velocity and land.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Falling free, he focused inward, drinking in the Force and the planet and Draco and just everything... Such a constant companion, for something so relatively new and different. But he had taken to it like a fish to water, and it had begun to change him. At first it had begun in minute, small, slow ways he couldn't really notice or imagine. From savage warrior to an emergent warrior-sage, he was becoming. What it was he would be at the end of this journey, he did not yet know. Light. Dark. Good. Evil. They all seemed to shrink from his care and worry as his mind expanded. In the end, he would be himself, and others could reckon with that as they needed. Closing his eyes, he reveled in the whipping wind until the last possible second, alarms blaring for him to initiate descent protocols.

With snapped open eyes, he flipped in mid-air and blinked in sequence just as he hit the event horizon over Myrkr. The suit, with a dumbed down version of Geoffery loaded, was very quick to flare all power to the propulsion system and almost overload it. Thrusters strained at two hundred and ten percent, and whined in protest as armor pieces rattled and jangled. At first his speed continued to increase, and suddenly he jerked as a focused over-pulse hummed from his hands and feet, arresting his movement entirely for a moment before it resumed, but at a much slower and less erratic pace.

In what felt like hours, he made land fall in a thunderous crouch near the city. His knees creaked and ached as he stood slowly, groaning. The insertion had worked, as there had been no incoming fire or anything, and his IFF had been utterly blank. But the small crater he stood in was evidence perhaps that his propulsion systems needed beefing up in order to take the deceleration better in hand. Clenching his fists he moved his knees and gripped his ankles like a sprinter preparing to take off, rolling his neck and popping it as his armor scanned his vitals. Minor bruises, maybe a fracture to the left patella, but nothing in harsh need.

Firing up his comms, he suddenly realized the aching lack, and almost hit his knees, the only sound in his comm now being an almost silent retching.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco closed his eyes and centered himself, finding the calm, cool center of his mind and his focus as he fell, turning his attention to this point. A point of reference for him to know what was truth and what was false. The warlord continued to the ground, when he hit the edge of the bubble where the Force simply, wasn't turned to his will anymore, the warrior winced, kicking his legs beneath him firing all thrusters and repulsors at once, drifting to a stop about a meter above the ground before he kicked his repulsors off and dropped to the ground with a slight thud.

The adjustment was different, aching loss. It wasn't terrible, just a disorientation, like one would feel for a moment if they became suddenly deaf could not feel anymore. The loss of an always present sense needed adjustment. There were places on the world where the Ysalamiri's effects didn't reach, where they had been hunted or harvested from their trees and removed, or in the spaces between colonies, but those would only make the disorientation linger. Shutting off the sense completely for a moment was more beneficial than slight glimpses in normal circumstances.

"Alright. So, the book says it was somewhere in this sector of the planet. We could search the jungle for a century and not find anything by sight, so I suppose by feel is the way we will have to go." Feel through the Force, on this planet. One would have to be determined, careful, precise, and above all, they would have to be a part of this place's destiny. Part of what the Force could affect, could manipulate on Myrkr and guide along through the flows of life, the living and the cosmic Force.

Cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, Draco took a deep breath, finding that place in his mind where he was calm and collected. A short burst from his jump pack, and he floated about the trees, lingering there, out of the reach of the Ysalamiri. The Force had its tendril's, its deep rooted web of energy and life on this world, the same as any other, just harder to find, harder to sense.

Minutes passed before Draco had any inkling from the Force, and he dropped to the ground with practiced grace and instinct as he returned to the darkness where he could sense nor touch the power of the Force.

"That way. I guess we are going to have to play it like hot or cold." It was his best guess for now.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Ijaat watched the younger-elder rocket above the canopy, and still remained in a crouch as his friend moved. He felt stricken, deprived, as if hit with a wasting disease you see infomercials about on the holo-net asking you to donate to the cause of. In truth, he hadn't realized just how much his senses were melded with the Force in so many ways... Active use of the Force, outside of crafting, was perhaps not his greatest use excepting when using his senses. Shatterpoint, Farsight, Force Sight and more were fast becoming things he used without much to any thought at all really. The loss of these companions so constant for his mind, was something he could not entirely reconcile at this moment. With a groan, he rose almost drunkenly, a hand to his crimson and slate buc'ye, shaking his head as if in confusion.

"Uchk.... It's like I can't see or hear and am drunk off that bloody Absinthe Aing-Tii that some idiot in the Outback had decided to make and market. Near the hallucinations as well."

But he checked his gear, if with a bit of fumbling and thumbling here and there over things that should have been elementary. Eventually he nodded, pulling his Keldabe cannon in a tight-fisted left hand, and pull a simple beskad from his hip, knowing the Jada blade would be less than useful in such an environment without stable connection to the Force for it to draw upon and empower itself with and become more than a simple durasteel blade, which might likely dull rather quickly in such thick undergrowth.

Standing, he followed Draco's lead, bringing up the rear, scanning and quickly analyzing things. He couldn't shake the feeling, no Force or not, that something lurked and stalked them in the Jungle as well. A predatory rising of the hackles almost brought a snarl to his lips, and he kept his gaze low whilst he tried to look for vornskr, his most logical enemy in the jungle overall.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Aye, its bad. Its worse the more used to using the Force you are. Luckily, both of us spent a long time without using it at all. We learned the Force later in our lives. Its second nature, an extra sense, but we've not grown complacent enough to need it." Draco smiled to himself, slipping through the jungle at a jog, keeping his eyes and ears on alert for predators and hunters that might also be lurking in this neck of the woods. What he said was true. Both men had spent a life time without the Force and then began using it heavily. It was different having something and then losing it, but theirs was a trained sense, not a natural one, not like the Jedi raised in the temple and taught to rely on the Force from a young age.

At the same time, it wasn't pleasant having to go through the transition more than once, with pockets of the area they were in they were able to glimpse the Force before losing it again and again as they moved through the underbrush. The trail was non-existent, only undergrowth and trees. Eyes followed them from the Ysalamiri hiding from them in the forests, watching them run past and relaxing as they past them and kept going.

Draco knew only that their prize was in this sector and was in this direction, at least this general direction. After eight hundred years he wasn't sure what they would be looking for, what would symbolize the final resting for the ancient Princess of Alderaan's eldest son. Certainly there would be something, but he wasn't sure. All the book had said was that she planted a reminder of him and left, and never returned to it. The fact that her descendants hid her book from others meant something. Likely that they didn't trust the people that followed them through the Four Hundred Year darkness, or that the plague had set in and they thought it would eradicate them, and wanted to make sure something survived. Forgotten and left in the foundation of the Royal Palace it could have never been found, but whoever hid it after Alderaan had been rebuilt knew that and was willing for that to be the case to make sure it lived on.

Now a pair of Mandalorians, war-like and barbaric by Alderaanian standards, searched for the last remnants of a Jedi. How far things had come since his Fall to the Dark Side, his subsequent redemption, or half redemption, or path to redemption, which ever it may be. He kept moving towards a massive tree, standing fifteen, maybe twenty meters taller than every other tree in this forest, the overgrowth around it reaching meters high. At least from there he could climb it and conserve fuel to get another look about where to go.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Thankfully, the disorientation only lasted for so long before he began to realize that there were flickers and glimpses of the Force... A creature in it stirred, or some sort of omnious presence. A vornskr? A kur'yida edee, the Murder Tooth? Or something else even more sinister, but unknown from the wilds of the jungle world? Ijaat could not tell what or where it was, but there was a looming presence, or more specifically a lack of presence in his 'vision' so to speak. Natural instincts born in the fires of a hundred wars and more screamed at him danger was afooot, and so as they breached the clearing for the massive tree, he took a knee and planted the beskar stock of his cannon into the ground and began to prepare.

Quiet helm-to-helm private comms was engaged almost instantly as he sorted out his usual favorites for a jungle ambush when one would use knowledge of the surprise to turn from prey to predator. The element of surprise was key in situations like this, and he would not waste one single second of it, ignoring the nagging lack of the Force he felt. Two flash bangs, an incendiary, and a pair of high explosives. Stun the predator for a moment, light the terrain on fire, then blow it up or stun it more. With his grenades selected, he hefted his sword free and stabbed it into the earth before him, and hefted his cannon, resting it across his thigh as he took a knee and waited, half way between edge of the clearing the the tree, armor sensors amped to the point he drained other systems to increase their capability and power, and the various camouflage systems helping him be less obvious.

"Something is tailing or hunting us brother... Get up that tree, do what you need to. I'll stay on point and watch"

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco's instincts were not so dead. His Force senses, yes; but his instincts as a hunter, as a warrior his abilities to know when he was being followed, watched... hunted. Those were alive and well, and he had the feeling in the back of his skull, like eyes were locked on the pair.

"Yup. We might break for it over the canopy if its too bad." Draco muttered. Running wasn't his favorite thing, but it could prove useful. On the ground with only glimpses of the Force and limited supplies, it might be necessary. Plus they were preparing for a little more dangerous mission in the foreseeable future, it would do to have them used to working together as a unit and knowing when to flee from danger in order for the mission to succeed.

"Alright, it might take a minute to re-acclimate and find my way again. The call has been subtle, almost undetectable." Draco's voice was quiet and calm. Despite what he felt without the Force, he was pretty confident in their abilities as hunters and warriors across the ages to be able to handle whatever it was in these forests. One Kur'yida Edee roamed the entire sector and while they were hyper-aggressive, they hunted huge areas and normally sought larger prey than humans.

The warrior had to clear out the thick underbrush, hacking at it with his beskad to get to the base of the tree, the dense reeds and vines draped over this area much thicker than anything they had seen on the jungle so far. After a moment of hacking and slashing, Draco was able to begin hauling himself up the tree, hand over hand, armored fingers having the grip the bare surface of the tree and squeeze hand-holds using the impressive grip augmented circuitry, an enhancement he had learned from studying the Glove of Darth Vader, stronger than normal crushgaunts. The tree bark resisted, but barely as he climbed, using the holds he left beneath him to stabilize his feet so that not all of his weight was held on his arms.

He climbed about eight meters up, still several meters short from the canopy when he heard a deafening roar behind him, louder than a jet engines roar, reverberating through the air charging it with primeval rage, the roar of an alpha predator establishing dominance across an entire ecosystem.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

As the roar sounded, Ijaat nodded to Draco harshly and stood up to draw attention to himself. IF it were claiming dominance, the surest way to piss it off was to draw it's attention by making a spectacle. So he dropped the paint camo and other vaguely stealthy features and then suddenly turned annunciatiors to full. A sound file of a kryat dragon, amplified and spliced with a rancor roar into a cacophony of terror and rage. It wasn't something that might fool a sentient being, but a mostly instinctual beast like the Murder-Tooth? It stopped and cocked its' head to the side, a deep rumble in its' throat as if in curiosity or confusion, a tinge of rebuke in the atonal bass that reverberated out in the clearing.

Again, the simulated roar blared from his helmet, and this time it was accompanied by a double blast from the keldabe cannon, right at the beasts' chest and throat, whilst the other hand hurled a flash-bang, visor receptors flickering and dampening to downplay the flash as he yelled a warning to Draco to move his shebs and get at a safe height. It was risky, the beast was damn near unkillable, and enraging it might truly result in his death. But his friend would likely die without it, as scrapes and tracks on the bark, healed and overlooked at first by an inexpert eye, showed it likely claimed something nearby as a den, so this tree was part of the heart of it's territory and possibly even near it's den.

Enraged, the beast bellowed again, and Ijaat racked the cannon and bellowed his own synthetic challenge and fired a gout of flame from his wrist.

"Olaror bat jii, jari'eyc... Rala carahya, gar bal ni...."

Spoiler

Come on now, ugly... Lets wrestle, you and me...

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco wasn't one to run from a fight, but in his life time, the Kur'yida Edee was one of the few beasts he had just run from. Not because he was afraid, but because there weren't many weapons that could hurt it. Other than the beskar Keldabe Cannon on his back, he didn't have anything that could. His sword might tickle it, but something its size, with its thick hide and tough meat, not to mention the dense bones, he would be lucky to slice off one of the beasts small fingers, much less actually cause it real pain.

Ijaat's display of dominance drew its curiosity, until his flash bang disoriented it. Blinded and its ears ringing, the beast snarled and charged forward at the smith while Draco climbed. With things like this, fight smarter. One warrior on the ground, out maneuvering it, using jump pack to out pace it, and one above firing as he could at weak spots. Unfortunately, while that worked fine for a lot of creatures, the only real external weakness a Kur'yida Edee had was its eyes. Other than that, its open mouth was the next best.

Problem was, its eyes were covered from above by bony brow ridges, and its skull was thick and tough, tougher than a Keldabe cannon could pierce. It could jar its brain case sure, but not punch through in one round. The opening in the bone from brain to eye was small, so it took an expert shot to hit it, and the right angle. And above it wasn't the right angle. Its open mouth provided exposure to the soft pallet and throat, but normally when one could see down its throat, they were in a bad place.

Pulling his muscles to him, Draco leaped up the tree, rising to about ten meters, more than enough to get out of bite range as the creature barrelled past Ijaat and rammed the tree hard with its head, dazing it further. Wood creaked and splinters flew from where the massive beast struck the tree. Worse still, on the other side of it, the wood cracked and fractured, snapping near the base as it began to fall over slowly. "Well, poodoo." Draco muttered as the roots began pulling up from the ground and the forest became a cacophony of birds fluttering animals skittering, and the roars and growls of the Murder Tooth.

A shimmering field appeared around Draco, altering the colors of the Mandalorian until he appeared transparent with an odd distortion on his outline. Hands losing grip with the tree twisting and falling, Draco slid down the trunk of the tree to the ground, using his legs to change his angle enough that he landed on the ground away from the Kur'yida who was rapidly regaining its composure and turning its attention back to the smith who had wounded it so.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

As the thing charged, Ijaat reached up to his chest and mashed a button between the grenades. It was crude, but useful and a tool too few utilized in his profession... A dead-man's switch, a classic defense against a suicide run or tactic. And, what he was about to do next was nothing if not suicidal. Turning, he racked the keldabe cannon and yanked his sword from the ground and ran right at the charging beast coming at him... He was sputtering mando'a warcries and obscenities as he swung the blade and vaulted off the ground, repulsors suddenly whining in his boots as his horizontal progress vastly accelerated, straight for the things mouth.

It opened its' maw to roar just as Ijaat literally flew into it, cackling like a mad-man about to piss himself from laughter, and immediately began to punch at it's jaw with his suddenly free hand as he rammed his sword into the soft palette of its' mouth and jammed the gullet open, securing a moment to work. The beast began to thrash and swing it's head around, charging like mad in pain. Apex predator or no, it knew deadly wounds, and Ijaat had tickled it's brain. But it would take ages to die that way, as respiratory function decreased. So he took a half-shebbed aim and loosed every round he had in the Kelbade cannon left before it overheated. A total of three slugs directly into the pierced palette cleft and towards the brain as he ripped the grenade harness free and said a silent prayer to the Force and the Manda, prepared to join them.

Well you old fool, this will make a good death-song...

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The tree cracked and tore, the earth holding it to the ground broke and pulled up as the roots pulled up from the weight of the trunk now moving towards the ground. Grass and rocks wrapped in roots pulled up from the ground around Draco, showering him in topsoil. "Alright Ijaat maybe don't try to get killed." He muttered, shouldering his rifle. The Plasma driven Mass driver was a powerful weapon, even if to something the size of a Kur'yida it was more akin to a snake bite.

The tree kept falling and one of its roots wrapped itself around Draco's leg as it twisted during its fall to the ground, dragging him backwards into the earth where the tree had been. Digging fingers into loose soil he started to right himself. He had sense of the Force in this clearing, at least somewhat. As fingers dug in the mud, the Force struck him like a stun blast between the eyes, a burning headache as his fingers touched metal being pulled from its place by the roots as the tree fell.

His danger sense erupted as soon as he touched the box, having gone from noticing the beast to blarring like a siren. The beast itself was a danger yes, but it was attacking Ijaat and he was, at least partially invisible at the moment. Enough to where a beast probably wouldn't take much notice of him.

Simple tin box, one latch, no lock, no hinges. But it called to him, distracted him, and his senses warned him away from it. The roars seemed to die away, as though off in the distance, his vision tunneled around this one simple object, so small, so simple. He fumbled with the latch, and it opened with little resistance, just rusted really. So little precautions for something so precious. No, it was buried beneath a tree where no one would have been able to access the Force if not for tree that hand just jarred and killed a number of Ysalamiri. Until a moment ago, this thing was useless and anyone seeking it would rely on measures like the Force itself, not their own power over the Force. Finding this on purpose required a lot of things to fall into place. First knowing where the Princess had buried her son, where she had believed he truly died, why this place was important to her in this regard, and they would have to have been lucky. Fated some might say.

Draco didn't believe in that sort of thing, but here he was, holding an open box with just a few rotted pieces of paper, a few knick-knacks that mattered to someone long ago, a memento of a long dead Sith Lord, and a small glowing blue, bronze and black plated square, pulsing with Force power he didn't fully comprehend. His fingers grasped it as he stood, leaving the box on the torn earth still transfixed.

The Force flared, the bond between he and his friend flared again, and he looked up, confused as to what was happening, as though he didn't remember their lives were in danger. He could only see Ijaat leaping forward, diving into the creatures mouth when it all started flooding back to him.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

All was chaos, chaos and pain and confusion. Perhaps it hadn't been his best best or brightest moment to attack in such a way. Most other sane folks would see such a beast and do as Draco did and run. Maybe coming through the veil had changed Ijaat in a certain way to be almost careless in his preservation of his own life. However or whatever the reason, he had just flown into the mouth of something that could pierce beskar with ease with it's jaw and as it roared he roared with his own voice and hit the deadman switch as his grenades were quite literally forced down it's throat with a desperate push, and Ijaat found his arm going with it, the scream mingled in pain and fury and a sort of victory that only those resigned and committed unto the end find, shade in the shadow of their own mortality, so to speak.

Suddenly, successive and brutal blasts tore through the things innards, the tough hide containing most of the blast as Ijaats' grenades did their work and cooked it from the inside. It died then, a low whistling death rattle just as it was preparing a third bite on its prize, the Jada blade snapped from pressure, as without the Force it was a mere durasteel blade, mightily made to be sure... But no more or less that that, and so childs play to the thing that had tried to kill him. Still thrumming deep in it's throat, he felt it's balance shift and suddenly the world shift, and he felt the crash of the beast as it fell to the floor, finally dead beyond random twitches and throes of agony.

Eventually the mouth lolled open and Ijaat emerged, dragging himself by his remaining right arm, gasping in agony as he pulled himself free by using the jagged remnant of his sword like an ice pick. First emerged a thrown keldabe cannon, almost as if vommitted up from the beasts gut. Then emerged the bloody hand covered in viscera, burns, and teeth marks on the gauntlet from the beast trying to consume it. The shattered blade hilt still gripped tightly in it. After much gasping and pained noises, Ijaat stood from the charnel heap of the corpse, and used his remaining arm to toss off his helmet and gaze at the thing as death filmed its' eyes.

There was a look of respect in the standing warriors eyes as the other faded, and he turned to Draco with pain etching his bloodied face, one eye almost red from blood, the destroyed arm socket mostly cauterized from the back wash of the grenade, and he grinned a moment before he passed out, thudding face first into the dirt with a weary smile and a raised fist, ending just outside the gaping rows of razor sharp teeth the thing had, and with the planet they were on it would be hard to tell if his Force Signature or vitals were present, or merely agonal remnants of a fleeting past existence as he finally died. But so far as he knew, not a single warrior could have claimed to kill one of these things on his own. Whether he still counted as a Mandalorian or not, he had done a mighty deed.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco's tunneled vision looked up from the small reddish pyramid in his hands and he took stock of the situation, bringing him back towards reality, out of the haze. Stuffing the small object in a pocket, he quickly reached and grabbed the small glowing blue cube and stuffed it next to the other one from the tin sitting in the earth. "Ijaat?" He said, quite puzzled, as though his friend would hear his calm, slightly confused voice over the din of combat and struggle. Draco reacted sluggishly, as though they were in a board room rather than a jungle fighting one of the most fearsome predators in the galaxy.

As the partially invisible warrior shook his head, clearing his mind from the muddled, half unaware feeling he began walking towards the combat, fairly aimlessly as though still somewhat lost. His friend and the beast fell to the earth, Ijaat inside the creature's mouth, also known as the last place one would want to be when concerned with a creature known for crushing through power armor with its jaws and making mockeries of light tanks. Hell, even battle tanks weren't fond of being caught in the creatures jaws, as they were known to open up tanks piece by piece.

Draco jogged forward, realization of what was happening dawning on him as the seconds ticked by, reaching the commotion only after the beast lay sprawled on the jungle floor, blood and matter spilling from its mouth, the top of its head still intact, its throat lacerated and cut from the inside, likely from shrapnel grenades. "Ijaat!" The Mandalorian called as he approached, quickly sensing that his friend was in serious danger.

When the smith fell to the ground in a slump, the Mandalorian wasted little time, pulling off the warrior's helmet and pressing his fingers to either temple. Channeling the Force, Draco pulled upon the web of energy, letting it flow through him and into Ijaat, slowly working to repair the injuries, focusing the energy flowing through him into the areas most damaged, though there was little he could actually do. The best he could do was slow the process of dying. "Stupid old man. Its like you want to die." The warrior, kept his focus for a time, just to get his friend to a point he could be moved without pieces of him falling out. They were very much alone in the middle of nowhere.

"This is Alor Vereen, I need a medivac asap."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]