Ask Flashpoint Denon Blood On Your Hands

[Ailis Drast]

Denon​

Ailis transfer to the Dromund Kaas Academy was followed by a swift deployment to Denon. The Sith didn't fuck around and apparently they wanted to see her in action or something before investing too many resources into her continued education. That was just great. Transfer away from Taris just to be sent on a deadly mission on Denon. Another city planet. Fucking typical.

Ailis wore her Sithy acolyte outfit complete with a blast vest. It seemed the Taris academy had gone through all her things and sent what they found appropriate for her to keep. At least she got to keep some of her stuff. Clipped to her belt was "her" lightsaber. Well apparently it was hers now, even though it had been a training lightsaber she had stolen from the training rooms and modified to function normally. They had seen fit to send it along with the rest of her stuff, or maybe they didn't even know that it was stolen.

Finders keepers she guessed.

Her and another Acolyte were inserted onto the planet through a rapid deployment gunship with a small fighter screen that was currently en route to their destination. A group of Sith guerilla fighters that had been part of the ongoing conflict on the planet. Their job was simple. Link up with the guerilla's and then aid them in their objectives in whatever way necessary. There was of course a list of different objectives and targets that they had memorized, but nothing was concrete until they were on the ground and in communication with the guerilla force commander.

Speaking of they.

"You ever done anything like this?" Ailis asked the other Acolyte who had been sent on this mission, apparently also fairly fresh according to what she knew about the guy. She turned her head to look at him, tearing her eyes from the narrow viewport of the transport and the war torn city planet as its towers passed her by, one of them on fire and spewing gouts of smoke.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

This was where things were going to get real and where Varyn's job of walking the line was going to become very, very difficult. He had been sent back to Denon to an active warzone with the job of linking up with guerrilla fighters. He really wasn't looking forward to the idea of killing FWA troops or Jedi, but he also couldn't be actively and obviously working against the Empire. There was always the option of feigning incompetence, but that might get him killed, too. Great.

He wasn't having to act as he clutched the seatbelt of the dropship as it shuttered once again from a laser blast slapping against their shield. He winced and his face scrunched up. It wasn't even like the rest of combat he had been in before. There was nothing he could do except sit and think about his helplessness. He hated it.

Thankfully, his partner - Ailis he thought he heard - spoke up to draw his attention away.

I've been to Denon before. It's where my master got killed, he said. That was his official cover anyway. It was how he had gotten his red lightsaber and it was how he had explained his "proficiency" with the Force when he arrived at the academy. He'd been taken on as an apprentice by a Sith who had been wandering the galaxy and then proceeded to die at Denon. It was mostly true.

He felt the ship start to decelerate and the exit ramp snapped down moments later. They weren't exiting into direct fire, but Varyn could hear the snap-hiss of blaster shots in the not-so-distant distance.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis clutched at the harness that kept her strapped in as they shuttle shuddered under enemy fire. She heard the other acolytes words and pursed her lips a little at his explanation that his master had been killed here. Was that... sympathy? Maybe.

"Oh... Well that sucks." She said as she looked out the window again, the shuttle whirring and gravity swaying slightly as it made to land. "Well... Here's hoping we do better than your old master!" Ailis chuckled a little morbidly before continuing. "I'm Ailis by the way, I think I caught your name, Baryn right?" She asked. She was pretty sure it was Baryn.

The exit ramp snapped down as the shuttle decelerated into a low hover and Ailis popped her harness of with a slap of the harness button on her chest. "Time to go!" She shouted and rushed out of the lander, hopping the short distance off the edge to land with her lightsaber held in her hand, not yet activated.

The side of a tower exploded above as a Sith tie fighter did an attack run on it. Flames spewed from it and the blaster turret that had been firing from that vantage point was silenced as smoke began to trickle from the tower. Ailis shivered. So this was war...

"Over there!" She caught Valyn's attention and pointed to another building opposite the tower that had just gotten strafed, a large bridge connecting the two buildings. She could see blaster fire flickering back and forth between the towers, and figured that the guerilla's were in the one that... hadn't just gotten shot at by a Sith fighter.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn. With a "V," he corrected. It had been close, so that was nice at least. He'd had a lot of people misremember his name in the past for one reason or another and they usually weren't even close...

He slapped the controls on his restraints, thrilled to finally be getting to vent some of his nervous energy. There may not have been any death, there was the Force, but man his subconscious didn't seem to know that, and his subconscious really didn't want to die.

He leapt out just behind her, landing with his own saber in hand as well. He had reconstructed the hilt and meditated over the crystal extensively, but the bled crystal still didn't really cooperate with him the way his old blade had. Nothing he could do about that, though.

Go! Move! he shouted as she pointed to one of the buildings. Another strafing run took out a much smaller building a few blocks down, which detonated into a mix of dust and brilliant streaks of plasma and fire. He reflexively shielded his eyes as he ran, sliding into the lobby of the building she had pointed at moments earlier.

Get those anti-tank guns up here! Teams 3 and 5, fall back! he heard a woman shouting into a radio. Whether she was the leader of this group or just a radio operator, Varyn didn't know but she was probably a good place to start.

 

[Ailis Drast]

Varyn seemed to have a good sense of priority as he shouted for Ailis to move and she moved. The familiar feeling of duracrete under her heels was made completely foreign by the rocking of explosions and whine of blaster fire. Her heart pounded as the two acolytes screeched into the lobby like... Well like acolytes from Dromund Kaas.

Ailis also spotted the radio operator and rushed over to her. "Where can I find the commanding officer?!" She shouted, maybe too loud, maybe not. It seemed prudent considering the surrounding chaos. "Ten floors up, the floor below the skybridge!" She shouted back before spitting more commands into the radio. "The elevator still works, its the fastest way!" She shouted at their backs as Ailis sprinted off towards the stairs before rerouting to the elevator.

Ding.

The door opened and Ailis slid in, pressing the button for the 11th floor. "Sorry... about the name thing, Varyn." Names were important to Ailis, even with how much she seemed to forget and misremember them. The door slid shut on the elevator and it started to rise as the sound of battle was drowned out by elevator music. Her heart was still pounding with adrenaline, and she knew things were only going to get worse when the elevator doors opened. And more exciting.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn's eyes swept over to the battle raging at the front of the building. Blasterfire flew in and out, most of it missing, fortunately, but still slapping against the duracreet and durasteel of the building.

Ailis questioned the officer and Varyn hurried along the back line, trying to take mental note of everything that was going on down here. He was fighting side by side with these people while also simultaneously scoping out ways to help defeat them. Something about it didn't sit quite right in his gut, but he pushed the thought aside. They were the enemy.

Ailis rushed over to the turbolift and he followed close behind, still mentally counting munitions he had seen when she spoke up again... about his name? He frowned at her, looking almost confused for a moment before responding.

Uh... it's fine. I think we have more important things to worry about, he said, clearly not offended at all. People did odd things in combat zones, and it occurred to him that this was her first time doing something like this. Varyn hadn't done much in terms of large scale battles before, but he'd been in skirmishes and even been wounded before as a Padawan.

Just keep breathing and moving, he said. They were the two best pieces of advice he could give. Stopping was dying and that was even more true for a Jedi or Sith. He probably shouldn't have been giving advice to a Sith... it was probably in his people's best interest if Ailis died, but even thinking that just felt... wrong. Not the Jedi way, was it?

The door to the turbolift started sliding open, but at about the halfway point of opening, the building shuddered and then the turbolift started to plunge downward, its suspension severed presumably by the detonation and leaving two acolytes to plunge to their deaths dozens of stories below if they didn't move quickly.

And then it slammed to a halt and Varyn was nearly thrown off his feet. At least it had stopped... for the moment.

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis glanced at Varyn with a side eye as he said they had more important things to worry about. She didn't say anything, he was technically correct. At least he didn't seem bothered.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said with a small smile. The elevator came to a stop and the door started to open. And then Ailis' stomach dropped a second before the elevator did.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Ailis screamed as she reached for something to grab onto, catching a rail with one hand and Varyn's wrist with the other. She nearly fell on her face as the elevator shuddered to a stop and Ailis tried to catch her breath. "What the- Woaaaaaah... Shit we almost died." She said, breathing for a moment as she regained her senses and surroundings. Red emergency lights lit the elevator and she could see they had dropped several floors, with the indicator stuck between the six and the seven.

"Halfway huh. Going up!" Ailis concluded by the indicator and pulled her lightsaber, igniting it up in the air and carving a circle in the ceiling that she hopped to the side to dodge as it came down, deactivating her saber.

"Just keep breathing and moving right?" She said and gave Varyn a wink before looking up at the hole and jumping. She had been practicing and managed to get mostly up out of the hole and catching herself on the cabling to pull herself all the way up. She activated her saber again to cast the elevator shaft in a bloody red glow, revealing the outer doors to be nearly level with the top of the elevator.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn's hand had latched onto one of the side rails without thinking despite the fact that it wouldn't have helped him at all if they hit the ground.

We need to get out! he said, feeling there was still a very real possibility that the lift would drop the rest of the way to the ground. He didn't know what had stopped them in their fall, but he thanked the Force for it.

Yeah... he said in response to the repetition of his comment. It wasn't wrong, that was for sure.

Within moments, there was a hole in the roof and they were both up on the top of the lift. Varyn's own saber thrust into the exit door and he swung himself down through the opening and onto the sixth floor of the building.

I guess it's going to be stairs, then, he said, heading in that direction. He stopped as he crossed by one of the windows and looked out. With a better view, it was now more obvious what was going on. Each building was being fought over ferociously. Even Imperial regulars still occupied some of them alongside the guerrilla fighters.

Holy... he muttered. Blasterfire crisscrossed far below. He could see explosions and fires burning and watched as a fighter - shot down high above - slammed into the ground, skidding across the FWA lines.

I think this is some of the thickest fighting still on world, he said. The guerrillas had been forced back and forced to join up with the remnant of Imperial regulars as they fell back building by building.

 

[Ailis Drast]

Sliding out of the elevator behind Varyn, Ailis eyes scanned the floor which was abandoned by Imperial guerilla's. "Stairs it is." Ailis said, though she wasn't happy about it. If only the elevator had got them to the top before it failed.

At least they were lucky to still be alive.

Ailis eyes followed Varyn's as he looked out over the city and her own eyes went wide. She hadn't been able to tell the full scale of the conflict from the view slit of their lander, but now from way up here....

It was chaos.

"I've never seen anything like it." She admitted with a hollow tone in her voice. She could feel it out there. The conflict. All the hate and pain and anger seemed to radiate the city, like a gentle mist of darkness that permeated everything, just barely.

She was focused on the fighting down below, but a subtle nagging sensation in the back of her head began to grow. That instinctual warning.

"Get down!" She shouted as she tackled Varyn to the ground and away from the windows, just as a cannon blast hit the side of the building. Whether it was aimed for them or not... She had no way of knowing.

"Are you okay?" She asked him. She could barely see him, a choking cloud of dust and debris had enveloped the room but she really hoped he wasn't dead. If he was, she likely wouldn't be too far behind him. Had they just been sent here to die?

She didn't have long to think about it however as she heard the roar of engines and the whine of repulsorlifts. The dust blew away as a ship hovered outside the new hole in the wall and Ailis found her feet as she turned to face the new threat. Definitely a threat, her eyes going slightly wide as Free Worlds Alliance soldiers started to pour into the hole in the building.

"Sith!" One of them shouted, pointing his blaster at her. Fuck. She was the Sith. Snap-hiss. Her lightsaber ignited in her hand as jet of crimson and she brought it up to block the first blaster bolt that came her way as she found her feet. There were already more troopers pouring into the building and she wasn't sure they could hold them. Not two lowly acolytes with little to no combat experience. "Get up!" She shouted to Varyn behind her as she blocked another bolt and eyed the exit, a stairwell on the other side of the hall.

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn couldn't tear his eyes away from the battle below, hearing the tone in Ailis's voice at seeing a battle like this for the first time.

Yeah... he said. He could feel the waves of darkness flowing up from the battle below. He had always wanted to be a warrior of the Jedi, vanquishing Sith on the battlefields of the galaxy. His life and path were turning out quite differently than he had ever planned.

He was bodily thrown to the ground by Ailis a moment later, the heat and dust of an explosion slapping him backwards as a chunk of the floor and window around them were blasted apart. He was left choking and coughing as he pushed himself up.

I'm fine... I'm fine. Are you okay? he asked as he got to his knees. The hover of engines filled the room a moment later and soldiers started swarming off, and they were not Imperial troops.

His lightsaber was in his hands before he knew it, slapping a blaster bolt smoothly to the side as more soldiers continued to flow in.

He sent another bolt into the ground as he fell back in the direction of the stairs, slamming his back into the door as he held it open for Ailis.

COME ON! he yelled. He held the door open just long enough for her to get through before slamming it shut again. He jammed his saber into the hinges, burning them into place to present another obstacle in the way of the FWA advance.

Up! he shouted, knowing he could leap from the upper floors and land with the Force if need be. The thought to ask her if she could do the same didn't cross his mind. It was also where they would apparently find the guerrilla leader and possibly extract them.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

"I'm fine, I'm not hurt." Ailis replied as she deflected another blaster shot into the ceiling. Shit this wasn't good. She glanced to the side and Varyn was falling back. Ducking under another bolt, she held her hand out towards the soldiers. She wanted them gone. The dust in the air shuddered as she pushed the lead man back, stumbling into the others and knocking one soldier off the edge.

Ailis didn't stick around to see if he fell or not.

The firing stopped briefly as the soldiers recovered and Ailis booked it. Door slammed behind them and hinges melted, Ailis eyed the stairs. Why couldn't the elevator have not fallen. She started running up the stairs and she could hear the soldiers already trying to break down the door.

"It won't hold long!" Ailis said as she ran. She had spent so much of her life without the force, it was still instinctual to do things the mundane way and she didn't think to just jump up the levels.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn's lightsaber flashed out and he started pounding his way up the stairs, clearing the flights with the speed that only pure adrenaline could give you. He heard banging below followed by a wa-thump sound as what he assumed was some sort of breaching charge blasted down the door behind them.

They only had a lead of a couple floors now, but it was enough... for the moment. They made it to the top floor within only a minute or two, the sounds of pounding boots could be heard behind them, but at a slower pace than the pair of acolytes, no doubt from need to clear multiple floors and ensure there were no ambushes.

He burst into the top floor to have a half-dozen blasters trained on him already from the guerrillas working security on this floor.

FWA troops... are coming up... now, he said between gasped breaths. A large, intimidating-looking man with one prosthetic arm looked at the pair of acolytes grimly. Varyn could just sense that he was the one in charge, and it didn't take a Jedi to know that he wasn't happy about what the acolyte was saying.

You two picked quite the time to show up, he said, face grim and stern.

Set charges to blow the stairwell. We'll drop it down on them before they get here and get out from the roof by gunship, the man said, apparently having anticipated this.

Move it! he said, motioning toward crates of explosives at the far side of the room. Yeah, Varyn totally knew how to do this. How hard could it be?

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis heard the door blow out beneath them as they sprinted up the stares. Ailis heart pounded and adrenaline coursed through her veins as she powered up the stairs while also being mindful not to accidentally chop her own leg off as she ran with a lightsaber.

They got to the command post and came face to face with the guerilla leader, a very large and scary hunk who had an air of authority about him. "Yes sir." She said before turning to run over to the crates he had indicated, deactivating her lightsaber. Inside were some standard imperial issue explosives and she tried to remember what little they had covered on explosives in engineering.

She grabbed two of the clunky bombs and hung one from her belt. She studied the other one for a second, identifying what she thought was a trigger switch, as well as a few dials that would indicate some sort of timer mechanism. "Come on. You cover me." She said to Varyn as they went back through the door to the stairwell and she ignited her lightsaber to block a blaster bolt fired by one of the men coming up the stairs. Shit, they were already there.

Her focus settled on the harness of his blast plate and she reached a hand out towards him to grasp it. With a sharp tug and a wave of her hand she jerked the soldier over the stair well. She didn't watch him fall. He'd be fine...

She charged down the stairs to the bend where another soldier was coming up. She blocked his blaster bolts and sent him tumbling back down the stairs and into his fellow Free Worlds Alliance soldiers. She'd let Varyn take point as she came to a knee on the landing to mess with the explosive that she had grabbed, setting a timer chucking it down the stairs and pulling out the second explosive.

She really hoped that first one didn't explode as it tumbled. The second bomb was set on the landing they were standing on and she shouted to Varyn. "Let's move! Twenty seconds to blast!"

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn watched as she gathered up the explosives, looking at what they'd been supplied. It looked... simple enough. He raced back to the stairs, heart pounding as he was trying to think how not to straight up murder an entire platoon of FWA troops. But it was war, and he was just trying to survive, right? Avoid killing if he could, though.

Ailis said to provide cover, and Varyn moved over to the door. 3... 2... 1... go! he said, throwing the door open, lightsaber reigniting as they started making their way down the stairs again.

He leapt down, landing on a lower level as Ailis started setting charges. Blaster fire was slapped aside, and tore through one of the building's side windows, reminding him of just how high up they were in this building as another man was thrown down the stairwell.

We're going to blow this stairwell, so you better clear back! he shouted. The goal was of course to save some of their lives, but to someone else it would look like it was simply an attempt for Varyn to buy the duo more space because they really were outnumbered and in a bad position.

He heard Ailis shout about 20 seconds, and he started scrambling back. His legs didn't want to cooperate as the adrenaline shook every muscle in his body, but he headed back up just as the detonation tore through the side of the building, blasting out the stairwell with enough noise to leave his ears ringing and in pain.

He put a hand up to his ears as he stumbled up and out onto the checkpoint floor. He glanced back to make sure Ailis was still there as well. He could see that the majority of people were already piled into the vehicles to escape and only the leader was left.

He didn't look happy, and Varyn could feel his anger at seeing the acolytes.

Without warning, the man raised his pistol and fired at Ailis. It threw Varyn's mind into a whirl, but he ignited his saber, trying to take up a defensive position until he figured out why they were being... betrayed?

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis heart pounded as the duo rushed back up the stairway, blaster fire exploding against the walls in their wake as the FWA soldiers continued to push up the stairs after them. That would be a mistake.

Ailis flung herself through the open doorway as the pair of explosives detonated under a few soldier's feet and collapsed the stairwell on the unsuspecting and advancing soldiers. Well maybe unsuspecting, she hadn't missed Varyn's shouts for the soldiers to stay back.

"That was-" fun, Ailis started to say as she found her footing after diving onto the landing but was interrupted as something slammed into her chest. It felt like she had been kicked, except it burned in a way that no kick could and she stumbled back to fall on the ground.

The irregular commander turned his blaster on Varyn and pulled the trigger, except the blaster stopped its movement halfway and the man strained against an invisible force that held his hand in place.

"Get. That. Fucker." Ailis gritted through her teeth as she lay on the ground, clutching her smoking blast vest where she had been hit as she held another hand extended towards the traitorous commander.

She didn't know why he had shot her, but she was pissed and if it wasn't for the burning in her chest she would have cut the man down already. Instead she held on, her mind focused on his trigger hand, seizing it and holding it and beginning to twist it painfully as she breathed through the pain and rage at being shot.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn acted without thinking. Habits from training and fighting alongside his Jedi compatriots kicked into gear and he leapt forward as Ailis restrained the hand. He didn't think about whether this guy was secretly an ally to the Jedi or whether he was just an enemy to the Sith. In that moment, it almost didn't matter to the young Knight. Whoever it was was trying to kill him, and that triggered years of training to kick in.

He darted forward, saber in front of him, ready to catch any stray bolts that might make it through. The man wasn't so lucky as to gun down his newest assailant. Varyn's saber flashed across, pounding into the man's chest just below his gun arm. The blade hissed and crackled, passing through the front of his sternum and melting a quarter of his chest as it exited to the side.

The Acolyte followed it through, saber swinging through in both of his hands as the man fell forward. Blood exploded from his mouth as he coughed, pistol dropped to the ground as he clutched at the now-massive hole in his chest.

For a moment, Varyn froze. He had killed before, but this was somehow different. He wondered if this man was really his enemy at all, but now it didn't matter.

He wanted to stop and question him, to try to get answers in the few seconds he had left, but another thought settled over his mind. Ailis had been shot and though she still seemed to be alive - Sith or not - she was his partner on this job, and he felt... a sort of kinship with her.

Are you okay? he asked, not turning his back to the dying man as he moved over toward the other acolyte. Do you know what the stang that was about?

 

[Ailis Drast]

Even through the pain and rage, Ailis couldn't help the small grim smile that rose on her mouth as Varyn's blade cut open the traitor's chest. Retribution.

"Im alive." She spoke through gritted teeth, pain still wracking her chest with every breath. The blast vest had undoubtedly saved her life but she had not idea to the extent of the injury as she glanced down at the hole in her armor and cracked and oozing flesh that shown through underneath.

"Fuck." She spat a short curse as she staggered to her feet, clutching the wound for a moment as she breathed heavily and pain lanced red hot through her brain. She almost toppled back over but instead clasped Varyn's shoulder with her hand to steady herself for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Ouch.

When her eyes opened they were rimmed with red. Pain and held back tears. An underlying rage that burned stronger than the pain in her chest. Was that the darkside? It was intoxicating. She pulled on that spiraling sense of power that burned under the surface and took a step forwards. Fuck, her chest hurt.

"I don't know," She said as she started towards the last transport, glaring at the troops that were loading the last bits of gear and personnel that remained. "What the fuck was that?! Are you next?" She shouted at them angrily, lightsaber held ready in her hand but ignited. Not yet. The soldiers that had yet to embark on the transport turned to her, a mix of confusion and wild fear in their eyes as they met her's.

"We have... No idea. No Sir!" They shouted with a salute after seeming to sputter before noticing the red rimmed rage in Ailis eyes and the yet un-ignited saber gripped in her hand. They didn't know anything about her, all they knew was that she was a Sith, who their commander had just shot before his own chest was carved up.

Ailis wasn't sure where to go from there and hoped Varyn would take over. The pain was almost unbearable and it took everything in her to remain standing and put on a tough face.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn was... glad to see that Ailis wasn't dead as he felt the grip on his shoulder. Regardless, there was serious pain in the other acolyte if nothing else, and he knew that pain all too well himself. It didn't seem that his companion knew any more about this than he did, and on top of that, the soldiers working with the commander didn't seem to know either.

Varyn wasn't really sure he believed them. His own lightsaber was still very much on and ready if these fighters turned out to be liars. He didn't trust them now... couldn't trust them. He was torn on what to do next, however.

In a snap, he lunged forward, using the Force to bolster his strength as he grabbed one of the soldier's shirts and slammed him back against the wall, saber blade coming up under the man's throat.

You had better not be lying to me, he growled. While he had no intention of actually harming the man, the other guy didn't know that and Varyn was trading on the reputation of all the other Sith in the galaxy.

I don't know anything! Commander said he had to 'deal with you guys.' I don't know why, I swear! You've gotta believe me! the man shouted, his eyes wide with fear.

Varyn didn't really sense a lie in him, but he also didn't trust him. And he didn't trust his own lie-detecting skills enough to bet his own life on them.

We're taking one of your transports. Alone. As payment for stabbing us in the back, he said, eyes narrow and serious, flicking over to the other soldiers. Varyn knew what that meant, and he could sense the others doing the math as well. It meant at least a few of them - probably four or five - would be left behind at the top of this building. They would likely be POWs or perhaps fight to the death. Varyn told himself that if they died it was okay because they were the enemy, but in his heart he wasn't so sure.

Ailis. Get on, he said, voice surprisingly cold even to him. He didn't release the man as the other soldiers stepped away. There was still a chance that the soldiers would open fire, but they didn't seem to like their odds. At least at first.

One of the men (if you could even call him that, he probably wasn't any older than Varyn) brought his rifle up to fire on the pair of acolytes and in that moment, all chaos broke loose between the two acolytes and the remaining five soldiers.

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis breathed pain. Inhale. Exhale. It didn't matter, it fucking hurt. She tried to hold it together as Varyn took the lead in confronting the soldiers, slamming one of the soldiers back into the wall and threatening him with a saber held to his throat. The method was heavy-handed, violent, and lacking any subtlety.

Maybe it was the pain that gripped her or the dark power that she now drew on to remain standing, but Ailis approved.

The soldiers however did not.

One rose his blaster to shoot at Varyn and it was like a metal wire snapping under tension, a whiplash of action that exploded as everyone moved in concert.

Ailis raised a hand towards the rifle raiser, her lightsaber exploding with a violent snap-hiss as it came to life once more. Each movement sent a new throb of agony through her chest and she saw in shades of pain and rage. She drew on that rage as she seized the soldier, his shot going wild as his body jerked to the side at Ailis whim, colliding with another soldier and throwing his aim off before tumbling over the edge of the blown open skyscraper.

His screams barely penetrated her mind as her vision went black for a moment and her step faltered. No. She would not falter. The second soldier recovered his footing and snapped his rifle up at Ailis just in time for her wild upwards strike to pass through his rifle... and his hands.

His screams echoed against her blurring consciousness before she silenced them with a thrust through the chest, her blade carving a molten path through his heart and lungs as she staggered forwards before plunging out the side of his ribcage as she collapsed to her knees.

Her face was twisted in pain as she turned her head to look towards the two remaining soldiers who seemed torn between firing and fleeing, their attention divided between the wounded Ailis and whatever Varyn was doing.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Everything deteriorated in an instant. Varyn had no choice now but to fight. Ailis dealt with the one who raised his rifle, and as the others scrambled for their weapons as well, Varyn struck. His saber rotated to the side and swung horizontally, cleaving straight through the abdomen of one of the men as a blaster shot rang out. It passed so close to Varyn's face that he could feel the heat sizzling off the bolt before it slammed into the lander behind him.

Varyn leapt at the final person, still pulling at the blaster pistol on his hip, hoping to get it free as it stuck against a latch. Varyn's saber swung cleanly through his neck and the image of his head flying through the air was etched in the young Jedi's mind.

He turned on the final man - the one he had threatened - to see that he had fallen back now. Hands raised up to shield his face in surrender.

Please... please don't kill me. Please... he sobbed. Varyn held his blade, ready to strike, but stopped short. This man had wanted no part in this killing. He'd never raised a hand against either of them.

Ailis, let's go, he said, but his eyes never left the man. The look of utter fear etched into his gaze as he looked up at the Jedi ate away at him.

He backed toward the ship and climbed inside, only now glancing over at Ailis to see that the injuries were taking their toll. The sooner they got out of here the better.