Chaotic Carnage (Taris)

Demiurge

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It was like a sea of carnage. Arkon had never before felt the quaking, the explosive vibrant sensation, as he did this day. At least, not on such a scale. The skies glowed red with fire, and it was like a small sun collided into the cities below. Even behind the clouds of smoke and debris, he could still see the fires that still burned. Even behind his mask and ventilator, he could still smell the scent of the searing metal and burning air. And the collision... was like the roar of some mighty creature that shook him to the core.

In the penthouse of a wealthy crime lord, serving as one of the "retrievers" for the black market ring in the Tarisian System, Arkon saw firsthand the satellite descend upon the surface of Taris. The orbiting space station fell like a meteor delivering divine retribution. The disaster, in its delivery, was almost poetic. But where others saw chaos, Arkon saw something no one else would, no one else could; opportunity. Information, knowledge, was his power, his prime weapon of choice.

And an orbital space station sponsored by the Tarisian Government and designed for the purpose of commerce was bound to possess some traces of information, but even more importantly, a link to the Tarisian Government's banking systems. Even if the system itself were down, the hardware was still there. For a structure of that size, even being pulled out of orbit would not be enough to crush its systems completely. The shock of the impact, while miles away, echoed through the Upper City, shattering the foundations of the towering buildings that dwelt on the planet's surface. The apartment tower Arkon was in shuttered, even after the collision, and the lights in the room flickered.

Arkon then stared in amazement as he noticed the light of day disappearing. As he looked up to find the source of the shadows, he saw an enormous tower tipping over onto the apartment tower he was in. Without hesitation, Arkon as well as others in the room witnessing the events, fled to the outer halls, with all but a few escaping the room before it became a gallery of shattered glass being fired in every direction. As the crash settled, the room exploded from the nitro-oxygen cells that often occupied the higher buildings, due to the presence of being so high in the atmosphere.

Most of the other buyers had fled, and Arkon would leave as well... out through the building that had crashed into the apartment tower. As Arkon made his way into the tilted tower, he continually struggled to keep his balance, constantly keeping at bay from the loose and sparking electrical wires, as well as portions of the floor that lacked obvious integrity. After several minutes, Arkon had reached the elevator, which was what he was looking for. After all, by this point, the elevator had no doubt fallen to the ground floor. As Arkon forced the already cracked elevator doors open with a loose metallic debris, his gaze was met by a wayward speeder on a direct collision course with his position.

Without thinking, Arkon jumped down the tilted elevator shaft, sliding the way down as the speeder crashed into the elevator shaft, exploded from the impact, and began falling down the shaft, behind Arkon. As he saw a stable level while sliding down the shaft, and noticing that the debris was steadily catching up to him, Arkon pulled a trolling cable from a pouch on his belt, threw it just above the elevator door level's entrance, and pulled as hard as he could, plunging himself through the door. The level Arkon was on was fairly clear, and was likely a maintenance level too far down to have been as adversely affected as the less stable upper levels. Although in an excited state from the experience, Arkon was still able to get on his feet in time to see the dervish of burning wreckage plummet down past the elevator door.

Arkon felt the impact of the burning speeder as he turned to door exiting the maintenance hallway, and saw the now black-and-red skies of Taris, filled with fires and smoke. His make re-breathed and purified the gases he inhaled, so he was not at risk of toxins overwhelming him, but the environment was still dangerous nonetheless. Crumbling buildings and other hazards were rife in the area. But that would not dissuade him. Arkon ran out into the burning city. He could never pass up such a profitable opportunity.
 

Kit

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As the tower lost its support from below, the pressure was taken away from Hector's monumental barrier in the force. With the tower now truly in freefall, there was nothing more that Hector could do, besides watch it fall.

His intense exertion had made him miss the attempt on his life, and was blissfully unaware of the danger he had been in. However, now, his focus began to return, as well as a wave of exhaustion nearly unmatched in his lifetime. For a normal human, it would take hours and hours to simply return to a tired state, let alone well rested. Luckily, the force could aid in any endeavour.

Content now that he could rest for a moment, and that the force would give him enough warning of impending danger, he simply dropped to his knees and closed his eyes. Allowing the force to suffuse his entire being, he began to rest. In a few minutes, he would be capable of dealing with the world on an equal footing again.
 

Aluminum Falcon

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The shuttle Fyurin was "commanding" had just arrived at the scene of the collapsed tower. As they had flown toward the location, they had watched it crumble despite what appeared to be a Jedi using the force to support it. At the moment it was simply not possible to determine how many would have survived such a thing, but from what Fyurin could tell there was a lot of activity at the base of the tower where the Jedi was.

Not only had he seen the Jedi, but a blaster bolt that had strayed in his general direction, though he could not ascertain its origin from their previous height. He wondered how someone could draw a blaster on an innocent saving lives at a time such as this, but shrugged it off to concentrate on the situation at hand.

"Land in that cleared area near the Jedi, I'm going to stay down there and try to help establish an evacuation camp. Stay in the area, if you see anyone in danger you are free to help them, but you better be around when I need you.", Fyurin said to the security officers.

The small shuttle glided over the burning rubble of the city and landed near the Jedi, who was now kneeling in rest. Fyurin hopped off of the shuttle, this time slinging his rifle onto his back and jogging towards the Jedi. He panned the area around him trying to find where the shot had come from, but couldn't spot anything too obvious. The shuttle lifted off, and began to do short laps near his location, surveying the area of other survivors in danger in order to alert Fyurin and other rescuers.

As Fyurin approached the Jedi, there was a large explosion about a half mile from their current location, it's plume of smoke immediately joining the array of others, as if adding another voice to a choir. Fyurin ducked upon hearing the explosion, but reoriented himself quickly.

"Master Jedi, Lieutenant Fyurin Denasi, Republic Navy. Are there any other survivors in the area?", Fyurin would give the Jedi a moment to answer. "Do you know where that shot at you came from?"
 

Dmitri

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Tsviets and Barrel backed off. While Tsviets believed the two of them combined could take on the bounty hunter, he had the advantage.

Tsviets and Barrel searched for transportation. Along the way, Barrel found an elderly woman with class piercing her chest, kneeling on death's door. Barrel put her out of her misery by draining her of her life energy, which also healed him.

"We need to find someplace safer," said Tsviets.

Tsviets spotted a ship land near the Jedi from before. It seemed to be a part of the relief effort. They began walking towards the shuttle when Barrel heard a screeching noise, as if metal was scrapping against metal.

Barrel relayed this sensation to Tsviets, followed by asking, "What is it?"

Tsviets thought for a moment until the grave realization appeared. He began running towards the shuttle. Barrel chased after them.

"What's going on?" demanded Barrel.

"The supports to the Upper City, they're collapsing under the strain," panted Tsviets, lost in breath for the oxygen he was consuming was being used to keep his pace going.
 

Thepantheon

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Approaching the site of the collapse at a brisker pace now, Izraetus berated himself inwardly. If he had hurried just a bit more, been a bit faster, he could have helped the other Jedi. His strength was not completely drained yet; he could have helped hold the building up just a while longer, at least.

When the tower had collapsed, Izraetus' first reaction, though at that point still half a block from it, had been to press himself to the side of another building, miraculously completely intact. He would need to work on that; the Force would probably save his life one day, and if it wasn't his first reaction, he might die a moment to early for it to do so. By the time he had realized this, however, the tower had already fallen, and he had wasted no time in resuming his approach towards the rubble.

As he reached the fringes of the debris around the tower, noting the relatively close explosion, Izraetus kept an eye out for any immediate danger. It wouldn't do to be surprised by falling shrapnel, or by that hunter he'd seen. Izraetus noticed an official-looking man talking to the clearly exhausted Jedi, and made a beeline for them. He was still somewhat disoriented from the chaos, but he knew that more than one person would be needed to remedy even a small part of the disaster.
 

Wit

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Kalen reached the Jedi a few moments after the shuttle had dropped of the Republic personnel near him. He approached the duo just in time to hear the new arrival's last sentence. "Lieutenant, Master Jedi, I am Kalen Navarr, a Knight of the Shade Order. I would like to help out in your efforts in any way that I can."

[OOC:Sorry for the short post, a little busy with RL stuff.]
 

Ols

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After what seemed like an age as the building ripped itself apart meters above where he was, Thorn exhaled. He had been holding his breath. Although in reality it had taken mere seconds from the explosion to the building tumbling through the crevice. He had made no reaction to her clinging onto him, or indeed the welts left behind from her fingernails, so hard had they pressed into his arm. He had reciprocated, letting go of her where he had grabbed her and leapt only a short time before. He noticed her leg bleeding and took his lightsaber from his belt, flicked it on, and before she could ask what he was doing, touched the blade to the cut. It would hurt more than any burn she had received before, but it would cauterise the wound and stop blood loss becoming an issue.

He did not wait for questions, nor did he volunteer any answers. He turned away, flicking his blade off and walked over to the window frame that now held the smashed edges of a window. He peered outside, the wind whipping at the small gap between his mask and his hood. The fresh air made a change from the sooty, smokey mess inside. The building was far from safe, but there were a lot of people alive in the section that was left standing, and they had a chance of getting out. Not that Thorn was going to help them, the emergency services would be swooping round, coordinating rescue efforts, within minutes, perhaps sooner - they had already mobilised and could be seen around many of the unstable buildings, firing cables to stabilise escape routes and to pick up survivors.

Without looking back at the girl, he hopped out.

Then he saw the shuttle, republic markings on the side, come in for a landing. Thorn cursed under his breath, the pilot was a moron. As it touched down he felt the lurch, magnified by however many floors up he was. The weight of the shuttle would not be good for the already unsteady, compromised upper city platform they were currently on. And there seemed to be companions of the Jedi, at least they looked like Jedi, convening and talking by the ship. It was a very apt metaphor for the Order as a whole, as crisis descends around them and innocents die with every moment they waste, the Jedi decide to stand around and discuss what to do before doing anything.

A brief thought flashed through Thorn's mind. There were three down there he guessed to be Jedi, the one who held the building up was spent and would need more time than he had until Thorn jumped down to recover. Plus the Republic shuttle crew. He could not weigh up rescuing innocents against scalping Jedi. There was no time.

He landed softly and began to make his way over to the group. The platform lurched dangerously, and the sound of metal scraping on metal was deafening. He broke into a run.

"Hey! Republic moron! Get that ship into the air!" he paused as he completed the distance over, "the platform can't take the weight. It's about to give-"

Too late.

* * *​

The platform they are on, a rectangular broad walk, about thirty meters in width and quite a bit longer, shakes and lurches. It begins to come away from the other pieces it is attached to, including the one that the buildings are built into. With two simultaneous, almighty crunches, the walkway breaks off at either end. Leaning at an angle, to make Thorn and the others stagger forwards, the platform falls back and hits the piece it has broken away from. Scraping against it, the angle of the walkway becomes drastically steeper. The shuttle will be the first to go, sliding off the side and spinning end over end into the depths of the lower city. Starting the engines would be possible, but stabilising it, let alone flying it, would be closer to impossible. Thorn and the others can no longer stand on platform, it is too steep.

Thorn slid down, a little surprised, but he made a conscious decision not to try and jump up and land on the nearest Upper City platform. He felt the Lower City was where he should go next, and it was likely that most of the others will be coming with him. He closes his eyes and reaches out in the force so he can prepare to make his landing far below. The Jedi would have no problem surviving the long, stomach turning fall. The Republic official on the other hand, well he would have to hope that one of the Jedi is thinking of him as well.

((I know this seems a little extreme, but there's a fun twist in the lower city that's far more exciting than evac camps and collapsing buildings ;) ))
 

Jaqen H'ghar

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Jukka Dresden had been walking now for what felt like years, though in reality probably only an hour or two. He had been lucky. In another time he might have said it was the force that perserved him...but not this time, and not in a long time. The Jaded former security team sniper and jedi knight sensed the death around him. He knew the force didn't care, this was just another showing there of.

He also knew the force didn't care about him, cause he was stuck in the middle of it all...As he walked with these brooding thoughts he heard loud cracking, and noticed dust falling down in large ammounts...followed by small stones...followed by bigger ones. "Oh hell..." Quickly tapping into the force to boost his speed he began running, and vaguely in the back of his mind he realized that it was likely the last working elevator up for miles that was being collapsed upon. He barely managed to make it to saftey as the true weight actually crashed down, though not without some damaging debree flung here and there, some of which would leave large bruises on his back and arms in the morning.
 
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