Ask Serenno Death in the Air

[Darth Trelain]

Per my new OP template, thread is death enabled​

Darth Trelain walked through the halls of the royal palace on Serenno, here for one purpose and one alone: to purge a fool from the Empire once and for all. Anaris - for Darth Trelain refused to refer to her by the title "Darth" given its very connotation and the woman's failure to deserve it - had driven the Empire into the ground.

Even as she approached, she felt a looming sense of dread. A sense of death that hung in the air, but she never even considered walking away. If she fell to Anaris, she deserved it. Strength was strength and the way of the Sith were such that if she was not strong enough, she deserved whatever death came. What she knew was that one of the two Sith would not walk out of this palace alive.

A small team of direct action ISB agents had accompanied her to deal with the royal guards that would accompany Anaris. Trelain wasn't naive enough to believe the woman would accept the duel simply on honor after Andruil's foolish decision to ban Arauk'kesh. She needed to be sure the guards were removed from the equation, though they had orders not to touch the Empress herself.

Trelain reached for the lightsaber hilt on her belt and pulled it free. She was no stranger to the weapon, but it was rarely her first choice to amending a situation. Today was different, though.

The doors to the throne room burst open with a wave of Trelain's hand as the Force blasted it wide. Blasterfire poured across the room as royal guards and agents fired at one another. Trelain batted aside a stray bolt but her eyes never left the "Empress."

You are a fool, Anaris, and your time has come. You are deposed by my power, she said, her voice a low hiss and her eyes flashing wildly with hatred and disdain for everything this woman was.

 

[Darth Anaris]

Anaris was grasping at every ally and tactic possible. She was notified that Darth Trelain was on her way to meet and already in the palace. She bristled in her seat. It was uncharacteristic of the woman to show up unannounced and without any sort of agenda. It was just the kind of thing that made her blood boil - blatant disrespect and unprofessionalism. She had expected better from Trelain.

“Tell her I have no time to meet with her,” Anaris said dismissively with a wave of her hand.

Within moments, the doors burst open and her guards had to spring into action. She didn’t budge from where she sat, crimson eyes searing into the Councilor.

“Do not be a petulant child, Trelain,” She said calmly, slowly getting up to her feet, “Now is hardly the time for emotionally charged tantrums. I’m already contending with Darth Draugr’s ineptitude. Do not add your name to the list.”

 

[Darth Trelain]

Trelain's eyes were like death, watching the Empress rise with that same aura of arrogance that had driven the entire Empire into oblivion.

Your idiocy has destroyed the Empire. Bow or be destroyed, she said. She knew Anaris wouldn't kneel, and even if she had, Trelain would have taken her head off the moment it was bowed.

There was nothing more to say. The Empress's time had come, and Trelain opened herself up fully to the power of the Dark Side. Her empty left hand rose and lightning poured out of it at the other woman. It hissed and crackled the space between them, leaving a charred and scorched scent within the air as smoke rose all between them.

In truth, Trelain did not expect the attack to do a great deal, but it was a test of wills. It was a measure of whether or not the Empress had lost her power in her addled and complacent state. As powerful as she was, it had been many years since she had actually had to unleash her power. Like Darth Tyrannus against Grandmaster Yoda, there was required to be a period of testing.

 

[Darth Anaris]

“Disappointing,” Anaris said simply, as the hilt of her saber flew into her hand. She believed in the war, but she found personal fighting to be silly. She considered herself above it, and she had believed Trelain was the same. Anaris once again cursed Darth Raze for disappearing - he would have spared her having to deal with this nonsense herself.

As the lightning burst forth towards her, Anaris ignited her blade in her right hand, allowing the plasma to catch it. Even then, it was enough to send her skidding back. The gravity of Trelain’s power were felt at once, but Anaris was no pushover. She had been a Sith for a long time, and her methods of wielding the Force tended to be more creative than traditional means.

With her free hand, she released a burst of Force energy. It was focused on Trelain’s optic nerves to overwhelm them. The result would be sudden and abruptly blindness. Trelain would have to take a moment to adjust, Anaris whirling in with her saber to capitalize on that time to slash horizontally across her upper torso.

 

[Darth Trelain]

Force flash was not a common technique, and in fact was so rare that Trelain hadn't anticipated it. While most every Sith and Jedi learned to fight without their eyes, it still wasn't something that Trelain fancied trying against an opponent as deceptive and formidable as Anaris.

She kept her grip on the Force, letting it transition from lightning to a telekinetic burst. She launched it out in a wide arc in front of her, knowing it wouldn't do much by way of damage because it wasn't concentrated into a concussive blast, but the goal wasn't to do damage. The goal was to slow the Empress's advance while her vision cleared and ensure that it hit her as Trelain at least knew the general direction the woman approached from.

As she unleashed it, she leapt backwards down the hall and further opening the distance between the two of them. Between her own retreat and the likely unexpected attack of a blind woman she would be able to clear the slash before it ever came. Her steps carried her back as her vision cleared, down the hall Trelain had entered. The entire palace may end up damaged as a result of this fight rather than just the throne room, but that wasn't the Warden's concern.

Already, she could see her vision beginning to clear, but it was little by little, and she remained defensively prepared and falling back as it did.

 

[Darth Anaris]

Anaris didn’t get to become Empress without having some levels of paranoia. She didn’t expect Trelain to quietly stand there while suddenly blinded. Anaris’ attack was a quick flash and didn’t need consistent use of the Force, meaning her hand was free once more. As the abrupt blast came, she leveled her own palm to throw up a haphazard barrier to lessen the blow of the push. The concussive blast still sent Anaris flying back, but she simultaneously hurled her saber directly at Trelain while she backpedaled. The saber throw would sail through the air and likely at least graze her.

Cracks appeared on the floor where the blast met the barrier, streaking across the ground beneath them both. Regardless of whatever happened with her saber, Anaris quickly pulled it back to herself like a boomerang, chasing after Trelain.

The Councilor wouldn’t be afforded even a second of reprieve. She may have expected a full force attack and for Anaris to keep charging. Instead, the Empress suddenly shifted up tactics yet again, coiling the Force around Trelain with the intent of bodily sending her into the wall of the corridor head first.

 

[Darth Trelain]

Trelain's vision was still clearing, and the slight sight she had afforded her the opportunity to evade the saber throw. The decreased vision, however, prevented her from avoiding it fully. As Trelain stepped to the right, her arm rising so the saber would pass under it, she felt the scalding superheat of plasma nicking her ribs and forcing the air from her lungs. Pain shot through her.

The floor cracked under the weight of the blows between the two Sith, and Anaris reached out to the Force again, gripping Trelain and hurling her through a wall. Rather than break the grip, Trelain wrapped herself in the Force, using it to burst through the wall and dampen the blow rather than outright break her body.

Even so, the blow hurt, and Trelain was wracked with pain as she pushed herself to her feet. The dust from the broken portions of the building obscured the air, and she used that to her advantage. She wrapped the Force around herself, all but disappearing from vision. This was how she had hunted and killed Letous. She had made herself nearly invisible to the eye and struck from the shadows. It was her greatest skill.

She moved to the side of the room, making herself difficult to find, lightsaber extinguished as she moved in on the Empress's side. Then in a flash, she leapt, saber bursting back to life in a slash downward, looking to cleave straight through the Empress. She hoped that at the very least, the surprise would mean at least a grazing hit against the Sith Lord.

 

[Darth Anaris]

Anaris hadn’t expected Trelain to lean into the throw. She suddenly lost track of the other woman, her jaw tightening. Anaris wasn’t foolish enough to underestimate her enemies - Trelain was a Warden as she herself had been. This meant she was in her element right now, out of sight and impossible to track. Anaris couldn’t even sense the other woman, and she cautiously proceeded through the hall.

When Trelain abruptly lashed out, Anaris tried to move forward to avoid the strike. However, she wasn’t quick enough, the tip of Trelain’s saber dragging down and searing down the Empress’ back. She let out an anguished cry, whirling around to use her pain to channel the Force. Her free hand came in to unleash a blast of lightning at Trelain while her blade was pointed down from having completed the downward strike. It was at close range and charged with rage.

Anger coursed through her, her back bubbling from the burns left behind. Her eyes flashed with fury. She was no longer the calm and settled woman that found all this silly, she was falling back to all the ways she was trained as a combatant.

 

[Darth Trelain]

Trelain felt her saber bite into flesh, but she was sporting her own injury as well and knew that this was far from over. In fact, were it not for her own injury, perhaps she would have been even quicker and it would have been a finishing blow.

Anaris whirled like a dervish, and lightning was crackling the distance between the two of them, but Trelain's hand was already on the move. The lightning struck the open palm of her hand and the Force that flowed over it, and instead of slamming into the Sith Lord, it deflected downward straight into the ground at both of their feet.

The power exploded between them, launching both women back and slamming Trelain into the ground several meters away. She twisted on the ground, leaping back to her feet, but even as she did so, she could already feel fatigue beginning to set in. To the untrained eye, she was still faster than an olympic athlete owed to the Force, but to herself she knew that her movements were just a hair slower than normal, and in a fight of this magnitude, a hair could kill you.

Trelain decided to press the assault, reaching up with the Force and yanking down the ceiling and corridors to come raining down on Anaris, looking to bury the woman beneath the falling stone and mortar. It was a shame to ruin such a beautiful building, but sacrifices had to be made.

 

[Darth Anaris]

Anaris was thrown back from the lightning impacting the ground. She hit the ground with a thud, sliding along the floor. She winced from the sharp pain in her back, slowing her from jumping to her feet immediately. The Empress saw the ceiling and walls collapse and tear away to drop on her from all sides.

From Trelain’s perspective, she would see the debris drop and then suddenly become suspended in mid air. It hovered unnaturally around where Anaris was last seen on her back. The debris lingered like that for only a moment before Anaris snapped to a crouch, sending all the chunks of wall shooting back at Trelain as a form of advanced ballistakinesis.

Pain coursed through the Empress, and she felt the large wound on her back get worse with each movement she made. That alone prevented her from launching a follow up attack, putting her on the defense poised for what Trelain did next. However, in a corridor such as this, the Councilor would be hard pressed to dodge the debris assault entirely.

 

[Darth Trelain]

Trelain had hoped it would crush the Empress, but she couldn't say she was surprised when it didn't. As she saw it floating, she expected it to be thrown back at her because it was what she would have done. Conservation of energy: make a defense an attack.

Trelain threw up a barrier in front of her, the rounded surface designed so that rather than having to outright stop the force of the projectiles, they could deflect and curve around her. At least in theory. It worked for the most part, but those pieces that struck straight on had no chance to deflect.

Most were stopped by the barrier, but even so the occasional, small piece tore through. The first struck Trelain's shoulder while another grazed across her cheek. Blood poured down her face and down her chest, the coppery taste of blood filling her mouth as she took a breath in to steady herself while the assault came to close.

She expected a follow up attack, but none came. Trelain's entire body screamed in pain but she let the her hatred of this woman in front of her fuel her. And yet, Anaris didn't seem to be doing much better. Neither woman pressed the attack right away likely because of the depth to which they had each taxed themselves, but for a moment, Trelain sensed something else. That same impending doom, but as she looked at Anaris, she knew it wasn't coming from this woman. But it was close. Perhaps even here.

The only way out is through, she told herself, gripping her saber in her hands again and making a dash forward, her blade came up and slashed at the Empress in an upward diagonal from her own bottom right to top left, the blow amplified with the Force so that a telekinetic energy coated the weapon. Even if the Empress blocked, if she didn't notice the amplification, she would be flung back and through a wall of the corridor as well.

 

[Altair Din]

Theme​

Serenno always had planetary defenses in the form of a fleet reserve. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as a Resurgant-class star destroyer loomed above the planet. The colossal ship cast a shadow over the cities, a byproduct of the Sith being in throes of war against the Independent Systems Consortium.

It was a normal day on Serenno save for the brutal battle taking place in an Imperial palace between the Empress and Councilor Trelain. Their fighting sent shockwaves through the palace, debris and destruction erupting all around. Imperials were on high alert and were commanded to evacuate immediately, leaving the Sith to continue their devastating duel.

Altair Din was on the bridge of the destroyer. He stepped out beside the captain of the ship, adorned in his Imperial uniform and sporting the insignia that displayed his rank of Warmaster. The tiefling’s hands were clasped behind his back, amethyst gaze set forward.

Altair’s gaze never shifted as he thought about everything. He thought about his ascension, about his journeys that brought him here, about all he had lost and gained. Altair always expected his story to go a different way. At times he thought about life back on the farm. He thought about Ma yelling at him to come back home before sundown, thought about his brothers getting caught getting into trouble, thought about his littlest sister. He thought about Cairo, about Ashla…and about Vahliri. Her eyes flashed before his own, the soft curls of her hair, the way she smiled on that roof that day a million years ago on Indupar. The way she looked at him in that cave he locked away. He thought of Aadya and the way she looked at him when he made his choices with Imperials. He thought of Wodan, who had been with him through thick and thin.

Altair closed his eyes and exhaled softly. He had made his choice. They had made theirs. He opened his eyes.

“Captain Harro (@Arcangel ),” His voice resounded calmly, “Fire.”

Once she gave the orders, a barrage of canonfire would erupt. It was aimed at the palace where the two Sith waged their brutal fight. With that swift, single blow, the palace, the Empress and Darth Trelain would all be erased. Forever.

Altair Din had made his choice.

@Phoenix

 

[Darth Trelain]

Darth Trelain saw it in the Force all a moment before it happened, and she knew precisely why that foreboding sense had hung in the air. It wasn't Anaris or a Jedi who would do her in, but the very person who she had tried to bring out the darkness within. For all her maneuvering, she would fall, but she didn't care.

Darth Trelain had never wanted the throne. She had never wanted the Empire or to be Empress, what she wanted was the power of the Dark Side to flourish. For the true adherents of the Force to be in power. For the truly strong to hold power.

Her death meant nothing in the grant scheme of things for despite all the attempts of so many Sith that had toyed with immortality, the truth was that everyone died. The only thing that mattered was the power of the Dark Side, and as the turbolaser shots began to rain down, Trelain looked Anaris dead in the eye across the corridor and let her lightsaber fall to the floor next to her. Her mouth cracked into a wicked smile and she began to laugh.

She laughed because Anaris would die. She laughed because although she would die, her protege would take power. She laughed because no matter how much he denied it, Altair had just proven that his way was the way of the Sith, and he would forever be a slave to the Dark Side. It was a bridge over which there was no crossing back.

And then, as the turbolaser rounds truck the central courtyard next to where they fought, the laughing ended for good.