The Liberation of the Tae

[Rev]

The air grew cold, the life of the Force being sucked out from around him as the Disciples brought their energy swords to life. The simple notion of being in their presence seemed to in a way weaken ones connection with the Force... at least while they drew upon it for their power. However, it was not the three white beams that drew Ultor's attention; it was the remaining two casters. Sadly for these forsaken few they were dealt with the deed of handling the least traditional of the Jedi.

The Force reached outward, attempting to find its first target. Caed's mind grasped onto the nearest Caster, the only female of the group. His focus followed, it too reaching out to grasp her; only this time his focus was on the female's throat. That grasp the Force held on her tightened, the complete focus enclosing on the Tae's trachea. He had no intentions of choking her, simply killing her. The impact was enough to not only break, but shatter her transit for breathing.

He gaze upon his first target was broke as the top beam of his saber rose to meet a burly Tae's blade and deflect it over top. Caed's body would twirl, the second blade coming up to deflect a lengthier Disciple's energy sword aside as well. His body would bend at the knee's, the Force filling his feet before pushing off into a cartwheeling leap over top the third man. His feet would narrowly leave ground as a blast of water filled his former postion with much surprise; the nature was hard to follow.

"They fight blindly... but do not doubt them.."

Caed's bottom blade would come from bottom to top to deflect the lengthier Disciple's blade once again, only this time the man's guard opened. Pivoting on his rear foot the top blade would whip across in a clockwise pattern, dicing the Tae in two just above the naval. A pull in the back of Ultor's mind alerted him to an incoming blade.. His bottom blade wrapped around his lower abdomen to deflect a fatal blow aside. The incoming beam of water couldn't be avoided however. Hit at his right shoulder the push that followed sent him skidding down the hill he had come from...

The aching sensation filling his shoulder almost stopped him from rising to his feet. The prosthetic limb that replaced his arm may have been the only thing that allowed him to rise from the impact. His mind asked and it did its duty, something he was still getting used to. Gazing upward at the two men holding energy beams conjured by the very fabrics of the Force, he couldn't help but smirk; it was a power he wished to never have. Pushing off his prosthetic he would finally make it to his feet, finally giving his staff a flourish as he looked on to the remaining three Tae. Huffing in a breath of air he prepared to end them, just as he had the other two.

 

[Will]

Huang tore through his opponents with a furious, viscous grace that only a true master of the blade could hold. Like a vengeful force, he swept up the pyramid, the lesser swordsmen of the disciples offering no resistance. The twisted spellcasters fell, the final one committing the cowardly act of suicide.

Huang drew on the force as the electrical manifestation of the art swept over him. He surrounded himself with it, the purer art of the Jedi pushing away the twisted abominations of the Taen work, like tissue rejecting a cancer. He stood, blade in hand, as the right hand of the despot drew his blade to face him.

Huang pulled off what remained of his robe, leaving his scorched and scratched armour exposed, made up of scavenged armour from worthy opponents, it was a symbol as much as his protection. As his foe turned himself into a walking conflagration, a smile scurried across his face, leaving quickly as his face became a war-mask. He said no words. There was no need to speak to this avatar of the depth of the corruption the Tae had fallen to.

He charged forth, letting the force flow through him, guide him. The heat was intense, but Huang sustained himself with the force as his ally. His own blade remained true as he swatted aside his opponent's blade, thrusting forward. His blade then rose, twisting, becoming a horizontal strike, a simple decapitating move.

 

[Dmitri]

Albedo split up from Taryn. While Taryn did what he had to do, Albedo was heading for his ship. He was clearly outmatched. However, if Hutt reinforcements were called, the Republic task force would be outnumbered.
Albedo hijacked a speeder from one of the Templar soldiers and sped through the battlefield. He managed to avoid most of the bullets and he stayed clear of any Jedi. Any stray blasts that neared him, Albedo deflected with his lightsaber. However, as he was about fifty feet from his ship, a bullet struck an engine. The speeder spun out of control. Albedo bailed, seconds before the speeder crashed.
Albedo stood up and made a run for his ship.

 

[GABA]

Something zipped past Rehni's ear, and another catching a sleeve...and another zipping through her hair, but the Force didn't give her an impression of immediate danger until the tiny object was speeding towards her forehead. She shifted her head and felt it go through her moving hair again, a slight twinge in her scalp told her she lost a strain or two with it. "Bastards." she spat. Her blade burst to life as it crashed against the first Disciple's blade, she pushed off meeting the second Disciple. She didn't forget about them two. Nor was her mind going to forget about the telekinetic snipers.

She had to give it to them, they were really good. She got between the two Disciples and sensed to stay close to them, it would give the snipers a harder chance of hitting her with their own in the midst of the fighting. Her body moved as a blur, almost outlined with her blue blade as it meet the Force blades of her enemy's. She kept her front to the Templar's headquarters and the Disciple's backs to their base. She danced amongst their bodies, as soon as her blade meet with one, the knight sleekly moved to their corners to keep them moving and out of a parry attack.

It took them a moment to realize what she was doing and all the Knight could do now was smile, she could play dirty now. They moved faster, and Rehni moved tougher. She parried the slash to her face, knocking their blade back and turning to meet the attack to her lower legs; the Disciple was knelt in a crouch and Rehni's knee met with his chin sending him backwards. She twisted to meet the other Disciple as he tried to take her head off again, she knocked his blade back even harder, but it came back down again. Rehni parried, her blade pushing off and twisting around to come back down his midsection, he blocked and she pushed off, the Disciple she had knocked to the ground had stood back up. She sent a feint attack to whom her focus was on, she went to slash diagonally down his body, but purposely missing as she twirled around to meet the recovered Disciple, her blade coming up removing his hands. He looked upon them in horror and then at in fear at the Knight as she brought her blade back around, removing his head. The Disciple was distracted by his dead companion and Rehni took the advantaged and removed his head too.

She was now in full range of the snipers, their accuracy increasing, but she was done with this nonsense. With a spurt of Force speed and a leap, she meet one of the two on the pyramid, his sniper stones dropped, "Telekinetic Ims too. Creatives you lacking." she whispered as she held up her hand, what was suppose to be face crushing Force push, she emitted an intense blinding light of energy, the Disciple fell to his knees holding his face, currently blinded. She simply telekinetic rolled him off the edge to his death below.

The other Disciple was now on her back his blade coming down, Rehni meet his with her's only to feel the heat of both their blades on her face. Rehni spat in his face, it was a weak distraction, but enough to get him off her. Their blades meet again, she didn't have as much space to move in as she did on the ground, and neither did he; instead of making it her weakness, she made it her advantage. His strokes were broad and left lots of openings. She feinted a jab at his gut, it was risky, he fell for it as she leaped to avoid his block; Rehni bounced off the wall and came back down at him, foot to the jaw, forcing him to stumble backwards and threw a Force Push at her body, Rehni flew back into the wall, she felt concussed. He was on her before she could stand up. His sword came down, she rolled. A near miss, she wasn't going to let that happen again. Rehni yelled, grabbing hand fulls of rock and sand sending the pieces as fast as they had been shooting at her earlier. The man screamed as the pieces tore across his skin, Rehni somersaulted backwards getting back to her feet; she called back her blade, there was the familiar snap-hiss and a thud. The last Disciple dead.

 

[Garuga]

The Disciples and their different mastery and knowledge in the force amazed Lyzerg. As opposed to being disgusted or wary of it, she was more than intrigued by the exotic manifestations and applications that she found to be mesmerising. A different place, a different time... Lyzerg thought, sighing at the prospect of maybe never being able to study these abilities more closely. Nevertheless, this was war, and she would never allow herself to be distracted so easily. They wanted her dead, but they'd have to try harder than this...

During the chaos, Lyzerg had kept her blade moving constantly, fending away energy projectiles and environmental attacks alike. Though she was constantly leaping away from devastating attacks or using the force to fend away enemies, no fatigue affected her. No hate, as she found herself immersed with the death screams of the disciples around her. No fear, as Lyzerg took each step, her orange blade spelling only death for the foes around her. The might of the Jedi Order, no common enemy would be able to stand up to their charge.

A myriad of force attacks caused Lyzerg to fall backwards, several gashes forming on her face and neck as she used the force to propel herself further away from the enemy who were eager to pursue. As the Jedi engaged, the enemy were changing their tactics, having been forced to fend for themselves at close range as opposed to being able to continue their brutal environmental attacks with full concentration. As a result, there was a lapse in their attention towards her, allowing Lyzerg to have a brief moment of respite to gather her bearings.

The other jedi around her were all engrossed and occupied with their respective targets, meaning that only Lyzerg was free to study the battle raging. As she deflected energy attacks away from herself, Lyzerg spotted the sudden presence of a speeder speeding through the battlefield, seemingly intended to leave rather than fight. As the speeder was struck, the lone passenger exited, their target appearing to be a ship that was relatively close to the site of battle. Odd, these warriors we have faced are no cowards... Lyzerg thought, immediately on the tail of the stray figure.

Lyzerg sprinted, using as much force as she could muster to propel herself after her target. Raising one hand, she gathered the force currents into her palm, allowing it to form into a spherical shape. With a loud grunt, she unleashed the force burst, it's distinctive blue sheen around the force pulse quickly closing the distance between herself and Albedo. The large force sphere shot towards the figure's back, intended to directly hammer into his body.

 

[Raif]

Off in the distance, a dark speck on the horizon slowly grew to become the recognizable form of a shuttle - the Templar Lord's shuttle, to be precise, coming to whisk him away from the danger.

For now, though, it was still several minutes away from the 'rescue' which the dictatorial Tae was waiting for. The ruler now stood on his Keep's rooftop landing platform, his eyes focused on the distance craft as if willing it to reach him sooner. He may be a cruel bastard, but he was no fool, and he could clearly see the handwriting on the wall; his forces were losing this battle, and if he had any hope of retaining his strangle-hold on this planet he would have to flee.

As long as the shuttle reaches the Keep before the Jedi reach me, I will be fine...

~~~

Down on the bloody plain of battle, it was as if the Disciples could sense their master's desperation. No longer were they focused on routing the Jedi from the battlefield, their sole focus now was simply occupying them in combat long enough to allow the Templar Lord his escape. As such, the two dozen or so remaining Disciples flung themselves at their enemies with reckless abandon. Discarded were the fancy Art powers in favor of their energy blades and the chance to engage the interlopers in direct combat.

Though this 'rush' tactic would do terrible things for the Disciple's chances of survival, it would pose a problem for the Jedi as they were potentially overcome by sheer numbers of onrushing opponents.

~~~

Ragnarok was almost caught off guard by the speed and ferocity of his Sephi opponent. Being the Templar Lord's right hand man, he had grown accustomed to being at the top of the pecking order, with the only person able to challenge his power being the Templar Lord himself. This Jedi, though, tossed all of those proud misconceptions right out the window with his first attack.

As Ragnarok's blade was knocked aside, he knew he had but a split-second to act before this towering Sephi monster dispatched his head from his shoulders. Acting on instinct, the flaming abomination dropped to a knee and hurtled himself away from his opponent, rolling and coming up a few meters away. Bringing his hands up to his chest, Ragnarok let out a scream filled with pain and focus as he channeled the Art-flames on his body outward at Huang, flying towards the Jedi blademaster like a flaming lance of darkness.

((OOC: Weiss, Garuga, it's up to you guys to figure out what's going on between Albedo and Lyzerg))

 

[Dmitri]

Albedo was frantically running towards his ship when his foot got caught by a rock petroding out of the ground. Albedo fell down, face flat. This bad luck was cured by the revelation of what good occured. A Force Pulse sphere flew over his fallen body, striking a boulder near Albedo's ship, fragments chipping at the Zweihander-class blockade runner's paint job.
Shoot! panicked Albedo.
Albedo looked back to see the Jedi Lyzerg. The Bogan panickily stood up and continued his desperate run towards his ship. He could only image the torture that would be inflicted upon him once they learned he was a Bogan.
Albedo was about to use Force Speed when a thought formed in his head. He had not used his Force abilities, thus if he were to get captured, he could always pretend to be a frightened civilian trying to escape the battlefield. Crossing out the idea for a Force boost, Albedo continued his trek towards the ship.

 

[Will]

Not a total incompetent then. He watched Ragnarok as he threw himself away, gaining distance. It was perhaps the only way to tip the scales of the fight slightly towards the corrupted Tae henchman. Huang was best up close to his opponent with a blade in his hand, not the ranged force battles some Jedi preferred to engage in.

Simply desperate, Huang mused as Ragnarok put himself through searing pain to throw flame at him. Huang rolled to the side, rushing forward again, little more than a blur. His blade swept up as he pulled Ragnarok to him with the force, guiding it as an ally, rather than twisting and forcing it, to knock the balance of the suffering combatant, still wailing in agony as he twisted the noble force to his whim, his supreme arrogance sickening the Swordmaster.

 

[Rev]

Caed's eyes traced over the three individuals one last time before going into action. His first step was a fake to the left, baiting in the first of the three. As his left foot came in contact with the loose dirt his momentum shifted and he used the Force to leap at the second of the armed Disciples. The bottom blade would follow his own momentum to swipe his enemies blade across the body and downward. The top blade would arc around his back and swat aside an incoming swipe from the first man, narrowly dodging death; but the Force was his ally, and powerful it was.

Ultor's body would turn at his heel, each blade spinning outward in defense, forcing the two men to distance themselves or suffer death. As they backed off Caed's own Jedi Reflexes kicked in, with a large step backward he narrowly avoided a beam of incoming water. His hand would reach outward and ball into a fist at the center of the streamline as a blast of Force Lightning filled around his hand; the water upping the amplitude of the rather weak shock. Electricity would course back to the source, frying the conjurer where he stood; his shrieks of pain filling the battlefield with a haunting tune.

His left foot rose as a beam swept from underneath, his head bending as his spine arched as well; a second beam narrowly skimmed by his shoulder. Spinning again on his right foot the arch of his spine allowed him to swipe with speed aided by momentum. His crimson beam would dice the air but would never meet a defense; the result one smooth cut just below the Disciple's lungs; cutting the sternum in two. Again momentum would play a role as the bottom beam wrapped around his back while his body bent into a crouch. The upward angle of his own blade met the final Disciple's blade and would counter it downward into the ground below. This fanning motion came through with a second attack, his bottom blade coming across just as quickly and deadly as it had against the first man. The blade would sound off as plasma met flesh, the masked beings head dropping to the ground with an almost welcoming thud. As the final man dropped the rain seemed to die out some, the waves of energy that had one hammered the battlefield letting up in some sense.

His green eyes would look over the battlefield before finally stopping at a shuttle approaching far in the distance. It was moving fast by the looks of things, it hadn't been there moments before; perhaps an escape? Looking back to where he had joined the battlefield from his eyes would narrow on his own starship, reaching outward to the Force he asked for its guidance; wondering if he needed it.

 

[Raif]

Huang's blade had pierced Ragnarok's belly and was sticking out the back of the flaming Tae's back before pain even registered in his mind. Though Ragnarok held a mighty position as the right hand of the Templar Lord, even his power paled compared to the Jedi swordmaster.

As searing pain tore into the head Disciple's mind, and he found himself staring eye to eye with the hulking Sephi Master, having been impaled on his katana via the Force.

"I'll see you in hell, Jedi."

Knowing that his death was surely at hand, Ragnarok's last conscious act was to do his best to bring his foe along with him. Wrapping his arms and legs around Huang in a groteque bear hug, Ragnarok opened himself fully to his Art-flame, intending to burn both himself and his enemy in a dark funeral pyre.

~~~

Across the battlefield, as Ragnarok sent himself up in flames, there was a marked reaction among the rest of the Disciples. Many seemed to lose the will to fight, having seen their champion defeated. Some of these were cut down by their own companions, but even the disciples that continued to fight seemed to lose all skill and ability. Ragnarok seemed to have been the glue holding this twisted fighting force together, and without him their cohesion dissolved.

~~~

Overhead, seemingly within reach, the Templar Lord's shuttle came hovering in, beginning its landing approach. If he was able to safely board that shuttle and escape, all of the Jedi's hard work would be for naught...

 

[Will]

((Raif gave me the Ok to wrap this on up, so I'm going on an ego trip.))

Tutaminis, the art of drawing in negative energy, and diffusing it, in extreme cases redirecting it to be used in other ways. It was an art that was rarely seen in the order mastered.

The Sword master was one of those rare ones.

His primary training, other than in the arts of the blade, was in Tutaminis. Some said he was so skilled in the art he could turn aside a lightsabre with his hand.

He gritted his teeth as the flame washed over his armoured body, attempting to flay the flesh from his exposed face, burn away everything Huang was through searing heat. His skin blistered as he called to the force, summoning it with all of his skill. He may not match up to other force users, such as Master Hector, but he made up for it with the skill of manipulation. The inferno raged about him as the abomination killed himself with a scream.

Huang held.

The inferno spiralled around him, seeming to diminish with contact. He released the dead body of Ragnarok, leaving him a pile of charred remains. He was panting, smoke curling from charred armour and skin. It would take a lot of healing.

He felt that energy roiling inside of him, begging for release. Huang bade it to his legs, leaping into the air, blade flashing in the light as it rose. He had eyes for only one. They eye of this perverse storm.

The Templar king.

Huang landed before him, rising, their blades met as the Templar king finally drew his blade in time. Their blades clashed, ringing like peals of thunder over the battlefield. From the outset, the Templar king was mismatched. Huang pushed the Templar king back, his mighty blows knocking aside guards and parries, barely heeding the thrusts and cuts that paled in comparison to the Sword Masters own finesse.

Eventually, Huang won the dominating upper hand. Huang pressed forward, knocking the Templar King's blade from his hand with a fluid, purposeful movement. The King scurried back, finding his cowardly escape foiled by the towering Jedi. The Templar king began to stammer, babbling, as he offered Huang riches, women, power in his hand. He ignored them, planting his foot on the chest of the despot, his blade rising. Wordlessly, he cut the head off of the Templar King, removing the stain of his life forever. He took the force-forged sword of the Templar king, an addition to his collection.

The Jedi were done here. The Tae had been liberated. The day was theirs.