Ask Flashpoint Ossus Whispering Ashes

[Rian Auriol]

OSSUS
​

Ossus was a world on the edge. Its cities and people had been ravaged by both the demon Raze and now the lesser Sith in only a short time. Rian could hear the bombs falling a few blocks to the north, screams and the ring of blaster fire echoing on the wind. The pain and anguish radiating through the Force was ten times worse. Rian shut it out.

The Knight stepped cautiously through the narrow alley, slipping around debris and crumbled masonry. He glared at the destruction all around him, bracing against the cold fury that often stirred in his gut. He turned away into the folds of his hood, his heavy grey overcloak trailing behind him, concealing his black and gold variant of light Jedi attire from view.

He paused at the edge of the street to wait for a patrol of troopers to sprint by, trying to appear just another frightened civilian. No one had time to stop the lost and grieving right now and they passed by quickly, enabling him to head on southward.

The sounds of battle grew more distant as he worked his way onward, past shuttered shops and bloodsoaked boulevards. The bodies of people and demons alike still littered the streets, the carnage too great and terrible to have been cleared so soon. The sights and smells would have broken a lesser man and the dawning silence hanging over the scene made it no more bearable.

Too many took false comfort in that silence. The whole galaxy wanted to forget what had happened here, to race on, consigning the demon Raze and his vile hordes to the past. Rian knew so many would almost be glad to be fighting men and machines again, reassured by an enemy they could see and understand.

But they were all wrong. The reports told them their great enemy was vanquished and so they believed it so. Rian Auriol would never make that mistake, he who had tracked the dark destroyer only to miss his apparent end.

No. He would make sure. The crater could not be far now; he would ensure it was nothing more than a hole in the ground.

Every trace must be scorched clean.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Oh, Kaldar had opinions about the Sith and the Hutts attacking the Empire and, more specifically, Ossus. They were all jackals feeding off of the kill that Raze had made. They saw the planet weakened and they swept in to feed off of it. At least Kaldar had the common decency to be symbiotic.

Parasites.

Well, at least Kaldar was going to get something out of their parasitic attack. Sith fought abominations fought Imperials, and that meant ripe opportunity. Chaos really was a ladder, and Kaldar was good at climbing it.

He was searching for a way to bring the Dark Lord back, and while he had started chasing down leads with Azar, he knew that going to the site of the damage would be important.

The environment was filled with people who were trying to kill each other, so Kaldar had adopted an appropriate disguise with no military markings on him. Likely, he would be mistaken for a Cartel merc if statistics were anything to go by, but that didn't really bother him. He didn't plan to stop and chat with people.

Although he wore a blaster pistol on his hip and carried a couple of spare powerpacks, his real weapon was the lightsaber hidden in a pouch among his gear. But that was so much more noticeable than a blaster even on a war torn world like Ossus.

And wartorn it was. The closer he got to the blast crater where Raze had been physically annihilated, the more the stench in the Force thickened. While elsewhere on the planet, the death and violence that pummeled the air were almost empowering, here there was something else that stained this place. The faintest hint of Raze's presence that had been left behind.

The sounds of blasterfire cracked in the distance, and Kaldar moved cautiously through the streets, doing his best to keep close to debris and walls rather than standing out in the open like an idiot.

 

[Rian Auriol]

The buildings began to thin out as Rian closed in on the blast site, pockmarked skyscrapers giving way to broken towers and misshapen ruins. The orbital bombardment had reduced much of the landscape to a glass dune of dust and debris. The Knight had to circumvent huge obstacles of stone and fused metal more than once, eventually emerging at the rim.

The crater was vast, falling away before him to an apparent epicentre in the mid distance, where the earth had been scorched back to bare rock. The basin was punctuated with trenches and channels carved by munitions fire, wreckage and chunks of buildings lodged in the ground as if hammered in by a giant.

But Rian's gaze tracked the ground he was standing on, right across to the far side of the rim. A discoloration in the earth either side of the pit was the only legacy of the old East Boulevard. The very air smelled of death and something worse. This was the place.

"Hey, this area is off limits jackass!".

Rian turned slowly to regard the two troopers hastily jumping up off a scrap heap. Of course. Though a wound in the Force like this would nudge at any mind to flee, the Imperials had set a watch all the same.

"You should not be here either" the Knight replied, turning slowly towards them, his fingers and thumbs touching as he formed the shape of a circle. "The fight is to the north and you are being left behind". It was a small thing to channel the Force into his words, playing on a fear they no doubt already had.

"We're being left behind" one said to the other, backing away hesitantly before sprinting off and pulling his comrade to the same. "Screw you!" they shouted back, disappearing.

But Rian was already leaping down into the crater, making his way toward the center. The men were but flies beside a dragon's grave. They could not comprehend the big picture.

He held the circle gesture as he walked, pushing his senses out around him in a circle of their own. Probing. Searching.

Searching for any trace of the one they called Raze.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Ever since Nixor, Kaldar had begun to understand that Raze had left his own mark upon the young Sith. Although he was now more powerful than many of the Force-users who walked the galaxy, he still felt the amount he had to learn far exceeded the amount he had already mastered. Nevertheless, the mark that Raze had left on him seemed to shiver inside of him as he drew nearer to that place of that fateful day.

And amidst the darkness that still stained the area, he couldn't help but sense Light. At first, he thought it was coming from someone nearby, but it was as much ingrained in this place as the death of the Dark Lord. It was the sacrifice of those who had died to stop the slaughter. Rian would feel it as well, although it was barely a flicker compared to everything else that had happened here. A flicker that was quickly fading.

Carters and twisted metal and duracrete lined what was left of the "street" and Kaldar had to dodge holes in the ground as he approached what had once been a building. It looked as though it had been ripped down entirely even before the blast had turned most everything in the area to dust and glass.

Imagine his surprise when he caught sight of movement across what had probably once been a city square where two men ran away from a third, though it seemed less from fear and more from a sense of urgency to get... somewhere.

Weird, he thought to himself, his eyes following the lone man from behind his visor as he went about his own business. Kaldar wasn't exactly the type to meddle where there wasn't payoff to him, and he saw nothing but trouble in the idea of interacting with the other guy.

Instead, he picked his way through the area, opening himself up to the Force and doing his best to track any vestiges of his master's spirit.

@Alhon

 

[Rian Auriol]

Rian immersed himself in the Force as he walked, seeing not with the naked eye but with his mind, staring straight ahead as he crossed uneven ground and weaved between debris.

The Jedi had devoted centuries to studying the Force and much of their teaching was unimpeachable truth. The Force did indeed flow through all living things, and Rian could feel it even here, tingling in the few plants and small animals that clung on in the shadows. There remained an echo of Light and life.

But the Sacred Circle taught that the Force also abides in death. For death it the natural end to life, a second act just as important as the first. The Knight felt the Force as surely in the decay all around as he did in the scant life that evaded it. The Circle was complete, as it was the first day it was drawn.

Yet, its shape was too uniform. Rian had expected to sense a grave imbalance here, a vile knot in the thread that would mark a death of tremendous significance; the true destruction of the entity Raze. It should be staring him down.

But the center of the crater was silent, barely any more foreboding than the circular waste all around. Rian paused, feeling safe in his isolation to search deeper.

His hands broke from the circle, gently cupping his left upward and circling his right above it, four fingers pointing down as if scouring a circular trench in sand. Any attuned to the Force would have seen the flicker of Light skirting the ground around him, radiating out, tracking with the circling of his hand. Rian scoured the earth and rock, feeling for any trace that would give him his answers.

Eventually, something chimed to him beneath a pile of rubble. Something hard and cold and laced with death. He never looked up, but his right hand broke from its circling, stretching out to pull the item from where it had been buried.

Cold metal flew into Rian's palm and he opened his eyes to examine the object. It was a twisted metal limb, an arm if he was not mistaken, barely recognisable but bearing a red star on the shoulder. His cursory reading of current affairs was enough to know the owner. General Max Dram.

The General had died here, in the battle against Raze. The arm reeked of the Circle's darker half. But it was the only thing that really did, which gave Rian his chilling answer.

Darth Raze may have been defeated here. But, unlike the General, he was not truly destroyed.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar didn't know what it was that he was sensing, but there was no question that someone here was flexing with the Force. A light seemed to cut through his mind, and drew his attention away from his search for Raze to whoever this was.

A threat, his mind told him. It wasn't even another Sith, it was... what? A Jedi? A Matukai? Some do-gooder idiot. For a moment, Kaldar just watched the man, weighing his options for what to do next. Come on, you can use this, he told himself, turning the situation over in his mind before deciding to make a move.

He moved over toward the other man, his eyes open and darting around to look for any other threats like Imperials or Hutts.

Battlefield looting? The Imps'll shoot you for that, he said, sliding down one of the inclines toward the other man, his boots crunching along the side of the downward slope until he came grinding to a stop a few feet away from the man. Kaldar's eyes settled on whatever he had found, but he couldn't quite tell what it was.

 

[Rian Auriol]

Rian carefully turned the metal arm over in his hands, examining it. It was a simple tool and yet something of the man it had belonged to had rubbed off on it. Life always left an impression.

The destruction of Raze's spirit would have left a huge mark too, yet he found none. Rian closed his eyes again briefly, foraging further afield with his senses in case he was not quite in the right place. He thought he touched on something else, not what he sought but a whisper nearly as dark.

A voice interrupted him. He whirled, finding an armored figure sliding down a slope towards him.

"Imperials do not concern me" he said levelly, blue eyes raking the newcomer up and down. A man, he thought, from his voice and bearing, and he had the look of Cartel mercenary or similar.

"I loot nothing" he added, increasingly uneasy at the stranger's appearance here and now. "Your crimes are not mine. If you want trinkets, go right ahead".

He jutted his head away, offering the mercenary a chance to leave. It occurred to Rian that the fool might hope to rob a wanderer like him, out here in the wartorn waste. He readied his hands, still hidden in the folds of his cloak.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar looked at the man who apparently had no intention of looting anything. Kaldar's gaze dropped to the arm that the man held in his hands, and he pointed at it casually.

I don't know, his arm might say differently, he said, in response to the claim that he wasn't looting anything.

So if you're not here for loot then what do you need a hand with? he asked, incredibly proud of himself for that devastating pun he had just unleashed.

He shrugged when the man told him to go about his work, and that was fine with Kaldar.

Eh, fair enough, he said, moving some of the dirt around with his shoe even as he scanned in the Force for anything that might indicate his master. He sensed a distant darkness that was deeper than the residual stain of this place. It was a sensation that he actually... recognized. It was... one of the shards? He almost reeled back at the realization, and although it wasn't close it wasn't far either. Maybe this was why the Force had led him here.

 

[Rian Auriol]

Rather than walk off or front up, the mercenary opted to spar with him. Something was now definitely off.

Rian studied the man closely, narrowing his eyes as the chap kicked at the dirt. Watching as he was, he suddenly felt the movement of the Force around the man and the distinct taint of the Dark. A demon unmasked.

The Knight pivoted, arms reaching out to call a durasteel rod from some collapsed masonry, fingers flourishing as he tried to coil it around the mercenary, incapacitating him if possible. No simple mercenary worked the Force, much less so close to such evil. Rian wanted answers and he would take no risks getting them.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar practically jumped as soon as the man moved. He was taken off guard, but he was naturally paranoid and didn't handle "sudden movements" well. When the twisted girders leapt out to try to surround him, Kaldar was already moving, dodging aside with the grace of a dancer as the pieces of metal grasped nothing but air.

His mind raced through what was going on, and although he would have loved to try to talk his way out of the situation like he so often did, his mind only screamed out "Sith." Despite being a Jedi, the sudden violence, the ability to use the Force, and the location of the fight with other Sith on planet led Kaldar to the mental conclusion that this man was a Sith who had come here to assassinate him. While Raze may have appeared to be gone, apparently Tempest did see him as enough of a threat to kill him. Surprising.

Or maybe it was just unlucky. Plenty of Sith were bloodthirsty brutes. Maybe one had wandered to "the spot" and Kaldar had been unlucky enough to virtually step on him. Either way, it didn't matter.

The thoughts flashed through his mind in milliseconds and without even thinking about it, his lightsaber leapt to his hand and burst to life, carving through several of the pieces of metal still pursuing him before his other hand thrust outward and sent a blast of Force energy to redirect them like shrapnel at his assailant. The attack served two purposes: the first was to protect him from being ensnared by taking apart much of the metal and the second was an attack. With the man so focused on his manipulations, he'd be hard pressed to evade the peppering of shrapnel.

Kriffing rude, you shabuire, he spat angrily.

 

[Rian Auriol]

The mercenary twisted away from the coiling metal with a sudden quickness. Rian realised he had gravely underestimated his opponent, even before the lightsaber emerged in his hand, slashing the rods to pieces. The blade was blood red, extinguishing any doubt. He was a mortal enemy.

His foe lashed out with the Force, throwing the jagged fragments straight at him. But Rian still had hold them himself, hands extended. He whipped one forearm back into a guard and shoved the other palm out beneath it, aiming to stop the hail of shards before it reached him.

But it transpired he was outmatched. While the hail was slowed, it was not stopped, his enemy's superior strength in the Force driving it on. Fragments of metal slashed the sleeves of his cloak to shreds, one nicking his cheek and another lodging his arm. The wound was not deep, but Rian hissed in pain.

"Your Master is dead" he lied, suspecting the dark figure was here for Raze. "So are all Sith hopes for victory. Repent".

He stalled for time, flicking a hand towards the ground where he had sensed the dark side signature, intending to destabilise the rubble and further bury whatever the other man sought. With his other, he lifted the General's metal arm from the ground and threw it hard at the demon's head, leaping backwards all the time to give himself more space.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

So presumptuous! Kaldar said in a tone that sounded more mocking than anything. The planet was being invaded by Sith, and Kaldar... for all the Jedi knew, he was just one more among them.

He leapt free of the rubble and onto steady ground, only narrowly managing to slice the arm out of the sky before it struck him. An arm! Really?! Although he didn't know its precise location, he had noted earlier that the shards were not actually in the crater. They were farther away, and probably blasted aside from the impact of the destruction.

And yet, there was no follow up attack from the Sith.

Come ooon. Aren't you supposed to want to talk? I was just minding my own business and you attacked me unprovoked. Not very Jedi of you, he scolded the man. And it wasn't wrong. The words the man spoke told him that he wasn't a Sith as Kaldar had supposed, and while it was clear he shouldn't underestimate the man and he certainly wouldn't let his guard down, he also wasn't all that eager to make this into a duel. Duels were so... childish.

Now. Shall we converse or are you intent on acting like a child? he asked. Of course, through this whole exchange, should the man make any kind of new attack or threat, Kaldar would respond in kind, but he would at least make an attempt at something more civil. After all, he wasn't a barbarian, although if he was pushed again... well, then he'd have no choice, would he?

 

[Rian Auriol]

Unexpectedly, the Sith did not press the attack but danced away, feigning incredulity. Rian had never encountered a jester among those who followed the Dark Side. It was surely an act.

”There are few coincidences” Rian answered, smart enough to make use of the strange pause. He gradually sidestepped, keeping his distance but moving left towards an area where there were more sources of cover if he needed them. “You are a Sith, probing the earth at the site of your fallen idol’s destruction. Some business to mind”.

Rian was fully recovered and focused again now, ready to call on the Force again if it came to it. When it came to it. He could not concieve of another outcome with one of the Darklings. Yet, it had shown itself powerful already.

”If we are just talking, why not remove the helm”. The former priest was zealous, but had still not faced as many Sith as his convictions would have liked. He was curious what this one looked like and why he hid his menace in a mercenary’s armor.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

My fallen idol? And I thought I had a flare for the dramatic, Kaldar repeated with a laugh.

And you're a Jedi here, too. Because you're curious. Come on, he's been terrorizing this galaxy for decades, who wouldn't be? he said, motioning with his hand to indicate the other man who was here as well. And he wasn't wrong. They were both here, and anyone with a shred of curiosity should be curious about this place.

The comment about removing his helmet caught Kaldar off guard primarily because of its ridiculousness. There was absolutely no chance of that happening, and the fact that the man would even suggest it was... surprising.

Right, because you've proven yourself so trustworthy thus far? You'll forgive me if I don't entirely let my guard down and pull you over for tea and crumpets, he snickered again.

How about we both just go our separate ways. Or are you that bent on killing me? he asked, clearly not letting his guard down entirely, but... you know, still being reasonably amiable.

 

[Rian Auriol]

The Sith did not oblige him. Rian was not surprised. The things served only themselves. This one was unusually nonchalant, appearing a demon of mischief more than anything. But Rian had felt the man’s strength in the Force. He was very dangerous.

”I do not have the luxury of following my own curiosities” he answered evenly, deciding he may yet learn more from conversation. “The Jedi have duties, not wants and desires”. It was true, but only partly so of Rian. He did not walk the typical Jedi path, but in fact strayed far closer to personal agenda. “If he was not your idol, then no doubt you have come to leach of his spoils?”.

Rian’s eyes narrowed at the outlandish suggestion he had been rude to the Sith. One did not offend the poison spider. It was simply an enemy by nature. “If a helmet is your guard, then keep it” he said gruffly. He did not mean to goad the Sith, but it would take him far more practice to converse with one normally.

”What trick is this?“ he asked, suspicious to the point of disbelief. He could not imagine a Sith would let him slip away, yet he began to weigh it in his mind.

Parting ways went against every fibre of his being. But the Knight had a measure of his foe’s strength and knew in his heart he was outmatched. Somehow, this dark sprite had advanced further than him in its short time. A confrontation risked everything, and he still had so much good work to complete.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar's eyebrows rose behind his helmet. He actually had met... very few Jedi. In fact, he wasn't sure he had ever met a Jedi before, but if this poor guy was any indicator, it sounded awful.

Well that's... a way to live, he said. Doesn't that ever get... unsatisfying? Never doing anything just because you want to? he asked. It didn't even really sound like living, to be honest. It was a sad reflection of life rather than the real thing.

He shrugged at the man's accusation.

Do you see much around here to leech off of? he asked. Fine, so Kaldar knew that was a lie, but he hoped the other man didn't. After all, lying and half truths were kind of his thing.

Again, I'm not the one that attacked first, he said with a chuckle as the Jedi asked what trick this was.

I mean, if you really want to fight, I'll fight you but like... why? he asked, raising a hand in an almost shrugging gesture.

I'll go this way... he said, motioning behind himself and "conveniently" toward the shards which he would collect before he left ...and you go that way... he said, motioning back behind the Jedi ...and we'll just put all this unpleasantness behind us, he proposed.

 

[Rian Auriol]

“Oh you misunderstand” Rian replied, something resembling a smirk actually flickering across his face “I very much wanted to throttle you with that metal”. He would not have choked the Sith to death of course, at least not until he had learnt what he could from him.

Rian did not expect the guy to understand his life. After all, the Knight struggled to understand the reverse. “You have some purpose here, whatever it might be” he said, abandoning that line of enquiry. He may have misinterpreted the presences he felt earlier, but the Sith would not comb through a graveyard without an objective.

”The Jedi and Sith have been enemies since the dawn” he said, resisting the urge to sigh “you did not seriously expect to roll up and have your tea and crumpets”. The man’s relaxed attitude was still rather unbelievable, though he had now kept it up for a while. “I struck before you did. That’s all”. Even if the Sith had genuinely intended to sidestep him, he was unlikely to if he learned Rian’s purpose here.

Still, walking away was beyond difficult. He could only countenance it by remembering it was the big picture that mattered. If he risked his life with the odds against him today, he would be doing so for vanity. “Alright, my darkling friend. We can part ways this time”. Rian began to step backwards gradually, as if intending to withdraw in the direction the Sith had indicated. He slyly brought his hands back together, ready to strike if the man should double cross him.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar wasn't surprised that the man didn't actually answer his questions, but it was a shame. Kaldar could be ruthless and cruel and vindictive, but he could also be curious. He probably should have hated Jedi but to be honest, that sounded like a bit too much work. If they stayed out of his way, what was the point of a blood feud where he gained nothing?

He actually laughed a bit at the man's mention of tea and crumpets. Particularly the way he said it with such a serious face made it all the more humorous.

Aww, we're friends? Until next time then, Jedi friend, he said.

Well, at least it seemed like the Jedi was going to let it lie, so to speak. Kaldar lifted his hand and waved goodbye in that way where all of your fingers move in turn individually as he began to back away. Although his lightsaber hilt remained in his hand, he let the blade flash out. It was far too much to say that Kaldar trusted the Jedi, but hopefully he'd be good to his word.

Either way, Kaldar followed the "scent" in the Force back to the shards and would recover them both before he left, making good on his "promise" to leave the Jedi alone should he prove true to his own word. Of course... there was always the chance the guy just wanted to keep spying on him... but time would tell.

//Exit attempt @Alhon

 

[Rian Auriol]

“If you understand the word” Rian replied, smirking again. Of course they were not friends. The situation was incredibly serious, and yet despite his best efforts the Sith‘s mischievous attitude was affecting his own. He had not traded barbs like this since he had bunked with another novice on Monastery.

”Next time” he nodded, promising himself there would be one. “You bring the crumpets, I’ll bring the tea”. This was the first Sith he had ever parted ways with in this manner and it pained Rian to imagine what pain the dark sider would go on to inflict. But he did not have the strength to defeat him easily and rolling the dice today risked too much. He had focused on the crusade alone for too long and now it was leading to enemies more twisted and deadly. The Knight would redouble his efforts to master his own strength.

He raised a hand to mirror his foe’s distinctive wave, feeling the Sith presence through the Force as he withdrew. Rian would remember that particular scent and ensure the man could never sneak up on him again.

Rian let his enemy withdraw, stalking away himself to a safe distance. Once out of sight, he slipped between two piles of rubble near the crater rim and lowered himself into a hidden vantage point. Fate had given the Hapan only average eyesight and he dared not use the Force to track the Sith’s movements. Still, he was curious to know what brought the demon here and perhaps he could observe something of the answer before leaving.

@Phoenix

 

[Kaldar]

Kaldar headed out to the area where he sensed the shards, dipping down as he finally put his lightsaber away. His senses were on much higher alert now than before since he knew he had a Jedi in the area, but he wouldn't be deterred from his goal.

He dug through some of the rubble before finally finding the pair of shards, holding them in his hands. They were charged with darkness, and he was... staggered by the sheer power they held. He had, of course, held one before but never two. He wondered what power lay within them that he could harness and unleash. A useful pair of tools for his return of his master, perhaps? Awesome in power, though.

He slipped them away, and although Rian would be able to see that he had recovered something, the what was far more in question. He would, no doubt, be glad to see that Kaldar didn't go murdering his way out of the place. Of course, he would never, ever do something malicious again, right? Nope.

@Alhon //Thread