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Where He Buried Her
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Wednesday, 05 Aug 2015, 9:10 PM | Message # 1 |
 Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| It was a strange feeling, returning to your own grave. Near twenty years to the day, Karth left himself behind on the windswept plains of New Plympto. The Starwander dropped out of hyperspace and the world itself dominated the view from the cockpit, and he felt the familiar pang of loss that accompanied every memory of this place. From behind him in the ship's astromech socket, Kima beeped and whistled, and the translation flashed across a small screen on his console.
'Arriving now at New Plympto, Master. Phemiss Port Authority is scanning landing credentials.'
"Give them the Jacen Hall credential, Kima. Don't think I've used that one, here." Karth replied with a sigh, pressing a few buttons on the console. The droid answered back, and the response brought a smile to the former Jedi's lips.
'I should hope not, with how much you avoid talking about this planet with everyone.'
"Never heard the term 'old wounds'? This applies here."
'Duly noted, Master. I shall add the colloquialism to the list.'
"It's more a metaphor than a colloquialism, but I don't expect an astromech to know the difference," he shot back, setting the R-22 on an automatic descent into New Plympto's atmosphere. As they passed through the troposphere, the clouds enveloping and breaking before the Starwander in billowy white, he allowed himself to lean back in his seat and cross his arms over his chest. Already, a familiar unease washed over his senses, lapping against his mind like an eroding tide. Foremost in his thoughts were images of the girl in question, how he so keenly remembered how the tresses of her raven hair spilled across her shoulders. And the closer he drew to the surface, the more he reached out with the Force, the harder his ghosts assailed him. She hadn't been the only one he had failed.
"We're making a push!" He remembered shouting over the chaos. He remembered the light of his saber, beating back volley after volley.
He remembered the girl, her own saber masterful at work as war raged around them. She had shouted something just after he had made the declaration. He also remembered looking into her eyes, as fire engulfed the tank she had been standing upon. And most of all, he had remembered the knife. Instinctively, the Jedi reached up and ran a few of his fingertips along his chest, checking for the scar even if he couldn't feel it through his flightsuit.
'We have been given permission to land, Master. Docking Bay Thirty-Seven.'
"Acknowledged, Kima. Take us in," Karth said after a moment, drawn from his reverie by the droid's noise. Twenty years, and he had finally returned to where he had buried her.
Added (30 Jul 2015, 11:08 PM)
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It was such a simple gravestone.
It was carved into the flattened face of a boulder, a simple memorial etched into the stone by his lightsaber. The inscription itself was simple and concise, but Karth was never one for long windedness.
May she know that love follows her.
It rested at the edge of a cliff overlooking the valley she had died in; and where there was once the scars of war there was now only a field of blooming flowers. Far to the west, the meandering river that divided the valley in twain coursed southward towards the city of Phemiss. The eastern skyline was dominated by tremendous, snow-capped mountains, the light of the setting sun only just beginning to vanish behind them. It really was a beautiful place to put her to rest.
Having left Kima to mind the ship, Karth had opted to travel alone to the gravesite by way of rented swoop bike. Every step brought him further back in time, her presence lingered at the periphery of his senses even after twenty long years. When he thought back to her, to her fair skin and intense, blue eyes, the sting was just as painful. He had been able to banish her from his thoughts for almost two decades, but now, necessity had driven him back to New Plympto. The Empire's defeat at Yavin had signaled to him that, perhaps, it was time to come out of hiding.
“You ponder too much.” He remembered her saying once. “I swear you’d spend days looking at a wall, lost in your own head, if I wasn’t here to occupy your thoughts.”
He remembered she had said it in the small apartment they had gotten for their meetings, on a day when the rain had been relentlessly pelting the cityscape. He had been standing at the window, lost in his own head much as she claimed he often was. It had been several months into the war, when they were still wide-eyed and optimistic about their future. What he had been pondering he had no recollection of. His time with Daneira was spent with a lot of hand-wringing and questioning his place in the Jedi Order, he reckoned that was probably what it was.
“You occupy my thoughts all the time, makes it hard to focus in battle.” He had answered, barely above a whisper, as he let his fingers dance along the outline of her collarbone. As soon as he touched her, his worries evaporated.
“All the time? How do you get anything done.”
The former Jedi shook his head, casting the memory into the ether. He came upon the grave and dropped to a knee, placing a hand to the dirt and closing his eyes. Several feet down, buried under tightly-packed earth, he could sense the item he had left behind. It was a simple enough matter to focus and channel the Force around it and pull it free from the ground. Dirt fell away as he levitated the small, cube-shaped holocron into the air before him. Such a little thing, a memory of his former Master, he had left it here as a symbol. Twenty years ago, Karth De'Qora had died there, in that very valley below him. Now, it was time for him to live again.
Added (05 Aug 2015, 9:10 PM)
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New Plympto had been an easy conquest.
In his youth, the Jedi had fought against the secessionists, desperate to keep New Plympto from falling into the hands of the Separatists. It had been a brief, but brutal campaign, far removed from the genteel nature of a war fought between soulless droids and replaceable clones. The Nosaurians themselves had rebelled in the name of fighting oppression; and the Jedi had come to the planet as conquerors at the head of an army. He had marched at the head of a legion of faceless white-armored killers, breaking every Jedi tenant in slaying dozens of the natives in the name of loyalty.
He had scoffed, even then, that the Jedi could so easily justify themselves as the ceaseless engine of a war machine. They deigned to call themselves the authority on morality, the guardians of 'peace' and 'justice'. Yet they had not once, in Karth's observation, pushed any harder for peace. A civil war, founded upon corruption and greed, and the guardians of the Republic were just another decaying body. Dani had begged him to leave, and even after all this time, he lamented his not listening.
"We have an obligation to see this through." He had said to her one night, as they lay entwined beneath a tangle of sheets. "We're losing this war, D. They need every hand available or else we're looking at the end. Coruscant, up in smoke, the Temple burning."
He saw her tank go up in flames, as he did every night.
Phemiss now stood as a testament to the reach of the Empire. The city itself was walled with ancient stone, the buildings tightly-packed and overcrowded. Patrols of stormtroopers marched the streets, Imperial banners fluttering in the evening breeze. Having returned his speeder, Karth was now making the long trip back to the spaceport, thumbing the holocron he had secured at his belt. A curtain of unrest hung over the souls here, their fear crashing against his mind as he opened himself up to the Force. At the periphery of his senses there was something... familiar, a presence he had not felt, since...
His vision sparked white, a sudden surge of cold blindsiding him and coursing through his entire body. De'Qora stumbled, throwing an arm forward to catch himself on a stone wall, his senses assaulted by a rush of terror. He could almost feel it, the unbridled fear that accompanied the sudden attack. His connection to other beings through the Force had always been tremendous, and it was as much a curse as it was a boon. Someone had just been shot, not two blocks over from where he stood.
The Jedi pushed his way through a small crowd, exiting into an alleyway that ran to the east, in the direction of the attack. The life force he had felt began to ebb, a subtle bleed in the Force as their life melted away. The Force compelled him towards the epicenter of the pain, demanding that he lend assistance, the Jedi in him refusing to die completely. They might have been warmongers once, but the Order was no more. He was all that remained, and Jedi helped the innocent.
Undeterred, he pushed forward.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Friday, 31 Jul 2015, 12:04 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Thursday, 06 Aug 2015, 6:23 PM | Message # 2 |
 Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| One Hour Earlier…
“Miss Nora! Miss Nora! Please!” The tiny voice cried in broken basic between reverent pounds on the old wooden door of the farmhouse. It woke Daneira from her restless sleep in the faded maroon lounge chair in the sitting room of the old house. “Miss Nora!” The voice cried again. She pulled herself up and moved to the
door. Something felt off, and the urgency of the voice compelled her to open the door, but no one was there, until she looked down and out of her natural line of sight. A Nosaurian youth, she'd only known from business with his father. He was out of breath, from the yelling and the pounding on the door, and unknown to her, the run from the market just before.
“My Da!” He said feverishly, then inter spaced the explanation of what was happening in his rough basic, along with his native tongue. There were some words that Daneira understood, and she nodded to express that she understood. Even the natives of the planet knew who to come to if they needed help, not just the human and alien settlers who always seemed to come. Without hesitation, she picked the feathered youth up, and took him into the house and sat him down on the recliner.
“I'll get your Da, and the others, alright? I just need you to stay here. Do not answer the door and if anyone tries to get in, hide in the root cellar, okay?” She ruffled his feathers gently and went to prepare, though she feared that by the time she got there, they would all be dead.
Present…
She had felt that the first victim was shot when she was nearing the site. It nauseated her, even though she was not fully open to The Force. There was something else, however, that was causing her to feel unease. What was it? Another force signature? It felt familiar, but so foreign at the same time. In the back of her mind, it worried her. It had been years since another force user had tracked her here, and she had dealt with that one and there was never another since then. There was no time to worry about it right then.
Six Stormtroopers. There were six standing in front of a line of Nosaurians who had their clawed hands behind their reptilian heads. Daneira was sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they had done nothing wrong. It was simply Imperial bigotry- or human high culture, as they had branded it in their propaganda pieces. One of the Nosaurians was already down, but Dani could tell that he was still alive, for now. She was not much of a healer, never had been, but maybe, just maybe she could at least stop the Stormtroopers from killing the rest of them.
Two blasters and her tarnished, barely functioning lightsaber were all she had on her, aside from her rusty Force skills. The lightsaber, despite the fact that she had
tried and tried to repair it, would work for several minutes, before it shorted out and went dead. It wasn’t always the best choice, but in her brief scout of the area, there was no one else around to see her use it. So six Stormtroopers in less than three minutes could be handled with a faulty blade…in theory. Hopefully, the Nosaurians would end up helping, despite how they felt about the Jedi, because she was only trying to help them, but whether they would or not was yet to be seen.
Snap, hiss…
Daneira ignited the azure blade as she dropped down from the window ledge that she had been perched on. It had to be an unsettling sound, as the Nosaurians looked up just in time to see one Stormtrooper cut down, followed by a second, while the others scrambled in abject confusion. Just as she was going for three, the lightsaber flickered, flashed and then vanished. “Son of a….” She murmured before she dropped the hilt, which was almost black with tarnish and from not being used, and reached for a blaster.
In the matter of seconds that all of that had happened, the Stormtroopers were shooting, the Nosaurians were running, all but one. He was at least a foot taller than Daneira, the talledst Nosaurian she had ever seen, with reddish-orange scales and terrible yellow eyes. He stared at herlong enough that her attention was caught and when he flashed his gums, she jerked her head to the side and closed her eyes just long enough to allow him to blind the Stormtroopers so that they would be much easier to handle from there. One dropped his weapon, and another stumbled into a wall blindly. Of the two remaining, one was shooting blindly at the other reptilians, and one was shooting wildly in Dani's direction, but missing as she evaded the wildly errant shots. It wouldn't be long before the flash wore off.
Message edited by Daneira_Farris - Thursday, 06 Aug 2015, 8:32 PM |
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Thursday, 06 Aug 2015, 10:46 PM | Message # 3 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| There was a surge in the Force, punctuated shortly afterward by the deafening staccato of blaster fire echoing against stone walls. A life force dropped completely out of his senses, followed by two more, and Karth broke into a run. The Force propelled him at speeds unmatched by anyone of normal birth, carrying him over a parked speeder as he leaped and came upon the street in question. And already, there was chaos. Karth entered the fray far behind, a good twenty meters from the chaos, the flickering blade of a lightsaber catching his eye as it cut through a stormtrooper. And just as soon as he had arrived, the blade sputtered and shorted out, its wielder effortlessly switching out for a blaster.
A Jedi? His mind raced to catch up, instinct driving him as a second surge of warning flowed through him, pressing him to avert his eyes just as the Nosaurian let loose its blinding light. A crowd had been drawn, a mixed association of humans, Nosaurians and various others. Some jeered and hollered victoriously to the sky while others screamed calling for guards to come and settle the battle that had erupted as swift as a lightning strike. And throughout it all, Karth was assailed with a foreboding he hadn't felt in near a decade.
He hadn't ever believed much in fate, but in that moment he could have convinced himself otherwise. Through the Force he felt the synapses of cause and effect sparking, how a Jedi revealing themselves here would lead to a dark and insidious presence following in its wake. Whoever this Jedi is, their aura obscured by the chaos of several dozen souls, they had just brought a wrath to bear upon them.
Four of the troopers were dispatched, but at the corner of his mind he could feel the approach of several more, a dozen by his rough count. Karth forced himself into a run again, surging forward at breakneck speed and throwing out his hands, a wave of telekinetic energy slamming into the remaining two troopers and sending them careening into stack of supply crates. His mind flew to his lightsaber, tucked away in the satchel he wore for fear of discovery, and then at once the gears in his head began to turn. The distance between himself and the attacker was closed in the blink of an eye, the Nosaurians that had been prostrated had since fled into the alleyways.
Blood rushed in his ears, a dull thud that drowned out all else, even the alarm klaxons that had begun to sound as he felt the fresh group of soldiers drawing ever closer. They had only a moment to disappear into the shadows before they were discovered. He lashed out with a hand and spun the Jedi around, ready to run.
And then time froze. Staring back at him were a pair of eyes so blue they could have been fashioned from the sea. Eyes so familiar that they still burned into his memory even after twenty long years. Words failed him. The alarm blared and he could hear in the distance the sound of the city-wide lockdown being initiated, but he was frozen in place. All at once, two decades of sorrow rushed into his being and were then expelled by a wave of disbelief and blind, white-hot joy.
All he could do was stare at her, mouth agape, two Jedi standing amidst a field of bodies.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Thursday, 06 Aug 2015, 10:46 PM |
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| Imperials | Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 0:26 AM | Message # 4 |
 Trainee
Group: Users
Messages: 3
Status: Offline
| "What do I care about a handful of Nosaurian traitors?" the Governor had said disdainfully, "Deal with it."
Commander M.T. Carson looked scornfully at the moon as if at the Governor personally. He was up there somewhere, clearly failing to appreciate the situation here on New Plympto proper. What had begun as 'a handful of Nosaurian traitors' being executed for reporting on Imperial ship movements in the system (in fact, these particular Nosaurians had only a loose connection to the conspiracy, if any at all), had suddenly escalated into a crisis. Carson had thought the word 'Jedi' would have commanded more of the Governor's attention; perhaps the man simply didn't believe it. Nothing interesting ever happened on New Plympto, so they said.
Well, they were wrong.
The over-worked Commander Carson was directly in command of Imperial forces in Phemiss. He also had the dual-role of being Lieutenant Governor (despite being a military man with no experience in government) and so had wide-ranging authority over the city—authority he put to full use in ordering a city-wide lockdown. Additional stormtroopers in stout, but fast-moving Imperial troop transports—ITT's, for short—were dispatched to the scene of the ambush, and still more were sent to the spaceport. Klaxons could be heard blaring throughout the city, warning the populace to go indoors and stay there.
It had been many years since a mobilization of this size on New Plympto, and Carson would pay a heavy price if it turned out to be a false alarm. But he was old enough to have seen the carnage that a Jedi was capable of. If the frenzied reports from the execution squad were true, then Carson had a large problem indeed on his hands. Monitoring events from the command center of the Imperial garrison in the center of Phemiss, Carson ordered his TIE Fighters fueled and ready, but didn't deploy them yet. Nor did he intend to make use of his AT-ST's, which a Jedi could topple easily. Instead, he let the troops in their ITT's and LAVr QH-8 Chariots—more simply known as the Chariot LAV—do what they'd been trained to do, and hope they'd not grown complacent on 'boring' New Plympto.
"The Empire reaches far and wide, and is made up of countless individuals who all strive for the same overall goal: stability."
―Ars Dangor
Commander M.T. Carson | Flight Officer Vandon
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| Inquisitor | Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 6:17 AM | Message # 5 |
 Trainee
Group: Users
Messages: 3
Status: Offline
| "That one there, you see. . . you see--her!" A voice, small as a mouse, whispered to her older brother.
"You're lying." The boy, his skin tanned brown, replied. His head barely rising over the berm of the window he sneakily peered down from.
"She's so pretty, and nu uh! She had a blaster sword, I swear!"
"There's no such thing as a blaster sword, gah!" Twisting until his back was against the wall, the child looked around the room before proceeding to crawl hand and knee towards a pile of his belongings. "Get away from the window."
"No, you're not my boss!" The girl said indignantly, jumping slightly as further commotion and violence occurred down below. "And it was too a blaster sword, it had a blue blaster beam and a handle and--"
"Mom said I'm in charge, and it's dangerous!" They were no stranger to violence, life under the Imperial regime was oft filled with similar scenes. "Now move. . . " He scowled firmly, pulling her hair after had had ventured back.
"I'm telling!" She hissed after unleashing a small yelp.
"La la la, not listening." Her brother rifled back, in his hands a HoloCom. He'd just messaged their mother that something was happening outside. Now he was fully occupied utilizing the zoom and record features of the device, getting an eagle-eyed view of the carnage below, and the man and woman that seemed to be in the heart of it.
It wasn't until the buzz of the low-volumed HoloScreen in the middle of their living area began to broadcast the message of Lock Down, that he himself began to worry.
"This is not a drill. . . "
The voice continuously echoed before uttering a series of instructions to avoid prosecution--or execution.
"Lixxy, get in to the bathroom, come on!" He commanded, his heart beginning to thud loudly in his chest.
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 8:20 AM | Message # 6 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| Was she dead? She did not remember feeling a shot, or a blade, but it was the only explanation. She had to be dead, laying in a dark, damp street in Phemiss. Dead. It was the only way she could possibly be looking into his dark eyes right now. Cautiously, she raised her hand and traced her fingertips along his jawline, it was so familiar, and he was so...he was there. It was the first time, in so very long, that she felt at ease. She had died, and this was heaven...home, in the Force, right where she had longed to be for twenty agonizing years.
A shrill chirp, And a bark from the flame-colored Nosaurian, followed by the blare of sirens drew her quickly out of her reverie. No, she wasn't dead, but she would be soon unless they got to safety. A clawed hand held her dropped light saber hilt, offering it to her, and she took it gratefully as she turned from Karth, whom she thought she was still imagining. The touch of his hand was so real, and it was a feeling she couldn't describe.
The sirens continued to wail, further indicating the urgency of the situation. "Your boy." She said to the Nosaurian. "He is at my house. I told him to hide in the root cellar if anything happened." Daneira, turned her head to look at Karth. There wasn't time for this now. The Nosaurian seemed to agree, and he barked at her again, saying her name in a grumbled, rough, basic language.
"Nora, come, this way." He beckoned to a darkened alley that would twist their way out of the city. If they were quick enough, they might just make it out. If not, they would need to find a different route.
Her gaze snapped to Karth, and hesitantly she held out a hand to him. If he was real, they would have to run, and they would do it together.
Message edited by Daneira_Farris - Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 8:22 AM |
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 5:36 PM | Message # 7 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| He had experienced this dream before, and every time he had reached out for her, she had evaporated.
From a young age, Karth’s inherent skill as a telepath and his mastery of his senses had defied the limitations assumed of a child. He had walked these streets before, he realized in that moment when he reached out and brushed a thumb against her chin, feeling her skin beneath for the first time. For the smallest moment, in that elation that drowned out all sense and tuned out the urgency of the world around him, he was a young man again. Time slowed, she was on the tank again. He watched as her flesh melted away, seared off the bone by the heat wave of the blast. As it did every night, the cold and biting steel of Nyx's knife cut into his back, bringing him to his knees. He had fallen, buried beneath the bodies of the men he had once loved, dead in every way except for his mind. He had slowed his heart rate with the Force, enough to feign his death, enough to survive.
“You have to leave!” He heard one of the Nosaurians shout, another returning Daneira’s lightsaber to her. Several others scattered to the wind, ducking behind buildings and into alleyways, calling out for a free and prosperous New Plympto. Dani knew them, she had to, they were speaking to her like old friends.
Run, Karth. A voice echoed in his head.
How could she be here?
You need to run, the voice said again, the compulsion growing stronger as the klaxons began to ring mercilessly in his ears.
“How…” He breathed, the world around them having long since fallen away, only for the silence to be interrupted by the approach of armed men. Speechless, the Jedi turned his head and saw the platoon of stormtroopers and the faceless masks they wore, a grotesque forever carved into his mind. Twelve stormtroopers leveled their rifles up, calling for the Jedi to stay still. When they didn't, their commander gave the order for them to set for stun. The knife bit deeper into his back, the world around him a flash of light and memory, and he was struggling to claw himself free from the gale.
He took her hand and ran.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Friday, 07 Aug 2015, 5:37 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Saturday, 08 Aug 2015, 10:29 PM | Message # 8 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| The sirens wailed for what seemed like an eternity, crying out to the entire city that something had happened. Rumors would swirl, of course, but if the truth would be known was yet to be seen. Dani followed her Nosaurian friend, keeping a tight grip on Karth's hand as she ran. He could keep up, she knew that. And there would be time for 'how', later, when they were safe. When the Nosaurian stopped, he pointed to a metal grate in the stone paved street. He pulled it open and barked at the Jedi, indicating for them to follow before he dropped down into the hole, with a splash.
It was a storm sewer, a drain that pushed excess rain water from the city and into the confluence of the nearby river. Dani stared after him for a moment before she released Karth's hand reluctantly, as if he would vanish if she let go, and then dropped down into the hole in the street. This was oddly familiar, although the last time she trudged through tunnels under a city, they were trying to get into the city, not out.
"I would like to take a moment to point out, that this was in no way my idea this time." She said to Karth as she trudged through shallow water. It had not rained much recently in the area, so it wasn't too bad, until they reached the end of the open tunnel. It was nearly a twenty foot drop into the river below, but after that, it was only a short distance to her house. She knew, of course, that it would no longer be safe there, not that close to Phemiss, but she needed to at least get something from the house before they found a safe place to be.
The Nosaurian barked, chirped, and then jumped, indicating that they should follow.
Message edited by Daneira_Farris - Tuesday, 11 Aug 2015, 7:46 AM |
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| Inquisitor | Date: Tuesday, 11 Aug 2015, 1:53 PM | Message # 9 |
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Trainee
Group: Users
Messages: 3
Status: Offline
| They called him monster--barbarous in his methods, atrocious with his approach. He was a cruel shadow inside the Empire, a phantom, even when compared to the most clandestine and obscure figures. No point of origin from which he hailed, no definitive history for which to find common ground to relate with. He stood merely an adumbration, of a sort. The necessary evil, for a greater good.
"I am no expert, but the wounds are characteristic of those from a Lightsaber." Commander M.T. Carson informed, his head lowered, clearly nervous and shaken--a stance not readily seen from Military men of his calibre.
"These Orbital scans, are they recent?"
"Y-yes, taken less than an hour ago, as you Commanded." Carson replied to the blue glow of the hooded figure.
"And you have pictures of the alleged?"
Twisting quickly, the Commander inadvertently washed the floor with a stack of reports that had stood vigil on the edge of his desk. "Right here, just a moment." He said, holding his breath. Though this individual before him had no name, his reputation preceded him. "They should be coming through any second." Carson concluded, after plugging a memory stick in to the side of his Communicator, uploading the images that had been captured of Karth and Daneira prior to their escape.
"As of this moment, Commander Carson, all traffic to New Plympto is to be quarantined to the Orbital Inoculation Stations." The figure informed matter-of-factually, "Starports are hereby closed until further notice, off-world communication is likewise, to be terminated." He continued, "You will use your power to broadcast these images over the Emergency HoloFeed, information regarding these figures will be rewarded handsomely. And Commander, if any ship, other than my own, is seen in the sky--destroy it."
"It's already done, Inquisitor." Carson answered almost proudly, he was not completely inept, as soon as the first klaxon had rang; New Plympto was officially entering a state of lock down. That was a few hours previous, by now it was air tight, he would stake his reputation on it. "When will you be arriving?"
"Shortly."
Errors were made by the Jedi, and now the Inquisition was coming to correct them.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Tuesday, 11 Aug 2015, 3:16 PM | Message # 10 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| They had run for some time, the Force quickening their movement as they darted from alley to alley, tumbling through windows and out doors, managing to lose the Imperial pursuit after some time. Phemiss was a large city, and while it was an easier matter to lock down the capital and other major starports, trying to prevent an entire planet from takeoff without a naval blockade would be extremely difficult, if downright impossible. Still, Karth knew better than to assume their escape would be easy, his own ship was already compromised and they had no method of actually getting off-world. Dani's flashing her lightsaber would no doubt have drawn the attention of the Inquisitorius. And where there was a Jedi found, an Inquisitor would be crawling up your ion engine within the blink of an eye. That's why time was crucial.
She led him into some sewers, because of course they were sewers, and as his boots made contact with a substance he was entirely certain had been inside someone earlier in the day, Karth fought back a retch.
"Why do we always end up knee-deep in shit?" Karth asked aloud, voice echoing in the sewers. They weren't meant for men to travel in regularly, and Karth was a tall man, so he walked in hunched-over fashion as they were led along by the Nosaurians towards what he could only hope would be a safer refuge. A realization occurred to him, then, and he could only hope that Kima had sense enough to get away from the Starwander, but just to be safe...
"Kima," Karth spoke into his communicator, trying to keep his voice low. "I've been compromised, ditch the ship and try and hide yourself someplace. They won't be looking for an astromech. I'll send you RV coordinates soon, but keep comm traffic to a minimum until I know what's going on."
The droid beeped and whistled on the other end and then the line fell silent. He followed along behind his once-dead lover, trying to focus instead on securing themselves a place to rest before he even began to broach the subject of how she was alive. He had purposefully avoided this planet for twenty years, the memory of her too strong to bear, and he had only come back to retrieve something. It was supposed to be a blue milk run, and yet things never, ever went easy. He admonished himself for getting complacent, but such was the life of a man twenty years removed from being a Jedi Knight.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Tuesday, 11 Aug 2015, 3:20 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Tuesday, 11 Aug 2015, 6:46 PM | Message # 11 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| "Oh Karth....it is a storm sewer. We are not knee deep in anything except rain run off..." She said, just like on Belassa...sort of. The Nosaurian, Xac, as he was called, chirped at Daneira briefly as he stood at the edge of the storm sewer pipe. "He does not need to know that, Xac." Dani shot him a glance just before he jumped down into the river below. Yes, a storm sewer might have harbored some less than sanitary things, but their options were fairly limited at that point, and she would have chosen not getting caught over anything else.
Her gaze went back to Karth as she stood on the edge. Yes, she had looked down, and while she was not thrilled about the next step (or leap as the case was), it had to be done. Again, it was better than being caught. She took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. "My house is not far from here." Dani said cautiously. "I am not sure that...staying there is the best idea, but I need to get something and then I am sure we can find somewhere safe."
"We have a lot to talk about, I know, but we have to do this first." Daniera held her hand out to him again, giving him a chance to jump with her, if he wanted.
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| Inquisitor | Date: Friday, 14 Aug 2015, 9:04 AM | Message # 12 |
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Trainee
Group: Users
Messages: 3
Status: Offline
| The engines had been throttled back, and the ship drifted lazily towards the orb that was New Plympto. Thirty minutes until he reached Orbit by his estimation, just enough time to let them tire further. There were many faults, indeed, that the Inquisitor would rectify during his time here. But all could rest assured, the Jedi, they were first.
Unlike most Inquisitors, this one did not trouble himself with who was the favourite pupil of the Emperor or Vader, such an affection meant little to him. He did not venture baseless claims as to whom was the finest or most well-versed, such narcissistic musings were equally below him. This Inquisitor, he was merely a tool--unrelenting, and merciless. His objectives were clear: Hunt and Capture Jedi, Serve the Empire. How he fulfilled those Objectives, that was where his broad strokes came in.
"Run, run." His icy tone misted forth cruelly, eyes drinking in every detail of the orbital City Scans of Phemiss on his HoloTerminal Display. "Mark Quadrant H 10, B 19."
The display reddened at the precise coordinates he had uttered, it was the last place the Jedi had been seen. They wouldn't seek refuge in the city, high as the walls were, tight as the buildings sat, and as Pro-Imperial as the citizenship was, they would have been outed quickly. The shanty town by the Starport, perhaps, but equally unlikely. When there was trouble in Phemiss, it generally lead back there. A Jedi that had evaded capture for so long would have deduced that on a subconscious level, it would have never even registered.
"Phemiss Water Supply and Sewage Schematic, " The Inquisitor said, arms folded behind his back. "Snap to Origin Layer." On his command the schematic locked under the orbital image map. "Zoom Quadrant H 10, B 19." As he had suspected, a direct route out of the city shone before his eyes. It was their smartest, and logically, their only choice. It was rough ground around Phemiss, very few options for rapid travel. Let them have their moment, that's what he'd do. Let that adrenaline wear off, and those muscles begin to ache. The game had just started, no need to press any form of advantage quite yet. No need to re-direct any Patrols towards that water run off--they would likely be conquered or find nothing anyway.
He needed simply to surmise where they were going. Would they try to make the long trek to the Hajial Chase? He would study things further, as he drifted ever closer to the world.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Saturday, 15 Aug 2015, 11:06 AM | Message # 13 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| "Dammit, dammit," Karth uttered as they stumbled out of the river, his flightsuit soaked through. His countenance was grave, even at the sight of the one he had thought long dead. There would be little time for them to stop and reconnect, much less even argue, as they had precious little time as-is. Business-like in his approach, De'Qora cleared the river by a dozen meters before he dropped to a knee, reaching into the satchel to check on two items. The interior of the bag had become water-logged as well, but thankfully his lightsaber and the holocron were both made of sterner stuff. To err on the side of caution, he took the weapon and clipped it to his belt for easier access. Something, the Force, most likely, told him that he would need it very soon.
He rose to his feet after a moment, slinging the satchel around his back before he half-turned to Daneira, watching as she dried herself off. At a loss for anything nice to say, given that they were now on the run with no supplies, shelter or transporation, Karth could only stare in disbelief at the ghost that followed behind him.
"How?" He asked after a moment as he checked his blaster, also soaked through and thus unhelpful to him. This day was just getting worse and worse. When she came up beside him, Karth started onward, making for the only logical place to try and hide themselves: the expansive woodland of the Hajial Chase, some hundred kilometers off. Everywhere else was either a great expanse of plains or the sea. He knew their pursuer, and there could be no doubt that a pursuer was en route, would expect them to go there. But he had to play the hand he was dealt. Though, after a moment it registered to him that she had mentioned a house.
He turned back to the ghost again, folding his arms against his chest. "Where's this house?" He asked, expression grim. Whatever happiness there had been in his eyes upon seeing her in that street, now there was nothing, like he was staring at a wall. He kept his emotions masked, though there was a storm within.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Monday, 17 Aug 2015, 6:52 PM | Message # 14 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| Daneira wrung some of the water out of her dark locks, and then plaited them back quickly into a braid while he checked his saturated satchel. Her lightsaber was ruined, so she did not bother checking it. It had failed her enough that she would never try to use the weapon again. She stole glances of him now and then, still struggling with the belief that he was really and truly there. There had been several times in the storm drain, that she had started to say something to him, started to ask him how and why he was there. But she had been unable to, so she kept silent, save for her communication with Xac. While he kept her walled off, she was struggling so hard to keep her emotions in check.
If he had asked her, if he had said anything to her, he would have known immediately that she was elated to see him, despite the urgency of their current situation. There had not been one day, not even one in twenty years, that she had not thought about him, that she had not seen his face. Not one night passed with a restful sleep, because every dream turned into a nightmare and ended with his death, and her waking up unable to catch her breath. He had to know that. She wanted him to know that. And she was desperate to tell him that. He did not want to know, and he was not ready to know how much she still felt for him. When he asked her 'how', she did not answer
Xac clicked at her, drawing her out of her own thoughts. "Yes, Xac. Yes...thank you, but I am afraid it would put you in too much danger. I could not do that." Sure, they helped each other when needed, but she had screwed up (or her lightsaber had shorted at the most inopportune moment- She still felt that if it had not, blasters would not have been drawn and a crowd would not have gathered....but maybe not.), and she was not going to let anyone else be punished for her amateur mistake. "He was offering to hide us out in his village." She said to Karth, whether he paid attention or not.
"The house is not far. I have weapons, supplies, and a speeder. I am sure some of Dom's clothes will fit you. Whatever you need to get out of here." She finally said to Karth. "He squirreled a bunch of credits away too. There is probably enough to be smuggled off planet. Xac will help find someone to do it." Dani knew, of course, that there was more than enough credits, and the old man had made sure that his surrogate daughter, Nora, would be set for life after he died.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Wednesday, 19 Aug 2015, 9:47 PM | Message # 15 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| "Lead on, then," Karth answered with a vague gesticulation, still checking his supplies.
It was as good a shot as any to escape this planet, and so Karth had no choice but to acquiesce. With a resigned sigh, the former Jedi slid his soaked DL-18 back into its leather holster and shook the water from his flightsuit, gesturing for her to point him in the right direction. He made a conscious effort to avoid looking at her; whenever her gaze turned to his he would dart his eyes off to the horizon as they walked, keeping a distance between them.
"We don't have long," he commented dryly as they pushed through the knee-high brush that ran for meters and meters in every direction, the jungle far off in the distance. Nowhere for them to hide should search parties pass overhead; Karth had to hope that mustering patrols to search would take time, and even then the Imperials would hopefully search the city first before deducing the pair had escaped beyond the walls. Behind them the river was deafening, a steady churn of rapids that emptied out into a great ocean. "If we're lucky we have a few hours before they figure out we've gotten past the lockdown. My droid's still trapped-" He paused again, glancing down at his communicator which was now also waterlogged and useless.
The Nosaurians wouldn't be able to hide them long, and certainly not well, but the offer was appreciated. It was still so strange that she was friends with these natives; after all, the last time both Jedi had boots on this ground they were knee-deep in Nosaurian bodies. One of many regrets from a life he'd lost.
"Gonna have--nngh--an Inquisitor breathing down our necks, now," he muttered as a sharp pain shot up his calf; now that his adrenaline was starting to wane it was apparent he'd been injured in the chase. "Would've thought common sense dictated you don't ever flash a saber on an Imperial world, but I guess if Jedi had common sense we never would've had Clones shooting us all in the back."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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