STAR WARS GREAT JEDI WAR XVI
THE BROTHERHOOD HAS BEGUN ITS INVASION OF THE ETHEREAL REALM. FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION OF A MASSIVE GATEWAY NODE ON ARX, GRAND MASTER DARTH NEHALEM CALLED UPON THE SEVEN CLANS TO ASSIST IN THE ENDEAVOR.
AGAINST THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TALDRYAN SENATE GIVEN THE IMMEDIATE THREAT OF THE 19TH SABER IMPERIAL REMNANT AND THE TRADITIONALISTS, LADY SECOND CASSANDRA ORIANA TYRIS, THE SUPREME CHANCELLOR OF THE REPUBLIC, GAVE APPROVAL TO SEND ITS ARMED FORCES AND THE ALLEGIANCE BATTLE GROUP TO ANSWER THE GRAND MASTER’S CALL. THE REST OF THE FLEET WOULD REMAIN IN THE CAELUS SYSTEM AS ITS DEFENSE, THE ONLY METHOD OF GAINING THE SENATE’S APPROVAL IN DOING SO.
ONCE INSIDE THE ETHEREAL REALM, THE BULK OF THE TALDRYAN MILITARY WAS ASSIGNED TO THE FRONT LINES ALONG WITH A MAJORITY OF THE TALDRYANITES. A SPLINTER FORCE WAS DISPATCHED TO JOURNEY ACROSS THE SHATTERED PLAINS IN PURSUIT OF SAFE PASSAGE THROUGH THE CORPSE FIELDS TO REACH THE FORTRESS OF THE UNCHAINED, THE BASTION OF POWER OF THE CHILDREN OF MORTIS.
THE REALM WOULD PROVE TREACHEROUS HOWEVER, WITH RANDOM APPEARANCES OF APPARITIONS THAT WOULD COME TO BE NAMED SPIRIT AVATARS DUE TO THEIR MENTAL INFLUENCES ON INDIVIDUALS WITH THEIR WORDS, THE RANDOM EFFECTS ON GRAVITY, AND EVEN ENHANCEMENTS OR NULLIFICATIONS OF THE FORCE ITSELF.
SHORTLY AFTER RECEIVING CONFIRMATION FROM THE SPLINTER FORCE THAT A VIABLE PATH HAD BEEN FOUND AND A FORWARD COMMAND POST ESTABLISHED, CONTACT WITH THEM HAD BEEN LOST.
HAVING THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE PATH THAT WAS TAKEN, THE DECISION WAS MADE TO PULL TALDRYAN’S FORCES FROM THE FRONT LINES AND INSTEAD FOLLOW THE PATH FOUND BY THE TEAM WITH CASSANDRA, SHANREE ARGENTIN, CELEVON WERD’A, AND A SMALL GROUP OF THE SUMMIT GUARD WERE TRAVELING AHEAD OF THEM AS ITS VANGUARD FORCE.
THE JOURNEY TO THE FORWARD COMMAND POST BEGINS
It was hard to tell just how much time had passed since the journey across the first expanse of the shattered plains had begun. With no sun or moon overhead, the only light was the perpetual glowing haze which covered everything around them, everything seemed to stand still. The glow of Eos City was lost far behind them, no longer visible on the horizon.
Two members of the summit guard stood at the lead of the group, four more in the rear with backpacks and supplies, while Cassandra, Shanree, and Celevon were between them. Cassandra’s BD-unit droid trotted alongside the trio while occasionally being distracted by the flora of the plains, which had a soft glow on the edges of its leaves, and sometimes collected smaller ones and stored them away.
She herself carried one of the supply packs on her back, while dressed in her typical Chancellor’s robes which were in a Taldryan-themed color scheme of purple and blue while supported by a strong level of grey and outlines of gold. Her hair, pulled tightly into a ponytail, filled the role of the third color of Taldryan, red.
“BD-6, focus please.” Cassandra softly whispered downard to the droid as it eagerly collected yet another plant, this one with a blue glow. She was convinced the droid was intent on collecting a plant of each color, with red, green, purple, and orange already collected prior to this one.
According to the information from the splinter team, it would not be much further until the first of many obstacles would be faced by them. A large chasm that they were able to leap over due to a weakened level of gravity which they had presumed was caused by an ‘upside down’ island that floated directly above it. Caution was warned, however, as one member of the team apparently had jumped too high and was pulled toward the island and presumably died on impact from the ascent into its ground.
“Sooner or later, BD is going to run out of storage space for cuttings,” Celevon muttered, more than a little amused as the little droid seemed akin to a child in a candy store. Or, at the very least, an overly curious pet.
“Could we perhaps focus before we reach a point where I’m no longer capable of seeing?” Shanree hissed at the other two who seemed more than a little distracted by the droid’s actions.
“You wouldn’t be missing much,” one of the summit guards grumbled, stepping around another of the odd-colored plants. “How do plants even grow in what looks like barren salt flats?”
“Based on what we’ve seen thus far, I wouldn’t attempt to apply logic to this realm,” Celevon replied, gesturing toward the distant floating islands. “I still think we should’ve fired a multitude of nukes into the portal, then closed it behind us.”
Whilst the minor argument continued, the group made their way toward the first chasm that had been reported by the advance team. Based on the aforementioned reports, the terrain would make less and less logical sense as they moved forward and reached the corpse fields. Pyres that seemed to flicker in a non-existent wind. Megalithic crystalline structures in the shape of humanoid skulls that spawned creatures…
Needless to say, there had been many questioning what the advanced team had been smoking or ingesting. Or, they had been before entering the realm and one of the vessels crashed due to a severe gravitational shift and another simply fell to the surface due to a yet-unknown malfunction.
Shanree, a Miraluka, saw through the Force. He had no eyes with which to see but that was not thought to have been a problem before they stepped into this confounded place. Early reports had suggested that at certain times and places the Force seemed stronger, accessible even to those not normally gifted with its touch. Indeed, Shanree had entered the Ethereal Realm through the portal and had been immediately gobsmacked by how overwhelming it all was. He saw through the Force and with both his ability to touch it enhanced, and the presence of it so much stronger, it was like what the sighted complained of when it was too sunny. It was more than that though, it was like the colors were too intense and the shapes of things were too sharp. Everything was just too much, until seemingly it wasn’t.
“How’re you feeling there, Colonel?” Celevon ambled up beside the older man.
Shanree shook his head, “It’s like someone dimmed the lights after I complained about it being too bright.”
The alchemist nodded, “Yeah, the Force is more distant here. It comes and goes as we proceed.”
The Supreme Chancellor interrupted them impatiently, “Are you mission capable or not? You aren’t capable of protecting me if you can’t see anything.”
Shanree squared his shoulders out of long habit to military customs and courtesies, “I’m good to go, Ma’am. It’s dim but not dark, and chances are good we’ll wander back into one of those strong patches.”
She studied the Colonel for a moment, “Alright, but you will tell me the moment it’s too dark to see. Tracking?”
“Tracking, Ma’am”, Shanree answered.
“Are we ready to go then? I’m not looking forward to this leap and I’d rather get it behind us”, the Supreme Chancellor checked a few of the connections of her gear and armor to ensure it was still properly fastened.
The recon team moved to the chasm’s edge and studied the problem. As described there was a considerable gash in the terrain where the ground had violently split and torn apart, with a not-insignificant chunk of rock having floated into the air. The first team through here had described it as an island and with his diminished Force sight Shanree couldn’t say that he disagreed with their description.
“It’s a twenty meter leap, Chancellor”, one of the Guardsmen read out from his weapon’s laser designator.
Celevon tossed a stone, with some good heft, out across the chasm. He’d given it a good arc and he now observed how it sailed. As if influenced by an invisible hand, it altered course and began to fly towards the island in the air above them, “That’s the gravitational effect the advance team reported.”
“The Colonel’s a Jedi, he can make this jump no problem”, another Guardsman said, “What are we supposed to do here?”
Shanree grinned at the man, “Most of the advance team made it, and not a single Force User among them. I have every faith in you, Son. You and Me first?”
The Miraluka could see the conflict of emotions in the young man’s head. He was not a coward, he was just fighting his every instinct that told him this leap was physically impossible, but Shanree had long years of experience leading soldiers and he liked to do so by demonstration– but he wasn’t against a little hard ball either. The Guardsman made up his mind quickly and stowed his weapon across his back.
“How does this work?” the man asked Shanree as he joined the Colonel so they could jump side by side.
“The gravity out there pulls up, so we’re going to take a running leap– but not too high, you hear me?” Shanree patted the guy’s shoulder.
Together they backed up about twenty meters, turned, and began sprinting towards the ledge with the cheers of the onlookers to boost them. Shanree knew full well he could clear this jump with the aid of the Force but he restricted his use, diminished even as it was, so that he could demonstrate to everyone watching that it was doable. Jedi or not. They sailed through the air as their feet left terra firma, flying a more flat than ballistic trajectory. It was an odd sensation as they felt the vague lift of the distant gravitational pull of the island above them, and that pull sustained their airtime so that their momentum carried them clear across the chasm and with a meter or so to spare. The Guardsman whooped with exhilaration as his companions cheered from back across the way. Shanree gave the young man an enthusiastic back slap and gestured for everyone to follow across as they set up a security overwatch.
Cassandra watched as the group jumped one after another with varying height. Finally, it was down to her and one other summit guard member. She twisted the ball of her left boot on the ground before she went at a sprinting run and made her jump. In the midst of it, she felt the shift of gravity try to grip onto her, but she descended back downward just after crossing the massive chasm safely.
The last member of the guard began her own run at it and leapt across. Unlike the others however, she called for help as she began to slowly move upward toward the island. Cassandra reached her hands upward and attempted to telekinetically pull the guard member back down. While their ascent stopped, it was almost as if gravity were three to four times normal and she descended downward extremely fast toward them.
Shanree was able to quickly discern what was going on as he could suddenly see everything around him so vividly as if he had actual vision, a sign that the Force had suddenly amplified itself. He brought his own arms up in an effort to slow her down and counter Cassandra’s initial telekinetic pull, which she herself tried to do the same.
The guard landed on the edge of the chasm and clawed her way up from the edge with the assistance of Cassandra and Shanree. She made her way to her feet before she dusted off her white garb and gave an affirming nod to them both. “Thank you, Lady Second and Sir Argentin.”
“At least the Force levels increased,” Shanree started with a slight chuckle to his voice, “If they had decreased…”
Cassandra nodded before she turned her attention back to the path ahead and continued forward. “Celevon, send a communication to the legion, inform them to move up a tenth of a mile from the indicated path and make their crossing there. Still have the benefit of the island’s gravity effect, but more room for making it across without being grabbed. Have the Force sensitive Taldryanites assist those who aren’t in the crossing. Two more large chasms and the glowing lake before we reach the corpse fields.”
It took a moment for the Alchemist to gather the relevant data, compress and relay it to the Commanders in a way that wouldn’t overwhelm them. It took another few to sort out the series of images that were sent in response. “The legion is reporting a number of Non-Force users having spontaneous powers… and several injuries from off-hand frustrated gestures. One of them had to be medevaced for exhausting himself and simultaneously electrocuting his own leg with Force Lightning.”
Celevon winced and rubbed his temples. “One of them seems to have discovered latent telepathic abilities and is shouting their thoughts at everyone.”
The summit guards with the trio of Force users exchanged looks and shrugged. “We’ve not noticed any differences thus far.”
The Chancellor sighed. “Very well. Just… take care when gesturing toward friendlies from this point onward. Better safe than sorry.”
“Understood.”
“That’s why I’m trying to avoid using any sorcery whilst in this realm. The energy patterns are too chaotic to guess what the results would be,” Celevon explained as he glanced around, palm clenched around the hilt of his lightsaber. “Well… that and the fact that it reacted rather explosively with the crystalline samples from their invasion.”
“How explosive are we talking?” Shanree questioned as his mind lingered on the massive skulls that spawned creatures spread throughout the Corpse Fields.
“… It made the destabilized Kyber look tame in comparison. The energy remained within the crystal, further amplifying within each facet until it exploded with the force of a thermal detonator. I decided not to experiment further, as that particular piece had been an inch in length, roughly half that in width.”
The rest of the team collectively winced.
Their little recon party continued forward and passed several more chasms, though thankfully much shorter in width than the first. They cleared them without incident and continued to the edge of a body of water they came across. It glowed with a faint blue-white light that to Shanree appeared like the wisps of flame, less like rays of light, so that the whole of the surface seemed to him to be aflame. Far to their rear the Clan’s forces were advancing, slowed up by the same terrain and geography that had hampered them– though they had the advantage of numbers of equipment. For the Supreme Chancellor and her little party though all they had was surprise and speed, so they kept moving forward.
“This body of water exists on our Eos, I think it’s a reservoir or something,”, Cassandra was studying a holomap, “so if it’s truly a mirror there ought to be a narrow ford to the south where the water outlets.”
If that was the nearest location for the Taldryan forces to cross then they needed to verify that this would be the way the Army would need to come. They followed the shore of the reservoir south, keeping to the scrag and brush a few meters from the waterline to avoid being seen. The recon party stopped about half a kilometer from the ford and observed, to their dismay, the first signs of the Children of Mortis. This was their realm and they’d been here for years, so it was only natural to expect them to have fortified approaches to their Eos City just as the Grand Master had done with his. Here the ford, a shallow crossing with gentle sloping banks on both sides, allowed for troops and vehicles to cross without hindrance or log-jamming. The Children, in anticipation, had installed durasteel barriers that could be raised or lowered in the middle of the river, with duracrete bunkers on both sides of the crossing.
“We don’t have to hit it ourselves, Lady”, Shanree said as he handed her the trinoculars one of her Guardsmen had passed to him for her, “just call it in and leave it for the main force. They’ve got the artillery to knock those bunkers out–”
“Thank you, Colonel Argentin”, she said, taking the trinocs and the conversational momentum from him, “I agree with your assessment, but the problem remains how we, ourselves, get across.”
Celevon, ever observant, saw their course of action as though it had a neon holo-sign floating above it that said, “Here! Take this hovercart and run it into those Tibanna Gas holding tanks!”
Shanree was amused when the man was surprised to find himself voluntold, at Shanree’s invitation, to sneak around and hijack that cart. The Colonel laid out the plan of action to the party; He and Celevon would approach the ford from the road that came to it, meanwhile the Chancellor and her Guards would move into positions of overwatch on a hill overlooking the ford just north of the crossing. When the fireworks went up, they’d race down and use the confusion to force a crossing while the two Force Users drew any additional attention to themselves.
Together they set off at a trot and circled around to the south and back up until they met the road. They knew the cart sat disused, along the roadside, beside some construction equipment and material that was presently unused. They’d find it on their right as they rounded a last corner and came into sight of the bunkers on this side of the river. Someone announced that there were four armed soldiers walking in front of the bunkers, two visible in both bunkers on this side of the river, and one more in a watch tower with a heavy blaster. Chances were very good there were more than that but with speed and violence they could neutralize that advantage and replace it with their own.
“You think this will work?” Cel crouched next to Shanree where the older man had stopped to make one last observation of the scene before they made their move.
The Colonel shrugged, “You never know until you try, and you never try to fail. Are you ready?”
“As much as I’ll ever be, let’s go”, together they stood and sprinted with preternatural speed, their legs fueled by the power of the Force, toward the hover-cart a few hundred feet ahead of them.
They were just about to the cart when the first of the Children of Mortis shouted, alerting the others. Shanree and Celevon ignored the shouts and then the initial screeches of blastor fire that sped their way as they reach the cart. Cel jumped without hesitation into the lone seat and started flipping switches and hitting buttons with oblivious confidence until the thing hummed to life. Shanree stood before the cart, a lightsaber gripped in each hand, and blocked incoming fire like a droid programmed for the activity. From the hill ranged fire opened on the Children from Cassandra and her Guardsmen. Caught under the sudden and unexpected fire from their flank they shifted their own blasters to the hill to their north and away from Celevon and Shanree.
“I’m ready!” Celevon shouted to Shanree.
Shanree moved out of the cart’s way, “Go! I’ll follow you!”
Celevon rammed the hover-cart’s throttles to the stops. It hummed and vibrated loudly and began picking up speed, away from the construction piles, towards the girders supporting the Tibanna gas tanks clearly marked Dangerous. A bolt of blastor fire pinged into the cart’s front, and deciding he’d aimed it well enough Celevon bailed from the vehicle and hit the ground with a roll. Shanree was beside him in a moment, helping him to his feet as he dragged him behind a rock. They leapt at the last second, hitting the ground with dull thuds as the hover-cart impacted the girders and tanks with a tremendous crash. A moment later there was an explosion that shook the entire world, filling it with a roar that filled their ears painfully. Dirt and rock pattered to the ground around them, splashing into the river, but mostly all the two of them heard was an indistinct ringing. This wasn’t the first time Shanree had had his bell rung on the battlefield and he was on his feet before Celevon.
“Come on!” he shouted to the alchemist as he pulled him to his feet again, “We have to move!”
“Captain, inform the Legion to advance on this position, pattern victor.” Cassandra ordered as she stayed under cover, the Children of Mortis’ forces already returning fire. One of the summit guard gave an acknowledging nod before they turned away and activated their communications unit.
The other guardsmen returned fire and provided an opportunity for Shanree and Celevon to advance further beyond the rock and gain more ground. Celevon managed to get a glance back at the hill, mildly surprised to see her staying back. Had Appius still been the Chancellor, he would have been right there in the thick of it with the both of them. But with Cassandra, he couldan not even recall a single time he has even seen her in combat. Then again, she was a Jedi, and with her focus being diplomacy and less shocking theatrics, maybe she was just someone who needed protecting.
This distraction proved problematic for him, however, as Shanree’s lightsaber passed inches by his head followed by a diagonal flash of red light as it went into the ground in front of him.
“Cel, focus!” the Miraluka bellowed before he sent several bolts back to their origination points. Out of the corner of his field of view he saw numerous beings advance from the far side, and then the other. The Legion was making its move and just in time as they needed to continue toward the corpse fields. Shanree knew there was no way this skirmish had not been reported in, and the odds of reinforcements were significantly high which would delay them further or even prevent them from moving forward. Almost as if she had read their minds, Cassandra and the summit guard had already advanced down the side of the hill toward the river and prepared to cross through its water to the other side, herself and another guard using their lightsabers to deflect blaster bolts from the others.
After he cursed his lack of concentration due to the continued ringing in his ears, the half-Shaevalian redoubled his efforts to focus on the situation at hand. The fact that she had survived this long should speak for the Chancellor’s ability to handle herself in a fight. Viridian light flared to life as Celevon activated the rear blade of his conversion-hilt lightsaber, blaster bolts redirected back toward their source.
“Keep pushing forward!” Shanree ordered, his own emerald blades a whirlwind of activity.
The Alchemist reached out with the Force to redirect the still-burning tibanna into a torrent of flame at their nearest opponents.
To the side of Celevon, the Colonel restrained a wince as the bright spread of Force energy seared across his vision.
Following the rush of flames were shouts, then the unexpected shockwave of an explosion ripped through, silencing those voices.
“What did you do?!” The Miraluka shouted at his companion.
“That wasn’t me,” Celevon retorted instinctively as he braced for another onslaught of blaster fire. “Maybe someone dropped a grenade? Whilst I can manipulate elements to some degree, I cannot generate random explosions—”
“Less talking, more blocking,” Shanree grunted, though it was less an interruption than was intended as the half-Shaevalian was doing just that.
Cassandra, the summit guard and the legion of reinforcements were almost upon the position of the pair of Force users. The volley of blaster bolts zipping by in either direction intensified, brightening the area as the smoke generated by diminishing flames made it more difficult to see.
“Nice of you to join us, Ma’am”, Shanree said, barely glancing over his shoulder as he worked blocking incoming blaster bolts.
She and her guardsmen trotted up, laying picked suppressing shots down range as they moved, “The Clan is on its way here, we need to keep moving. We’re falling behind on the OpTempo demanded by the Master at Arms.”
Irritated, the Miraluka moved behind cover to remove himself from the line of fire for a moment so he could face Cassandra, “We haven’t exactly been lolly-gagging. Would you like me to ask these jerks nicely if they’ll let us pass?”
“Frankly, Colonel I don’t care what you do so long as we keep moving forward. We have an appointment to keep”, The Chancellor’s voice was more calm than the fiery situation around them warranted, but it suited her.
“Right. You two”, Shanree pointed at two of the Guardsmen, “Take up a fire position in that bunker’s remains, watch the left.”
Cassandra didn’t have to see the Guardsmen looking to her for orders, she merely jerked her head and indicated they were to go. Shanree continued with the other two Guardsmen, “You and you, take the other bunker and cover us. On my signal, you give them everything.”
Celevon peaked around the corner of his cover and then pulled his head back as a red bolt of light nearly took it off, “Cover us?”
“The Chancellor, You, and Me are going to force the crossing”, Shanree grinned at the two other Force Users who were definitely not as at-home on a battlefield as the old soldier.
They waited a few moments as the Guardsmen moved to their new positions, staying low and ducking fire. When they were in position they radioed their readiness. Shanree’s face looked at Celevon and Cassandra, and receiving no verbal complaints, he nodded, “Ready 1, Ready 2. Okay, light ‘em up!”
Four blasters, two to each of the bombed-out bunkers on this side of the crossing, opened fire and suppressed the remaining Children of Mortis on the other side. Cassandra and Shanree broke cover at the same time, followed by Celevon a moment later. They raced towards the water of the river with the single minded purpose of getting across to the next line of cover. Children of Mortis continued to take cover, but some seeing the trio crossing, attempted to throw blaster fire their way. Understanding their secondary mission the Guardsmen picked off those enemies across the river that poked their heads out to take shots at Shanree, Celevon, and Cassandra. Celevon’s green saber blocked several bolts, deflecting them into the water with a hiss, while Cassandra took purposefully aimed shots at those shooting back at them. They moved quickly and got some cover on the opposite bank.
Shanree radioed the Guardsmen, “Keep it up, we’re going to go to work now.”
The Colonel quickly intimated to his companions that he was going to take the bunker above and ahead of them on the right, and that they should work together to take the left. He deactivated one of his two lightsabers and stowed it in a loop over his shoulder, but he kept the other in his right hand. Shanree gave the Chancellor a quick salute by swinging it up vertically in front of his face and then sped off. His movement drew blaster fire as soon as he broke cover. He heard the retort of Cassandra’s weapon behind him and the symphony of the four Guardsmen’s suppressing fire from back across the river. Shanree was fueled by the Force now, and his feet carried him at a sprint the gunners just didn’t anticipate leaving their bolts burying themselves in the ground behind him.
Shanree took a running leap at a rock ahead of him. He landed with a single foot atop the rock and used that to further propel himself into the air at the rightmost bunker which rapidly approached. The bunker was a squat duracrete structure with a horizontal slit running across its face so that the occupants, armed with blaster weapons inside, could fire out while remaining in solid cover. It was open at the back, and had a small parapet atop it where a Child of Mortis stood firing wildly in fear at the Grey Jedi flying towards him. The Duros’s eyes were wide as Shanree descended upon him, his saber whirling before him creating a wall the blaster just couldn’t penetrate. Shanree’s momentum carried him to the left and past the alien; He landed gently with his emerald saber held out to his right. Behind him the Duro’s made fishlike gasping noises for a moment until his upper half slid off the lower.
Below, in the Bunker, Shanree heard voices raised in alarm. There were three people, he could sense, in there. He drew a deep breath and focused deeply. The Force was clear here so it was easy to fold himself into its embrace. He extended his awareness and felt the three Children below him, preparing for him to drop down. His stance widened slightly and he bent at the knees. Drawing long, slow, deliberate breaths Shanree lowered his hands, one still grasping his lightsaber, and slowly flexed his fingers in the air. All at once his fingers grasped at something unseen, and with tremendous force he used his entire body to pull it up. Three surprised voices were quickly cut short by the dull thuds of their bodies flying into the bunker’s duracrete ceiling headfirst. Shanree’s fingers released their grip on the unseen thing and three bodies fell to the bunker’s duracrete floor with three more dull thuds, and at least two groans of pain.
He dropped into the Bunker through its open rear and strode into the cramped space. Five or six people could have fought in here, but they’d be shoulder to shoulder as they fired out of the horizontal port. Right now however it was only him and the three Children, and one wasn’t moving. The other two groaned and when one noticed Shanree they made a move for a sidearm. Shanree reacted by kicking the man’s chin hard enough he heard something crack in the man’s neck.
The other rolled over and began scrambling away from the Miraluka, “You Freak! Frack you!”
The hairs on Shanree’s arms stood up all at once, and if he’d had eyes they’d have gone as wide as saucers. He didn’t think, and didn’t need years of Jedi or Echani training to do so. His years of soldiering acted before anything else and he dove out of the bunker. He hit the ground and scrambled forward as a deafening boom shattered the bunker’s interior behind him. He felt the heat as a blast of flame from the thermal detonator flew past him, covered as he was by the bunker’s exterior wall. The Colonel let out a deep breath, not at all pleased at the nauseous feeling filling his head and belly again; He wasn’t sure how many more times he could get blown up today. Nevertheless he pulled himself to his feet and tried to take stock.
There was no more blaster fire and as the ringing in his ears began to clear he could hear the Chancellor on the coms, “Colonel Argentin? Colonel, are you there?”
He waited until the world wasn’t spinning so much before answering, “Yes, we’re all good here. Everything is fine– how are you?”
Celevon’s voice was filled with moderate concern, “Uhh, are you sure about that?”
Shanree moved over to a workbench placed behind the bunker with unsteady feet and put his weight upon it uneasily. “Maybe not.”
His world went black and he crumpled to the ground, the workbench doing nothing to help.
It was not long before Cassandra and the summit guard were upon the pair, and the battle mostly resolved. It had proven fortunate that there was only a small force stationed here and were not anticipating a force as large as what had descended upon them.
While the legion remained behind to take a brief respite, the trio and the guard continued forward with one of the guard carrying Shanree on their back. The force was completely absent, and had been for a while now, which rendered the Miraluka completely blind.
After roughly an hour and a half they began to see the first skulls lay upon the ground, just a couple here and there, until they were treading upon nothing but a sea of skulls upon the ground, the once vibrant and glowing flora replaced by dead trees and a complete absence of plant life. The only source of light they now had was a light green glow from roots that hung from archways and small yellow crystals that laid upon the ground.
“So this is it, huh?” Celevon asked as he stared at one of the skulls, its positioning making it seem like it was staring back at him in turn, “The reports really weren’t wrong.”
Cassandra was holding one and looking at it carefully, deep in her own thoughts. It was difficult to truly assess without a connection to the force, and she was thankful that Shanree was unable to see the horror that laid before them. Almost as if hundreds of thousands had died here in a giant massacre, if not even more than that. It was a scary prospect trying to even begin to comprehend the number of deceased that lay upon these fields.
“It seems so.” she finally said before she sat the skull down and took a deep breath. They were now in the most dangerous part of their journey.
As they all began to progress forward with care to avoid stepping on skulls that littered the ground and the hills around them, the lush fields of the shattered plains disappeared behind them. It was then that Celevon noticed a strange odor in the air and he glanced around, quickly having noticed a body that was mostly decayed but not quite entirely yet.
After they slid down a steep hill, a thick misty fog had begun to approach them from the direction they needed to go according to the forward team’s information. Something felt off to Cassandra who begun to step backwards away from it.
“Something is coming.” Shanree said as he climbed down from the guard’s back and onto his own feet.
“What?” Celevon asked, mildly confused as he too moved backwards along with Cassandra.
“I’m able to see again now, ever slightly. Inside that fog… we have to avoid it.” he continued before turning and running at full speed with a yell at the group. “Run!”
The guards, Cassandra, Celevon, and Shanree were running the opposite direction of the fog which had begun to move at a quicker pace towards them. It was at that moment Cassandra was reconnected to the Force, and sensed at least seven individuals within the fog that were pursuing them.
With the group having their Force connection restored, Cassandra came to a halt and turned on her heel, lightsaber quickly in hand. “Shanree, Celevon, opinion. There’s two paths up ahead, or we can face these head-on. Seven on seven seems feasible, but we know little about this fog. What do you suggest?”
“There’s nothing natural about that fog,” Shanree stated with a shake of his head, as though he had attempted to dislodge something. “It’s distorting any attempt to sense the enemies within…”
“Likewise, all of my senses are screaming at me to avoid it,” the Alchemist concurred as he resisted the urge to ignite one of his blades. “I recommend one of the other paths to avoid these enemies.”
“Whatever we do, we should do it fast. They’re almost upon us,” one of the guards muttered.
Cassandra frowned, as the guard was correct. “Evasion it is. Celevon, do you have a way to keep them occupied while we move around?”
The Shaevalian-Umbaran nodded as he glanced around. “Possession is out, since it would slow us down for one of the guards to carry me… Give me a few moments.” Celevon took a deep breath and focused, hands moving as he gathered the energy necessary to weave an illusion of their group right in front of them. They would be far from perfect, but not something easily noticed unless you knew what to look for. The four guards were the easiest amongst the illusory clones, due to the identical white armor and robes; Cassandra’s effigy bore the wrong skin color and was slightly shorter than her true stature. The mimicry of his own armored appearance was from an earlier iteration of his beskar’gam, though it bore the helm that Celevon had left behind for this mission. Finally, Shanree’s was created a heartbeat later, though the hair color was off and the vestigial eye sockets were more blurred. His eyes opened as the energy was released, the false group setting off toward the enemies within the fog, their weapons drawn. “I don’t know how long the illusion will keep them occupied,” he warned.
“Good enough. Let’s move,” the Chancellor ordered.
The seven of them set off, maneuvering around the miasma toward the paths Cassandra had indicated earlier. Once they reached the point where the paths veered off, thankfully out of sight of the other group, the decision was quickly made to set off in the direction that would lead them toward the still-out-of-contact advance team. Whilst both were full of dangers and unknowns, the other path would have brought them farther out from the team and would require them to circle around.
It was becoming harder to avoid stepping on or tripping over the mass of skulls and other bone matter. The stench of decay also grew as they ventured further afield.
Abruptly, the guard that had taken point gestured for their group to halt.
There was no need to ask why, as all of them could see the scattered beacons of cerulean flames within the dim area. Though some were akin to small bonfires, flickering with the non-existent wind, several were large enough to be considered akin to funeral pyres. In the distance, they could just make out the reflections of the flames in a massive crystalline structure.
“I count ten of them, Ma’am”, the lead Guardsman reported over the coms.
The man had called them to a halt where it would have been safe to do so against any natural enemy, but these figures were already well aware of them though the Taldryan advance party couldn’t be seen from where they were.
The pyres glowed brightly in the Force casting the entire scene in vivid colors and hyper-realistic lines for Shanree, like an over-sharpened image on a monitor, in contrast to his functional blindness over the last several hours. His head had stopped ringing a while back thankfully and the nausea had settled with some stims Cassandra had administered to him. That was well because it looked like they were in for another fight; figures standing in the glowing light of his Force Sight turned with casual disinterest to observe the new arrivals. Some reached for weapons laying propped against crates and terrain while others who already had weapons in hand or slung across a shoulder merely brought them to the ready.
“You two are feeling this, right?” Shanree asked the two other Force Users, who were beside him.
The Chancellor nodded, “It would be hard not to notice it. You’re able to… see? Here, I mean?”
Shanree let her know he was good with a returned nod.
Celevon studied the Colonel unsure, having been the first to come upon him after the last explosion, “I sense some sort of… I don’t know… Link? Yeah, link sounds right– between those fires and those whoevers.”
Force Sight worked differently than visual sight, and it often worked to Shanree’s advantage that he was capable of perceiving things in different ways than those who were visually dependent. Curious, he shifted his attention back to the figures who were now calling out vicious and teasing insults to the unseen enemy just beyond their fire’s light. There was something strange about the pyre’s light, beyond its exceptional brightness within the Force and the vividness it cast everything in Force Sight, about how it seemed to gather in greater density the closer it got to the figures standing beside the fire. It was as if they were taking in the power of the fire light.
“Yeah, I think I see tha–” Shanree’s words were cut off as Celevon stood suddenly at the sound of a shout from one of the figures in the Pyres’ light.
“Jadex.” The ice in the man’s voice took both Cassandra and Shanree by surprise.
They then heard what Celevon had picked up the first time: a shout from a figure that strode towards them out of the light, “Celevon! CELEVON!”
“Who the frack is that?” The Chancellor aimed down her sights at the shouting man.
“A man I called brother.” Celevon left their cover and began striding towards the man, “A man I’ve had to kill two times to many, already.”
Shanree leapt after him, “You won’t do it alone, then.”
Cassandra sighed with exasperation, and looked at her lead Guardsman, “Spread out and cover us. Don’t get close to the action, whatever you do.”
The Guardsman answered affirmatively and set about carrying out his orders and shortly thereafter the four Guardsmen were gone. She shouldered her weapon and palmed two lightsaber hilts holstered at her hip and followed the two men.
Jadex stopped at the edge of the Pyres’ light, at a terminus where their glow ended unnaturally– fading from light to dark in a space of a meter or so rather than taking its time across the whole of the space the pyre’s occupied, “You don’t need your friends, Celevon. Let us settle this as we always do.”
The Illusionist studied the cyborg standing before them, “I don’t need them to settle this, but I shouldn’t have to settle this again. Why do you continue to haunt me?”
The Cyborg’s voice was devoid of emotion as it spoke, “I remain unsettled.”
With lightning speed the figure attacked, which began the general fracas. The other figures, who resolved themselves at this closer distance, to be Flamesparkers armored in the Children’s most crystalline armor. They moved with sudden speed as well towards the three Taldryanites at the edge of the Pyres’ light bearing a variety of melee weapons. Celevon met Jadex’s joined twin sabers with his amethyst and emerald sabers, and they crashed with an electric sizzle. Shanree had both of his lightsabers in hand as well; he moved with liquid grace towards a Flamesparker, crossing into the light of the pyres. Shanree felt the light as heat upon his skin, as though he were already standing near to one of the burning fires.
Cassandra was caught by surprise by the transition from dark to light, and the sudden appearance of the heat. Her Flamesparker leapt high into the air, raising a two handed vibroaxe over his head in both hands, and crashed into her hastily erected defense. Her moment’s hesitation had cost the Chancellor vital momentum so the enemy’s attack still staggered her. She carried the momentum of falling backwards into a roll over her shoulder, carefully avoiding catching herself on her own sabers. She rolled onto the balls of her feet, and remaining low, launched into a leaping counter-assault that caught the Flamesparker entirely by surprise. She speared him with an orange lightsaber beam through the chest while his vibroaxe, held way out to his side in a wind-up for an attack, fell from his hand. There was no time to survey the situation as the next attacker fell upon her with their back up close in tow.
The first charged her with a vibroglave, and behind them another Flamesparker with some sort of chained weapon chased close after. The vibroglave cleaved the air, aiming to take her top half from her bottom, but it missed as she sent herself flying into a sideways cartwheel over it. She landed, spinning to carry her momentum again, and dove under the chained weapon that flew at her from the second. She slashed upwards as she spun at the second Flamesparker with her blue lightsaber but, perplexingly, found the Flamesparker blocked it with the chain of his weapon. More so, when he quickly ensnared the chain around the saber’s beam he managed to tear the entire weapon from her hand with a violent pull. The chain was attached to a wickedly sharp hook-shaped blade that the Flamesparker used with quick slashing motions at her face.
Shanree brought the saber in his right hand down and through a gap in his opponent’s guard, between the upper and lower arm vambraces of crystalline-enhanced armor, and severed the Lightbringer’s flesh from his body. The man’s sudden scream of pain was cut short by Shanree’s other lightsaber. He looked up in time to see the Supreme Chancellor block an attack, but also that she was unprepared for its follow up. He reached out with a palm, extending the Force to grab the chain, and pulled. A loop of the chain, that the Flamesparker fighting Cassandra had tossed into the air above her as she parried a slash of his bladed end, would have fallen over her head around her neck, but instead lurched through the air unnaturally towards the Colonel. The sudden change unbalanced the fighter allowing Cassandra to sweep her remaining lightsaber through the man’s neck.
The aging Grey Jedi fueled his legs with the Force into a sprint that placed him in a couple heartbeats at the Chancellors side. She blocked a downward strike from the Flamesparker with the vibroglave, redirecting it into the ground to her right. This opened the man on the left for Shanree to run him through the rib-cage. Cassandra’s hand thrust past Shanree’s head as the man fell to the ground; behind him Shanree heard the thrum of a lightsaber stop growing louder. He turned in time to see Celevon spin past a lightsaber held by an invisible hand in the air. The Illusionist grimaced in fury as he slammed an emerald blade through the weapon’s hilt which produced a small puff of vaporizing matter and electronics. Somewhere else, Jadex growled with visceral anger at the weapon’s loss.
As Cassandra glanced around the area, additional enemies had begun to arrive from makeshift caves that surrounded the pyre, quickly having shifted the odds against them to roughly thirty to one and those odds continued increasing. They seemed bolstered by something, making them far more confident and combat worthy than the ones they had faced previously. One of the guardsmen raised their weapon to block a direct downward attack from the front, but was caught from behind with a stab straight through their chest.
”No,” Cassandra thought to herself as she clenched her fist tightly, having watched one of the guards fall. “No.”
Small streams of purple electricity began to spark from her fingers with an exhausted Shanree being the first to notice given the shift in the Force. It was starting to amplify itself once again, this time to the highest degree he had experienced thus far. So much so that he began to sense other types of Force powers he never had access to starting to become active. He glanced over to her and saw an unusual swelling of power within her, a power that only continued to grow and grow as the Force amplified itself even further beyond. “Chancellor, what..?”
Before he continued his glare shot over to Celevon and then the guard. “Take cover, now!”
Celevon looked over at Shanree and then Cassandra, who had her eyes tightly closed at this point. He saw the sparks fly from her fingers and widened his eyes as he felt the emotions come from her. What was this? Until now, everything about her had been serene, kind, and focused. But this..
Her eyes opened as she raised her hands into the air, fingers spread. Suddenly two massive streams of Force lightning shot high into the sky before they branched outward at approximately a hundred feet up. Bolt after bolt shot downward and struck one enemy after another, Celevon and Shanree doing what they could to avoid being near anyone else during this.
”A Force storm…I had heard rumors, but I never imagined it was possible.” Celevon thought to himself as he glanced at the storm when he could as his main focus was avoiding being struck by a stray bolt. The corpses began to pile up, the main part of the enemy force that was present now fleeing for their survival. Several larger bolts struck just above the caves some had fled into and they went up in massive explosions as the ground was obliterated around it, skulls that had laid upon the ground now flying in every which direction.
Some of the skulls struck several of the enemies, one having barreled through their chest and out their back. Another bolt struck only feet from Shanree, who sensed that something was wrong. The power within Cassandra had started to flow not just far tumultuously, but even had started to gather internally as well as it began to overwhelm her. He quickly made his way toward her, lightning now sparking from her eyes as well. It was only a few moments before he was on top of her and made the abrupt decision to tackle her to the ground.
Despite its risks, it worked. The lightning from her hands ceased, the storm above delivering one final strike into the pyre itself which went up in a massive blue explosion before the storm itself dissipated. He looked down at her and she was completely unconscious, the Force flowing lightly through her far weaker than it had been previously.
“Shanree, you alright?” Celevon called out as he and the other three guards made their way to them both.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Not sure about the Chancellor though..” he responded with a brief sigh as two of the guards helped lift her up onto another’s back. He took the datapad from her side that they had been using to this point, only to find that the force storm she had been using fried it. “Granted what she did saved us, I can only hope that nothing bad comes of it.”
He considered things for a moment before he made his way up the hill where the pyre had previously sat, up and onto the charred wooden remains of it. Far in the distance he saw a large mountain range, and ever slightly saw between an open valley section of it what should be their destination based on the amount of force energy that surrounded it compared to everything else around it: the Fortress of the Unchained.
“Let us continue. We need to make sure we stay ahead of the legion.” Shanree continued before he climbed back down the pyre’s hill.
The Shaevalian-Umbaran knelt down and picked up the Chancellor’s lightsabers from where they had fallen, before he moved to the guards that held the unconscious form of the Epicanthix. Celevon sensed the stare of the other as he returned the weapons to her belt.
“The familiar weight will serve as a comfort to know her lightsabers are there, at the ready… Cassandra will need them when she wakes,” was all the explanation the Alchemist gave.
He frowned as he searched for Jadex’s body, unsurprised to find that there were no remains to speak of. Not even the weapon he had destroyed, once again. “Must’ve been one of the spirits they warned us to keep an eye out for,” Celevon muttered, as he had beheaded the cyborg nearly five years earlier, then watched the body be consumed by lava.
As he turned to catch up to the remainder of their group, the Shaevalian-Umbaran reached out with the Force and called one of the ID tags the fallen guard carried to his hand. He then jogged to catch up with the lead guard, no words spoken as he handed the tag over.
“Celevon,” the Miraluka called from behind, then continued when he saw that he had the Alchemist’s attention. “Could you give the legion commanders an update? This area should be easier for them to traverse, since we cleared it.”
The Seeker nodded, his pace slowed as he reached out with the Force to touch their minds. It took only a moment as he passed along the necessary information, which included the death of one of their comrades and the Chancellor’s current state. It took another moment or two before he received an acknowledgment, followed by a series of images that indicated they would retrieve the body of the guard.
Celevon glanced toward Cassandra, noticed that her personal droid rested on her stomach, then reached out to gain a sense of her overall state. He then resumed his earlier pace.
Shanree was now the highest ranked person in their group, at least until the Epicanthix regained consciousness. “The legion have changed their route and will recover the body of the fallen guard along the way.” The Shaevalian-Umbaran paused to take a breath and drew his slugthrower, as there was no way of knowing if there was an ambush prepared. “The Chancellor’s vitals have returned to normal… and her Force reserves are replenishing, more and more rapidly as we get closer to the Fortress. If and when her thoughts change to indicate she is regaining consciousness, I’ll let you know.”
The Colonel took all of this in with a nod, glad that the younger male understood the protocol. He idly wondered at the Alchemist’s military experience, then shook off the thought. “Check on her periodically. I need you focused on our surroundings, since we’ll have to defend her if we come under attack in her current state.”
Some branches were cut down from a sickly looking tree and a makeshift mesh of harnesses donated by Shanree and two of the three remaining Guardsmen to form a litter that placed the Supreme Chancellor’s unconscious form into. Shanree took the front right corner while the Chancellor’s Guardsmen took up the other three. On his word they lifted the litter up and set off at a brisk walk, being careful not to dump Cassandra as they moved. Time was of the essence and they couldn’t wait, not even for her recovery. Those had been her orders, in the briefing that had preceded them moving through the portal, and the Colonel would see them carried through.
Celevon, who was free to walk alongside the litter and check on the Chancellor, also took the liberty to do some light scouting, “I would describe it as a fortress, yes.”
“You would describe it as a fortress”, Shanree patiently but sternly asked, “or it is a fortress?”
“Is there a difference?” The Illusionist seemed to genuinely want to know.
The Colonel rolled his shoulder, the one still bearing the load of the litter, “I just need to know if you are certain this is it?”
“Look, I don’t want to play your tough-lieutenant games right now. It’s a big building; tall, dark, and mysterious. If I were the fortifying sort, I’d say it was a fortress.” Celevon looked over the Chancellor once more to redirect his growing frustration.
Shanree gave the Krath Illusionist a moment to count out the Chancellor’s pulse, “Good enough for me. How far?”
Celevon took a moment to consider, “With her like this, maybe an hour.”
There was no sense in wasting any more time. They proceeded with all available speed, but were hampered by the ad hoc nature of their litter which threatened to come undone several times. Her head rolled from side to side as the four men worked to negotiate terrain that wasn’t always flat, even, and free of obstacles. At times the building, as described by Celevon, would become visible from behind a hill or rise in the land, but as they kept to the low elevations to avoid detection they never got a real look at it until they were upon it in truth.
A leveled expanse one-hundred meters wide lead up to a smooth wall of interlocked masonry and stone. The wall was easily twenty meters tall with watch towers that ringed its circumference as far in either direction as they could see. The towers, roofed, had open terraces upon which there were mounted spotlights and heavy weapons along with all the personnel that would be required to man them. Within the perimeter of the wall, just over the top of its rim, a squat round citadel could be seen rising beyond.
Shanree evaluated it all in his Force Sight from their vantage across the leveled expanse. He’d ordered the litter be set down as they made up their mind on the next move, “I’m satisfied it’s a fortress.”
Celevon smirked from under the trinoculars he was using to study the wall’s tops, “Thank you.”
“Can you sense anything from within? The Advanced Team’s last transmissions said that this was their destination, right?” The Illusionist lowered the trinocs, but Shanree just shook his head.
The Colonel stood and stretched his shoulders and neck. Time was not on their side, and if the Advanced Team was still alive they wouldn’t be for much longer– The Children of Mortis would know that their Ethereal Realm was under considerable assault by now, and the Army of Taldryan was not all that far behind them. The Advanced Team had been the reconnaissance group that had been the first to plunge through the Grand Master’s portal into this strange place, and it had been their initial reports that had formed the core of Taldryan’s planned advance en force into the Ethereal Realm. Shanree felt strongly that no soldier should ever be left behind when there was a chance to rescue them, but there was something more at play here than a rescue mission; The Supreme Chancellor of the Taldryan Republic had personally organized and spearheaded this adventure in advance of the Clan and the bulk of its forces. The trouble was Shanree was now in charge of executing the Mission, but he had a growing suspicion the Mission was not the Chancellor’s true goal here but she wasn’t making much noise at the moment one way or another.