“If you fail to follow these requirements, then you will never see Appius Wight again.”
The instructions couldn’t be any clearer, though the co-ordinates could not have lead to a more desolate area in the galaxy.
Wild Space was named as such because for the most part it was uncharted, lawless, and uncivilised. Perhaps that was intentional?
It certainly seemed the case when those who received the message arrived. The sight that befell them was like they had fallen into a unsealed time capsule from the Clone Wars. A Lucrehulk Class Battleship awaited them, though even from the outside, it appeared unkempt and uncared for.
Even to the untrained eye, it was obvious it had seen battle. Debris floated around it in rings projected by its artificial gravity. Lights flickered in rooms unoperational as sparks hissed from turrets once destroyed. Those that worked,,however, followed their ships movements as they arrived in the hangar bay…
There had been so many rumors about Appius Wight, for far too long. But the story that involved Aphotis being responsible for his death was the one that seemed most misplaced—to Aphotis anyway. There was no joy in claiming the kill when there was no struggle, when the juicy details were missing, when no memory of it was revisit-able. If anything, she was here to ensure that there would be no more doubts. If that meant raking his throat with her claws and stomping on his tin-canned corpse with her boots, then so be it. Or, if her and others being here meant that he had a chance of survival, that would be acceptable too.
Osasdii’s Scythe, a Raider-II vessel, lay cloaked and safe from the debris littering the mysterious Spiked Sceptre Lucrehulk. The tall black-clad Sith had been ferried here by her T-2c shuttle, there was plenty of space to dock it after all, and it was much more expendable, should something go awry.
Aphotis double checked her zero-g seals as she stomped on the durasteel ramp with her weighted platforms. There was no need for subtlety—the armaments would have been blasting away at the new visitors by now otherwise.
Electric-blue eyes, barely visible from behind the blackened visor, were taking in the dilapidated scenery. A sharp satisfying hiss followed as the Sith exhaled, a clawed digit tapping on her mask.
‘I like the mood at least’
‘Oh Appius, my Zappius, dear Appius, where art thou? Daddy’s datapad needs a fresh battery!’
Jorm screamed out the words as soon as his boots had left the Ember Swarm Decimator’s airlock, but considering he’d decided to jump through twenty meters of hard vacuum instead of dirtying the landing skids, his timing could have been better.
As it was, he broke through the hangar’s atmospheric shield preceded by a cloud of frozen fog and spittle that blinded him for a moment. And this way, he could smell her before catching a glimpse, and clenched his eyes shut to savor the moment.
The tang of her fear pheromones like a drop of acid in his nose, carried through air thick and acrid with ozone and spilled fluids which seemed to thrum under her every breath, wafting over a rust-stained deck that shuddered and shifted away from those shin-high stiletto heels in vain.
This vacation just got soooo much better!
Jorm stepped through his misty words and finally opened his eyes, unfocused upon the dilapidated hangar and instead snapping onto the anticipated chromium heels.
He let his gaze wander upwards, tracing faint reflections etching elegant curves from the near darkness, resting on some until she turned. He locked his citrine eyes on the chained lightning that counted as hers, and gave her his warmest smile.
“Hello Alaisy. We need to stop meeting like this.”
Not long after the others Aylin landed their ‘borrowed’ ship next to the T-2c shuttle.
“Really Aylin, next time just get us a normal ship instead of borrowing one. You were supposed to fix it, not go on a joyride.” The Chiss Mandalorian scolded her Nautolan friend.
“Ah don’t worry,” Aylin said with grin, “It’s just a test drive.”
“Uhuh, to the middle of nowhere.” Ankira shook her head, “Just get it home in one piece.”
“Of course, you know me,” she said with a chuckle and flipped a few switches, “Seems Slinky and the Joker are already waiting for you. Have fun!”
Ankira sighed deeply, secured her helmet and walked down the ramp. She still hated her new view, but at least her ‘allies’ were unmissable at the moment and walked towards them.
Another ship dropped out of hyperspace next to the station. The scruffy and damaged paintjob of the Bastion made itself apparent. Koda Kendis piloted the saucer shaped craft into the hanger and landed, his landing gears hissing as it touched down. Koda, the Guardian Angel, exited the Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft adorned in his blue and gold armor. He cracked his knuckles as he approached. Behind him the landing ramp for the Bastion closed and sealed itself.
For those that had arrived, a mightily cold chill wafted un the air. It was like the depths of space had sucked out all the heat, leaving a cold, metallic husk behind.
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Ankira looked around as she got closer to the others.
“Is it me, or did it suddenly get as cold as on Rekkiad?” the Mandalorian asked, wondering if the others noticed it as well
“That’s wild space for you.” Koda tapped on his gauntlet’s display pad and read over the message that they all had received, “Did we get any separate details on where in this wreck we’re supposed to go? Or do we need to pick groups to search?”
A chirping sound could be heard ahead as a BB-8 unit poked it’s head around a corner, taking a good look at the newly arrived group. Once it did, it quickly retracted itself and rolled away down the hall.
Somewhere else on the ship, a figure raised it’s eyebrow as they looked at pictures on their helmet’s HUD being sent from the droid of the group.
“Interesting. This is unexpected, albeit not surprising…” the figure quietly thought to themselves. If they were here as well, the odds greatly improved that there was finally a definitive path to finding his friend. Perhaps the journey was almost done.
The question now was, should they link up or focus on the task at hand separately? Though knowing some of who was present in that group, particularly Jorm, there was no way the droid went unnoticed. So joining forces may be warranted…despite it having been years.
The sound came like giant knuckles crashing against a metal door. The echo seemed to shift the bitterness in the air.
At the far end of the hangar, several sets of blast doors opened. Light footsteps tapped into view; a rusty protocol droid missing one arm with one eye socket dangling down its face.
“Oh, my…” the droid said, its tone almost mocking. “Are you visitors, or intruders? Please answer honestly. I need to know if to switch on the turrets…”
Jorm tore his gaze off Alaisy’s curves and squatted down. His fingers caressed the steel under his boots and beckoned memories environmental to reveal themselves.
Ship leaves. Unloads supplies. Ship comes. He beckoned more, digging further back in time. Ship leaves. Unloads supplies. Ship comes. And further. Ship leaves. Unloads supplies. Ship comes. Ship leaves. Unloads supplies. Ship comes. Fire and explosions.
The damaged droid in the here and now barely registered, just enough for the Kiffar to hold up a finger and say “Be right with you, hun,” while he crept across the floor towards a shot-up pile of crates and dug further.
A ragtag group of armed people shooting their way through dilapidated turrets. A group of ships landing and disgorging the attackers into deploying defenses. A long time of nothing.
“Alright, Sabbaccface,” Jorm concluded his investigation, “nice bluff, but what you have left ain’t even a warmup session for either of us. Hell, a bunch of blunts took down your defenses. But you weren’t there to witness it, were you? How about you mark us as friends and tell us, whom do you serve now?”
Sentients were always funny. Sometimes even funny looking, if its sensors could even process such a thing as humor. Granted, with only one photoreceptor operational. It was difficult to tell the exact species of the bratty, chatty one, at least from a distance.
“My designated number is not Sabaacface. It is P00R-S0D. Do you know what happens to an organic when shot with highly pressurised tibanna gas empowered blaster bolts? Instant death has an approximately ninety-six point six six six six six six six six six…”
The droid rambled on saying six over and over again until finally;
“Six six percent chance of completely melting internal organs. I can assure you that these cannons, albeit just barely, are still operational.”
The droid tilted its head. “Shall I take it that the rudeness of your response indicates that you are hostiles?”
Turrets shuddered on the canopies above them, whirring and turning to face the group.
Koda kept his left hand on the handle of his blaster, just in case, holding out his other hand towards the droid, “No, he’s just snarky. We received an invitation to come here for information. If you don’t give us trouble, we won’t give you trouble. I don’t particularly feel like getting shot today.”
With the company around her, any type of level-headed approach would go right out of the air-lock, so planning was not going to be part of the, well… plan.
At least they were using high quality gas for those old, worn-down turrets, although she agreed with the Jester, it felt like a lacklustre bluff. Even if the bolts turned out to be precise and well-timed enough to inflict damage, there were enough sentient beings around Aphotis to feed from.
A smirk crept over her face behind the blackened visor. Her eyes darted around the room, taking in the turret emplacements and locked her sight onto the furthest visible one. A loud, high-pitched hiss came from her mask.
‘Not going to sit back this time…’
A spark crept over her slender arm. Cerulean energy burst from durasteel claws as the tall woman flicked her wrist. The electric beam crashed into the weapons emplacement and turned it into a fireball.
The droid glanced at the fireball, back to the group, and then back to the explosion.
“I do not understand,” it said, slightly tilting its robotic head. “You claim not to be hostiles, yet you destroy personal property. What does this mean?”
“It means you’ve not been hospitable to our guests.”
A deep voice boomed over the intercom.
“That fireball just lit up my screen. Mighty impressive, though, what else do I expect from denizens of the Taldryan Republic, eh? Hahaha… Droid, show our guests up to the command centre. Make em feel well at home.”
P00R-S0D lowly lowered it’s head and gestured for the group to follow.
“But keep the turrets locked on. No funny business. Nothing personal. Just security. I’m sure you all understand.”
Koda had his helmet on, but if he could pinch his nose he would, “I’m not getting paid enough for this.” He sighed, remembering the glory days of working alone. He made his way towards the droid to follow it.
“Kaysh mirsh solus” Ankira said as she sighed at Jorm’s chosen words. Though she was sure the action of Alaisy’s action didn’t help much either then confuse the droid and make the owner walk on it’s toes.
“Let’s just go, I want to find my riduur.” With that she walked towards the droid.
Listening to the communication through the spliced network, the mysterious person worked to disconnect his data spikes and stow them away. He had made sure to copy each and every access code he could get his paws on, in addition to a quietly added access authorization using old separatist codes as well that would be extremely difficult to detect.
It would at least guarantee them a way out if things went south, but now that he knew his initial target that could lead him to Wight was now in the control center, he would have to make his way there. The droids already saw him as a friendly thanks to information he had added to the system, so traversing there was simply a matter of walking…
Or at least, that’s what he thought. Once he was out of the crawlspace above the surveillance security room and into the hallway, it wasn’t long before several of the bandits spotted him up from on top a set of stairs.
“Ohy, I found that damn bea-!” one of them yelled as he spotted him. The bear turned his head as he pulled his blaster and laid it upside down on his shoulder. With a quiet glance, he fired a near-silenced shot straight into the bandit’s head before he could finish speaking, the bandit tumbling down the stairs.
Just a simple tap on his wristlet, he stood still against the wall as he pulled his other blaster in addition, holding them both up in the air next to him as disappeared from view. Three more bandits showed up and looked around in frustration. As one of them put away his weapon and knelt down to look at the now deceased one, the other two were looking in the far directions and away from where he was. He suddenly reappeared, pointed his blasters at the two distracted ones and they fell with simple shots.
The one that was checking his fallen comrade barely had time to look over at the newcomer before letting out a slight sigh, accepting his fate as a blaster bolt whizzed through his skull.
The bear held the blasters at his side as he went up the stairs to continue his path towards the command center.
He brought a spiked comm unit to the front of his helmet and spoke into it. “Intruder sighted, trandoshan male. Headed towards rear turbolift, likely to shuttle bays. Dispatch and proceed with caution until ship-wide comms are back up.” As more approached, he simply stood still and let them all go by. Given his location, they would now be focused on this section of the ship…completely oblivious to where he was really going. Particularly with comms in this section being, conveniently, down with the rest of the ship.
Man, woman, tall, short, and members of various species. These bandits were certainly a motley crew. As the group followed the damaged protocol droid, the bandits eyed them suspiciously. They drowned themselves in their alcohol, their gambling, and their fist fights. One thing was for certain, they didn’t trust the new arrivals. Not one bit.
When they entered the turbolift, they were finally out of view of the cameras following their every moment, and the droid was still…
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…going on Jorm’s nerves with the loose eye swinging back and forth, ding-ing and scraping against its owner’s faceplate.
“Oh for the love of Porg…” he exclaimed and dug a credit chip from his pocket, waving it before the droid’s face, “let’s trade.”
Swift fingers ripped the offensive organ free and stuffed the money into the socket.
“There, now you can get yourself fixed,” Jorm forestalled protestations and pocketed his new eye, pilfering it for memories as he went, and inbetween shutdown cycles found a lightsaber hilt of ancient design emblazoned with a phoenix in ascent, held by a hand he did not recognize.
Huh. Now that’s a lead if I ever saw one.
As the elevator doors slid open and the group entered another corridor, the Kiffar fell back towards Ankira and put a hand on her shoulder. Looking straight through her visor he jammed the image he had procured into her helmeted mind.
Hand. Saber. Both Appius?
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Ankira startled at the image forced into her mind. When the image made sence her eyes went wide.
“That’s Appius’ saber, but not his hand… I have no idea who’s hand that is,” she whispered.
P00R-S0D really was, well a poor sod. With one eye removed, it’s sense of direction was severely impeded. As it wandered down the final, long corridor, it bumped first into Koda, and then into Alaisy.
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The tall Sith grabbed the droid by its mechanical shoulders and re-positioned it to move straight.
“Re-adjust your gyroscopic discs, droid. Sharp angles only from now on.”
Aphotis would have ended its suffering existence if it wasn’t that P00R-S0D was in control of the ship’s turrets. She somehow trusted an obedient mechanical construct more than whoever or whatever was behind the intercom from earlier—and a droid without memory wipes tended to gain the woman’s respect for better resembling sentience than the average droid.
Koda may have had a part to play in the droid bumping into Alaisy. Koda was never fond of droids, he grew up resenting most of them. He understood their uses, but there was a familial hatred for them. “Not sure why your owner wouldn’t keep you repaired, you seem more like scrap metal.”
The bear, his optical camouflage and thermal containment systems fully engaged, stood at the end of the hallway unmoving as he observed the droid and the group approach. A small smirk crossed the edge of his lips, which briefly caught him by surprise. He had not smirked nor smiled in a very long time, but seeing his former comrades and friends here in wild space after such a long time brought a sense of warmth and happiness to him.
While he did see pictures sent by his droid, actually physically seeing them was another thing all together. He would stay here, however, and wait until they all started to enter this final door and would trail in behind them.
Something brushed against Jorm’s mind like a soft breath on his neck, too tenuous to really pin down - but he hadn’t grown to his ripe old age by ignoring his instincts.
He spun on his heel and walked backwards for a few steps, probing the ill-lit corridor to no avail.
“Huh. could’ve sworn…”
The Mandalorian glanced towards Jorm at his remark and wondered why he would say that. Many things went unnoticed to her like colours and text, but other things she could still see or see more then others. None of the others seemed to react to the figure she could see, so she wondered if they could see it.
She tapped his arm and whispered, “There is a small person next to the door, don’t you see him?”
He honed in on the spot and focused his second sight.
“Now I do. Shorty playing hide-and-seek with the wrong crowd here,” he replied quietly.
So she was right, they couldn’t see it.
“Do you think it is hostile? I can only ‘see’ him,” she whispered back. Her gut feeling didn’t tell anything, but she wondered what he thought of it.
“P00R-S0D, why are your turrets not aimed at the intrusion in front of us?” Aphotis had not bothered to take her eyes off the turrets nor the droid and let the others investigate.
The bear stood there, calm and composed, with no mental intentions or indications that he would be hostile in any way. If anything, Jorm would be able to sense that it was happy.
Meanwhile, the BB-8 from earlier had found the group and rolled up from behind following directly next to Ankira. It chirped happily to her, and gave a glare at Jorm for a second with a disdained sound.
Ankira glanced down at the droid next to her.
“You sound happy to see me… or something. I can’t understand you, little droid.”
“Good point, excuse me for a moment,” the droid halted it’s movement for a second, the turrets above them twisting and aiming towards the tiny creature before them. Though, the aim was a bit off, like the droid was someone telling them exactly where to shoot, not what.
“There, is that better? Now you are all targeted.”
“Perfect.”
As if on command at tbe sound of Aphotis’ voice, the triple layers of durasteel ahead of them hissed open. The moment the gap was large enough, the large hulking frame of an eight-foot Wookie with fur as black as ash and eyes redder than a blood moon roared at them at full volume.
It was quickly joined by a second Wookie, just as tall, but with fur a lighter shade of brown. It growled menacingly, like the group weren’t meant to be there.
“Hey, you two! That is no way to treat our guests!” A feminine voice echoed from within the command centre. “Be so kind as to escort them in, would you please?”
The Wookies made a grab for the two closest people to them…
A cold shiver ran over her spine as a strong, hairy paw reached for her. Her eyes widened as she smacked the ash-colored hand away, but it kept reaching for her.
Click-clack
Aphotis stepped back and then stepped forward to meet the challenge, fighting through her disgust. At first her spindly limb was pushed back by the full might of the Wookiee. She grit her teeth and felt the latex fabric tighten around her arm and hand. The pressure lifted as her muscles were reinforced by Osasdii’s power.
Hiss
Her nails dug into the furred hand, drawing blood. The Wookiee roared and whined—she could feel his grip trying to retract.
“Step back or I will crush your feet with my boot, Wookiee,” her modulated voice was menacing and sharp.
Whether it was Dun Möch or not, the beast retreated, their beady eyes stained with tears as it finally understood the threat.
Koda struggled against the Wookie grabbing him, this wasn’t the first time he’s been in a situation like this. “Dank farrik.” He gritted his teeth, trying to get enough footing to push himself up and slam the top of his helmet into the Wookie’s jaw. This allowed him to break free of the hairy beasts grip. While the Wookie was staggered, Koda reeled up a punch and slammed it into their chest, trying to knock them to the ground. “Whatever happened to the word please?”
Oh for the love of Zord…
There was no way in hell Jorm would leave an unknown at his back on hostile ground, so he flicked his fingers and Force-tossed the tiny invisible figure over Koda’s head and into the battered Wookiee’s face without regard for safety or which body part collided first.
Then he kicked the BB droid through the door and followed suit.
“Are we done with the frakking theatrics and surprises? Or shall I crank up the entropy in this hulk?”
The bear crouched into a ball as he flew, letting his thick armor crunch straight into the wookie’s face. With the shimmer that was now going off from his armor, he went ahead and also de-activated the invisibility system right as he was about to strike the wookie to reveal his dark colored and red accented armor.
With the wookie recoiling back before collapsing to the ground, the Ewok bonked off the floor before it climbed to its feet.
“As always, very predictable Chancellor Na'trej.” it spoke in a modulated voice, having dusted itself off. “Very unorthodox way to not let a Wookie win, but it will suffice.”
The BB-8 was chirping angrily and rolled up to the front of Jorm making a ton of noise. The bear did not bother to repremand it, however, as its attention was on the area ahead…and the female that had beckoned them inside via the wookies.
Despite the slight dizziness plaguing the former Vice-Chancellor of the Taldryan Republic, his attention was square on the woman standing at the far end of the command centre. She was pale-skinned, appearing to be in her mid to late thirties with sleek black hair and a petite frame. Though she seemed smaller than the average Human female.
A swarm of bandits surrounded the group. Humans, Trandoshans, Duros, and more, each with blaster rifles in hand.
“I was going to let ypu come in peacefully,” the woman said. “But given the hostility, precautions must be taken. Lower your weapons, unless, of course, you’d rather not know what happened to your dear Appius?”
She smiled coyly.
The tall Sith shrugged, Aphotis wasn’t even holding any weapons and the lightsaber hilt was neatly stored under her backpack. The person half her size wasn’t exactly intimidating either. Time to see what their fear would taste like, before they began blasting away like mongrels.
A void surrounded the tall black-clad woman, tendrils of darkness snaking around her, hissing and snapping at the minds of the lesser beings around her. Thoughts were deprived of hope, turned into ash and despair. Even the cold of space had nothing on the chill that was developing within their spines. If neurons could weep, they would do so now, being harvested for their flavors.
Aphotis tapped her heavy platform against the Hulk’s broken tiled flooring at the rhythm of her own heartbeat as she delved deeper into the dark side of the Force.
Jorm still tapped into his otherworldly perception to mark the malcontents present on his mental mini-map when Alaisy opened the floodgates of fearmongering.
The wave hit his nervous system which in turn sent his adrenal glands into overdrive, flushing every trace of hesitation from both body and mind and leaving Jorm the consciousness behind to control an overcooking mass of muscles, bone, blood and malice that wanted nothing more than to fight, fuck or both, and taking off his pants would’ve been too much of a delay.
He decided on a priority and closed his eyes, feeling the room and its occupants in his Marauder’s expanded sensorium.
The artificial cold coming off Alaisy mixed with the very real cold of the derelict and gave him wholesome goosebumps.
“Let me think ‘bout that,” he lifted a finger at the woman whose hand he could swear he recognized, “and in turn, you riddle me this.”
He paused for a moment and turned towards Alaisy, leaning in to take a deep, deliberate breath of her aura, before turning back and finally opening his eyes again.
“Why in tarnation do you think it’s smart to mouth off like that while you’re sharing breathing space with a flamethrower?”
The chrome-plated weapon aptly named Lex Pyromanis slid from his shoulder into his hand and spat it’s enormous tongue of liquid fire towards the small woman, only to split upon the metaphysical blade of Jorm’s telekinesis and wipe over both the left and right side of the room and everyone standing there simultaneously in vicious, blazing, guided snakes.
Ankira narrowed her eyes as she took a step forward.
“I think it is safer for you to start speaking and tell me were my riduur is before the fire starts licking at your feet,” she said with a stern tone. “Because as you can see, they don’t really have a lot of patience for games.”
The bear figure placed its hands on it’s blasters, agreeing with Ankira. “Having hunted Appius myself for nearly the last 3 years, patience does indeed wear thin. So please, out of kindness, make this easy on yourself and tell us. Otherwise, it won’t just be flames you’ll be contending with.”
Koda did his best to not look towards the eldritch horror being created next to him, instead he focused himself in on the pale human stood before them. He reached his left hand down and pulled out his silvered blaster, spinning it out as he did so. Within that moments notice, Due Process was pointed and ready for a showdown. “I’d suggest surrender.”
Rockford had a plan. She always had a plan. This one was going to Hell in a handbasket faster than a ship entering hyperspace. She should have known, given the information she had on each of them, that violence was an inevitability.
Oh, well. There was nothing else for it. Fear gripped her, pulsing with every beat of her heart in her chest. Her throat tightened as sweat formed on her brow from the emerging heat.
“Enough! Fine! I’ll tell you what you want to know! Just, please, cut out those flames before you kill us all!”
“I will warn you,” the Ewok cut in before Jorm could decide to turn off the heat or not, “try and flee again and you will be without both of your knees.”
His armored paws remained firmly on his sides where his shadowsheathed blasters were. “Now. Where is Appius?”
There was a smile in Aphotis’s eyes as she watched the small Ewok make the threats and demands.
‘I guess it wants the same thing.’
“All? No.”
Jorm pushed the blazing serpents outwards and through each and every marauder surrounding them before he let go of the trigger.
The ocean of flames died along with the cries of the henchmen while Jorm twirled his fingers, obscurung the carnage in smoke while keeping the remaining un-scorched air circulating around his group.
“Just most.”
A good chunk were dead, their searing corpses, filling the command centre with a horrid, putrid stench. At least fifty, no, sixty percent were dead or injured. So e had managed to take cover under some loose tiling where the fire started,,some hiding in cupboards, under tables…
What the hell were these people!?
“You… you BASTARD!” a Trandoshan hissedabd leapt from under a table with a survival knife in hand. They lunged towards Jorm.
“Forin, stop!” The woman cried out, halting the Trandoshan.
“But… but my brother is…” he glanced at the smoldering corpse of another Trandoshan, looked at his commander, then sheathed his weapon and stood aside.
“Perhaps… it’s best I show you all instead. Might be easier that way. If you’ll all follow me into the centre platform…”
She made her way into the centre of the room, beckoning for the group to follow.
The bear relaxed his hand on his blaster, which he had very nearly pulled if the Trandoshan would have gotten only mere feet further before it’s ‘master’ brought it to heel. While he disliked Jorm, he was still a Taldryanite and would have defended him as such. He was the first to start following the woman, not taking his hands away from his blasters for even a second, carefully scanning his surroundings in the event of a trap.
He had lost this woman once before in the Jahilid Drift on Koltine, finding only scraps of Appius’ garments in a open derelict cell after her escape. The prospect of him being left there was the only reason he did not continue the pursuit immediately, and letting her out of his sight would not be a repeat.
The Mandalorian relaxed slightly, her hands not moving away from her blasters. She wondered what she would show them and followed her and the Ewok slowly as she kept looking for any action from the surviving thugs.
“So who the frakk are you anyway?”
“Mhm… I doubt it would have been difficult to tell us, you could have saved this lizard’s brother.”
The tall Sith searched for P00R S0D and dragged him with them.
Koda spun his blaster back into his holster, but kept a hand on it just in case as he followed. His boots definetly weren’t making the spur like sound the Mando has.
Saved? Saved!? There was no saving from their wicked actions. Alas, the cards had been dealt, and tension lingered in the air, easily cut by the wrong words being spoken like sharp scissors.
Once she and the rest of the group had arrived in the centre, she cleared her throat.
“My name is Gemini Rockford. I’m the leader of this merry band of misfits. Or at least, she was, until some were incinerated in front of her eyes.
That was the thing about being a leader of a band of mercenaries, is that you would only stay that way so long as you were useful to them. After today, she wasn’t so sure…
"It is easier if I just show you the recording. One moment, please…”
Rockford hopped down to the nearest control panel and pressed a big, red, button. Immediately, a powerful ray shield descended down upon the group, enveloping them all on the platform.
A malevolent smirk appeared on Rockford’s face.
“You think you’re all so mighty and powerful, don’t you? You think you you can walk in here, threaten me and my crew, and get what you want? You want to find Appius? HA! You don’t deserve to find him! NONE OF YOU DO!”
Rockford picked up a loose panel and tossed it at them. It bounced harmlessly off of the ray shield.
“Let’s go through why one by one, shall we? How about you, Ankira Irr. You claim to be his wife, keep calling him riduur, but what have you done to try and find him outside of wallow in your own misery? You really are blind. Blind to your own stupidity. You’re no Mandalorian, you betrayed him and everything he stood for. You make me sick.
Now onto you, Chancellor Na’trej. I’ve seen your type all over the galaxy. You think your untouchable. You think you know everything, can do anything, that there’d no consequences to what you do. You claim to be mad, insane, but I think it’s just a front for the conniving, manipulative son of a bitch you actually are! You don’t care about Appius, you just care about being right! Well, you are wrong today Chancellor!
And you! Tall, dark, and gangly. You actually tried to kill him once. I was there at the colloseum during the SARLACC event. Why the hell are you even here? You here to finish the job Anderson started? Or did he send you to be his little errand woman? You’re a freak, an abomination. Appius would spin in his grave if he could see you now.
Don’t even get me started on you, Koda. You abandoned Taldryan, you abandoned the Republic. What right do you have to know what happened to him? You turned your back on him. Some Mandabro you turned out to be.
That just leaves you, Teebu Nyrrire. You faked your death to go hunting for him. You abandoned the very thing you and him created and now look at it! On the verge of war with a damn tree running it. What do you think he’d say, hm?
No, none of you deserve to know, but I’m going to show you anyways. Play the recording.“
"Ma'am, what about me?” P00R-S0D raised a mechanical arm.
“You are collateral,” Rockford said.
“Oh,” the droid lowered it’s arm. “Well, that’s alright then.”
The recording played, an blank canvas of an asteroid appeared on the holoprojectors surrounding them. The familiar visage of Appius Wight pay there on his hands and knees. Towering above him was another familiar figure to some. Tall with blue skin and a regal posture. He held his curved-hilt lightsaber in his right hand as his crimson eyes bared his judgement down upon the Mandalorian.
Anderson.
“Any final words, Supreme Chancellor?” Anderson’s tone was mocking.
“Yeah, just two…” Appius heaved for breath, but stuck a middle finger up at the Chiss. “Fuck you.”
Anderson’s triumphant smirk creased into a flat line on his face. “How very classy, and how very appropriate for trash like you. Farewell, Mr. Wight.”
The Chiss brought his arm down, and it was like he had summoned a landslide through the Force. Boulders and rocks piled one after the other on top of Appius. The last thing that disappeared from sight was his helmet as his lightsaber rolled away from the debris. Anderson retracted the blade of his weapon, placed it on his belt, and walked away.
“So. Did you dig him out?”
“Enough with the compliments, Rockford, if this is some method of flirting, then I would call it quite elaborate, indeed.”
“Was that Anderson’s voice?” The Chiss asked, trying to hide the hurt from seeping into her voice.
Rockford’s first target was Alaisy. She simply shook her head.
“You disgust me.”
Then, to Jorm.
“There was no need to dig him out. Our scanners reported that all bodily functions had ceased and that he had stopped breathing,” Rockford held out a very familiar weapon, Appius’ lightsaber. “This was all that we could recover from the site of the battle.”
And finally, Ankira.
“Yes, that was the one who calls himself Anderson. As to why? No idea. You’re better of asking him yourself.”
Jorm shook his head.
“Sloppy…”
An ion grenade briefly appeared in his hand and sprung to the ceiling, where it exploded in a brilliant shower of blue-white sparks that left only darkness in its wake. No lights.
No ray shield.
“…sloppy…”
A frigid current in the Force and a choking yelp signaled to him how exactly Alaisy stood on idleness in the face of opportunity, and it made him grin. As he stepped closer, he ignited his lightdagger Hush and bathed the scene in a faint, dark shade of blue.
The angular blade revealed him to be face to face with Rockford, who in turn hung physically in the grasp of steel claws digging into her throat while her limbs were forcefully spread out on invisible strings.
“…sloppy,” Jorm chopped off Rockford’s hand, and reclaimed Appius’ lightsaber.
Even in the darkness, Rockford’s screams were piercing, shrill, enough to shatter glass. Everything had happened in moments, and the unending agony tore at her lost limb in ways she never imagined.
“KILL them all!” She screeched into the void. Almost immediately, blaster fire streaked into the room.
Koda immediately sprung into action, taking Redemption and Due Process out of their holsters. The first pirate he was closest to would suffer an point blank blast from Due Process, they would not survive. He then charged at the next goon and swung Redemption up into their chin, shattering their skull instantly.
Ankira moved as she pulled her Westars from their holsters and fired. In an instant pirates began to drop and she grinned. She didn’t need light to see so the darkness only worked in her advance.
The bear made a move for an adjacent control panel that was still illuminated, after engaging his invisibility system. This would keep the fire away from him at least, and he luckily able to see thanks to his helmet’s multi-spectrum functionality he was able to perfectly see in the darkness.
His fingers flew across the panel like a conductor conducting their orchestra. He was extremely glad he had taken the time early on to create extra command codes, including one that served as a master code.
“Come on…” he muttered to himself as he went through menu screen after menu screen. These systems were ancient, meant for the split second accuracy and speed of droids.
Luckily, he knew not just the lucrehulk’s systems, but had mastered capital ship operations. Particularly, how to effectively shut down and disable systems.
It had taken him a moment to get to the proper screen, and he quickly input a turret override and weapons system reboot under his master code.
To make damn sure she couldn’t re-enable it after the restart, he keyed in his own locking code from years ago, mentally replaying it in his head as he did.
“One, seven, three, four, six, seven, three, two, one, four, seven, six, Charlie, three, two, seven, eight, nine, seven, seven, seven, six, four, three, Tango, seven, three, two, Victor, seven, three, one, one, seven, eight, eight, eight, seven, three, two, four, seven, six, seven, eight, nine, seven, six, four, three, seven, six…lock.” And with that the weapons lock would be in place. Without the assistance of an encryption droid, it would take her decades to breach it.
As Teebu was tampering with the controls, he observed as several bandits surrounded the ships in the hangar. They seemed to be planting explosives on them.
Just as he started formulating a plan, another ship was scanned arriving on the radar. It was an unfamiliar craft, a Kom'rk Class Shuttle that was incredibly damaged and worn. How? That was impossible to tell. Was it friendly? Also not likely given the circumstances.
Still, the bandits seemed to open fire at the new arrival. Couldn’t be all that bad. Rght?
When the Kom'rk landed, the ramp lowered, and the bandits readied their blasters to gun down who, or what, was about to appear.
Tee up was then grabbed by a Duros bandits before he could watch any further. <@61385159655559168>
Just how dense are these amateurs?!
The Kiffar sheathed the lightdagger and pulled the flamethrower taut on his back with his right while his left shook Appius’ saber free of Rockford’s spiderly hand.
From the corner of his otherworldly eye, he felt a trio of blaster bolts coming his way before they were even fired. Without a conscious thought on his part the emerald blade sprung to life and interposed itself, sending the shots careening into random directions.
That single moment, so simple to Jorm, so outlandish to Rockford’s crew, brought on a second of pause as the brigands’ simple minds reconciled rumors and bedtime stories with with the reality before their own eyes.
“So, basically…” Jorm spoke into the relative calm and ignited his own yellow lightsaber in his right, falling into a stance he had practiced little, “…run.”
He threw the familiar Fulcrum at a rapid spin, a disk of sunlight viciously arcing between four of the lives that shone bright in his enhanced perception with predictable results, and set the second Trandoshan’s head free from its shoulders in a snap of green before the yellow blade landed safely in his right again.
Jorm set Appius’ saber into a lazy flourish in the front while his Fulcrum illuminated him from behind in a static reverse grip, keeping the blades well clear of each other with one ready to be thrown again.
“Or don’t.”
Pirates were falling left and right to the fight that exploded. Good Ankira thought silently.
Then she spotted someone sneaking up on Teebu and grab him.
“Oh no you don’t!” The Chiss yelled as she ran towards them, trying to fire at the taller alien. With Teebu trying to free himself that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Instead she opted to just ram the butt of her Westar into the Duros’ face. The blow was enough to drop Teebu and get away.
Life was so fleeting and feeble. The void beckoned from every cast shadow. Rockford was held up, grasped by her neck, clinging on to that ever so thinly stretched thread. Electric blue stared into the oblivion that the much smaller woman was about to enter. Aphotis had been there, she was intimate with the end, yet the curiosity on the other side never ceased—if she could, she would want to experience everyone’s journey to their soul’s eternal realm.
Gemini’s skin had turned blue, every struggle neutralised by a squeeze at her neck. The Sith relieved pressure every time her eyes were about to roll back into her skull, just long enough for a breath of air and too short to utter a moan and waste precious air. The aura of dread had concentrated on the bandit leader’s mind, tendrils wreaking havoc. A nailed thumb caressed the smaller woman’s corner of her lip as it wiped away drool. The claw pierced skin, drawing blood and dragged back down over her chin, descending to her neck.
“You called me a freak, was that cowardice or courage?” Aphotis inquired with a mischievous tone, cocking her head to the side as she inquired the rhetorical question. .
Rockford’s fear left a savory taste on the tall black-clad woman’s tongue, but there was a hint of mystery—not to be confused with complexity. Aphotis had once been small and insignificant like the person she held before her now. She wondered about this one’s potential. Yet, the unknown flavor was not courage at all, it was an unexplored terror. This Gemini Rockford contained a pool of demons that were just begging to be unleashed.
Slithering black ink severed nerve by nerve as pure trepidation began the onset of dementia. Cartilage popped. Bone cracked.
Hiss
Aphotis inhaled the harvest of a shattering soul and the reaping of fear. This one broke before she could begin her voyage to become one with the Force. Flesh and muscle held within her palm stiffened, the heart ceased beating and there was no longer any struggle. Rockford was dead. Her claws relaxed.
With a thud, her corpse collapsed onto the Hulk’s floor.
“A pity, only part of her will remain within the Garden, never knowing peace or rebirth,” her voice was cold and her eyes darted towards P00R S0D.
“What does a droid such as you think about this? Do you know fear?”
Teebu let out a sigh as he saw the dead Rockwell. Three years he had been chasing her and her crew, trying to save Appius.
Now his principal lead was dead, leaving just Anders based on the video. He walked over to the woman’s corpse, lifting his helmet from his head as he glared down at her.
His fur was slightly longer than it had used to be, not nearly as pristine kept as it was when he was a Grand Admiral.
He unholstered his DT-29, still emblazoned with the Taldryan crest on its metal.
Three shots rang out into her skull, then one into her right knee which blew apart mechanically followed by one into her organic left.
“Told you I would get you one day, Gemini. But as always, you’ve left me little to go on and now we’ve parted ways once again.” he spoke in his normal, non-augmented voice now that his helmet was off. An air of disappointment in his words.
Teebu glanced at his BB-8. “Download that video of Appius’ death, we will analyze it back on the Ewok One for clues on where to move next. Give a signal for them to return to the system and prepare a rendezvous in one hour.”
Ankira sighed softly in relief when she heard Teebu’s famliar voice again, sounded much better then the augmented voice.
“Glad to have you back,” Ankira said softly before continuing in a more serious voice, “I guess you two have a history.”
Despite the dreamstate she exited, Aphotis watched the Ewok’s actions drowsily. She had no idea who he was, why they had a history, or why this situation kept on escalating.
“She’s dead, little bear-thing, and you did not get her, I did,” spite laced the Sith’s voice as a nail tapped her crimson amulet.
“I commend you on the dramatic display though.”
“Unfortunately.” he remarked as he reholstered his blaster. “And, glad to see you all as well. You’re especially a sight for sore eyes after all this time, Ankira.”
He turned his attention to the large woman in…strange tight-fitting clothes that looked like someone who enjoyed not just dishing out pain but receiving it. “As long as she is dead, that is all that matters. By my hand or not, it does not matter. Just needed some final…closure.”
“I would have you know that the spirit that resided in that body will continue to suffer for a significant amount of time, perhaps that is a silver lining,” her voice took on a lower pitched, more sadistic tone.
“I am Aphotis, who are you then, Ewok?”
Upon hearing ”Destroy their ship!” Koda sprung into action. Within a moment he pivoted his body and leapt off one foot as his jetpack activated. He had to make some sharp turns, but utilizing a useful shot from his whipcord he was able to make it around a sharp turn and catapult himself into the hangar. As soon as he saw a pirate trying to set up explosives on his ship he let out a guttural roar, coming out modulated from his helmet. As the pirate turned at the noise, it was already too late, the metallic mass known as Koda was flying right into him. The force of Koda slamming into pirate sent them flying across the floor. Koda tumbled and rolled before branching himself and crouching, sliding backwards. The pirates were in awe of what just happened as he let Redemption hang loose in his grip. “Nobody lays a hand on my ship”
The pirates looked at each other before they started to open fire on the armored Paladin. Koda began to run at the closest one, blaster bolts ricocheted off his armor, barely staggering him. One by one the pirates started to crumble at his wrath. The sounds of bones breaking, armor shattering, and the occasional scream from a pirate about to be faced with no mercy rang out through the hanger. One pirate was able to sneak around behind Koda without him noticing due to his blind rage. Koda let out a pained cry as he felt the sharp pain of a dagger being driven into his hip. He gritted his teeth and turned quickly, the small pirate was frozen in fear from his hulking size. Koda grabbed them and quickly spun, throwing them towards the final pirate across the way, both of them ending up slamming into crates that toppled on them, crushing them.
Koda panted has he stood there, his full vision returning to him as he knelt to the ground, gripping his side where the dagger remained. His body ached as he realized how hard he overexerted himself. His armor had new scorch marks and he’ll have a new scar on his side.
“Doesn’t matter. He’s been dead for three years, as the Wall Of Heroes at High Command will tell you,” Jorm injected himself into the conversation, lightsabers still ablaze and smiling down on the Ewok with bile in his gaze.
“He’s been an unreliable schemer even before that, and there’s no telling what kind of no good he is now. I suggest you devour him too. Safer for everyone, and you don’t have to go hungry, ey?”
A small… girl? Wait, what? A child dressed in white Mandalorian armor with red stripes down the side descended down the ramp. She couldn’t have been any older than five years old. She held the hand of a small boy, a… Chiss? No, it was pale-blue in skin tone, but his eyes were crimson-red. A hybrid, maybe? A Chiss and a Human?
Stranger things had happened.
Koda’s gaze then turned to the figure at the top of the ramp. It, whatever it was, was unnaturally tall, standing over seven foot. Its hard footsteps echoed down the ramp. Hisses and echoes of breathing left his Mandalorian helmet, his armor jagged as the light reflected off of the chrome. Jagged spikes shot out of the arms pauldrons and thighs. Yet, the most striking feature was the blood-red lightning bolt that existed from the chest plate down to the lower abdomen. Whoever this was, they carried a pole arm in their right hand.
They placed their left hand gently on the girl’s shoulder as a digitised voice spoke. “Take your brother back into the ship. I’ll deal with this. What do you do at the first sign of trouble?”
“Launch the ship. Head to Rekkaid,” the girl responded.
“That’s my girl,” the giant Mandalorian patted her gently atop her head as the children disappeared back into the Kom'rk.
<@395091612952297484>
The tall Sith looked back and forth between the Ewok and Jorm and then crossed her arms over her chest. Until the bear-thing explained himself she would not take her eyes off him.
Koda gritted his teeth and pushed himself up to his feet with help of his hammer. “Based on the fact you’ve got kids, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re not wanting conflict…but I’m not ruling that out. Who are you?” Koda narrowed his eyes on the lightning bolt, he shook it head. “It can’t be…” he muttered quietly.
The giant Mandalorian looked to the pole arm in his hand, then to Koda. He gently placed it on the ground.
“Hello there, Koda,” the voice rang out. “Been a while, hasn’t it?”
Koda had to blink a few times, hoping this wasn’t some hallucination and he was really bleeding out. He reached up and took his helmet off, look at the man with his own eyes. “…were you always that tall, Appius?” He snarked and gritted his teeth, grabbing his side again. “I don’t know if I want to know the details of how you ended up like…” He motioned to his entirety, “That.”
“What do you mean? I’ve always been like this, you just got shorter,” Appius’ voice, though digitised, held that warm, light, sarcasm that so many had heard from him. “How many of you are here? I managed to find out about what was going on and came as fast as I could.”
“Wider, maybe, but not shorter.” Koda let out a pained chuckle, “Five of us, myself included. They’re on the bridge, Ankira is there. I think that should be your priority rather than catching up with me.”
Appius almost shuddered. “Ankira is here? Crap… she’s either gonna be really happy to see me, or kill me. Maybe both. Who knows?”
He shrugged.
“I’ll do that. Our kids are on that ship. Don’t suppose you’d mind just watching it? I should probably go up alone,” Appius bent down to pick up his pole arm, the electricity sparking at the tip. “You know. Just in case.”
Koda found a crate to rest against, “I’m not going anywhere. Gotta leave this thing in until I can get my medpak.” He pointed to the blade, “I’ll keep watch.”
“Schemer? Honestly the moment I heard my double had been bearnapped and killed, you were the first one I thought of, Jorm.” he retorted. “No one ever wanted me more dead than you and Plagueis. So if there was any scheming, it was yours given the non-confidence vote on my double was backed by your people even without a vote.”
He kept his paw firmly on his blaster. This wouldn’t be where Jorm got his wish, especially now that he didn’t have his usual Death Trooper guard. “I would like, however, to know why you think I would be the schemer when I was the only one to go after Appius along with Circe. No one else lifted a finger until now, except for Anders apparently.”
Jorm barked out a laugh.
“So you admit that the ‘Teebu’ we ‘knew’ hasn’t been in fact you, but your puppet. Schemer. Really didn’t need the vindication, but thanks anyway.”
The yellow lightsaber went back into its belt sheath and Appius’ wandered into the Kiffar’s main hand.
“And not looking for Appy? Don’t owe you an answer, but frakk it, rubbing it in is too much fun. I didn’t go after Appius because I have something for him you dearly lack along with a spine and smarts. Respect.”
The emerald lightsaber started into a lazy, hypnotic flourish, its aggressive hum drowning out all ambient sounds.
“So what will it be, a little off the top?”
“Respect…for someone kidnapped with only a note, that ‘he feared something was about to happen to him’ in his administrative logs. Surprised that wasn’t communicated to you, unless you didn’t care.”
He placed his helmet back on his head and pulled both of his blasters from their holsters, still pointed downward. He was ready to defend himself, if needed. “Though, I would question why you would want to harm a fellow Taldryanite…or as Appius made me after Saijo, a Taldrya. Schemer or not, as you so claim. Wouldn’t the more appropriate action be to return me to the Republic? Unless…there is a reason you want me dead.”
“Dunno if you noticed, but I’m not exactly on CI’s briefing shortlist. Lack of smarts, remember? Just another point towards you being yourself being reason enough.”
With a snap of his fingers, Jorm exerted pinpoint pressure onto static targets and ejected the energy cells from Teebu’s weapons.
“Appreciated,” Appius began to walk forward, but then paused for a moment. “There’s medpacks on my ship if you need one. I always keep one around. You know… kids. The Bastion is looking good. Glad to see it’s not impounded.”
He waved nonchalantly as he made his way to the turbolift. When he finally arrived at the command centre, he could feel the tension, even without the Force on his side any longer. Still, he strode into the room with the confidence one would expect from the former Taldryan Supreme Chancellor.
So many familiar faces… how long had it been now? Two years?
“Bitches, i am he… oh…” He had, obviously, failed to read the room. He spotted his active lightsaber in the hand of Jorm. He had been looking for that for ages! “Sorry, am I interrupting something? I can wait outside until you’re done?” His digitized voice rang out.
The Mandalorian woman snapped her vision towards the door, a Westar in hand pointing at the figure who just entered. She had enough of stuff going on and now the bickering between Jorm and Teebu wasn’t helping either. The only thing that stopped her from shooting directly was that he came without weapons drawn.
“What do you want?!”
Jorm tossed his remaining and as of yet unarmed ion grenade blindly towards the electronic voice without taking his eyes off Teebu.
“Push the button to draw a number, hold on to it, be with you shortly.”
The voice and tall figure was hard to miss. If this was Appius Wight, then he would die here, or find a quick way to end the rumors about his death—and concede any semblance of provocation. Aphotis had claimed her Sith name, having it associated with the death of another, without her knowledge, was a strict taboo. Taking on a new name was both a prestige and a challenge to all Sith, one that she would meet any time.
Click, clack, click
She paced towards the one that she calculated could potentially be Wight, until a metal object was thrown in the air by Jorm.
“If you are who I think you are, die by my blade, or revoke your finality from the galaxy!”
“Hang on a minute, Jorm, Aphotis! I don’t think this is a hostile.” Teebu called out, hoping Jorm wouldn’t activate those grenades. He holstered his disabled blasters and gave a brief glare as a sign of telling Jorm ‘not now, we’ll resolve this later’ and looked at the figure, instantly recognizing the voice despite the digitization. All the time they spent together, the mannerisms that only he would have known after all the meetings and the bantering in private. Even the word sequences.
He looked over at the figure as he removed his own helmet, letting it clatter to the floor. As he did, however, he kept an eye on Aphotis as he sensed that despite his statement to hang on, there was something else going on. “…Appius? Is it really you?”
Depending on the answer, he hoped Jorm would potentially side with him on this.
He watched as the grenade…. failed… to explode and simply clanked to the ground beside her instead, since Jorm hadn’t activated it. This was definitely Appius.
“I had assumed she was here to rescue you, like I was, but I’m guessing that isn’t the case. Jorm, ironically, has decided to try and kill me as well even despite stating my intentions for being here for you.” he said as he crouched down and picked up the energy cells, slowly making his way backwards towards Appius as he clicked them back into place and reprimed his blasters. “We’ll have to postpone catching up, though, until we are out of here. Unless you think you can diplomatically defuse this.”
As he spoke, he thought about Ankira, and was unsure where she would land with this. Teebu knew full well his disappearance wasn’t of his own accord, even if Jorm didn’t believe that and touted ‘respect’ as the reason he himself didn’t hunt for him, so maybe Ankira wouldn’t be mad at him…maybe. He would leave that fight for them to handle.
“Wait! Are you telling me that is Appius? He doesn’t look like it, doesn’t even sound like him… though he kinda speaks like him. For all I see it is a droid that acts like Appius only to spite me even more after hearing Anders kill him while I thought he was lost all that time with the kids somewhere in space.”
Her gun arm wavered until she finally straightened her aim, trying to contain herself not to shoot this thing.
“Ni kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la Do you know how many times I have said that? Hoping it was real instead of the true meaning? Now tell me, are you who Teebu said you are? ” Ankira a slight shake in her voice.
While Appius’s reveal did not shock Aphotis, Ankira’s revelation did widen her eyes. She kicked away the metal object nonchalantly and walked up closer to Wight.
“If Aequitas wished you dead as Ankira here just stated, he must have had a reason, or a calling. How much of that is true, Appius?” Her voice became darker as a claw reached for her lightsaber hilt from under her backpack.
With slow, steady paces, he approached Ankira, though he made sure not to take his eyes off of Alaisy, nor his rifle. He was unperturbed by her reaching for her lightsaber.
“Aequitas? Is that what he calls himself now? Doesn’t matter. He’s a dead man when I next see him.”
Once he was in a couple of feet of Ankira. He placed a hand on her blaster and slowly lowered it.
“Shi'Kar has missed you. Rausu too,” he said as gently as his altered voice would allow.
<@188018248241905664> <@417336769181122562>
Ankira glanced at his hand for a moment before narrowing her eyes, “Why did you kept silence while we were still searching for you? How could you have kept our kids from me? How could you not have contacted me?!”
She rammed her fist into his chest, “You di'kut!”
Teebu himself wasn’t going to say it, as he knew it would break Ankira’s heart as to why he didn’t contact her. He didn’t have a choice in that, either. Not based on what he had found over the years of him at various locations he had tracked down. It was enough he knew Appius was alive each time he got close but so far knowing he had just been there by the time he arrived. As for the when and how he managed to get away, much less how he is now…that part was a complete mystery.
Normally he would have wanted to dig into Rockford’s database and scour everything she knew, now that shes gone and can’t kick him from it and recalibrate it’s firewalls every chance she got. But…since he was there before them, there was no reason to at this point in time. Knowing how Appius could get distracted at times of emotion, he raised his blasters; one at Aphotis and one at Jorm, watching them both carefully.
He said nothing, however, letting the two have their reunion. They deserved that much. He instead thought about how Anders was going to pay for this, much like whoever orchestrated and whoever killed his double.
Jorm snapped his fingers once more and sent the energy cell pointed his way flying again.
Lack. Of. Smarts, he silently mouthed at the hairy shortstack.
Apparent Appius’ new appearance was indeed interesting and required testing a hypothesis or two, but if it was indeed his estranged frenemy, Jorm wasn’t about to deny Ankira her pound of flesh.
Alaisy on the edge and too many unknowns about the Ewok however threatened to turn the whole situation into a blender.
It was time for some certainty.
“Appius. Helmet off,” he demanded, his voice a wet growl behind smiling teeth.
The bear-thing was added to the list as she saw the blaster pointed at her.
‘Foolish’
It was up to Appius to save whatever remained of his skin. Jorm’s demand, if it was met, would be enough to drop the challenge and Wight would stay safe from her unless the rumors kept spreading. It was either kill the half-man, half-robot in front of her, or violently confront every single person who continued to believe the false whispers.
That would be an insurmountable number of deaths, but the thought was enticing all the same.
“Nice to see you too, Jorm. Unfortunately, I… can’t…” Appius pointed to a set of connectors on his armor. “I’m connected to a life support system. If I remove this helmet, I won’t be able to breathe, but if you need proof…”
Appius cleared his throat.
“That weapon you have in your hand is based on the design of the darksaber, though tbe metallic phoenix is the symbol of Clan Klars of Mandalore. You are the Chancellor of Chyron… erm, you are still Chancellor right? And you participated in the invasion of Port Kasiya where you killed Masher in what can only be described as an epic free fall.”
<@414705077484257280>
“I didn’t tell anyone because I spent the majority of the time recovering from my injuries and getting used to my new limbs. I didn’t want to put the children at risk if anyone found out I was still alive.”
Her hand hurt from the first punch she threw at him, but she was not done with him yet and punched him straight at his helmet. Perhaps that would get through to him.
“You broke the oath that we would solve everything together!” she followed with a whole slur of Mandalorian curses before breaking down and starting to cry as she fell to her knees.
“Di'kut…”
“Which is a heavily televised event as of my first term. You’ll survive without for fifteen seconds.”
Appius sighed. So be it. He couldn’t stand seeing Ankira like this. He thought he was prepared. He was not. He had a lot of making up to do.
His helmet was vacuum sealed. When he undid it, a hiss of air left it as he slowly undid the connectors that sustained what was left of his organic body. With each one loosening, he felt his lungs working harder to sustain him.
He slid his helmet off and, sure enough, blue eyes stared back at the group, though his face was pale, and getting paler by the second, it was undeniably him.
“Good… enough?” He gasped in between breaths.
The visor blinked as the image was captured, this would be enough evidence to clear the rumors. The lightsaber hilt was put away and a claw moved up to her mask where her chin would be. Perhaps she could take this to a certain Aequitas.
“Farewell,” the Sith kept her words short, her mask hissing at the bear-thing as she walked off toward the hangar.
“Based on what I learned during my time hunting him in Wild Space, what I saw…” Teebu said as he holstered his blasters and completely ignored Jorm from this moment onward, “…he was basically being treated as a lab rat and a prisoner.”
“That was why I remained as deep as I could and didn’t return to Taldryan, in fear we would lose him forever if the trail ever went cold.”
“Wasn’t… fun…” Appius placed his helmet back on his head and redid the connectors.
Jorm let the entity that was Appius wash over him, haggard face, scars, feelings and intentions, and sought the old patterns that had made the man. He found them shifted, curtailed, aged… but at their core still intact.
“I’ll let it count, Apps.”
“If… we are done… I think we can catch up on the way back,” Appius held his hand out to Jorm. “I believe… that lightsaber is… mine.”
Appius took the lightsaber out of Jorm’s hand and bent down to his wife.
“Ankira?” He reached out to her.
<@417336769181122562>
She ignored his hand, instead she put her Westar away in her holster and got up.
“Show me my children, no tricks, no detours or anything.” The Chiss said softly and started to walk away. She felt betrayed and cold, but at least there was a promise she would be seeing her children again.