Session export: The Wayward Kin

Adele raised her eyebrows when Marick spoke of trust. She had a hard time believing that either man gave their trust that freely. Wyn was the Blind Man, the head of the Cartel that handled Arcona’s more nefarious activities. And Marick… well. One only needed to look at Marick to know that he had endured hardship in his life.

So then, why say such a thing? Was it a trick? A ploy to inspire loyalty and trust in return? Maybe. But surely no one would be naive enough to believe it.

The simple fact was that Adele was bored. Not that long ago, she had been the second in command of her family’s criminal cartel. She had been busy. She had been useful. And, for the most part, she had been good at it.

But that was before. She had chosen her brother’s life over her own position. Now her days were a monotonous repetition of meals, training, sleep, and trying to avoid being alone with Anselm. Trying to avoid the conversation they really needed to have. Trying to avoid the nightmares and the self-recriminations too.

So she’d jumped at the opportunity to take the mission. Anything to keep busy. Anything to feel useful.

Little did she know that they would be paired up for the mission. She probably should have expected it though.

She studied the illusion carefully. It was already familiar, as she had already memorized the mission dossier and as much intel on the Capital Enterprise headquarters and on the Collective as she could get her hands on. She raised an eyebrow when Oderyn raised a hand before shyly putting it down. When no one else spoke for a moment, she did.

“What are our parameters for use of force?”

Adele’s gave a slight nod. She could at least appreciate the pragmatism. She could not abide people who could not stomach the sometimes necessary measures to achieve peace and dominance. “What is our mission window?”

“So we are on our own until we hear from you,” Adele surmised. She did not seem troubled by that. Quite the contrary. She was rather looking forward to the challenge, and the chance to prove herself.

She settled back, waiting for any others to ask their questions.

“And what are we supposed to be doing once we’re inside?” Soryn asked, stifling a yawn. “Take out everyone in the building? Leave no prisoners? That sort of thing?”

She hadn’t bothered to look at the dossier beyond the floorplan. Planning was never her forte. She was far more interested in what her mentor wasn’t telling them than the booklet that was left on her desk. She put her hands in her pockets and stared at her mentor, trying her best to read his limited expressions.

“Are we trying to sieze their assets?”

This job sounded kinda fun, and Anselm had little issue with wiping out the Collective. Between what they’ve apparently done to Arcona, and the Brotherhood as a whole, the Ember Crown had had their own run ins with this faction.

“Why not make a profit off of them if we can. Burn it all down after.” With the snap of his fingers, a small flame emanated from his thumb.

“Pass,” Soryn grumbled. She kept her eyes averted from the fire. “I don’t do math.”

“There are four of us. I’m sure someone has the education for it.” Anselm responded matter of factly. His tone held no sign of intended insult.

Adele restrained the urge to heave a sigh. Had no one read the mission briefing?

Noting Soryn’s reaction to her brother’s flame, she reached her hand out without looking and rested it on his hand, snuffing the flame in the process. If it burned her, she showed little in way of reaction.

“Our mission is to find any intel of Rath Oligard.” She glanced at her brother. “But there will likely be… opportunities once we have achieved our objective.”

“Primary objective, dear sister, yes that is our primary objective. But we can have secondary objectives as well.”

Anselm gave his sister a sly smile after she spoke and put out his flame. The he turned to listen to Marick and Wyn’s more detailed analysis, and reaction to his nonchalant flames. He repressed the urge to roll his eyes at their warnings of his fire, as if he didnt understand the danger fire could bring.

When they had finally ended their recitation, Anselm gave a slight bow before speaking again.

“Any information on Oligard will be provided, of course, on my honor I swear it. That being said, I want to bankrupt these bastards as well, if I can.” The chirping of his ID10 droid echoed his sentiments. “We still have a ship to buy, Dele, don’t we?”

The mention of them buying a ship was met with a brief stab of pain, which Adele quickly buried. She returned Anselm’s smile. “Yes, of course. Once we have completed our primary objective.”

She gave Marick and Wyn a nod. “I’ll do my best.” She studied Oderyn and Soryn out of the corner of her eye, trying to divine their reactions to their impending departure. You could tell a lot about a person by the way they acted before a mission.

“Right,” Adele said, looking the purple-clad woman up and down intently. Marick said he trusted her, for whatever that was worth. “I suppose it’s now or never.”

Soryn smacked Oderyn on the back. “Alright airhead,” she grinned, “go on and give your daddy a kiss goodbye.”

She gave her mentor a nod before heading towards the Zygerrian.

Soryn didn’t do goodbyes - evidently just as much as the twins did hellos. City people weren’t warm and friendly like the ones in the village. They had agendas and allies, not friends.

She didn’t wait for the twins to follow into the shuttle. If they were educated enough, they’d figure it out.

Seeing that there was not anything else to say, Adele turned and headed toward the shuttle. She nodded to Zig as she approached and started to board. “Hello, I’m Adele. It’s nice to meet you despite the circumstances.”

It felt strange, introducing herself. Where she came from, everyone knew who she was. Of course, that hadn’t worked out so well. But both Marick and Wyn indicated that they trusted this woman, whatever that meant, so it seemed correct to at least try to be friendly.

Anselm gave Soryn a curious glance as she smacked the other one before joking with him.

Must be a sister thing, he thought to himself as memories of getting hit repeatedly in the head by Adele surfaced.

He shook his head before following the rest into the vessel. He checked over his equipment and weapons, making sure he was ready to go. His droid followed him, flying close by.

Adele settled down in a seat near the Selenians, trying to recall how long the trip to the Cor'nerai system would take.

“So, how long have the two of you been with Arcona?” She asked at last as her brother boarded the ship.

“Long enough,” Soryn grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes trailed over the twins and their too-clean outfits. “Some of us didn’t exactly sign up for this whole nonsense.” She stared politely at Oderyn.

“Well, this was definitely a surprise,” Adele said as she took out her lightsaber and began to check it over. “But then again, we’ve only been around a few weeks.”

Adele had done this so many times that she could do it in her sleep, carefully checking the couplings and the chamber that held the kyber crystal. Content that it was battle ready, she turned her attention to her lightsaber gauntlet. She listened to Oderyn’s words, making a note of them.

“I’m sorry that happened to you. It’s a terrible thing to lose a home,” she said as she worked. Her fingers paused for a moment, before continuing with their practiced movements. “Maybe you’ll have the opportunity for payback.”

“We too lost our home, though not to siege but too much needed separation and choice. We’ve not been a part of this new home for long, but if we want to try to live anew, we must protect it anyway.”

Anselm inspected his lightsaber much the same way his sister did, before moving on to his dual daggers. Tools of war that these were, he needed them to survive and to keep his sister safe.

Adele frowned at Anselm’s choice of words. Much needed separation and choice. But she kept her head down and her attention on her weapons. This was not the time to open old wounds.

“Not really the same thing, now is it?” Soryn muttered under her breath. “Must be nice to have a choice.” Her jaw clenched as she turned her body away from the twins and stared out the window.

She was going to have words with Marick when this was all over.

What a wonderful day it was turning out to be. First they insulted her intelligence, and now they’re rubbing in the fact that they still had a home to go to if they wanted.

There was nothing but ashes left for her to return to, no home filled with the silver spoons they were obviously used to. If it weren’t for the numerous number of skulls she was going to be smashing in the very near future, she knew her sword would be turning itself on the one inspecting his lightsaber like it was some gods-given gift.

Who knows? Given her luck, it probably was, and this was just their elaborate way of rubbing more salt into the wounds they had caused, reminding her of everything she couldn’t have.

Her eyes narrowed. Screw them and screw the gods. They could throw every punch, could tear her limb from limb, but no matter what they tried, she would persevere. She would crawl her way out of whatever chaos and despair they threw at her, with nothing but her teeth if she had to. This was just a test - these people, this mission, this group - and she would not fail.

She lifted her chin defiantly in the air and yelled, “Hey Zig! How much longer?”

A childhood spent trying and failing to maintain the peace between her father and her brother had taught Adele how to read people. Not that it took any particular skill to read Soryn. The Selenian’s body language and demeanor all but shouted her emotions and opinions.

Context clues made it simple to piece together why. The Selenians had experienced grave trauma that had left their home in ruins, perhaps at the hands of the Collective. They were utterly lost and trying to find their way.

And at that particular moment, Adele was having a hard time mustering much sympathy for the girl. In the scant amount of time she had spent in Arcona, she had quickly learned that trauma was the norm for these people. An Arconan who’d had a normal, happy childhood was more rare than a skinny Hutt. They ALL had baggage; what mattered was whether they could put it aside to get the job done. And from what Adele had seen so far, she didn’t think Soryn could.

It appears they’ve put us at the kiddie table, little brother, she said through the link she shared with Anselm. The girl is going to be a liability.

That was going to be a problem. They needed to prove their worth. No. She needed to prove her worth. She’d made so many mistakes back in the Ember Crown. She had to be better here. She had to be perfect. She was not going to let some brat’s temper tantrum ruin this chance for a new life, or put her brother’s life in jeopardy. If it meant stuffing Soryn in a closet until the job was done, so be it.

She was shaken from her thoughts when a box of communicators was held in front of her face, causing her to jump in surprise.

Idiot. Keep your wits about you.

She offered Zig a smile as she took a communicator and set it into her ear. “Thanks.”

I consider this a test then Andelm responded along their link. Let’s not frack this up.

The blonde took his communicator and placed it within his ear. He nodded in thanks the the pilot. He looked out the transparasteel windows of the shuttle to watch as they made their approach. He took out his daggers, and threaded his fingers through the gripping holes.

Don’t get dead, dear sister. I’ll watch your back, and you watch mine.

“This is where the fun begins.”

This only works if we bring them back too, Adele replied. Or at least have a karking good reason not to.

Still, she could not help but to smile. That goes double for you. Be careful. And watch the fire. My armor is fireproof, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t.

I think the enemy will understand the gravity of the situation soon. He grinned and what he believed to be clever wordplay.

Adele groaned aloud at the bad pun, seemingly to her brother’s spoken comment. She punched him in the shoulder, but did not reply.

Soryn placed the communicator in her ear before turning and fixing Oderyn’s. She missed the simple life of the village but enjoyed the technological advantages that living in a larger city provided.

Zig had shown her some of the basics in one of the rare times she had passed by the orphanage. Soryn had shown interest in one of the old data pads while waiting for Oderyn and Marick to return from training, but much to Zig’s disappointment, she had no desire to follow in her footsteps.

As she set the communicator in his ear, Soryn watched the twins out of the corner of her eye. She raised an eyebrow at the seemly out of nowhere smacking. She wanted to smile, feeling the slight curve to the edges of her lips.

Perhaps Adele wasn’t so bad – she had a solid right hook.

The twins had a strange way about them, eerily moving and reacting to one another as if they were having some silent conversation.

As they made their final adjustments to their armor and muttered to each other about how fun it was going to be, Soryn looked down at the thrown-together, hand-me-down clothes her and Ody wore, biting back a sigh.

They were nowhere near as nice or prepared as the twins.

She thought about making a joke about how little Marick cared about their safety in comparison to Wyn, but the thought of seeing the sad glint in Ody’s eyes when he wondered if there was any truth to that statement left too bitter of a taste in her mouth.

Soryn supposed this was another thing to add to the list of grievances to Marick once they finished the mission.

She stood up and secured the sword on her back before placing a hand on Ody’s shoulder. “Ready?”

“Before we go,” Adele said, “we should take a moment and review our strengths for tactical purposes. Better to take a minute and do so now than have to figure it out under live fire.”

“Well, we already know what flame boy can do,” Soryn smirked, using her smile as a shield. She didn’t want to think about the fire. “I hit things. Sometimes with the force, sometimes without.” She looked at Adele. “What about you?”

Adele nodded when Oderyn spoke about being good with a spear, and Soryn being good at hitting things. She smiled in encouragement when Oderyn tried to use telekinesis. “Keep at it. It takes time is all.”

Adele’s smile took on a bitter edge. In truth, she could do a lot of things, but most weren’t useful in combat. That, unfortunately, was part of the problem. “Mostly I teleport into the middle of a fight and hit things with my lightsabers,” she said, summing up her favorite tactic. “Good. It sounds like we have a good mix of melee and ranged fighters.”

Adele followed Oderyn, keeping a constant lookout for any threats that might present itself. Much of the fighting had collapsed into skirmishes, knots of allies engaging with the Collective forces in strategic locations. The fighting was sparse on the outskirts of the urban sprawl that surrounded the CEMC entrance, but Zig indicated that the number of skirmishes increased as one got closer to the interior.

For the moment, though, it seemed as if Oderyn had chosen his path wisely, allowing them to skirt a wide path between areas where the two groups clashed. They would likely have no choice but to fight, but it would be better to delay as long as possible. Who knew what they would encounter inside the facility itself.

The low percussion of distant ordinance combined with the sound of weapons fire and distant shouts, echoing off the walls to make it difficult to determine where the fighting was taking place.

Her upbringing left her well accustomed to urban combat. The urban streets surrounding the CEMC seemed cleaner than the slums of Nar Shaddaa or the lower levels of Coruscant. But, despite the lack of graffiti on the walls and the relative absence of both human and material refuse littering the ground, the fundamentals remained the same. Stick close to the walls, check corners before crossing streets, keep your head down and your wits about you.

Adele frowned at the lift, not liking the idea of squeezing into such cramped quarters when they weren’t sure what would be waiting for them on the other side. A quick query to Zig confirmed what she already suspected: that there was little intel in this area of the base. They would be going in blind.

“Well, this’ll be cozy,” she said, though her attempt at levity did little to hide the edge in her voice. “There might be guards on the other side. Once we get there, maybe Anselm and I should get in last, in case we need to deflect blaster fire.”

Of course, it would put them closer to the line of fire. But they were also better armored, and so they could better soak any damage that might come there way.

It was possible that there was nothing guarding the other side of the lift. But she would prefer to be prepared in case there was. If they were armed with blasters, they would be fine. Slugthrowers would be dicey. If they had grenades… well. It would turn ugly real quick.

“Shall we?”

Soryn nodded and tightened her grip on her sword. She didn’t like the idea of a stranger acting as her shield, but kept her mouth shut. The twins were outfitted better than they were and Adele seemed eager to take the lead. She seemed almost hungry for it, like she had something to prove, and Soryn had no desire to take that from her.

Anselm looked over to his sister with a grin. These other siblings believed that fire was all he had. Time to show them that he was no more one-trick bantha.

“Give me a minute. I’ll restrain them for you guys.”

He stepped out and approached the security droids nonchalantly. His hands lay behind his head, cradling it as if this was just another tuesday.

“Hey there, I think I took a wrong turn somewhere. Can you tell me how to find the refresher?

The droids snapped their attention to the approaching human. Blasters turned on him.

"Announcement. Halt. You do not have access to be here.”

“Yeah I know, as I said, i just needed some help.”

“Warning. Turn back now. Or you will be held under arrest.”

“Damn, and here I hope this would simpler.”

“Command. Hands up!”

Anselm grinned as he channeled the Force. “As you wish.”

He raised his hands up, and the droids began to float, weightless. It was as if the gravity that held them in place had vanished. The droids thrashed about, mechanical limbs grasping for solid ground. As they reached about fifteen feet in the air their wirey voices rang out.

“Notice. You will put us down.”

As his eyes narrowed devilishly, Anselm cracked his neck. His intentions in the Force reversed and he dropped his hands down hard.

“Gladly.”

As if gravity intensified greatly, the droid came crashing back to the floor with increased force and speed. They were unable to get up and move as speaks flew from their joints and gears.

“Distress! Systems non-functioning! Cannot…move!”

“They’re restrained guys! You can finish em off if you want.”

Adele restrained the urge to sigh at her brother’s unnecessarily showy method for restraining the droids. What if he’d been shot? But he hadn’t been. At least there was that. She emerged from their cover and crossed the distance to where the droids were pinned, suppressing the urge to chide him over the unnecessary risk he took all the while. What was the point of all this if he went and got himself killed while showing off?

“Good job,” she finally managed begrudgingly as she used her lightsaber to permanently disable to squalling droids.

She turned toward the lift panel, and saw that Zig had already activated it from her remote position. That woman worked fast. A moment later, the doors slid open to reveal a closet-sized lift.

“It looks like our ride is here.”

Soryn went next into the elevator, giving Oderyn a grin over her shoulder as she went. Adele and Anselm exchanged glances briefly, as if some unspoken conversation was passing between them. Finally, Adele got on, with Anselm crowding in behind her.

‘Tight fit’ was an understatement. Though the occupants shuffled, trying not to crowd one another too much, it was impossible to avoid brushing up against almost every other person in that confined space. The reason for Soryn’s earlier grin quickly became apparent: her smaller stature made things significantly easier for her. Oderyn, meanwhile, looked distinctly miserable as he tried to scrunch his larger frame into too small a space without brushing inappropriately against either Adele or Soryn.

No one was comfortable in such a cramped space. Adele was acutely aware of just how little room to move they had. She was not claustrophobic by any means, but the idea of having to fight their way out of such a situation was making her more and more uncomfortable. She shifted awkwardly from one foot to another, trying to move as little as possible. She thought she succeeded, until she felt her hip brush against someone else, and saw Oderyn’s face go crimson red.

“Uh… sorry,” she said, blushing a little herself.

Nobody spoke as the elevator began to hum, and they got the distinct impression of downward movement.

The air quickly became hot, the result of too many people crammed into too small of a space. Adele, for her part, tried to breathe as little as possible to avoid rubbing up against the other occupants more than necessary.

After what felt like an eternity, the elevator dinged. The doors slid open to reveal a dimly lit corridor. The walls were made of simple, undecorated durasteel. The floors were duracrete, scuffed and marked by the tread of droids, workers and service vehicles.

There were no signs, and the only indication of direction were a variety of colored lines painted into the floor. One black, one yellow, one red, though it was impossible to know where each line led.

Fortunately, Adele’s fears were unfounded. There was no sign of analytical guards in this remote area of the base. The assault above, combined with Zig’s shenanigans, had drawn away any guards that might have been covering the elevator.

So they were able to spill out of the elevator without incident, probably looking like clowns emerging from a too-small clown-speeder. After taking a few deep breaths of the sterile air, and taking in their surroundings, Adele glanced down at the lines painted into the floor. “Where to, do you think?”

Adele and Anselm followed the yellow line through nondescript hallways that completely lacked signage. They would occasionally encounter intersections, where lines of other colors would appear briefly, before vanishing down other, equally unmarked passages.

It quickly became apparent that the yellow path was taking them downward. It was also carrying them away from the fighting. As the halls continued to angle steeply downward, the rumble of bombing runs gradually faded away. As did the occasional distant shouts of Collective soldiers as they hurried to whatever rendezvous point served as their destination.

It soon became quiet. The air was still and cold.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Adele finally asked, as the twins paused to inspect an intersection. A single magenta line intersected their yellow one before continuing on.

“The backup server room.” Zig’s voice sounded distant, as their connection popped and sizzled with static. Despite the less-that-ideal connection, they could hear a note of distraction in her voice.

“Oh, right. The backup server room,” Anselm replied. “Why’re we going there?”

“Because those Capital Enterprises morons tried to be sneaky. They deleted all the juicy stuff but left- ha! There, got it all! So much for their super advanced cybersecurity!”

Adele cast her brother a questioning glance, but he just shrugged his shoulders. He was just as in the dark as she was. Moving as one, they both turned and continued to follow the yellow line deeper into the bowels of the planet.

“Where was I? Oh yeah! They’re deleting all their data, and flagging Rath’s. As if they think snrrkt wouldn’t notice. I was able to snag a bunch of stuff, like cracklecrackle enough. Luckily, these scrrricktbzzt addicted to making backups of backups. The yellow bzztcrackle offline shortly after I breached their system.”

Adele paused and glanced back, wondering if they should retreat long enough to get more intel from Zig. But Anselm, ever the more impulsive of the two, hurried into the darkness.

“So we get to server room and retrieve complete copies of the records that were hidden from you? Is that what we’re doing here?” Adele tapped her earpiece, as if it would somehow improve the connection.

“Yup! Just keep buzzzzzzzzzzz yellow line and crrsssshhhkt reconnect the server cracklebuzzmorestaticsounds guards.”

At the mention of the word guards, Adele grumbled a curse under her breath and hurried to catch up with her brother. Zig kept talking, but the connection became so bad that Adele finally had to turn the earpiece off.

“Looks like we’re on our own,” she said when she finally caught up with Anselm.

“Just like old times,” he replied with a grin.

Down and down the twins raced. The air steadily became cooler and the lamps on the walls more infrequent. Still the yellow line continued.

At last, it lead to a closed door. Adele started to pull out her slicing kit, but Anselm was quicker, cutting a circular hole in the metal with his lightsaber.

The room beyond was a cavernous shaft that descended even deeper into the planet. The room was dominated by databanks. A catwalk traversed the space, their thin yellow line continuing along it and through a door on the opposite side of the huge space. But the massive databanks that dominated the space made it clear that they had arrived at their destination. They lined the walls and created great, electronic pillars that descended into the depths below.

Leaning over the safety rail, they could see more catwalks below, but there was nothing beyond the softly blinking lights to indicate how deep the cavern went.

“How much you want to bet we’ve got to go all the way to the bottom?” Anselm asked.

“I’m not taking that bet,” Adele said, rolling her eyes. “We both know that’s what we’re gonna have to do. Do you see any guards?”

“Nope,” Anselm said. He vanished, reappearing a moment later on the catwalk below. Adele teleported after him. Taking turns, the twins began teleporting into the depths. Each time she vanished and reappeared in a different space, Adele held her breath, expecting the guards Zig had mentioned to appear at any moment. But none did.

When they at last reached the floor of the server room, untold miles below the surface, she began to breathe a sigh of relief. Perhaps Zig’s intel had been wrong, and there were no guards.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

The server room was quiet, at first. The twins found the main terminals, and the space seemed unguarded…until the ray shields activated. Walls of light surrounded the terminals and servers, keeping them out of the sibling’s reach, and safe from harm.

“Well frack. This isn’t good.” Anselm said lowly, giving his siter a sidelong glance. “Guess we’ll have to disengage these first.”

Before Adele could reply to him though, a low growling noise could be heard behind them. The room was unusually expansive, especially considering the servers were located only along one wall, a minor flank of the larger space. When they turned to investigate the darkness of the area, a set of red lights bore down on them. The floor rumbled as something large stalked towards them.

Anselm focused on a nearby control panel and his finger twitched as he channeled the Force to his will. Activating the panel, the lights in the room began to flicker on. One by one. Until the terror in front of them was seen in all its glory. A large beast, native to the sands of Tatooine. A Krayt Dragon, except this one had been clearly altered. Amidst its brown armored flesh flanks of metal lay intertwined with scales. The lower jaw and much of the neck and into the belly had been replaced with cybernetic alterations. Glowing red mechanical eyes followed the twins.

“Well shit, those Techno-fracks really outdid themselves, didn’t they Del?” “Anselm, shut up and stay alert.”

Another low growl escaped the cybernetic dragon as to their astonishment wisps of flame sputtered from its maw before a blazing inferno spewed forth at them. Tapping into his own fiery nature, Anselm held the flames at bay. The heat was so intense as he commanded the Force and dissipated the flames, that he could feel the skin on his hands crack and peel as his forehead beaded of sweat.

Electricity sparked Adele’s fingertips as her inner rage intensified. With a strained growl bolts of lightning surged forward from her hands and through the coming fires, colliding with the overgrown cyborg.

Blue lighting cut through the gloom to strike the cybernetic monstrosity in front of them. Lines of electricity danced along the metal plating, causing the organic scales to crack and char. The dragon shook its head, looking dazed for a moment.

But only a moment. Adele’s heart sank as the creature bared its teeth at them and opened its jaws wide to unleash another torrent of flame.

Anselm was already widening his stance to protect them from the flames. But she could see how cracked and reddened his hands were from his previous attempt. She held up her own hand, palm facing the dragon. A golden corona of light appeared a moment before the gout of flame reached them, protecting them from the fire and leaving only a hot wind to wash over them.

“That’s karking handy,” Anselm said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Adele replied sourly. The fact that the dragon had shrugged off the one thing she could do better than her brother was… galling, to say the least.

But the Barrier gave them a moment to breathe and look around. The massive databanks ended high above, likely placed out of reach of their draconic guard to prevent any damage. But thick cables continued downward, likely double reinforced with multiple redundancies. They all led to a bank of computers that stood in an alcove against one wall. Their intended target.

Unfortunately, this computers were protected by a barrier of their own. A red force field shimmered in the gloom, preventing easy access. Even as Adele wondered if they could just teleport through, Anselm tsked under his breath and shook his head. “No good. It’s shielded.”

“Great.”

“Well!” Anselm clapped her on the shoulder. “Nothing for it. Get to slicing, sis. I’ll keep the giant robot lizard from cooking us.”

“Now hold on! You did all the fighting last time!” Adele’s words were punctuated as more flames crashed against her barrier. The dragon had taken a few steps closer to make a better attempt at cooking them. She gritted her teeth and redoubled her concentration. “It’s my turn to do the fighting.”

“You’re better with the slicing shit, ‘Del. We need to work to our strengths.”

Adele growled under her breath at the implication that fighting was not her strength. “Then we take it out together.”

Anselm gave her a sideways glance as he unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. “Do you know how long we have before backup arrives? Zig did say ‘guards’, right?”

“Yes, she did, but—”

“Then it’s settled. Love you, sis! Don’t mess this up!”

With a cheery wave, Anselm vanished, only to reappear a moment later behind and above the dragon. His lightsaber ignited as he fell, the plasma blade burying itself into the scales of its back.

“Karking damn it!” Adele’s shout was drowned out by the dragon’s roar of rage and pain. “YOU don’t mess this up, you big idiot!”

She ran toward the shielded alcove, snatching her slicing kit off of her belt as she went. There was a key panel next to the alcove, perfect. She jammed a dummy key card into the slot and began to type furiously into the small device.

Adele was not Zig. Her efforts were more like a worker swinging a sledgehammer rather than a duelist wielding a rapier. She may not have been fast, but she would batter away at the Collective’s security until she knocked a hole through it.

Anselm, meanwhile, fought the dragon. Fire wreathed his body and his weapon, causing the air around him to ripple with heat. The dragon, perhaps thinking that he was already on fire, did not bother to breathe its burning breath on him again. Instead, it tried to crush him with claws and tail.

But Anselm deftly avoided each blow, sometimes by teleporting, other times by simply moving. Each dodge was accompanied by a flurry of punches and kicks that left scorched marks on the creature’s scaly hide. Clearly, it would take more heat to burn the dragon.

Sweat beaded Adele’s brow as she worked. After a moment, she realized it was not nerves that was causing her to perspire. The air around her was getting hotter. She glanced back at where her brother fought the dragon, and saw that the very air around them had taken on an orange haze.

The dragon slammed one of its claws down in an attempt to land a bone shattering blow. Anselm jumped backward, his jaw clenched with concentration. The dragon’s claw impacted upon the stone floor with enough force to make the ground tremble. The stone cracked, and the ventures claw sank deep into the pit of sand that Anselm had created. It roared with pain, as the sand was already beginning to melt with the heat of his fire.

The former Prince of Embers was already on the move. He teleported behind the dragon, lashing out with burning hands and feet at the dragon’s back hind leg, forcing it to turn and swing its tail at him. Anselm ducked the swipe, though it was a close one. The breeze of the passing tail caused his fire for dance chaotically.

A moment later, the dragon stumbled as its foot sank into another pit of sand right below it. It’s roar of pain was shrill, and when it extricate its claw from the rapidly melting sand, it was seared, smoking, and covered with clear liquid that was quickly hardening into glass.

Anselm could see that the sand in the two pits he’d created were mostly liquid. But he needed it to be hotter. Much hotter.

The dragon seemed to be slowing down, either unaccustomed to food that fought back, or perhaps made wary by Anselm’s unconventional attacks. Either way, it gave him an opened.

He took a deep breath just as his Uncle taught him, allowing it to stoke the flames within him. The fire of his soul that burned brightly. The fires of rage that his own father had set alight. He could feel that heat radiating off of him. Hotter than the core of a planet. Hotter than the sun. He draw upon that fire, and began to shape it.

Adele breathed a sigh of relief as the lock clicked and the energy field vanished. At that moment, the temperature shot up. It was stifling. Looking across the cavernous room, she realized that she could barely see her brother and the dragon through the heat and flames.

“Huh…” She was beginning to understand why her brother hadn’t wanted her to fight with him. Not if he’d planned to do something like that.

She pulled her helmet on, the armor specially crafted to protect against fire and extreme heat. She was protected. She could help him. But the server still had to be connected.

There was still work to be done. Which meant she had to trust that he could finish the job and keep himself safe.

Did she trust him to do that?

Adele watched him for a moment more, before picking up her slicing kit and retreating into the alcove. “You’d better not die,” she muttered over her shoulder.

The heat felt stifling to him, so he couldn’t imagine what it felt like to the rest to the world. The kraft dragon was now keening with pain, its tail lashing out, it’s cybernetic enhancements glowing with a dull orange light. Still, it bared its teeth at him, intent on fighting him, even despite the fact that so much of its circuitry had likely been destroyed by the heat.

The two pools of sand glowed too, melted sand heated to lava.

Anselm reached once more for the fires that burned within him, intent to land the killing blow and put the creature out of its misery. Yet the roaring fires of his soul had banked down significantly, mostly spent.

He would only have one chance at this.

The former Prince of Embers took in another deep breath, drawing upon everything he had. The sand-turned-lava lifted from the pits he’d created in twin columns, twining like flaming serpents before slamming into the dragon.

The kraft dragon screamed. The earth beneath it trembled as the molten lava burned and suffocated it at the same time. It dropped to the ground, thrashing and twitching. After what felt like an eternity, it finally lay still.

“Well… fought…” Anselm managed. Then the world abruptly pitched sideways and went dark.

Reconnecting the server back to the main network seemed like childs play after dealing with the lock. Two things happened at the same time. The first thing was that her slicing kit began to screech and smoke, as a crudely drawn lolth-cat outline began to dance across the screen. Zig’s doing, mostly likely.

The second thing was that the dragon began to scream.

Adele came tearing out of the alcove, and was nearly bowled over that the wall of heat that met her. The internal temperatures of her suit immediately began to flash warnings.

Was her brother really capable of all this?

She could just barely make out the dragon’s massive form as it became still, and her brother’s smaller figure standing over it. A moment later, he collapsed.

“Shit!” she gasped. Acting without thinking, she teleported into the center of the inferno just long enough to grab her brother. Her armor’s alerts became a scream of alarm. Another teleport set them on the lowest catwalk, out of the way of the rising heat.

“You massive idiot!” Adele snarled as she all but dropped his limp form onto the walkway. His body was hot to the touch, so much so that she still needed her flame-resistant armor to even touch him. She checked him over as best she could, and sighed with relief to see that he was still alive. Exhausted, but alive.

“Stupid. You’d better not die,” she grumbled as she drew upon the Force to gain the strength to pick him up. “Because I am gonna kill you when all this is over.”

He didn’t answer. Likely he would be out for at least a few minutes. Grumbling to herself, she began the slow ascent up the shaft with Anselm in tow.