Private A Broken Relic

[Phalsi Drynchen]

A deep breath came with his words. A comfort in knowing he wasn't going to push at the moment at least. Her mind slowly slipping back to normal as she wondered if there was time to rest, maybe eat something. Wondering just how much time came and went with a few less than subtle thoughts shared between as the sound of thrusters caught her attention.

Her sense of the force finally taking notice of that permeating presence of the dark side that she had seldom encountered.

Acaadi was the first to see the incoming ship, her own reaction to prepare for a fight as she unzipped the duffel bag and fetched her sabers before settling on the whips.

It wasn't a time to be fancy if they'd been caught out like this. Her mask a final grab as she called for him.

"They aiming or landing!?" The nerves in her voice something she couldn't strain out with everything that had already happened in the day.

 

[Acaadi]

"Good point."

His hand hovered over the lever that would raise the shields. They must have been tracked. Either by exceptionally sensitive passive scanning equipment or a stealthy drone.

They were in trouble if the ship opened fire. The shields would do little more than give them a chance to escape the ship before they failed.

The sith shuttle slowly dropped to the ground. Directly opposite them, the ramp lowered and two figures walked down to the ground.

Acaadi breathed in slowly through his nose and out through his mouth. There was no walking away from this. Shatterpoint. A moment in the Force where paths converged before splitting out again.

All the practise, all the duels to one short battle. He wouldn't get a chance to think about what went wrong if he failed.

"I don't think they're going to want to talk. I'll go in hard, draw rubble around me and try to end this quickly."

He was more skilled with telekenisis than he often showed. There were plenty of objects he could precisely throw, but what he could use they could use.

 

[Phalsi Drynchen]

She heard the shields raise, but didn't hear the sound of incoming fire. A sigh of relief before Acaadi explained his plan. The Mask donned as her voice crackled from behind the thing.

"I'll back you up then. There's more than one I'm guessing." She'd caught his phrasing, keeping the lightsabers on her hip while hiding her whips inside her sleeves.

She sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to earn another set of marks along her knuckles for defending herself if it came to it.

"You've fought Sith before right? Anything to expect?" The question lobbed as she centered herself once more. The shaky ground she could muster would have to do.

Her connection to the force already strained from the station, she wondered if she would have an issue moving forward.

 

[Acaadi]

"I have," he said.

He didn't know how much to explain. What would be useful right before the inevitable conflict.

He had fought the sith before, but not for some time now. It had never gone well for him. Acaadi had suffered defeats, he had suffered torture at their hands. It was what had focused him in his training, had led him down the path of knighthood.

"If it comes to it, they will probably try and overwhelm us quickly. If I don't catch them by surprise we may have the soak that up and wear them down."

A difficult prospect. Neither of them were really in a fit state for out lasting an opponent.

---

Acaadi stalked down the ramp, drawing the Force around himself. It was like a blanket, shrouding him in its calming presence. He sent it back outwards as he searched for objects he could hurl at whatever emerged from the other side.

The sense of the darkside was almost overwhelming as two figures made their way forwards. They wore armour, almost crude in the formation of unpainted durasteel plates around them.

"We weren't expecting visitors," called the first of them.

Acaadi stopped. He hadn't expected them to talk. He was tall, several inches on Acaadi. There was a long handled saber at his belt.

"Why are you here? Didn't you want your Jedi back?" called the other.

"The prison is near here then?" Acaadi asked.

"You'll get to see it soon enough."

 

[Phalsi Drynchen]

"Well. Chit. Guess there's no good practice like the real thing." She sighed, following his lead.

---

Coming down the ramp, Phalsi did her best to center herself rather than feel through the force. Flimsy was the best descriptor that came to mind as her previous anxiety seemed to flare in the brief calm.

They spoke at them. A surprise given what little she actually knew about the Sith.

She hadn't been in any large conflicts save for the one over her home planet. And then it had been rogue sisters of her own group rather than force wielding darksiders. Even with her muted senses she could feel the dark power they held around them.

The revelation of a prison being nearby however helped to ease her into a calm.

She had a goal to focus on. A purpose for being present and able. She had to make this work. Rather than reach for her whips, she pulled a single short handed saber from her hip and prepared for a fight.

 

[Acaadi]

The second sith was shorter than the first but much broader across the shoulders. Both of them reached for their belts, but not for sabers. Acaadi tensed and set his stance. They had both reached for iron plates that forced the masked of their helmets.

Even though they hadn't reached for weapons, the gesture made it clear they were ready to fight.

"You two don't want to just surrender?" the taller one asked.

Acaadi briefly tried to see things from their perspective. They were thrumming with excitement, looking forward to the challenge of the battle instead of looking for a way to avoid it.

It was a perspective he just couldn't empathise with. He couldn't try and understand them. He also couldn't worry about what was at stake, that if he failed Phalsi would end up dead beside him here.

Acaadi cleared his mind. He had once found it easy to turn his emotions into power. It had been easy but uncontrolled. He has turned his back on that temptation and knew that focus and control was the basis of his power.

Without activating their blades, they both launched themselves towards Acaadi. Rather than one-on-one, they aimed to overwhelm him quickly before Phalsi could intervene.

Rocks behind Acaadi lifted from the ground and shot forwards with pinpoint accuracy towards the stockier of the two. Acaadi activated his blade.

One sith was forced to stop, extending his hand to defend himself. Rocks stopped and disintegrated before the sith, but one broke through. The sound of it striking iron armour rang out.

Acaadi's blue blade bed scarlet. The taller sith was well trained, launching into a classic Ataru opening sequence. It wasn't complicated, but it was executed well and forced Acaadi to concede two steps.

We can do this, he imparted to Phalsi. There was no emotion in the thought, but it was firm and confident.