A life to mend, a saber to defend.

[Damian Starchaser]

The creature was ontop of him, his kicking having been relatively ineffective. He’d lost his cool and so threw up an ineffective defense. He could feel vitality draining from him and his fighting grew less and less effective. That was until [member="Kana Truden"] burst into the little cabin and took out her saber. The crone looked away for a second allowing Damian to lift his knees to his chest and push the queen away with both feet.

As she few away she grabbed onto a bowl filled with powder and threw it into the air. A quick flash erupted blinding Damian. He grabbed at his saber and ignited it jumping through the smoke to intercept the woman.

He ended up in the middle of the cabin, his vision returning to see nothing. “Where did she go?” he asked looking around the cabin. His mind ran through various scenarios and none of them made sense. Then he turned and saw Kana and rushed her with a smile on his face. “Kana, I thought….” he said stopping just before embracing her. Calm, “I’m sorry I was fooled Master,” Then another thought went through his mind. “we need to get back to camp.” And Damian needed to get dressed… but lets not talk about that. “We need to pack up and make it to that signal. We need to know what’s going on here? Right?”

 

[Kana Truden]

The cover that her arm provided wasn’t enough to keep the master from being blinded. The brief moment’s irritation was quickly cancelled out by the embrace and apology of her student. Her every muscle tensed up as the anger within her came to a peak yet ever so slightly she let it all go. Arms and legs softened up as she let her arm pat away at [member="Damian Starchaser"]’s shoulder.

“Me too, Damian.” She sighed. “I was going to kill that woman.”

It was best to be honest in a situation such as this, right? It felt like it. Damian would have done the same. Not that she had any choice, her intentions and every feeling was being broadcasted live and uncensored to the kid’s mind. The second she wanted to kill that woman was the moment he would have felt it too.

“I need to meditate on this, the sooner we find that beacon the sooner we can leave.”

The map covered her face again. “This is... This can’t be right, can it?”

The pad was lowered and she gave Damian a weird look. “Says here that we’re closer to the beacon than before.”

She handed the map to her companion. “See?”

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Indeed they were closer. Damian bit his lips. They should go back and secure their camp. Damian didn’t even have clothes on. Although it seemed he ended up nearly naked in most of their missions together. He would have to ponder that at some other date. “Alright,” he said tightening the belt with his lightsabers affixed to them. The leather and metal buckles chafed at his skin. “And I still don’t have shoes…” he said moving through the water which was now waist high. His feet sunk into the mud which he felt between his toes. A sickening sucking sound rose up from the murky water haunting each of his steps.

It was slow going, sinking in the mud with each step and feet getting caught, but they came upon the ship. The aged vessel was well rusted, betraying its age. Probably two decades, maybe more it had been stuck. “Why the distress call?” But Damian already suspected. This had been a trap. Not just any trap but he was sure that haggard witch had somehow sent it.

Damian approached and could see a hatch open near the top of the vessel. He climbed up on it and heard a groan of metal. His weight couldn’t have made the vessel sink quicker could it? Shaking off the feeling he continued up until he was looking down. “One of us should go in, the other keep watch out here. We wouldn’t want to get trapped inside.”

He didn’t wait for his master. He was the student and yet in a lot of ways he led her. Besides he was better equipped to get into the ship and out, and if it was partially submerged he trusted his swimming abilities better than his masters.

The youth descended into the bowels of the ship walking down the corridors. It was dark, there was no lights except for the occasional dimmed emergency lightning. Emergency power on certain types of starships were designed to power beacons and basic systems indefinitely. Solar Ionization reactors were particularly effective and found on a good portion of vessels from across the galaxy.

Moving with purpose he grabbed hold of his lightsaber and gripped it tightly. He wouldn’t be caught off guard, not down here. Down a hall and another until he was finally at the ship's cockpit. Tramp freighter. Most of it sunk in mud. He pulled up the logs powering up the system.

Lights flashed and a warning klaxons glared on the screen. The ship was losing its final vestige of power. Too much of it was covered for its reactors to process. Damian frowned. The original crew was six. All of them highly trained peace officers. That seemed odd. He continued to look through the records trying to find the cargo. One item listed. Prisoner. Amora. A Mind Witch, captured and sentenced to exile and isolation. Damian knew that many cultures didn’t have the death penalty, but this seemed like an exception should be made. He looked at the information and downloaded it before making his way back to [member="Kana Truden"]. There was one final item, a list of times the beacon had been activated…. Damn.

He poked his head out the hatch and frowned noticing Kana was still there. “The good news is, this psychic leech is a relatively young one. It looks like every couple of years for the last fifty she has sent out a signal and devoured those come to rescue her.” Damian furrowed his brow. “But where are their ships? Master I don’t know if they were allowed to escape with horror stories or…” He shook his head interrupting his thought. “It doesn’t matter. This ship is running out of power. Pretty soon she won’t be able to do it anymore. No new ships coming to the rescue, no food. She starves and dies.”

 

[Kana Truden]

The mind was far too busy to register that her student was naked. She had been a few moments away from snapping at the witch, yet in the end it was Damian who had made her calm down. It didn’t help her feel better, but at least the kid had been a much needed pillar to lean on. Even if he hadn’t realised it.

As the kid went in to the ship there was little Kana could do but fulfill her part of the deal. With her eyes and mind on the surroundings she kept a look for the witch to see if she had made her return yet. Rustling sounds in the distance had her worried but it was easy to forget about the local wildlife. A small creature made it’s way out of the bushes before turning back and legging it after spotting the master standing guard.

“You find anything?” Kana called out to [member="Damian Starchaser"]. “It’s all quie-”

The kid came out of the ship. “A psychic leech? Never heard of.”

“The other ships could have sunk, perhaps? So are you sure she won’t be able to lure anyone else to come out here? We can’t really leave until we know for sure and the idea of going ship hunting out here don't really sound all that appealing.”

A mental note to have the two go somewhere nice for a change was add to memory. After all of this they could both use it.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

“Something feels off,” Damian said as they started back to their camp. When he ran off into the night he hadn’t thought to grab a com unit. He let out a sigh. The swamp was filled with danger and the sounds only seemed to amplify as they went on. Creatures croaked, squawked, howled, and made all manner of call. By the time they neared the campsite it was a veritable cacophony greeting them. “The animals are acting strange aren’t they?” Damian asked. The truth was this may be normal behavior and sound on this planet, although the day before nothing of the sort happened.

The camp came into view and the first thing he noticed was the smoke. There shouldn’t be smoke, at least not smoke in the quantities he’d seen, he’d seen to that. They continued on and the camp proper came into view. The entire camp had been ransacked. The cover was burning and all of the few supplies were scattered about. “She did this. The animals wouldn't have started a fire, everything is too wet.” But why? What could she possibly have to gain?

 

[Kana Truden]

“Could be an attempt to falter our morale. No shelter and no food.” Kana scanned the treeline. “Doesn’t matter, radio our pilot. burned camp or no we can still see about getting off this rock and somewhere more comfortable.”

Like Ruusan. The arid tombs of their home on Ruusan, or well at least it was Kana’s home. She retained an open-door policy for her student. Whenever he needed somewhere to stay there was always a room available for him. Not that she was supposed to think of the comfort of her room.

Mind on the present she looked at her student. She was annoyed, but she was at least in control unlike a few moments ago. Annoyed and very much ashamed, the idea to just get away from here was a lot more tempting than the idea to stay. Then again, it was a swamp, it was hard to not want to leave it after spending a night in it.

“We should probably make way for the ‘exctraction point’ and just... Not be here.” Kana frowned. “I’ll try to make it somewhere nice next time.”

“How’re you feeling about Borleias or Lianna again?”

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

A weak smile formed over Damians face. He’d wanted a nice assignment, somewhere tropical or at least civilized. It was his element. “Wherever you want to go Master,” he said with a low bow. “I’ll go anywhere with you.” He started to rummage through the various pieces of gear that had been scattered about. Honestly it wasn’t much, and because there was so few it didn’t take him long before he realised. “Kana… the com unit is gone.”

He continued to rifle through the objects on the ground searching in vaini. After another minute he heard the engines of their ship roar overhead. “She called the ship in,” he said, “She’s trying to get off planet….” Looking at [member="Kana Truden"] he despaired for a moment. It didn’t seem possible for them to cover that much ground when the witch had such a head start. “Kana…” he thought for a moment, “I’m sorry… please come as soon as you can.”

With concentrated effort he felt the force surge into his legs and darted off. His feet moved so quickly that as he hit the water it barely splashed.

Force speed only worked so long and even then he found himself huffing and puffing as he reached the landing site. The ship was on its final approach circling a little bit. “I see you witch,” he said looking at the woman standing alone in a white dress. “You will not get off this planet…”

The witch merely laughed, “No mere boy will hinder me!”

Damian pulled out his lightsaber and ignited the blade just as the witch jumped at him. She yanked a nearby branch with strength or the force Damian couldn’t tell and swung at him. Confidently Damian swung his lightsaber prepared to end the hags life. This didn’t happen however. As his saber struck the branch it stopped. Damian's eyes widened as the woman's strength pushed him back...

 

[Kana Truden]

And just like that she was alone again. Part of her was proud for the kid’s sense of initiative, the other hated that she taught him the ability to run that fast when she herself was about as fast as a snail in comparison. All she could do was watch as Damian turned into a blur set off on protecting their ship.

She looked at the waters. This wasn’t too far from where she had nearly drowned yesterday. Her boot prodded at the water’s surface and the waves caused it to break into the ever familiar bobble of, well, water. Carefully she submerged her foot. If she was pulled underwater again it would all be on her without anyone else coming to her rescue. The idea didn’t exactly light the brightest of mood candles around.

With more care to her strut she slowly plowed her way through the swampy waters. Each step was like a crawl to ensure there was nothing feeling her up until she eventually reached the other end of the pond.

Kana let out a sigh of relief. Nothing happened.

With a more speedy pace she set off on the final stretch to the extraction point. Hopefully Damian was doing okay.

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian was not fine, Damian was engaged. For better or worse he had arrived at the location of the ship's landing zone and seen the witchy woman. Damian ignited his saber and stared her down. There was something particularly strange about her… alluring almost. She didn’t appear the crone she did earlier. Her skin has smoothed and her hair had color.

Damian shivered. The woman had fed… on him. His saber ignited and he charged headfirst into the woman. She brandished a stick enhanced by the force and struck hard. The wooden length struck Damian on the head as he slashed with his saber trying to cut the woman in half.

Block and riposte the two dueled as the ship started down around them. Damian jumped between her and the ship preventing a timely escape. [member="Kana Truden"] was on her way and he only needed to delay the witch a little more...

 

[Kana Truden]

It was just Kana in her solitude. Thoughts of just exactly what the boy was facing came to mind it dwelled on his safety. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him to not do anything stupid as much as a certain worry that he wouldn’t be able to predict his opponent’s move. He had already been tricked once and as much as she liked to believe he wouldn’t be fooled again the fact still remained that he was wide open for the witch to retry.

The closer she got to the site the clearer the sound of a clashing lightsaber got. Already walking as fast as she could the Master had no choice but to wallow in her worry for just a little bit longer.

Eventually she came into the clearing. Damian was blocking the sucker’s path to the ship. Kana ignited her saber to lure the witch’s attention away from her student.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Kana called out. “Stand down.”

In reality she had no idea how to go about it. The woman was a danger to society, to let her stay here could mean the problem resurfaced eventually and to strike her down was just not something the two jedi neither would nor should be willing to do. It just wasn’t their way, so what would they do?

Time would tell, really.

[member="Damian Starchaser"]