Private A storm in the sky

[Trextan Voidstalker]

The Knight of Ren slowly removed his helmet. He breathed short, sharp raspy breaths. He spat blood across the front of his own armour.

Jarrod Ren looked up at the stranger, glancing down at the lightsaber that still hung from his belt.

"Don't look at the lightsaber," said the intruder. "You don't deserve it."

"How?" he spat.

The heavy blaster was raised forwards his forehead. No answer was given.

---

Moments before..

Trextan stood where three different corridors met. He waited. The Force heralded the arrival of the Knight.

"I won't ask who you are," Trextan said.

He had met Sith and Ren before. Heard the speeches and the the taunts. The corridor was bathed in red as a lightsaber was lit.

Trextan walked forwards unarmed. The user of the dark side of the Force walked on to met him and took a wide swing.

Trextan lifted his right arm, the knight of Ren surprised when his blade was impeded by the phrik prosthetic. Trextan thrust forward an open palm.

There was a crack as the Force cracked the knight's armour, the pummeling telekinetic blow send the Knight skidding across the floor. Trextan walked forwards after him, slowly drawing a blaster.

 

[Chloe Blake]

"Chit, chit, chit!" Trix cursed, sending a few more blaster shots down range, while the Wookieeyowled. They managed to get two of the troopers down with blaster shots.

"Hurry up! We don't want more company." Trix added, which only got an impatient snarl from the young Wookiee. He worked as fast as he could, then with a triumphant roar. The detention doors slid open, revealing four prisoners. Tiny was not among them.

Two more blaster shots and the last two troopers were hit. But by now, who knew if the alarm had been sent out. With another curse, Trix went to the first detention cell. It was a Rodian. From what it looked like, just a spacer.

"Hey, hey, you seen a big guy around here?" referencing Tiny. That was the thing, Tiny wasn't... tiny.

"They couldn't hold him in here because he was so big. From what I know there is a makeshift cargohold that they sectioned off and lowered the temperature to keep him sedated."

Made sense, the cold never went well with Tiny.

"Oi, and the girl too?"

"Yeah. They took her last to the interrogation room."

Trextan Voidstalker

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

The sound of blaster fire died down as Trextan approached the detention deck. He stepped over a trooper. Little whips of smoke still rose from the neat hole in his chest plate.

"I'm coming down the corridor," Trextan called out.

The last thing he wanted was to get shot by Trix just because she thought he was a stormtrooper.

"There's another Ren on the ship, but I've dealt with the other," he said to Arryk, who was now guarding the detention centre entrance.

"I'll head to the end and see if there is another way out," Trextan said. He moved past the redhead and wookie as they opened the other cells.

He stretched out with the Force. If the last bulkhead was thin enough they could cut through and head for the cargo bay.

Trextan felt the sudden pulse of familiarity through the Force. He turned slowly towards the door to the last room. The interrogation rooms had different doors. They were accoustically sealed.

He put his lightsaber through the lock and forced the door open with his artificial hand.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Life is not defined by moments, but by the moment of impact.

The moment of impact proves potential for change. Some particles crash together, drawing closer than ever, while others go off on these crazy ventures, ending up in places one would never expect. One can't control it. That's the thing about moments like these. You can't, no matter how hard you try, controlling how it's gonna affect you. You just gotta let the colliding part goes where they may. And wait. For the next collision.

"Wha-- is g--g on!? Gua--d!" A clipped, polished voice with heightened trepidation would cut through the din of the sterile room. The door sparking as an Imperial Storm trooper moved forward with his blaster rifle, ready to shoot at whoever came in.

Consciousness came in degrees.

Broken fingers would twitch, and slate gray eyes tinged with brown in pain would flutter. Choli sat on the interrogation chair, strapped to secure her. The Force felt muted, muffled, as if it were a distant haze that Choli couldn't quite place.

Brief recollection stirred. Flashes of moments that blended one after the next. They couldn't break her. At least, not in the way that would allow getting into her mind. Something about her head. Blood taken, identified. Epi...what?

But it wasn't the pounding headache that got her. No.

It was the drugged, hazy sensation that overwhelmed her. The scent of bacta, the beep of machines, the black out of memories.

Trextan Voidstalker would walk into a scene he never could have imagined: Choli, strapped to an integration chair, her olive skin pale, blanched of color, clammy and sweaty. She has dark circles under her eyes and barely mutters incoherent words. Three years older, less girl, more woman, but once again, a victim of integration.

The same interrogation officer from before that had passed them stood before him, holding what appeared to be some sort of head band. The faint indentations along Choli's forehead would make it clear it had recently been taken off of her.

"Shoot him!"

A volley of blaster fire went ripping at Trextan's direction.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"No."

Three bolts stopped in the middle of the room. All corners of the room bathed in the flickering red light that reflected the anger in his eyes.

The trooper would have fired more, but his finger was frozen. His whole body was captured, and that of the interrogator too. There was a quiet thrum of power as Trextan held it all.

"Choli..."

He stepped forwards, still struggling to accept what he could see.

"Choli? What have they..."

He dropped to one knee in front of her. A single glance up and down before he looked into her eyes. His lower lip trembled.

 

[Choli Vyn]

​

"Cho-...."

"-oli? Wh-...They..."​

​

​

A thick fringe of lashes fluttered, unfocused, pupils dilated. His voice again. Always his among the others. Often times like this, a fragment of a memory of the times Trextan Voidstalker would project out to her. He wasn't real. Yet he had been real enough to get her through the interrogation, even if he was just a fragment of a dream. Thoughts scattered, before those slate gray eyes would land on the angular features of someone she still couldn't shake from her mind.

"I d-dreamt of you again." her hoarse voice would stammer out. She blinked rapidly under the harsh incandescent lights, barely cognizant of the stillness and the flickering of the lights over head. Hallucinations her mind had conjured up.

"You caught me midair before I crashed." she rambled, mixing present with the past, moisture coming to her eyes, "Then you were gone."

That made more sense. She told him to go. To leave. So he did. He shouldn't be here.

Elswhere, Trix and the group finally found Tiny. He had been placed in a cold storage cargohold detention area, where the cold would have slowed down his body's natural energy.

It was he who told them that another Warden was missing; Choli.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I d-dreamt of you again." her hoarse voice would stammer out.

"Nono Choli, I'm right..."

His hands, steel and flesh, cupped either side of her face. Hey gaze seemed to slide right off of him.

Trextan glanced down at her left hand. He felt sick to the base of his stomach.

She wasn't aware of him, but he was trying to hope that this wasn't real.

"You caught me midair before I crashed." she rambled, mixing present with the past, moisture coming to her eyes, "Then you were gone."

"But I'm here now."

He wished he could reach into her mind and make it all real. He had never been able to touch her thoughts. The best he had managed was conjuring an image of himself near her from a short distance.

Trextan let his hands fall to her restraints. The buckle twisted and popped under his artificial grip.

"...ck..."

His focus had been so intense that he had held blaster bolts, the stormtrooper and interrogator without strain. He had almost forgotten that they were not alone.

A dark look crossed his face. He stood and turned, drawing his blaster. The room lit as he put a bolt into the stormtrooper from the back of their head.

He released the dead trooper and the blaster bolts together.

"What have you done to her?"

His voice carried such an edge that pressing the muzzle of his blaster into the interrogator's neck was entirely unnecessary.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Unfortunately, Choli wasn't able to discern from hallucinations with reality, already so lost in the mental lockbox she had to put herself in to try and disassociate herself with the pain. Once they gave her the Force numbing drugs, it was difficult to try to even focus on that, until eventually, reality and what her mind came up with to try and defend itself bled into the other.

Eyes wide, the Imperial Interrogator sputtered; there was no denying he was looking at his death, but survival instinct reached for any thread that just might be his way out.

"J-just what I was ordered to do!" He stammered, already squealing like a stuck Taun-Taun, trying his best to make it seem as if he wasn't the one to blame, but the Knights of Ren instead.

"T-they couldn't take the information from her mind. She's an Epicanthix. T-the F-Force won't work on her. " His throat bobbed nervously, sweat already starting to bead at his brow.

"S-he wasn't cooperating s-so she needed to be p-persuaded...." in the manner of torture and making her so disoriented that something could be possibly gleaned from her in this state.

Meanwhile, Tiny knew where Choli like had been headed. They had mentioned interrogating the Warden for information on the location they needed.

"We need to get out of here fast, Tiny!" Trix would utter, annoyed, but aware that they couldn't leave another Warden behind.

Tiny would click and growl out a response, his massive body having to duck low and adjust for the differences in height. The Wookiee began to muse if perhaps it would be best to try and grab one of the shuttles to try and fly out of here.

"Five minutes. Then we leave."

Trextan Voidstalker

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"S-he wasn't cooperating s-so she needed to be p-persuaded...."

"How long? For how long were you doing this to..."

"We need to get out of here fast, Tiny!"

Trextan was breathing hard and fast. He had been taught to control his own abilities, having being shocked by not only what he could achieve but how nervous even Jacen was of his potential.

He thought he wanted to know the answer to his question right now, but did it really matter? Was he just antagonising himself with what he expected to hear?

There was no more time.

He didn't pull the trigger. There was a slow cracking sound. A brief scream. The interrogator fell. Trextan didn't care if that had taken him a step closer to the dark side of the Force. His saber had been too good for the Ren. His blaster too good for the torturer. Trextan had crushed his chest. He would take a few minutes to die.

He picked Choli up from the chair and stepped out to meet the group.

"Keep going!" he shouted.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Choli's head would loll against Trextan Voidstalker 's chest, her eyes fluttering shut against the bright overhead halo lights of the corridor. Things are moving. Spinning.

Wait, am I being carried?

The thought lingered before Choli fell unconscious again, her breathing erratic. Just as Trextan swiveled the corner, he was met with an enormous, towering reptilian like humanoid with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks, and a massive tail that whipped to and fro behind him. He was at least dressed in what appeared to be pants, but nothing else, his thick chest a medley of scars, some fresh, others not.

A snear would carve Tiny's snout, sharp teeth bared and had not Trix called out and popped out from behind the massive Warden, odds were Trextan might have had Choli snatched from his arms before behind smacked.

"Oh, good! We found you. Looks like you found the girl. That's all right Tiny?" Trix asked, gesturing that they had to get a move on. "If so, let's book it. I don't like staying out here longer than we need to."

"Give her to me," came the snarled command from Tiny. The older Reptillian Warden seemed to need to carry Choli to make sure she was fine. "Less arquing more moving."

Chloe back on the shuttle was dretched in sweat at the intense amount of concentration required to keep up the White Current facade. She wasn't as skilled as her former Master, Je'gan, so focusing this much was wearing down on her.

Sosa called out and update, "They have them!"

Thank the Gods.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Give her to me," came the snarled command from Tiny. The older Reptillian Warden seemed to need to carry Choli to make sure she was fine. "Less arquing more moving."

His fist instinct was to draw her closer. He even took half a step back from Tiny.

He didn't know the giant reptilian.

Logic caught up with emotion. Tiny was concerned. Tiny could also carry Choli more easily, which freed him up to lead them out of here.

"Be careful with her," he hissed as he handed Choli over delicately. "I won't go far," he added, just in case she could hear him.

He moved past Tiny quickly, back down the way they had come from.

"We go to Sosa," he said.

They went past two junctions before they passed the Knight of Ren. Still laid out against the wall.

Trextan heard Droids coming from the next turn. The ship was clearly a secret, staffed by the minimum number of people. Their defense had been their hiding place.

"Keep going to the shuttle. I'll hold here," he said, finally lighting his saber to cover their retreat.

 

[Chloe Blake]

All the while, Chloe breathing was starting to turn erratic under the strain of keeping up the illusion of the White Current. Beads of sweat would drip down her face and soak her blouse. She wasn't a great Force user; just a generalist, and at most, she could maintain the White Current for a temporary amount of time. Certainly nothing to the extent proper Force Adepts of the Fallanassi could create.

She was going to need ample amount of rest after this, as soon as she could fly them out of harms way. Even then, it was going to take plenty of concentration and pushing through her exhaustion to do so.

Tiny took Choli from Trextan's arms, although he was uncertain why it seemed that the cub was rather particular about the girl. No matter, the focus was on getting out of here. The massive Warden tucked Choli against his chest; even at her height, she appeared to be the size of a child when cradled between Tiny's arms.

"Move move!" Trix would hiss, brandishing her blaster pistol while Aaryx, Tiny, and the Wookiee would charge ahead, moving towards the direction that they had carved out a section to breech the ship.

"Feth - " The redhead cursed, another droid appearing before them. The Selonian went charging ahead, making a grab for the droid with both beefy hands. With a savage snarl, he slammed the droid against the wall, causing sparks to fly. Another savage tug and then he would throw it onto the floor, before bringing it back up to yank the droids arms off of its chassis.

"Well that's one way to do it," Trix joked, and the Wookiee gave an appreciative growl.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

He was going to have to stop and let everything sink in. He was no Jedi, he couldn't put all his feelings aside indefinitely. Trextan knew that the weight of what had happened would come crashing down. He just had to hold that weight as long as possible. It had normally turned to uncontrolled anger in the interrogation room. Trextan couldn't let himself become that dark thing the Sith Academy had tried to shape him into.

His saber cut forwards, slapping two blaster bolts aside. He kept his movements constrained, afraid of letting loose and the damage he could do to the ship. He backed up to the corner, letting the droids advance. As they reached the corner he moved in, dispatching them with two quick thrusts. More were coming. He could hear Trix and Brassycc calling out as they met resistance ahead.

Calling upon the Force, the drew blast doors shut against their will and drove his saber through the control panel. That would slow them down.

He rushed past the others, deactivating his saber and dropping down into the landing ship.

"Sosa, flip the artificial gravity so we're weightless in here. Get ready to go."

"Tiny, drop her down through the hatch carefully!" Trextan called up. There was no way the enormous warden could fit his bulk through the holes in the hull whilst carrying Choli.

He needed his focus for just a few more minutes.

 

[Chloe Blake]

"Sosa, flip the artificial gravity so we're weightless in here. Get ready to go."

The Sullustan moved quickly, darting towards the control panel controlling gravity. His brown hand flipped the toggle and a brief alert in the form of dimmed lights and red track lights shone throughout the shuttle.

"Done!" He called out, already feeling the weightlessness of the loss of gravity. He ushered his way intending to head towards the cockpit. He sat down and began to prep to depart. Tiny, with gentle hands, carefully lowered Choli down towards the waiting hands of the former Jedi Knight. Her hair floated around her like a dark veil, body limp and face clammy. Her eyes fluttered once more, a brief flash of black as the image of Trextan's dark shaggy mop and angular face bloomed in her blurry vision again.

"...not...here." You're not supposed to be here. No, no. Not here. Trextan's really not here. Just a hallucination. Thoughts would bleed and race and become befuddled chains of confusing consciousness.

Meanwhile, the massive reptilian form of Tiny was his best to squeeze through the opening down below.

"She needs medical attention," Tiny would growl out in Bocce, doing his best to angle down and make his way inside.

Outside, Trix had caught the edge that came from Trextan Voidstalker 's tone when it came to his sharp instructions. Something to ponder about, either way, the redhead was focused on sending a volley of blaster fire towards the remaining droids, while yelling out, "Go on, go in! We got to get going!"

The other three prisoners followed down the hatch, as did Arryk, Brasycca, then Trix, "Hit it! Let's go!" she shouted at Sosa, already moving to lower herself down and activate the bulkhead to slide shut behind them.

 

[Makko Vyres]

.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

She had continued down with her original momentum. Weightless, she fell into his arms. He gathered her up, pushing off the floor to carry them both towards a seat where she could be secure.

"...not...here."

"I am. I'm here," he whispered. Trextan wished he could push into her mind, let her see the truth directly.

"She needs medical attention," Tiny would growl out in Bocce, doing his best to angle down and make his way inside.

"What have they done to here?" Trextan dared to ask.

As he strapped himself down next to Choli, the anguish on his was shown back to the others. It was more than just medical. She was strong, but they had tried to break her spirit. He knew that if he tried to imagine what they had done or heard the truth he would start to break a little himself.

The ship detached and gave a violent lurch. Trextan reached across with his right hand, pressing his palm to the top of Choli's sternum to keep her back in the seat to avoid her head being thrown back and forth.

 

[Chloe Blake]

"They are coming back!" DOT would chirp out, the droid rolling on its wheel as it darted left and right of Chloe, before zooming to go let Ace, the pilot droid know. They had to get ready to leave as soon as possible, and Chloe was in no state to maintain the illusion and pilot at the same time.

Sosa, sent the shuttle lurching forward, drawing away from the Knight of Ren ship and increasing speed. He wasn't sure how long the illusion would last, and they had to get away as alarms were already echoing.

"Hang on tight," the Sullustan called out, but sure enough alarms would indicate that that the sith patrol was deploying countermeasures to try and find them.

A shudder ran through the shuttle. If they could just get away from here they could slip into the Aurora and be out of here in now time.

Trextan Voidstalker

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

If they were blown out of the sky then he would regret not marching to the bridge and tearing the place apart.

It would - he supposed - be a very brief regret.

They had a normal gravity field now, the intertial dampeners protecting them from the sharp burst of acceleration.

There was a visual display in the empty, dark space around them. Flares erupted, not trying to visually light up the craft for a gunner, but to reflect enough of a signature off the hull to make a lock.

Trextan looked at Choli, her head slumped forwards. He let some of it slip through, feeling a deep and uncomfortable nausea for what had happened.

Laser bolts lashed past the shuttle, but the sith vessel had been built for hiding in deep space and not for combat.

---

Trextan rushed out of the shuttle. Tiny close behind with Choli. He slapped the nearest intercom.

"Chloe. They had Choli."

 

[Chloe Blake]

It was the desperation in Trextan Voidstalker 's voice that drew Chloe out of the intensive concentration she had to maintain the illusion of the White Current. All of a sudden, the illusion fell, revealing the Aurora Hawk. A pale and sweaty concerned expression would wash the Corellian woman's face, blanching as she caught sight of Choli in Trextan's arms.

"What happened?" was a stupid question to ask, as the more important thing was getting her medical attention. Tiny, Trix, Sosa, and the others were behind them, as well as the other four prisoners that they had released form the Knight of Ren's detainment cells.

The blonde sat up, legs a bit wobbly but able to walk enough to reach Trextan. Cool hands would sweep back the thick dark brown mane that covered Choli's sweat-slicked pale olive visage. There was enough through the quick visual to determine Choli needed medical attention.

"Take her to the med bay. I have a medipod there." It was old, but functional, salvaged off of a luxury yacht from Salacia Consolidated yards. They dealt with salvaged but usable ship parts and gear that could be bought cheap if one made an effort to use the labor to pull it or work a few rounds in the yards as a temporary worker.

Towards the others, she gave a nod, "Buckle up, we are burning lines in the sky as soon as possible." she instructed, turning to Sosa, "Sosa, can you get us out here and in to hyperspace? I am in no state to focus in the Roil like this." it would also allow her the opportunity to look after Choli with Trextan and find out what happened.

"Of course," the Sullustan told her, moving towards the cockpit. They had the pilot droid, but it would be best to have living hands on the controls just in case.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Tiny remained outside of the bay as Trextan set Choli down. It was only because if he maneuvered his bulk through the door there would be no room left inside.

Trextan was careful to place her inside the pod. She was still limp. Her eyes were unfocused. The cold exterior he had been wearing was left to melt away. The pain, the shock, the fear - it all played out on his face.

"She must be drugged or..."

He didn't want to say what could be worse.

"...she doesn't seem to know where she is. Or know that I'm here or..."

He was babbling. Even though he had nearly torn the sith vessel apart on his own, Trextan was still young. He looked to Chloe and hoped she had some answers.