A Time for Harvest

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

The sun rose red-gold over Dantooine's equatorial continent that day. As the planet's star rose over the horizon, painting light over the farmhouses and rolling fields, the small towns and craggy biba forests, the following warmth seemed to tint the air for miles with the dusty smell of fresh grain. The scent would wake most of the sector's inhabitants even earlier than usual, as the smell of harvest always did for those attuned to it. The harvest-smell spoke to such folk of work to be done, of beer to brew and bread to bake, of hard labor and even harder celebration. It awoke in them something deep and primal to most organics--the wish to not waste a single golden moment of daylight before the cold set in.

LE-03 (known to some as Leigh), being a droid, was not privy to such things. Her olfactory sensors could detect the molecules of triticale pollen that created the smell, but when her primary systems roused themselves that morning it was to an alarm she had set the night before. As her sensors warmed into what organics could compare to wakefulness, she dampened the alarm and reached for the hammock slung low to her left.

Leigh nudged the lump in the middle of the hammock with her cannon, and eyed it as it swung limply and moaned in response.

"The sun is currently 19.3% risen," she said gently to the lump. "If either of us are to get anything done before our employer calls for us, I recommend you extricate yourself and start within the next 2.37 minutes."

The lump moaned again, and an arm poked out to wave feebly at Leigh. The droid dodged the half-hearted blow and patted the hand affectionately. Then she turned and plodded to the far end of the hut, not bothering to mute the heaviness of her chassis' steps. If her partner refused to wake up after that, then whatever she missed as a result was her own fault. Leigh had her own to-do list today.
The far end of the hut, once a set of barracks for Noba's seasonal workers, was now filled with workbenches strewn with various unidentifiable gadgets and tools. Leigh reached for the central bench, which was dominated by what looked like a half-exploded arm--her current project. The gentleman two farms over had commissioned this arm for his son after a nasty accident two months ago, and with harvest already underway she was well behind on delivery. As she begun her work, she calculated again the cost of modifying her chassis...and whether a second arm would be worth the loss of her cannon. More dexterity would improve her manual efficiency by 107.5%, yes, but that was strongly offset by the probability of damage should she be caught without her primary method of defense unawares.
As the droid bent to her work, she set several other subroutines. The first was a long-standing cost-benefit analysis of any possible modular changes, including the long-pondered replacement of her arm.

The second was a timer--a recurring timer this time, ready to start as soon as it was needed. The timer was labeled, as it had been for the last five years, "Run."

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

The arm that had emerged from the hammock was attached to a human woman--the droid's partner, one Vidalu Na'an. As the morning light flooded through a nearby window to fill the hut, Na'an quickly found that the thin canvas provided no protection from the heat and the glare. Very quickly, she was forced into full waking, and wriggled loose until she was standing, wild-haired and bleary-eyed, in the middle of the hut.

"'m'wake," she said sleepily, rubbing at the puckered scars over her left eye. It always took a moment for that eye to adjust after sleeping, even if the sleep was long and deep and restful. As it was, Na'an had gotten to bed late from yesterday's harvest and slept only restlessly, only settling once the hammock was so twisted around her that movement was impossible. Whatever dreams had kept her up, however, were rapidly fading, and as Na'an padded across the room her only thoughts were on finding her gear.
Once she was fully awake, the rest would follow. And there was always one thing that would wake her up, moreso even than caf.

Her shoes--shallow, flexible-soled--were by the door. Na'an slipped into them comfortably, not even bothering with socks. The extra layer of cloth just dulled things, she found. It was never quite as good when she was wearing socks, even if it was supposed to be cleaner.

Her eyepatch was on its hook next to the sink, along with the one good hair-tie she still had. Na'an pulled her hair back without brushing it, tying it before slipping the smooth black strip of fabric over her scarred eye. She wouldn't even bother to open the eye today; she'd learned the route well enough that losing a little depth perception wouldn't matter anymore. Besides, there was no time for extra training during harvest season.

Her shirt was still in the other hammock, since Adelle was still off-world. Na'an pulled it on carelessly, fluffing her hair loose from its collar as it came down over her ears. Vaguely, she remembered that she would have to stop putting laundry on Adelle's bed when she returned--which meant she'd likely end up sleeping in a nest of the stuff herself.

Leigh was already sitting in her workshop, fiddling with the same thumb-joint she had been the night before. Na'an padded up to the droid's huge-shouldered bulk, and stretched onto her toes to rest her cheek against Leigh's domed head. The dome hummed with all the activity going on underneath, enough to generate its own warmth; Na'an let the sensation soak into her skin for a moment before speaking.

"'m off," she murmured into the dome. "Start th' timer. If 'm gone more'n an hour I'll meet you at the barn. Don't lose track this time, Noba won't take fiddlin' on th' arm as an excuse ag'n."

Leigh's dome rumbled under her cheek in grudging assent. Na'an only chuckled, and pushed herself away to head out the hut door.

Despite the sun, the air outside the pair's hut was still crisp from the night before. As Na'an stretched, bouncing on the balls of her feet, the faint chill did just as much to wake her up as the stretch. She couldn't have asked the gods for better running conditions. Before her, the footpath wound away from the worker's huts and towards the woods, damp with the dew that still glistened on the triticale and tamped down the dirt. The triticale itself was tall and golden, spreading that sweet musty smell everywhere it lay. The sky was the kind of perfect early-morning blue that seemed to go on forever.

Except...it didn't go on forever. As Na'an finished stretching, before she set herself to the run ahead, some instinct sent her head turning back towards the hut. Behind her home's shallow roofline, she could see the low bankhead of thick grey clouds rolling over the far horizon. They moved quickly, even as Na'an watched, and something about their movement sent the hair on the back of her neck to prickling.

"Well, that's not going to be good," she said to herself. "Hope that's not meant for us."

With that, Vidalu Na'an sprang fully to life, loping easily down the path. If there was a storm coming, she'd need to be at her best to see how bad it would be...and some days It took her a good ten minutes of running to tap into the Force properly.

 

[Uthixo Nazim]

3 days ago

Death, destruction, ashes falling on an empty field as the skies were died red... Not just any red, the color of blood. The grass beneath booted feet red as rivers of viscera flowed. The scent of smoke filling one's nostrils as buildings and homes all around were lit with flames. Screams all around flooding ears as people fleed. Sheer and utter catastrophe.

Today

Hands gripping the steering column of the vessel he'd taken from the Confederacy, Uthixo raced through space in hopes of reaching his destination soon enough. The dream he'd had days ago still haunted Uthixo every waking moment. He had scarcely left the cockpit of the vessel less it was to relieve himself. Even the Sandali's meals had been taken within the cockpit, him surviving off of military rations more than anything. In a corner of the area, there was a pile of discarded trays from past meals, the sickly sweet scent of spoiled food filling the confined area. Even that was better than the smell of smoke that for some reason Uthixo could still smell.

Eyes sunken from having not slept in days Uthixo stared out the viewport into the kaleidoscope of colors that people had come to know as Hyperspace. The ships hull vibrated around him and in an instant, the veil of colors peeled back to reveal what was a dust ball of a world. The world from his dreams, the name of the world somehow coming to the warrior's mind when he had woke. Dantooine.

Guiding his ship down and through the atmosphere, the Obsidian Knight clipped the two saber hilts to his waist. Every movement seemed to be sluggish as he tried to fight off the exhaustion that threatened to claim his body, with a hiss the vessel came to a stop on the ground, the ramp lowering letting the light of Dantooine's primary light the interior. The heat beat down on his sable-skin making it seem lighter than it truly was, hand raised as he walked down Uthixo’s eyes squinted attempting to adjust to the natural light instead of the artificial ones within the ship.

Casting a brief glance down the hill, Uthixo was not welcomed to the site of a destroyed world, of a village on the verge of being undone. No, it was peaceful, calming, the air was fresh. Oxygen swelled within the Sandali’s lungs as he took in a long breath. Yet at the very back of his mind, there was something eating away at Uthixo’s very consciousness, it made his skin crawl, a sense of something wrong was approaching and it was coming for the planet.

[member="Vidalu Na'an"], [member="LE-03 (Leigh)"], [member="Ledgermayne"]

 

[Darth Ledgermayne]

A breathless shadow. A thief in the night. Arriving two twilights previous to the planet Dantooine were figures of dark mysterious origins. It started in the villages of the dantari natives. Rumors of a crystalline man of crimson blood color spread throughout village to village gathering crowds of native people. The strongest Dantari by tradition would fight outsiders to protect their own. He lost but was gifted something in return. Life anew. Through the two nights screams could be heard but only briefly. Silence was etched into the very foundations of native society those nights and replaced with... well something else.

He was here. Those three words rung in Sith Lords mind knowing this day would come, though not as quick as he expected. He knew his location and could feel it ever so. Unmistakable in nature. A feral grunt sounded in the distance causing Ledgermayne to look back at something or someone with solemn interest. Once blue eyes lit up with curiosity and wonder. The Sith Lord himself stood midst a field like a pillar frozen in time. The ethereal connection that bound his mind within the ever cosmic energies in his environment hummed and wisped in purple smokey shadow as his focus fell down to a tee. The smallest of insects could be felt and described in detail without a glance. Like a shadowy hand his mind extended over time and space in till it hovered over another mind. Fingers dangled ready to grip but alas they showed restraint. Instead a message, a voice would be heard.

" My son. My brave son." The voice would call is bursts and whispers in a familiar fathering tone. It was not the sith's but rather a past voice.

" Uthixo. Nothing could keep me away from you. I image you have many questions, as I have many answers." The voice would sound echoing in the mental in an attempt to pull the young Sandali into the fields outside of the village several miles away.

Soon all would be answered in detail and the Harvest would begin.

[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="Vidalu Na'an"]
[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Today it came easy--five hard minutes of sprinting and she was in. As Na'an's stride lengthened, and her body leaned into the path's first curve, her mind slipped towards that grey, hazy zone where she felt, rather than saw, the world. The woods around her seemed to simultaneously expand and contract, pulsing with life. She could feel the heartbeats of the brith nesting in the trees, smell the breath from the pack of horned ​iriaz in the grasslands beyond. If she reached out behind her, she could find Karre Noba and her son in the main farmhouse, warm and solid among the feathery grainheads. Where Na'an was, she could feel the flow of breath in her lungs, the rush and trickle of blood in her limbs, every molecule of the air against her sweat-slicked skin, every inch of the earth under her feet. And if she reached out, reached ahead...

Red.

Red.

Red.

The triticale burning. The earth soaked with something too thick, too dark to be water. The smell of the grain, drowning in the scents of blood and smoke. Blood and smoke and screaming.

And against the clouds of ash blotting out the sun, robbing it of its gold and leaving only...silhouetted...silhouetted in red...

--my brave son​

​

nothing could keep me away--​

"What the--"

Na'an's eye flew open--when had it closed?--and she pitched forward against a root she should have seen coming, falling hard onto her hands and knees. Her stomach heaved, but without breakfast she could only spit out a mouthful of bile and watch it melt into the earth. It was with trembling hands that she pulled off her eyepatch and rubbed feverishly against her left eye.
It was working. Damn it, it HAD to be working...right? Even when she'd been...unwell, her own bloody visions had never been like that. They'd only been memories, memories, and the voice back then had only ever been her own. She'd never made anything up like that...that thing. She'd never...she'd never been so divorced from it that she reacted this way. She was fine. It had to still be working. Gods, she'd felt it working, nothing was wrong! Doc would have told her if something was wrong.

So what the kriff was that?!?

Na'an forced herself to a seat, forced herself to breathe slowly. She had to think. Whatever had just happened, assuming it was a malfunction would just send her into a spiral. She was fine. She was fine. Whatever that was, however horribly familiar it felt, it was something new. She just had to think it through.

"My...brave son," she mouthed to herself, wiping bile from her lip. "Brave son?"

That was the thing, wasn't it? Her own voices had only ever spoken to her. This couldn't have come from her, but from someone else, right?

My brave son. That figure, black even against the smoke. Whoever that...person had been, he hadn't been speaking to Na'an, but to some...boy?
His son. He had been looking for his son, and was willing to do...that...in order to find him. Do it and keep doing it. And whether that had been real or not, it was all ahead of her. Suddenly the path snaking ahead of Na'an seemed terribly forbidding.

She'd have to go back. She needed to talk to Leigh, maybe even Noba. If something was coming, it was not something she cared to let come any farther without warning. Na'an got shakily to her feet, turned on her heel, and started running back the way she came.

Oddly enough, the sight of the stormclouds behind her hut had become a comfort in comparison.


[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]

 

[Uthixo Nazim]

" My son. My brave son."

He could feel it, the air all around suddenly chilling to where Uthixo's own breath could be seen. Heart hammering within his chest the Obsidian knight heard an unfamiliar voice within his mind. In a way almost ethereal, almost as though it came from a different plane but it hadn't. The Sandali could feel the words reverberating through his mind, a strange pull. Before he knew it the warrior was running, not back to his ship but out through the fields of grain.

Nothing could keep me away from you.

The long stalks of grain parted in Uthixo's wake as his legs moved without the Sandali even noticing. That voice was not that of the father he'd grown to know on Sandala, not that of the family that had raised him in his youth. No, this voice was different, could it truly be? Muscles tensing, chest heaving the young Sandali plowed through the fields his braids whipping in the wind behind him. The closer he got the sky began to change, storm clouds began to converge on the area as though called by a diety. The chill that had surrounded Uthixo worsened to now some of the stalks seemed to wilt. Yet and still he continued on his mind racing as fast as a speeder thinking of the possibilities. All those memories that had once been lost within reach, he would know the truth of himself and those surrounding him. Nothing would stand in the Sandali's way this day. No storm, no animal, nor any person living upon the planet would impede his path.

Standing in the center of the field the Sandali stared onwards at a robed figure whose back faced him. Moving forward mouth agape he searched for words to say but none came. So transfixed by the other individual the Sandali ignored the bodies that lay hidden within the grain, the thick slurping as his boots interrupted the puddles of blood, the wilted plants. "Father? Is that really you?" A hand reaching out Uthixo would seize the man by the shoulder and turn him, the time for the truth was now.

[member="Vidalu Na'an"], [member="Ledgermayne"], [member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]

 

[Darth Ledgermayne]

" If only it could be so." Turning around the robed Sith lord stared directly into [member="Uthixo Nazim"] eyes. Trance like in nature the mental reach that Ledgermayne had over the Sandali fell in full. A boot stepping on an ant. Complete and utter dominance subjected in full or at least an attempt. The young boy was strong and the Sith did expect his past pupil to try to resist his pull into Sith magic. His crystalline mouth uttered phrases familiar to the boy's mind. Words that held power themselves over the very mind. Qâzoi Kyantuska. An ability that was long ago picked up from ancient Sith text and through the absorption of various sith memories of his 150 years as a Sith in training. " Here in my shrine, My ziggurat. That you.. have forgotten." There was a pause and nearby in the fields figures arose from the grass standing tall. Perhaps from the corner of Uthixo's vision he would notice them. Tall pale figures of rigid sharp appearance. Across their entire body they bore the same crystalline marks, scars and protrusions. If he did not see them he soon would.

They all began to move in. Eye sockets and gaping open mouths sounding out faint broken words in a red shine of glowing aura that emitted from their very inners.

" Here do you toil. Fractured pasts, you may remember.
Here you reclaim what doomed minds have taken. Far from yourself.
Your eyes once were blinded. Now through me... You will... see"

Ledgermaynes solitary red rocky finger hovered next to [member="Uthixo Nazim"] forehead. A simple touch was all it would take to shift his mind. He pressed forward in action.

" Your hands once idle, now given purpose."
And when they ...the galaxy will listen, when the will see, when the galaxy remembers." A sinister grin etched across the Sith face as eyes shifted signalling the crystalline creatures to trail off to the farms and villages nearby. It was time to reproduce once again. Soon the creatures would of stone and flesh would be apon the establishments nearby.

" That galaxy will cease to be."

[member="Vidalu Na'an"]
[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

There was something wonderfully satisfying about the click the artificial thumb made when, finally complete, it slid into its joint. Leigh held the now-finished hand aloft, inspecting her work with something organics would call satisfaction. Such small articulations were extraordinarily difficult to manage even with the best materials, and the droid prided herself on the quality and smoothness she could achieve with a custom work. Mr. Namta would be thrilled with the final product she had crafted for his firstborn boy.

Although...checking her internal clock, Leigh decided she could not let the order go much later without contacting Namta directly. Setting the arm down and deactivating her holographic dome's light, she initiated the internal Holonet communications subroutine she had built for her prosthetics work. The probability of him being forgiving of her lateness would increase if she could show him the progress she had made.

...​

​

....
​

.....
​

~=Call Incomplete=~​

​

The droid hesitated. This was...unusual. Namta's farm was almost as busy as the Noba facilities this time of year; it was highly improbable that no-one on the other end was available to manage communications. If the signal on their end had been downed, they would lose thousands of credits. She waited several minutes, then rebooted the subroutine. Perhaps the signal was being used to complete another call.

...​

​

....
​

.....
​

~=Call Incomplete=~​

​

No response again. The droid shook her head as she disconnected the call, calculating possibilities. Namta could be swamped with calls already, processing orders--21.2%. The boy could be in charge of communications today, and struggling to keep pace with only one arm--17.7%. Inclement weather from the south could be blocking the signal--30.1%.

Other--8.8%.

Leigh ran a signal diagnostic.

...​

​

....​

​

Processing...​

​

....​

​

...​

​

....​

​

~=Destination Receiver Not Found=~​

​

Leigh stood quickly, knocking her workbench stool over with a clatter. Dantooine's equatorial communications system was remarkably robust, for a farm planet on the Outer Rim. Folks in this sector were careful to maintain their portions of the grid, knowing that success or failure could hinge on a single dropped message. If Namta's receiver was down, it was likely that something had gone very wrong at the Namta facility. The family could be hurt, or worse. She rapidly copy-pasted the subroutine into three other receivers nearby, two hosted by other farming facilities and one at the nearby village's scrapyard--if one of them picked up, she could alert them to the outage and get Namta and his son the help they needed.

...​

​

....​

​

.....​

​

~=Call Incomplete=~​

​

~=Call Incomplete=~​

​

~=Call Incomplete=~
​

​

For the briefest window of time--only microseconds--the humming under Leigh's dome went quiet, her chassis very still. Then she was out the door, only pausing to grab a slim, silvery cylinder out of a box near the hammocks. Then she was pounding her way directly through the fields, not even bothering with the paths and not caring what damage she caused. This was not the time to wait for Na'an. Her partner would just have to meet her at the barn like she'd said.

If her calculations were correct, whatever had happened to Namta--whatever was happening out there--would not pass over the Noba facility much longer.

[member="Vidalu Na'an"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]

 

[Uthixo Nazim]

As Ledgermayne turned to meet Uthixo's gaze the Sandali's mouth opened to scream, the call stretching out across the grasslands as memories came flooding back of when he'd first woke back up on the planet of Ryloth. The crimson crystalline skin, the eyes to match. The Sandali's worst nightmare had returned and in an instant Uthixo's mind was seemingly shunted from his body as he looked down on the scene from above, helpless as his vessel moved on its own. "Nooooo!" Uthixo shouted but the words came not through his bodies mouth. It turned, the once black eyes now a crimson to match Ledgermayne's.

From the field of grain, figures rose up, their bodies a combination of graying flesh, and crystal that jutted from backs, shoulders and necks. A mixture of the Dantooine natives that stood tall over even Uthixo's height their cavemen like bodies infected by crystal, heads lulling about as they awaited their orders. Ledgermayne seemingly satisfied with the circumstances, the long finger hovering before Uthixo where it tapped his head kicking the Sandali's body into motion.

In minutes Uthixo crossed the hill to the nearby plantation in his hands the two lightsabers waited to plunge into whatever newfound quarry he could find. The golden blades casting their hue on the grass around him, yet and still Uthixo's conscious was forced to watch as his body raised one of the blades to the sky howling a war cry, from behind a wave of the infected Dantooine natives charged over and down at the waiting village. A smile emblazoned on the Sable-skinned man's face as he joined the charge.

Death and destruction was a way of life, it came no matter where one was. No matter how safe you believed yourself to be, it would wait for its chance to strike. The village was filled with not mercenaries or warmongers, but those who made an earnest living. That wished to live their lives away from the chaotic wars filling the galaxy, to ignore it. Now death had once more reared its ugly head looking to deal it out across the village.

[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"], [member="Ledgermayne"], [member="Vidalu Na'an"]

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

The word No echoed through Na'an's ruined ear as she sprinted down the path towards the house. With every step, her eye on the stormheads, her breath hot and frantic in her lungs, she felt the Force pressing her vision in the woods down further into the realm of reality. She couldn't wait. She had to get to Leigh faster--had to arm herself, had to warn Noba and the men--had to--

She almost burst through the door of the hut before stopping short. Something about the air outside...As if following some invisible cue, she turned to the left to see bent, destroyed stalks. There was a path leading through the triticale where there wasn't one before...a path beaten by huge, metallic feet. Na'an tilted her head, favoring her left eye to peer through the stalks until, some hundred yards ahead, she saw what she'd known was already there--a flash of a familiar metallic bulk.

It had only been forty minutes, and Leigh was already on her way to the main facility. There was no reason for Leigh to leave her work early, unless something critical had demanded her attention. Brilliant, beautiful LE-03, of course she already knew. But Leigh was only just one being, and that...thing she saw...Na'an was off like a shot behind her, arms up to keep the grainheads from whipping her face. "Leigh! Leigh, wait! Don't go without me, you shouldn't be alone!!"

[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

"Leigh! Leigh, wait! Don't go without me, you shouldn't be alone!!"

Leigh was within sight of the barn when she heard Na'an behind her. She turned to catch her partner as she pitched through the triticale into her, her sensors noting her vital statistics with alarm. Na'an's body temperature was elevated beyond normal for the kind of workout she had had time to accomplish; her heartrate was high, and Leigh's olfactory sensors detected traces of stomach acid mingled with her sweat. After only forty minutes, the probability that someone with Na'an's endurance could work to the point of vomiting was miniscule...

"I have made this walk many times alone," she noted, "without harm to myself. I..."

She paused. She had been about to say 'merely', but a lapse in the Dantooine communications grid this large was no 'mere' issue. And Na'an's vital signs, along with her far-too-early return from her run, and her clear worry about Leigh being out in the fields alone, indicated that something had put her partner in a state of high distress. If Na'an knew something about what was going on...

"I have noted outages in local communications receivers that indicate a potential threat in the outlying facilities," she decided to say. "I decided that leaving the path to communicate this threat more quickly was worth the potential crop damage. From your current location and condition, you have information that confirms my decision, do you not?"

[member="Vidalu Na'an"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

" It's not just the comms."

Na'an pushed herself away from Leigh's chassis, forcing herself to breathe slowly. She'd gotten to Leigh, and Leigh already knew something was wrong. She would sort it out, she'd know what to do it only she had enough information.

"I saw it," she said in a rush. "I saw it all, Leigh, as soon as I made the drop. There's someone out there in the fields. They're burning the crops and the villages, I saw it, there's so much blood but it's all still burning. There's a man, or something that looks like one, and he's looking for some boy he says is his son, and he's destroying everything in his wake, I saw it!"

Leigh's hand was still on Na'an's shoulder, but it was holding something rather than trying to grip at her--a silvery tube Na'an recognized. Brilliant, brilliant LE-03, she'd thought so far ahead as to bring Na'an's weapon. She pulled at the droid's fingers and they opened easily, letting her take the tube.

"We've got to get to Noba and Alain and the others. I don't think we'll have much time before we're next in line."

[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

Leigh clicked off her hologram as she listened. It was far easier, after all, for the droid to turn off her facial expressions entirely than to mask them.
A vision. It was not unheard of for organics strong in the Force to have visions in a meditative state, either of the present or of the future. While Na'an was not particularly prone to such events, it was illogical to dismiss what she was describing as nonsense. The concept of the outlying facilities being attacked, the crops burned and the inhabitants killed, would match her analysis of why their receivers no longer seemed to exist.

It also made the situation much more dire. If whatever was destroying the receivers was also killing everyone they met, then her partner was right, and they had even less time than Leigh had thought.

"Then go. Be quick, and be quiet. I will alert the men--a defensive line will be necessary."

Her partner needed no more prompting; she was off in an instant, vanishing into the triticale like a ghost. With her size and speed, Na'an would be able to get to Noba and her son much faster than she would, and with less damage. Leigh, however, kept on her original trajectory towards the main barn. The more of the facility's farmhands they could alert, the more quickly they could make a plan to minimize damage.

She only hoped that Na'an would be quick, be quiet--and be safe about it. As the droid broke into a run, some of her unused processors dedicated themselves calculating the worst-case scenarios...and what she would do to anyone who made any of them happen.

[member="Vidalu Na'an"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]

 

[Darth Ledgermayne]

Red crystalline hands unvieled the hood that covered most of Ledgermaynes brilliant fractal features. Watching the Sandali @Uthixo sprint away weapons drawn. Oh how it reminded him of the glory days back. When the boy was much younger, Early training days. Crystalline feet shifted in a ritualistic manner, bent arms angled red hands to the sky above, then a pause of concenration. The very ground beneath the Sith Lord began to quake in his local area. Particles of dirt, grass, pebbles gathered and built under him. Then came larger patches. Entire masses of stone taken from the purple hued lands of Dantooine began to now pile. With the simple action of thrusting his hands infront of his crystal body the Sith Lord began to move, but not with his feet.

He himself was motionless. His stature grew three feet in height with hands gestured behind him regally. The crunching sounds of stone dirt and other minerals grinding and moving below him sounded. The winds resistance met Ledgermayne atop his amassed earth shaped boulder. Soiling, upturning and ravaging the land in its speedy wake of destruction. It picked up enough momentum to catch up with the Uthixo!

" Ledgermayne. That is my name. Let it refresh your memories and our intertwined pasts. Only I know who you truly are and today I will show you through action." He tilted his head up now able to the see the village and settlements. Ruby red eyes glared at his new minions the Oblitus Bellatoria he had dubbed them. A unspoken command was given causing a increase in speed from twenty four crystalline abominations. They broke into a unnatural sprint throwing themselves forward with all their might. A feral eerie scream sounded like warhorn from one of the creatures. A glow brightened from all of the minions and in an instant twelve of the grouping broke off to run around the right side of the village. The remaining group of twelve pushed forward engaging locals into a brutal slaughter.

Wide fearful eyes opened wide and screams of utter terror broke out as settlement citizens scrambled to flee or fight. Majority of the women, young and elders fled toward a rather larger farm 4 miles away but the men and other able fighters remained firm in ground. The crack of slugthrowers firing erupted lighting up the dusk lit fields with slugs and tracer fire. It would alert the neighboring settlements and farms that something was wrong.

" Open fire! Stand firm and deliver!" An aged man shouted. " Focus fire, watch right flanks!" It was obvious he had combat or military experience. He was clad in a mix of leather and durasteel armor. A black a red colored shard stood impaled into his exposed left forearm. As soon as it was noticed the shard was removed. The chuck was removed but even still Ledgermayne could feel the micro shards within his body.

" Uthixo my boy." A grin up turned on the Siths face. " Herd the impudent lives here out into the field of the next farm, kill the resistant" He ordered. Increasing in speed and momentum Ledgermayne riding his shaped boulder leaned forward and then to the left ramming the dense object into two houses on the villages edge. Breaking and crumbling like sand.

​

" Help! Help!" A woman leading the young and old shouted with a breathless voice. Physically almost at her limit from evacuting her family to speeders and escorting them to safety. Full throttle hovering toward the the nearest farm to seek assistance and medical aid. (@LE-03 (Leigh [member="Vidalu Na'an"])

 

[Uthixo Nazim]

" Ledgermayne. That is my name. Let it refresh your memories and our intertwined pasts. Only I know who you truly are and today I will show you through action."

The words echoed within Uthixo’s mind and despite having seemingly been shunted from the controls of his body his mind was still his own, just unable to fight against the domineering presence and might of Ledgermayne. Those very words seemed to take Uthixo to another world, no longer was he on Dantooine. No, he was back on a planet where crystal reigned supreme, there were no forests or greenery, no vast oceans. Just more crystal fragments. A young boy stood clenching a saber hilt in his hands, one far too large for his small body. No, not any boy, Uthixo. Wielding the saber he swung it at the much larger Ledgermayne who deflected the blow with little more than a flick of his wrist.

Mind yanked back to the present Uthixo felt his body moving as it leaped over a barricade clearing it and landing atop a man that had turned and began to raise a blaster pistol. Booted feet colliding with the farmer’s chest, crushing as the larger and heavier Sandali landed upon him. The farmer howled as bones snapped, his ribs breaking, blood bubbling from between their lips, a sneer permanently inscribed on his face as he looked up to the Sandali. “Gaaah!” The man screeched raising up his blaster with what little strength he had left, but it was soon ended as the gold blade plunged through the center of the farmer's skull. The odor of singed flesh and hair assaulted Uthixo’s nostrils, the warrior simply shrugging it off as a shard was lifted and shoved within the freshly made hole before the Sandali began to move on.

All around him chaos reigned supreme, the darkness pooled around the area, it stank, the presence of it now radiating across the entire farm as the rest of the Oblitus creatures began to file in. This brought forth more unwelcome memories. They bubbled to the surface of Uthixo's consciousness with no remorse forcing him to witness the sins he'd once comitted. Memories of other worlds Uthixo had done this to under the charge of Ledgermayne, how he’d served without question, the one who had proclaimed himself to be his father.

Blades singing Uthixo’s body continued cutting through those who dare resist the call of the Oblitus, that dare deny the fate which the mighty Ledgermayne had ordained. None were spared, not even a young boy who had been brave enough to fire a blaster in Uthixo’s direction narrowly missing. Hand reaching out the Sandali simply tilted his head. The young ginger’s hands reached up scratching at his throat, eyes beginning to water before he collapsed to his knees. Screams came from the left as a woman pounced upon her child, clinging to him in her arms, begging, pleading for their lives.

In his mother's arms, the boys face began to change colors, his legs kicking. “Please!” The mother cried looking up to the looming Sandali.

“Those who ask for mercy, do not deserve it.” The golden blade raised high to the sky and came down in one swoop. No longer was there the wheezing of a child who’d simply attempted to be brave, nor the weeping of a mother begging for her child’s life. There was silence.

[member="Ledgermayne"], [member="LE-03 (Leigh)"], [member="Vidalu Na'an"]

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Be quick. Be quiet. Be quick, be quiet.

Na'an knew how to be quick and quiet. As she gave herself over to her feelings, she flowed through the gaps between the triticale rows, leaving only the barest of rustles behind her. The life around her--the plants and insects, the birds and rodents nibbling on fallen stalks--all seemed so placid--but then, they had no reason to be anything else. Their simplicity, however, was this time to her benefit. The feel of them couldn't even compare to the feel of sentients like Karre Noba and her son, cutting bundles only a few hundred yards away; it only took a minute or so of hard sprinting to reach them.

"Ma'am!" she called before bursting into the cleared space. "Ma'am, we've got an issue."

If Karre Noba was surprised to see her, she didn't show it. A squat, powerful-looking woman, she righted herself with the utter calm of a ruler safe in her own domain. She gestured with one broad arm for her son to stop bundling, then turned to Na'an.

"An issue, 'uh," she said lazily. "Tell me. Is it like dam bandits you and the droid drove off?"

Na'an shook her head. "Worse. Far worse. I'm here to get you and take you back to where we can defend you."

That seemed to give Noba pause. When her newest employees had single-handedly defended them from the bandit raids a couple years back, they hadn't bothered with defensive positions. "Worse, you say..." She peered sharply at Na'an for a moment, as if she herself were strong enough in the Force to pluck what Na'an had seen from her skull. "Alain."

Her son, a skinny dark-skinned boy of about twelve, popped upright. Noba gestured again.

"Alain, head on back to the barn. The bundling will keep."

Na'an watched the boy spring to his feet and bound away with a mixture of relief and confusion. She turned to Noba, reached for her to guide her in the same direction, but the woman only knocked her arm away. "There's others out here," she continued. "And the border to the next farm is close. Let's make sure we get everyone we ca--."

Before either one of them could respond, a woman's high-pitched voice cut through the air. The voice shrieked only once--the word please--

And then was cut short with a sound that turned Na'an's bones to ice. A sound she knew.

"There's no time," she said, and for the first time in recent memory she left no room for objection. She stepped around Karre Noba, placing her body between her and the direction of the sound. "Go to your boy, Ma'am. I'll be right behind you." She could still hear it out there, somewhere close...the faint electric crackle and hum of a lightsaber, maybe more than one.
As she adjusted the silver tube she had taken from Leigh in her palm, she found herself once again thanking the gods for her partner's foresight. It would have been much worse to be caught out here, against someone with a lightsaber, without her own blade.

"I know you're out there," she found herself muttering. "I feel you, di'kuut, I know what you're up to. You're not getting any farther than this, so come on. Come on."

[member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="Ledgermayne"]

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

The men were gearing up for the day's reaping when Leigh arrived at the main barn, pulling heavy vibro-scythes from hooks and wrapping the threshing flails around bulky forearms. None of them paid Leigh any mind when she first walked in--the droid and her tiny partner had become a long-standing fixture at the Noba farm, and with the exception of harvesttime were largely given free rein. One worker looked her way, giving her a customary nod and pointing her to one of the vibro scythes.

Then Leigh dialed up the volume on her internal speakers.

"Attention."

All the activity in the room died. The newer workers paused because they had never heard the massive droid raise her voice before. The older workers paused because they had--only once.

With a calculation of what might have been gratification, Leigh turned down her speakers again, and adjusted her holoprojector to show her human face.

"I regret to inform you all that we have a situation," she said evenly. "For your safety, today's harvest activity will be paused until the situation is resolved. We will also need to act immediately to fortify this location."

A ripple of murmuring passed through the group. The worker from before, a broad, balding man of about forty, stepped forward. " 'Fer our safety'? 'Fortify this location'? Yer makin' this sound pretty bad, you know."

"I am aware."

There was a brief pause. When the worker didn't move, Leigh decided that more detail would be necessary.

"My partner and I have reason to believe," she said carefully, "That an unknown threat has been attacking and destroying the neighboring farms, as well as the closest village. While we are unable to discern any motives or patterns to these attacks, the probability that this farm will be ignored is minute. Na'an has gone to retrieve the Noba family and bring them to this location, while I have been tasked with setting up a defensive position. My goal is to help you neutralize the threat with minimal casualties should it arrive."

The worker stared; not out of skepticism, but still out of a sort of disbelief. "Minimize casualties?"

Leigh's holographic face nodded.

​"But raiders...'dey don' do dat much killin'. Even when dey get to burnin', dey just want money and crops."

She remained impassive. Sometimes with organics, silence communicated more than words. As the droid waited, the implications of what she had said seemed to sink in. The blood slowly drained from the worker's face, leaving his normally ruddy complexion the color of paste. Behind him, the other workers became restless again; one of them, a boy no older than fifteen, began to cry. The worker turned back to look at the boy, then swallowed.

"....Right, 'den," he said, his voice shaky. "We're in yer hands, Leigh. Tell us what to do."

Leigh reached for the vibro-scythe with her good hand. Careful to keep her projected face looking sure and confident, she handed the scythe to the worker.
"Arm everyone you can," she said, turning up her speakers again. "Weapons if you have them, tools for those who do not. I will require at least two of you to help move anything that can serve as temporary barrier. I will also need someone to fetch whoever is in charge of the communications receiver today, and bring everything here. We need to consolidate ourselves as much as possible."

They went to work immediately. In only a few minutes, barriers made of crates and triticale bales were erected inside and outside of the barn doors, with every hand that could hold a weapon poised behind one of them. The head worker himself had made the trip into the main house to retrieve the communications kit, along with the man left to tend it. Leigh was overseeing the final preparations, assisting one of the threshers in calibrating an ancient blaster pistol, when she heard the scream.

" Help! Help!" A woman leading the young and old shouted with a breathless voice. Physically almost at her limit from evacuting her family to speeders and escorting them to safety. Full throttle hovering toward the the nearest farm to seek assistance and medical aid.

Survivors. Leigh gestured for the workers to stay back, and stepped out of the barn herself to meet the group sprinting towards her. The woman at their head was ragged, clearly terrified, and the children and elderly she led were unlikely to be threats--indeed, she recognized one of them, an old woman wearing a false hand that showed her work.
"You are safe here," she called, gesturing for them to come inside. "Please, tell us what you saw."

[member="Ledgermayne"]
[member="Uthixo Nazim"]
[member="Vidalu Na'an"]

 

[Uthixo Nazim]

Though the words had come from his mouth, though the deaths had been dealt by his hands it was not Uthixo that did them. It was the man controlled by a Sith Lord, even as it happened the real consciousness had been forced to witness it all. Trapped within the confines of his own mind he tried to break free but with each murder, the veil of darkness got stronger. While no angel, Uthixo even in his most enraged state would've never struck down a hapless civilian and their child. They were not the ones participating on the battlefield, they didn't welcome combat with open arms. The hoops and howls of the other Oblitus creatures reached high into the sky singing a song of death. A song of victory, of triumph as those unable to escape, were torn down and infected. Black smoke billowed into the air from the village's center. This was just the beginning.

Head-turning more presences swarmed through the area, but one stood out among the others. One that was stronger within the force, that had simply shrouded itself in the mundane and had now shown itself. Moving the Sandali walked akin to a predator, each step calculated, eyes narrowed as he heard the voices of people speaking rapidly. More to the horde.

"I know you're out there, I feel you, di'kuut, I know what you're up to. You're not getting any farther than this, so come on. Come on."

Those words had been all that the warrior needed to act, this one wasn't like the others. She held power, whether she knew how to use it or not would be put to the test in the coming moments. Rounding the corner Na'an would see an individual that stood at six foot even, his body rippling with muscles. Sable-skin shining in the light as Dantooine's primary began to retreat. Braided hair messed he began to approach. "Those who stand within the path of destiny are naught but obstacles."

The golden glow that both the shoto saber and regular shined did nothing but illuminate and show more visibly the blood that enveloped Uthixo. The Darkside radiated off his body the remnants of the powerful spell. There was no option of surrender given, instead, Uthixo's body began to shift, left leg forward, his right in line with it. Both feet pointing to the right offering his left side to Na'an. "You will make an excellent trophy to give to my Master... You may even make a fitting apprentice. I'll have to be sure to not kill you."

[member="Vidalu Na'an"]

 

[Darth Ledgermayne]

Location: Just outside the fortified Farm
Enemies: [member="LE-03 (Leigh)"]

" Invent and reinvent yourself my son. Dont swim in the same slew." Words echoed aloud into the beginning of night. Words all for [member="Uthixo Nazim"]. It felt good to have the boy by his side again, even if against his own will. Although it was not the same as before. The young mans mind was still healing from past fractures and as of now was tainted with blasphemous values like honor and glory. A hollow. Dead things. They held no true value with the Sith. This was not something agreed on as a whole but was Ledgermaynes own opinion. Branching out on his own the Sith lord himself spearheaded the charge into the next settlement. The Farm. It appeared that fortifications were now present as well.

Hope. Thats what the fortifications represented to the weak, it was hope. This all did not need to end how they all expected. The boulder that had been established underneath the Sith Lord had now grown to a formidable size. Collecting so much dirt, stone and the occasional body into its gathering. It all fell apart littering its remains all about the fields of the farm. Ledgermayne landing on his feet extended both arms to the now dark night skies.

" Your perceived views of death are not warranted." The Gutretee hissed. " Your families are safe. You need not worry about their physical forms. Send someone out. I would like to negotiate a new course of action." He propositioned to the people he as of yet could not see but could feel. The vibrations. They remained hidden behind every obstacle, like weasels and insects. The temptation to crush the very foundation from beneath them was a constant tempo of thought.

As of now the Sith Lord was alone in the field. The chaos that his possessed apprentice and his minions brought was a few miles away in the distance. It would take some time for them to arrive and even so the farmers and survivors would see them coming. The dark lord had no true intention in taking living survivors but he was interested in seeing who was left exactly or simply instilling dread into others before a crystallized fate consumed them.

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

" Your perceived views of death are not warranted." The Gutretee hissed. " Your families are safe. You need not worry about their physical forms. Send someone out. I would like to negotiate a new course of action."

This creature (the probability that the...being...now approaching the barn was human was minuscule at best) had arrived on a literal boulder, then dissolved it into nothing. He spoke of death and chaos. He promised safety for their 'physical forms', a term so legalistic and broad that it left his true intentions impossible to miss. And he had been preceded by a crowd of those who were openly fleeing his grasp.

Leigh believed it safe to assume that this was the being in Na'an's vision.

The farmers crouched behind the barricades were restless, clearly unsettled by the contrast between the being's promises and the thick, guttural voice those promises had been spoken in. The head farmer tightened his grip on his vibro-scythe and looked to the droid, clearly ready to stand if need be and act as the representative the being had required. Leigh clicked her hologram on again, just long enough to shake her head at him. She then, one more time, dialed up her internal speakers.

"That will not be necessary."

She stood to her full height, her cannon arm held up--not at firing height, but close enough that she could get a shot off in microseconds should the being aggress. She stepped over the barrier at the edge of the door, walking several paces to distinguish herself from the organics she had taken in her charge.

She was a droid, and thus could take far more damage without consequence. She would act as the representative.

As she approached, she finally got a good look at the being. While humanoid in height, his composition seemed to actually more closely resemble her own than any organic: its skin was crystalline, reflecting the sun at odd angles. The refracted light and sharp angles give the face an odd, impassive effect...If there was any emotion to what the being was doing, it did not read on his face.

"Your words contradict the facts, sir," she said evenly. Silently, she activated her internal protocols for her cannon, switching to concussive fire. "There are civilians here who have seen the dead. The probability that you are telling the truth and they are not is less than 0.73%. Please do not disrespect us with such transparent lies."

[member="Vidalu Na'an"], [member="Uthixo Nazim"], [member="Ledgermayne"]