An Army of Clay, Flesh and Bone

[Azrakiel]

As the words and images seemed to permeate his mind, pain began to riddle through Azrakiel’s very core; Isolda’s manner of ‘assistance’ no matter how well intended, was eerily reminiscent of his previous owner’s method of imposing his will upon a slave, and with all things being equal, elicited a programmed response. Much akin to training an animal to salivate due to a set series of stimuli, so too did this mental invasion cause Azrakiel to falter, as if prepared to cower in anticipation of forthcoming pain.

Lost in his pre-programmed reaction, he didn’t see the creature’s appendage striking from his blind spot, nor did he have a moment of clarity or opportunity to act; the armored tail quickly found it’s mark just above his floating ribs as a cacophony of snaps and pops heralded him being flung against the hard granite that was all around them. For what seemed to be an eternity, but in truth was a mere moment lost in time, the sound of his wheezing made it self-evident that a lung had been pierced and the acolyte had failed; but in appearances place no faith…

Just as it became obvious that Isolda would have to react promptly to the threat, as her silent guardian floundered about upon the earthen floor, she herself would be assailed through the auspices of the mind. A small humming, a mantra, a chant upon the proverbial prayer wheel, seemed to dominate her thoughts as Azrakiel’s untrained mind began screaming for all those trained in the Force to hear Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood , Blood, Blood, Blood! As the sound of his thoughts became louder and louder, it seemed that she had awoken by accident what his previous owner had often done intentionally out of perverse pleasure; she had caused him to enter into a primordial state of bloodlust.

Subconsciously calling upon the Dark Side was no easy task, but here, in this place, the energies that sustained the followers of the Dark Side were strong and thus easily accessible to the reptilian mindset that Azrakiel had fallen prey to. Strengthening his body to the point of near no return, even the heartiest of beings would cringe at what he was doing to himself, as tendons began to pop and musculature tore away from bone. Lost in the throughs of madness, an educated tactician would easily guess that if he were missing a limb, Azrakiel would be spraying the blood from its stump in his enemy’s eyes just to press advantage.

Leaping into the fray without thought to his physical state, any sort of tactic or strategy had been flung by the wayside as his own blood passed over his lips like a waterfall as it struck the earth; here was the berserkr, the whirling dervish, the wild eyed Hashishin that was willing to risk all to attain final victory over the foe…

One could only wince as they saw him utilize Ataru and allowed his body to become even further damaged as he moved and served with a certain acrobatic agility; all pain nerves had been severed now, all knowledge of what he was doing to his physical cast to the wayside, as crimson humming blade found purchase less than an inch and a half to the left of the creature’s heart.

With the creature falling to the earth, a labored growling that was intermingled with the wheezing of a damaged lung, seemed to be Azrakiel’s only constant before he turned towards Isolda “Never … Do that… Again…” Eyes widened due to a severe combination of madness and pain, it seemed for a moment that he was about to attack and then nothing. As the energy that had propelled him to attain victory quickly left his corporeal shell, he tumbled to the earth much like a marionette whose strings had just been severed by a cruel child. Laying amongst the ichor, the meat, and the bone of his enemy, it would be up to Isolda to carry on towards her appointed task. As Darkness sought to claim him, a mocking laughter, muddled and gargled from the flow of frothing blood from his own lips, seemed to serve as his only solace…


@[member="Vehanv Kiva"] / @[member="Darth Isolda"]
OOC: Just for clarification, he overextended
himself in using the Force Body technique,
which clearly has some dangerous results.

 

[Vehanv Kiva]

There was an overexertion of darkness near the chamber that finally roused her. Beneath the pressure of the seal, a curled fist pounded at the overlaying glass plate. At first, the coffin quivered slightly. Then, the pounding came again. Being in stasis did not mean that she was weak, she had merely been suspended in time which meant no muscular degeneration or deterioration on her part. After three forceful punches had been executed, the glass crackled around her knuckles enough for her to push away; only drawing a slight amount of blood as the former-Guardian rose from her coffin.

She sat upright, hunched, and with her eyes closed for a moment. The feeling the tomb provided was a strange one; filled with those who had been indefinitely frozen mid-thought. It was relishing, to know she was the one that had been selected to survive and guide. Slowly, she rose, extending her hand from instinctive memory. To it, snapped a hilt that had been help by the statute; the only light in the room. Her former Master, rest his soul, had used her light whip to serve as the weapon that would ignite the room for eternity. It was by pure alchemy alone that it had not extinguished yet. And nor would it.

With the surge of shadows beyond the door, she could sense the impending nature that her and her army would be found this day. But by who, and would they be worthy?

@[member="Azrakiel"] | @[member="Darth Isolda"]

 

[Darth Banshee]

Sabrina saw @[member="Tiiona"], coming to her aid against @[member="Canal Tal'Verda"], this gave her hope. That emotion gave her strength, to carry on fighting, She reached out again, with the force, and felt for cracks and faults, in barrel of weapon. Then she began to concentrated on crushing the barrel.

 

[Darth Isolda]

@[member="Azrakiel"]

Isolda observed the sight with self satisfied pleasure. Azrakiel had done exemplary. Even if he did protest a little of the method involved. She guaranteed victory with her use of the Darksight -- but it did not guarantee it would be the most painless of routes.

Slowly, the Eye of the Dark Lord began to stride forward, past the beast the Terentetak beast the acolyte had slain. The a section of the hide of the beast would be his reward. The slightest kiss of the softness of her robe brushed against Azrakiel’s prone form, her hand lightly reaching out to hover over him, as if to say, ‘Well done.’

However, her attention was on other matters. That which lay before her, the enormous double doors that had been sealed shut for centuries.

Finally, she was here. Just like her visions had foretold.

Slowly, the Oracle pulled the holocron from the safety of the pouch at her hip, holding the pyramid shaped crystal aloft in her palm. As she came to a stop before the doors, Isolda began to chant in the ancient tongue of the Sith.

Power grew, surging through the Darth as a crimson light grew brighter deep within the holocron. Suddenly, a burst of power shot from Isolda, as crimson sigils engraved upon the stone began to glow.

In moments, the very ground began to rumble, and then there was a hissing sound as the doors slowly began to drift open.

Stale air blasted out towards the female, flicking her cowl away from her face and sending strands of ebony hair to fall down her shoulders and back.

There, before her, ancient lights flickered to life and illuminated the large cavern, revealing their precious treasury.

Row upon row of figures trapped in carbonite, the expanse far too great to truly realize as chambers upon chambers were illuminated within the maze of the underground caverns.

The Carbonite Sith Army.

 

[Djorn Bline]

Oh, so we're going to do 2 v 1? Fine with me. Another Sith who was in the air fired rounds at the detonator that was meant for the weakling sith which disabled it. The an another two rounds hit Canal's leg which didn't do that much damage. Too much damn material on it that could withstand a scattergun. Canal's attention went to @[member=Tiiona] and fired all his rounds that were in his shotgun. It would be really tough for her to dodge those shots since she was still in the air and it would be really difficult for someone to maneuver through those slugs.

But then the other sith crushed Canal's shotgun which left him with his pistol. He wouldn't use at the moment cause he didn't want it to be crushed leaving him with his knife. Once the shotgun became useless Canal threw it at Sabrina who was still kneeing on the ground from the wounds that she received. Looking around he saw a blaster rifle from a fallen Sith apprentice that hadn't been used. Running towards the blaster rifle he grabbed it and continued shooting at the wounded sith. "You think you can defeat me? You need more power to defeat me."

@[member="Sabrina Kotass"]

 

[Darth Naomi]

It seems this was a bad day for the blaster pistol, nobody cared about it at all. And more issues followed - the man now saw Tiiona and aimed his weapon at her. She was in such an exposed position - falling - that there was pretty much the only thing she could do about this. Taking a moment to focus she would urge the force to push the shotgun barrel downwards, redirecting the barrage to the ground. Unfortunately that single moment was enough for him to make the first shot which hit Tiiona in multiple spots. Her right leg was grazed in two places, nothing serious but still, then she got a legit shot through her left side, the bullet went clean through and it did not seem to touch any organs but it was a painful injury, dangerously close to her insides, and lastly one pellet managed to tear the pistol from her grip. The pistol was useless anyway, the most troublesome was the wound on her side, which for the moment Tiiona hardly felt due to the rush of adrenaline, her outlaw instincts pretty much voiding her mind, a state into which she only went a few times in her life, in the most dire circumstances. At this point all she cared about was survival and it was best achieved by making sure the guy could not lift another gun.

And so, as soon as she was stable on the ground, the Miraluka would pull another pistol, the one armed with explosive slugthrower rounds that she used to break multiple bones of people even through the Mandalorian armor. Taking a careful aim at the center of the clone as he was running to pick up the rifle and letting a single shot fly as he did pick it up, but before he raised it to fire.

@[member="Canal Tal'Verda"] @[member="Sabrina Kotass"]

 

[Darth Banshee]

The pain in sabrina side, started to subside, her jaw still ached as well. She rose to her feet, as @Canal Tal'Verda picked up another rifle, and she started blocking his shot`s. She had steel look in her eye, as she began to step forward towards, this clone warrior. Almost in venomous anger, she shouted at the clone, TIME TO DIE, YOU SKROG HOPPER. She blocked more shot`s, she had a fiery determination, to decapitate him. They attack us, we here on mission to liberate, our brethren from their frozen slumber.
It was not long, before the pain began vanish, as the hate began to take over, for these mandalorias.
@[member="Tiiona"]

 

[Djorn Bline]

He knew that Sabrina wouldn't be much of a threat since she had less energy than Tiiona. One was deflecting Canal's bolts, that sent them everywhere and the other had her pistol out and was about to shoot Canal. He focused his aim on Tiioan who fired one round of her pistol at him. He fired at her with his rifle and saw that one of his deflected bolts hit something in mid air an explosion. "Well that seemed weird and unusual," and as he waited for the slug to hit him he didn't feel nothing touch him. He was unaware that the slug was an explosion he concentrated his fire on Tiiona and still aware of Sabrina's movements.

@[member="Sabrina Kotass"] @[member="Tiiona"]

 

[Vehanv Kiva]

The lights. Something activated the lights.

Dark eyes flickered up to the ceiling, as if she had to make sure for herself that the electric currents were indeed flowing. But they were, she could feel them. With a deep inhale, the Sith shuddered furiously. Who was responsible for this?

The door was quite some distance from Vehanv, who stood at the base of the column-like cement overlord. The figure that had tripped the lights, and brought to life the chasm was nothing but a shadowy silhouette. She felt her knuckles reflexively tighten around the hilt of her ancient weapon, and a scowl curdle her tattooed features. This was her army. Her men. She had been frozen here to lead them, and to be there when they rose and assisted the Sith in their final victory.
At least, that's what she had been told.

"Who ventures into this lair." The former Kiffar spoke finally, from the shadows. Her voice was cast about the chambers like a booming, bassy echo that bounced about the cathedral-like chasm.

@[member="Darth Isolda"]

 

[Darth Veles]

The ship did not wait for Avreet to look at the result of the cannon's rapid fire. Continuing its flight over the forest, uninterrupted by any sort of anti-aircraft weapons since the Mandalorians brought none, the Mon Calamari did not see any other enemies in his path, which prompted him to turn the ship around and return to the battlefield. He actually slowed down a bit to have more time to aim and destroy his enemies fighting on the ground. Surprisingly, the situation on the battlefield looked to be mostly under control. It almost seemed peaceful compared to the chaos before the bombs fell. Avreet figured most Mandalorians perished during the carpet bombing, ironically coming from one of their own, which only proved all their talk about honor and family values between their members meant absolutely nothing to them and they only cared about fighting and killing. Another culture nobody would ever miss if they were permanently removed from the galaxy. Gently reducing thrust, the Mon Calamari slowed the ship down as he approached the place where his flight had started. Goggling through the cockpit window with his large bulbous eyes, he expected the ship's owner to have defeated her opponent already. No such luck, it seemed the two Sith Acolytes were having trouble with the clone. The Sith Knight frowned upon seeing the scene, two beings that would rule the galaxy one day were unable to crush a truly inferior lifeform, an artificially bred bastard.

Hovering about twenty meters above the ground and slowing the ship down to the point it did not move forward anymore, the Mon Calamari Sith fully focused on controlling the ship's cannon. The Force and his cybernetic eye guided his moves with impressive speed that no non-Force sensitive could ever hope to match and helped him to quickly aim at his target, @[member="Canal Tal'Verda"], who had luckily managed to keep his distance from the two Acolytes so far so there was no danger of hitting either @[member="Sabrina Kotass"] or @[member="Tiiona"]. Just as a few moments ago, Avreet's flippered hand firmly grasped the cannon's control and pressed the trigger to unleash it at the clone. The ship's weapon made a characteristic sound and spat a volley of laser fire. Quite a sight, considering a weapon that usually found its use in space combat against other ships was being used in a manner that would rip a person asunder.

 

[Djorn Bline]

Three on one now. And the Sith always say that they are stronger than anyone else. Pathetic, especially that one is using a ship to kill its opponent. That means they are probably too weak to face me. Canal already noticed a ship coming at him from his HUD and ran to take cover and shot at the ships cockpit that contained its pilot. As he ran he found a lightsaber that belonged to a with that was dead and picked it up so he could use it against these rats. He then called help on his comm link to the nearest CIS fleet to send an evac team to get Canal out of there and to blow up the remaining of the Sith camp. "Are the three of you too weak and scared to face me?! Don't you pathetic With brag that you are stronger than anyone else. It is so funny that you are using a ship to kill an opponent instead of facing him with courage!" He continued to fire at the ship from cover and had his HUD keeping an eye out for all three siths so he could counter against their attacks.

@[member="Darth Veles"] @[member="Sabrina Kotass"] @[member="Tiiona"]

 

[Darth Banshee]

Sabrina smiled, his focus seemed to be off her. She reached out with the force, and started to try and feel, the very gear he was wearing, she crush his gun`s, may be she crush his armour........
@[member="Canal Tal'Verda"]

 

[Darth Veles]

The Mon Cal's cybernetic eye locked on the running clone, completely ignoring the shot coming at the cockpit as the ship's shields effortlessly absorbed it. The laser cannon fired a long burst at @[member="Canal Tal'Verda"] as he picked up the weapon belonging to a dead Sith, not even giving him time to call for help. Not like it mattered; the comlink build in his armor most likely would not have good enough transmitting range, and even then, the signal would not get past the Sith fleet above them.

The Mon Calamari pilot pressed the trigger again and released another load at the clone trooper. And another one. The shots from the cannon tore the ground where it hit wouldn't have any problem with doing the same to any obstacle between the shots and the clone.

 

[Darth Naomi]

[I find Canal's previous actions rather impossible and thus give it quite a hefty explanation if you don't mind. After all, if I don't, then he effectively time freezes my character in place until he can fire at me, something I am not too fond of]

And then a mighty interesting thing happened. The phenomenon that Tiiona was witnessing was most probably of a spacetime nature, probably some sort of warp or a rare anomaly that would happen only once in a millennia. The bullet that she fired, a very valuable bullet since she had a limited number of those, was moving extremely slow, so slow that she could actually see it and because of it the trooper it should have struck almost immediately managed to do the following. First he actually picked up the rifle he was no supposed to raise, then he took aim and started shooting, then he noticed Tiiona and maybe her half a meter per second bullet too, then he switched his aim at her and started firing again, all this still while the bullet was flying mind you. And then, the bolts that he fired at Sabrina previously, deflected quite some time ago, would be no doubt under the influence of the same spacetime anomaly and find their way to hit the explosive bullet making it go out in a roaring blast.

And what was Tiiona doing all this time, you might ask? Well, some could have already assumed that she too was affected by the strange phenomenon and was just standing around, not even capable of comprehending her surroundings that changed at an extreme rate compared to how the time would be progressing for her. But that was not true and why should it be, the situation with the bullet was a freak accident and a load of crap one might say. No, she was rather moving at quite the normal rate, not giving a supersonic flank about the slowmotion bullet. The first thing she did was locate a first aid kit that was randomly on the ground just a step from her, it was Mandalorian obviously because they were known for carrying medical kits instead of armor, just like Sith are known for carrying blaster rifles instead of lightsabers. She would swiftly patch up her bleeding side, needless to say the fire directed at her would miss completely because she was no longer in the same position she shot the bullet, the image of her holding the weapon was in fact only a time mirage delayed by the anomaly that kept the bullet still flying and then the it would explode. And the strange time warp would end as well.

In the mean time the fleet in orbit did not wait. With their fighters being downed they decided the Mandalorians needed to be reminded they had a fleet over their head that could smite them any minute and they had zero cover against that. And in order to do that they sent down three frigates. The mighty ships emerging from the clouds and casting their shadows above three places: the Sith camp, the Army Tomb and the place the Murderous Wench was parked. And with their cannons locked on any energy source and anything that moved they would broadcast for anyone with a commlink to hear "No Escape". The few remaining warriors were completely at their mercy and their choice was to lay down their weapons or attempt to resist and be struck down.

And down on the ground Tiiona would respond to Canal's challenge. Her gun would rest on her waist, a light of saber now dancing in her right hand, and her left hand put in the air, signaling or requesting for her comrades to stand down with their assault on the clone. If he wanted a duel with swords, she would give it to him.

@[member="Darth Veles"] @[member="Sabrina Kotass"] @[member="Canal Tal'Verda"] @[member="Mac O Shenanigans"] @[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

The few remaining Mandalorian warriors, completely at nobody's mercy thank you very much, left in Ember's stealth transport. Piloted by Force-enhanced instinct, it left the scene rather straightforwardly.

 

[Darth Naomi]

[My bad, I might have overdone it, allow me to attempt a fix]

After throwing out the threat broadcast the ship captains would get reports that practically nobody was on the surface, except friendlies, thus making it pointless for the ships to hang over all the positions except of Tomb, where they will be needed for transport. Coordinating with each other they would fly the other two frigates at that place, letting them loom above the rocky surface as the fighting everywhere reached the end, with both sides suffering some losses, the Mandalorian troops having found their way out and the Sith and Vahla forces coming about after the shock of the fight.

 

[Darth Isolda]

[member="Vehanv Kiva"]


Slowly, Isolda swiveled her head towards the direction of the voice, only the faint swish of her silk robes lightly brushing against the dust covered floor made a sound.

Stale air went swirling round the oracle, due to centuries of hiding and sequestering that prevented air circulation within the vast caverns that held the Carbonite Sith Army. There were still things to this day, that were not completely seen by the Seer. It was in these moments that curiosity would grow upon Moira.

As the vision of the ancient Sith held in stasis beheld her, bedraggled and holding a saber of ancient crafting, Isolda knew then that this was one of those times that the Goddess would gift her with a lesson. A trial. The fact that she could not see this new element meant something far greater; yessssss…

A test.

One could only hope for the betterment of His Vision.

“Darth Isolda, the Eye of the Dark Lord. Chosen of the Goddess. “ there came a faint pause as Isolda slowly summoned the Darkside of the Force, channeling it to increase her ability to sense and see beyond that for some inkling of the strange woman.
“Who are you?”

 

[Vehanv Kiva]

Eye of the Dark Lord? That sounded like her former master, the one who had bedded her in this coffin years ago. "Chosen of the Goddess?"
Strips of violet tendrils manifested along her fingertips, being birthed after centuries in darkness and sleep. She was a little rusty, but she did not like to be disturbed, nor invaded by someone she didn't know. "Prove it." Came the deep, resounding taunt that echoed about the cavernous walls. The static jumped from her palms in a flash, twisting about the columns of clay around her and she clutched the hilt of her lightwhip, not yet igniting it's crimson length.

"Prove it to me. I am Vehanv of Clan Kiva, and these are my soldiers."

[member="Darth Isolda"]