Private Cold Vengeance

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve hesitated. She'd completely forgotten Elpsis was blind, as she should have understood by the bone-white color of her eyes, but the young woman didn't seem remotely bothered by the question. Of course, she channeled the Force. It would have lended her some sight, at least, in the world around her, like the Miraluka, born blind but with a vision attuned to the Force. Perhaps Elpsis was the same.

Thankfully, other members of her squad took to inspecting the runes, like Shikoba, whose staff brought on a chill that made Maeve shudder. No doubt she was communing with a spirit, asking for answers. A useful, if not literally haunting, talent to possess. And by the whispers she was hearing, inaudible and strange, Shikoba was clearly dealing with a spirit of a darker vein.

With a cry and a flash of the Light, Maeve watched as the odd Vashyadan seemed to cast out whatever ghost she'd been speaking with, dispelling the heavy chill with it.

"Is she always like this?" she murmured over to Elpsis while the rest of her crew squabbled amongst each other. They were a curious group.

It didn't take very long for the young woman to flex her command and bring them in line, however. Authority suited her fine, and the others seemed to have enough respect and loyalty to her to listen. Already, the Bothan sergeant revealed a datapad and scanned the runes through a kind of translation database, and in moments, Maeve had the answer to their question.

"Dark Sister," she repeated. "I know that blade. An ancestral Sith weapon singlehandedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds. Thousands." She put a hand to her chin and contemplated. "But just what would Nils want with it? And the Bane of Ashla?" She looked anxiously down into the tunnel.

"We should keep moving," she said. "Whatever Nils has planned, it's not good, and we need to stop him while we still have the chance."

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

"Yes," Elpsis muttered...loud enough for the elves to hear with their sensitive hearing. "Specialist Shikoba is the sort to go into a graveyard and have a chat with all the ghosts."
Shikoba huffed a little bit. "Ghosts are people too, Captain. You may be one day one day, chained to the mortal world, and then you'd surely like someone to shepherd your soul."
"Ghosts might be people too, but most people are not worth our time," Rhea pointed out grumpily.

Before this could degenerate into another argument, Elpsis turned to Vagt. "Anything on this Bane thing?"
"No, ma'am. Symbols are too faded to ID."
"Fine, let's head out," she said briskly. As the team began to move down the tunnel, she glanced in Maeve's directions. "Any more details on the blade? Capabilities and such. I'm guessing it's a Sith Sword? Lots of those about, so what makes it special?" She wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing that she hadn't brought Nyssa with her. On the one hand the Pureblood was a walking (and incredibly smug) encyclopedia on Sith lore, on the othere there'd be...issues with a militant Jedi in the mix.

As they proceeded along the tunnel, Zhaleh, with her good eyesight in the gloom, eventually bid the team to halt as they came within the sight of fire further down the tunnel, and the smoke sprouting from it. They would be able to hear voices around the flame. A campfire for some of Nils' men, no doubt.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"It's imbued with the Dark Side," Maeve replied.

"The blade's face is engraved with runes like these, but with real power. The strength to cut through steel. The burning sting of a lightsaber. Fae magick and command over untold spirits." She slanted a glance to Shikoba and the wood-carved staff she carried, then to the hilt of Elpsis' blade, remembering the heavy Force presence she'd felt in it. Dark Sister was like the best of both worlds. Or well, in this case, the worst.

"Jedi archives state the weapon was destroyed, but now… I'm not so sure."

Hesitation rippled through Maeve, but she didn't let herself panic. She had fought foes twice as terrible as Nils, and there was no guarantee he was even in possession of Dark Sister or the Bane of Ashla. Those were myths. Until they had complete confirmation Nils had them, she wouldn't trouble herself with it.

Instead, Maeve kept her attention ahead, deep in the tunnel, where her sharp eyes caught the gleam of a fire and her ears the sound of conversation. She held her lightsaber close. The urge to charge headfirst at the guards was overwhelming, but she stayed her hand, looking over to Elpsis and her crew for what they thought the best course of action.

For now, she could afford to wait for Captain Kerrigan's command.

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

"Lovely," Elpsis remarked. She was inclined to ask about this 'Bane'. But up ahead she felt the heat of the flame, and heard voices. Soldiers of Nils. Just as deserving of death as any of Sith. "Too many of us to sneak past," she muttered, keeping her voice low. "Kill them. Be quiet about it," she gave Maeve and Rhea a nod. "Celaena, blind them."

"Gladly," Celaena's gauntlets retracted so she could better work her art. Heat spread across her body like metaphorical wildfire when she drew upon her inner flame. Rhea gave Maeve one look with an almost feral grin, as if silently beckoning her to move, and began to move near-silently, crawling up a wall. From there, dagger in hand, she would move across the ceiling to pounce her quarry.

The soldiers were enjoying some respite from the cold when suddenly the campfire intensified drastically. A plume of fire sprouted from, forcing soldiers to recoil if they didn't want to be burnt by it...and blinding them. As Shikoba chanted quietly, the flame was shaped like the jaws of a massive hellhound, reaching out to swallow them. Just in this moment Zhaleh hurled her spear through the darkness, embedding itself in the neck of one of the soldiers.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Again, Maeve had to admit, Captain Kerrigan's crew was impressive.

Like how they acted against the reptavians, they moved together in tandem, a hive-mind. As the fire ruptured, blinding the guards around it, Rhea advanced upon them with a knife and Zhaleh threw her spear at one of their throats. Naturally, chaos ensued.

The men scrambled for their weapons. Blaster rifles, ceremonial swords and cudgels. One barely had time to scream before the fire, shaped by Shikoba's hand, consumed him in one terrifying gulp, turning him to ash.

While Maeve could've easily sat back and enjoyed the spectacle, instead she joined them, lightsaber flashing through the dark. Closing the gap in the tunnel at the unnatural speed of a Jedi Knight, she cut through one of the guard's like peeling out the core of an apple, slashing a circle into his chest.

The next, to no surprise, tried to charge her with a glowing sword. Not a lightsaber, but a blade engraved with more Sith runes, each one burning red on the steel. When her saber met it, sparks flew and she found herself backpedaling. The man was strong, but Maeve? She was lithe. Fast.

Swerving around him like a ghost, she deactivated her lightsaber then ignited it again, just before she ripped it through his neck.

By the time she turned, the fight was already over.

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Amidst all the fire, fury and swordplay, Rhea had crawled across the ceiling, much like a spider. From her vantage point she had a good view of the mayhem as the goons scrambled for their weapons and to evade the fire, intensified into a blinding, blazing death trap by Celaena and shaped into a hellhound's jaw by Shikoba. Gunfire ripped through the air, as the team engaged from cover.

As Maeve went for the jugular of a Sith - literally - a Sith minion levelled his rifle at her back. In that moment Rhea dropped down from on high, moving with unnatural swiftness. He had no time ere she grabbed him from behind and her dagger slashed across his neck. There was a gurgle and blood poured from his wound. Rhea glanced at the Jedi, and wordlessly attached her dagger back to her belt, and quickly pulled away from the fire.

Smoke coiled from Celaena's hands when she emerged from cover. Concentration was etched across her features as she drew the heat from the raging fire into her to quell it. Her body trembled a bit, then she felt Zhaleh's cooling hand on her shoulder, balancing the heat surging through her body. "Steady, Chracai..." that was the name of a fierce feline native to Kaeshana.

"Thanks. That was fun. Monkeighs didn't know what hit them," the Eldorai declared, smirking.
"Good work. Don't get cocky," Elpsis said tersely. As she crossed the distance to Maeve, Vagt and Zhaleh were already moving up ahead to lie in wait in case patrols had heard the commotion and come to investigate.
Stepping over the bodies of dead Sith goons, she looked at Maeve. Or rather stared vaguely into her general direction because Elpsis did not really look at people she was talking to. "You're not like most Jedi I know. Take that as a compliment," she stated.

"The Sith Maeve slew carried this, ma'am," Rhea said, having bent down to examine the glowing sword. Naturally she was wearing her gauntlets when she briefly touched the hilt. "I do not recognise these runes, but they remind me of those made by Vaderites. Their blades were often cursed. I would not wield it. Or touch it without protection. If this Nils can spare a Sith for guard duty, we must be prepared to face many more Force-Users," the Rattataki surmised.
Elpsis nodded grimly. "Agreed. See what else you can find on the bodies. Comm, maps, tokens, anything that give us a hint about what we're up against and how far they are in their search."

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve squinted at the sword as Rhea described the curses inlaid into its metals. She made two swift strides towards the Rattataki woman to get a closer look for herself, frowning as the blade of her own weapon shrank back into its hilt.

"Funny," she said, though her words ironically held not the slightest hint of mirth. "The histories don't recall Vader to be a sorcerer. Everything I've read about him suggested he was a brute. Ironic these cultists would resort to such tactics in service of the one they worship."

Then again, the Sith cults Maeve had encountered in her time as a Shadow were rarely orthodox. The Sith they claimed to worship and the historical figures she had pored over in the Jedi Archives were hardly the same, and in the end, many cults simply projected desired traits on their distant idols, just like the Vaderites.

Even so, she took Rhea's advice and didn't reach for the cursed blade. Cultists were still dangerous, even if their theology was wrong. The fanaticism that drove them often led them down unpredictable paths.

She walked a few paces beyond where the others were gathered. The Force guided each footfall as Maeve followed a trace of... something. Something she couldn't place. The bodies of the fallen were strewn about the catacomb, glassy eyes staring up at nothing.

Maeve didn't bother picking through their pockets. She already knew the object she was searching for wasn't a mundane datapad or comlink. Those devices would contain little more than the cultists' mad ramblings. What she was searching for was more precious.

It only took a minute of searching for her to locate the object she had sensed. Kneeling, she found it sticking out of the robes of one of the Sith they had slain. The medallion was carved of ordinary metal, yet it sang a dark tune when Maeve plucked it from the dead warrior and rose to examine it in the light. It was carved in the shape of the Sith emblem, and pulsed with an energy like cold fire.

"I think they already found him," she mused, and closed her eyes so that she could focus on the medallion's Force signature. As expected, the cold metal almost seemed to tug her in the direction they had been heading.

"Special enchantments were laid into this metal as well. I've only seen it once before, but these medallions are meant to help servants find their dark masters. If we follow this, Nils should be close at hand."

Then, to prove her point, she held out her finding for the others to take and observe for themselves.

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

While Maeve searched the bodies, guided by her Force-based insight, Vagt and Zhaleh had not been idle. The unusual pair was scouting ahead, moving surreptitiously through the narrow, chilly corridor. Down here it seemed to be even colder than on the surface, as if that were possible. Zhaleh's breath would've frosted around her if she had not worn a helmet.

But she was used to the cold, as well as the darkness. Still she moved with caution. It was as she moved down the corridor, pointed ears peeled for hostile movements, that she suddenly came across a sight that gave her pause. Some of the rubble and litter had been carefully cleared in a narrow line across the passage.

She bent down, studying this sight, then looked up. "Something up, Corporal?" Vagt asked, voice low. Unlike some members of the quarrelsome squad, Zhaleh was calm and even-tempered. He knew she would not go off on tangents. Or suddenly stare at the sky to chit-chat with ghosts.
"Look, Sergeant," she pointed a finger at the narrow line, then up at the walls. "Tripwire."

Vagt joined her, fur rippling gently beneath his armour. It was incredibly thin, almost invisible in the dark. "There's the grenade," he indicated the tunnel walls, where carefully constructed mounds obfuscated things. First rule of disarming a tripwire grenade trap: don't pull the string, don't throw anything at it, don't shoot at it. Instead, he pressed the trip lever very carefully, slowly pushing back the safety pin. Only then did he strain the extending wires. Only when the safety pin was secured with the safety clip did he free his thumb and remove the string. Zhaleh let out the breath she had been holding when Vagt gave her a thumbsup. There was some perspiration on the Bothan's furry hands, but he slapped her on the shoulder.

"The Vaderites are human supremacist monsters who slaughter anyone they don't think is a 'pure human' in the name of their 'Dark Father'," Rhea spat hatefully, pure venom in her yellow eyes. "They are all evil; they must all die. So must all their collaborators."
"And they will," Elpsis said grimly, jaw set. For a moment, there was a far away look on her face. Her expression was blank, like she was off in another world, facing invisible demons. "They and the Dominion."
"When we return to Tephrike," Rhea's gaze was almost feral. It was incredibly unlikely that Maeve knew of either of these two factions or the planet in question. They would not be in the Jedi archives, or those of the Galactic Alliance's formidable spy service.
"Yes. But let's wipe out this Sith cult first. We follow the amulet."

"I feel the aura of sin around it," Shikoba spoke, running a long finger over the medaillion. "It calls to me. The trace is thin, but it leads down this passage into the heart. Be warned, we shall face more than blood and flesh in the catacombs."
"Traps, for one," Vagt grunted as he and Zhaleh returned from the passage. "Just a simple booby trap, but that's enough to blow your legs off. We disarmed it, but I wouldn't count out mystical stuff lying in wait for us."
"Everyone be on your guard. No rushing off on your lonesome. Shikoba, you're on scout duty for any mystical traps," Elpsis instructed.
Celaena, meanwhile, had pressed her pointed ear to the wall. Frowning, she heard a rhythmic noise. It was far off, but Eldorai hearing was more sensitive than human. Turning to her comrades, she looked at Elpsis and Maeve. "I hear noise, like a mining drill. Far off, but constant."
"The artefacts. No time to waste. Move out," the Captain declared.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve was surrounded by clutter, both in the literal and figurative sense. The amulet, the tripwire, the machinations of deranged cultists. Yet, through the fog of it all, she could see her goal clearly. It had always been one of her greatest strengths.

Once she had a scent, even the galaxy's finest bloodhounds could not match the relentlessness with which she hunted her target. Snatching the amulet back from Shikoba, Maeve moved in the direction the artifact pulled her, sparing little comment on the conversation that had been had.

She moved at a brisk pace, impatience taking her. It was an irony—her greatest. The skill she prided herself most in also encompassed her largest weakness. Once she had a trail, she did not like to wander. Her fellow Jedi often found her impatience to be imprudent, but they didn't exactly get the results she produced, did they?

As she pressed on down the passage alongside her compatriots, Maeve caught the sharp odor of something pungent, like sweet roses and lavender. Not the decay and dustiness she had expected. She hadn't caught it earlier, but now that her stride matched Elpsis and the two of them shared a more confined space, she noticed that she was wearing—

"Perfume?" Maeve voiced the intrusive thought aloud, crooking a brow. "Are you... wearing perfume?"

The notion was so ridiculous it nearly tore a laugh out of the usually stoic Maeve. Not that she didn't appreciate the subtle art of smelling good in certain situations, but she had never once considered preparing for a mission into a planet's dusty bowels, where anything from bombs to the supernatural awaited them, by applying perfume.

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Shikoba looked annoyed when the Jedi rudely snatched the amulet away from her and marched off. "Such haste to charge into the void, so little thought given as to what lies inside. So very human," she commented, frowning.
"Ah, mind the traps, Yedai!" Zhaleh called after Maeve as she marched past them. Trailing off, she shrugged. "We tried, Sergeant," she told her superior and moved onward. No less purposeful in her stride, but cautious.

It was at this juncture that the Jedi drew attention to a scent that clashed rather strongly with the graveyard rot that permeated the tomb. Elpsis' flushed in embarrassment, her skin acquiring a hue not too dissimilar from her scarlet mane. "Uh, yes, so what?I have a sensitive nose," she responded a bit defensively. "It's Desert Eclipse perfume. Made with Dune Lilies from Tygara."

Hearing a chuckle, she promptly glared in Celaena's direction. The Eldorai quickly looked elsewhere, and busied herself moving forward and keeping her ears peeled for the rhythmic sound of grinding coming from the lower levels.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve showed little care at the rest of the crew's talk. Remarkable as they were, she was still a Jedi Shadow, a lone wolf, and neither traps nor additional Sith would be enough to frighten her into being overcautious. Nils was in possession of dangerous weapons and no doubt preparing a ritual to empower his cult. She had to stop him without hesitation.

Which was ironic, of course, when she hesitated at Elpsis' perfume.

Unable to contain her smile, both at the captain's answer and the silenced giggle from Celaena, Maeve nodded. "Desert Eclipse, huh?" she repeated and offered a Elpsis a sideways glance. "It smells nice."

Before she could give her observation any more attention, movement in the corner of her vision snapped her focus back to the dark contours of the tunnel ahead. Something had moved. She'd not just seen it, she'd heard it, though she had no clear image of what it was. Her thumb hugged the ignition knob of her lightsaber, and she signaled to the rest of their group.

"Look alive," she instructed. "Something is here with us." She frowned, realizing that, even with the Force, she couldn't sense what their quarry was. "And... I can't sense it."

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Whether she lived or died in this quest - or on any battlefield really - was not of particular importance of Elpsis. It was not that she craved an end on this goddess-forsaken cursed wasteland. There was much work to be done. But if it happened it would be fitting. A short life of blood and iron spent and ended in service was preferrable to a long, fat one drowning in decadence and luxury. But she would not foolhardily charge forth. Her own life didn't matter much. That of her subordinates did, as annoying as they often were. She was no lone wolf.

Amidst Maeve's words, and the noise she heard coming from down the tunnel, all other thoughts faded away. She could not feel whatever was stalking them through the Force...which meant that she could not see it either.

All she felt was...a void of nothingness.

There was more than one way to see.

Instincts took over as the team assumed formation, covering each others' angles. "Your Force Senses can fail you, use your eyes and ears," she told the Jedi. "Team, meld." Strands of the Force stretched out from her and were answered in kind by members of her team. Even from Rhea, though she was tentative and hesitant at first before Elpsis felt her fiery resolution fill her.

When the beast charged from the shadows, she could not see it the way she normally would. Nor could she predict its moves. But she could feel the void around it, hear it and perceive it through her subordinates' senses. Zhaleh hurled her spear into the shadows, but the abomination charged on with the sound of cracking stone. Taller than a man, the entity looked like it was sculpted from stone, decorated with gold and dazzling jewels. The head of the towering guardian resembled a bird of prey and its eyes were like molten lava.

Taking aim, Vagt squeezed the trigger and his bolter fired an ion round. Landing at the entity's feet it triggered a minor ion burst. But not being a droid, the tomb guardian was unmolested. Quickly Vagt switched rounds. A shot from Shikoba's bowcaster staggered it. But when Rhea tried to take advantage of its brief moment of weakness, and slashed at it, her blade failed to penetrate its enchanted skeleton. As it raised its massive sword to strike she quickly rolled away.

There was a sharp crack and the guardian staggered from the force of impact of an armour-piercing round into its thigh. Scarlet eyes flashed. However, the Bothan quickly had to dodge from a sword blow that almost cut him in half. The moment the blade came crashing down, Celaena's plume of flame enveloped the guardian. But though the flames washed over it with burning intensity, the tomb guardian stood seemingly unfazed. A backhand was enough to send Celaena sprawling.

As she hit the ground hard, the tomb guardian thrust its blade downward...only for it to be met by Elpsis' lightsabre. Fuelled by cybernetic strength, she held the guardian back even as it tried to knock her aside with superhuman might. Beads of sweat dripped down her face, but she would not budge, implacable and unmoving like a statue. Pushing its massive sword aside, she thrust the tip of Inferno into its stomach. It would not destroy the guardian, but no doubt damage, and possibly provide an opening.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"What fresh horror is this?" Maeve hissed, raising her lightsaber defensively.

The 'something' she felt lurked in the dark, so far back even her Firrerreo eyes could not pierce through to its position. But as its footfalls approached them, first slow and then a thunderous charge, Maeve saw the creature in its full terror. Two heads taller than her, it was a skeletal and armored beast, plated in gold and glittering gemstones uncommon for a tomb this bare.

But what more could she expect from a Sith abomination?

Maeve leapt into action. At first, she wasn't sure how Elpsis would be able to keep up against the monstrosity when her sight so heavily relied on the Force, but she'd felt her meld. Invisible arms, reaching out between her and the rest of her crew, binding into a single power reminiscent of the Battle Melds seen during the great battle on Exegol. Yet for all that, it was not enough.

Maeve watched in surprise as the tomb guardian cut through them like a thrusting sword. It tossed Celaena aside as if she weighed nothing, while nearly splitting Rhea and Vagt in two. It seemed the Bothan's armor-piercing round and Shikoba's bowcaster was having some effect, but not enough to relieve Maeve's growing worry.

Worse—when she saw Elpsis engage it.

Although she'd successfully driven her blade into its gut, severely damaging the guardian, Maeve saw it reel in anger, its bird-like face lifting skyward. Realizing what it planned to do, she channeled the Force to both hands quickly, building up her strength. Just as the undead creature slanted over Elpsis' blade, its razor beak threatening to bite off a chunk of her head, Maeve hurled the Force at it with all her might.

The tomb guardian slid back a few meters, feet clawing into the ground until it came to a startling halt. Molten eyes gazed back at them.

"Are you okay?" Maeve asked Captain Kerrigan. Once she was sure the woman was okay, she turned back to the creature. "I've never seen its like before. Killing this may take more time than we have. Any ideas?"

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Maeve's telekinetic offensive thrust the massive tomb guardian back. Its feet clawed into the stony ground, causing a screeching noise until it finally came into a halt. Molten eyes stared at them with pure hatred. Though damaged, the arcane terror loomed over them like a giant. Elpsis grit her teeth. "Get behind it, hit it in the rear. Rhea, Cel, go with her. I'll draw its attention. Rest, with me. We're gonna wear it down." Inferno leapt it into her cybernetic hand, and the blade sprang to life in a beam of yellow. As the beast broke into a thunderous charge, she advanced.

Elpsis was not overly fast and certainly not lithe. Her cybernetics were not the light sort. But she advanced implacably, lightsabre held in both hands. As the abomination's massive blade came crashing down, she dodged. The abomination staggered when a salvoe of armour-piercing rounds from Vagt's bolter sprayed its armoured shell and leg, slowing and wounding it.

And as its sword struck the ground and it was bent over, Elpsis slashed upward. Inferno carved through its off-arm. There was a loud, ungodly roar of rage, akin to a sonic detonation. Enough for to be temporarily disorientated as the deafening noise assaulted her eardrums with the force of a hammer. It caused her to stumble, and the abomination kicked her hard, sending her sprawling. As she lay there on the ground, bleeding, the guardian's lava-like eyes began to glow with such intensity that the energy coalesced into a blinding ray of heat.

Feeling the buildup of energy, she arose, but made no move to pull back. The beam shot right towards Elpsis. As it soared towards her, she remained still as a statue. Her scarlet mane looked like it had caught fire. Heat surged through her body like wild fire, and the scars on her face were like glowing embers. There was an eruption of light, almost like a small nova, as the beam impacted upon her and met the flaming shield. She was absorbing the heat. Her body felt like it was on fire, wreathed in blazing, incandescent heat as the abomination poured more power into the assault, but she stood.

But it was not out of options. Raising its remaining functional arm, the guardian moved to strike with its massive blade. Further away behind Elpsis, Shikoba was chanting and raised her two hands. It was her kindred element she called upon to summon a minor magnetic field. The groaning abomination found its blade pulled back slightly. What should have split Elpsis from shoulder to belly upon impact knocked her down instead, leaving her winded. With all her power, Zhaleh released a blast of ice towards its face, stopping the beam. Briefly disorientated, the abomination roared.

Meanwhile, Celaena and Rhea, presumably along with the Jedi, had gotten behind the abomination, moving nimbly and gracefully while their boss did their best to monopolise its attention. Unlike their leader and the Jedi, they lacked lightsabres. But they were behind the abomination now. Feeling their boss go nova, Celaena called upon her inner flame.

She didn't have Elpsis' raw power...but fire was her element. "Ashira, cast your light upon us!" she called out as heat surged through her body, and she let a thermic lance fashioned from the Force soar towards the back of the abomination's hip. Meanwhile, Rhea had dashed forth to thrust her blade into a joint of the abomination's other leg. Neither would slay the beast, but damage and further weaken it. Perhaps creating a good moment for the Jedi to strike.

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"Hold it off? Alone? You can't be serious."

But she was. As Rhea and Celaena snapped into action, Maeve watched as Elpsis re-ignited her lightsaber, a piercing yellow bathing the tunnel. As if taunted, the abomination locked onto the red-haired witch and thundered towards her, threatening to cut through her. Left without a choice, Maeve finally listened to Elpsis' command, hugging the wall with her other two squad mates, lunging to escape the monster's path.

She would just have to trust Captain Kerrigan to keep her word.

Dashing well out of reach around the tomb guardian, Maeve flipped off the wall and landed on the ground with a short skid, brandishing her own blade.

Concern flashed across her face as she watched Elpsis engage with the creature, trapped in a terrifying deadlock. It was miracle enough that she was able to halt and withstand its charge, but to singlehandedly push it off was short of insane. Maeve was impressed. More importantly, she had her chance to strike.

As Celaena and Rhea hurled their own attacks at the guardian, pinning it into place, Maeve ran up the wall again, as if unbound by gravity. Hair golden in the light, she raised her blade and lunged. Then, she drove it deep into the creature's neck, to the skeletal spinal cord exposed between its armor. With all her might, she slashed her lightsaber to the side, taking the abomination's head clean off, like scything wheat in a field.

She was remarkably good, after all, at severing heads.

Leaping off its back, Maeve landed on both feet as the now headless guardian staggered to the side. Its arms reached out for her, grasping at air. One step, two steps. With her back turned to it, she flourished and de-activated her lightsaber, just before the abomination crumpled into a final, dead heap.

She turned and offered Elpsis Kerrigan a thin smile. "Great work."

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Under a ferocious onslaught, the massive and now headless tomb guardian staggered. As its head hit the cold floor with a loud thud, its arms aimlessly grasped at air for a second or so. Then it crumpled into a heap of stone. The guardian's eyes glowed bright as a nova for a moment, then the light forever left it.

Elpsis deactivated Inferno. Her shoulder ached from the impact of the tomb guardian's strike. The cracks inside her face were still glowing fiercely - and painfully. But that was fine; that was manageable. She gave Maeve a nod once the Jedi had descended. "You, too."
"You fight valorously and skillfully, Yedi Maeve," Zhaleh said earnestly.
You're too flashy, Rhea thought to herself, but didn't voice that. "Ma'am, we must make haste," she said matter-of-factly and walked off to watch the passage.
"She's right," Cel spoke up. Bending down, she put her pointed ear to the floor. "The drill's getting faster."
"You heard, people. Move out," Elpsis declared crisply, already moving down the passage the tome guardian had blocked until now.
"The tides of power roil," Shikoba declared, giving Maeve a significant look. "The time of ascension is close...we must hurry, lest the student awake the master."

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"Thank you," Maeve told Zhaleh, biting back a smirk.

She couldn't deny the touch of pride she felt. Not only at their compliments, but at slaying the abomination. Killing Sith always did give her that sweet taste of retribution, and Maeve thrilled at every chance she had to flaunt her skills with a blade. She was a Shadow, relegated to working in secrecy and with little fanfare. When she had the opportunity to show her worth, she delivered.

Offering a short, concerned look towards Elpsis, not unaware of the cracks that had blossomed across her face, Maeve had to wonder if the other girl was alright. She'd taken quite the beating and exhausted strength most Jedi Knights would never dream to possess. But as she caught her breath, Elpsis didn't seem drained. No—she was strong.

With a nod and a sharp lead down the passage, they were already off to pursue Nils.

"If the student wakes the master," Maeve said, returning Shikoba's look with a confident lift of her chin, "then I suppose we'll just have to kill them both."

Holding her lightsaber closely, she descended the passage after Elpsis. The catacombs stretched into darkness, but her Firrerreo eyes saw clear as morning. As they went on, the walls seemed to grow smoother, the skulls and names carved into them now with more clarity, ringing with dark energies.

More runes. More dead. Maeve was no coward and corpses frightened her little, but it struck her as eerie to be surrounded by so many. Bodies had been entombed in the walls, rib cages set into the ceiling, and the slabs under her feet were also graves. Tombs for dead servants or nameless, unworthy Sith. Ghoulish as everything was, none of it compared to what laid ahead.

Deep in the necropolis, the scent of old death filled the air. The passage now had widened into a visible archway, leading into a crypt full of torchlight, and then? Voices. Chanting like a cathedral chorus.

Maeve paused by Elpsis' side, her voice dangerously low. "It seems we may have finally found our Sith Lord."

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

Elpsis moved with single-minded determination. It was her strength, and her weakness. She was in pain, though she would deny that it bothered her. Pain was fuel. If she could feel pain, she was alive. She could rest when she was dead. Compromise was cowardice; compromise was weakness. As Maeve gave voice to her resolution to slay the master as well as the student, Elpsis gave her a curt, approving nod. There was much to be done. The path towards their quarry was lined with death and arcane symbolism. Bodies entombed in the walls, heads impaled on spikes, graves beneath their feet. In several cases, slaves had been entombed alongside their Sith masters, having been forced to follow them into death.

As they walked past the macabre sight, Zhaleh made a V sign with her fingers, a gesture not unlike the sign of the cross on a small blue planet in a galaxy far, far away. Shikoba looked grim and serious, humming a quiet, solemn chant in Prosabia. Down here, the stench of death was stark. Darkness lingered in the air. "Looks like it," Elpsis said grimly, voice low.

Down here, the sound of drilling was so loud one did not need sensitive elf ears to hear it. Servitors were busy at work utilising a large drilling machine. The noise generated by them was matched by loud chanting. "Brothers, sisters, our faith has been tested! Time and again, we've been called upon to sacrifice for Ashla!" a powerful booming voice proclaimed that came from the crypt proclaimed. He was a tall man with a neatly trimmed beard. He still wore his old Jedi robes, and an aura of power surrounded him. The physical corruption often associated with Sith had yet to marr his features, but his eyes glowed with a fanatical light. He carried a tainted sword in an elaborate scabbard. "But Ashla is a lie."

"Ashla is a lie!" a multitude of voices chanted like a chorus.
"The Jedi Lords fled like cowards. The craven Alliance cast its greedy eye upon the worlds we fought so hard to protect. Will we bow down to Senators, corpos and bureaucrats? Will we be seduced by their lies of opportunity and liberty? Will we be chained?"
"No!" the chorus responded
"We've been tested in the flames of war...and today our faith will be rewarded. Faith in ourselves, faith in our destiny. For Ashla's Bane will rise. And our betrayers shall tremble. Ever since the Mistress overthrew the degenerate leader of the decadent 'firemane' I have sought to emulate and exceed her. This is our chance to do so! We will take this weapon and with it we will overcome all our enemies!"

Elpsis' jaw tightened. "We need to move - fast. Shikoba, Vagt, can you stall the drill?"
"Ion'll do it," the Bothan Sergeant said curtly.
"I can do this, Captain. I can make it seem a malfunction...to allow you more time. The energies writhe about that one, they must not be underestimated...despite their boasting," the Vashyada druidess added.
"I can take out the sentries so you're not interrupted," Rhea asserted, paused, then added. "With Jedi Maeve. Quietly."
Elpsis nodded curtly. "Good. Zhaleh, give us some fog. Cel, you're with me. We're gonna light the place up."

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve approached the hall's end, her face cast in flickering torchlight. Shock and awe masked her pale features. A large crypt laid before them now, ringed by countless graves and a dozen golden sarcophagi. A statue of none other than Darth Bane loomed, his shoulders holding up the ceiling while his hands rested on the pommel of a massive, stone-carved sword.

Now, this was a tomb fit for a king. For a true Sith Lord.

Goosebumps prickled on her skin, and not by the freezing cold, but at the dark energies swirling around the crypt, threatening to suffocate her Light.

Slaves and cultists were scurrying about, manning a drill as it dug deeper and deeper into the ground just beneath Darth Bane's statue. They were unearthing the weapon Vagt had translated from the walls. Ashla's Bane. And overseeing the work, Nils stood in the firelight.

So, this was the fallen Jedi Lord she'd been scouring the Rim for, the man responsible for so much carnage and destruction. Just at the sight of him, Maeve had to resist the urge to grab her lightsaber and charge, fueled both by justice and a sense of retribution. Already, the ghosts of her past were whispering, Kill him. Destroy him.

Only at the sound of her name did Maeve blink and refocus, turning back to Elpsis and her crew as they concocted a plan. Divide and conquer. She had no arguments there. As long as they could deprive Nils of another ancient Sith weapon and she got the chance to kill him, Maeve was more than satisfied.

"Quietly, then," she repeated after Rhea, nodding. "Let's do it."

She and the tattooed Rattaki hadn't been exactly on warm terms since they met, but Maeve had to respect her cunning and her prowess with a blade. She would've made a fine Jedi Shadow, and Maeve had no reason not to trust her in this. "We can circle around the crypt," she suggested. "You can take left. I'll take right. Sound like a deal?"

Elpsis Kerrigan​

​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Maeve Linahan

A curt nod of affirmation was what Maeve got from Rhea. The Rattataki didn't trust the Jedi...much. It wasn't just Sith who haunted her sleep, but Jedi, too. A cruel master who hid his evil nature behind a cloak of righteousness and patriotism, who conditioned her to be his tool. Backed by a corrupt, repressive state built around the glorification of Ashla.

On a certain level, she understood galaxy Jedi were different...though they tended to be absurdly squeamish. This Shadow seemed to be in a category of her own. That was what had stayed her hand...and trust in her commander. But that was neither here nor there. She had a duty to accomplish. There was a feral glint in her eye when she slowly made her approach. Soon her blade would be wet with the blood of the wicked. A chance for justice...a chance to prepare for the return to her war-torn homeworld. The shadows became her friend as she hugged the walls and the ground.

Her pulse increased as she got closer, for she felt a surge of excitement. She clamped down on the feeling, reminding herself to focus. Instead she pulled upon the strands of the Force. Its energies flowed through her, her breathing slowed as she emptied her mind. The Force quietened her steps. Goosebumps prickled on her skin, and she felt the air grow even chillier when obscuring mist began to gather in the air. Zhaleh's elemental magic at work, no doubt. She activated her infrared goggles, but even without them she had the Force to guide her.

Sweat dripped down her face despite the cold. Crouching, she was lithe and quiet, evading the illumination provided by the torchlights as the traitor Jedi made his blasphemous proclamations. A pair of guards was on the lookout. Despite their apostasy, both still wore the armour of Ashlanite soldiers, though they had worn off their crusader insignia.

They didn't know what hit them. The forward movement of one of the guards was suddenly arrested when she manifested from behind and grabbed him by the neck. He struggled but ere he could bring his superior physical strength to bear she had slashed across his neck. Alarmed, the second guard turned, raised his rifle. Reacting quickly, Rhea kicked the blaster out of his hands. He tried to shout...but a telekinetic grip around his throat kept him from finding his voice. He joined his comrade on the ground a moment later, and his blood coated her blade. She was exultant when she felt his life force fade away. Two degenerate lives snuffed out. But it was only the start. She could sense that Vagt and Shikoba were starting to move into position. It all depended on the Jedi now.