LIGHT MUST COME FROM THE INSIDE
KUAT | KUAT CITY | CROWDS
YOU CANNOT ASK THE DARKNESS TO LEAVE
YOU MUST TURN ON THE LIGHT
‘Surface control’ was what the mission briefing had officially called the request. Surface control, a more action-oriented version of people-watching, seemed too civic a duty for The New Jedi Order after their decisive distance from The Galactic Alliance’s politics. Her argument for disinterest —
Isn’t this an affair better suited for local law enforcement? — was countered with the reminder of a Jedi’s role of Peacekeeping, and despite the lack of official affiliation, the duty to prevent and mitigate potentials was just as important as reacting to obvious threats.
As soon as they grounded and were escorted to Kuat City, it was clear that preventative measures were hedging closer and closer to becoming reactive.
In the skies, triangles and oblong silhouettes were stationary silhouettes. Menacing in their unmoving positions. But the driveyard rings were thick with conflict, and through the open doorways of shops and office windows, the pair of Jedi passed in Kuat’s city, broken transmissions of reports filtered through.
Some channels were more aligned with broadcasting the Secessionist Extremists’ updates, whereas others promoted the protection delivered by the GADF. The updates were sparse and largely indecipherable and all inconclusive.
She thrust to clear an overhead alleyway, lunging across the distance with propulsion that seemed inhuman.
<An explosion has ripped apart ——> Her weight transferred through from the forceful landing on her feet to the palm of her hand for her legs to swing forward and keep running from the small outset of a ledge on an office building.
<Employees and —> It was thin, barely wide enough for anyone more than a meter across to manage it.
Another fragmented broadcast reached her ears as she ducked an overhang, sliding back on the flat surface of a rooftop before her soles hit an edge and forced her to compromise to another scrambling leap. Speed and The Force were momentum’s best allies as she and Bernard raced on the rooftops of Kuat City
“I don’t like this.” Ishida grimaced, righting herself after a landing that was equal parts slide and roll. Her complaint wasn’t about their choice of travel, but about the distant murkiness The Force alluded to.
<——Desperate attempts to salvage ——> Alliance foot soldiers had been dispatched on a similar briefing as the Jedi — surface control — and were moving amidst the citizens on the ground to keep an eye out for dissent or conflict. It didn’t take long for Bernard and Ishida to want to observe the surface from a separate vantage point, separate from the GADF’s observation, and that flung them up, up, up and over several obstacles for a unique perspective.
From their vantage point, the roads were thin and the people that travelled streamlined through them were small. It was as though the streets were arteries, the people were blood, travelling back to the heart that kept them alive.
<—— Unidentified personnel are ——> Ishida made for a grab to a vertical duct, the length of the office building from top to bottom (likely to manage rainfall), and swung around the intrusive pillar that interrupted the long-run to the centre square where the rally was convening. On the other side of her swing, anxious volume from a large collection of people swelled and reached the rooftops.
The broadcasts were interrupted with a voice clearer than the muddled up and hard-to-hear updates from the drive yards, and it echoed from below, where the swathes of bodies were gathered.
"People of Kuat, my name is Lady Elane of Kuat.
Within the crowd, The Force felt at conflict. Not overwhelmed by darkness, but not entirely light either. In its neutrality here, Ishida could detect emotions with a sharpness she was usually ignorant of. Agitation was thick, and there was a distant, intangible sense of familiar foreboding that lurked in the peripheries of the square.
He has plunged our strong and proud system into civil war, brought off-worlders onto our pristine surface, used you for his political ambitions, brought the war to our doorstep, and brought everything we've built for thousands of years into jeopardy, all for the benefit of his own bloated, festering ego."
“Something’s wrong.” Ishida landed in a crouch, half-scuttling to the edge of a mid-sized building that oversaw the movement of the crowds. Most were standing still, a few moved right-and-left, some sought friends and familiars to make sure they were sharing the experience together. Few moved with
purpose unless they were on the perimeters and part of official guard duty. All eyes were on the charismatic Lady of Iron. A phoenix risen from the ashes. Lotus from the dirt.
Somewhere amidst the throngs of excitement, anticipation, there was something deeply wrong. Ishida couldn’t place it entirely, when she thought she might, it evaded her. But it was clear that joy and hope were at odds with whatever that distant buzz at the nape of her neck was.
She leaned forward, seeking something out of the ordinary about the citizens with their attention on Elane.
“Something down there.” She insisted, still trying to track the source of that irritating sensation.
"Do you feel it?"
NIO:
Rika Hiro
INTENT TO ENGAGE |
Kolson Vrask
|
Jordi Massad
| Karissa Saitel
RA:
CH3
| LADY OF IRON
GA:
Bernard
|
Lyrrin
Don Belkora
|
Iseri Tanaka
IVI
|
