Wearing:
Black Knight Chitin
Armed with:
Sword of Surt'r
Vorpal Saber
Crime Hunter's Pistol
Wrist Launcher (Sonic , Poison, Incendiary, X5)
With:
Advanced Prototype
Nuetralizer Model 1 (300)
Interacting with:
The Amalgam
Came to Generis in:
The Shadow Bride
Objective: 3
007 hours prior...
It was never easy.
Laertia dreaded each battle she fought alongside the Sith Empire, every kill of a fellow Jedi in defence of the compact further seperating her from them.
But they refused to listen. They insisted on prosecuting this insane war instead of uniting to fight the Bryn'adul. So she would kill them as hard as possible. Inflict as many casualties as she could until they gave up.
It was an insane plan. With each slaughter she inflicted on NJO and GA Jedi, the outcry against her grew and grew. Her brutal attack on dozens of Jedi at Ziost had been captured by various battlefield recordings and distributed by her political enemies, though it stopped in some parts after it had started to lower the morale of their own.
Everyone knew who The Black Knight of Nar Kreeta was.
To those detractors, she had simply released a Galaxy-Wide communique, especially to the NJO's leader,
Ryv
.
It had been short, simple, and to the point:
"As long as you keep fighting this foolish war with the Sith instead of helping us all fight The Bryn'adul, I will keep killing your friends. As brutally as I can. I don't want to but I will. Send your allies and I will crush them. Aim your weapons and I shall break them. This course of action will not cease until your course of action does first. Bring a good supply of bodybags."
(Cutaway of John Rambo firing a machine gun in the air while yelling like a maniac)
She had sent it out, and then meditated, twisting the Light around her as The Bright Lord of The Sith had taught her. She was starting to look to Themis more and more as a friend than this Other that had walked back into her life. It helped that for all intents and purposes, Themis was her Grandmother.
For all that though, Part of Laertia STILL wasn't ready to commit to the Path of a Light Side Sith. She was still too afraid of the consequences of doing so.
Plus, she wasn't sure how Syd would react...
Speaking of Syd, Laertia had retrieved a weapon she believed had once belonged to her, now encased in Nullification Resin.
Hesitantly, Laertia broke its encasing open, retrieving a long handled dual-vent lightsaber that had scorch marks on its emitters.
She feared its power, but the situation she was going into was so dangerous she had little choice.
Laertia attuned herself to the terrible power within and it reacted, the tendrils of its essence so familiar, yet so alien.
"She summons us..."
Laertia darted around, spotting two feminine figures in skintight crimson armor with gold spikes running down the arms and halfway down the middle of the chest. Both resembled Syd, but with fiery orange cat eyes.
Laertia stood up, stepped back, still clutching the unnatural Lightsaber. It was hacking her nervous system. The damned thing was hacking her nervous system.
It was tapping her Force Doppelganger Ability, specifically. She had no idea how to prevent that at all.
The two ghosts of the curvy, athletic T'sid Surt'r floated over to the hesitant, silent Black Knight.
"You burn with the light so, my love..." The Ghosts said in perfect unison, each circling her, taking turns running their etherial finger under the chin of the stone faced woman.
"Who are you?" Laertia asked calmly, stoically.
"We are the blade in your hand. A symbol of our maker's great affection for you." The ghosts answered.
Laertia's organic hand glided over the scorched hilt and the ghosts seemed to shudder in delight.
"Okaaaaaayyyy..." Laertia said hesitantly, raising an eyebrow as ghostly arms slinked around her shoulders. She knew all her swords loved her but this was...new...
Thank the Force Syd was away from the Absolution, probably training Starlin or something...
"I'll need to focus on piloting..." Laertia said calmly, even as one ghost stroked her chin again.
"Of course..." they said vanishing.
Laertia finished strapping on her armor and weapons, her "Daughter", Lyssa waiting outside the Armory of their Gozanti Cruiser. Lyssa, a collection of lethal sentient Laminanium Nanites resembling a young and beautiful woman with pale skin and chestnut hair wearing a silvery version of Laertia's preferred biker gear with black spikes waited by the entrance as Laertia stepped out, face covered by black metal and a Green Visor.
"Are you ready, Lyssa?" Laertia asked, hiding her tears at going to potentially kill more Jedi to preserve the Compact.
"I am, Mother..." Lyssa replied with that ever distant, calm and even tone. This would be their first real outing...
...and it would be spent at war. With Laertia's sons and her skeletal brothers.
And they were "teaming up" with someone for whom primary kill orders were momentarily suspended...
"Mother, why do we team up with this enemy of yours when you desire her death so badly?" Lyssa asked as they walked to the docking area, her scans noting the strange and volatile energy signatures powering her Mother's melee weapons...
"Convenience...she is my only real "In" for Sith Space. This Alliance is more important than my personal disputes." Laertia explained as they entered the heavily armed black warship docked with the Gozanti Cruiser.
"Have you considered attempting to redeem her? Or if not redeem, forcibly reprogram?" Lyssa asked.
"I want neither. Nothing less than her head will satisfy me ultimately." Laertia answered as she got into the cockpit.
"She will be waiting for us on Generis?" Lyssa inquired.
"Yes..." Laertia answered, starting up the ship.
"This will be an interesting excercise in Data Gathering..." Lyssa replied serenely as they took off into hyperspace after undocking.
Present...
The Shadow Bride entered the system of Generis absolutely butchering her way through defensive starfighter formations. Lyssa watched in fascination as she studied a new side of her mother and how she fought and killed, memorizing her gestures and tactics as She fought her way to the surface to link up with The Amalgam in the jungle. The assault was already underway.
Laertia scowled under her helm as she spotted the Amalgam already in the Jungle, felt her rotting miasma of corruption beneath near impossibly beautiful features, surrounded by various women in white catsuits.
Lyssa studied The Amalgam from the cockpit and then followed Laertia out of the ship, going to meet her.
"Daughter! So good of you to show. Its a lovely area for a picnic, scenic bloodshed, atrocities getting commited by all sides. Its very relax--" the Amalgam stopped, paused as she stared at Lyssa with keen interest.
"I thought I killed you...Lura, did you cheat death once more?" The Amalgam asked, fascinated as she fixed a dead purple gaze on Lyssa.
"I've returned from another world to do battle with you..." Lyssa answered, programmed to try and psychologically attack the Amalgam at every possible opportunity upon encountering her.
"Just not today..." Laertia clarified.
The Amalgam sighed, shaking her head.
"I really wish you had joined willingly, Lura..." The Beast replied wistfully before staring at Laertia.
"Stepping up your game I see--"
The Amalgam hissed, the flesh of her and every brain Demon Witch shuddering violently as Laertia ignited the fiery teal blade.
The Amalgam backed away.
"What hideous weapon is that?! SHUT IT OFF!" The Amalgam roared, flesh shuddering at the presence of the crystal powering the blade.
"So you CAN be brought to heel, vermin..." Laertia snapped. "I'll remember that next time you start one of your annoying taunts."
The Amalgam's flesh ceased writhing and she glared at Laertia, amusement replaced by a deadly cold fury.
"That will cost you, down the road..." she said quietly, dangerously. There was no smile. Laertia took her completely seriously, because even her blood had chilled a bit at the deadly look the Witch gave her.
"Not if it costs you first..." Laertia hissed back.
"So, what's the plan?" The Amalgam asked, dropping the cold voice and grinning again, but not losing that utterly chilling death glare that gave even Lyssa pause.
"We launch a massive joint assault on the forces attacking the Temple and The Comm Base...I have more friends on the way...as a matter of fact...they should be here..."
A number of silvery mechanical skeletons, modified with cloaking devices and T-7 Ion Disruptors in hand, decloaked. The Amalgam stared at the rows of crimson ocular sensors staring back.
"The Nuetralizer has entered the Dance Floor!" one of The Nuetralizers exclaimed in a Disco Stu-like voice.
"Oooo, you HAVE been busy. Busy busy Laertia..." The Amalgam mocked, though inwardly, a small part of her was a little freaked, because the design provided an all too clear intent.
"You take Nuetralizers and Witches. I take Nuetralizers and Witches...end of discussion..." Laertia said coldly.
"This IS going to be interesting. If only you had shown this kind of promise back then. I would have murdered Ursula even sooner just to look upon you, with my 'own' eyes..." the Amalgam complimented, reaching over and stroking Laertia's helmet, which earned nothing but silence.
The Amalgam turned to the other witches.
"You follow her orders like they are mine..." she told them.
She took her half of Nuetralizers and Witches and then headed to the base at Generis, while Laertia headed to the Temple.
When the Amalgam and her forces had disappeared, Laertia ordered the Witches to go ahead, as they knew the terrain better, though she went ahead of her Nuetralizers, walking with Lyssa.
As they walked, Lyssa expressed confusion.
"Mother, there is something I do not understand..." The Nanite Assassin Droid stated.
"What is it, my child?" Laertia inquired.
Lyssa was about to ask it. She really was, but her fast learning mind, given what she had just observed, immediately put a stop to it, realizing it would do mother no good if she pointed it out, and might even elicit a negative reaction that she was certain would resemble a nervous breakdown were her mother forced to ponder it.
"I...never mind..." Lyssa said hesitantly.
Laertia shrugged, deciding not to press it as they came across their first NIO and GA forces. Nevertheless the question persisted in the Droid as she formed her arms into silvery blades, slicing viciously into a Jedi Knight as she, Laertia, the Amalgam's Witches, and the Nuetralizer launched a pincer attack on the enemy forces assaulting the temple from the exterior, Laertia cutting through them viciously with her deadly Lightsaber that pulsed with arcane forces.
The question didn't let up in the Droid, no matter who she killed as she wondered this about Laertia:
Of all the people Mother could have chosen as a lover, why did she choose the 'one' individual who resembles her arch enemy the closest?
Lyssa was suddenly glad she had not asked her Mother...she was much too high strung to be contemplating that particular psychological hand grenade.
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