Dark Flames

[Syd Celsius]

(Continued from a dominion thread)

Three days earlier...


Howard The Pirate looked over his new cybernetic right arm, a complete replacement after taking a terrible amount of damage to it during a near fatal encounter with some type of military biot in the form of a female chiss. He had fled to a penthouse he owned on Coruscant. The adrenaline had kept him upright for a few hours before his injuries caught up with him and he had needed immediate surgery. It had taken him weeks to recover. They had put in a cybernetic eye with a combat implant at his request, along with bio armor at the joints, a Sith Regenerator implant and strength implant added also. The arm was plated in phrik and came with customizable attachments. It was about as much as the grizzled, aging man could handle. He had some fights left yet in him. The cybernetics would get him a few more. But the man knew he would likely have to quit soon. But he needed the money. He hadn't lived a clean life. He didn't imagine he would die cleanly. But he was gonna go on his terms and no one else's. Just like his mother had.

The old man was still pretty well built, maintained his remaining muscles through hard work, and as he waltzed around his relatively sparse penthouse in upper Coruscant, his graying hair a little grayer from the stress of his encounter with the android, his beard trimmed down to barely past his skin, his green eyes contrasting with leathery skin that was nontheless that of a bodybuilder.

He roamed the penthouse in his pink bathrobe with little red hearts on it, his bug-out bag ever ready on his bed. He had multiple bug out bags, planted strategically in any one of a hundred spots in the area around his penthouse in case he needed to take any one of a hundred exit routes to escape.

He nursed a glass of chocolate milk. He never drank alcohol.

"So let me get this straight, Clyde..." Howard said to his Alderaanian contact, a man who had been in the underworld intelligence business for a long time. Howard got most of his new identities from Clyde. Clyde was dressed in a red and black tunic, enjoying a glass of Juma. His head was bald and with a fair complexion, both his eyes replaced by cybernetics that glowed red on a wrinkled face.

"...You want me to go to some Gods-Forsaken desert in the middle of fething nowhere and obtain a treasure that might be there..."

"My intel is pretty solid on this Howard. You know I don't give you garbage...it 'is' there." Clyde claimed, as he sat at the black, round oak table, looking around at the stainless steel walls and floor. "They say its over twelve million credits in aurodium bullion, and its just lying there in that old wreck..."

"That old Sith wreck. Why don't you get an Adept? Galaxy is crawling with the feths these days..." Howard asked as he sipped his milk, plopping on his bed, wiggling little pink slippers with bunny heads on them.

"We would, but none of them are up to the challenge...and we have a particularly nasty customer in the area..." Clyde said, showing a picture of a bronze skinned woman in a red and gold chrome suit with fiery red hair, decapitating an imperial battle droid.

"She's cute..." Howard thought out loud, sipping more milk.

"She's killed every team of pirates sent before you. So we're assembling an extra special crew..."

Howard took a look at the datapad next to him, sipping more milk. "Real gang of tough cases..."

"All experienced pirates equipped with powerful, accurate weaponry." Clyde assured him.

"No blasters." Howard told Clyde. "Absolutely no blasters. We go in we hit her hard with shotguns, heavy machinegun fire from all sides and sonics. We have a ship to move the bullion?"

"As a matter of fact we do. A Silver Jedi Vessel known as The Spectral Heart is preparing to retrieve the bullion three days from now."

"How big?"

The size of a heavy frieghter, crew of twenty-five, Most of them are Rangers."

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Howard said, shrugging. "Can you get us aboard or are we going to have to take it solely on our own?"

"I'm afraid it'll be your job to actually figure out how to take the ship. I know you'll come up with something." Clyde answered with confidence in his old friend.

"I'm long in the jaw these days Clyde. Can't keep it up forever." Howard muttered, finishing the last of his milk as he looked over the skillsets. "Says your Jedi uses pyrokinesis..."

"She's quite good at it too..." Clyde grumbled, pulling out a candy bar, unwrapping it and taking a bite. "As my previous team found out.

"Easy fix. Cryo guns, spray bottles, water tanks..." Howard remarked. "I'll play it safe...but the ship the bullion is on...the Sith Ship...what was the nature of the ship?"

"A Sith Lady's personal mobile vault..."

Howard sighed.

"I'm bringing a minigun...no way I won't need it before this is over..." he grumbled, rising from his bed.

Clyde sensed it was time to leave. He rose.

"Be careful out there, old friend..." Clyde said clapping him on the shoulder. Howard did the same.

"You too, brother..." Howard said back, grinning that devil grin. "I survived a Jedi before. I know what I'm doing..."


Three days and six hours later...


Howard ran for his life through the rusted darkened ship, outrunning the murderous being just a step or three behind him. He was dirty from the blood and contusions to the rest of his body. The emergency lights, a deep red, flickered on and off as the ancient reactor core safety system sounded an alert while the old pirate ran through a nightmarish crimson strobe, gasses leaking from broken lights, bathing ruined passages and workstations. He had fifteen minutes to try and get off the vessel, one vibroblade, and a water pistol.

Following him, stalking, savoring the hunt, was a bronze skinned woman in a white and gold chrome suits, fiery red hair long and tinged with swaths of black flame, like the eyes, where the black fire leaked from, spreading down through cracks in her face. It orbited her hands as a ring.

Syd Celsius, corrupted by a dark magic that she had been unprepared for stalked Howard, her emotions completely out of control and over amplified, leaving melted warps on the floor she floated over, letting him run a little. It mattered little to her, so long as she got to make him suffer, make anyone suffer for that amber hell she had been trapped in.

Howard ran for his life, unable to think of any brilliant plans at the moment...

[member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"]


OOC: Would you mind doing Wu's perspective over the three days guarding the ship with Syd, Matsu?

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

(you got it)

[member="Syd Celsius"]

The time she was guarding the ship with Syd... she was calmer and there was time for the two of them to at least. She had her equipment pack on her hip and there was the food cubes and ration packs that had been turned into food. She was meditating stretching out her mind to the world itself and the people. She had been working to learn better skills within the force and her diplomatic ties with Tiantang were an important part of her training. The martial arts, the exercises, the meditations to center oneself. She breathed in and then out feeling something cold in her chest from the world itself. Something was here.

The first of the days here guarding with Syd was much the same. She had spent much time... more then most with the flame geist and she understood her a little more then some... and Syd might have come to understand her. The jedi master though spent the time making sure both of them were calmed and fed. Where she could look around though in the ship, where she could move around and try to discover the sensation in the back of her mind. A cold feeling going down her spine whatever was coming to the back of her mind it wasn't exactly a sensation or feeling she liked.

The second day of their vigil was much the same, a small bit of meditation and trying to investigate but the ship itself needed to be protected and kept safe. She was trying to understand more and teach maybe something of control to Syd... practicing the ataru lesson with her... letting herself deconstruct and reconstruct her saber to polish the lens and circuits. She rebuilt he saber where she was looking around. A look on her face when she reached out with the force itself. She continued to have an uneasy feeling but precognition was a slippery thing as the force and future was always in motion and you didn't control it always.

There was still a lot going on, she was allowing the force to extend outwards with a look to herself. She thought about Yayao and Akari with a grin on her face internally... her daughter and well the litle girls half brother who had been born two weeks later... it was complicated compared to some of the things she had seen but explaining what had become a situation with Kurenai and her husband well... that was more complicated and Sukai kind of shrugged and didn't speak about it... and she didn't push for more preferring it to be something she could do when visiting Atrisia.

Something was happening and she could feel it... her eyes snapping open and Wu moved quickly towards the ship. That dark feeling was coming from Syd now and she didn't want to think about dangerous things that could happen with a force being like her burning the world to cinders. Wu was moving quickly and allowed the force to guide her through the ship before she reached out to try and calm her... whatever familiar thoughts she might have she tried to sooth... tried to make that small connection to convince her of the dangerous things she was doing and how this wasn't the way.

 

[Syd Celsius]

Wearing: 451 Suit

Armed with: Wind and Fire Wheels ( Twin Blue Lightsabers )

Shooting Star (Crossbow pistol)


Syd had come with [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"] to this desolate stretch of rock for one reason. That reason stared at both her and Wu once they had left Syd's ship, the Scorched Earth.

It was an ancient starship, split in half and spread across a canyon, shaped like a cross between those ancient, cigar-shaped submarine hulls on worlds with a naval tradition and even more ancient, seafaring galleons. What was left of the hull displayed fine craftsmanshape, Coruscanti-esque carvings and reliefs on display within the shattered interior. It reeked of darkness. The Geist flew above it inspecting the elegant wreck across sun-streaked rock walls that were blood red. The sun was high over them.

The wreck had...appeared...more or less in this area. One minute it had not been there, next minute it was. That was how what satellites were above had recorded it. Syd had been sent with her still tentative master Wu, trying to loosen up more and act more human while she guarded for the SJO. Wu was the only one she was even Semi-Close to. Syd, still not fully adept at conversation spent much of the first day securing the position by the wreck, a small campsite close to her ship after initial explorers had found the Aurodium. The ship had apparantly belonged to a Sith of great and terrible wealth, for the ship was intact enough that its valuables had yet to be looted...and would not be looted while Syd flew these skies, prepared to kill to defend it. The wreck was so massive that the SJO simply had not mustered enough people or resources to properly strip it, and so it was left in the hands of two Jedi.

As the next two days passed and more thieves fell to her blade, Syd was doing rather admirably...even though she felt a strange tug from the ship...

Seven hours ago:

"So this Howard guy..." Raine Starstraggler, an infamous pirate with the death sentence in twelve systems, trailed. He had his hair arranged in elaborate spikes and the malevolence in his red eyes was matched by the malevolence traced into dark blue skin, a thousand scars and a bent nose. He was clad in some vintage massassi battle armor that covered an enlarged muscular frame, the light combat suits design specifics having long since ceased to be a secret to the galaxy at large. He was seated in the pilot chair, the old heavy frieghter from Corellia, and he was next to the droid merc in the other seat, a heavily modified magnaguard droid that had gotten too independent one day, and killed its master. It was named Neckbreaker.

"Yes? What of him?" The Droid asked, its synthetic growl echoing in the small cockpit.

"He's not like your usual pirates, I heard. Heard he survived a fight with one of those One Sith Inquisitors..."

"That...is no easy feat..." the droid confessed. "How did he do it?"

"They say he's seen nearly every trick in the book...that's why they picked him..."

"I heard he's a walking doom magnet" said Emma, the youngest pirate on the team, a woman of Haruun Kal origin, clad in dark leather armor, armed with a vibromace, her hair done in one long black braid, studded with jewels. She was tall and muscular herself, a veteran of a hundred ship to ship raids. They were all the most vicious, dangerous sorts they could find on such short notice. The Jedi guarding their payday was said to be that dangerous.

"I've heard thousands of people have tried to kill him, to no avail..." Emma explained, hand resting on her mace.

"So he's a badass...right...nice to know..." Raine complained. "So they put him in charge of all of us just because he happened to be the last one standing a couple of times? Gimme a break."

"Careful..." the droid warned. "He'll hear you..."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, front and center!" Howard called out from the main hold, already suited in his thermal resistant space suit, which looked gold chromed from faceplate to suit layer. He was armed with a large vibro-cutlass, a stun baton, and extraordinarily powerful fifty caliber revolver with vented barrels as well as a tranq gun. They were all armed with tranq guns. Howard didn't want to kill anyone taking the ship. Not out of mercy...Jedi could sense suffering and death. No death or suffering, less chance of detection.

The three gathered in the hold. The chiss man had Howard's eye in particular...he chafed taking orders. Ordinarily Howard would have refused to work with him based on that alone...but there simply no one else as qualified available.

"I still think this plan is fething suicide." Raine said, eyeing Howard suspiciously. "C'mon, blasting our own ship to hell right as the transport arrives? And then praying they'll have an attack of conscience and look for survivors?"

"They're Silver Jedi, they'll go for it..." Howard assured Raine. "They're gullible like that...okay, does everyone have the plan?"

"Once the ship is in range, be picked up as a survivor during the sweep. Neckbreaker uses the distraction to attach a emp device to the hull itself, take out their power and communications temporarily. You and Raine slip aboard, by cutting your way into the hull..." Emma answered.

"You do know if this goes south..." the Droid spoke, "We're adrift..."

"It won't..." Howard assured them. "They always wanna play hero...always. Can't help themselves."

"It's also a nice way of knocking us off to get our pay for yourself, Howard." Raine sneered.

Howard did a deliberately sensual jiggle solely to irritate him. "Well I guess you'll just have to be the best and not die, won't you?"

Raine snorted at this, but said nothing at this but said nothing else.

"Get your suits on. We scuttle this ship in twenty."

"What do we do for heavy weapons?" Neckbreaker asked.

"With as much bullion as these guys were about to take aboard? Trust me, They'll have heavy weapons." Howard assured them in jolly voice.

The others looked at each other and shrugged.

"I have done way crazier chit than this." Howard emphasized. "We'll be fine...as long as you follow the plan to the letter."

Fifteen minutes later...

Clad in reflec coated space suits, with the exception of Neckbreaker, the four depressurized the ship by opening the hatch, the four attached by cable.

Black space greeted them as they went adrift, watching their ride go adrift. Howard, in front of the line, held the trigger and sent the signal, just as he watched the other frieghter, heavily armed and armored, drop out of hyperspace. Emma was the only one unarmed.

The Frieghter sent a distress signal just as it blew. Howard used the special microthrusters on his suit's arms to manuver into the debris field, picking the largest chunks, cutting themselves adrift from Emma to hide by the largest chunks. Emma activated her distress beacon just before it blew, while the others had to contend with, in addition to hiding, very fast moving pieces of ship shrapnel. Howard had to carefully maneuver another chunk from behind them to avoid razor sharp pieces of ship. Howard watched with a rangefinder, a piece of shrapnel gliding by him, the other frieghter shining lights on the adrift woman.

Howard used his arm jets to steer the shrapnel they hid behind under the ship hull and drifted from their hiding object, attaching to the hull, where Neckbreaker attached the rectangular EMP generator to the hull as a very low powered tractor beam towed Emma in.

"Okay, droid, do it!" Howard order, launching off the hull at the same time he and Raine did.

An azure surge of energy took out the ship power, and the three steered onto the hull towards an airlock, where Howard used a plasma torch to cut open the lock, sliding it open then sealing it once everybody was inside, then proceeding to cut open the other lock, their magboots clicking to the floor as gravity had been taken out. Everyone took out their silenced tranq rifles and proceeded to sever the cable attachments to one another, going in through a darkened vessel, past what looked to be engineering, and shooting the first three officers yelling and floating helplessly in mid air, pulling their unconscious bodies down and securing them to railing close to the ground.

"Remember, same drill with everyone you meet. Emma, you good?" Howard whispered into his link.

"Med bay and comms our ours, moving to secure cargo section..." Emma answered.

"Move. Search and clear. There are only twenty eight people aboard. This ship is only three times the size of a Corellian YT. It will be completely ours in five minutes, understood?" Howard asked. The others nodded and began the rapid clearing process...

Twenty minutes later....

After gaining control of the frieghter, Howard had disguised himself as one of the Soldiers sent to escort the transfer of bullion from the wreck, dressed now in blue and black garb with heavy chest armor, his face uncovered and clean shaven, hair trimmed and combed. This would be the most difficult phase of the objective.

But Howard had experience ambushing enemy personnel, even Force Adepts. It was all a matter of forcing out doubt and malice. Hiding it.

Howard readied the heavy slugthrower assault rifle he had found. Emma was equipped with the chaingun they had found. Neckbreaker had seized control of piloting and was heading down to the planet surface, while Raine was drawing the strange symbols of odd, crooked looking red runes in a strange, glowing blue chalk.

"What is this stuff?" Raine asked, eyeing the old man who cleaned up surprisingly well as he sheathed his vibro cutlass with obvious suspicion. Howard did not carry himself like other pirates. He didn't curse. Didn't get drunk or do drugs. Didn't pick fights for no reason. Screamed military bearing. The ease and swiftness with which he had directed them spoke much on how often he had done this. Raine's own dad had been in the military. Used to tell him all these scary stories about encountering enemy units dressed as friendlies, with flawless knowledge of the other side's tactics and habits. Raine realized Howard was very, very dangerous. Crazy also, but dangerous.

"Supreme victory consists of winning before having to fight in the first place, Sonny..." Howard answered with a grin, going over to examine his work, noting Raine, however distrustful he was, could clearly focus when he had to.

"The key to supreme victory is manuevering the enemy into a position of vulnerability..." Howard explained, crouching down to examine the wards.

"That chalk you got there..." Howard explained. "Nightsister stuff. Bought it off one. Take some chalk, infuse it with spirit ichor, curse it with blood magic, write the proper wards down, and let the enemy walk into it. Weakens them badly.

"What if she doesn't want to come aboard?" Raine asked.

"We adjust. I have a back up plan..." The Pirate answered. Stay in that space suit and keep that shotgun you found happy. Cut the ship lights when you see her approach...your timing must be perfect." Howard warned the chiss.

"Ehh, relax..."

Howard snorted, rose as the ship landed.

"Remember, hide your intent like I showed you. Think about something, anything other than what you are doing...she'll have trouble reading your intent that way.

Emma, who had concealed her features underneath a helmet with an opaque face shield turned to Howard. "How deadly is this Jedi?"

"Definitely not human...so be ready for anything..." Howard answered. "Look alive, People!"

Seven hours later...

Syd, still warped by what she had been exposed to, sneered as she felt the mental presence of [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"] reach out. She was very far away. Syd had not even known she was on the planet, or even in the area. She would not stop her from taking revenge on the pirate. She would roast that pirate, cook him in his own juices.

Her limits prevented her from replying back with telepathy, but Wu was going to get hurt if she got too close. Syd had no control, absolutely none.

That relic had freed her.

Syd thought she spotted Howard fleeing into an upper deck, towards the ancient hangar of the Sith vessel. She flew at a shadow at high speed, screaming for blood, the heat she emitted crisping the ancient paint still on the walls as she passed by it.

"HOWARD!" Syd screamed. "HOWARD! SHOW YOURSELF AND DIE QUICKLY!"

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

She could feel something more and there was a cold darkness. Syd might not be angry and like a storm but she was different.. she was dangerous when she was angry and Wu had moved to try and find her. She coudl also sense the others and was moving with her hand grazing her saber just in case but she was relying on somethng much more important... The power of friendship... no she was looking to try and calm her or at least the ones she was going after if they weren't around she couldn't kill them and become a dangerous being. She started rushing towards the ship to find Syd and reached out. 'Please calm yourself... if you give in you will become what you swore to destroy.' She needed to try and get through her.

 

[Syd Celsius]

Six hours ago...

The ship unsettled Syd, the more she was around it. The way it loomed over them. It did not seem natural, how alive this vessel felt despite clearly being a granduer of a wreck. It made focus, meditation sometimes difficult.

Had it been up to Syd, this wreck would have been just blasted from orbit, feth the relics. But the SJO did not get to say no to all that bullion. They really should have sent more but they were spread thin and all forces were currently settling things with the Pesmenben government. Syd was a force multiplier and [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"] had procen herself very skilled and clever. She saw things a different way then Syd did. The Geist was programmed to kill that which threatened Jedi. She resisted, but it was difficult. Wu provided a balance, an urge to mercy Syd still found difficult to listen to. Syd didn't even like killing dark adepts. Sure, some of them were real scumbags who stood out from the rest of the bunch, and she had admittedly indulged in one or two 'Ha Ha Feth You' moments after giving them a long overdue justice, but she was slowly losing her zeal.

Syd was more than a little relieved when she saw the heavy freighter descend the sunny sky, and she floated and flew over the excavation pathway that had been set up. The light glinted off her chrome suit as she flew towards the frieghter, the ramp descending and followed by two people urgently running out.

"Master Jedi!" The older sounding man called out with intense panic, his emotions mimicking as such to Syd's senses, "We have a serious problem! There's been an attack! Pirates boarded! They injured a lot of us and we barely managed to fight them off and escape..." the man explained, his voice varying with stress and true panic. "Our medical equipment was damaged..."

Syd's brow furrowed in concern as she stepped closer. The woman next to him was favoring her side. Their armor looked scorched and damaged. The smell of combat was on them.

"How bad are the injuries?" Syd asked, her somewhat heavy though not overwhelming contralto carrying through the canyon.

"Two are critical. If you have any ability to heal..."

Syd nodded. It was not Force healing, but it was effective, but it would take longer, and took a while to set up.

"Take me to them..." Syd ordered, knowing the situation was serious though being completely, utterly, dead wrong as to why. "I can help. Who attacked you?"

"Privateers. We think they were hired by a foreign government." The man answered, clutching his weapon a little tighter. The other woman seemed just as scared as her leader. She spotted signs of high impact shrapnel damage on the hull, possible missile strike, though Syd figured it was from another ship. No matter. Syd was keen for an opportunity to help instead of hurt.

The chrome suited woman followed Howard to his freighter, the man giving a good show of coughing and holding his side, even as he hid his intentions mentally as she followed him up the ramp. It was dark inside. Syd grew curious. She figured there would be more signs of damage on the inside but it was already so dark she had a bit of trouble perceiving the interior--

Syd grew alarmed as the blast from double oh buckshot hit Howard square in the chest ahead of her, downing him. Syd dodged the next blast, spotting a man in a space suit as she flew down the wide space to a barricade at the man in the hold space suit as he fired as fast as he could, her blue sabers going active--

Howard hit the grav grenade trap he had set up just as Syd flew over the right spot, seconds from trying to roast his comrade alive. Howard had been caught off guard at how fast she could fly and dodge fire and as Syd gave a yelp as she was pulled down onto the glowing blue wards that appeared as she was pulled to the floor, drawn to resemble chains with runes at the edges of the links.

Syd felt like she had not fed on a heat source in days as her strength was ripped away, her psychic shell rippling like water as she tried to leave the radius of the ward she was trapped in, her face stretching, melting, reforming, and melting again. The water like ripples across her body grew more severe, the skintight suit serving to unpleasantly display each moment her body seemed to become like uneven clay, barely able to stand, the body, especially the face, looking like it was starting to bubble under the surface, little jets of flame escaping out the corner of her eyes as as her face and head seemed to pull in two different directions.

Howard, Raine, and Emma just stood there for a second, watching in horror, too frightened to approach the restrained Flame Geist as she shook in the magical field, her shell now so unstable it was constantly pulling and melting and stretching in every sickening, barf-bag inducing manner one can fathom, in random directions.

Howard finally got the sense to move right after Raine and Emma did. The Geist was, for a moment, no longer a factor.

Raine moved as close to the edge of the wards he had drawn. One of the Geist's melted eyes tried to focus on him but it slid down a face that was now a slowly spreading puddle on the floor like the half of her was. She could not scream, though she felt an intense, crippling agony.

"The Chains of Radom..." Howard explained to everyone. "Quite effective, its rendering her molecular state like liquid, pulling it all out of alignment.

"Who...showed...you...this...technique...layman?" Syd gasped, trying to force her face to regain structure but failing. She was too weak to move.

"Ahhhh...that would be telling!" Howard chided, pulling off the helmet.

"What the feth is it?" Emma asked.

"Intelligence paints her as some kind of living weapon..." Howard explained. "One driven by magic. No way we would have beaten her in a straight fight. Don't disturb the wards, whatever you do. She's sealed. Contained."

"This...cheap...bargain magic...will only contain me so long..." Syd growled, face bubbling and melted beyond recognition save for the fiery red hair that was also melting all over a half melted looking body, even the suit looking like it was melting with the rest of her.

"Which is exactly why we should waste her, Howard." Raine argued.

"You wanna add to what is no doubt an awesomely long list of reasons for bounty hunters to go after you, be my bloody guest..." Howard trailed.

Raine frowned. "Point taken. Now what?"

Howard smiled. "While Miss Face Melt here chills we use the equipment the guards brought to load the bullion--"

Neckbreaker the rogue Magnaguard signalled him.

"Howard!" Neckbreaker yelled of the comlink in Howard's hand. "We have company. Another Jedi!"

Howard turned to Emma and Raine.

"Keep your weapons on it at all times. We need a bargaining chip..."

Howard smiled at a melted looking Geist.

"You'll do..."

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

She could feel something and oke up. The jedi master touched her head when she was looking up and rolling her head to the side. She had been entering the ship following the feeling of Syd and trying to find her. She rolled over and thre was something around... she could feel something on her head as touching it sent a jolt of pan into her head. "Ow" She said it looking up and trying to find Syd or anyone who might be able to help them. She rolled onto her side and then up standing there and looking out of the cell towards the people. She didn't have her saber, she tried tofocus onthe force but turned seeing Syd... maybe... whatever it was looked distorted and she moved ovewr towards it seeing the outfit. "What did you do to her?"

 

[Syd Celsius]

Howard, instead of panicking, as the others were, had known, ironically much how a Jedi knows, the key to winning was not in fighting at all. It was letting the enemy manuever themselves into his waiting hands, so he could wring their necks at his leisure.

"We let her aboard. She won't risk...whatever the hell her friend is..." Howard told them. But you keep weapons trained on her at all times, regardless."

Syd melted and sagged everywhere in the radius of the wards. Emma and the droid Neckbreaker leveled charric pistols at the melted woman. Howard kept calm, managing an easy smile as [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"] came aboard and asked what had been done. Howard had his gun leveled at her and so it was with Raine and his shotgun. All of these were anti-jedi weaponry.

"She's alive...for what that's worth..." Howard explained. "Whether she stays that way is up to you. Now, I have it on good authority that Charrics will flat out kill Miss Celsius. My associates have two pointed right at her. Now, I don't wanna actually kill either of you. I just need you out of the way while we load up the bullion on that crashed starship. You sit nice and quiet, don't make a fuss, and I promise, we'll be out of your hair in a few hours!" he explained, smiling that smarmy smile that made someone want to punch it off his face if they looked at it. "Of course, if you wanna do this the gritty superhero way...we can do that too. I actually am rather fond of the gritty superhero way. Lots of bullets."

Howard knew they were on a timetable. Sure, the wreck was relatively undefended, but if any other Jedi were in the area, it would make an already dangerous gamble more so.

He really, deep down, despite his bravado, really, really hoping that whoever Wu was, she wasn't the type to pull the pin and drop the grenade at her feet anyway. He didn't need a bounty on his head for killing a Jedi.

"So you gonna sit tight, and play nice, or are we gonna have a big, dramatic action finale to this?" He asked.

"Wu..." Syd called out with a melted, sagging face that spilled onto the floor partly. "I can't move...it hurts..."

"Your choice." Howard patiently, calmly reminded Wu.

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

She was looking at him, the situation a dangerous one compared to well everything that they were being able to do. She didn't want to risk provoking them but she also couldn't let Syd be laying around in pain... it would be a dangerous and cruel thing as she didn't move but spoke looking up.. she was smaller then most so she looked up at everyone. "I don't want to fight you, I want a peaceful solution to this but keeping her in pain is something I cannot allow." She looked at them and then at Syd as she was trying to send as much soothing energy she could to take away the pain. "She can be dangerous but torture is not the way to go about this.. you have us outnumbered and outgunned."

 

[Syd Celsius]

"Then you understand fully how untenable your situation is..." Howard replied to [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"]. He headed over to her, holding up the restraints, as well as a neural disruption collar.

"Put these on. We'll let you ease her pain, but only while you are under restraint. Those are my terms, take it or leave it. Once we got the bullion, we're out of the hair of both of you..."

A melted hand from Syd tried desperately to breach the barrier, but was instead only repelled. The others twitched and got ready to shoot before Howard held up his hand.

"Don't shoot dammit!" He ordered. "Nobody is dying unless I say so!"

His comrades hesitated but soon relaxed.

Syd, little more than a chrome puddle of red and gold watched with a melted eye the leader of the pirates. He was no ordinary thug with a fancy gun and a chit-eating smile. No. This one had a brain...he had utterly defeated her by allowing her to defeat herself first. He was a tactician. And a master liar. Syd had detected nothing wrong at all with him.

"Wu..." Syd called out. "Cooperate. We can always chase them after we get free..."

She was still trying to figure out the magic to her imprisonment, trying to sense and feel it out. But she needed time. Time she would not have if this went violent.

But it also betrayed Howard's position too: He lacked reinforcements. He was flying by the seat of his pants on this. His crew was panicky and undisciplined if he was having to get them under control like that.

They just need to buy time long enough for her to figure out how to escape, but it would be up to Wu to protect her once she was free.

Syd didn't like being vulnerable like this. Didn't like being humiliated by some two bit pirate. When you are that dangerous, you generally think you can handle things like that most of the time. But to be so blindsided...was she slipping up, as she got older, more willing to trust?

Either way, Syd had screwed up, and had put Wu in danger in the process. She was not used to feeling genuine concern for another, and did not know how to fully process the need, the urge to save her friend...

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

Wu looked at the collar and she raised an eyebrow seeing the others around this man.. he had a level of control and that was important but they were jumpy... if she thought it could work she would make it a point but arguing or debating over everything wasn't the way to do it. You usually only had one true state of resistance in a situation like this... one time when you could refuse and make conditions if the other was trying to get something from you. This wasn't that moment... Syd was in danger and she slid it on moving to be between the two fo them as she looked at them. Using herself as a shield when she spoke. "Very well but your men seem to be a little jumpy... I would prefer to avoid being shot because I am cooperating."

She said it but knelt down still and remained focused, eyes watching thee man and her senses outwards to check the others in the room. She didn't need the force itself to sense them, that tingling sensation in the back of her mind that alerted one to predators and threats before she was looking at a few parts of it. She could see Syd and she was nodding her head. There was always a chance afterwards and she was certain he knew it as well as what could happen if anything happened to them. Two jedi missing was not an easy thing to cover up and it would bring the attention of the order towards them. That was never a good thing and the chance here to really escape would only get more and more narrow if they lingered.

 

[Syd Celsius]

(Howard's Theme plays)

Theme: "Highwayman" by The Highwaymen

Spoiler

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qFSA8-pxrqc&list=RDqFSA8-pxrqc&start_radio=1

While Emma and Neckbreaker kept an eye on [member="Wu Yeoh-Mei"] and Syd, Howard and Raine gathered the repulsor lift necessary to transfer the Bullion and began the journey to the Sith Wreckage. Things felt earily quiet as they approached. It seemed to leer over them, the ancient crashed starship.

"So who owned this thing?" Raine asked as he approached, the sun setting.

"Eh, they don't know. As fething usual." Howard snorted. He hated taking jobs like this normally. Anything to do with the Dark Side was strictly off limits. Horrific creatures like The Amalgam had taught him that much. But he needed the money. Worse, he needed to see if he could actually pull this off. Howard was...curious...


Thankfully it seemed Syd had done much of the clearing work, having constructed a ramp to access an exposed point in the hull that led right to engineering. She had even left guide lights attached, in anticipation of the actual pick up teams needs. Howard was grateful, of course.

The interior looked burned out, but betrayed the ancient reliefs of long forgotten fortresses, the smashed reactor's fragments littering the warped remains of the deck as they moved the carts through the destroyed passages, following the lights all the way through burned out remains of crew quarters to the only thing in this ship seemingly intact. Howard frowned as he beheld the brilliant, pristine golden doors in front of them, emblazoned with the ancient symbol of the Bogan, forced open, revealing the golden bullion within a great chamber filled with shelves of other treasures.

Rain started to go forward but Howard stopped him. "What?" The chiss grunted in confusion.

"You really trust that melted abomination we got prisoner didn't consider this exact scenario?" Howard asked cynically, pulling out an empty credit chit and tossing it through the barrier. Raine felt cold as flames erupted from invisible wards, annihilating the chit. But the wards themselves seemed to break down also...clearly it had been meant to be a temporary trap.

Howard approached cautiously, his honed senses scanning for irregularities as he entered the vault.

"Howard..." Raine trailed as he entered also, looking at the shelves full various treasures. One was a bust of Darth Maranon, smiling, holding a ruby apple.

"Any one of these treasures...they could set us up for life even if we split it ten different ways selling any one of them..."

"Don't touch those." Howard warned, loading the bullion onto the cart.

Raine wheeled on him. "Why the hell not?"

"Because think about it: This is a fething Sith Starship. Probably a mid tier Darth..." Howard explained. "The Sith like to curse their treasure. Turn people into monsters, drive them crazy, all because they picked the wrong item up. The bullion is about the only thing I'm certain isn't cursed...because they need it to actually change hands and they can't afford to cast time intensive magic to enchant each and every ingot. Anything else is an early grave. Now help me get this stuff back to the ship. We are in for the long haul...

As Howard loaded the bullion onto the carts, he did not catch Raine pocketing a small necklace...

Meanwhile...

"What do you suppose its made out of?" Emma asked as she watched the melted Syd trapped in the wards.

"My sensors can't identify her molecular composition beyond 'Thermal Radiation'

"We should just ghost this thing..." Emma snorted.

"Howard's plan means no blood." The Magnaguard pointed out.

"Howard's plan is too slow..." Emma complained.

"Regardless, we're sticking to it."

Emma went to Wu, who had been secured.

"Personally I'd blast them both...they've seen our faces."

Emma suddenly heard something whispered by the melted woman. "Stop talking!" Emma shouted, pointing the charric at her.

Syd continued to whisper. "I said stop talking!" Emma ordered, pointing it right at her head.

A twitch of a melted finger as the barrier failed, made Emma scream as her charric side arm was yanked to the side with telekinesis, the shot meant for Syd instead going straight into the chest of Neckbreaker, disabling him in a single hit.

Emma, for her trouble, got a point blank blast of fire that erupted from a sagging melted mouth. Emma screamed as she flailed about, burning until she dropped dead in front of Wu.

The melted creature pulled itself out of its once inescapable barrier, pretty much a puddle of red and gold chrome until the entity felt the effects of the Chains of Radom finally fading, allowing her to focus, her shell pulling itself into its typical athletic appearance, like plastic being poured onto a mold.

Syd swooned, still quite drained while she undid Wu's bonds, helping her up. She actually had not wanted to fight before now, but when Emma got that look in her eye, Syd knew better than to rely on the restraint of a jumpy minion and took it under assumption they were probably going to both be killed...likely after trying to dust Howard, of course.

Syd thought it odd a part of her thought highly enough of Howard's chances that she would assign the qualifier 'trying' when it came to the prospect of killing Howard. Then again, when Howard's badassery was so blatantly obvious...how could she not?

"Well...that's two down..." Syd noted. "Just two left. We'll take them without breaking them, which is more than they deserve.

Syd swooned and dropped to her knee, before forcing herself to stand.

"After I find a heat source..." Syd added groggily, having at last figured out how to break the wards. Breaking the wards and using the last of her strength to kill their hosts had taken much out of her.

"Wu, you remember the first days we were out here right? You memorized the route to the vault...unless..." Syd jogged to the cockpit, thinking that maybe they could end this the easy way by using the ship's weapons to strong arm him...only to find it had been voice locked. Syd could mimic appearances, but did not know how to do voices. There went that plan.

Syd sighed, collecting her lightsabers. "Looks like we're gonna have to bring this creep down the old fashioned way..."

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

Wu was looking at her and the others as the barrier stopped and Wu paused. her body remaining still as the movements from Syd came and the two of them were down quickly. One hand coming to her hip as she looked at the reforming being and walked over to her. "I do ad I can remember a lot but this is dangerous and we can't just kill them no matter what they have done to us." Wu was looking at her more and she stood her ground but she wasn't going to force Syd... she just had to try and get through to that part of her that was a jedi and knew that life all life was precious. She wasn't going to preach but she knew that Syd could be a lot more and she offered a hand while looking at her. "We will head out but clear your mind, I can't in good conscious let ou go out there ready to destroy them... so clear our mind and calm yourself."

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd looked at Wu Yeoh-Mei and the shorter Jedi reminding her of their commitments to the ideals of the Jedi. She was right. On a deep level she was right.

"I know you are right..." Syd admitted, sighing unconsciously. A display of rare emotion. But Wu did not understand. Wu knew Syd was not human, but Syd had never given all the details.

"Trouble is...when you are...made like I was...made to be a hammer...every problem is a nail. The people who created me to kill the enemies of The Jedi...they did not just...create me to do it. They...they programmed me to do it. I'm magically programmed to want to kill them. I can resist it...but its not easy. Imagine an icepick scraping along the inside of your skull, and you will know what its like for me to resist the urge to kill the Order's foe's.

Syd did not mention the other, massively more troubling parts she had learned about recently, regarding her own creation. She didn't want to even think about Darth Phyre.

"I was...I was never created to be a normal Jedi. Sometimes I fear I am only a Jedi by technicality, in that I was made by them..." she admitted, glancing at her lightsabers.

"I get where you are coming from, Wu. I do. But this...it is not easy for me to act like you. No matter how much I want to. I can't break that programming. It's ingrained into my very essence, like hard code in computers."

Syd had nonetheless gotten her anger at Howard under control. Take him cleanly, she told herself. Do it for Wu.

The shorter Jedi had grown on her, Syd admitted to herself. She had serenity to her Syd was unused to being around for long periods. Her own creators lacked Wu's easing presence. She was a good woman. A good person. Syd wondered how she would have faired if it had been Wu who had created her and handled her. Wu might not have killed Phyre as The Man in White had. Wu might have tried to actually redeem the horrid animal. A mistake to be sure, but it said much on how different Wu was from her..."creator".

Syd headed out of the ship. But she was much more cautious then before. Howard had already defeated her once. She had no intention of letting him do so twice...

Meanwhile...

Howard finished setting up the charges on the ceiling and floor. After Emma and Neckbreaker had failed with their silent check in, he surmised that Syd had gotten loose and they had minutes at most. Dammit. Now they might have to actually kill them for the bullion.

They had loaded the bullion certainly, It was on two different, large repulsorlift carts, gleaming. But it might as well have been dead weight with two Jedi loose. The charges he had placed at chokepoints along the pathway leading to the vault would buy them time--Howard had built them with anti-handling measures. Any attempt to dislodge them after they were placed on a surface and armed would set them off, so the Jedi couldn't just use Telekinesis to rip them out of their path. Not that the Jedi knew that.

Raine had spent some time looking for an exit, but the only one beyond the path leading straight to the vault in the first place was directly downward, close to what looked like old escape pods. This was where Raine and Howard had become aware of the fact the ship had crashed into some deep, subterranean network, for a gash in the hull showed dark, rocky natural tunnels beyond. But it was possibly the only way out they had with the bullion in tow and Syd after them.

The tactician in Howard said ditch the money and run. But he had been paid a hefty advance for this job. Howard never backed out of an assignment once he took money for it, not ever.

"How many minutes did the charges buy us?" The burly Chiss grunted as they moved the carts down a partly collapsed passage.

Howard heard a blast and an inhuman metallic sounding scream echoing from behind them. They both wheeled around, knowing instinctively it was the howl of the flame using monstrosity they had trapped. Their lights hovered nervously in the direction the scream had come from for a few seconds before pushing the carts a little faster.

"We got five minutes, at best. Two if our luck is really chitty..." Howard breathed.

"Maybe we should ditch the aurodium."

"We ditch a haul like this, we don't deserve to be called pirates. Besides that, we ditch this money, we'll have more to fear from the ones who hired us than two Jedi pulling mall cop duty."

"That fething thing sounds pissed..." Raine emphasized with clear worry. "How the feth do we kill it? I fear no Jedi, but that...thing scares me." (Unnecessary but perfect Team Fortress Reference: 60 XP)

Howard didn't answer.

"Hey Howard, I'm trying to figure out how not to become camp fire logs here, think you could join in--?!"

"Shut up, boy..." Howard grunted, leveling a shotgun ahead. "Stay sharp. We're not alone..."(A bringer of light and wisdom: 10 XP)

"Huh?" Raine asked before he heard the harsh grunts and hisses ahead of them. He stopped, leveling his rifle.

"There are tunnels in this area."

"Of course..." Howard growled, seeing a small flash of green skin darting into the shadows ahead.

"Its never a party unless there are underground murder-monsters..." Howard said after a moment.

The snarling grew louder.

Meanwhile...

Syd had led Wu through the passages, taking point as she was often used to. For others it was part of the job. For Wu...Syd genuinely wanted to protect her, more than her programming compelled her to. It was why she was always in front, for that was the closest she could get to expressing genuine friendship.

When she had come across the charges she had proceeded steadily. They didn't look armed...no lights. This was because the mechanisms inside were purely mechanical, to foil Jedi ionizing attempts. Syd fiddled with one on a wall in the midpoint of between the vault and the outside using her deliberately limited telekinesis.

The blast sent shrapnel her way, tearing through parts of the suit and puncturing the face part of her psychic shell, as well as parts of her chest, the wounds leaked little spurts of fire as she was thrown backward, yelling in pain. She scrambled up, still leaking fire, and used the flames from the blast to stitch the shell back together.

"Master Wu..." she said slowly, doing her best to control a growing irritability. "I fear I may have underestimated that man..."

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

[member="Syd Celsius"]

Wu was looking at Syd as they walked and she listened to all of it... it was something harder to say as she thought about it and it was as she had learned something that the jedi did. They experimented and tried to use the force in new ways with different results usually then what they wanted... in this case it seemed some of them were dangerously overzealous in their wanting to go after the darkside and forgot something that a jedi needed. She had learned it as well and seen what some of the others had.. compassion and caring. The ability for them well feel more emotions then just a drive to destroy the darkside.

"I don't know much about that... the Jin are still entering the galaxy but I have been with the jedi for awhile and with people. I know that the jedi experiment and try to make ways to combat the darkside without knowing what will come from it and of the experiments that have been ddone and documented... few actually seem to be able to handle their purposes. They go crazed and feral usually resulting in a threat." She said t while walking behind Syd and remained careful with it... mostly working to reassure and calm her.. sending all that she could energy wise and emotional support wise so that the geist would breathe slowly and not want to go off on them.

Then.... something happened and they were moving, explosives and wounds that licked fire out and across them as she was moving with her hand sup forming a barrier where the jeid master would be able to better situate and defend from the flames. She was moving towards Syd to try and keep her calm. "Maybe but they are scared or at least worried about what you can do. What we would have to do to stop them." She didn't say they were going to kill them she just said do what they would likely have to do. She knew what she needed to do and that was try to preserve and connect with Syd in a way that she could cool the fires in a way when she got angry.

 

[Syd Celsius]

(BFG Division by Mick Gordon plays)

Howard and Raine had barely made it thirty more meters ahead when the attack started.

Green skinned things, one of many legions of horrors in this galaxy that relied on zerg rushing people. (To the point it had become a borderline pass time to adventurers looking for sweet loot to mow through at least three dozen of these kinds things while dungeon crawling)

Howard emptied one clip, then two, throwing one of his last two det charges at the ceiling and yelling for Raine to run with the cart. Howard was running seconds later, pressing the trigger mechanism. The blast collapsed the cave roof on top. But they were still coming from other routes, undeterred.

Howard covered their retreat, blasting apart the snarling green monsters. An orange glow from behind started to make the monsters turn away. He heard the howl and smell of burning flesh.

It was the creature. It was Syd.

Howard had thought the Amalgam an abomination, but Syd was all kinds of wrong. He had never seen any creature melt like that.

"So Howard, how do we kill that fething thing?" Raine muttered as they ran.

"This Foe is beyond us." (You shall not pass: 70 XP)

"Looks like we're gonna have to get us the death sentence if we wanna escape."

"We have nothing that is capable of killing it, do you hear me?" Howard snapped as they dragged the bullion. "Containing her was my absolute best option. She'd burn us all to death in a straight fight!"

"So maybe we should do something they aren't expecting..." Raine said, pulling out the necklace he had taken earlier as they stopped to catch their breath, the monsters busy trying to overwhelm Wu Yeoh-Mei and Syd.

Howard sighed.

"You took it from the vault. For all you know, you could go insane if it leaves your person."

"But Sith stuff messes with Jedi all the time! We don't have anything to lose, now do we?!" Raine argued.

Howard looked at him with a death glare.

"Everything is worse with The Dark Side, Raine. Everything." Howard warned. But he was genuinely out of ideas. The Amalgam had been bad but Syd was much, much more dangerous. There was nowhere to hide from those flames.

"C'mon, this is a dar side trinket! She's not normal! Its 'bound' to mess with her." Raine assured.

"You let me apply it then. You run with the bullion."

Raine looked at him skeptically. "What's to stop me from ditching you and taking it all?"

Howard shrugged, reloading his weapon.

"I dunno, Raine." He answered. "You don't seem the type. Dunno why I think that."

Raine said nothing at this, instead handing him the trinket.

Meanwhile...

Syd's flames poured out endlessly from her mouth as she walked forward, burning the creatures that charged relentlessly.

"Wu!" She called out, ceasing the flames for a moment. "Can you sense the pirates! I think I'm out of range."

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

Wu was feeling it in the force... something dangerous from Syd Celsius here and there was a big danger to the others even if she wasn't exactly going to regret them being roughed up a little it is a different as she still didn't want them to die or be harmed like that.... that also extended to Syd as the jedi master was moving now to try and find them and keep her from losing it. "They are getting away but you need to calm you mind.... repeat the jedi code please Syd... don't let your emotions rule you." She said it and then she saw other things that were there.. something coming to attack her while the jedi master moved and she didn't activate her lightsaber until they got close... then the blade activated with a jade colored blade.

She was then moving through it and the things that were coming... he blade dancing in her hand as Wu used her smaller size to create a whirlwind and defensive area that she could rotate around. Djem so would let her defend herself and counter attack while making a swirling defensive shell of her saber. The jade colored blade making quick movements to slash and defend while Wu's mind worked to try and keep track of Syd and the others who were escaping. If she could let them get far enough away then she would hopefully be able to calm Syd down and set some other jedi investigators to try and find them. "Syd you have to control yourself.. calm your mind."

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd ceased belching flames from her throat.

Calm your mind, Wu Yeoh-Mei said.

She didn't understand though. Howard The Pirate had survived way way longer than any mere criminal she had ever encountered. If his goal had been to kill her at the beginning with that extremely well prepared trap, he would have succeeded utterly. He had also done what few (whom she could count on one hand) had: He had successfully slowed her down.

Howard knew how to kill her. She could not afford him spreading that knowledge. This was about self-preservation. Selfish, yes. But with legitimate cause.

Syd still tried to do what Wu asked, but it was difficult. It scared her how close a mere mortal (who by all accounts looked past his prime.) had gotten to ending her. With little more than a cheap prank.

Howard was a loose end in need of tying up. Yet it conflicted horribly with what Wu said.

Syd wanted to be a good Jedi. But she had operated on a 'Kill First, ask Questions later' policy for so long that it was 'really' hard to break the habit of.

But Syd would try. For Wu's sake.

The chrome suited living weapon suddenly heard shouting, and her eyes narrowed as she spotted Howard, slowly walking towards the both of them from the depths of the tunnels, with his hands up.

Syd immediately floated towards him, expression on her face 'very' cross.

"Where is the other one?" Syd asked bluntly.

"He's small fry. Don't know nothin'." Howard said. "It's me you want."

"He's got millions in stolen bullion. Small fry my ass."

Howard kept his emotions level and calm, his surface thoughts projecting only feelings of submission and surrender to the Flame Geist. He had one shot at this. If he messed up he was dead.

With a click of the wrist, a spring loaded compartment in his cybernetic arm ejected the trinket found in the vault into his other hand, catching Syd by surprise as he jammed it against her Forehead.

Syd screamed as her entire body bubbled and rippled, the trinket melting into her psychic shell, turning her red suit the color of rotting white plaster black flames leaking out of her eyes and mouth. Howard didn't see any of this as he had already bolted, on the verge of panic.

Rage and Hatred flooded Syd's mind at being constantly humiliated by Howard. She would rend his flesh. Cook it. The trinket was trapped in her body, influencing her.

"HOWARD!" She screamed, forgetting about Wu completely, eyes completely black as she began her search for him again the darkness of the tunnels. Howard ran for his life, now without weapons, deeper into the tunnels, taking what he hoped was a circuitous route back into the ancient ship itself.

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

Wu was reaching her... she could feel it... she knew it and then.... "Oh frak." She said it and was tempted to give in and just let Syd go after the man... he had been given more then enough chances to well... escape.. she could have controlled and helped her if he had just taken the chance to flee and the jedi master was moving. Her speed and aura changing as she pushed to try and directly influence and calm the girl by sapping at and she was emitting more fo a focused calming aura.... the talisman... artifact or whatever that hurt her... it was dangerous to see as Wu was trying to find it as well and if there was a way she could extract it then it could go a long way towards helping her friend.

Her mind was racing while Syd Celsius went after the man and she was trying to keep up making a mental log as she touched the chevron and pulled up the jedi AI that would be able to help them. "What is it Master Yeoh?" She was looking at the Ai as it came up and she had to nod. "I think we are going to need something down here... Syd is... in trouble and i don't know if I will be able to help her wihtout some aid." She was tryingto think about it and... there was something she could use... wouldn't hurt Syd as much but would help calm her down more... maybe. "Some saori cakes, calming tea and one of the silent glaives." The ai looked at her and gave a nod sending the packages with a droid.

 

[Syd Celsius]

Howard ran through the dark confines of rocky tunnels, hoping to link up with Raine. He could hear Syd howling for his blood behind him and it made the old soldier run harder. He had no weapons and his best plan was to run deeper into the tunnels and pray he found a route back to the ship. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him and it seemed to be taking him even deeper into the cave tunnels. That was when he started finding corpses. Skeletons of people and animals. He found one clutching a rusty looking E-11 knockoff made on Corellia. He checked its features. Automatic only. The thing might still fire. Might.

He then realized something...a light bulb came on.

The deeper he went...the less oxygen there was to use. Fire needs oxygen...

But all the monsters...

Howard decided he'd brave the monsters if it meant weakening Syd. He really didn't even have much of a choice...he had bought Raine a chance to escape. He had to have known that in telling him to run with the bullion.

Howard proceeded deeper into the cave system, hearing Celsius scream out his name again. He spotted an unspent pair of shotshells in an old sawed off clutched by a skeleton and removed them, searching himself for anything he could use as he ran. He had a small lighter, and a flashlight,

He looked very grim as he put the puzzle together in his head.

Howard began to remove his armor as he went deeper...

Fifteen minutes later.

Syd, black eyes leaking blacker fire that also leaked out through fissures in her psychic shell, winced as she searched for Howard in order to roast him alive. His mere survival was a continued humiliation to her, in addition to all the other ones he had inflicted on her.

Now she was in an enclosed space with lower oxygen. She felt her innate claustrophobia kick in. Howard could not have predicted that part, but his plan was working out more than even he knew.

She would make his death slow...

"Come out Howard. You pissed off the Tiger one time too many and now its about to eat your sorry ass."

Howard, who had used the water in the canteen to make mud from the surrounding dirt, had correctly guessed that part of her ability to detect prey relied on the ability to sense heat. He had covered himself in mud, and was lying camouflaged with the dirt and rocks of the cave tunnel, having detached his cybernetic arm so she wouldn't sense its energy on him, keeping his mind blank of any thought, lest she detect him. She past right by him as he hugged a wall, growing more agitated, but never sensing him. This act of Hardcore would only be surpassed by what occured next.

Syd thought she spotted Howard hiding behind a boulder where the cave passage opened up into a cavern full of dead explorers. Howard inching along slowly after her departure on instinct, no conscious thought as he made his way to the target. It had been his specialized training in the Commenor Special Forces that had kept him alive. That, and he knew exactly what kind of genre life had put him in--Sci-Fi-Horror-Action.

To put it mildly, Howard was exploiting The Absolute Hell out of all the cool and awesome bits associated with that genre.

Syd saw what looked to be a blaster rifle in what she thought was Howard's hand. She flew over at high speed rather than fry him at a distance, as she wanted to look into his eyes as he suffered and died.

But it wasn't him. It was his armor, some of the fastenings and clips and threading stripped off of it, along with the words FETH YOU written in the dirt.

Frustrated, she picked up his blaster, only to find it was a stripped apart hull, with the scope taken as well.

What was he up to?

Too late she noticed the string attached to the hull. The armor threading.

Too late she finally spotted the make shift det charge he had created by scavenging the shotshells, attaching them to the Tibanna gas cannister and repurposing the Galvinization circuits. The string pulled on the trigger and all Syd knew next was agony as her psychic shell was pierced multiple times by shrapnel.

Howard had relocated while Syd writhed on the ground, hiding among a pile of mouldering corpses close by. She scrambled up, snorting fire, half the shell that made up her face torn open, spewing black fire. He felt intense, near scalding heat from her but dare not move, keeping his mind blank. The mud took the worst of it.

"How many tricks you got left old man?!" She yelled, growing more distressed and angry at the enclosed space and weakened by the slowly lowering oxygen.

"I will FIND YOU!" She roared her back turned to him.

He rose up, a piece of bone with a broken, jagged point at one end written in both his blood and the chalk he used to imprison her earlier.

He only uttered a few words in a very quiet soft voice.

She heard it just as the enchanted bone knife went through her back.

"Consider me found."

Her form shook and rippled in agony, the enchanted weapon doing awful damage to her psychic shell. Howard drew another enchanted makeshift knife and slammed it into her stomach and then ran off, Syd firing black fireballs that detonated the walls they impacted on but missing him, badly weakened, desperately trying to get the knives out of her.

Howard went deeper into the cave, to where it was pitch black. It was time to see how badly she wanted him dead.

Syd finally got the knives out, but looked half melted as she staggered into the dark after him.

Wu Yeoh-Mei

 

[Wu Yeoh-Mei]

Wu was looking at it.... Syd Celsius had determination and a single minded focus that was heavily verging on psychotically insane as it seemed no matter how much Wu tried to calm her she would just redouble her efforts to be angry and kill the man.. he didn't help. He had the chance to run several times and continued to be just as... stubborn about pressing them. She had patience but it was not infinite and eventually one ran out of sheeks to turn as the jedi master followed after Syd's trail of destruction and anger. If she wasn't going to listen to her or try and calm down... then she would just have to be there to pick up the pieces and continue to help her even though she is being just as foolish.

"Now that is interesting." She was noticing the oxygen getting thinner and sucked in a large breath as she focused on the force to control it in her lungs. Allowing herself to slightly meditate before she got light headed and it felt like there was a weight lifted off of her chest. She was moving slowly and feeling out for Syd while her eyes remained focused and scanning.. the force itself there but she waited and waited... and waited untils oemthing happened to Syd and then she was moving quickly. 'Hold on' She said it into the force and allowed her energy to come out while she was trying to push a calming aura. She was hoping that literally this howard would finally.... run and stop as it seemed he kept prodding a dangerous creature.. eventually bad things could happen.

Wu finally came towards Syd who was working to get the knife out and she looked at the cave... she had to do something more then just keep speaking into the wind.. Syd didn't seem to understand anything but revenge now so.... "I can't save him, at this point I shouldn't but you Syd need to stop otherwise you are going to keep destroying everything." She said it and raised a hand towards the rocks as the force was being used to shake them, focused and concentrated so the cave sealed in front of herself and the jedi master grabbed at Syd to carry her back using her small frame to fireman carry her easier... then start heading back towards her ship where she would be able to cool Syd down if need be.