Dark Nebula [A Lords of the Fringe Mission]

[Allyson Locke]

Even with the strength of her mind’s defenses the creature or whatever it was that grew in the nebula threatened to tear through her quicker than the Phobis device. Bearing down and focusing on her defense, she looked towards Ashin who dove head first into the rifts of the darkness. Stepping forward, she stood behind the woman and nodded. She understood what Ashin wanted to do, by sacrificing herself and connecting with it, she gave Spencer a back door. The young Master placed her hand on the center of Ashin’s back, her mind began to meld syncing with her former Master’s. Though she stopped for a moment despite the knowledge that time was of the essence. Looking towards the Knight she shook her head.

“Focus on protecting yourself. This is more of a warning than a request – stay out of Ashin’s mind. That goes for everyone here.” She glanced towards Jared and nodded. “Help guide them Jared help protect everyone’s sanity.” There as nothing more to be said, Spencer cringed once more as she used the woman before her. There had to be something done especially now with Alen out of the picture, they needed to do something but for now until they understood what they were up against – they had to play defensively.

Spencer entered Ashin’s mind, she viewed the strands of the Force about her and as she entered she transferred her mental protection to the woman as well. Using her as a bridge to the dark creature, she found its hidden tendrils easily. They whipped back and forth, searching for the minds of the rest o the crew. Spencer needed to focus on keeping Ashin sane, herself sane, and attack it before it was able to take the rest of the crew. Delving deeper into the psyche of the dark creature, she used an attack she had specialized in. Using the Force and she attacked deep into the creatures mind retaliating and attempting to drain the force from within in hopes of causing a collapse on its mental state. Diving deep like this opened her mind up, her empathy open and fully absorbing the darkness that corrupted the creature. The tint in her yellow flecked eyes began to spread, the taint of the dark side touched the young Jedi Master.

[member="Lord Daemos"] [member="Ashin Varanin"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Alen Na'Varro"]

 

[Matreya]

Back down? Simply protect himself? No. Realizing she wouldnt be his ally in this, Daemos slowly began to meditate. All the while he gathered energy, his body felt the continuous assault. Reaching out with a form of Torture by Chagrin, Damien plowed against rhe mind of the beast, through the same connections it had established already.

He was no where near the strength by himself to take the brute on, but while it battled the minds of multiple people, it was attacked by a Master and Specialist Knight. Using the power given off from it to bash against its own senses, to warp thoughts and memories until it slipped up and caused its own demise.

This was his goal as he ground his teeth. Breaking through for the bearest of seconda, he realized the beast recognized Na'Varro's signature! Thus he would use the man! Moving to call to the beasts mind, all the memories pertaining to the man - simply thanks to the descriptions provided - he sought to change them until the beast saw its own death. Fear causes slip ups.

But then the beast recognized an attack, and shifted its goals to beating harder against Daemos - to which he groaned and nearly collapsed.

 

[Arage Bao]

The Lord of the Fringe, High Councilor of the Fringe Confederation, Glory-Song, Breaker of Minds, and Ravager of Worlds. It mattered not that the last two nicknames were thought up by Jared himself, sometimes… sometimes you needed to do the legwork yourself. Especially if you wanted a cool nickname, hard to come by those these days. And what is better than Breaker of Minds, or Ravager of Worlds? At least… that was what Jared thought, the hubris on that man. Amazing stuff.

Regardless of his own opinion about himself, the moment the Monster decided to attack them… stuff got real, and very quick for that matter. Alen was the first of them to fall, he was not a mentalist so it had made sense. Before Jared could cry out, or do anything else, he himself got attacked.

All illusions were waved away, as a leave in the wind. He was no match for this… thing. Trained by Spencer Jacobs herself, and in comparison to the Beast he was less than nothing. The only reason why he was not curling up in a fetal position crying was the fact that the Monster was trying to disable them all at the same time. It did not have the presence of mind to target them individually… yet.

And still… he could not leverage any effective assault at the beast. His mind was slowly being ripped to shreds, his vision blackening out. Was this going to be the end?

“Help guide them, Jared. Help protect everyone’s sanity.”

The words came out of the void, it seemed. So far away, and still. It gave him hope, and something to hold on to. Spencer would deal with the attacks, he only needed to keep his family safe. During the duel with Shorn, when he was about to die; he had cut off all the love he had felt for his friends and family.

But still… something resonated with Spencer’s request, and Jared knew that he could not give up. Multiple times he had told his Master that he would not disappoint her. That he would be worthy of her teachings. And so… Jared sought deep in himself, and drew up all the power he had left in him.

The Beast continued to pound his wards, but it seemed to.. lessen? Maybe it was Spencer’s doing, but it gave him a moment of clarity. Attacking was out of the question, no way in the nether would he be able to take that thing on. But he could do something else.

He started to weave a web of Force Energy, throwing it up around his companions. Attempting to cut off any contact the Beast had, it probably would not work all together. But maybe, he could keep the thing distracted enough for Spencer to work her magic.

Maybe.

Probably.

Hopefully.

 

[Kitt Solo]

She got a nice whiff of [member="Dak Canton"]'s breath as he pulled up alongside her. A hand waved in front of her nose, “For kriff’s sake Da-ahhhk,” the ship tilted violently and she suddenly found she was tipping back on a slope instead of a flat-surface. Hands scrambled for a grip on anything-railing, wall, Dak’s shirt-to keep herself from sliding down the walkway to the lifts at the other end. Simultaneously, her mind was mentally assaulted. Eyes squeezed closed and she growled out in pain. The physical and mental world spinning was a not a good thing. She was going to be sick.

She now knew why everyone’s emotions had been amplified just before the drop out of space. It was the beast Alen warned them about. Just before she thought her head was going to explode along with her empathic connections, she felt a hint of relief. Like never before, she felt them: Jared, Spencer, Ashin, Alen. It gave her a moment to put up her mental shield, which she extended as best she could to Na’Varro, seeking out his force presence on this ship. It wasn’t too hard to find, considering their history. Teeth gritted. “Canton, be really glad you’re you right now, an epi-whatever.”

Of course she had no idea what he was experiencing. She hoped for his sake, it wasn’t as bad.

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien was just about to brief his guards on the coming raid when his guards fell to there knees wailing and clutching there heads blood pouring from their noses. Then a thoroughly unpleasant feeling overcame him ... his mind was under attack. That hadn't happened since he was an apprentice under Mikhail Shorn. He was having an attack of nostalgia when it occurred to him that he should perhaps do something about the situation. He felt an ease in the attack as Jared and Co worked there magic some of his guards were dead but he would help the rest the only way he knew how. He would occupy their minds. He pushed himself back onto his feet and concentrated easly overcoming the weakened mental defenses of his soldiers. Moments later their thoughts became his thoughts. It was now time he helped his colleagues deal with the problematic creature.

He had a knowledge of mental powers but he paled in comparison to Spencer. He couldn't defend like Jared could so he figured it was best if he attacked the beast and stuck to protecting his guards, of course that meant forsaking Jared's protection. He gritted his teeth and Cut Jared from his mind reconnecting with the beast and launching what attacks he could. He sent the living guards off to lend a hand to the other crew members who had no force power.

 

[Garza]

I was on board the ship. It was later from the time that my Master had left me to my own devices. I was walking towards the bridge when I could feel the ship lurch out of the Hyperspace. I smiled and thenn all of a sudden, I could feel my mind being pierced by the dark side. More than my mind was hurt. I could hear the messages that were sent from the Master [member="Spencer Jacobs"] to protect myself. I envisioned a wall. One created out of everything I could think of, yet this beast was so powerful that it could break all of our minds. Even the non force user beside me began to writhe on the ground gripping his head in absolute paint, stuck in a silent scream.

I focused on protecting myself. allowing nothing of myself out in the open. I was kneeling as my arm burned like never before. Through the darkside of the force, The poison in my body would grow stronger. Coming on this mission may have been a mistake. There was no lightside here. So much Darkside that I could literally feel the dark liquid in my veins rise up from wherever it was to burn my skin. I could only yell as the beast tried to take over my mind. Fighting to enemies at once, The beast and the poison, I only prayed to the gods of any kind that they keep me alive long enough for the rest of the group to take the beast's attention away from me.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

When the Eclipse Prime, his home more than the household he kept on Annaj, broke from hyperspace his anticipation spiked, but did not last. He felt it reach for his mind, at the same moment that it took Na'Varro, and immediately his long-built, heavily fortified mental barriers went up, the tendrils of the beast crashing against them. It was one of two major facets of his mentalism, the only other extensively developed sector being that of illusion, of immersive influence and trickery, but not control of those outside his own person. The resistance did not stop the astounding beast, its assault was relentless and considerably stronger than the lifetime of mental resistance and self control his person required. He was well aware of the risk of the loss of that control, and it made a shiver of one thing he had not felt since sometime eight-hundred years in the past strike through him like a lick of lightning - stark, black fear - making the hair on his arms stand up on end and his eyes pop open wide. He physically stumbled back a step at the strike, as the beast began to bore into his defenses like a drill, shrill and sharp shrieking accompanying its effort. It felt angry, bestial, all-encompassing.

And he? He was livid, furious that it would dare invade him. The sanctity of his person. This was a gate he could not allow the creature to pass, and it received the thick, inky black of his rage for the attempt; his teeth gritted and ground, and he roared like the beast he himself was. This assault was pain, searing him without burning. His eyes could see the others, but their images of their anguish, their hard fighting, barely registered in his memory under this attack. It was a wonder he was still on his own two feet, that this had not driven him to his knees... for pain was not a detractor, no, it was fuel for his rage, it was eye-opening, it was power. The creature continued to work away, but in the haze, it became apparent to him that there was certainly one thing he could do, instead of merely saving himself.

Return the favour.

But that would require a degree of sacrifice of his position, and so, as he reached out to the beast, returning its touch, his barriers softened by a small margin, pulling another painful, roaring scream from him, sending him crashing to his knees... and then he retaliated, lashing out with his fear, his burning rage, slamming into the mind of the creature with a hammering of Force-formed pain of his own making, a counter-attack filled with every iota of pain and anger he had felt in his life - the memories ran deep, their tendrils embedded in his life as inextricably as the veins in his body, as the roots of an ancient tree stand. Its shrill attack-scream seemed to intensify then, as if seeking to deafen him from without of his defenses, but the predator kept at it, as relentlessly as it kept at him, for as long as his barriers might last... not aware of any protection he might be receiving from others, as the presence of the creature was so demanding, so great.

 

[Chrysa Vanagor]

The panel beside the door of her room chimed softly to alert her to the fact that the Eclipse Prime had dropped out of hyperspace. There was a moment where the young woman glanced out the viewport nearby towards the nebula that hung in space, light and energy flickering and illuminating it at random intervals. She marked the sight with a small sigh of pleasure, before graceful steps took her to the door which helpfully opened to let her out into the hallway.

Chrysothemis paused, tentacles of pure, frigid fear lacing their way through the ship. She could taste the vicious intent, soon followed by a rush of copper warmth as she bit her lip hard enough to bleed freely. It brought her a moment of clarity, as pain always did, a touch of power letting her catch her breath.

But it didn’t last.

The beast Alen had warned them about struck hard and fast, its malevolence and rage of titanic proportions. Her awareness of the others seemed to grow sluggish, and one by one they flickered and died like stars winking out of existence. Even Lucianus, her Master…to whom she’d forged a connection unlike any other she had felt or heard about…faded away, but not before she heard him roar in defiant agony.

Pain, pure and unadulterated by any other sensation battered her mind, driving her to her knees in the middle of the hallway. Her hands splayed out flat as she stared down at the deckplating beneath her, eyes wide as she shuddered under the onslaught. It drove her breath from her as soon as she seemed to be able to catch it, locking her in an endless loop of anguish and torment.

For one who reveled in pain and found solace therein, as Chrysothemis did, pleasure slithered through her veins for several long moments. Unable to remain on her hands and knees, she crumpled the rest of the way to the floor, curling onto her side. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think…could only manage to try to do as Lucianus had begun to teach her. Walls were built, as swiftly as her pleasure-soaked mind could put them up.

It was too slow…far too slow…and not enough by any stretch of the imagination. The beast knocked them down as if they were so many children’s toys standing in its path. Blood poured from her nose and the corners of her eyes as she curled into a tight ball there on the floor.

The pleasure of it had long since been razed into an abyss of agony that swallowed Chrysa whole. Some tiny shred of awareness remained, panicked and fighting to keep itself sovereign within her mind, huddled behind a wall it rebuilt as quickly as the beast could flay her mind apart.