Dukra iv Forja

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

​

NAVROZH

A groan escaped her lips as she rolled over on her side.

Her mouth tasted like she had just been socked in the mouth with no mouth guard. Her chest felt like it had been trampled by a stampede of walkers. Joycelyn ran a hand over her ribs to feel if there were any protrusions, but nothing seemed to have broken too badly. Her arms obviously moved. Her legs, she could feel them, unfortunately. One was fine, the other was very much not. She looked down at her shin with its odd angle.

"Chit."

Pulling herself up into a sitting position with another deep groan, Joyce looked around. This was not her intended destination, but something had gone wrong on her way back to Sith Imperial space. She was not an image of health when taking off, but this was ridiculous. Around here was broken transparisteel and fragmented duraplast scattered by what looked like a sudden fall. It was now she noticed she was laying on what was previously the ceiling of the ship.

Disoriented? Great.

Where was her copilot? Her heart jumped up into her throat, where was Jace? No, Jace did not fly this ship. This was Sith Imperial vessel, Armada type, not a Vahla craft. She was just a passenger this time. The panic faded for a second.

Definitely disoriented.

Joycelyn turned herself around on the crumpled surface and dragged herself along. Her hands left bloody prints and her foot hurt more and more, but she needed to look outside, see her location, her situation. She slipped, tumbled, crashed against the dashboard of the shuttle which cracked under her weight. Something sharp stabbed in her abdomen, and as she pulled herself off, she found a transparent shard embedded in her person. Whether it was from the fall or from before, she couldn't tell.

"Fething chit."

She looked up and out at the dense swampland.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn rolled over on her back, careful not to put too much pressure on the wound. If it broke inside her, it would be much worse, but was he supposed to pull it out? Not if she didn't want to bleed out. Unless- She looked around her - Unless she had bacta and something to seal off the wound. Her head leaned back on the floor, feeling glass under her short cropped hair. Where did they keep the bacta?

Her vision clouded and Joycelyn blinked, forcing herself out of the clutches of sleep. - Sleep meant death and she had no plans of dying just yet. The Vahlacanthix tried to stand, but failed. Her body wouldn't bend right with the glass in her belly. She grabbed the end of it an gritted her teeth as she pulled the shard. Her fingers slipped, forcing her to get a new grip. Every inch was agony, but it finally came loose with a spurt of red. The wound started to bleed profusely, but at least it wasn't cutting up her insides any more.

Joycelyn got to her knees and looked up along the crumbled metal hull as she started to crawl, or climb her way up. Her head grew lighter and lighter, but she forced herself to move. The hull planed out at the middle, making it easier to move. yet she felt herself dripping like an icicle in spring. Her knee fell out from under her, sending the tall woman crashing on the floor. She reached out for something, anything.

She didn't want to die.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

A surge of energy awakened inside her, the fire of Vahl pushed her as she reached out with the Force. A metal box slammed open one of the cabinets and fell to the floor with a heavy thud. It slid over to Joycelyn's hand and her fingers tightened around its grip. She pulled it to her as she rolled over on her side, then threw it open. The contents scattered out as she feverishly tor through the supplies to find a bacta patch and something to bind her wound.

Once she found the patch she needed, her shaking hands tore open the container. She tore the ragged shirt open and slapped the bacta patch onto the wound. It stung with a searing pain that crawled steadily deeper into her wound, but it meant something was working. She would still have to see a medical droid about it, but this would buy her a few days. The stream of trickling red was stopped, and after rubbing away the worst of it, she packed her torso with bandages for support.

Her rapid breathing slowed as she laid back for a moment, feeling that the most imminent danger had passed.

Dark covered her eyes as sleep took her, but this time she was not afraid that it would be the end. She had much to do, so much to do, but first, rest. yes, she needed some rest.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Sleep took her and the hours ran past. Darkness took the planet of Navrozh, the two moons shining like white sickles in the sky. Predators lurked in the dense jungle landscape surrounding her crash site, their eyes shining between the darkened trunks of trees.

Joycelyn woke with a startled gasp,.

She threw herself up to a sitting position. The pain forced her to grab her abdomen with a wince. The bandages had a red spot on them, but did not need changing yet. Joyce looked around, seeing only darkness, hearing the wind rustle leaves in the canopy outside and above. She forced herself to move, climbing down to the crushed cockpit of her craft and looking outside.

A series of padding feet on the left, Joyce's eyes turned tither. Nothing.

She grabbed an emergency torch from the cockpit's ceiling and shone it into the woods, eyes glinted back, blinked, and vanished. She knew she was not alone. She was weakened, and they were hungry. No, Joycelyn Zambrano would not die in this place. She needed to signal the Empire, get evac, get home. There was so much more she needed to do.

Hands shaking with adrenaline, Joycelyn tried to turn on the communications array on, but the crash had broken its power. So she tore it out, then went scavenging through the ship's inside to get a battery strong enough to power it. They would be looking for her, but this would help. A battery was connected, a signal sent, now someone just had to listen.

Then she heard growling behind her.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn's body stiffened on instinct, but her training made her relax. Uncontrolled tension would make her slow. So her balled fists fell half-open as she turned one foot, then the other, shifting slowly around until she had her back to the radio. Her lips drew back, showing her white teeth as she raised her hands out to the side and rolled up her shoulders to make her look bigger and more intimidating.

"Rah!"

She barked at the darkness.

The growls spread as figures padded into sight, black, slick, with glowing eyes and spined tails. They spread out along the periperhy, Joycelyn put one of her feet up on the cockpit and let out another, louder roar.

"Raaaaaagh!"

One of the vornskrs jumped back and another jumped forward, matching her ferocity. Joycelyn spread her arms out wide to either side and opened her face as wide as she could. Another of the cornskrs backed half a step, ducking down and baring its teeth. Joycelyn locked eyes with the one that had stepped forward, a long vowel running out of her mouth to match the creature's growl.

She had no knife on her, but pushed the thought away. No distractions. She had no weapons. No distractions! She had a chance. The vornskr launched itself forward, the barbed tail swinging out with its toxic barb to stun Joycelyn while teeth were bared and coming in for the kill.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn's shoulders bobbed down as the toxic barb lashed out right above her, flicking through the air. Her hand balled into a tight fist as she threw the left hip forward and launched a right hook into the vornskr's face. Flesh and bone impacted violently as teeth rattled in the vornskr's mouth. She pulled up her back foot and launched it forward, punting back the predator.

Its comrades gained new courage and two of them jumped out, trying to bite the vahlacanthix' arms and hold her still for the stingers. However, the acolyte was quicker. She stepped to the side and grabbed one of the two hounds by the head, then threw it into the other which tumbled into the glass with a terrible yelp. The third, like the first, tried to sting and paralyze Joycelyn, but the stinger hit imperfectly and could not penetrate her clothing. It found itself on the receiving end of a falling heel which smashed the beast into the grass.

The flock, whining and yelping, retreated into the woods. Joycelyn stopped as she felt something underneath her boot. Her eyes turned down, then she bent and picked up the lightsabre hilt. It was her own, she had made it. It must have fallen out of the ship during the crash. Her hand tightened around it as she looked to where the hounds had run.

She would not let them escape her wrath. She set off running after them, ignoring the pain in her wounds or the fatigue and hunger paining her body.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Her eyes did not adjust as well to the dark as she had hoped. The vornskrs darted between the trees, weaving, jumping, making them difficult to track. A branch whipped her across the face, leaving little red trails. A stinger from one of the vornskrs darted out at her, but she managed just to jump aside. It was too quick for her to retaliate. Joycelyn cursed under her breath.

Close your eyes

She heard the voice of the Sword, of Lassiter. Her eyes closed and Joycelyn reached out with the Force. It was dim, maybe even fuzzy at first. Soon, she could begin to hear, to feel, and then to see what was around her. The trees, the stones, the water, and the glowing presences of the vornskrs.

Joycelyn doubled down and lead on into a sprint. The blade ignited in her hand as she jumped over a stinging tail. The burning blade came down in an arc, burning through the psuedo-canine and sending it tumbling into the ground. Her feet hit the grass, she skid, braced herself before crashing into the trunk of a tree, then kicked herself off into the run. A set of jaws snapped where her leg was mere seconds before, she pivoted and sent the blade of her weapon through the black, shimmering fur. A yelp. The hilt went up, then came arcing down once more, cutting into another set of jaws and splitting them.

She stopped.

There were three, standing ready, growling. She felt something near, something dark, and something precious nested near it. Joyce brought the blade up in front of her, eyes still closed, waiting, ready.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

The three closed in on her, the two on her flanks coming closer and closer. The leader lingered two steps behind, seemingly less aggressive than its comrades. Yet, Joycelyn could feel the violent intent coming off the mother of the pack. Joyce's legs set firmly in the dirt as heat spread from her belly, up her chest, and down through her limbs like a trickle of liquid flame.

Joycelyn took one step back, inviting the attack.

The two flanking vornskrs darted in for the kill with teeth and stingers. The Vahlacanthix' arms flared out to either side, summoning a bout of flame from either palm that lit up the darkened woods in flickering firelight. The flames licked across the vornskrs' faces. Their jaws snapped shut around the fire as they reared back from the heat and set to rolling around on the wet, muddy ground to extinguish the flames clinging to their manes.

The leader came forward in a rush, taking advantage of the moment in which Joyce was busy protecting the flanks to come in with a bite towards her thigh and a sting towards her chest. She took a step back, swaying out of reach of the stinger. It touched the front of her clothes, but did not pierce her skin. And while she stepped out of reach from the jaws snapping for her inner thigh, the teeth did grab a hold of her trousers. While Joyce was unbalanced, the vornskr tugged her to the ground then jumped in for the kill.

However, the vahlacanthix managed to swipe the lightsabre through the space where the mother came in. Embers rose as the severed head tumbled off. The two other vornskrs had now risen, but with two more fell sweeps of her blade, they were left with smouldering wounds of their own.

Joycelyn rose to her feet, holding the sabre out in front of her as a light while her eyes opened.

Up ahead was an outcropping of rock. She could see light reflecting off it, and she could hear the squeaks of something small and pitiful. More importantly, she felt a presence on the Force that called to her very blood.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn stepped towards the outcropping of stone. Her heart beat quicker in her chest; quicker, harder, like something pulled on its very existence. She could feel the blood coursing through her veins, through her skull. For a moment, she couldn't feel her skin, nor her flesh, she felt only her bones rattling within the fleshy exterior as she walked towards the darkness with the red sabre in her hand.

The crimson cast a curious coruscation across the slick stone.

Her head turned sharply as she heard a rustle, a squeak, whimper, a growl. The Sith Acolyte raised her weapon out and let it illuminate the hole from which the sounds permeated. Her stern eyes quickly softened as she saw two forms, ears folded back, tail down, eyes curious but afraid.

She knelt and stretched out a hand to the two black shapes. Their noses moved as they sniffed, their tails stung her, but the poison was not yet in effect. She looked upon a pair of vornskr puppies.

Vornskr, that had been her father's name once: Darth Vornskr.

The hound that hunts with the Force, that slays the lazy and devours the undeserving. He had since become Carnifex, the ruler, the Emperor, the Dark Lord. Vornskr, it brought a smile to her face and a warmth to her soul. The warmth was soon touched by the presence of something most cold. The two puppies cowered as Joycelyn's head turned once more to the deeper section of the cave. She raised her sabre above her head to shed light, looked down at the puppies, then back to the darkness.

"I will be back for you."

She rose up to her full height and looked deeper inside. Bones littered the floor, cloth became one with a littering of leaves and long discarded leftovers. Some of the bodies were fairly whole, their skeletons bleached white. She delved deeper, the blood called to her, her heart beat.

A sword in the darkness.

Mother Vahl - I see you. Bless me with your wrath and let me become your instrument. I am your blood, your hand, your eye, your flesh. Mother Vahl give me fire so that I may light the path to home. Mother Vahl, witness me.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn's free hand extended out towards the sword, the Force stretched out beyond her fingers until it hit something.

Are you to be my wielder?​

​

She pulled her hand back, then focused again. Taking another step, and another again, she came so close she could almost touch it.

I have waited for so long​

Flames flickered up along her fingers, licking the skin and climbing to her hand. Joycelyn took the final step and grabbed the sword with her hand. Her lighsabre extinguished itself and dropped to the floor of the cavern as she felt a warmth burn itself up the inside of her hand, to her chest, through her neck, her mouth, her eyes, her brain, her mind. Flames burst out from the blade itself as she let out a soundless cry. Instead of a scream came red fire. It lit up the cave, showing murals, memories.

Images flashed through Joycelyn's head: A war, a ritual, sacrifice, so much sacrifice. The priest, the hunger. He was consumed, he waited. He waited for so long. The Ember, Vahl, the Sith, the Jedi. WAR. She took two steps back and put a hand against her eye. Pain was shooting through her, but she refused to relinquish it. In fact, Joyce was not sure she was able to open her hand, it seemed melted shut.

High pitched barks behind her called her attention.

The Sith Acolyte spun around, flames licking down the blade as she reared it back and stared down at the two vornskr pups staring at her, one fierce, one timid but curious. She stopped. Evaelyn.

Turning, she stared at the blade and forced her will into the flames.

Kill the Jedi, avenge Vahl! Avenge me! Slay them. Slay them all! Burn them!​

"You are my blade now. You will slay who I command!"

The blade made a sucking sound as all the flames retracted into the pit of the blade. Joycelyn stared at it hard, flames licking up from her own hand to tease the fire out of the blade again.
Silence.

The she have a name?​

She thought for a moment.

"I am Joycelyn Zambrano. Daughter of Kaine Zambrano, The Emperor and Dark Lord of the Sith Empire, and Emma Cuilein, among the Chosen of Vahl in her one true Ember." She took a breath "I am the second Darth Vornskr." "And I will bring our people home."

​

New flames licked up along the blade and she looked at the polish. An eye seemed to stare back at her from the other side, then close.

Zaudraka​

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Zaudraka

Joycelyn had never heard the name before, but the visions that had coursed through her mind made some sense. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the fire, and she felt the life held in her hand. It was dark, livid, warm. She picked up the hilt of her lightsabre and clipped it to her belt. Turning, she looked at the two vornskr puppies looking at her, she carefully crouched and stretched out a hand, then leaned towards them.

"Come, I will keep you."

They didn't come, but in her crouch she carefully approached them and picked them up in one of her hands. They nestled together and shivered as she held them tightly to her bosom.

The sword she kept in her right hand, flames flickered along its blade and lit the way as she followed her own tracks. She had not been careful on her way there. The path was littered with the bodies of dead vornskrs. When she came back to the wreck of her ship, the sun was already starting to rise and the two pups were sleeping in her embrace. Blood had soaked through Joyce's bandages, but she stood by her will alone.

From the setting sun, she saw the silhouette of a ship coming down towards the wreck. In the sky above was the faint, triangular outline of a Xo'xaan, reflecting the morning like down like an extra moon.

"We're going home."