Brent Warnel
Active Member
With the camouflage active it was impossible for the republic soldiers to know that they were nearby. They could have used their ears and heard the Mandalorian’s sneaking up on them, but in the jungles of Dxun it was nearly impossible to hear anything just above a whisper. Which was about how loud the Mando’s were as they approached the small camp of Republic soldiers that were preparing for their next assault into Dxun’s heart.
They all knew that the Republic was slowly starting to turn the tide against them. As much as they tried to ignore the fact, there was no way they could deny the evidence. Revan’s planned assault on Dxun was an elaborate and intense strategy on a grand scale. The first phase had called for thousands of droids to be air dropped in from low orbit and to advance on the Mandalorian positions and soften up the resistance for the soldiers of the Republic to come in and finish them off. The only problem for the Republic was most of the dropships had been destroyed before they dropped their payload of advanced warfighting droids. The rest that did land were sorely out of place and lacked reinforcements or heavy artillery to give them a cushion. The droids did their job, but only at a small fraction of what they were supposed to, and when the Republic soldiers advanced into the jungle, they weren’t prepared for the heavy fighting that was still waiting.
Mandalorians were a warrior culture, they always had been, and the Republic, even after years of fighting them, were still sorely outgunned and out-trained when it came down to the intense ground fighting combat that Mandalorians loved. Heavy armor and years of dedicated training made one Mando easily the equivalent of several of their Republic counterparts. The soldiers of the Republic relied on distance and good tactics and blasters to help stop the fighting from becoming too close for hand to hand. But inevitably it always did end up that way, and the regular infantry couldn’t stand up to the hard core veterans the Mandalorians had become over the years.
Even with all that though, the Mandalorians just didn’t have the resources and manpower that they needed to hold this planet anymore. Which is why most of them had pulled out due to Mandalore’s command. Mostly just veterans and volunteers stayed behind to hold off the Republic and still give them a fight. But, all knew that Dxun was lost and that was why this small little measure of revenge that was about to occur helped Akin Warnel feel better for his clan and family. If it went well, he and those around him would strike a harsh blow to the forces of the Republic.
The Jedi general, Meetra Surik, was just in front of him and his men, and if everything went according to plan, she would be lying in the dirt and mud of Dxun’s forest floor while her blood coated her armor. Akin was the leader of this small raid, and it was one of the last that was going to take place before Dxun was taken from them.
Impossible to hear from outside his armor, he opened a channel to his men as they surrounded the Jedi’s camp and he gave the command, “Kyr'amur.”
Nearly two dozen cloaked and heavily armed Mando’s appeared from nowhere and tore into the Republic troopers camp and started the slaughter. Soldiers from the Republic tried to fight back, but they couldn’t match the ferocity of a foe that had nothing to lose. Those Mando’s that were left on Dxun knew they were going to die, there was no way around it. They wouldn’t be captured by the Republic; a regime so weak they had done nothing to help their own people for years as the Mando'ade clans swept through the outer rim worlds. No, they would not be taken captive by those that followed the Republic, they would die in glorious combat and take as many with them as they could, there was nothing else for it.
The first soldier that ran at Akin was quickly disarmed and fell broken upon the ground as Akin swept past and sought out the Jedi General. Finding her was easy as she was the only one that stood tall and fought through his men and left their bodies smoking and dead from the burns that her lightsaber caused.
Akin amplified his speaker system and yelled as loud as he could, “Jetiise! Gar'll draar ba'slanar Dxun oyayc. Ibic Ni promise sa Akin, te kyr'yc oya'la member be ner aliit.”
That got her attention, he could tell as she swept around in a masterful display of swordsmanship and balance and held herself ready for his attack. Quick as the veteran warrior he was he brought his wrist up and fired off a net at her position and rolled forward towards her pulling his ancient family sword from its sheath and engaging her.
The Jedi tried to sweep through the material with a quick flip of her lightsaber, as Akin knew she would, and ended up getting caught as her lightsaber shorted out from the cortosis laced inside the net. The net wrapped itself around her and Akin thought the fight was going to be over then and there, but this was no ordinary Jedi. At the last instant before the net connected back with itself and would have locked itself together in an unbreakable hold that even a Jedi couldn’t get out of; the Jedi warped the space around her and pushed out from every conceivable angle with the force and the net flew back and was rendered useless.
This all happened in an instant, and it was only a small delay for the Jedi, but against a hardened veteran like Akin, a small delay could spell death for even the most skilled fighters. He was upon her as she was recovering from the net and he was able to slip inside her defenses and score a shallow cut against her wrist as she brought her arm up to try and block his blade. She must have thought that her lightsaber would reactivate immediately, but it didn’t, and in so doing he drew first blood. She quickly withdrew using her enhanced reflexes with the force and watched him warily.
Akin wouldn’t give her a chance to recover though, he couldn’t, she was too dangerous. He advanced forward and brought his left wrist up and engaged the flame thrower that was built into the armor and a stream of superheated fire lit up the jungle. The Jedi general dove out of the way and came back up to her feet nearly fifteen feet away and Akin followed her with the flamethrower pushing her back and away and off balance. She leaped in a dazzling backflip away from him and he launched a small rocket from one of his bracers towards where she would land. It detonated at nearly the same time she landed and the Jedi flew through the air in an uncontrollable tumble until she hit the ground and stopped with a resounding thud by the grace of a thick tree.
Akin rushed forward and used his jetpack to launch himself within a few feet from her as she tried to get back to her feet. He landed directly in front of her and used the power of his fall and the muscles in his whole body to sweep downward with his blade that would split her in two. Except this time his sword was interrupted by a shimmering blade, and Akin knew what advantage he had was gone, and now he would face a Jedi General in her absolute prime, albeit a little unsteady from his earlier attacks.
“Gar akaanir pirusti par a jetiise,” Akin said to her as they were locked together in combat. His large frame and powerful muscles versus her force imbued strength.
“I don’t speak your tongue Mandalorian,” she spat out at him from behind clenched teeth.
“I said you fight well for a Jedi. Too bad you won’t live to fight again. You and your di’kutla culture will fall,” Akin said as he smiled inside his helmet and brought his knee up in a vicious manner driving it into her midsection. The Jedi dropped one arm to try and block the knee and succeeded in absorbing most of the damage, but the force of the blow shifted her weight and balance and Akin was able to push her lightsaber out wide and dropping one hand from the hilt of his sword he grabbed her wrist that held the lightsaber as she did the same, grabbing his opposite wrist that had his sword in it, for if she didn't he would have skewered her then and there.
They used their respective strengths to grapple with eachother, but with her force imbued strength, even Akin had to admit her was no match for her. He was a Mandalorian though, and he lashed out with a vicious head-butt that would have connected solidly to any lesser foe. The Jedi was no regular combatant though, and she just let go of his arm with one hand and fell backwards, dragging her arm and her body weight down that he still had ahold of. With her wrist still gripped in his hand and with his weight going forward violently and her pulling down on him and nothing supporting his opposite side he tumbled forward and the only choice he had was too let go of her and fall forward and onto his shoulder into a forward roll and get back up to his feet and spin around to confront her again.
The Jedi was faster though, and he barely got his sword up to block the vicious cut from her lightsaber that was already coming across before he had his balance back. He deflected several more attacks, but he was no expert swordsman. That was evident by the scarring that was left on his armor from her blade. He was at a complete disadvantage now as she twirled and moved her blade in a dazzling display of expert swordsmanship that he was at a complete loss to compete with. His armor had several cuts and burns from her blade, and he knew if he didn't retreat he was going to die then and there. He blocked one blow from her blade and stepping back fast he activated his jetpack to disengage from the fight.
The Jedi reached up a hand and gave a crushing motion, and before Akin knew anything else he was colliding with the ground in a bone jarring thud. He scrambled back to his feet and when the Jedi came across with a sweep of her lightsaber, he ducked and bull rushed forward trying to grab her and grapple and get in close. Faster than he could imagine she side stepped and swept her blade across his back that left his armor smoldering and the skin beneath it bubbling from the intense heat. He arched his back in pain, and felt another sweep from her blade along the side of his midsection that cut through his armor and left the side of his body blackened and charred. The force of the blow spun him around as a third slash cut across his chest in a spectacular display of sparks and pain and left him off balance. He tottered for a second before tripping over his own feet and going down to both knees, shuddering in pain.
“Cetar,” she said as she brought her blade up for a killing blow.
Akin felt his blood boil and clenched his fists at the implication of the word. He would not kneel, not for anyone.
“I thought you said you didn’t speak Mando,” Akin spat out at her.
“I don’t, not when I don’t have too. Your language is an insult to everything that I hold dear,” she said as she swept the blade down towards his head.
In a last act of defiance, he lifted up his wrist and a blade made of cortosis sprang from a hidden compartment and intercepted her lightsaber. The small blade was sheared off, but her lightsaber once again was turned off and useless for a short time. Off balance she was left open, and he sprang up and grabbed her around the legs and in a violent take down he lifted her up off her feet and slammed her down so hard on the ground, ribs cracked and her lightsaber sprang from her open hands and she was left defenseless. Akin quickly used the last of his strength to straddle her and was about to rain down blows that would have left her in the void, but he was stopped by some insurmountable force. Stopped by someone so strong in the force they had completely stopped his movements, completely immobilized him. He gazed at her with absolute shock at this pure display of power on her part. He finally knew how outmatched he was, and he was going to pay the ultimate price for it.
The Jedi was able to crawl away and used the force to guide her blade back to her hand, where she swept it back down and cut him diagonally from his upper collarbone, all the way down to his lower hip and leg. The blade cauterized the wound, but the injury was fatal, and Akin was released from the force hold to collapse upon the dirt. He sucked in air from a ruined body and used the last of his strength to crawl slowly towards a tree where he pulled himself up and laid his back against it so he could die facing his opponent.
“I spoke out of anger and hatred Mandalorian,” the Jedi said as she grabbed up his family blade and walked it over to him and laid it next to him, “Ash'amur ti ijaat.”
Akin grabbed up his family blade and pulled it close to his body as he looked at the Jedi general who was going to be the one to end Clan Warnel. He nodded in satisfaction, it had taken one of the most powerful Jedi to bring him down. He could die with that knowledge. He wrapped the hilt of his blade with both hands and pulled it in close like a child and slowly faded until death took him.
***
Brent woke up with a violent croaking noise that came from his throat as he bolted upright and tried to control his heavy breathing. He was covered in sweat and his heart was hammering in his chest uncontrollably. He looked around dazed and tried to get a bearing on where he was. In his bed, on his ship; somewhere in deep space. He shook his head and tried to sort himself out as he got up out of the small bed inside his freighter and went to the refresher to clean up. He rinsed off in the shower and when he was dried off he looked at himself in the mirror and noticed the dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep.
Ever since he had gazed at the holocron a few weeks back, he had been plagued with vivid dreams of the past. Always it was someone that was his bloodline, and this last one was the most real one yet. His ancestor had battled a Jedi named Meetra Surik. He had no idea who that was, but once he was up and about he would look into history and see who she was, if she was even real. He had no idea if these dreams were actual images from the past, but they seemed to be real, all of them. Some were just meetings with people, family events and occasions, some were like the last one, battles fought, and they were all through someone who’s name was Warnel. This last one though the man had thought he was the last of the Warnel clan, so Brent didn’t know what to think. He was evidence it had still survived through generations; maybe that was a vision of the future? Brent didn't know, he would try and find that out when he could.
All he knew was that he needed to do something about these dreams, he was miserable lately. He had barely been getting any sleep and all these dreams were causing him to sometimes forget who he was. He had to go to Altair-9, that was the only way these...visions were going to end.
He slipped into some comfortable clothes and went to the cockpit to look up the star-charts for the planet and start that way. He was as ready as he would ever be, and he needed to get this part of his life over with. That was all there was too it. He had to make one stop first at Chandrila to pick up some basic supplies and get some information if he could, then he would be on his way.
OOC: So basically this a post about this Character finding a past enemy and defeating him. If you want to join in then post something about your past that your character has neven been able to overcome and you can either join with me on my journey to this planet to find some closure, or you can just help me out as this enemy will be something nigh on undefeatable!
