Wearing:
Black Knight Chitin
Armed with:
The Sword of Surt'r,
SynthBreaker
Crime Hunter's Pistol (Laser Configuration)
With:
Syd Celsius
(Syd's equipment:
90 Suit,
Wind and Fire Wheels
Advanced Prototype
Nuetralizer Model 1 (2000)
Objective: 1 (Syd: Objective 2)
They shared a short amount of time together before having to fight.
Syd found it ironic to find Tyrants helping Tyrants, but though she was horrified at how out of control Laertia's hostility to the Jedi not fighting The Bryn'adul had gotten, both she and Laertia were in agreement it was just good business at this point to hammer the NIO as hard as they could. That way, if the Triumvirate did indeed triumph, The NIO wouldn't be strong enough to then go and attack the Galactic Alliance proper seeing how they would be of no further use to those Imperials.
Laertia still wouldn't speak of Moya, her Android Caretaker who had departed, ethics protocols unable to reconcile Laertia's cause with the effect.
The Force Spawn knew how much Laertia loved Moya. How her leaving had broken The Black Knight's heart. She'd held Laertia for hours as she shivered in Syd's arms, an emotional wreck. That Nanite creation of Laertia's, Lyssa, had begun to assume duties for Laertia's Brain Damage-related medical needs, with Syd helping out also.
Syd felt only sorrow at failing Laertia. It was ten times worse, a hundred times worse than how she had failed
Starlin Rand
at Dantooine.
She had failed the only person in the Galaxy she could have ever given her heart to. Failed to stop her from going down the path of a slayer of Jedi.
Not for the first time, Syd had begun second guessing herself using magic to negate Laertia's Speech Impediment. The moment she had done that everything changed. Laertia had changed. Syd, having grown to understand humans more realized that removing that must have boosted Laertia's confidence to unbelievable heights...and failed to take into account the effects this boost in confidence would have on a woman forced to spend a lifetime thinking before she spoke. That had required her developing patience. When that barrier was removed...so had Laertia's deliberate nature similarly vanished. She was the confidant, powerful warrior she had always wanted to be, Brain Damage or no, she could finally hold her head high. Finally debate, finally say "I Love You" clearly to the people she loved. For giving her that, Laertia's heart was a willing captive in Syd's grasp. Their spirits mutually coiled around the other whenever they got close.
But since Moya's departure, Laertia had kept that bond dulled, still trying to process the emotional turmoil of Moya leaving her. She had yet to succeed. And as the Battle approached, she had been forced to bury that pain in order to function.
Syd was curious as to how Laertia kept getting into Sith Space but Laertia kept that strictly to herself. Ostensibly she was a supporter of the Alliance between The CIS and the Sith...but Laertia had killed so many Sith over the years, there was no way she wasn't a tempting target, aligned or not.
Someone was covering for her.
Syd chose to not press it for now. Laertia really shouldn't even be fighting but try telling her that. Laertia refused to stay out of the NIO's way. Syd refused too, if she was honest.
The Force Spawn found Laertia doing final checks in her quarters. Her Black Armor, which she had worn since the conflict had started, had been newly repaired. But it was showing signs of scuff and wear all the same.
Laertia spotted her, and smiled.
Syd smiled back. But behind that smile was deep worry and guilt. She had failed to stop Laertia from walking Phyre's path. No...no that wasn't right. It wasn't right to compare her to her old self. Phyre was a sadist who killed for pleasure. Without rhyme or reason. Laertia killed for causes. Laertia killed only because for her...not killing everyone in the way of uniting against The Bryn'adul was tantamount to approval of not uniting.
Syd had no idea how to convince her to step back from that line of thinking. But she knew she had to come up with a good argument and soon...
"I can feel your distress..." Laertia said quietly, walking up to her, fingers gliding down The Force Spawn's left cheekbone.
"I'm worried about you, Laertia. That's a lot of Dead Jedi you have to live with."
"I'll stop fighting them when they start focusing on the Bryn'adul."
"Do you really think you can force them, Laertia?"
"I have to try, or they will never give it up of their own accord. Ziost was a turning point. I can feel it. The GA could hardly afford to send people here this time. The NIO are trying to take Serenno. If we can inflict serious enough casualties we can deal them a crippling morale blow. They are already reeling from what the Sith did at New Adasta. Its time to drive the dagger in even further."
"Laertia...please be careful. I know you want everyone to work together, to the point you are willing to kill to enforce a united response, but...don't be blind to the costs of your policy."
"Moya left me. I feel that cost, trust me." Laertia replied defensively. "Who the feth are they to call me a murderer? They're doing the same damn thing I am..."
But Syd could tell there was some uncertainty in her words, in her eyes as she said it. It hadn't been there before. She really was shaken badly.
"I should've done more, to steer you from killing so many Jedi. Its a path I once walked..."
"It was my choice. The Jedi are wrong this time, and they'll get the whole Galaxy killed if they don't set aside this feud for a while.
"But we have hardly made any inroads against the Bryn'adul ourselves." Syd protested. "We're just as caught up in this war, this feud as they are."
"I have not forgotten that. But we cannot fight the Bryn'adul just by ourselves. The Commonwealth, the We-Who-Survive faction, the Belarac...they lack both funding and the proper amount of troops to do more than slow them. Only a united front with properly equipped and battle hardened forces have the chance, and they are wasting it all on each other. That cannot stand. If The NIO will not unite, then it will be wiped out."
"And if the GA still doesn't want to Unite?"
"I'm not going to leave them a choice..." Laertia replied, kissing Syd on the nose, then putting her black helm on, and grabbing both her Lightsabers.
"Now lets go help one group of tyrants beat the chit out of another..."
A half hour later...
Syd's ship,
The Scorched Earth, stormed through the Atmosphere, Syd's deft trigger finger allowing the heavy cannons on her ship to inflict heavy damage on any starfighter that tried to shoot it down.
Laertia loved to watch Syd pilot. She found it hot.
Pun intended.
It was a pity they would be seperated again so soon. Laertia had to stop
Lucien Dooku
from becoming king, and she was fully willing, ready and able to do it, with the kind of heat she was prepared to bring down.
Laertia's "Daughter", an advanced collection of Laminanium Nanites, who by default resembled a friend of Laertia's murdered long ago by The Amalgam, waited near the Hatch, her body down from her neck made to look like she wore glossy, silvery biker leathers with black spikes.
"Are you ready, Daughter?" Laertia inquired.
"Ready as I'll ever be, Mother." Lyssa said with an out of place serene tone and expression.
Laertia got out another Lightsaber, dual vented like one of hers, silver in color. She turned it on and a blade with a black core and dark blue aura shot out, from both the main and side vents for a few seconds before she deactivated it, handing it to Lyssa.
"A gift, Lyssa. I made it for you."
Lyssa, who had never received a gift before, took it in fascination, hands gliding over it, mercury eyes memorizing its look and Patina.
"Thank you, Mother."
"I would have made you a cake, but you can't eat...so cool laser swords are my back up plan..." Laertia said, hugging the horrifically lethal Nanite Droid, who returned the hug, it affection for its creator growing.
"Get ready! We're passing over the Palace!" Syd called out from the cockpit.
"May the Force be with you, Syd." Laertia called back as the hatch opened. The New Imperial Forces below tried shooting at it, but Syd was moving too fast as she passed over the Palace.
Laertia and Lyssa dropped from the opening, holding hands as they fell to the Palace below...
Laertia concentrated and they both vanished, teleporting to the palace rooftops...where their contact awaited...
The Amalgam
smirked as she uncloaked her presence in the Force, flanked by multiple Witches, all beautiful women of multiple species in skintight white catsuits. The Amalgam herself was wearing her own typical flesh colored Catsuit with long white gloves and boots.
"Laertia! So good of you to drop in all badass and chit. And you've brought your futuristic Marionette!" The SithSpawn gushed, striding confidently up to them...and stopping when she saw Laertia with the same sword she had fought the Battlemaster Khefiir with at Generis, in addition to the sword she had fought
Ryv
with at Dantooine.
"Oh, must you 'always' find a way to make working together unpleasant?" The Amalgam teased before laughing.
"Go ahead, turn it on..." The Amalgam taunted.
Laertia pulled out the scorched and blackened Lightsaber, the teal flamed blade erupting from it.
To Laertia's displeasure, The Amalgam and her Witches didn't have the violent reaction they had previously to the Blade's Presence on Generis.
"We took precautions this time. And we'll take them every time going forward. So you see, Laertia..." The Amalgam trailed, getting a little closer, staying right into the Black Knight's Visor.
"There's
nothing that can keep you safe from me very long. How's Moya, by the way?"
The gauntleted hand clamped down on The Amalgam's throat with near crushing strength.
"You go anywhere near her,
I'll find out where your wretched God is and strangle her to death in front of you, Beast." The thing inside Laertia that would eventually become Darth Xiphos snarled with Laertia's voice.
This seemed to be a threat The Amalgam took seriously. She actually raised an eyebrow, wondering if her daughter really was strong enough, going silent.
Then she smiled again.
"Promise me a front row seat and I'll give you directions. We could singalong in the Speeder on a nice, scenic drive towards Hell--"
The Black Knight tossed the Amalgam to the ground.
"Get these bags of rotting filth behind you ready for battle..." Laertia snapped.
The Amalgam continued to only smile, not even rubbing her throat, as she somehow slinked up off the ground.
"Already have a way cut open, Dear. This way, please..." The Amalgam answered in a way that made it seem like she was taunting her.
The Black Knight and her Daughter followed The Amalgam into an opening they had made three minutes before Laertia had dropped in.
The Witches had cut their way into some sort of Records room, and they quickly began to make their way downwards. The Amalgam had informed the Palace defenders she would be aiding them, so none of them shot at her or her allies.
The sounds of fighting grew more intense as they reached the Main Hall, which had already been breached.
Grand Moff Decimus and his Dark Troopers were already engaging the enemy.
"Kill, my darlings..." The Amalgam said to her Witches.
The flesh of each Witch shuddered and rippled as they began channeling the Dark Side, flinging Force Lightning and Curses upon New Imperial Stormtroopers. Laertia, The Amalgam, and Lyssa began to fight their way through the Palace invaders, Laertia and The Amalgam working naturally and fluidly together due to The Amalgam having once masqueraded for years as a Jedi who had taught Laertia everything. Lyssa was a fluid, viciously efficient and swift killer, whose arm blades cut through armor gaps on Stormtroopers, dueling and quickly killing four New Imperial Knights who tried to engage her in a span of Fifteen seconds, flawlessly dodging or parrying their assault before eviscerating them one by one. Laertia's scorched Claymore like Lightsaber cut through Lightsaber resistant armor with frightful ease while the Amalgam intercepted and reflected bolts back at her attackers as well as those shooting at Laertia.
The Black Knight's attentions fell on The Man of Iron himself,
Rurik Fel
. Now there was a Challenge. But there was also the Attempted Usurper, Lucien.
"Who do you want?" The Amalgam asked, snapping a Stormtrooper's neck as they fought through the deadly soldiers. "The Christensen Expy looks scrumptious but there's just something about a good Von Doom Expy that makes you wanna go Johnny Storm..."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Laertia asked, beheading an Imperial Knight
The Amalgam sighed, slicing a screaming Knight in half. "Right, I forgot, You can't break the Fourth Wall..."
"What Wall? And what happened to the first three?" Lyssa asked, confused as she punched all the way through a Stormtrooper's helmet with a metal spike that had once been her hand.
"Ask the writer, Dear, I'm just here for the XP." The Amalgam replied, whipping her blade around her and dicing apart multiple Stormtroopers shooting her.
"I'll take Fel." Laertia spoke , and began cutting her way past Stormtroopers to get to him.
"Man of Iron, let's see if you melt..." Laertia called out to Rurik...
The Amalgam decided to try her luck at Lucien, Purple blades spinning around her body in a defensive pattern.
"Lucien Dooku!" The Amalgam called out, brutally outdueling and cutting apart an Imperial Knight that tried to block her way. "Let's see if you're worthy of that crown you want so bad..."
Lyssa, for her part, began slaughtering her way to
Dorin Nalju
...
Meanwhile...
Objective: 2 (Syd)
Syd had landed her ship behind allied lines and without a moment to waste, immediately began the fight for the City. Within seconds of her arrival, a horrible Twister of Flames had been summoned, which began sweeping through the streets as she moved forward, Nuetralizers deploying from drop pods in the atmosphere from CIS carriers, landing in the streets either in those or gun boats and immediately began setting up defensive formations to bolster the Sith Imperial soldiers, heavy machine gun and mortar nests to try and slow and frustrate the advance of the Forces of
Willan Tal
and
Konrad Bolter
Syd was a force to herself, and her flames were manipulated to burn hotter than normal as her flame twister sweapt into a cataphract, the flames rushing into the weapons and detonating them.
Syd, after Helgard, viewed the NIO as filth. Her flames showed no pity as she sweapt them through mechanized AT's , her blades viciously dispatching any Imperial Knight that tried to disrupt her rampage after clashes of blades that lasted seconds, or combinations of Lightsaber and Martial Arts crushing the attackers.
DECEASED Erskine Barran