Location: Ukatis.
Nathan wasn't surprised, and wasn't shocked by anything he saw. The Gulag Era had desensitized him utterly to such sights.
Cities broken and ravaged. People sick and dying from injuries, infections that were normally perfectly treatable. Crime. Violence.
Hell of a lot more Jedi though.
Nathan was still badly wounded. He had been forced to hide. The Mandalorians had pulled back, seemingly satisfied with their handiwork. The system wasn't secure. Evacuations were a necessity now more than ever. The Mandalorians would be back.
He had treated the most serious wounds with what med supplies he could scavenge from the dead. But he was in no real condition to fight, wandering around in his broken armor.
He felt the Force tugging him in some direction under rubble and came across a pile of dead. How quickly the Jedi forget the lessons of slaughter. He heard something, started digging, found the heavily mutilated, burned body of
Westenra Mina
, flinching, twitching, silent in suffering, her tattered armor in such poor shape it simply
couldn't repair.
"Lynda, my friend..." Nathan spoke, kneeling down and lifting her bloody, torn apart form up.
"You look
awful."
"I
feel awful." she gasped through a partly torn away mouth as she realized who was speaking.
"We didn't win, did we?"
"No. We didn't." Nathan answered as he carried her from the carnage.
"Chit...you'd think the Alliance had forgotten all about The Maw." The heavily damaged Android muttered.
"We'll get you sorted..." he promised. "Just have to get a nice transmitter, hope The Mandalorians aren't jamming anything, and maybe get a Bacta-Works Cruiser here.
"I need mind energy to heal. Bacta won't do chit..." Lynda hissed. "If anything, it would have...the opposite effect."
Nathan sighed, knowing what he was contemplating next was a bad idea.
"Feed off me, then." he said, pulling down his collar.
The hideously mutilated Android stared at him.
"You serious?"
"I can't have you seen feeding on the innocent."
The Android stared a moment before black, metallic fangs slid into place. She clasped his neck very gently, and then slid her fangs into his flesh as nonviolent and painless as she could manage.
It felt like his thoughts were getting sucked away to someplace dark, foreboding...
The Android pulled away in shock and fright, scrambling away with her good arm and the stumps that had been her legs as Nathan collapsed to the ground, coughing, feeling nothing but cold.
Nathan lost consciousness...
He was jolted awake an hour later by emergency medical crews. His unconscious state was filled with the moments of Lysandra's murder. He was covered in Bacta patches, in fresh underwear. He was good enough to walk without bleeding out. He was in some kind of treatment camp. Lynda was nowhere in sight.
"Oh! You're awake!" said one of the nurse droids.
Nathan glanced at her. "My armor. Where is it?"
"What's left of it? We put it in a bin not far from here. Best off getting yourself new armor...it's been totalled."
"I'll take it under advisement."
"We're gonna be evacuating everyone we can soon."
"I'll look for stragglers."
"Stick close to the camp. When that evac ship comes down, it's leaving, with or without you."
"Again, under advisement."
The nurse sighed and handed him simple relief effort clothes. He had one other thing to do before he left.
He had to get his lightsaber back...
Nathan dressed quickly and left the camp. He would keep an eye out for survivors but his primary objective was retrieving his blade...