Telti: Des Kovak vs. Cylus Jest continued

[Des Kovak]

Spoiler

This is a continuation of the duel of Des versus Cylus from the Telti invasion. Since the result of the fight is relevant for consequences beyond the invasion, and we didn't want to leave it unfinished in the middle of nowhere, we decided to continue it in a separate thread, without cluttering the invasion thread with posts that don't count for its conclusion.

[member=Cylus Jest]

With the success of his first assault came a hopefulness that was quickly replaced with a bout of panic as Jest's tiny spider bots began their inexorable crawl towards him. Choking on the inquisitor's grip, Des desperately pulled back, trying to retreat. In the same motion, Des swung his lightsaber back in the arc it had come from, that would now send it intersecting with Jest's outstretched arm. Jest could either let go and pull his arm back to safety, or he could hold on and lose his arm for it. Either way, Des could stumble back, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process as he created some distance between himself and Cylus Jest.

He'd gone in so surely, and now he was already on the retreat. His ideals were there, certainly, but he lacked the conviction to see them through to the end, it seemed. Des Kovak was too afraid to trade his own life for that of the inquisitor. He'd only just been shown a larger galaxy. He did not want to die having never seen the rest of it. Jest's taunts hardly reached him anymore as he stood, breathing heavily, and leveled his lightsaber once more to point the tip at the inquisitor. He hated the man, that was true, and he wanted him dead for what he'd done. But the rollercoaster of emotions that was Des' first real taste of combat had shown him one thing. Acting on emotions was a dangerous path, and it only muddled his vision. It was difficult, but the would-be Jedi knew that he needed to remain free of emotion in the heat of a fight. He had not been able to pull it off so far, and Jest's remarks hit close to home. Des did not merit it a reply, instead stepping forward steadily without flying into another combat rage.

As he advanced, Des brought his lightsaber closer to himself before closing into range, and swinging out again in a horizontal arc aimed at Jest's midriff. However, the stimm was running out, and Des' movements were not as fast or strong as they had been. His gait was sluggish, his footwork non-existent, and his breath came in ragged drags.

 

[Cylus Jest]

As his miniature insectoids crawled to Des in their readiness to tear at flesh, a rapid blow caught Cylus unawares. He barely noticed it at the very last moment, He jerked backwards...too late. The searing heat tore across his hand and he heard a scream, only recognizing it was his own a second later. There upon the ground lay his hand, still gloved in the machinery which allowed him to assail and torture so easily. He screamed again, pulling away from Des in agony as he clutched at the stump of what was once his hand.

He had never been so badly injured in his life. It ached and seared and he could feel the pain arch all the way up to his very being, to wrack him with it's fiery hatred. The hatred was returned, there was nothing holding back any sort of emotion for possibly the first time in his life. It was as if the pain had knocked loose the coldness of the Inquisitor and had allowed for free emotion to reign, at least for a small while.

He acted on the hatred powering him as he resounded another loud scream, this time not one of pain but one of anger and calls for murder, for death. "You! YOU!" He echoed out as he saw the blow at his midriff, spinning his blade about and catching it with his own. He stepped forward, slamming the metallic beak of his mask at Des' nose and eyes. All the while, the Insects which had escaped before their glove was destroyed would still be tearing at Des with all of their righteous mechanical fury.
"I'm going to murder you, going to murder them, i'm going to murder everything until finally it all BREAKS!"
[member="Des Kovak"]

 

[Des Kovak]

At first, Des did not understand what had Cylus Jest so riled up. The inquisitor had never been the sort of man to be carried by his emotions, indeed had hardly even shown them in the first place. As their blades clashed, Des only grinned. "Me," he said, self assured that finally, he'd done something right, done something to get to his enemy. When Jest's face surged forward and knocked him back, flat onto his back, only then did Des see the source of Jest's rage. Of course, Des had noticed that he'd broken free from the inquisitor's grip, but he had assumed the man had let go. Now, as he lay on the ground, the severed hand and stump of arm lay right in front of his face, a mute accusation of Des' culpability in the rage of its owner.

Worse, the severed hand still pored out nanobots, and they made a line right for Des. They quickly found their way to his face, and a searing pain shot through the would-be Jedi as they started cutting away with him. Writhing on the ground, struggling to gradually destroy one bot after another slowly as more came on, Des was hardly in any position to do anything but scream and steal glances as Cylus Jest. The inquisitor seemed like he was going insane, striking a terrifying figure as he rages with pain. From his, it seemed the lives of the civilians that Des had sought to save would be forfeit if Des did not stop this man, but the Padawan was overcome with fear of the raging inquisitor, pain, and attacking nanobots. There had to be an end to these things, Des thought desperately, there had to be a finite amount of bots the glove could carry.

Desperately struggling with the nanospiders, he instinctively caught one that made a jump for his eyeball, smacking it some distance away to buy time. He pulled another away from his cheek and tried to smash it into the ground with his palm, and another from his jaw. His hands and face awash in fresh cuts, Des screamed as he swung his lightsaber in a wild arc, cutting through a couple more bots. The Padawan then yelped with another surge of excruciating pain as another bot somehow managed to remove part of one of his fingernails. Des gritted his teeth and fought on, smashing one bot, cutting through another even as he barely missed his own kneecap with his lightsaber, his vision slowly blurring. There was only one hope for him, Des' pain addled brain thought, racing for options. The glove... Perhaps the glove held a control system. With a primal roar of effort, Des staggered to his feet and made an unsteady step forward, plunging his lightsaber into Cylus Jest's several glove. If not that, then perhaps Jest himself was the key. Perhaps he had some sort of device that could shut these things down. Still tearing the spiders off his face left and right with his off hand, Des lurched towards the inquisitor, swaying unsteadily with every step. "Make it stop!" he cried desperately.

 

[Cylus Jest]

Cylus watched as his pets tore away at the face of [member="Des Kovak"] as well as his body. The wounds were growing on the man when he finally cried out and stabbed the glove. The controls were in fact part of the glove, and the instant the saber went into it, the machines simply stopped and waited. "You think that's it? You think you have the right to cry for mercy?" He questioned, the anger seeping into his voice as he glared at the wounded Kovak.

"You want my mercy? Have it." He said simply before the heavy thud of the Rapax moving off of his back resounded. The mechanical monstrosity let out several loud clicking noises before charging forward angrily at the man. It lifted it's leg, the cortosis gleaming slightly before it jammed it towards the leg of Des, it's mandible T-21's began to spin and an instant later it revealed a torrent of blasterfire towards the man.

Cylus shook his head once, gradually inching away from the combat and nursing his weak and damaged stump. The pain was overtaking him and he desperately wished he had some sort of medicinal products for it, sadly the only thing close to it was the single syringe of Synox he kept in his belt.

 

[Des Kovak]

As the immediate, stinging pain slowly subsided into a dull, constantly aching throb, Des painstakingly steadied himself, pulling himself up with pain shooting through his bones, his muscles and his nerves with every movement. "Mercy?" he echoed [member=Cylus Jest]'s words dully in a slow drawl, blood flecked spittle oozing from his broken lips. "Not... Nnnn... Not... Mercy," he drawled. "Only one way... To make it stop... End... You..." Slowly, unsteadily, Des managed somehow to advance on Jest.

Until the inquisitor set his spider droid on him. Vaguely, his senses and mind muddled by pain, Des remembered this thing from his capture on Umbara. Swaying, Des readied himself for the thing jumping him, as it had on Umbara. Instead, it charged over the ground in a straight line, surprising the defending Padawan. He screamed in agony as the robot hit his kneecap head on, and he felt his bones shattering. Falling down, Des took at wild swipe at the thing's leg to lop it off, but his lightsaber stopped dead against the metal. Unfamiliar with Cortosis, Des' dull mind was unable to come up with a response and he simply continued his descent, thudding onto the ground with another grunt of hurt. Des rolled onto his back and managed to raise his lightsaber in time to catch the first of the sudden bolts, shielding his most vital areas. Prone as he was, however, and unprepared for the blaster attack, several blaster bolts hit home and struck into Des' arms, legs and sides. Des didn't even cry anymore, the overwhelming torrent of pain simply joining the pain he already knew. He'd come to some sort of threshold where he should be unconscious and where any pain that was added to him were just drops of water in an ocean, but the lingering stimm drugs and the will of the Force kept him awake.

Rolling aside, Des dodged a second volley of blaster fire. He rolled on and tried to scramble up onto his haunches, but his leg with the shattered kneecap gave way under the weight painfully, and Des was reduced to crawling to close the few inches between himself and the spider droid. As he crawled into melee range of the spider, one of its legs clamped down onto his off hand, breaking his wrist. With a primal cry of ultimate abandon, Des reared himself up and sprawled himself bodily over the top of the spider. The droid bucked in an attempt to throw him off, but Des clung on and struck the machine in the center of the body with his lightsaber, again and again. The metal was hard, but at least here he saw some damage as he was thrown around on top of the spider. On Umbara, he's used a similar strategy to disable the droid. He hadn't had a lightsaber then, but he was much less battle damaged than he was now. Des' strikes were feeble at best, as he could not muster a lot of strength anymore, but a lightsaber didn't require strength to burn through metal eventually...

 

[Cylus Jest]

It hurt so much, the throbbing where his hand had once held firm against his body was now gone, replaced with the same sort of lingering that filled stories of phantoms and ghouls. He thought he could still feel it there, that he could still move his fingers and when he didn't look directly at it, it felt so much truer. A quick examination would show it was all just a facade, that it was a deception cooked up by his brain in this moment of adrenaline and torture.

It hurt Des too, he could see that as his Rapax opened fire and fought him, shattered bones and blaster wounds wrinkled the other man's complexion as he finally managed to put down his nightmarish creation. He withdrew the E-11 from his side with his remaining hand as he continued to make distance from Des. "This is...Cylus. I need an evac at my position, send a medical team." He spoke into his comlink as he continued to move away.

A moment or two later and the shuttle would be visible in the sky, diving downwards at high speed towards it's caller. It would still take another thirty or forty seconds for it to get here. That meant a couple more shots at the man who had stolen away his hand. He raised the E-11 and listened as the double crack gave way to a pair of whirling bolts of red energy. He imagined the blaster bolts as being angry, as spiraling viciously like beasts ready to bite. They scorched towards Des as the shuttle grew nearer.
[member="Des Kovak"]

 

[Des Kovak]

https://youtu.be/9D-QD_HIfjA

Welcome to the limit
(The limit)
Take it maybe one step more
The power game's still playing so
You better win it



To Des' immense relief, the spider-thing protested, finally sputtered, and died. As it came down with a thud, Des was forced to roll aside and finally jumbled to the ground again in a crumpled heap. Through the blur of his vision, he could see the inquisitor, [member=Cylus Jest] making a retreat, and holding what Des could only assume was another weapon. Come on, Kovak. He's gotta be out of tricks. One more push. You have him. Again, the Padawan tried to push himself to stand, but his legs would not have it. Come on. Come on. You are Ghôsh Torden. You can do this. If he stayed down like this, he was at the mercy of Jest and his weapon, Des realized. I will not die at this man's hands. He will die at mine. It was the spark he needed, and with another roar, Des heaved himself up, putting all of his weight on his one good leg.

Just in time, as he could make out two red streaks of energy streaking towards him. With a clumsy, one handed swing of his lightsaber, Des whacked the first bolt away to the side and down where it bored into the ground at his feet harmlessly. The second slammed into the Padawan's gut like a wrecking ball. Without a sound, Des Kovak pitched forward with the impact, then doubled over and crumpled down again. His already shrouded vision started to blur. No... This is not the end... No... NO.

Sprawled on the ground, his subconscious taking over as Des was hardly even able to think again, the would-be Jedi stretched out a hand towards to inquisitor. In his open palm, a pressure began to build in the Force, visible to the eye like a gathering whirlwind. His nervous system and brain shutting down, Des could not see, but he knew his enemy was out there, somewhere. "Jest!" he called in a hoarse tone, his voice projected by the Force to reach the inquisitor despite Des' spluttering and coughing. "Cylus Jest!"

The gathering Force energy in Des' hand exploded outward from his palm in a powerful Force Push, one last hurrah directed at the Sith agent.

 

[Cylus Jest]

He thought if he looked carefully he could imagine this place burning, smell the stench of fire and brimstone. He looked down at his severed stump and growled. "Deciever, lie to my mind about it's thoughts. Push me over a brink." He snarled at it as his mind gradually relapsed into shock. He continued walking, a lone figure leaving behind another one who was battered and bruised and likely dying from at least a dozen wounds from what he had seen.

The yell caught him unawares. The shuttle landed directly in front of him, he was only a few steps away now, but he decided he would turn. To acknowledge the call of a dying man before he finally faded into non-existence. He spun about, his damaged stump still clung against his chest as a mother cradles a child. "Des. How does it feel to die." He spoke softly, the noise wouldn't reach a person two feet away, let alone the distance that they had seperated.

The blast of Force energy rippled across the ground at about the same speed of a bolt or slug. Cylus saw it and it registered in his mind, he spun around to try and run from it, but it caught him across the back and propelled him forward. There was a horribly loud clank and cracking noise as he slammed into the Lambda shuttle and then fell to the ground, his leg pulled at a strange angle and his mask shattered. He lay there limp as bleed leaked out from his forehead and his leg screamed for mercy. "Oh" was all he could mutter before suddenly all of his thoughts turned black and he ceased to be conscious.

The shuttle doors opened up, a pair of Undying troopers moving rapidly to retrieve their limp and dead looking commander. They hauled him inside where they immediately began to remove his mask and his Phantom suit as they searched for wounds. The doors swung closed and a moment later the Lambda shuttle sped off towards the atmosphere.
[member="Des Kovak"]

 

[Des Kovak]

Derived from vision as his consciousness slowly shot down, Des could only go by what he felt. What he felt was the presence of [member=Cylus Jest] recieving the full brunt of whatever it was he had done. He had lashed out in desperation, one last attempt to keep the inquisitor from escaping. He had never imagined it would work. He had never imagined even being capable of such a thing. But after the inquisitor took the attack, the taint in the Force that he represented faded away. Des had no way of knowing what that meant. Did it mean Jest's life force seeping away, or did it mean the ship that had come for him had taken him to safety? He heard the flare of the ship's engines as it took off, but he did not know if the inquisitor was on it.

He did not know how much time passed since the end of the climactic fight, but he felt his clothes being tugged on, and heard vague, muffled voices. Every so often, the voices coalesced into some coherent words, words like 'stretcher', 'medic' and 'bacta'. He had to know. He had to know what had become of his enemy. Where is Cylus Jest? he wanted to ask. Is he dead? All that came out of his exhausted, paralyzed mouth was incoherent blabbering. "Ehh ih igh est? Ih ee ed?" In response, he felt the cold, sterile plastic of a breath mask being slipped over his mouth and nose, pumping something that was not oxygen into his lungs. It made him tired. So tired. Slowly, gratefully, Des slipped into a drug induced sleep.