The Balmorran Incident (Open to all)

[Daella Apparine]

Five years since, the Galaxy still felt the consequences of Akala’s actions…

Near Sobrik, the sun had just finished setting. At a Stellar Energy refinery several miles away from downtown, workers were finishing their shifts and heading home. This refinery was situated near a massive cliff. While the majority of the refinery’s processes were outside, a few facilities were inside the cliff. One of which was Hazard Vault 61, which was one of the many Hazard Vaults on Balmorra meant for storing toxic materials used in the planet’s industry. Only select employees of Stellar Energy were allowed within this Hazard Vault, though.

An intruder wished to enter this vault.

Just an hour after sunset, an explosion ripped through one of the refinery’s units. A fire ensued near ground zero. Orange flares lit up the skies as they began to fill with black smoke. The casualties were few due to the night shift, yet confusion settled in among the staff as the evacuation alarm filled everyone's ears.

Using the chaos to her advantage, a hooded female made her way toward an entrance to the refinery facilities within the cliff.

 

[Daella Apparine]

Some time passed since the explosion in the refinery - enough time for the hooded female entering Hazard Vault 61 to have exited. The vault itself was ruined beyond recognition. A trail of bodies - mostly gaurds - could be followed from where the woman stood to the vault's entrance.

Now back outside, the woman would have to escape. Such would be a give - yet only if no one confronted her.

 

[Jaryn Starkiller]

Jaryn had wandered the galaxy now for years. Being a Sith Acolyte he had nowhere to go to,and at the moment did not want to go to the new pledging sith order. He instead preferred his own path,and that is one of the reasons he had come to Balmorra. He had wandered to the planet feeling disillusioned. The One Sith had fallen and now Starkiller felt as if he didn't have a path to follow even with the old ways of the Sith he felt that he needed some guidance one way or the other.

He was wandering in the capital of Sobrik covered in his usual black robes,and unnoticed by traveling citizens going about their usual routines. He walked along the downtown area wandering what even brought him to this place to begin with. Than as nightfall approached he sensed a powerful precense. This made Starkiller stop petrified in his tracks. He sensed something powerful through the force,more powerful than he ever ecountered before even at the temple on Coruscant. A loud explosion could be heard in the distance. Jaryn looked over hurriedly in the direction to see a bright orange light. Flames and smoke were rising in the sky as citizens merely watched fearfully into the distance.

This gave Jaryn the opportunity to slip away from the crowd,and head towards the direction of the destruction. Why he went there he did not know why. Perhaps he thought that he would find some answers there or not,either way he went over there regardless. After sprinting as fast as he could,drawing upon the dark side to increase his strength Jaryn was shocked upon making it to the facility. As he walked inside he was shocked to see the carnage that was before him. He saw bodies of guards and workers who were brutally killed but not as many as he suspected. This was probably due to the night shift that not so many workers had shown up,if more would have showed than the casualties would be more than what Jaryn was seeing now.

Jaryn stepped cautiously into the refinary avoiding areas that were either blocked by debris or started to get overwhelmed by the blazing inferno currently taking place. After several minutes of navigating his way through the destroyed refinery he saw a figure covered in robes. The figure he couldn't tell who it was but from the figure he had to guess it was female. He slowly grasped a hold of his sabers cautiously eyeing her,but did not unclip them from his belt just yet. He spoke questioningly to her,still remaining on his guard. "Who are you,and why are you here?? Did you cause all this??


[member="Daella"]

 

[Tiland Kortun]

He was too late. There was no other way to describe it. Many guards had already been killed, violently, by the appearance of it. Bodies lay sprawled on the ground, leading to who-knew-where. A vault if he was reading the reports right, but details were scant and uncertain. An explosion, then an evacuation. Nobody really knew. Tiland had come to investigate and had found... this. The injuries elsewhere were not severe. He could handle them soon enough, but the medics had arrived and they could handle those.

No, he was here to investigate the source, to find whatever had caused such disharmony and see what he could do to rectify the situation. Or perhaps bring the perpetrator to justice. For the pain of these deaths stabbed into the Force and then into his being. It pained the old Anzati, strange as that might sound, to see life so wasted and the threads of the Force so casually torn. It went against the very nature of reality to warp its weave so dramatically. He knelt beside the nearest body, leaning on his staff, and brushed a hand over the man's eyes, closing his eyelids for the last time.

"Be at peace," Tiland whispered, voice rumbling softly, "For you are one with the Force and may you forever rest in its harmony."

It was a quiet benediction, but strong, and comforting to those left behind. He couldn't remember where he had heard it from, for it seemed to have been a long time ago, with some old man, wise beyond even his years, performing a funeral service. But there was little time for such things now. He had to move, for a Dark presence approached. Tiland pulled himself to his feet and strode forward, following the path of bodies. His staff clacked alongside him as he went until he reached the outside, where two hooded figures stood. One was dark... but the other a mystery, even to Tiland's senses.

He felt old. There was no lying about such a thing. His bones ached in the mornings and everyone spoke just a tad too softly. But he was a Jedi and he could cope with such things through the Force. If only the younger Jedi stopped staying up so late.

Tiland stood there, robes flapping in the breeze as he studied them. But it was enough watching, so he called out to them both.

"Drop your weapons, if you will, friends." His voice seemed to roll through the dark air, but gently. "There has been enough violence this night."


[member="Daella"] [member="Jaryn Starkiller"]

 

[Daella Apparine]

The hooded woman stopped in place as soon as [member="Jaryn Starkiller"] revealed himself to her. Her face was still obscured behind her ragged cloak. In her right hand was a lightsaber hilt. In her left was a pyramid shaped holocron – the red tint suggesting it to be of Sith origin. Most likely, this holocron was from the Hazard Vault as the hooded woman did not have it while entering it earlier.

Both of the woman’s hands were heavily scarred.

“Yesssss,” the woman replied to Jaryn.

Then, [member="Tiland Kortun"] made himself known to the woman and Jaryn – calling for an end to the violence.

“No,” answered the woman with a bit of a snarl.

The woman, Tiland, and Jaryn still stood within the refinery. The unit that initially exploded was some distance away from all of them. Yet, vessels filled with explosive and flammable material surrounded them.

Throwing an arm toward one of these pressurized vessels, an arc of blue lightning erupted from her fingertips toward the pressurized vessel. Another blast ensued.

While the danger to Jaryn and Tiland would have mostly been shrapnel from the explosion, the woman attempted to use it as means to distract them. She turned away from Jaryn and Tiland and ran into a rat’s nest of pipes.

 

[Jaryn Starkiller]

Jaryn studied the figure more closely. It was clearly a female,and it was evident that she wields the force,her power was overwhelming through the force. Jaryn was in awe he had never felt such darkness before in one individual especially someone like this figure who made Jaryn seem as if he was a mere infant. He noticed more closely that her hands were scarred. He did not know how or why,and maybe he didn't want to but it didn't matter either way. What did catch his eye however was the holocron in one of her hands. Jaryn stared at it curiously noticing the pyramid shape and red glow of typical Sith Holocrons. The question was though,why did she want it and what importance could it hold to be in a place like this. He was certain that he would find out the answers.


He was snapped out of his thoughts by another presence. It felt as if he was basking in light which he hated most horribly. He looked over,and saw what looked to be a bearded man covered in Jedi Robes. He was warning both Jaryn,and the hooded female to stand down. Jaryn simply ignored him. Then another explosion was heard,and Jaryn quickly swung around to see in what direction. As soon as he did he glanced in the direction of the female who scurried off into the pipes,with the sounds of her movement echoing along showing that she just started. Jaryn ran as quick as he could. He ignited one of his lightsabers,the crimson blade come to life with a hiss.

The bloodshine blade illuminated the dark space. There was nothing but liquid on the ground which splashed with every step he took. He heard the same splashes coming from right in front of him. He kept drawing upon the dark side to increase his speed hoping to even catch up with her,he felt the need to say something so he asked her in a curious tone. "Who are you?? What are you even doing with that holocron??"


[member="Tiland Kortun"]
[member="Daella"]

 

[Tiland Kortun]

[member="Daella"] Apparine [member="Jaryn Starkiller"]
---------------/

Well, at least she was straightforward and honest, unlike some Sith he had encountered. But then she tossed a burst of lightning at a barrel. It exploded- hurling flaming debris hurtling through the air. They hissed and crackled as they shattered against the duracretr floor, casting up sparks and red hot splinters.

Tiland spun on his heel as the shrapnel flew towards him, raising his cloak as a small barrier, while he wrapped his body in the Force. Pieces cut through fabric and sliced against his skin. It stung, but there was little blood. He frowned beneath his beard and turned to face the way they had vanished.

He let out a long sigh, shoulders sagging. It was a hunt then. He had long desired to avoid his kind's tradition of the hunt, but it appeared to no longer be an option. He hefted his staff and strode forward after them.

He could smell them, in a way. Not physically, but by the strength and power of their minds. One was weak- still a student. Tiland pitied him. He had no idea what he had stumbled upon. The other, however, was strong. Perhaps among the strongest he had ever met. A Sith Lord, no doubt.

That brought him to a pause and he pulled out his comlink, sending a quick message to the New Jedi Order. There were Sith out and about in the dark, performing mischief.

Then he was off at a steady lope, following the stronger of the two trails into the pipes. He paused at a corner as he caught sight of the red glow of a lightsaber and shook his head sadly. The boy knew nothing of seeking and finding. But he was a threat and a distraction. He needed to be diverted away.

Tiland considering. He could likely subdue him, but such a resort to violence was not the Jedi way. Nor was it the way of a healer's. An idea came to him and he closed his eyes, centering himself in the Force.

He crafted an image- of a woman with scarred hands in a cloak darting around a nearby corridor. Most of it, he lifted straight from the recent memory. Then he set it loose, pushing the image out from his mind to the young acolyte. It should lead him away from the true goal.

Tiland would wait until the acolyte had responded before continuing on his journey through the pipes.

 

[Graf's Archive Account]

Time since last activation: 1,037 years, 211 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes, 46 seconds.

This flashed across the HUD of the Hunter-Killer Droid HK-99 as two yellow eyes brightened for the first time in a millennium. A thick but manageable layer of rust covered the droid's durasteel chassis, it took a full nanosecond for the machine to realize that he was buried six feet under. Inside of his head his comm system was going on the fritz, repeated the word "Sith" over and over again, it had obviously intercepted the communication and reactivated the damn droid.

A few minutes of planned digging and a robotic hand pierced the surface, dragged the hulk of durasteel out of his earthen prison. "Declaration: Activation complete, ready to annihilate Sith meatbag." Ardross announced to nobody in particular, Ardross was his name, right? His memory banks were battered after years, he couldn't remember any of the galactic events that had happened except his creation. The droid observed his surroundings and pinpointed the source of the communication he had received, apparently there was a refinery nearby.

HK raised his outdated blaster rifle and proceeded to find an entrance to the maze of pipes, set on hunting down and killing any Force User he encountered.

[member="Tiland Kortun"] | [member="Jaryn Starkiller"] | [member="Daella"]