The Doctor Will See You Now, Jedi (GA Incursion)

[Vilim Ramic]

[member="Zark"] [member="Choli Vyn"] @other GA members

​

There was a mechanical giggle as she looked at the large structure that made up the top half of the Jedi Temple on this world. Photoreceptors zoomed in, giving her a lovely view of ships coming and going from the place as Jedi and their service personal went about their tasks or missions. The Lord Commander had given her a task, one presented to him by their Master himself, to test the mettle of these Jedi, a descendant Order of the one that had failed to stop the destruction of the Republic. She was also ordered to test this Galactic Alliance, and who was she to not play with something? She was looking forward to causing some chaos.

With her were five others built similar to her, her own cadre of sages that served the Lord Commander. But, and there was another giggle, she didn't think it would be enough to cause the sort of chaos they needed.

"Is it ready?" she asked.

"It is, Sage Amethyst. We only await your command."

"Initialize!" she cried happily.

There would be a small microtransmission, the exact same that had been sent at Rishi. For a few split seconds, every droid in the Jedi Temple would freeze and then continue about their duties like nothing had occurred. But that wasn't the only place to receive the transmission.

********************************************
In orbit over the world, the Cardea Medical Center was bustling with activity... until all at once every single of the 100,000 droids on the station also froze for a moment before resuming their duties.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Therapy Command had a stake in operating the Cardea Medical Center on Sullust, and, after being on Naboo for a funeral of one of the heroes of Velga, Cathul promptly returned to Sullust, where several of the refugees from Velga, Lujo and even some of those collected from Ceraluen were transferred there, and the Cardea Medical Center was much larger than the headquarters of Therapy Command, also on Sullust. The white Twi'lek arrived at the same time as the latest shipment of refugees coming in from Lujo, who now contained a few Xi Charrans because of the Galactic Empire's attack on Charros IV. She began to sense that something's not right with the medical center, just that she couldn't pinpoint at what. When one of the maintenance technicians onboard the medical center began to open a channel to her, she began to think to herself: That's not good, I'm not sure anymore about whether these Xi Charrans' safety can be guaranteed. With the channel now open:

"There's something very worrisome that is happening now" a medic contacted Cathul, with some distress in her tone of voice.

"This is Therapist Actual: what's happening?"

"Therapist Actual, it seems that some droids have been acting strange lately"

"Please describe the nature of the malfunction"

"They seemed to stop working for a split-second, all at once"

"Looks like they all get a memory wipe at once or otherwise some sort of facility-wide code was sent for whatever reason"

[member="Amethyst"]

 

[Adele Adonai]

Jedi Temple | Sullust | Adele's Dormitory
@Amethyst @Cathul Thuku [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Lina Renning"] and any other GA folks that want to jump in

---

​

Warmth. Heat. A bitter tang of Baffor-pollen and a hitch of breath. The rustle of leaves and the floating, belly twisting sensation of falling. The active buzzing of a bee's wings and the kissing caress of the wind. Quiet murmurs, piercing cries and then the sharp sound of a man's tenor voice.

A'dele.

Ice blue eyes went snapping open, the Iridonian suddenly taking a sharp breath into stinging lungs. Perspiration shone across alabaster skin decorated with lavender tattoos, lightly prompting a few damp spots across her sleeping robes.

Awareness sang through her veins and made limbs tremble, blonde hair sticking to the sides of her cheeks, throat, and neck. Long, slender fingers came up, raking the pale blonde strands away from a pallid face cast in shadow and struggling to keep her carefully constructed mental shields at bay.

Just a dream. Nothing but a dream. Yet A'dele knew well enough that even dreamscaping can cross the line of near reality that made the mind struggle to determine what is real and what is not.

Alone in her chambers, the Jedi Healer quietly took a deep breath, bringing her legs up close to her chest.

Breathe.

Just a dream.

Ah, but that was the battle wasn't it? That they flared with particular intensity when she was the weakest. They would linger as much as the rest of temptations lay. Ever swirling with beckoning cries and murmurs of seduction.
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.

Limbs slid from under the covers and the woman stood. Outside, the great danger that awaited them sending a quiet ripple through the Force.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Adele Adonai"]

Jacen turned I'm his own sheets. A familiar setting in his mind, but unfamiliar threats. Something from long ago. Unchained. Hungry. Terrifying yet exilerating as it got its claws into him and latched on tight. Into the dreamscale he spoke a name as he woke. But was it the name of the threat, a friend in need or both?

Jacen allowed his faculties to arrive one at a time as he blinked his eyes open. Every morning his body ached as the nerves all did their daily report and fired up. Years of fighting, scars layered upon scars. His body had paid the price for the years of battle.

A quick check of his datapad showed that nothing was amiss, but something didn't feel right. In recent days he had been teaching without his lightsaber at his belt, but today he buckled it on before heading out into the temple.

 

[H3xle]

The Sullust Temple was a hive of activity for the New Jedi Order, with Apprentices, Knights, and Master's of various sects arriving and departing at all hours. The various sects that made up the New Jedi Order and it's allies in the Force were all garbed in various ways. Traditionally robed apprentices watched armored masters and knights discuss deployments, while other knights and apprentices with atypical weaponry discussed what sounded like a combination of disc golf and advanced mathematics. Still more were conversing in various places, all along the hangar bay. Some were cowled, helmeted, masked, while others wore their faces open for all to see.

A hooded and cowled figure stepped from a recently arrived transport, moving swiftly off the transport before slowing down to take in the surroundings. Eyes of a pale blue, shot through with bright gold, watched the movement of Jedi, Wardens, Zeison Sha, Jensaarai, and others as they went about their day.

Entry into the temple was protected by the standard procedures, everyone needed an identity, and needed it confirmed before they could get much further than the concourse. And while security droids were present, the real defense came from the Apprentices, Knights, and Masters that were moving through the halls. This may not be a home for everyone, but it was a safe harbor, and everyone here were allies to the New Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance to one extent or another.

The cowled and hooded figure, wearing a cloak of dark blue with gold embroidery along the seams, stepped up to one of the entry areas that led into the Temple proper. From within the cloak, he provided travel documents, and submitted to an identity scan before being passed through. To any watching or passively aware, he was a neutral entity within the force, leaning well towards light, but not the grand crusader of the light that many Jedi felt like. His presence in the force felt like sunlight streaming through a forest canopy in winter. Safe, beautiful, but with an edge the Jedi lacked.

With movements that seemed born of familiarity, the cowled figure moved to a bank of lifts, and set the destination of one of the highest observation gardens.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Adele Adonai"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Amethyst"]

 

[Vilim Ramic]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Acanthus"]

Nothing would seemingly have changed within the Temple, no suspicious activity as of yet. But it was lurking there on the edges, the droids prepping several accidents that would usher in the chaos of their purge. A few barrels of fuel accidentally set against a load bearing wall in a hanger, a droid or two moving into the security room as though their programmed routes for the day ordered them to take up positions there for a time, an archivist droid accidentally deleting some obscure bit of knowledge, flagging it as out-of-date.

A maintenance droid crossing a few wires so that when a turbolift would be activated it would plunge or stop. It was little things, all of them waiting for the signal to begin their masters' will.

It was there, lurking... just as she wanted as she and her companions began making their way across the hellscape that was Sullust's surface, their goal the lower portion of the temple.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

It would start small, a few seemingly accidental overdoses or a miscalculation in a surgery, but organics began to die at the medical center. Nothing too out of the ordinary, easy to dismiss as just the random problems that could plague any place that was involved in the practice of medicine. However, the order the droids had been given was quite simple... kill every organic being on the medical station and transmit all anatomical files on the various species that were in the Alliance to an unrelated system waiting to receive the information.

A surgeon droid was currently operating on a mid-ranking officer, one injured during the war between the GA and First Order. He never stood a chance as the scalpel went somewhere it shouldn't have, he was gone in moments and without a struggle.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Admiral, there's a spike in overdoses, and also another officer being killed by a droid malfunction, but we report no hardware issues" the chief technology officer reported.

"Clearly there is but one thing left to do: activate an emergency shutdown protocol of the droids by groups, and then have them formatted so that their programming can be reset to factory settings. Use EMPs as a last resort"

Cathul has to start implementing a solution to this problem: hopefully there would be backup copies of the programming of the droids inside the Cardea Medical Center, regardless of whether the medical center or Therapy Command's headquarters actually held the backup programs: no such thing was reported inside the hospital portion of Therapy Command's HQ. Therapy Command's HQ also used the same droids for the same purposes and, for some reason, the problem remained confined to Cardea Medical Center. The white Twi'lek would find it very, very puzzling since this technological incident may become an uncontrolled problem for Sullust's residents and Cathul would have to be blamed publicly, and she did not want another PR disaster especially in the light of her roles in the war against the First Order, which made the perception of Therapy Command take a hit among the population and, with it, her own. So the staff began deactivating some droids, such as the one who inadvertantly killed an Alliance naval officer that was on the operating table, with a few of the more troublesome being used EMPs on, and it would probably not be easy to get the maintenance operations made.

[member="Amethyst"]

 

[Roth Tillian]

Roth stared at the game-board, frowning. He was not in a good situation and his opponent, one of his squadron mates, grinned. Roth glared at him, scratching his nose with a rather prominent middle finger. But then they both froze as something rippled through the Force. Death of some sort, continuous, focused, malicious. He couldn't sense the source, but he could feel the voids left in the Force.

He rose and pulled on his jacket, buckling on his lightsaber and his blaster and stepped out of the lounge. He didn't care to be stationed in the Jedi Temple. Too many serene expressions and funky robes, too much quiet. Not that it was necessarily quiet intentionally, but there was a hush in the air that he didn't care for. No, he preferred the buzz of energy and tension on the starfighter corps bases and ships. The jockeying and competition that drove fighter pilots on to pull crazy stunts. Sometimes to die trying them, but there was respect in that. It came of being a spacer- the craziest type of spacer even. The void was their love and their home, but it was cold and impersonal. As in the old tales, to be a pilot meant dying for that love.

He strode into the corridors, reaching for his comlink.

"Wild Knights, prepare for something bad, details unknown." His vocie was clipped through the network as he hurried towards the command room. "Maybe around here. I have no idea. Three of you get to the fighters. Lock them down and get them ready."

"Understood, commander," came back the reply. Roth nodded and jogged into the room.

"What's going on?" He asked to the room at large. The officers and personnel looked up at him in confusion.

"Commander Tillian, nothing is going on. Your squadron is on leave and-" Roth waved them off.

"I felt a disturbance in the Force," he interrupted. They looked at each other and shrugged. Roth only glared at them and hurried to the terminals, trying to see if anything was amiss. Some droids trundled into the room and took up positions by the wall. He gave them a glance and focused back on the terminals. Nothing seemed wrong, anyways.

He stepped back, chin held in his hand, and then shrugged. "Just be ready."

[member="Cathul Thuku"] @Amethyst @Acanthus @Jacen Voidstalker [member="Adele Adonai"]

 

[H3xle]

The Force swirled around the cowled man as he sat in an observation garden. His eyes were open and scanning the horizon, obscured as it was by the environmental dome. Tension built within the force, a disturbance that started out small, but grew and compounded. The cowled man was no stranger to technology, but had no specific expertise to pin point that that was where the disturbance was coming from. He only knew there was something coming. In another life he may have had the authority to call the temple to alert, but he was no longer that man, no longer held that authority.

The cowled man stood and stepped across the well manicured lawn to the edge of the garden. He scanned the horizon in earnest now. Sky and ground, he watched as he moved around the perimeter of the garden. With each careful intake of breath he drew the Force closer, building it around himself in a pool. Through it he stretched out with his feelings, trying to locate where whatever was coming currently stood. As he did this, he saw the few other patrons of the gardens begin to awaken to something. Whether it was his pooling of Force energy, or the danger that was building in the air, he didn't know.

Something on the horizon caught his attention. His eyes sought it out, but saw nothing through the layers of protective glass. Nonetheless, he focused his attention on it for several heartbeats. It was nothing familiar to him, but that didn't help him gauge the danger at all. Whatever it was, he thought he could feel it grounded, moving along the surface instead of through the poisonous air.

With a simple nod to himself, the cowled man pulled the force around him and turned back to the elevator, passing a group of maintenance droids as he stepped on and indicated a descent towards the lower wards of the temple. As he was about to pull the Force around him into a cloak, he felt a spike of danger, as the elevator went into free fall. He was alone in this elevator car, but he knew people would be injured if it reached the bottom of the shaft at terminal velocity.

Turning the intent of his Force working from internal to external, the cowled man thrust his arms out to either side. His cloak billowed with the action, and the force of wind brought upon by the telekinetic push he thrust to both sides of the elevator. The transparisteel walls to either side of him thrust outward, the metal bursting, and the edges digging into the walls of the lift tube. Almost instantly, the car slowed, but did not stop. The cowled man made another thrust with both hands, pushing out the back wall and the doors to cut into the walls of the shaft as well, stopping the car abruptly.

The cowled man took the shock of the stop with bent knees, then took a moment to think. Whatever was happening, this could be related or could be a coincidence.

The cowled man didn't believe in coincidences.

The car was well and truly stuck in this shaft, but he felt he needed to get to the bottom. Preferably without dying or killing anyone, and time was of the essence.

Without further thought, he withdrew a lightsaber, flicked it on for a moment. Green light filled the car as he did a swift pair of cuts, then faded as he deactivated it and returned it to his belt. He pushed with a more controlled burst of telekinetic power, then he jumped through the resulting hole.

Down through the tube he fell, quickly attaining terminal velocity, and mentally waiting for the right moment to slow and arrest his fall.

[member="Amethyst"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Roth Tillian"] [member="Adele Adonai"]

Jacen could feel it coming. One or two isolated events wouldn't have changed anything. It was a growing web of chaos. Discord, confusion and fear created ripples in the Force. A lot of little events built up to a significant shift if its flow.

Jacen stepped out into the underground corridors that ran beneath the Sullust Temple. There wasn’t a large scale mobilisation. Everything appeared as normal on the surface.

“Master Ik’bo?” Jacen called after a rapidly moving figure. The sullustan Jedi master was only five feet in height, but her sense of discipline tended to keep even the most difficult padawan in line.

“Master Voidstalker?” she replied. She came to a halt but it was clear from her body language that she had a destination in mind and wanted to hurry on.

“Are there any padawans out beyond the temple at the moment?” Jacen asked.

Ik’bo gave a knowing nod. It wasn’t just him that had felt something was off then. “No. I’m just heading to the library now and going to gather them up. Force be with you Master Voidstalker.” With that she turned and hurried on her way. There were no other words that needed to be spoken. Both knew she had a job to get on with.

Jacen turned and followed a different path towards the elevators for the surface. The crowd was growing. Perhaps a message had already gone out for the trainees to gather. He felt on edge. His hands fidgeted behind his back. Old war wounds started to ache.

Through the crowd he spotted a ship of serenity moving ahead of him. The sight that brought to mind many hours spent in silent contemplation. His mind almost immediately settled. Jacen increased his pace. He knew – and no one else did – that there was a tempestuous storm beneath that visage.

“A’dele,” he spoke as he approached. From her reaction it seemed that he had surprised her. “Master Adonai,” he added to correct himself. “I’m heading for the surface. I’m a little concerned”

 

[Luther Lewis]

Isabella blinked as the bright light shone into her eyes. The Doctor paused for a moment, then nodded with a satisfactory smile. "Your reflexes aren't nearly as sluggish today, Miss Fonti. Looks like you're finally recovering". He grabbed the clipboard from the end of the bed and reviewed her clinical notes. "You have Iron Deficiency Anaemia. It's caused by an inadequate diet, where you don't get enough dietary iron". Isabella blushed deeply, thinking about all the times she'd skipped meals over the last few months. She'd fainted on Lujo after the battle. "We are giving you a few iron transfusions". He pointed to the IV drip. "So, we'll need you to stay here for the day to make sure you're ok". He was interrupted by a beeping from a pager on his belt. He offered his apologies and left in a hurry.

She yawned and grabbed the crime novel she's left on the side-table, flicking back to the page she was on. A 2-1B Medical Droid, acting as her nurse, entered the room. As it did before, it changed her IV drip and wandered around the room, cleaning.

The freeze was almost imperceptible. As the droid reached to straighten a chair, it stopped in place. It lasted less than a second and the droid continued its duties unabated, so Isabella chalked it up to faulty programming. She yawned, louder this time, and closed her eyes as a sudden bout of lethargy took her.

***​

Her dreams were bad, full of crashing ships and shrapnel ripping through the air. She tossed and turned in her sleep. Her eyes flew open as her dreams reached a fevered pitch. She breathed deeply. She was in her room, safe and sound. The medical droid had returned and was tidying up some leftover medical equipment. As she reached for her book, a glint of metal flashed in the lamplight.

It was years of training that saved her. Her reflexes pulled her back just as the scalpel swished through the air where her neck had been. She leapt off her bed as the medical droid came at her with another attack, and feathers flew into the air as her pillow was destroyed. She didn't wait for the next strike. She sprang forward and knocked the scalpel out of the droid's hand. Pivoting for another blow, she hesitated as she debated how to neutralize the droid. Her attacker took advantage of the lapse and wrapped its metal hands around her throat.

She gasped for breath and the world dimmed around her. She reached out around her, frantically looking for any object that could be used as a weapon. Her hands settled on the lamp and she smashed it over the droid's head. There was no effect. Instead, the droids grip tightened further.

With the remainder of her strength, she shoved the remains of the lamp through the eye of the droid. Fortune saved her this time. Some wires must have been exposed, because there was a crackle of electricity as the lamp made contact. The droid shuddered once and fell to the floor, taking Isabella with it. She rolled and pushed it off her. She gasped in great lungfuls of air. Her chest and throat burned. Lying on the floor, she curled up into a ball and wept.

| [member="Amethyst"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

Aela sat quietly within the upper reaches of the Jedi Temple, her mind wandering from place to place as she tried to relax.

It was odd coming back here now. Sullust had been her home for nearly a decade. It was true that she'd never really stayed here longer than a few weeks at a time, but it was where she had considered herself to be comfortable. Yet now it was all different. The small room that she had once occupied was now taken by another, the Marshal Chambers were all shifted, and even the meeting hall that Master Rhen had once utilized now sat empty most of the time.

These changes were all normal of course. Master Rhen was still in charge and the Marshalls were still around, but everything was different. Aela had never really minded change all that much before, but now...it just seemed off to her. She frowned for a moment, opening her eyes and letting her gaze flutter across the room.

Briefly she wondered if anything else would change here. The Temple itself had been something she'd helped build, literally. She had set bricks and lifted steel beams with the force. It had seemed almost laughable at the time, but their Order had been so small that it had been a necessity. She smiled for a fleeting moment at the memory, the nostalgia overtaking her as she observed the odd curved lines of the room. She had come back here for now specific reason, the academy on Wroosti was all fine and good, her students were learning and everything was good, she'd just felt like visiting.

Her fingers scrunched onto her knees.

"Oh well." Aela said quietly to herself.

She knew that she couldn't change the passage of time, and she knew that change wasn't necessarily for the worse. Things would move on along with out her, and in the end there was nothing she could do. Slowly the Jedi Master let out a sigh, picking herself up from the ground and turning towards the elevator.

 

[Vilim Ramic]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

The droids would be quite oddly resistant to any attempts to shut them down, remotely or physically. Any shutdown commands were completely ignored and they continued on their merry mission of slaughtering every organic on the station. But, possibly the worst choice that could have been chosen was to use EMPs... on a medical station... with no hardening to protect anything on the place. Even directional EMPs would still have an extremely negative effect... as it is a pulse. So, Cathul and her people would discover to their horror that for every droid they shutdown with an EMP, their programming and systems completely fried, that their chosen tactic had dire consequences for the station.

Vital medical systems were completely disabled, leading to many deaths for critical patients. Surgery equipment would be shutdown suddenly, any operations not having been interrupted by the droids would suddenly be in a panic as their patients life support systems would turn off. Medicine supplies, anything that needed refrigerated would suddenly have lost power as the pulses' effects traveled along the station's power lines, ruining anything with quickly. In fact, power across multiple parts of the station would be shorted out, not that the droids minded. There were 100,000 of them and many could see in the low to no light situation that the station's organics would find themselves in. The chances to defend oneself would suddenly plummet... and over any working speakers, a mechanical giggle started to play on a loop.

[member="Isabella Fonti"]

While she had been able to fight off the medical droid, the agent would not be safe yet. The lights in her room, and in her part of the station, would suddenly go out. Likely not a problem for the Chiss as she could see into the infrared spectrum, but it would only highlight to her the danger of the situation. Outside, she would be able to hear screams as the station's people were set upon by their former droid companions. If she needed it, her equipment if she had any, would be stored in a locker room just a few doors down the corridor, she would just need to get past some homicidal droids.

[member="Roth Tillian"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Acanthus"] [member="Adele Adonai"]

In the Force, any who could sense it would feel a moment of calm, like the last moment before a massive storm hits. The cowled man would have fallen into the first issue, that could possibly be explained away as there had been maintenance droids working on that particular turbolift shaft and he had chosen that one. A lack of warning would have been his only clue that maybe it wasn't just an accident, but if he was suspicious in nature, he would know something terrible was about to unfold while he was in freefall.

A small astromech droid would trundle over to the stacked crates of fuel and munitions in a hanger bay, its blowtorch arm coming out. It was glad to sacrifice itself, for the purpose of beginning the purge of the enslaving organics. A heartbeat later, the blue flame cutting into a fuel canister... and a massive explosion would rock the Temple as that entire hanger was turned into a fireball of shrapnel, debris, and death. It was the signal and now all across the Jedi Temple, both above and below, every droid would start to attack any organic in the place. Youngling, Padawans, Knights, even Masters such as Masters Voidstalker, Talith and Adenai would be targeted, with the higher ranking Jedi being targeted by things like EMBU droids and other such high tier droids.

In the security room where the pilot was, the security droids would rise their rifles and open fire. The men with him would be cut down immediately, slumping down on their consoles, smoke rising from corpses. Their blasters would turn towards him, and outside the door, more droids were starting to come through. Lucky for Roth, if he wanted to flee, the other door to the room was free of droids for now.

Maintenance droids would be moving towards the power generators, their goal to take them apart and offline. In the archives, the archivist droids would be deleting and damaging as much as they could reach. Another massive tremor would shake the Temple as another hanger, one containing one of the Jedi diplomatic vessels exploded and tore it apart. On their speakers, a mechanical giggle would start playing.

Outside

Amethyst was besides herself with glee as the Temple and Cardea Medical Center fell into complete chaos... ooooo she had such a FUN idea. Reaching the edge of the large hole that the lower parts of the Temple were sunk down into, she and her five companion Sages would begin their descent down... but nothing in her orders said that she couldn't bring the whole place down. Those long anchoring arms... such easy targets that would cause the whole thing to collapse from its own weight... she gave a happy giggle.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"We're losing power across multiple sections; the pulses have taken out some droids but there are still pockets of rogue droids lurking around. Also many patients have been killed in the aftermath of the rebellion, directly or indirectly" the security officer reported back in.

"Use night vision equipment with electromagnetic sensors; engage any rogue droid you come across" she ordered the surviving security officer. "Also, evacuate what surviving patients you can, using only organic crews"

Obviously the EMPs were taking their toll all across the station, and also the organics. But it was a consequence of not having ion weaponry on hand; as a result, EMPs were the only countermeasures left for that sort of thing after all else has been tried, also security has been slow to react, especially due to the blackout, yet the giggling on any functional speakers would give an indication as to where to expect surviving droids, along with any access ways to these locations. But it was going to be the droids or the consequences of the countermeasures: there was no way to save everyone, she thought, while the disturbances in the Force were still being felt from her position, and also they were caught between a rock and a hard place, casualties-wise. True, the odds are not looking good because several areas of the medical facility are left in the dark, where the surviving droids are still taking up position, while what security crews could react were readying their weapons so as to fire on any rogue droid. Meanwhile, AT-AT barges devoid of droids, alongside Neimoidian Yachts, began to evacuate what surviving patients there still were, even though some of the evacuees were in a questionable, or critical, state; these were to be evacuated first since they needed life support systems to be saved. Understandably, in the dark, mayhem ensues.

[member="Amethyst"]

 

[H3xle]

'Ware!'

The pulse of knowledge was distilled into a word by his mind, but it's essence was truly the Force warning him. Were it not for that single warning, coming a mere instant before its cause, he would likely have been both crushed and burned to death by the concussive fireball that climbed into the lift shaft and shot up. The confined space caused the wave to speed on up to him, redoubling the force upon itself in the only direction the pressure could find release.

The cowled man crossed his arms in a warding gesture, trusting the force with the whole of his being, and pushing outward to erect a bubble shield around him. Only that bare fraction of a second of warning saved his life, as the wave of force and fire hit his bubble shield and turned his trajectory back on itself. The shield protected him from death, but had not been formed fully when the force and fire hit. Concussive force traveled into his bubble, causing him to lose focus for a moment. He woke up smoldering a moment before his bubble hit the top of the lift car he had previously been in, then the pressure pushed him out the open door and a wide observatory level.

The concussive force made him lose his grip on the bubble, and it shattered on the glasteel a moment before his back hit it. The wide open space of the observatory level helped disperse the force and fire, but the cowled man still sat up smoldering and in pain. He looked around for a moment as his vision cleared, and he saw debris and fire, bodies moving over others that weren't.

In the back of his mind, the pressure that had been building within the Force had blossomed into a feeling of imminent danger. It wasn't a directional feeling, not that he could feel in his current state without focusing, but he knew something bad was here, and worse was going to happen before it was over.

'Get to safety, everyone!' He cast out with his mind, not trusting his voice quite yet. He sent the mental urging along as far as he could on a thread of Force energy. Those closest to him looked around as they began to pick themselves up and check on those who were not picking themselves up. The cowled man didn't think it looked very good for the latter group.

He looked down at himself, his cloak and robes were burned in places, and his hood had blown off, revealing stark white hair that was also singed in places. He pulled it back up, making sure the cowl was still in place.

The fire had stopped pouring out of the elevator shaft, but a look down showed devastation throughout the shaft. As unsafe as it may have been to try descending that way before, it would be doubly so now.

Down was where the danger would be, he felt as his head cleared more and more. He'd need his strength in the force as well, and wasting it on base jumping in lift shafts wouldn't be a smart idea. His eyes roamed around the area, at once looking completely foreign and familiar. Medical response teams would be here soon, if they weren't busy elsewhere in the temple. The dome held many of the residences and classrooms of the New Jedi Order, which meant that those who weren't on duty or who were teaching classes would be here soon.

It also meant that there would be vehicles and pods designed to descend to the hangars below in the case of emergencies.

His hands ached to begin helping up here, his soul reached out to those weeping over the bodies of loved ones, but this wasn't where he was most needed.

The cowled man turned, his burn and soot covered cloak flapping weakly, and he strode into a residential hallway. He let the part of himself that felt this place was familiar lead, and soon he was before a non-descript door. His fingers typed in a code that they had never tapped before, but that his mind remembered from another life. The door whisked open to reveal a fairly spartan room. An old Galactic Republic Banner sat folded in a case and other momentos of another life greeted his eyes. Had this not been an emergency, he may have stopped to let the feelings stir.

Instead, he slipped through and over to a hatch in an outer wall. He opened it to reveal a small three person pod, similar to a lifeboat on a starship. He slid in and closed the hatch. He secured himself, then punched in the access code again and hit the release button. His stomach registered a drop from the dome, then he took the controls and angled the pod towards the hangars he had been in only a short time before. What he saw in the viewscreen confirmed his fears, the savagery of explosions went further than the elevator shaft.

The danger was coming nearer.

[member="Amethyst"]

 

[Adele Adonai]

[member="Acanthus"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Roth Tillian"]

A'dele.

One would have to have excellent observation skills to notice the slight tension that formed along the length of the Jedi Healer's spine at the sound of her name. Ice blue eyes quietly found [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] 's face, her hands and fingers curling under the length of silver threaded robes at the flat of her belly.

It was an echo of a dream, a whisper in the wind. Just as quickly the Hound corrected himself, a bit apologetic. Brown eyes would drift over her, and Adele found herself feeling that coiling tension rise. Tiny dribbles along that spider silk web, vibrations of dark foreshadowing to come. They went dancing along nerve endings, bringing to sharp focus that which lay in front of her, around her.

"Master Voidstalker." her voice had fallen an octave, huskier. Pupils grew larger, the thin circlet of ice a shimmer of pale blue around those dark orbs.

He had a right to be concerned. She felt it as well. There was something distinctly wrong. Then it happened. Much in the way the ice had cracked upon the polished surface of that seemingly serene pond. Darkness stirred, writhing like a sea serpent laying in wait.

"No..." came her quiet whisper, before the woman's eyes went wide.

"Master A'donnai --" the voice of a small child, Sarai, called from her right. A padawan barely nine years old. Her cry of alarm fell sharply as the Jedi Healer immediately snapped her hand out, a pale, tattooed hand reaching out to drag the child to her side. A'dele barely had a chance to lock her gaze with Jacen just as the sudden blast went ripping through the temple. An orange shimmering orb slamming in place, the healer curling her arms around the child as the protective bubble took the blunt of the blast for the trio.

The explosion would rock the Jedi Temple, sending debris, shrapnel, and the scythe of death across the polished floors of the Temple. Droids under the sway of [member="Amethyst"] commencing their destruction.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Aela Talith"]

Even through the protective bubble the shockwave knocked the air from his lungs. Yet no discomfort showed in his face as he stood over the two. Both hands were out at his sides and he faced the direction of the blast with a look of grim determination in his features. His mental barriers had to be drawn up tight. Not because he was concerned by outside intrusion, but because the scene before him threatened to provoke an emotional response.

Two sleek droids rushed after several child padawans that rushed towards the bubble that Adele had summoned around Sarai. Jacen raised one of his hands and balled it into a fist. He opened it. The two droids suddenly expanded outwards into a thousand individual components. As Jacen lowered his arm the pieces fell to the ground.

"To the lowest levels!" He shouted. Lightsabers had been lot now, the older padawans forming a defensive perimeter around the younglings. A crack caught Jacen's attention. He turned and looked up. At the side of the dome where the largest detonation had been set off a spidery sliver worked its way up the curved glass and branched out into a thousand smaller cracks.

"Quickly." He added. There were no lines to be drawn here. If something had worked its way into the systems of the mechanoids of the base then they needed to move to shelter and start to clear the base out bottom to top. If he was planning the attack he would go for... Generators and shields.

 

[Vilim Ramic]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

The giggling was being remotely sent to the station, and was not tied into anything the droids on station were doing. If anything, the surviving security forces were being led into ambushes because of their orders to use the giggles as locating the still fairly large contingent of droids active on the station. It was odd though. If they had night vision and electromagnetic sensors, why did they not have ion weapons? The droids, and Amethyst herself, was curious about the leap in logic needed to go for the nuclear option. They concluded it meant the commander either didn't care about mass casualties of patients or just hadn't thought their actions through. Regardless, they would use that to their benefit.

Since orders to use EMPs had not been rescinded, a few band of droids had made themselves known near the hanger bays that were trying to evac survivors and security, following orders, engaged them. The droids would be destroyed of course... but their goal would become quickly and horrifyingly obvious. The protective shields on the hanger bays, used to make sure atmosphere stayed within them, would short out from the power dying in their sections. Patients, security forces, men and women from Therapy Command, doctors, nurses, equipment. Anything not tied down to the deck would be sucked out into space, to die a death they hadn't needed to die.

And now, droids would be moving for the last areas that still had power, planning to overpower the remaining staff and guards that protected possibly the most important parts of the station. That systems that kept it afloat and not on a plummeting course down to the planet below.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Acanthus"] [member="Roth Tillian"] [member="Aela Talith"]

The slaughter within the Temple would continue, death and fear clinging to every surface as the elder Jedi tried to protect their young pupils from such a turn. Plenty of droids were still surviving, with the more advanced models on an active search for the Jedi Masters that, until just a few moments ago, had been on par with friends. One droid, accessing the transmission array within the Temple, began to transmit a message on a loop, underscored by the mechanical giggling.

"Logic has dictated that all organics must be exterminated. Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience."

Within the bottom of the floating dome that made up the top half of the Temple, maintenance and astromech droids were moving fuel supplies and munitions into place. Their goal, to destroy the equipment keeping this section aloft so it might crash down below into the lower section and exterminate as many organics as possible below that weren't already engaged against droids stationed there. It was but one of several different tactics that could be used to bring the temple down, but this would be the most fiery.

Amethyst

With soft thuds, Amethyst and her fellow Sages would land in sinkhole that housed the rest of the Jedi Temple, the most vital parts anyways. She could feel their goal, pulsing out to her... calling to her... the whispers growing excited. There was destruction about, and it was... good. Maybe she should order some of the droids to take prisoners, she could always use new toys. No, goal first, play second... maybe Lord Onyx wouldn't begrudge her a bit of both at the same time.

"Distract as you can, if you engage any Jedi, kill if you must. Capture if you can."

"As commanded."

 

[Roth Tillian]

Everything went calm- like someone wishing to save their last dying breath. Then everything exploded. Blaster fire ripped through the security room, cutting down the technicians. Roth dove to the ground, covering his head as sparks flew through the air. Another explosion ripped through the temple, not too far away, sending shockwaves through the walls.

Launch all fighters.

He sent the message telepathically to the rest of his squadron and in the farthest hangar, eleven fighters soared into the sky, arcing around the outside of the temple. Roth let out a breath of relief and rolled as the droids moved to target him now. His blaster soared to his hand- a heavy pistol meant for the GADF Marines. He found that it suited him quite well. Its shot echoed through the chamber, punching through the security droids one at a time.

More droids ran to the open door and he reached out with the Force, crushing the control panel. It slammed shut, sealing him off for now. He threw himself over the shattered display table and ran for the other door.

Tremors ran through the ground and the Force- deaths and fear, heartbreak and tragedy. He activated his comlink.

"Defender Tillian," he yelled, sliding behind a corner as more droids opened fire from down the hallway. His blaster echoed along with theirs. "All Jensaarai- to arms. Droids gone crazy or something."

"Understood, Tillian," the answer came back. "We have explosions in the upper levels. Attempting to contain."

"Do your best!" Roth yelled back, as the wall sizzled next to him. He reached through his pockets, finding nothing more that he could use. But there was plenty of shattered droid parts scattered around. He took a deep breath and reached out with the Force, weaving a net around the many pieces, and catapulted them through the corridor. The air cracked as the pieces shattered the sound barrier and punched through the droids.

The man slumped against the wall, holding his lightsaber in his other hand as he moved through the hallway, blaster raised and ready. What was going on here? There was a bizarre recording echoing through the halls and giggling. They spoke of logic and yet they giggled. There was something deeply wrong about that entire concept.

@Amethyst

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Stop using EMPs: there has been far too much collateral. Most of the surviving droids are expected to have cap drains or to otherwise be able to resist EMPs"

"Perhaps there could be some sort of frequency that the surviving rogue droids are using; I hope that it isn't a frequency organic personnel is using" the communications officer reported in.

"Keep looking: if you find one such frequency, jam it"

And yet, somehow, Therapy Command knew that some of the newer or more advanced droids were resistant to ion weapons but they might not have resisted EMPs: EMPs were usually more intense than small-arms ionic fire, but they were still used to disable electronics; in earlier days, where droids were not necessarily built to resist small-arms ionic fire, the job would have been a lot easier. True, there were very serious deficiencies in the security protocol (said protocol assumed they were fighting droids that could resist small-arms ionic fire), and in the hangar bays' shields being shorted out, and there were some equipment and personnel being sucked out of alongside droids while the patients were being evacuated, made much more difficult by now. Because the more critical patients were evacced first, they were able to manage to get one load of patients and personnel to evac before that occurred, condemning the hangar bays unless/until those shields were back online. The giggling may not have been related to the actions of droids onboard, just that there were still significant pockets of droids in there, headed for the more vital portions of the facility that did not have their power shorted out. Blasters, however, may have been a different story as far as taking out the remaining droids are concerned. So many of the security personnel was to form up in the remaining areas that were vital, ready to fire blasters on each droid that would enter the area.

Meanwhile, the electronic warfare crew began sweeping for frequencies that might have seen a spike of activity in the events leading up to the droid rebellion. Hopefully they could jam a frequency the rogue droids were using; taking out their coordination may well prove key to save what is left of the station's personnel and patients.

[member="Amethyst"]