The End of the Road [OPEN]

[Kirie]

It was at about this point that Kirie decided she had seen about enough. Her eyes flitted between the the intruder at the entrance to her ship, and the injured man, rising to his feet in a display of power that caused Kirie's own Tartarine pendant to cast a radiant, cool blue light around her, wreathing her in the glow and casting deep shadows over her face.

Following what she could of the words tumbling from the man's half-obscured mouth, Kirie's lips formed a hard line. She'd met people like this before. Seen them and felt them, the way they walked on the scorched earth and smiled at the broken bodies, relishing the destruction they caused. Among the Sith, the Imperials, smugglers, even the Jedi, these people walked. They spread their seeds of strife and misery all across the Galaxy.

The worst part is that she knew all of it. She'd felt rage and violence boiling in her blood and relished it. Drank deep from the cup of power and used it and hurt people and paid for it in pain and guilt that would never ever leave her never so long as she lived. And things could never go back to the way they were. Worst of all parts of her still craved it.

The room wavered, and in a flash of light the ship was gone, and Kirie was in some unfamiliar place, where the floor was slick with ash and debris and blood, and where through a great set of mangled doors, crimson blades plunged into the bodies of hapless victims, unable to defend themselves against the horde of hatred. The vision passed as quickly as it came, and Kirie was back in the confines of her ship, no time having passed.

They were the enemy, these people. The harbingers of death, destruction, darkness, and she could not bring herself to face them, so she ran. Always.

But Kirie did not run, instead, her grip tightened on the saber that had somehow found its way into her hand, and stepped towards the masked intruder. The tartarine crystal burned hot on her chest, and dimly she was aware that its radiance had become blindingly bright. Was that her?

'Nobody is going to die today.'

Then a slight pause, her hands shaking slightly.

'Get off my ship.'

Kirie took another step forward, between the intruder and his prey, and cooly flick the ignition on her saber, and the green of the blade mingled with the blue of the crystal. Energy seemed to sizzle through her veins, and she held her head up, defiantly looking into the face of the intruder, trying desparately to hide how afraid of him she really was.

[member="Orex Mauda"] | [member="Darius Sedaire"] | [member="Marina DeVoe"]​

 

[Mauda]

Orex had glanced the woman when he first arrived. But his focus had been maintained on the dying Jedi. But now, she was demanding attention. Stood next to him, Orex could see the glow from her neck, not quite sure of what it was, but he didn't look at her, his eyes locked in the direction of the Jedi. And yet she persisted. Breaking his gaze the woman stood between them, hilt in hand. Something Orex had not noticed.

Her bravery was tremendous. As was her audacity to ignite her sabre. Orex finally looked away from the Jedi and met the eyes of the woman before him, staring into her focused pupils, allowing the spirit within his Mask to grip the roots of her life. What went through his head in that moment was a series of quick solutions to this situation. Reverse her spine, Push her to the other side of the ship, ignite his own Sabre and cut her down... devour her.

The last one plagued him incessantly. Yes, an option. But one that will have its lasting effects? Yes. He knew the fate of the spirit within his Mask and he had no intention of sharing it. But it poked his mind always. Pushing him closer and closer to that temptation. He had felt its effects. Consumed lesser men and experienced what it brought. But he could not.

Orex looked down upon the woman and first attempted peace. But his patience for such things wore thin. He did not have the Diplomacy of a Jedi. But if he were Sith, both women present would be lying in a pool of blood already.

But he was not a monster... yet that was a lie.

"Leave your Jedi with me. Despite what he was taught, his Fate is not decided"

His eye glanced the Jedi as he challenged such a dominant ideology.

"I will give you this chance. Take it, or suffer."

[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]
[member="Marina DeVoe"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

What the Hell?

It were like this throughout most of the galaxy, blind hate that had transcended through the eons of time. Even predating much of what remained of ancient history that had survived the fires of this fueled hatred. It were not at all what the creator had in mind when She formed this part of the Universe, this galaxy that some still remembered being called Sky River.
But Marina were still among the few that had been privi of such lore that had been handed down through the countless generations of her house. And her House had survived the annihilation that had stemmed from this very raw hate were now before her again.

The ever so sounding of a saber igniting always seemed to be the sound of despair to her. She didn't have to look for it or from whom it had been activated from. The emerald glow of light cast among the ship's shadowy crevices told her the woman initiated the challenge. And why not? Marina deduced it were to protect her mate...the man now standing by sheer will alone.

Words...

Marina had wasted so many words with the likes of these force users...be they jedi or demons (as she viewed siths). And at this moment the man overshadowing the woman could be no other than a sith....what else could he be?
Still, Marina were now in this fold whether or not she liked it.
"Has anyone forsaken by the Creator herself ever gone beyond their own call of blind rage to change the course fate?!" Ok, it came out like something out of scripture, but it were a legitimate question, one which were never truly answered by any force user without encroachment upon their own bias beliefs.

"This hate has fueled both man and his kind since their creation among the stars.... sigh...
Neither light or darkness has ever held dominion over the other..." She then said, seemingly exhausted now in her tone and pitch, for no apparent reason now than despair. Marina knew how it would all play out...how it always played out. The plasma hum that were buzzing from the woman's saber were like universal static..it corrupted everything Marina was trying to get across.

"Why continue to repeat the unchanged and expect achievement over it? I die...they die...you will die." Her eyes braved look into the figures abyss which were his eyes. She could see nothing at the moment than two empty voids. Then again, fear could make one hallucinate they were staring at death itself.
"Death cannot be cheated, only altered by time... as to the when and how...but death will come for all of us...even the reaper when all life is extinguished." Marina straightened up.

Were she afraid of death, afraid of this-...this sith? Yes she were, and her voice wavered it. She weren't hiding it, for life had always been precious. Precious enough to her to respect all life....even that of her enemies, the sith.
But her spirit had her backbone now and if death had knocked on the door and were now standing there before them, then it had come. But death would know it had not killed her spirit..only her temple (body).
That victory were no more a gain than if his saber just cut wind.



[member="Orex Mauda"] ~ [member="Kirie Ito"] ~ [member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Cedric Grayson]

(Sorry for taking several days to post. Had a funeral this weekend and I'm just getting back into working order.)

The dance of life was an endless, delicate procession held together by its unknowable complexity, until it wasn't.

Darius was only passingly aware of the two women standing between him and what was likely to be a very painful demise. The exile had spent much of his youth fighting in wars that were not his against foes that he had never known before meeting them on the battlefield, and this one bore their markings. The shadows was not so stupid as to believe that he might be shown mercy in this situation; even if that were this case, this fellow would have malignant goals in mind beyond such mercy. The darkness clung to him too thickly: the purpose of his presence oily and electric within the empyrean.

It told Darius to either run, or to fight, and he could do neither.

"You would be the arbitrator of my death then?" Darius laughed, a rueful, bitter chuckle. "After all this, a stranger decides whether I live or die? Fate's a schutta." The hatred welling in the exile's heart dimmed.

There was no way he could kill this man. Were he in better shape, he was confident he could dispatch the stranger, but he could not fight as he was. No amount of emotion-fueled force energy was going to change that.

A quiet sigh fell from the exile's lips. When he spoke, it was with the voice of a tired, beaten man. "Friends, I'm exhausted." He cracked a weak smile, shook his head, "It's been a very long few days, and I've been wondering whether this is it, or if this is just going to be another cantina story for a few hours now. I'm tired - let's just settle it one way or another."

[member="Marina DeVoe"], [member="Orex Mauda"], [member="Kirie Ito"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She looked over to the woman... 'friends' the man had called them both.
Not that it mattered as to what was transpiring, friend or husband, brother or father, friend or not the man could barely stand enough to even die as a man. Not that Marina would allow it, if she could help it. It were her nature, her heart and spirit which was far removed from the clutches of evil. Sure she got mad, enraged and quite often despaired in her inability to fight such darkness under its own terms, but she were not one that would walk away...she couldn't.

Finding herself still on her feet and not be simply tossed aside or onto the bulkhead, she reached over to the dying man, putting her arm around his torso to help keep him on his feet.
her eyes pierced the darkness void of the sith, his orbs were as dark as pitch still despite her vision blurring. She were tearing..but not crying. It were fear that seemed to always envelop her, to drown and suffocate her spirit. But it prevailed over it nevertheless. She were woman and of mankind. The covenant between man and his creator were unbroken within her temple. Had she been first of man's kind, man would not have fallen.

She had faced this sith long enough. Had looked into his vacant orbs and had spoken her mind. With fear tearing at the very foundations of her temple, her spirit held fast to her convictions. They could all be cut down easily here, bot this man and the woman and her. 'Friends' the man had said. Yes, that was as good analogy as any. They were united in spirit it seemed and would die here as friends. A lifetime could not have made a better bond between them.

Her eyes fell from the sith. She had bared enough witness of this darkness void that had come to overshadow them with the only purpose of it's pathetic existence was to extinguish. It had come for her this day...it were here now.
Her heart, her spirit had made ready... had for this moment on, found peace. Her creator would embrace her spirit, her soul soon enough. it were inevitable and absolute..
There were no more words, nor any pleas. This were sith, and it stood there before them with it's absolute hatred.

To beg, to plead, to reason with it, would do nothing more than one would be pleading with a tornado, a tempest storm. Such a thing, like this sith would appear and destroy... for that were its nature.
So be it, for siths were not of man's kind for they had chosen darkness over everlasting light.

Marina held fast the man, her friend, closing her eyes readying for the weakness of her flesh to bare the pain of death...knowing what lay beyond it.

be de beep beep... her droid came over the comm.




[member="Orex Mauda"] ~ [member="Kirie Ito"] ~ [member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Mauda]

Orex slowly turned his head to face [member="Marina DeVoe"]. An intelligent monologue. But nothing of any worth to the moment. He returned his eyes to the Jedi, peering just past [member="Kirie Ito"]'s shoulder. He gazed upon the beaten man. The Jedi. The embodiment of everything Orex opposed in the Galaxy. If he was as primitive as a Sith, he would already have left this ship with nothing but Death in his wake. But he was not. And though the Jedi's life was one barely worth to him, opportunity was always something to be explored. Orex looked down into Kirie Ito's eye as he spoke.

"A Sith would have killed you", he looked back up to Darius. "Finished you off where you stand." He made no effort to move, rather he remained motionless. "Am I a Sith? No. Your life proves it. But it was they who guided you here. Those angry primates who have lead you by the leash to the door of Death."

Orex gazed at the Jedi, his face betraying no emotion.

"But I will not open it."

He paused, watching the Jedi. Then he turned his head to face Marina, relaxing.

"Take him to your ship. Save his life." He faced the Jedi. "I don't want to talk to a corpse". Orex was not done with the Jedi. To kill him now would be fruitless. And besides, Orex questioned the faith of the dying man before him.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]

(OOC: lol I completely forgot to post this. Had it in saved and just left it, sorry)

 

[Marina DeVoe]

One...two...maybe a few breaths passed before she took to open her eyes again and answered her droid.
"H...hold....pant, pant...hold for a few Tk...." Marina took to reply, hand seemingly shaking on it's own as she brought up her comm.
fear...that were what was trying to take her entirely. But she were above it. only that it were like a tremor shaking her entire center, her temple. But it would not fall.

be do...it replied before switching off.

She remained there still holding fast to the man...a 'jedi' the sith had called him. But wait...it had also said of itself that it were not of sith.
Of course...lies. Sith lies. they were masters of it.
What purpose did it serve for this creature to lie? It were here bringing death and marina doubted that it could be stopped. Perhaps it were just toying with the man and not at all even speaking to her, nor the other woman. All this were playing, cycling through Marina's already troubled mind as it churned the fear with mixtures of salvation, hope, that maybe...maybe...
NO!
No, it were a mind trick and she were above that, she forced herself to reason. Marina had to remember that, as if it weren't for the weakness that her fear were pressing upon her that she could easily resist such mind manipulations.
If it were Lies.
The creature was toying them with lies...it were what sith did.

Still...it had not moved. Not even against the woman with her saber still ignited.

Marina took better hold of the man and a deep breath, making certain that her voice would not falter.
"Y...you're blocking the door..."

Ok, so it didn't come out as strong as she had intended it.
But it were her spirit overcoming fear nevertheless.






[member="Orex Mauda"] ~ [member="Darius Sedaire"] ~ [member="Kirie Ito"]
Shush you! No OOC talk while the story is playing out...sith! :angry:

 

[Kirie]

As the intruder turned his head to face her, It was as if she could feel the colour draining from her skin as they came face-to-face, and he swept his gaze upon her, releasing some force that had been previously withheld.

The fire that had awoken in her belly took a sudden hit and the blue glow emanating from the crystal around her neck wavered and dimmed. The world was suddenly frigid, as if she had been left out to wander in the freezing cold, and the colour had drained from the scene, the rich hues of her ship's interior dulling and fading away, leaving nothing but the cold emptiness of the mask, the mask that remained clear and stark as everything wavered and blurred. For a moment, she felt herself beginning to fall into it and plunge into the deep empty and endless void she was now sure lurked behind it waiting for her.

Then, a moment later, the feeling had passed, and Kirie blinked to find she'd stepped back, and her saber hilt was gripped tight in her palm. When had she extinguished the blade? Blinking several times, she flexed her fingers. Her whole body was tingling as if she'd just emerged from ice water, and the blood was returning to her limbs, bringing with it warmth and life.

'A Sith would have killed you.'

There were other words, but that is what she understood. Moments ago, she was defiant, ready to defend these innocents. What had happened to her? The conversation continued but Kirie's head just spun, the words washing over her without meaning. Whatever the intruder had done, it had done more than take the wind out of her sails, she felt as if a piece had been chipped from her soul.

A wave of nausea overtook her, and she staggered back, away from the trio, and leaned heavily on the interior hull, sucking in deep huffs air, waiting for the world to right itself.

But it didn't, and by the time Kirie realised her legs had buckled she was colliding with the hard floor panelling of her ship, her wounded mind slipping into the safe harbour of the unconscious.

[member="Marina DeVoe"] | [member="Orex Mauda"] | [member="Darius Sedaire"]​

 

[Mauda]

Orex looked down upon Marina, the dying Jedi held to her side. He broke his gaze and turned around, descending the ramp to the grass below. As he began to step out of the ship, a resounding Thud came from behind him. He had felt it, the wavering life-force belonging to Kirie. She had not taken his.. Gaze, very well, and now she suffered. As she hit the ground, Orex turned his head slightly, but carried on down the ramp. It was of no concern to him. Only the Jedi.

He stepped off, his boot impacting the cold grass. Further on he could see the ship Marina had arrived in. Indeed it was bigger and looked from the outside much better equipped. He turned away and walked parallel to Kirie's ship. Eventually he came to a halt and turned back around, facing the space between Kirie and Marina's ship. Here, he would wait.

He sat down, straightened his back and broadened his shoulders. He kept a tie to the Jedi so as to remain informed of his health but otherwise, shut himself off. Slowly, he entered a comatose Meditation and fell into himself. The health of the Jedi would serve as his alarm. If he survived, he would return to him. If he died, he would simply leave.

[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Marina DeVoe"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Sure, her heart were pounding like a breaking hammer and resounding through her own ears like it wanted to break out. It were fear. fear of her life...all life at the edge of death which seemed to somehow emanate-wait, no.
No not emanate, it didn't emanate, that much Marina were now beginning to reason. Something had drawn...this creature in the form of man maybe, it had drained, absorbed from one's own life being...like the vacuum of space itself.
But what were their options? Here in this tiny vessel, they were all for the most part contained, trapped with death at the door seemingly sucking their very spirits. Ok, so marina held not only to the man but to her own spirit just as tightly. Still, her features could be said to be ghostly white. Fear. One couldn't live among fear and not loose whom they once were.
She found herself gripping the jedi tighter before realizing he needed his diaphragm to breathe.
"...sorry" She muttered not gripping him so tight around his abdomen.

But death and the chill it brought receded from the ship, when the creature did finally turn and step aside...going down the ship's ramp? Marina was besides herself for a moment...maybe recovering from all which had transpired in what seemed like a waking nightmare. She were no stranger to the witching hour..the realm between reality and dream...or in most cases, nightmares.

One thing certainly confirmed the creature exiting, the ship's life support were now apparently making up what had been somehow taxed. Marina could feel the warm air coming through the ventilation system, whereas before there had been an increasing chill about the air that she had chalked it up to her nerves..fright..fear..
So it had not all been imagined then... the creature had literally drawn the warmth out of the air, even from the ship itself.
This time she got the real chills up her back.
What were that creature's game now? Were they to believe it were just going to let them waltz out of the ship and that would be that?
Again, what choice did she have...what chance did this man have if she didn't get him on her ship?

She firmed up on the man and took one step, then just like that the girl herself dropped.
"Eeek" Marina almost screamed, when she saw the girl collapsing to the floor.
Her troubled brow said it all...what now?!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

She stopped midway to her ship. Marina had made a choice. A choice despite what the jedi had implored her to do.
Marina had checked on the girl, she were alive...but unconscious. The choice had been made before the girl collapsed. The man was dying, the girl was not. Damn it..it should have been her who should have fainted. How is it that she hadn't and the girl had?

The trek down the ramp was the easiest. Then came the grassy field. The farther she got from the ship the more it felt she were walking on frozen tundra, only the grass were becoming like icicles..upside down icicles! What the frak?!
Midway. Midway was the dead of Winter itself if there was ice and snow visible. But there weren't, it only felt like so.
Midway she stopped...meters away from the creature, feeling even her own body temp now dropping...it were taking everything around it, even if it weren't trying.

"We're not insignificant. " She then said, staring at the closed eye creature...meditating?..or conjuring up whatever he was doing all around them?
"You wouldn't be testing us if we mean nothing to you. " She then said, her breath hitting dew point, it were so dead cold here between the ships...near the creature.

She looked back on the girl's ship, then hers up further. The creature remained pretty much midway, like she were with the dying man not only loosing blood still, but body heat and whatever else to this creature.

"Y..you could have ended us in the ship..." She continued to try and arouse the creature to listen.

"Why......why..." her legs weakened. it were the cold..her own body temp had lost a few precious degrees and now failing like that of the girl in the ship. "..why kill us out here?...for your forsaken idol gods to bare witness in the life you take for them?" Oh, oh..she were getting pissed now. pissed because she knew she couldn't make it to her ship. Not as long as this...thing was doing to her..to them.

"I...I'm not begging... if that is what you want from us before it is all done..." She were no longer finding the jedi heavy or barely feeling him at all, she were becoming so numb. Nope, she weren't going to give up her soul, her spirit to this creature.
Another step would not make any difference anymore as there were hundreds more after to make if she were to reach her ship. There was no way she could make it to her ship, with or without the jedi.

"If you're going to end it, then do it... just don't toy with us...
There's no gain in any of this that you do here...and your word..your word... would mean...n nothing." her words fell like the vapor of her breath upon the icy grass. She were meaning his words to save the jedi..to take him to her ship...

It had all been a rouse... a tease..a game. Give them, give her, just enough hope to then hang herself further down the path it lured her on.
Siths...they were masters of it...she should have known.





[member="Orex Mauda"] ~ [member="Kirie Ito"] ~ [member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Mauda]

Orex was lost within himself. He felt the Jedi approach, his life still clinging to its thread. And then it stopped. At first Orex was not bothered by this. But he remained still, and continued to remain so. His chaotic core was slowly being infected with Words. Someone was speaking. Slowly, Orex pulled himself from his being and returned to reality..

"I.. I'm not begging... if that is what you want from us before it is all done..."

Orex's eyes remained closed but his frustration grew. Did suffering really warrant such useless behaviour? To take precious time from life, only to wallow and complain simply out of suffering? Orex slowly opened his eyes to see [member="Marina DeVoe"] facing him, dying Jedi in her arms. She stood there, crying out in quiet suffering. Orex pulled his focus from the Jedi and instead observed Marina through the Force. Indeed she was fading, and rapidly. Anger overcoming him, Orex shot up from the grass and stormed toward Marina.

His boots pounded across the moist grass as he approached the pair. He barely stopped before grabbing the Jedi by the throat. He disregarded his injuries, wrapping his fingers around his throat and pulling him from Marina. Without a word, he dragged the dying man to Marina's ship. He paced up to the entrance, outstretched his free hand and forced it open. The entrance slid open and Orex quickly made his way inside. Once inside, he simply dropped the Jedi to the floor. As soon as the body impacted with a metallic Thud, Orex spun around and left the ship.

He stormed back up to Marina and stopped directly in front of her. With no intention of harming her further, he kept his gaze to one side.

"I am testing you?" His voice was laden with anger and frustration. "All I ask is that you keep that Jedi alive. He, is significant. You, are not." He leaned in, bringing his Mask by Marina's ear, "Utter one more complaint. And I will kill you, the woman, and the Jedi."

He straightened himself and immediately returned to his original position. This time however, he did not Meditate. He simply stood, clasped his hands behind his back, and waited.

[member="Marina DeVoe"]
[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Marina DeVoe"]

 

[RU-TK1213]

It were not uncommon for it's master to come to the aid of others. And even with the astronomical odds that she would run into a sole ship on a remote and uncharted system all this way past unexplored Outer Rim territories, she had.

TK had readied the med bay to receive what it understood to be an incoming wounded, by it's master's last few transmissions. The droid itself had picked up the other three life forms and concluded that one, a male were emitting very low biorhythm life signs. Reading on the Mariner's monitors contradicted the fact that the man shouldn't even be conscious. But the man was and seemingly hanging on to life by factors the droid could not calculate.

TK was originally an astro-mech droid, One gotten by rather unique circumstances from one of the last remnants of the Galactic Imperials. In it's design and original function/purpose it were an Imperial mech droid...on the surface. But had been modified by Marina's grandfather, much like her ship the Mariner IV to serve as much more.

The droid's feeble attempts at rousing it's master, based on it's chronological time calculations as to how long it took for Marina to perform one task to another gave it input clues as to the situation at hand.
She were in peril.
The droid zipped about readying the Mariner IV for a quick exit, having already calculated it's jump trajectories at various potential high orbit locations. It did this in the event the ship could not make the single point of jump. While busying itself with such tasks it were also linked up with the ship's monitors which soon alerted it that it's master had left the small ship...and with the male in critical condition.

be de... it let out a small concern as to it's master exponentially slowing her progress to the mariner till she had come to a stop at 0.4957% of the way to the mariner.

de be... It monitored the three figures, noting the drop in not only the man whom it's master had brought out of the small vessel, but also herself.

Somehow TK could not pick up any audible sound waves..only static from what seemed like communication between the figures and it's master.

TK suddenly whirled around the moment it picked up what one figure seemed to be doing to the critical male. It had forcefully dragged the other male all the way to the mariner. TK left the cockpit and rushed on over to the ship's ramp, meeting the two figures before the one dropped the other at it's entrance way.
TK approached the fallen male, determining that this was the one in need of the medical bay. But why was Marina still out there in the cold field?
It's own sensors picked up the cold stale air and it's immediate surroundings. It were concentrated, this heat sink of sort, and it were beyond the scope of it's analytical comprehension. It could only record it as a phenomenon.

be de beep be beep...it first called out to it's master from where the injured man lay in the entrance way of the Mariner IV, before it sent out the same message per comm to her.




[member="Orex Mauda"]
[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Aaaah..." She let out a faint scream frightful of the creature suddenly lunging for her. The man, if the creature were to be called that, had stormed straight for her, it seemed, for whatever reason she couldn't yet grasp.

But it weren't her throat he laid grip on, but the man she were barely helping keep on his feet, she were so drained herself..ergo, the weak scream.
The jedi was literally snatched from her like he were nothing but a rag doll, leaving her to collapse on to her knees, helplessly watching the poor man being hauled god-knows-where.
But that where was her ship!
"What the frak?..pant..pant.." She tried to stand, as now it were just her own frame she were carrying.

To her surprise the ship's door opened which by all accounts she knew her droid wouldn't have allowed this creature despite dragging the jedi over, access.
"Frak....why not, right?" She cussed to herself, no doubt experiencing another force user having their way anytime they wished. "..sith.." she snarled before witnessing the creature drop the man inside the ship.

Then to her amazement, it didn't finish the man, as the jedi 's knee came up indicating he were still alive and in pain on the floor.
What in all that was Holy going on? And why was he now heading back to her? Had she read the creature wrong? And what the hell was he?..it were certainly nothing she had ever come across, let alone heard about. Thank the gods it stayed in remote uncharted sectors of the galaxy, she thought.

Just as the creature started his way back to where she were, her droid came over her com.
"I...I don't know TK. No, no..I'm alright.
Just..
Just get the ship ready for a quick jump, got it?
Gotta go-" She cut off just before the nightmarish ghoul reached her.

The man or creature whatever the frak it was, suddenly came over her like a two ton heavy thing bearing down on her. She meant nothing to it it hissed...well, it seemed like a hiss as she were still somewhat stunned by fear..could have been the hiss in her head like static.
The jedi was important to this creature and it wanted the man to live.

Well, that's when confusion set in again. Had she hear or understood right? If she were of no importance, then why would the creature put emphasis on her inability to bend to his will? This put her on the top of the pyramid, no? She, whom the creature had just snarled her insignificant, would determine the fate of all.

"S...stop it you." She tried to push him away, but would have had better luck at a stone wall. It didn't budge.
And for one thing...his body weren't of ice, she felt the cold around her, but not on him. He were of flesh, much like she were.

"I was set to help him...pant...pant... and the other woman before you came.
Don't put his fate, nor anyone else on my shoulder...pant...pant.
All that you do, you are doing it by your own accord..." She couldn't push him off, but she could stand. So she staggered to her feet. Not a solid stance, but one certainly of defiance, however feeble the notion was.
Still, she had never bent nor ever submitted to sith and their likes. She were always a defiant one to their will. And this sith, at least it was a sith in her eyes, would not enslave her to his will and whatever schizophrenic game he were toying with them all.

"Call it what you will...
I'm helping him because it is who I am." Amazingly, aside from the initial staggering, marina started walking toward her ship.

[member="Orex Mauda"]
[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[RU-TK1213]

Without a further beep or a bleep, the little droid reached down and pulled the man whom had just been dropped off and sprawled out on the floor by the main hatchway further into the ship.

TK had received orders from it's master to prepare the ship for a quick launch. There were definitely many factors here that alerted the droid that what was taking place was detrimental to the welfare of Marina. What was certain was that the other humanoid, a male by the droid's perspective was the pivoting focal point of all this danger. Although it had not witnessed the man harm Marina, it nevertheless identified the man as an immediate threat to her.

Still, despite the man storming back to Marina, TK had his orders. As soon as it pulled the injured man into the main corridor of the ship, it quickly turned and headed to the main flight cabin. Marina had prompted TK to ready for take off. This meant an emergency exit off the system...and to prep the ship so as not to fire it's drives until it were punched. The mariner had been designed and fitted for such quick ignition and thrust.
The droid had gone through much of this routine a few times already.
With he Mariner IV's engines prepped for on-demand ignition, all that were needed was Marina to board the ship and then burners on.

be de be... It silently chirped as it waited for Marina.




[member="Orex Mauda"]
[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

The grass could as well have been a torrid current as it seemed she were fighting a river...

Her droid met her at the gangplank, beeping and whirling about, as it didn't understand how she could be taking her sweet ass time. The way it calculated she should be on her game with a dying man on the floor of her ship.

"Pant..pant...I got it, I got it..." She tried quieting her droid up as she took a breath leaning her weight on the bulkhead. Lord, if she ran a marathon, she wouldn't be half as drained.
Between the beeping and chirping of her droid trying to get her butt moving and the poor man, the jedi barely moving on her floor, she summed up whatever ember of energy still there to get herself over to the man.

Her droid then closed the hatch, retracting the main ramp before it started to speed toward the cockpit.
"Wait!...where the Hell you going?" She stopped her droid. It repeated the orders she had given it to ready the Mariner IV for an emergency take-off and flight.

"Frak..." Yea, she had given them orders alright. But that was before she even gave it any thought. Sure, she definitely wanted to get the Hell out off this rock and as far away from that creature as she could. Only...
only she weren't one to leave anyone helpless behind.
The other girl!
Marina hadn't gotten her name, but she couldn't just up and leave her behind. Not with that horrid thing sucking the very life force from all around him including this forsaken planet.

"No....sigh...pant...pant....we can't go. Not just yet." She then said, before her droid started objecting, giving her logistics as to why she should get herself off this dying mass. Whatever that humanoid was, it were drawing too much life force from living things, including Marina which it argued was it's primary objective to keep safe.

"Don't argue...help me get this man to the Med bay..."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

"I...I don't know if I can save your arm..." She spoke to the man, not sure at all if he could even understand her, much less hear her at all. He seemed unconscious, yet...semi unconscious. He were jedi, she had found out by the creature no less. She had somewhat some knowledge of them, although didn't know one personally. Still, she had learned enough to know that they could somehow controll their pain. maybe it was what he were doing as she guided the micro-suturing computer to reconnect as much severed tissues, blood vessels and nerves together. But much of the torn, burnt tissues were beyond the state of the art medical computer to stitch together. That's where she came in. Marina had to guide it...override it's natural programming which would otherwise not attempt to repair the repairable.
Still, it seemed a futile effort on her part, but she were one that rarely called it quits. She were human...and humans had always been pushing their limits, pushing beyond what even the Creator had first expected of them to accomplish. Well not really, as the Creator had made man and his kind in Her own image. And besides, marina were female...a woman...a creator herself as she had the means to nurture life within her and thus, had the will to nurture life beyond her own temple (body).
So no...Marina could not let life end...not under her watch if she had a hand in it.

"... you hearing me? I can only go so far... " yes, she often spoke...a lot.
More so when under duress and in dire times such as this. Whether the man before her could hear or understand her, she nevertheless spoke to him..conscious or not.

"I...I hear you are jedi. Jedi I have come to understand...well, read mostly...sigh...
"Anyhow.." She kept working on the man's most severe wounds, especially his arm.

"...that they have an uncanny ability to...to help along surgeons. I mean...well, to able to heal themselves.
Well...I...I could use some of that jedi healing from you right about now."

And so the hour stretched on to the next...and then some. And all throughout those operations, she never once stopped talking to the man. By near completion, as far as her ability and the extent of what the medical computer could do, she were going on with one story after another...
...."yea, would you believe it actually worked? I mean it like severed the tractor beam and slingshot me to my jump point and Kazowy...was out of there before they knew what hit them.
Hehe...still have the other one. Got it taken off the old ship and got it all good and mounted on this one. Never know when it'll come in handy...you know?
Anyhow...we're almost done." she looked over to the synthetic blood count. It had slowed down to almost a pin drop.

Marina had been giving the man transfusions with synthetic blood, which was also designed to be the sacrificial media that would bleed first out of severed capillaries, releasing clotting agents. This saved what the body normally produced as pure blood, giving the patient a better chance at recovering their own blood levels. Right now, the man were not bleeding externally, nor internally. Whether his torn and sutured tissues were to recover, that would be now up to the man's own temple.

"... hope I've not bored you to death. maybe when you recover, you can tell me about yourself and how in blazes you wound up on this rock?
I kind of got it that you didn't get into a tiff with Mr Personality out there...sigh...God, I hope whatever that man or thing is, it's gone." And she definitely hoped so, for if it wasn't, then ...then that would be an ongoing nightmare.




[member="Orex Mauda"]
[member="Kirie Ito"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]

 

[Kirie]

As the blonde woman made her preparations for a hasty retreat, activity stirred on the abandoned ship still sitting on the seemingly endless grassy plain. From a hatch in the hull, by the door, a small spidery droid crept slowly from its space, little by little unfurling its spindly limbs. It was a miniaturized protocol droid, mean for the smaller of the sentient species. Kirie had chosen the particular model as it seemed strange and antiquated, a little out of place in galaxy of shining silvered droids. Though, Kirie was not admiring the protocol droid. She lay unconscious on the floor, her skin ashen, pale and trembling.

The mask had taken a lot out of the woman who was already more fragile than she allowed herself to admit. The chunk of her that had been taken would take time to replenish.

Clacking its pointed feet against the floor, the little droid walked slow and lazy circles around the unresponsive woman, and eventually it trotted over to the other side of the ship, clambered up one of the walls and deftly clicked the door control, sealing the ship with the hiss of hydraulics. Pausing occasionally to check on the sleeping girl, the little droid ambled about, making its well-practiced preparations, as this was a procedure it had repeated often.

Finally, the vessel was ready, and the protocol droid climbed into the pilot's chair, settling down and curling its limbs up under its chassis. The thrum of power coursed through the ship, and an automated comms message warned those nearby to step away as the ship rose smoothly into the air, gliding up and away from the plain, into the night, and the dark expanse beyond.

[member="Marina DeVoe"]​

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She kept chatting away, going from one subject to another as she guided the auto-med in suturing the man's wound. It were her way of keeping calm and staving off fear...the real mind killer. Then again, what was out there was something just as worse, for it had no means for her, nor anyone whom could reason with it.

"...how and why such creatures come to be, is beyond me..." Marina continued to talk to the man she were trying to save. So far, what the auto-med hadn't calculated to have been repairable had now re-evaluated the current efforts that Marina had done by overriding it's program and was taking over...recognizing the new avenues of possibilities by which marina had introduced. It started to micro-suture capillaries and nerve, along with muscle tissues.

"Oh..thank Berkana..." She were able to take a breather as the surgical computer was now on it's own.
"I don't know what your name is..." A caring gentle hand rested on the man's heart. "... but if the heavens permit, you will be able to tell me that yourself..." Yes, there was much relief and new found hope in her voice. She and the auto-med had done their best in not only stopping both internal and external bleeding. By the looks of the bio-scanners, it appeared that the damaged and previously severed tissues were once more stating to show circulation. The minute bleeding were at a minimum and looking like they were clotting.
Even the flow of synthetic blood was down to a trickle. The man's own temple were starting what Marina could read as healing itself.
"Whew..." She sighed relief for the first time since landing on this forsaken rock and coming to meet what ever dark creature of a sith was out there.
Checking over the man's bio-life signs, she was confident enough to step away. She were breathing like she had just ran a 2 kilometer race. "...Oh thank Berkana (her version of God, a female no less).

be de beep be... her droid then sounded off excitedly, when it entered the med-bay.
Marina's heart jumped, as not all which excited her droid were in line with good things happening.

"What do you mean powering up?...has the creature taken over the ship?"

Her droid couldn't answer that as it had certainly analysed the humanoid out there as a force user. There was a slight possibility that the creature could indeed influence a vessel like that. Still, the creature was still out there between the two vessels. And that in itself had marina believe that the girl inside had somehow got her ship started. It meant the girl was alive, or had come too. Both possibilities were hopeful.

Marina rushed over to one of the ports on her ship and looked out. Sure enough the ready lights were flashing and the ship's ramp which had been extended when she had left with the injured man had retracted. She could make that out by the ship's lights.
Sure enough the waves on the grass, like that on a lake could be made out even in the darkness from the engine thrusts.

"And where did that thing go?" She inquired.

de de do beep... her droid replied that it were still out there...alone.



[member="Orex Mauda"]
[member="Darius Sedaire"]
...and thank you, [member="Kirie Ito"]

 

[Mauda]

Orex's head slowly turned toward the rising ship. His anger broiled and teemed. His thoughts flashed to her insolence and ignored her innocence. He reached out with his charcoal hand, gripped the craft from afar, and pulled inward. The craft was torn from the sky and stubbornly sent careening into the pristine blades below. The moment it collided with the surface, it all disappeared

And his thoughts fell away.

Head turned, he watched as the defiant explorer's craft removed itself from the silent world, retreating into the abyss. His anger, frustration. Adrenaline and all else that accompanied him always, subsided. He was in control now. More so than in his earlier years. And yet regardless of how tight he gripped his being, the ruination within never left. Fragments of his younger self manifested themselves. The explorer was innocent. Her death unneeded. But the man deeper within him had no care for such things. The man within wanted only to avenge what was taken.

Orex turned his head to the complainer. The Jedi was inside, alive. Barely. Orex let out a slow breath through his mouth. He knew what tainted that breath. What he felt. Refused to confront it and instead returned to his previous state. One of stillness. Waiting.

[member="Marina DeVoe"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She didn't know what to feel.
Relieved or dread...

Relieved that the poor girl had managed to escape the creature, or dread that the damn thing was still out there? Both, in varying degrees.
Taking a moment with bated breath to watch the ship climb and shoot for the stars were itself inspiring. Every kilometer distant were in itself a monumental relief. At least one of them had managed to escape from the clutches of this creature. Marina looked over from one monitor to the next, where it displayed the ship's progress and exponential acceleration in ultimately escaping the system's gravity. The girl were making for the distant stars, before suddenly popping into hyperspace.

be de beep be beep....Her droid whirled around and headed back to the ship's cockpit.

It took a moment to register, but she suddenly remembered the order and as to why her droid booked.

"Wait...
TK, WAIT!!" she shouted behind the droid before it stopped short of entering the cockpit. It turned, and beeped , confusingly as to why the stay...the wait.
Had she not experienced first hand that what was out there was beyond her reasoning and his also? TK understood a lot of things, but force users, he could not. The ability to influence and control matter as force users did was beyond the logical aspect of physics, not to mention reasoning. And it could reason, TK.
But what was still out there could not. It had registered the being as a force user and under the category of sith. And sith was a bad word in all the sense and programming it had.

DI DI... It replied, although remaining where it stood for the moment.

"Can't do?.." Did she hear that right?
"What do you mean, 'can't do'?...and in that tone no less." Yes, it were quite odd and out of the ordinary for her droid to respond to her in that manner.

be de de de beep de... it went on and on about getting her out of here, and with no time to waste. There was an entity still out there that had showed it's aggressive and destructive intent. TK had even felt the loss of reserves when the humanoid had come to drop the injured human on the deck floor.

"Yes...yes, I know what's out there is harmful.
OK Ok, Dangerous!..." She looked back over into the med bay at her patient. The man seemed unconscious, or at least had his eyes closed still. She knew it was the man the creature wanted...a jedi he had claimed the man to be. And the creature wanted him alive and virile. Well, the man was for the most part out of the woods, but no the thickets. He had a chance to recover. But not for some time...months ..maybe longer with proper medical re-evaluation and then therapy. Naturally marina were thinking in the lines of normal recovery. She had little experience with force users...or so she believed.

"It knows..." She then said, turning from the jedi and back to her droid.
The creature. It let her go. And it know what's taking place here." Intuition...maybe something else. But as to how she knew, she were not privi of this yet.

"be de be de beep.. her droid tried reasoning with her, but to no avail.

Marina approached the figure by the light of the stars itself. it were nothing more than a silhouette..a dark statue in the charred remnant of what was once tall grass. It had done that. She had only come as far as what she felt to be some kind of event horizon...feeling the draw of life tingling on the hairs of her arms. this was as far a she were going to approach it.

She had the feeling it knew what she thought of it...although it were not one that included it's destruction. She could not waste life as many did around her.
"We're leaving...." She said.

There was no immediate reaction. nothing which indicated it were even listening, nor aware of her presence not a few meter's distant from it.

"The man's injuries have been reduced to non-life threatening. Not sure yet if he will loose the arm. I'm taking him to a proper hospital... I could only provide life saving measures..." Again nothing. nothing like the void of silent space itself...although the coldness creeping further up her arms to her spine, making her take a step back to subside it.

"Sigh...fine...consume the grass...the hilltop...mountain...the world itself. But you will always be alone with yourself.
And when there is nothing left for you to consume..." She stopped there, then turned.

Why in Berkans's creation did she feel sorry for such a creature as this?
Then again, it had not killed or harmed anyone that she knew of. Sure, it was crude, but all siths were for that matter, right? Yet this thing...this creature in human form had to posses some kind of humanity buried deep within itself which it may had never touched upon it, or maybe no one had tried either...

Shaking the creepiness off, she headed back to her ship. TK had been beeping quietly as it observed her out there, and was now waiting for her to get back safely inside.

Marina had tried. Had tried several times earlier to reason with it, only seemingly irritating it. Yet...yet it had not harmed her. And it knew she had the means of saving the very man it wanted to kill.
Wanted.
Wanted was a desire, not an action...


[member="Orex Mauda"]

 

[Mauda]

From the corner of his eye, Orex watched the woman approach. Her trek across the moist grasslands was unhindered and seemingly confident. She strode up to Orex and stopped short of the black hole he exuded. When she spoke, his eye snapped to her figure while his head remained motionless. He didn't speak. He was conflicted. She intended to leave, keep the Jedi alive. That was against his interest. Yet still it challenged his logic somehow.

She was exasperated. Exhausted. Orex knew his silence did not bode well with her. He felt the uneasiness. But he did not expect her to reach out to him. And when she did, it struck him.

"And when there is nothing left for you to consume..."

Then I will consume myself. Finally.

She struck a nerve within him. She stimulated thoughts. She turned and began to return to her ship as Orex continued to gaze into the dark horizon. Outside, he was still, but within, the noise only grew. Grew from the whispers into shouts, compounding, multiplying..

Without thought, Orex's gloved hand outstretched and his grip surrounded the woman. He dragged her across the grass, rotated her body toward him and pulled her throat into his grip. With her back nearing parallel to the ground, he looked down upon her. If he let go, she would simply drop to her back on the grass. But he held, and stared. Darkness enshrouded the Masked half of his face. Light only fell on the exposed portion. Along the border between the Mask and his Face, raw, red flesh lined. Brightness fell across his face. His cheekbones were glorified and the grey hue of his skin emphasised. He peered into the woman below him with a bloodshot eye that held no semblance of happiness. His iris was perfectly still, locked in a gaze. Eyes are the window into a soul, and Orex's eye was a window built from the frame of suffering and glazed in pain. If the old saying held any truth, such a window would give way to a ruined soul of oscillating darkness. But such things were invisible to the average being.

Orex stared. His grip was firm, but without violent intent. He stared, his Mask vocoding his breath as it passed. He looked as though he would speak.

He let go.

Marina fell from him, he turned, and he walked away.

[member="Marina DeVoe"]