The Lost and Forgotten

[Adron Malvern]

Location: Small mining colony​

Planet: Svivren​

Objective: Capture test subjects​

Time: Late night​

Armor: Crimson Dread​

Weapon: Lightsaber​

Tags: [member="Amilthi Camlenn"]​

The barren rocky lands of Svivren were not often traveled, especially not in the dead of night without the cover of daylight. In the Southern Hemisphere the Mining outposts and colonies were far more spread out than they were on the Northern part of the world. Even the closest of these colonies were hundreds of miles from their "neighbors" and across vicious terrain. A number of Confederate gunships descended onto the planet, deployed from deep space in a rapid intrusion so they would not draw too much attention. These ships had been stripped of their transponder signals and codes so they appeared to be nothing more than your run of the mill smuggler or trade convoy.

"Sir, we are approaching colony 174 now. Our sensors detect barely one hundred life forms and no military presence, only a small security team to keep the peace." The BX-Commando droid that stood beside Adron had a slightly deeper tone than his standard Battledroid counterparts. It was slightly refreshing as Adron had always found the high pitch of the other droids to be a pain, however it did not mean he would treat the automaton any better than he did other droids.

"Prepare the other droids and begin jamming the settlements communications." The Sith Lord glanced down to the black Durasteel mask that was in his hands. It was a crude piece of work but it would work well enough to mask his own features. Adron slid the mask over his face just before looking back to the Commando droid's soulless red eyes. "Remember Commander, no one escapes." His voice was distorted, deeper than the usually refined tone he held.

"Yes, sir." The Droid turned away from Adron and moved into the cockpit. The passenger bay was dark, nearly black, the only bit of light shining off of the other Commando droids who accompanied Adron.

The darkness would soon fade away as a red hue fell over the shuttle. They were about to land.

Their gunships flew low to the ground as they approached the mining colony. Embedded into a small fissure it was barely defended yet decently hidden. Honestly the settlement was nothing more than a mess of small huts and buildings to house the miners and their families. Since this colony was one of the poorest it didn't even appear to have landing platforms. Two of the gunships would land on the ledge of the fissure as the lead would land in the mouth of the fissure, effectively closing off any exit.

As the door to the passenger bay slowly came open Adron watched as his droid escorts seemed to come to life. Though there were only four Commando droids accompanying him there were close to twenty five battledroids aiding them. Flanked by his droids Adron began to approach some make-shift entry control point. Two security officers, who seemed to be recovering from a brief nap, approached Adron and his droid bodyguards.

"Uhm….Are you one of the Mining Officials? Look, we weren't slacking off or anything. Everyone is safe." From beneath his black mask Adron looked over the dusty uniform the man wore. By the oversizing of his slacks and the obviously cheap blaster pistol the Sith could tell this would be an easy night. He could not help but chuckle a bit at the man's ignorance. "Kill him." Adron gestured to the man.

A blaster shot slammed into the man's chest in the next moment. One of the Commando droids had received, processed, and executed the command in the fraction of a second. As the security officer fell to the ground lifeless, his partner fumbled to draw his own blaster pistol. Younger, and slightly more attentive he was almost able to aim the blaster pistol at Adron. However, his wrist was grabbed by the iron pincers of another of the Commando droids. The loud snap that erupted out told Adron that the wrist was completely shattered, however the cries of pain that followed did help. "Take the boy." The Droid wrestled the man to the ground with almost no struggle from the younger man. Adron glanced down at him and felt as if he could almost see the man's fear radiating off of him. He would drink from this weakness and find it almost soothing as he continued his approach to the settlement.

While his entourage had moved through the pathetic checkpoint the rest of the battledroids had moved into the fissure, executing and subduing the rest of the security officer's and making quite a racket as they did. It was not long until the settlement was in an uproar. Some attempted to fight the droids and were immediately executed. Many of these rebels were quite amusing, using mining tools and common house held items to harm droids built for war. Those who did not fight or tried to hide were only delaying the inevitable. From a small hilltop Adron watched as the droids tore trough the village, taking whoever they could find and herding them into the center of the settlement.

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi was more than a little surprised by what she had spotted in a scrapyard in Nalvar on Svivren. Through some coincidence or another, a battered stealth fighter of Commenorean design had made its way here, presumably collected by salvagers after the fall and dissolution of the Commenor Systems Alliance. The Sullustan junk dealer had been planning to install a communications system, which was lacking by design for reasons he could not know. Amilthi enjoyed the feeling of knowing a secret, but was not going to reveal it, as it would only increase the vessel's value in the dealer's eyes. Even with a communication system, it would be difficult enough to sell, frail as it was and unsuited for the purposes of most who traversed this part of the outer rim and the adjacent unknown regions. And so Amilthi had been able to purchase it for a price that was within her extremely modest, indeed almost non-existent, means, aided perhaps by the late hour. This was much to her satisfaction, for having flown ships of this design in the past, she was rather fond of them despite the fact that she herself, no being a proficient telepath, suffered from their lack of a comm system and was planning to install one herself.

Rather than seek accommodation for the night and arrange for the ship to be kept safely, she decided to leave the planet at once. As she ascended into the evening sky that was growing ever darker as she gained altitude, the sensors suddenly picked up a squadron of ships of unidentified nature that, coming from orbit, had not set course towards any of the population centres, but were rather turning onto a trajectory near the ground. Amilthi found this odd at first, then reflected that there was no particular reason why this should surprise or alarm her. There were mining operations all over the planet, metallurgy and geology being a special expertise of its inhabitants and a major driver of the economy. But in her years as a Jedi Amilthi had learnt that initial expressions, even when they seemed irrational, were worth paying attention to.

Even with the active stealth systems not operative, they had probably not spotted her. She flipped the switches to activate the gravitic amplitude modulator and short-range sensor jammers, flipped the ship sideways into an upside down position, and pulled up into a downward half-circle to return to a normal position while shedding altitude quickly. From a distance, she observed the trio of ships approaching a fissure in the ground into which one of them then descended. Somehow she had a bad feeling about this. Some of the possible reasons for this arrangement were rather ominous, and while they were a priori very unlikely, too, a certain salience stuck to them in her mind that the Jedi took as a warning sign.

Now there was a question of how to proceed. If she approached on foot, it would take some time to reach the place, but she might be able to arrive altogether undetected and catch an undisturbed look at the situation. If she approached in her ship, she would reveal herself much sooner to eyes and ears, but she would have two decently powerful laser cannons with her and would be able to withdraw quickly if necessary, or descend into the canyon if needed. And if the situation turned out to be altogether innocuous after all, then it would be the natural-looking thing to do.

Flying close to the ground, Amilthi steered her ship over an elevation and towards the mining outpost.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

The Dark Side of the Force had led him this far, it would not fail him.

There was a certain terror that fell over each of the inhabitants of the settlement, a deeply planted fear of the cloaked man who stood before them. Even from underneath his mask they could see the subtle hue of amethyst spilling from his eyes. He drew from their pain and suffering like water from a well. His thirst was not so easily quenched that this would lead him to any great power, yet it succeeded in sating the lust of his damned armor. Crimson Dread was a nearly sentient being that had a hunger for bloodshed and suffering unlike none other. If this price was not paid to the artifact it would in-turn attempt to twist and destroy the very core of who Adron was. A truly double edged blade that presented as much danger to the wearer as it did protection.

Once the mining families were rounded up and herded into the center of the settlement, the battledroids encircled them with their blasters aimed towards keeping them docile and silent. Silence, that was what followed as Darth Malphas looked upon the people who were gathered before him. The men were rugged and muscular, a testament to years of enduring the uncompromising mines of Svivren. Even the youngest of boys were in excellent physical shape for their own age. When it came to the elderly, what few there were, it was an obvious representation of the downtrodden future that laid before these men. Their bodies were all but withered away, nothing more than a gnarled mess of pain and time. Pathetic, regardless of how you see it.

"You're lives here are over." His dark voice sent a chill over each and every one of the villagers as he spoke. It was refined yet as cold as ide. "Those of you who are adequate will be taken away from this planet. Those who are not...." His voice trailed off as he looked to an elderly man who stood at the forefront of the crowd. Adron's head would tilt ever so slightly before he glanced over to the Commando droid standing to his left. "Commander?" He prodded. The droid immediately raised it's blaster rifle and fired one, pinpoint shot that slammed into the old man's chest. The old man had died before his body crumpled to the ground, this much was obvious. The crowd grew distressed and many turned to tears until finally the Commando droid let a single blaster bolt loose into the air.

"Silence. Sergeant, separate the men and women and have them put in different shuttles. Take the elderly and children and-"

"Sir!" Another of the droids, one of the baseline units, called out with it's high pitched voice. Adron glanced over to the droid and noticed it was pointing out at the distance. His eyes fled to the corner of his mask as he saw the faint sight of a shimmering shape in the distance. From where Adron stood he could make out the fighter that seemed to be closing in on them. A frown formed for a faint moment before it was replaced with a small grin.

"Jedi." He muttered, crossing his arms as he eyed the starship closely. "It's been a long time since I've killed one of them."

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Only once the ships parked at the edge of the fissure were in close visual range did Amilthi recognise them, by their shape, for what they were: Confederate gunships. This was not altogether a foreign site to her, she had moved often through Confederate space in those past few years, and Tatooine, the planet she still regarded as a home at least more than others, even if she did not live there anymore, lay in it, too. Svivren, on the other hand, did not - which made this state of affairs concerning.

But they did nothing to impede her approach. Amilthi reduced the thrust of the engines and floated the fighter over the edge on the power of the repulsorlifts, turning its nose sideways so as not to lose the gunships from sight. With a swift motion of the joystick she tilted one wing downwards so as to be able to catch a view of what was going on down there in the mining outpost.

The scene that presented itself made her blood freeze. One more ship was parked at the bottom of the small canyon, and a little off it stood people, herded together and surrounded by battle droids. There was not much one could imagine in terms of legitimate reasons for this arrangement, and the fact that one half of the parties concerned were non-living constructs made the equation of risks trivial to resolve. Amilthi sprung into action immediately and swung the ship around violently while her other hand flipped the switch to power up the deflector shields, which were naturally not active during atmospheric flight. Defenseless as they now were, the two ships above the fissure could become a threat very quickly, poised to prevent anyone from escaping.

She pulled the trigger without hesitation as soon as the silhouette entered the crosshairs, and the starfighter's laser cannons ripped the ships' hulls to shreds within the blink of an eye. She was not worried that her ship was still hovering over the fissure - she was exposed to only the upper side of the ship down there, only some of its weapons, if any, would be able to reach the right angle, and they would take time to do so. They would not have a chance to fire long enough to cut through the shields before she could get out of the way.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

He watched as the Jedi's ship tore through the lowered defences of one of the Confederate shuttles. An explosion erupted, echoing throughout the rocky terrain as fire and metal flied through the air. Adron watched closely as the starfighter soared through the air, moving to target the other ships above. What the Sith Lord did next was unexpected, even from his droids who had raised their blasters at the starship. His eyes had fallen to a young boy who was firmly fastened to his mother's side. “Bring me the boy.” He ordered. The Commando droid to his side immediately rushed to the blonde headed child, prying him from his wailing mother and bringing him before the Sith Lord.

“Let us see what type of Jedi we are dealing with.” He remarked, holding the boy before him. The hilt of his lightsaber was pressed to the boys temple while Adron's eyes remained locked on the souring starfighter.

It had been years ago, yet Adron had once hunted Jedi in a vain attempt to seek their destruction. While he was not able to defeat more than a handful of them he had learned a few of their weaknesses. Perhaps this woman would discard the boys life in an attempt to end the Sith Lord or maybe she would end this assault, either way the Sith was not worried of the outcome.

“All units, prepare to fire on the settlers. Start with the women and children.” The droids would begin to pick and take the most defenseless from the crowd, forcing them to the ground and placing a blaster at each of their heads. Adron would prefer to have done things a bit differently, however in the end he would do what he had to, to ensure he left this planet with what he came for.

Through The Force his dark presence would slowly wrap around the woman. His mind would try earnestly to penetrate her own thoughts to let only a single word echo through her mind. It came with a cold chill and deadly intent.

Surrender.

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi pulled up the nose of the fighter and pushed the throttle forward to accelerate the ship back over the edge of the canyon and out of sight from those within. She was mildly surprised at the absence of return fire and wondered if the fighter could take out a single Confederate gunship with powered shields and weapons. It probably could if she did this right.

Even as she turned her ship around in a loop to return to the crack in the ground that was now several hundred metres behind her, the Confederates did not emerge. It was a wise decision on their part, as she could not easily fire at them on the ground of the canyon, not least for the risk of hitting unintended targets. She slowed down the ship again, and as it approached, a sinister presence started to make itself felt at first vaguely, then became more and more palpably. There was something malicious out there that, far from trying to remain hidden, wanted to be known.

The Jedi hesitated, concernedly eyeing the sensors which indicated no movement of a ship, and eventually set the fighter down on the ground behind the edge of the fissure. It was a rather vulnerable position and she could only hope that she was discerning intentions correctly. A notion, more than a word, started to appear in her mind: surrender. There was no danger of confusing it for one of her own, and even if she had thought so, Amilthi was removed sufficiently from the ideas her mind spit out incessantly to break the link between them and her actions with ease. She smirked briefly to herself as she unclasped her seatbelt and opened the canopy.

Wrapped in flowing robes of the traditional Jedi style, but of deep black colour, she approached the small canyon and eventually appeared at its edge. The scene that revealed itself as she peered down brought a concerned frown to her face. Rather than surrounding a crowd, several droids now stood behind one person each, pointing their blaster closely at the poor miners' heads. In the midst of it all stood one dark figure, an arm outstretched against the head of a young boy. It didn't take long for her to guess the intention behind this spectacle.

This was so wrong. Amilthi's stomach contracted itself. Convincing people that they were being irrational was among the most difficult things in the universe, and yet it was precisely the task she would have to fulfill at this juncture to save those poor lives. To do it in the face of such an actively malicious mind went much further yet, and made her feel helpless.

She noted the feeling, and sent it away. It was not productive and not to be engaged with. Her soul began to swing to a different tune, inspired perhaps by the darkness below, a sense of defiance paired with grim recognition of the inevitable.

"Now what?" she shouted down into the canyon, unmoving. Was there an undertone of mockery in her voice?

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

Adron was not sure if it had been his mental probing or even the threat against the settlers, perhaps a combination of the two. Regardless the Jedi landed her starfighter over the crevice of the fissure. There was little else the woman could do, not without risking the lives of every person within the settlement. Once the woman presented herself Adron drew his lips into a thin line. Silence ensued for the few following moments before Adron's hooded form finally broke the silence. "I didn't expect to find any Jedi this deeply rooted in the outer rim. I suppose you like to spend your time galivanting about these worlds with some misguided notion of justice? Quaint." He offered, before resting a hand on the shoulder of the boy before him.

"I'd like to keep this simple." He declared.

"Sergeant." He said, glancing over to the droid and the woman that was firmly planted underneath the droid's metallic foot. "Kill her." In the next moment the battledroid squeezed the trigger to it's weapon and a single blaster bolt sprang from the rifle, striking into the woman's back and taking her life immediately.

"Now that I have your attention." Adron said, while his eyes returned to the Jedi before him. "What exactly do you hope to achieve here Jedi?" Adron pushed the boy in his arms to the side forcing him to the ground while the man took a few steps closer to the woman who stood on the ledge above him. "Now, why not you come down?"

An abrupt snap-hiss occurred as his lightsaber sprang to life from it's emitter. His amethyst blade left a vibrant hue over the dark lord's form, yet even then the night felt void of even the slightest light. "Surrender or you all die on this rock."

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi squinted briefly when the man gave a pointless order to kill one of the women just to show, unnecessarily, his readiness to do so. She tilted her head and looked quizzically at the Sith as he spoke. She finally came to realise what his strategy was that had seemed so senseless - it was geared for emotional impact, it was not a serious attempt at negotiation, but at breaking the other person's spirit and sense.

She did not react at first. Instead, her gaze darted around the scene, appraising positions, considering all the paths she could take from droid to droid - and eventually, she decided to stay put. Her eyes finally settled on the malicious source of this whole mess. She took another several seconds to speak.

"I don't think you understand how this works." That was half the facts - he probably did know quite well what he was doing, he merely didn't know that it wasn't going to have the effect he desired. She was not going to be pushed into some state of senselessness and take irrational actions. To make her do anything, real incentives had to be provided. All she could hope for was that this man was himself sensitive to incentives.

"First, I am not going to die myself just so you do to these people what you were going to do anyway instead of killing them right now, which may well be more merciful. Second, how about you don't kill and them and I don't go back to my ship and blow this place up?"

Now if he wanted to prevent that, he would have to come up to where she was - which would be a good start.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

It seemed the woman before Adron was worthy of some consideration. At the very least she was not foolish enough to believe Adron's hostages would not be spared merely through her surrender alone. Her retort to his demand was amusing and perhaps had some validity to it, yet Adron did not appear swayed. From beneath that black mask he would peer at the woman until it appeared whatever question he had been musing about was answered. "I sense some degree of skill..." He muttered silently to himself, his eyes never wavering as he looked to the woman.

"Let's test it." His left hand would slowly open at the side of his waist, until his palm was visible to the young Jedi. The flow of The Force would wrap around him ominously as he enforced his will over it. It never ceased to amuse him how once he had been so cut off and deprived of this power and now to draw from it was like taking a breath. His fingers would curl deliberately as a soft shimmer could be felt coming over the land. It was momentary and barely noticeable, however in time it would rise into a noticeable quake that left even Adron's battledroids puzzled. This quake was centered over the cliff where the Jedi stood and was obviously a product of Adron's tampering through The Force. It lasted for a few fleeting seconds before his hand would begin to close. In that moment an eruption of sound broke through the night. A snap and pop much like a tree being torn in half sounded off around the cliff.

At a closer inspection it became obvious that a large, winding crack had been embedded into the cliffside, leading up to where the Jedi stood. All it took from there was a simple push. The Force lashed out from Adron in a violent explosion, flowing into this one target and then expanding until the result was monstrous.

The inner workings of the ledge would begin to crumble and fall beneath the woman's feet. It almost seemed as if the mouth of the fissure was imploding and drawing it's surface into a dusty pile of rock and stone. Adron watched with interest as the cliff began to fall from under the Jedi's feet, interested to see just how she'd respond.

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

A feeling of insecurity about the ground she was standing on crept into Amilthi's mind, just like she sometimes experienced when climbing, when it dawned on her that a ledge or protrusion was not quite stable and trustworthy, an intuition her mind must be piecing together from a myriad of small indications that never reached her consciousness. She took a cautious step back, but the nature of the development that was unfolding became clearer and put before her a choice between two directions.

She could jump backwards and out of the zone of danger and restore the situation to what it had been. But the extent of the Sith's telekinetic abilities was concerning and a potential threat to her ship, and reduced her confidence in the viability of her threat, which was already built on a foundation not ideal: while the ship's laser cannons were fully operational and of decent power, they were not optimal for the purpose, but the proton torpedo launchers, which would have been a more appropriate tool, were naturally not supplied with ammunition.

The other alternative was to capitalise on the momentary distraction and plunge into the pit. That had the advantage of allowing her to take out some of the droids, whereas if she lured her opponent up here, she would have to hope that they would be left without instructions and inactive.

The decision was made in the blink of an eye. The Jedi catapulted herself off the ground that was beginning to crumble beneath her feet, upwards and forwards, and in an elegant salto sailed downwards. The buzzing sound of her lightsaber activating was drowned out by the thunder of the rockslide, and the turquoise blade cut through a droid before her feet even reached the ground. She whirled around an in a wide sweeping motion dispatched the second of the two mechanical soldiers between which she had landed, followed by a lunge forward that allowed the blade to reach a third one before it was drawn back close to her body. It was a momentary outburst of intense and focused violence that ended as suddenly as it had begun, leaving the Jedi in a guard position, poised to defend herself from the fire that would surely follow in the next fraction of a second.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

It had happened in an instant. The Jedi who stood on top of the crumbling surface had taken to the sky, likely using The Force to propel herself through the air. It was not until she touched down on the surface that Adron turned to gaze at her, recording her movements to his memory. She was fast and impressively agile, still he knew she would not be a problem. He turned towards her as she dismantled a squad of the Battledroids. His own mind had been focused on his legs, pooling The Force into them, bringing them far from their human limitations. He watched the Jedi lunge out and dispatch another of the droids. That was when his legs finally left the ground. Sprinting forward, the man immediately came off the ground leaping over the crowd of people between himself and the Jedi.

It was a shallow jump, allowing him to land only a few feet in front of the woman. As he landed his right arm was outstretched, allowing him to move into a wide arc for the woman's arm. He expected she would parry the strike rather easily, his left hand would already be open with his palm aimed at the woman. If she managed to guard against the strike his left hand, which was kept close to his body would lash out in a vicious burst of lightning. Thin purple streaks would dance from his fingertips before exploding out towards the woman's face.

Controlled and deadly, Adron's eyes would never abandon the woman, not even for a moment. He believed to be facing a worthy opponent and was interested in testing her ability. Would she be able to defend herself or crumble under the weight of his power?

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

What assaulted her was not the fire of droids. The martial machines simply stood by and left to their master what he was better equipped to do. Rather than simply block the strike that sought to reach around her lightsaber for her arm, she lashed out in an unexpectedly violent strike in an attempt to fling her opponent's weapon aside and outwards to create an opening. But before she could take advantage of it, she was thrown of track by the premonition of a destructive onslaught that let her reflexively raise her hand in front of her face and made her blink. She felt a burning pain suddenly erupting all over her body and flinched.

But momentarily a feeling of soothing chill flooded through Amilthi. The pain was reduced to a mere tingling sensation and she regained her posture. The electricity dancing around her made her hair rise bizarrely, but it did not appear to burn her as it should have. Her hand still raised, more and more of the lightning archs were drawn towards it and disappeared in her bare fingers as they sprung from the Sith's. Her eyes were now wide open and stared straight back at him. There was an icy cold in them that would have instilled fear in the soul of a lesser opponent. They did not radiate the burning rage one might have seen in a Sith - but the fatal intent was there all the same. To see such a lack of hesitation about violence in a presumed Jedi was shocking.

Finally Amilthi's lightsaber swept by before her, on a path to sever the hand from which the lightning struck.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

As lightning danced from Adron's hand to his enemy's there was the most shallow feeling of agitation rising in the man. He was quickly realizing there was more to this Jedi than some misplaced notion of justice or peace. She was a warrior. Her own eyes met his and that was when he felt a sense of interest flood him. Her lightsaber aggressively lashed out for his hand. It was in that moment where Adron was forced to retreat, forces to strafe backwards to avoid losing his hand, that he realized something particularly amusing.

“Form seven.” He regarded, taking a moment to look over his undefended hand. He realized the woman would not merely sit and wait for him to gather himself so he immediately took a defensive form of his own.

His left arm rested to his side while his lightsaber was slightly raised in front of him. Turning his chest away from the woman it was quickly obvious what form the Sith had taken up in response to her own. Makashi.

At first glance it would appear that he was moving to the defense, staying unmoving and calm as his eyes fell over the woman. However, it soon became obvious that he was still assaulting the woman. The Dark Side of the Force began to fill the space between them. Unseen and unheard it would attempt to weigh on the woman, test her resolve. As Adron took the slightest step closer, it would begin. His mind would attempt to breach hers, forcing hellish nightmares into the forefront of her thought. Perhaps she would see the death of her family, or the destruction of the galaxy, there was usually little ways to anticipate what one would see.

In the next moment he would lunge out, his blade aimed for her chest hoping to Pierce home.
[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Her opponent retreated to avoid the loss of limb, but a momentary distraction prevented Amilthi from continuing her assault immediately. A plethora of notions and images of strong negative valence suddenly rose in her mind. The possibility of a being to be locked into a state of permanent suffering made itself noticed, very much a propos of nothing. More importantly, that this might happen and she might be powerless to fight it, paralysed in one manner or another, having to merely watch the world descend into worse and worse conditions, being filled with more and more suffering.

But the connection of cause and effect by which these ideas might have provoked dejection or hopelessness was derailed. She took them, like so many similar thoughts she had had in the past, and sometimes conjured willfully, to provide a sense of urgency and fuel for action, for they represented precisely what she was prepared to do the utmost to prevent. And she was going to begin right here in the present moment, on a small scale, by excising this particular source of darkness from the world.

Having passed up the moment to press her attack, she found her opponent taking the opportunity at a stab right at her chest. A sweeping motion of her blade from above pushed his lightsaber to the side and put her back on the offensive. The onslaught that followed had a speed and strength to it that one scarcely expected the body of a human female to sustain. Amilthi’s experience took on an odd quality. She was becoming a spectator of her own actions as their lightsaber blades danced at an improbable speed.

But the Sith's minimalistic blade- and footwork allowed him to deftly evade her ferocious attacks. Amilthi's style of fighting would have been impossible in an armour like his, but the Sith, working mostly with one arm and his feet, found it easier to conserve energy. She achieved nothing but the occasional glancing blow, which might have been enough to take another opponent out of the fight with a severed muscle or sinew, or even just from the pain of burnt skin. But this one's armour, very much like his manner of fighting, was evidently geared towards dueling, and was not so easily penetrated even by a lightsaber.

Even a successful feint, a heavy diagonal downward strike quickly redirected in the middle and flipped over lightly to the other side, proved ineffectual when, instead of hitting the vulnerable underarm it was aimed for, it merely grazed a phrik shoulder plate.

On some level Amilthi enjoyed the feeling of superiority that she nonetheless had. But in the bigger picture the flow of events was becoming mildly concerning.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

It seemed Adron's initial intent had backfired. The visions he had plagued the Jedi with were succeeding in driving forward her will, as opposed to eroding her confidence and ability to focus on the fight. She was a skilled bladesmen in her own right, each movement of the lightsaber showing years of skill and decades of discipline. However, in the end she stood against Adron's Makashi defense. Since a young boy Adron had practiced with the blade in the art of minimalism, using as little energy and movement as possible. He sacrificed power and mobility in place for control and speed. His movements may have seem limited but it was quite the opposite. With his body turned away from the Jedi there were only so many places she could strike him. She was making considerable strides and had he not been adorned in his Sith Armor she would have likely been on even ground with the man.

His amethyst blade would come to meet hers at every turn. Though it had taken considerable focus he had erected a barrier between the two using his skill with the blade. In time they would fall into a rhythm that brought the Sith into an all too familiar place. Like a spider leading her into a web he would continue to do this dance with her until her strength began to abandon her.

Of course, he was not without his own assault. Though physically he remained on the defense he continued to use the mental bridge he had created with the woman. Voices would call to her, memories would flash before her, some good and some bad, all manner of thoughts would plague and run rampant through her mind all while his voice would taunt her.

"Here I was thinking you would be a Jedi worth fighting. You certainly are impressive but you waste your talent. With skills like yours I am sure you could bend the Dark Side to your whims. All you have to do is release your anger, realize your full potential."

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi took a step back, reaching out to the side with her lightsaber to dispatch a droid whose position they had neared, and giving respite to both herself and her opponent. He used the opportunity to take to words. She was far enough away to feel comfortable lowering her blade, holding it by her side pointed to the ground. She just stood there and listened.

It was as if a switch had been flipped in Amilthi's mind. The stream of ideas that floated through her mind was still there, and she had become quite certain that it was a manifestation of the darksider's presence. But now, instead of tapping into them for energy, she simply let them arise and pass away unengaged. Her self was entirely permeable to them - or more accurately, there simply was not self with which they could have collided. They were just free-floating phenomena that did not pertain to, or affect, anyone in particular - they were thought-stuff in nature, but there wasn't anybody whose thoughts they were.

Amilthi looked at the Sith in silence for a second or two. "Anger..." she said pensively. "I don't think it's a pleasant emotion. Do you?" She tilted her head slightly and regarded him quizzically. Then she straightened up as she continued. "Probably not. So why subject yourself to it? You're supposed to be the egoists - and yet I seem to be better off. I've never met any of your kind who weren't suffering."

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

Even now Adron could see that the woman before him had been resisting his mental probes. Each intrusion was met head on and defended even though they were in the middle of combat. When she spoke of anger so casually he could not help but smirk beneath the black mask he wore. "Pleasant has nothing to do with the galaxy we live in. If you wanted pleasant you would not be a Jedi. The galaxy is about results. About strategic movements to impact your future." He explained. As she continued to speak he would lash out at her again, not surrendering a moment of their duel for idle conversation. It was his intent to wear the woman down to the point where she could no longer stand against him in a lightsaber duel. At this rate it would take years, especially if he allowed her to take a break.

"You speak of never meeting a Sith who doesn't suffer? To be a Sith is to suffer. If you believe there is any path without suffering than you are a fool." He continued, before drawing back, this time extending his left hand towards the woman. Again streaks of purple fluttered over his fingertips before lashing out in one violent spray towards the woman. His Sith Lightning was spread in a wide arch, aiming for the woman's body as he spoke over the loud display.

"The only way to end the pain of this galaxy is by curing it of it's greatest flaw."

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Unlike the Sith, who seemed to be using words mostly as a distraction, Amilthi actually wanted to have this conversation. She sidestepped his lunge forward and brought up her lightsaber in a sweeping motion in front of herself that would have knocked aside an attacker's blade only for security - their weapons did not touch each other, and Amilthi ended as far away from her opponent as before, holding her lightsaber almost horizontally in front of her body, angled only slightly upwards.

"You'd be surprised how pleasant being me actually is", she said lightly, and smiled.

The lightning caught the blade of her lightsaber, only stray archs snuck past and hit her arms and body like whiplashes. Amilthi winced under the pangs of pain, as a matter of pure reflexes, but kept steady. Her opponent relented soon enough in his ultimately ineffectual assault.

This was getting quite interesting: a Sith who styled himself as an altruist of sorts. Amilthi could actually see how someone could arrive at his position, if indeed it was held sincerely. It was not an uncommon misconception even among Padawans that to be a Jedi meant to sacrifice oneself for others in a way that necessarily entailed suffering. To transcend it the Jedi way, to see that it was, at least from a certain point of view, not unavoidable, but also not to be combatted by changing the outside world to satisfy a desire one might have thought was the source of one's suffering, was neither an obvious nor an easy road to travel.

"And what do you consider to be the galaxy's greatest flaw?"

[member="Adron Malvern"]​

 

[Adron Malvern]

He could feel her lightsaber hold up against the assault of his Sith lightning. After a few moments he relented. It would do no good for him to waste his energy on such a fruitless effort. The woman before him held some whit that he could admit amused him. Of course, it did not mean he would have any qualms in ending her life. It merely meant she was entertaining, perhaps even intriguing. He lowered his lightsaber as she drew back once again. He saw she was intent on hosting a conversation so he would not turn her down. Instead he looked to the Commando droid that had joined his side. It had it's blaster aimed for the woman, as did every other droid that surrounded them. Most of the miners were frozen in a mixture of fear and awe from the combat the two had been engaged in.

"A lack of clarity." It was all he said before he took a shallow step closer to the woman. He may have noticed that he had broken the shallow and rigid movements of Makashi and now he held his lightsaber with each of his hands. He had switched to the Fourth form in lightsaber combat, Ataru. Adron may not have been a master of the form in the way he was Makashi but his knowledge of the style was considerable.

His feet came off the ground and he charged forward, his lightsaber moved into a series of rapid strikes. Each was shallow in it's intent. If nothing else it merely served to distract the woman and halt her rest. He was still paced and even, each strike identical to the next, however in his assault it was his speed that was the most notable. It seemed as if the armor he wore had barely restricted his movements.

"You see. The galaxy lacks a vision of unity. Perhaps some hold visions of subjugation or some jaded idea of peace. What the galaxy needs is prosperity and the rule of law. Don't get me wrong, Jedi. I seek to start a new age that is based in these beliefs, but I am willing to spill a sea of blood to get it done. Thousands will die, maybe even millions, but in the end something new will come from it all. It won't last, but it will be something."

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

It seemed as if her opponent had lost his patience, answering her question so curtly and meaninglessly only to now start pressing his own attack. His strikes lacked strength or decisiveness and were in many cases even quite predictable - but they were quick, very surprisingly so in light of the armour. When she attempted to redirect his lightsaber far away from its path to create an opening, he would often not withdraw his weapon, as he did before, but simply move his own body along with it, very much contrary to the style he had displayed previously.

Amilthi found it difficult to snap back into her previous state of mind. The half-held conversation had distracted her, and the calm, deadly intent did not immediately reassert itself. As such, she stayed on the defensive looking for an opportunity for a counter - or at least something in or about her was looking, for it was not her conscious self, to the extent that such a thing even existed. Time was oddly losing its constancy. The blades whirled around and sometimes one single moment seemed to extend for a long time and Amilthi could trace all the subtleties of her movement - and then the next moment never reached her consciousness at all and she found herself in a different position entirely without a clear awareness of how she had got there.

She caught the Sith's lightsaber in an outright block and immediately pushed back with a burst of unnatural strength so he wouldn't be able to free his blade effortlessly. His own blade threateningly approached her opponent's body. And suddenly he decided to speak again, to give an explanation of what he thought. It was somewhat strange, and perhaps a reminder to himself of what he was fighting for, more than an attempt to sway her.

But Amilthi reneged, and freed herself from the engagement by a high backwards salto, faster than he could bring his blade forward again. She landed a good two metres off him in plain view of several droids. This time she didn't lower her blade, but held it upwards slightly angled to cover her front.

"What idealism!" she exclaimed. It was not sarcasm that was in her voice, but still she managed to sound somewhat disparaging. The trade-off this man was prepared to accept was abhorrent, but this was hardly worth pointing out. He had made up his mind. But more than that, it was an illusory trade-off - he would pay, but that which he wished for would never materialise.

"You know you're not the first to come up with the idea, and it has never worked. Why do you believe this time will be different? The universe is a mess, it resists order, it's unnatural. Order is the wrong thing to strive for, you will never conquer the chaos. But that's quite alright - because there can be harmony in chaos." Amilthi was an avowed proponent of the yet version of the Jedi code.

[member="Adron Malvern"]​