Private Train Wrecks and Tribulations

[Rayne Lo'to]

Taris
Tags: Gatz Derrevar

"this is going to be dangerous. And, judging by the marks on this Jawa, it's probably going to end in a fight. I'm used to that sort of thing, but you aren't. If you don't want to tag along, I'd understand."

"And leave you to get yourself killed?" she noted, giving a faint smirk. "Not a chance."

They were in this together now, and Rayne very much did not want the human to run off and get reduced to charred slag like this Jawa had. Playing hero wasn't something she typically did, or at least not right away, but she wanted to make sure Gatz came out alive on the other end. It was very important to her that he did. She'd let out a faint sigh, continuing to walk.

"Come on, we still got a ways to go," Rayne observed.

They were burning daylight now.

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Blaster Pistol
Tag: Rayne Lo'to

"Thank you, Rayne."

For all his bravado, Gatz was afraid. He was always afraid, almost every moment of every day. It defined him, maybe even more than his past as a smuggler did. But having a friend at his back, whether she was a combatant or not, made him feel a little braver. Now, all he had to do was not get shot, not get Rayne shot, and deal with whoever was shooting up Jawas.

He could handle that right?

They trekked down the tunnel for a while longer, moving at a slow pace now, listening for any sounds that might lead to an ambush. After a quarter of an hour had passed, Gatz spotted what looked like dim lights farther down.

"You see those?" He asked his twi'lek companion, "what's your guess? Jawas? Or whoever else is down here?"

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Taris
Tags: Gatz Derrevar

"what's your guess? Jawas? Or whoever else is down here?"

"No... it's too dim," She noted. "It's reflecting light, not emitting it. Our headlamps are doing it, I think..."

Rayne would stand stiffly, her spine running down with a cold chill. There was something wrong in the air, something sickley. The figure of a man would shuffle out of the darkness, tattered black robes hanging off their body. A cylindrical object was clutched in their hand, which was mangles and distorted. Grey skin, warped and sickly, and a crazed look in their eyes, which seemed to leaking a black fluid.

"Gatz..." Rayne began, drawing her blaster. "He's ghoulifying."

A Rakghoul, or the beginnings of one. The man wasn't fully transformed, but his mind was clearly lost. The object in their hands ignited, revealing a crimson blade, but the man very quickly dropped it and let it clamber to the floor before snarling, bearing their fangs and dropping down on all fours.

Sprinting straight at them.

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Blaster Pistol
Tag: Rayne Lo'to

"Oh shit!"

In all honesty, Gatz would take a Rakghoul over a Sith Lord, but a Rakghoul was still a problem he was unequipped to solve. Thankfully, it dropped the lightsaber, too lost in bestial instincts to make use of the weapon. But it still charged them like a bull, moving at speeds that Gatz previously thought was impossible for a humanoid.

Gatz didn't know how to kill a Rakghoul. All he knew was that he needed it as far away from Rayne as possible.

He sprinted to the left, drawing his blaster with a swift motion, and fired rapid shots at the charging monster. A few scored hits, sizzling flesh, but not powerful enough to stop it. It was, however, thrown off balance. The Rakghoul tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs, roaring as it righted itself, and pointed itself in Gatz's direction.

Alright, at least it wasn't charging Rayne anymore. But what the hell was he supposed to do now?

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Taris
Tags: Gatz Derrevar

This was bad. Rayne scrambled to think of something to do. She hadn't been quick on the trigger at all, but Gatz had. Now it was going after him. There had to be something here that could help them, right?

That was when it hit her. The Twi'lek stealthily made her way past Gatz, letting the creature keep it's attention on him for just a little bit while she retrieved the item that it had been holding onto. The laser sword thingy. Whenever she picked it up, Rayne felt a cold energy. Something within was... alive. In pain. She couldn't place her finger on it, but something about interacting with the object made her believe it was the stone within that she could now feel.

Whatever that meant could wait. They were still in danger.

"Gatz, he dropped a laser-thingy," she called back with her vocoder. "These things cut through anything, right?"

She turned back to him with a nervous expression.

"I don't know how to use it."

Rayne hoped that he did.

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Blaster Pistol
Tag: Rayne Lo'to

Gatz threw himself into a roll right at the last second, narrowly avoiding diseased claws. He tumbled across the rotten deck of the ancient ship, coming to a halt on one knee. The Rakghoul tried to skid to a stop, but on the flat metal flooring it was unable to, and instead went to the ground in a tangle of limbs. That gave Gatz a little bit of time, so he threw himself to his feet, and backpedaled.

That was when Rayne shouted to him, holding the once-Sith's lightsaber in her hands.

He knew what she intended. Was that... was that a good idea though? It had been fifteen years since he'd held a lightsaber—not counting the brief moment he had used Capris'—and even then, that had been a training saber, and he hadn't even been all that proficient with Shii-Cho. If he tried to use one now, wouldn't he just be more likely to cut off one of his own—

Briana! The solution came to him, though Gatz wasn't at all pleased with what he would need to do. But there was no other choice: he just didn't remember enough about the basics of lightsaber combat to use one effectively. But Briana Sal-Soren was well acquainted with the weapon. And their minds were still permanently melded together, even with them being literal worlds apart. Her knowledge was retrievable. But it came with a breach of privacy. One that would surely incur Briana's wrath.

The Rakghoul roared, picking itself back up, and Gatz decided that he preferred Briana's wrath over being mauled to death.

"Throw it here!"

<I'm sorry Briana!> Was all he offered her, before he trespassed into her mind, absconding with as much of her knowledge of Form I as he could.

But knowledge was not experience. He knew that. Gatz only hoped the new influx of information would refresh his training, and reawaken muscle memory that had long gone dormant.

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Taris
Tags: Gatz Derrevar

"Throw it here!"

"Okay!"

Rayne didn't hesitate, tossing the device over to Gatz. He had been a Jedi once before, so maybe he understood how to use it. She most certainly didn't, so there was really no place to speculate. All she could do was hope that the human had everything under control.

This was probably fine.

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Blaster Pistol
Tag: Rayne Lo'to

Gatz caught the hilt in his hand, and he felt the kyber within scream. It was a deafening, painful cry for help, and it was so all-encompassing that Gatz staggered back a few steps. But with the Rakghoul back on its feet, he had to force himself to ignore the crystal's torment. He ignited the Sith's lightsaber, and was greeted with crimson blade that just seemed unnatural.

The beat in front of him roared, and charged.

He drew in a deep breath, and found himself instinctively stepping into ready position. His own muscle memory, or Briana's? Gatz decided it didn't matter at the moment. With the knowledge he'd plucked from her mind, his body was ready to execute the Form, if a bit sloppily. Shii-Cho, he remembered, was simple and focused on disarming the opponent, as opposed to maiming and killing.

Well, the opponent was armed with teeth and claws, so he'd have to tweak things a little.

The Rakghoul lunged at him, and Gatz stepped to his right, and swung his borrowed lightsaber in a downward stroke. The red blade cut right through the creature's wrist as it flew through the space he had occupied only moments ago, and it went tumbling to the ground for the second time today—with an added cry of pain.

"Hey Rayne?" Gatz called out, but kept his eyes on the enemy, "time for you to run!"

It was an order made in vain. Rayne wouldn't just leave him with a Rakghoul, no matter what he told her to do.

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Taris
Tags: Gatz Derrevar

"time for you to run!"

"Gatz..." Rayne responded with a frown. "You know I won't do that."

They were too far in now, and the young scrapper wasn't leaving him behind. But what to do? She sort of had just been standing there, waiting for a window to do... anything, really. There wasn't much that she could do in the realm of organics.

But maybe there was something on him.

The Twi'lek opened her mind to the surrounding area, hoping some form of tech would become clear to her. Sure enough, something did appear to her. It was a valve in the wall, connected to an old electrical circuit that tied back to an old power station that the medical camp had been making use of. Surprisingly, based upon her assessment with her mind, the connection seemed to still remain in tact. There was space between Gatz and the ghoul now, and the creature was standing just in front of the valve.

"Stand back a little," the Twi'lek stated.

She oppened the valve, the ancient pressure it had built up shooting out and hitting the creature square on, knocking it off of it's footing. This was the moment to go in for the kill.

Rayne hoped, anyways. She still didn't fully understand lightsabers.

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons:
Tag: Rayne Lo'to

Of course Rayne wasn't going to run. She was too good, and too selfless, even in her fear. If he'd had the time to be envious of her courage, he might have been. As it was though, he was still a little bit preoccupied with the rampaging necrophage in front of him. Losing a claw had only pissed it off, and in true Sith fashion, it was looking for vengeance.

Gatz held its own weapon up, daring it to try. There was a more than likely chance that this thing would kill him before he could kill it, but if Gatz had to go down, then he'd at least go down swinging. And frankly, he should count himself lucky: protecting a friend was a far more noble end than he deserved.

Thankfully, Rayne had a better idea. Gatz stepped back as soon as she asked him to, trusting that the scrapper had a plan in mind. Not even a second later, a rusty valve creaked open, and the Rakghoul was slammed to the ground by some sort of force or pressure.

Gatz capitalized.

Force fueling his body, Gatz leaped onto its chest. Its remaining claw came up to shred up, but the once-smuggler lopped it off with a flick of his wrist. That left only it's toothy maw as a weapon, and it tried to angle its neck to bite at his ankles. But Gatz plunged his borrowed lightsaber into its neck, and with a violent sweep of his arms, severed its head, and killed it once for all.

The body went still. Gatz staggered off of its corpse, extinguished the crimson blade in his hands, and fell down to one knee, gasping for air.

"Nice... team work." He got out between exerted pants.