What Beauty There is in a Machine

[Nan'eth'illa]

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

This. This was the sort of thing she lived for.

When they rose up, she did not smile, nor did she feel fear; Darth Filiae felt a strengthened sense of purpose. This was the place; this was the time. She would not let it fall from her grasp. She would not fail.

Nethil stepped to the side when one of the rusted knights stormed her with his electrostaff. Her blade rose and fell in a two-handed swing, but it was deflected by her opponent's staff, which then thrust at her head in a riposte. The Chiss ducked under it and stepped towards the knight with a wide slash. The cut carved through the armour, but did not go deep enough to put it out of play.

Taking another step away, she seized the moment in an attempt at helping Itash: Her metal leg thrust forward in a straight low kick for the knee of the knight he was locked in combat with. However, it left her momentarily open to the third knight, coming in slightly later than the other two. It swung its staff for Filiae's midriff. She barely managed to parry it but was caught stepping back and could not immediately retaliate. And now, she had two of them on her tail.

As her back foot found purchase and her stance solidified, she was caught on the defensive. Her blade locked with one of the staffs and forced it in the path of the other. Her arms shook with strain and her teeth showed as she pushed back against the two knights: Stronger, heavier than her. The veins in her arms were already beginning to bulge with effort.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

These ones seemed to be... less than they ought to be.

Easily distracted and refocused elsewhere.

A single well-placed kick by Filiae had been enough to save Itash from a nasty swipe past his jugular and instead he managed to catch it on the lower edge of his lightsabre, the graceful riposte missed its mark completely when the Knight dashed towards Filiae. It left Itash standing there for a brief second, in a stance that might have been fearsome mid-action, but looked rather silly without anyone around to defend against.

Right.

Itash pivoted and noticed that the Chiss was having her own trouble in the meantime. One might have been fine for her, but two at once? Different story altogether and it showed well.

Just as they were locked in that battle of strength the Tapani did something completely lacking sportsmanship.

He stepped in, then lunged deep with his sabre, which burned straight through the knee (?) of the right Knight. It immediately dropped to the ground with one leg, not being able to support itself anymore on it. But instead of being defeated... it jerked to the side, avoiding the finishing graze of Filiae's lightsaber. The Chiss would be too busy with a sudden flurry of slashes from the left Knight to help further for now.

Before Itash could retort his own Knight jumped towards him on one leg.

It looked comedical, but there was nothing fun about the electro-staff's dash into his shoulder causing the Tapani to crash to the ground.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

Skill-wise, speed-wise, she was certain she could take them both on. However, the moment was it was left her in a contest of strength and that was not her forte. But when the pressure of the rightmost knight was alleviated, it was another battle entirely.

She was met with a flurry of strikes from the electrostaff, but here is a small secret of arms she had learned from battling many an acolyte in her teens: Staves look like they give more options of attack and like they are quicker because the attack can come from either side at any time. However, the sword is in fact quicker and more versatile, however lacking in reach.

So the Chiss covered herself in layers of defence, drawing on an aggressive form of Soresu to advance into a close range, forcing the knight to spread his hands on his weapon and thereby lose punching power. She kept going, past the effective range of her own sabre. She relinquished her grip on the sabre with her metal hand and set it on the knight's face. While stepping in with her full weight, she extended her arm in a mighty push driven from her back foot. Sparks flew from between her fingers and into the corroded steel, the cascaded down the knight's body in wild crackles as his metal and the preserved flesh inside both seized up.

"Raaagh!"

She followed through the push, knocking the knight off balance and to the ground. She fell over it and held it down by the face. The knight got a jab into her side with his fist, cracking two of the ribs. Filiae's yell of anger turned into a yelp of pain, but she did not subside. Rather, turning her blade, she stabbed it down into the knight's neck then twisted it up to carve into the base of the brain.

The knight went limp and Filiae looked as Itash was on the ground, the lamed knight standing over him with the electrostaff. She threw her sabre, hoping to hit it in the back before it could strike down Itash.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

The flying saber hit its target and send the Knight stumbling just as it readied itself for an overhead slice.

This was enough for Itash to scramble up, sabre slashing horizontally in a firm line, which sliced through the vulnerable parts of its mechanized ankles. It collapsed almost immediately and this time around the Tapani was ready for it, the lightsaber whipped up. Angled just right it impaled the falling Knight through its throat, before it shuddered its last breath and fell to the side.

"Feth me." Tash rose slowly, carefully stretching to see if every bone was okay.

Seemed to be the case.

Ow.

"Not literally. I don't trust this floor to not give me some kind of disease." He joked lightly as he disengaged the lightsaber, hooking it back to his belt and studied the rest of the room. Other than the Knights it seemed to be rather empty, but... why would they be here if there wasn't anything to guard? Stepping around them Tash walked towards the center of the room, watching the way the lights of the floating orbs played on the walls.

"Hm."

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

"Not the time nor the place."

She smirked as she walked over and pulled the sabre out of the knight's back, deactivated then clipped it to her belt.

She stared at the three bodies intensely for a few moments, sensing if there was still some life in any one of them. She could not sense any activity in the electronics nor in the sparse organics she could tell lined the back and neck.

"Imagine if they were new." "The power..."

She looked up from them as she saw Itash walk off. She followed his eyes to the orbs, then looked to the opposite wall to inspect their movement in contrast to the ones he inspected. Perhaps together, they would be able to cross-reference a pattern.

"And if it is important, it is better kept than by a few guards." "Perhaps some sort of mechanism. A vault?"

She traced the sequence of glowing orbs to the far end of the room. It had no doors or windows, but she thought she saw some sort of dais. The wall seemed to have some sort of central ridge to it, but it was difficult to see due to a ridge of self-fluorescent plant life that draped down from a deep crack in the ceiling and climbed towards the floor. She walked closer and knelt down, measuring, judging.

"Maybe."

She walked over and felt how the ground swelled up under her. Should she? Yes. She seized the end of the fluorescent vine and gave it a sharp pull. Vines snapped up ahead and flower-petals came tumbling down like stars amid a tangle of thorny, black ropes.

Behind the vines, a figure, tall and thin. Carved into the wall.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

He eyed that figure on the wall.

"I wonder who that is." Tash asked curiously before kneeling down near the area where Filiae had noticed the 'dais'. It was clear that this spot was marked for something, but for what? More and more the Mecetti scion started to think that there was a pattern to the way the lights shimmered and floated. The moment Filiae had torn off the vines one of the orbs had begun to vibrate just a little bit.

Hmm.

"Check the other walls. Maybe they have other carvings?" It couldn't be as simple as that, could it? Clean out the walls and reveal the markings behind them. Start to manipulate the orbs in some other.

Then... magic?

The treasure suddenly appeared?

His hand brushed the line, where the floor's height seemed to differ just an inch.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

"I don't know, the details are worn down. It could be many."

It did not look of the depictions of Mekhis. They usually had a specific pose and a signature headpiece. This one had a set of signature horns, which made her think of the truly ancient generations of Sith, or perhaps Krayt's One Sith. She had no way of knowing as it was.

She cleared more of the vines and inspected the markings for any recognisable pattern of writing, nothing sprang to mind.

Filiae cleared even more vines, pushing off against the wall with her leg to pull it down. Most of what she uncovered was bare rock. The riddle became more and more complicated the more she looked, and the less she found.

"I can't seem to find anything. The lights don't go by a pattern I am familiar with"

She kicked a rock back from whence they had come and thinned her lips angrily. It all rather reminded her of that one time she had tried to understand nu quenk jazz with its random rythms, or a donadi stain painting. She just didn't get it.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

Tash frowned at that thin ledge.

His nail could just about scrape some of the dirt off, showing indents, but nothing more. An inch higher than the rest of the floor and it seemed to be that way in a full circle. "Mm, everything is a lie." Tash mumbled to himself, letting his hand brush more of the dirt away. Nothing here seemed right, nothing seemed... hmm. "It's all a misdirection." The realization hit him suddenly. What was the best way to hide the treasure you aim to hoard for years to come?

Was it by putting your guards in front of it and making it obvious the prize was here?

...or would it have made more sense to pull the attention of any would-be raider to a goose chase, while the treasure was hiding elsewhere. "We have missed something. Scan the room again, there should be a mechanism somewhere hidden. Plain sight."

Make it grotesquely obvious for your own amusement.

Then watch as your opponents were struggling about like blind people, pushing around but only finding a mystery that couldn't be solved. Because every development just pulled them further into the rabbit hole.

With no end.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

"What?"

She looked around. Was it all fake? That would account for the nonsense, certainly.

She detached the parrot droid from her back and whispered to it as she picked her eye out of its socket and handed it to the drone. It chirped merrily as it flew up and around the room, looking at it from above and changing the angle so any fissures would become apparent.

At first, she didn't see anything new, but then she turned around and looked down the hallway from whence they had come. Her organic eye seemed to shimmer something her cybernetics had not. Perhaps because she had been so focused on analysing the lights that she had forgotten to listen to what the Force was telling her. Stupid.

She set off at a jog towards the stairs they had descended on previously and stopping a few meters before the stairs, she traced out a square section on the wall.

"There's something here. It looks like a control panel"

Dusting it off, she could read the faded letters just barely. Yet, her fingers new where to go. Click, click, flip. Nothing. She stared at it for a moment and then decided to knock her metal fist right next to it. Suddenly: CRACK! Dust fell from above and sprouted from the walls as old locks unlocked themselves.

"Hah!" She turned to look, seeing the tiny dais beginning to sink on one end. She started to run towards it, and heard a sequence of clacks behind her: More traps. Small jaws of metal jumped up, biting in the air as she passed. Her run started to look more like a fervent dance and she jumped around them. One clamped down on her shin, but bit only into the metal underneath. "Oh chit!" One caught her other leg, drawing blood into the fabric. Rather than continue running, she threw herself forward with the Force and dived into a roll once clear.

"Tas bah k'pah!" Fervently she activated her lightsabre and cut them off herself. Her breathing was quick as she turned to the rest of them with hate in her eyes. She saw that they had stopped in the pile at the exit of the hallway, clacking menacingly at Itash and her.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

Most of his attention was admittedly on the dias that was slowly sinking into the ground, revealing a new set of stairs hidden from shadows.

The dust was covering every inch of it.

It hadn't seen use in too long.

"What?" Itash looked to the other side and suddenly noticed the little metal traps cloinking at them, then her bleeding and looking rather annoyed. "I can't leave you for even a second without getting yourself into trouble, can you?" He didn't seem overly concerned though. Mostly because this was starting to exhaust him. He didn't mind some theatrics here and there, but by the Balance.

Can this start to look less than a dramatic holo-flick yet?

They crept closer by an inch.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I am quite done fighting more obstacles. Let's go." No matter what Filiae wanted to do Tash turned on his heels and descended down the stairs. His form being swallowed by shadows.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

"I would say you bring me bad luck, Itash." "But with what we are about to uncover, any pain will have been worth it."

Filiae was somewhat accident-prone, but she was never one to back down. Funny enough, it was most prevalent when she brought a companion, her solo-missions never caused her this much ill. Then again, there were also never anyone around to see her excel in those cases. Brushing the pieces off herself, she stood up and extinguished the sabre. Filiae cast a last glance back at the clacking jaws before stepping down into the void.

As their eyes adjusted to the dark chamber, they saw broken stone and sundered metal bodies littering the floor, however, these did not begin to stir even when prodded.

Following the tunnel, they found a place where a single column of light fell on a cracking altar, behind it, a shrine. On the altar lay a tray decorated with a deep red fabric. On the fabric lay metal pieces, some swordlike, others like a prong. But they looked like they would fit together, maybe.

Filiae circled the altar with a mere glance at the tray. Her eyes were fixed on what she saw on the shrine: A pyramid of red crystal and gold. She reached out a hand, and let it hover over it for a second. Smoke rose from the thick layer of dust as the crystal lattice within responded to her call. After a flash of blue flame, the pyramid stood bare for all to see.

Filiae seized it quickly, holding it with both hands and looking at the many pieces. There was such scrutiny in her eyes, such greed in her fingers as they traced along its surfaces, and a smile spread wide on her lips; happy, but also wicked in its shape. The holocron glowed in her hand, responding to her, finally free from its long, long slumber.

"The Holocron of Darth Mekhis."

And above them, it appeared, an exit. Fresh air fell in with a faint mist. roots grew along the hole, and the light was convincingly natural. It was a way to skip past many traps and obstacles.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

He ignored the holocron and approached the altar itself.

There Tash stood, impassively, looking down at all the pieces. The reason for his disinterest in the Mekhis Holocron was simple. Out from his pocket an orb appeared, it was hot to the touch and from it a form detached.

A Givin manifested itself next to Itash.

"Oh bother, what brothel have you summoned me no- well, hello." All of a sudden the ghost of the Sith Lord forgot all about Itash and didn't even acknowledge the second presence in the room. Instead it was intently focused on the parts laid on the altar. Its expression remained neutral (A Givin smiling?), but Tash could see that the Sith was very pleased with this.

Call it intuition.

"You know what this is, right??" Tash glanced over to the ghost who sighed. "The remnants of the Scepter of Marka Ragnos, you fool!"

"My, its in quite the sorry state. If only I had a real body... I could restore it back to glory.... oooh the things you could do with this thing."

"Thank you, back in your box."

"What- wait n-"

Itash shook his head and dropped the orb back in his pocket, before glancing over to Filiae. She was cradling that holocron as if her life was depending on it. Well, good for her, but he'd rather avoid having another annoying little voice rumbling in his ear over and over again. "We done here?"

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

She looked over at him when he fished out the glowing orb, and she heard what it said. She felt some envy, but knew she had what she came here to get. He had laid claim on it already. Who knew, perhaps it would turn him closer to the Empire in time.

A Sith like Itash. It was a thrilling thought.

"Yes, I have what I came here for." She looked up at the hole. "And I found a way out."

"Brothel" it had said, it sand much about Itash's passtimes. Though, not more than she had already guessed. He did not seem like the relationship-type. Which, in some ways, made him a bit of a safe plaything. That, or he was lying to someone. If he was lying to someone, then he would deserve everything he got. Some for good lying, some for not being good enough.

She tucked away the holocron and sent her parrot droid up the hole first. It transmitted back a climbing route for her, and she grabbed on to the vines she knew were safe. Her feet set safely in the dry dirt as she made a quick matter of the climb.

Marka Ragnos. She knew that name. It had emerged in her studies. He was a big Sith Lord once upon a time, millennia ago. But the sceptre was in pieces. Who could fix it? Oh, wait, she knew someone.

She could fix it.

Goosebumps climbed up along her arm and neck as she emerged from the top of the tunnel, made a quick look around, then looked down at Itash.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

The travel back to the ship was done in relative silence.

Her mulling her holocron, Tash wondering about the scepter.

It was broken, yes, but that didn't necessarily mean it couldn't be salvaged. After all the Givin had admitted as much that it was possible to repair it. All that Itash needed was to figure out where he could do that. Sadly the holocron only gave information on artifacts, treasures, places, it didn't say anything about people sadly. Well, none that were still alive anyway.

"It seems we both got something out of this experience." Itash finally said as he settled down in the co-pilot's chair and put the bag down between his feet. He wondered just what capabilities that staff would get him.

If he managed to fix it.

Soon enough their ship lifted off and took them away from Umbara. It would be a long journey back, but Itash had a lot on his mind. It was welcome.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

To begin with, she didn't say anything. Cerbera was... Difficult to discuss. Especially after what she had made Filiae do to her own arm. Strangely, she had few qualms about that, but she did have some pause in leading another right into the mantis' nest. No, that sounded weak. She had pause with what Cerbera would think of her for leading someone like Itash to her nest. Yes, that was it.

But it was worth it, right?

As Umbarra disappeared in the distance, as her hand rested on the hyperspace acceleration lever, she broke her silence.

"Yes." A pause, her fingers clamping down. "I know someone who can fix that for you." "The sceptre, or whatever."

She pushed the lever up, the stars were drawn into lines, then blurred to a blue mass as they shot through hyperspace.

"An alchemist by the name of Cerbera." "If anyone can mend it, she can."

She looked at Itash, a grave seriousness on her face now.

"I will take you to her if you wish."