Just Bring It!
Posted on Thu Dec 24th, 2020 @ 9:34am by Jedi Knight Enchelei Dardana & Jedi Knight Satara' Jalran & Sergeant RC-2363 "Buzz"
Mission:
Episode 1 - All Roads Lead to Nowhere
Location: Nawar'awen Medbay
Timeline: Concurrent with 'Panic At The Techno'
"Don't threaten me, droid. This quarrel isn't with you. Move aside or I will move you." The Mirialan slowly got to her feet, only now registering the pain of broken bones.
Buurr-wap, N4G4 extended her grasping claw, curling it backward like a finger several times. brrro beep!
Enchelei didn't wait, pushing away with the Force again, attempting to move the droid out of her way. "I don't want to hurt you droid, do not try it." She said as she straightened out and moved towards the bed again.
The Clone didn't deserve this Mistress' mercy, not after what his kind did.
N4G4 however, like her Mistress was not one to back down from a challenge. Maglocking to the deck as she felt herself being pushed backward, the astromech let out a whine as she had to actively fight against the push. Letting out a loud whistle as she finally lost the fight and went flying into the far wall, a loud crash echoed throughout the ship.
Quickly manipulating her way back onto her rollers, N4G4 rapidly looked around for the attacker. Spying her hearing the clone she again engaged her rocket booster attempting to knock the woman out with her electroprod.
Enchelei expected the attack this time and turned to face the droid, reaching out through the Force and holding the droid in the air this time, glaring at the machine, with angry, darkening eyes. "Stop, or I will destroy you." The Mirialan snarled at N4G4.
Twisting wildly in Enchelei's force grip N4G4's arms moved wildly lashing out toward the Miralan. "Bwa-woo, beeeWOO!" She even sparked her electroprod a few times, but couldn't get close enough to actually get at her foe. N4G4 wouldn't give up, her Mistress left her to defend the ship and that's the droid intended to do, despite the Miralan's threats.
Enchelei's grip through the Force tightened, visually causing a few dents in the droid's chassis. "STOP!"
Threats that she would not be able to follow through on, N4G4 came crashing down out of Enchelei's grip. The droid letting out a series of alarmed beeps and whines as she crashed to the deck. Whirling her head to the hatch the astrodroid saw her Mistress, hand extended a look of determination across her blue features as she used the force to slam Enchelei back toward the wall. In a flash, the woman darted forward flipping in front of both her fallen companion and Clone, lightsaber shining in the darkness of the room as she faced down the intruder.
"Surrender, this is your only warning."
No surrender came, nor a new attack. Enchelei raised on her arms enough to get a look at who she could only assume to be The Mistress. Then it clicked. The Force push, the blue lightsaber. She was a survivor.
"How...." Blue eyes contrasted against golden, tattoed skin, wide, shocked. "How did you survive?"
"Survive?" How did she... Satara's stance faltered slightly, her brows raising. "Naga raise the lights."
Beee-woop-weeEEP!
"Yes I see she dented your chassis now would you please get the lights?"
While the droid sped off to the other side of the room to raise the lights, Satara focused on the woman in front of her reaching out to feel her presence through the Force. As the lights came up and off-yellow skin was revealed, Satara's blade came down slowly, the subtle hum slowly retracting with a sucking hiss into the hilt. "Enche?"
Wait, what? Enchelei blinked, the dark image coalescing into a familiar form as the lights switched on. "Tara?" The Mirialan got to her feet, still gaping in shock as she slowly took a step over to the Twi'lek, reaching out. "Force...how?"
In moments her lightsaber had dropped from her arms wrapping tight around Mirialan, tears streaming down her cheeks. For the first time in days, things didn't feel as dark and lost. "It was close if it wasn't for Kuruk I... I wouldn't have made it for sure."
Enchelei felt lost in the warm embrace of the blue-skinned Twi'lek. "Who....him?" Dardana nodded over the unconscious form of the Clone.
"Hmm? Him?" She hadn't heard Kuruk enter the ship, she'd left him to guard the bay in case of another attacker. "No, that's Buzz, he was one of my Commandos, Kuruk saved me from him and the rest of of the Squad. Buzz had me dead to rights..." Her voice caught as she was reminded of all those they'd lost, all those she'd felt become one with the Force. "I... was it the same for you?"
Enchelei pulled away, anger at the Clones swiftly returning. "Yes," she nodded, "they turned on Master Wu and me on Nexus Ortai. I barely managed to get R4 and myself out of there. Master Wu covered our escape..." The Mirialan choked up as she spoke, "then...I felt," she fought back a sob, "the others. Master Secura, Master Plo, Master Billaba...all because of them, and..."
"I know... I felt it too." Satara laid her hand on her friend's shoulder. She could practically see her aura shaking, the barely controlled rage below the surface. Not surprising really, she had walked in on Enchelei trying to murder Buzz and threatening Naga. That was going to have to be a whole other conversation. "When, when was the last time you had a chance to rest?"
Enchelei waved it off, turning towards the unconscious clone again. "Never mind that now, Tara. Who is this and why is he still alive?" The anger bubbled under her skin again.
"I told you he's one of my Commandos, and he's still alive because a Jedi doesn't commit murder." The Twi'lek replied firmly. She could feel the swirling emotions coming off her friend. Her anger. In all their years she'd never known Enchelei to be this... this brash, impulsive.
"And he will kill us the moment he's released from those binds, just like every one of his kind will. They've been programmed to do this by the Dark Lord of the Sith." Enchelei spat. "Tara, who controls the GAR? The one person they would obey above any Jedi?" The Mirialan clenched and unclenched her fists painfully.
"So what? Your solution is to destroy all you see, even the vulnerable?" Tara emplored, trying to make her friend understand what she was saying. "You've told me before how close you'd become to some, are you willing to punish them for something out of their control?"
"Tara, the Chancellor is the Sith Lord we've been looking for!" Dardana stepped closer the Twi'lek, "vulnerable or not, the Clones are trained to keep going, no matter what! You know this! You know they will not stop until their mission is complete or they are recalled. We no longer command them. The Sith Lord does!"
"But how? Is it simple mind control, some Dark use of the Force? We need to understand and see if we can turn them back to our side. The Clones are loyal, they were our comrades!" Satara took a breath, her own frustration pushing through. There is no emotion... "We will never be able to fight them or this Dark Lord on our own. For all we know there are no other Jedi left, we need allies."
"There are other servants of the Force. I came here with a Baran Do Sage. He helped me get off Benja-Rihn and evade the patrols looking to exterminate any and all Jedi." Enchelei grimaced at her friend's reluctance to open her eyes. "And yes...they were." She added then, the memory of Obi-Wan's message coming back. "Did Obi-Wan's message reach you?"
"It did, not before my ship logged the original recall." Satra frowned, knowing that others in the order would have followed that message without questions. Many probably never escaped, hopefully, they were at least now one with the Force. "I tried to reach him, I've received no reply and I can't feel him through the Force."
Enchelei's face still twisted as she looked over at the passed out Clone, then she looked back over at Satara. Were this anyone else, the Clone would be dead. She couldn't go against Satara over him though. She couldn't.
So, she sighed, "I think we need to listen and bide our time. The Baran Do I came to the station with...he has an interesting proposal, one that could help us do just that. Stay hidden and alive, until the time is right."
"This Baran Do, did he have a young Echani with him?" Satara had been too focused on calming her friend before, but could this be the same man who also reached out to her? It was hard to believe it could be anyone else, but she had to be sure. "I believe I've met the man you're speaking of, he reached out to me through the Force and urged me to come here."
"His name is Hud Ubar. I know he had an associate waiting here, but I thought that was you." Enchelei said, pulling the cloak around her more tightly. "He reached out to you too?"
"So that's his name, called himself Salvation when I met him." Satara chuckled, hands coming to rest on her hips. "Yeah, well his Echani did first, Ariadne, she led me on quite the chase. He brought me here and said he could help lead me to like-minded people and even other Jedi. So far he's kept his word."
Enchelei took a breath, feeling the pent up anger seep away and bone-deep tiredness creep in. "I don't know how not to be a Jedi, Tara. I don't know how...."
Grasping Enchelei's hand tightly in her own, Satara held her friend close doing what she could to impart what calm she could to the Mirialan. She had never seen Enche so shaken, so unsure... "I know, neither do I. But even if we are the last we never stop being Jedi. We are keepers of the peace, now more than ever... we just have to figure out what that means."
Yellow arms wrapped around blue shoulders, holding tight, for dear life, figuratively as much as literally.
"I am so glad you're still alive." Enchelei muttered into Satara's shoulder.
"Glad you are too," Satara said choking back a sob of relief, it almost hadn't felt real until they were here... She wasn't close to many people... not after Dooku, Satara had been a bit of a pariah after that. But Enchelei had stuck by her, through everything even when the Council shipped her off to that frozen moon. She didn't know if she could have handled losing Enche to it all. "Can't... I don't want to think about doing this without you."
"Me..." Enchelei began but was interrupted by a sinking feeling.
Her eyes darted back and forth a little as she tried to process the sense of urgency, a dual timbre sound carried through the nothingness of white, pearly white and silver background. Then, she saw the stars, familar stars almost. A telltale throb in her head told her that she was having a vision, although this one was even more confusing than others.
"Did you feel that?" Enchelei's gaze finally focused on Satara.
"Yeah, like an icy grip on my neck..." Satara shivered as her hand came up to rub the back of her neck, trying to get warm. "I think we may need to leave, something's coming, and we don't want to be here when it arrives."
"No...wait." Enchelei's eyes darted side to side. "Grab your sabers, we are needed." Without further preamble Dardana the Mirialan was out the door, darting towards the exit of the Nawar'awen.
