Open Out of Fuel

[Elenath]

theme​

◊ Location — Solitary fuel depot, grid P-9
Closest celestial bodies — Bracca, Kashyyyk ◊​

Beorn beeped in trepidation through the intercom of Elenath's X-wing as the fuel depot came into view of the cockpit. The Jedi Seer furrowed his brow in concern as he could now clearly see a massive debris field slowly drifting away from the 500-series platform serving as a refuel way-station. Lights sputtered from within, and sparks jettisoned out into space. Clearly, something wrong — disastrously wrong — happened here. However, only a faint distress signal could be picked up on the knight's open channels. Elenath had been too late.

Memories of the premonition he'd received not 24 hours prior still haunted him. Bloodcurdling screams of pain and terror, shattered transparisteel viewports, metallic halls rent by the claws of an unknown threat. It was a miracle of the Force that Elenath had even been able to find this waystation in the middle of nowhere, especially with a distress call this weak. "Any signs of life?" he queried of Beorn, who responded with a series of uncertain beeps and trills. Too much interference from the debris to be sure. "Alright then...take us in. That hangar should do fine."

Navigating the shards of duristeel and transparisteel was not easy. While his deflectors caught a lot of the smaller bits of mica, Elenath had to maneuver slowly to avoid the larger pieces. Some smaller ships were still attached to the long, umbilical refueling cables that dangled out from the station like outstretched tentacles. He tried not to look at the drifting bodies.

Arriving at the hangar bay, he touched down but remained in his vac-suit as he left the safety of his X-wing. Activating a small headlamp attached to the visor, he held a hand close to Giliath. He could sense...nothing from the station. The emptiness weighed even heavier on him, with no sound other than his own regulated breathing from within his helmet. Elenath felt something else though...residual of some strong emotion other than fear and terror. He knew he needed to explore further, especially if there was even a remote possibility of survivors. "Beorn, get me a map of this derelict. Maybe pinpoint what happened or where the highest damage is. There's definitely a major hull breach somewhere..."

@Shalken

 

[Gellart Creed]

After his entire life of living under the corporate thumb of Bracca, Gellart was finally free. He was lucky he had R1-GL to help pilot his newly-repaired ship, though, as he didn't have much in the way of piloting experience. That was something he'd need to work on. As he was choosing a destination to lay low for a while, however, Gellart picked up a nearby distress signal. His first one. Sure, why the hell not.

Upon arriving, Gellart was faced with the grim scene of the shattered, derelict refuel station. "Yikes," he breathed. He flicked some switches inside the cockpit. "Rigel, get me a scan of the place. Might be a dead end." Drifting a slow orbit around the station, he soon got a message displayed across his screen.

+++station power down :: life support offline :: debris blocking proper scan :: single lifeform detected in hangar bay+++

Sighing resolutely, Gellart steered the Durvokun into the open hangar bay, spying the X-Wing also docked there. Another rescuer, or perhaps a looter? Slipping into his spacesuit and arming himself with his usual gear, he stepped out into the bay. "Hey, name's Gellart," he addressed the dark-skinned stranger warily. "Any idea what happened to this place?"

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

The BB unit's sphere activated its magnetic casing to remain stuck to the floor, while Elenath had to hold onto his X-wing's ladder to remain stationary. While Beorn rolled his way over to the nearest working console and jacked into the system, the Jedi looked around. Plenty of crates, tools, and other paraphernalia floated around, no longer held down by the soothing clutches of gravity. A closer look revealed dark globules of some liquid suspended in glistening spheres and a blast door hatch continually attempting to close at the end of the hangar bay. Lights flickered from the hallway beyond it. Hairs stood on the back of Elenath's neck as he felt a disturbance — he was not alone. His head spun, the hangar suddenly brightly lit by the headlights of a Lancer pursuit freighter. The craft touched down next to his X-wing, and a similarly clad human stepped out and introduced himself.

"No...I haven't a clue." Elenath replied. "I'm Elenath. Did the distress beacon bring you here?" The Echani grew more calm, seeing as this Gellart didn't seem to be a threat. Or at least, not the reason the station was in this state. Beorn ejected from the console and rolled closer, holoprojecting an image of the map on the floor.

"Can you get us to the control room? This would be easier with gravity and life support restored, if possible." In response, a little beam of light showed the most direct route, though apparently there were going to be some blockages. The Jedi nodded then pushed himself off the X-wing ladder towards the blast doors. "I'm looking for survivors, but I have a...bad feeling about this place. Something here isn't right." Elenath stated to Gellart as he moved steadily through the hangar, his trajectory taking him through a few of the strange, dark globules of liquid.

It was blood.

@Shalken

 

[Gellart Creed]

Elenath's handy little droid was able to get a good enough scan of the platform's layout to indicate the shortest route to bringing this place up to speed again. "Alert me if there's any trouble on this end," Gellart directed R1-GL. Best to cover their escape route in case something went badly wrong. While he was more suspicious of anyone coming in behind them, Gellart still didn't fully trust this Elenath, either. What struck him as odd was that he wasn't carrying any weapons - just some long tube-like tool he hadn't ever seen before. The Echani wasn't very physically imposing either. Probably some scientist type; if they had to do any real fighting, Gellart expected to have to do the heavy lifting.

Pushing off from his ship's ramp, he launched his grapple and pulled himself to the control panel of the blast doors eerily jamming repeatedly. Drawing his fusion cutter preemptively, he immediately caught sight of the problem - a large chunk of the door was peeled back like the lid of a ration can. "Jeeeeez. Must have been a pretty strong blast to cause this kind of damage," he surmised. Popping the control panel, he set the doors to open, causing a piercing screech even through the dead air of space. "Not to be a buzzkill, but I seriously doubt anyone could have survived this mess," Gellart commented grimly as he looked back just in time for a dark red globule to connect with his visor. Trying to wipe it clean, instead he just managed to leave a giant red smear half-blocking his vision. Great.

Preparing to propel himself down the hallway, Gellart stopped as he suddenly found himself face-to-face with a dead Twi'lek, their features frozen in a contorted expression of sheer terror. Reactively pushing the corpse away quickly, the body drifted towards the far wall, innards seeping out from where the waist should have been. Gellart gripped his fusion cutter a bit tighter.

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

continued theme​

Arriving at the door a few moments before Gellart did, Elenath's brow furrowed further when he saw the door. The human commented what the Echani was thinking; it must have been quite the blast indeed...and yet...

He brushed his fingertips against the metal as Gellart expertly manipulated the control panel. A flash of memory passed over the Jedi's mind —

- HUNTKILLTEARFLESH -

Such was the ferocity of the vision, Elenath physically recoiled and felt lightheaded. The pure, unadulterated rage that he saw matched the underlying, background noise he sensed from the station. Deep in his gut, he knew this wasn't caused by an explosion.

"Perhaps you're right but...I have to try," Elenath replied, just as the door opened to reveal the brutally eviscerated Twi'lek. "By the Force..." he muttered under his breath, forcibly turning his gaze from the traumatic scene. The door shrieking resounded through the metalworks of the refuel waystation, repeating and echoing longer than it felt like it should. If the arrival of their starships hasn't alerted anyone else here, the door probably had. Down the hallway to the left, where Beorn had indicated, most of the lights were out save for a flickering red glow of the emergency backup lamp. Forcing himself to push onward, Elenath floated gently through the zero-g hall, maneuvering around a dead system panel of some sort. Past it, the floor panels had been ripped out by the bolts, revealing an air duct stretched and pushed well past its capacity. The Jedi shuddered, pointing down at the evidence.

"I think...something got loose here. Something big, and uh..." he stammered, not wanting to believe his own words. "s-something smart enough to use the air vents." The Jedi unhooked his saberstaff, holding the hilt unlit in his hand. Turning a bend to the right, the red-lit hall plunged deeper into the derelict station for another 20 feet. A sharp hissing came from one of the walls ahead, where a burst pipe was spraying steam of some sort into the hall.

Igniting one end of his purple lightsaber, Elenath pushed himself toward the pipe and attempted the first thing that came to his mind: "welding" the pipe shut with the heat of his blade. Bringing it close, he misjudged his trajectory and ended up cutting further into the pipe, shooting more high-pressure steam into the hall. Beorn beeped in warning — high heat. "Agh, yes I'm quite aware," Elenath replied, having stopped himself fully and backed up from the hot spray.

@Shalken

Spoiler: Dice throw

3 on the d20

 

[Gellart Creed]

Focused on the door's control panel, Gellart did not see Elenath recoiling from touching the door. Letting the Echani move ahead, he followed along behind slowly, using his grapple to pull himself through the derelict hallway.

Eyeing the exposed and mangled vent shaft, turned over likelihood in his head. He'd heard of some creatures attacking ships and space stations before, but nothing on this scale of destruction. "I don't know...a gas leak and explosion could easily rupture a vent like this," he surmised, almost telling himself as much as Elenath. There was no way a creature could destroy such a huge station...right?

Rounding the corner, Gellart caught sight of the steam pipe venting into the passage. About to volunteer to deal with it, the words caught in his mouth as a brilliant purple beam erupted from Elenath's tool. What the hell? Is that...a lightsaber? He'd only heard of them through old scavengers, telling stories of monks wielding beam-swords and changing reality at their fingertips. The guy also mentioned there were good and bad ones, but Gellart hadn't paid enough attention to find out. He figured they were just that - stories. However, even this wonder blade was not all-powerful as it just made the pipe leak worse.

"Here, let me have a go," Gellart offered, approaching with his fusion cutter at the ready. While starting off fine initially, a large chunk broke off halfway through, blocking off the entire passage with steam. Gellart floated back, narrowly avoiding being burned badly by the spray. "Dammit. We've gotta take another route." Looking back, he spied the torn-open vent once again, giving it a resolute shrug as he jutted his chin towards it. "It's not ideal, but maybe we can cut through on the other side."

While the vent may have once required them to crawl through, it had been expanded so far past its limits that Gellart could easily push himself through in zero-g without touching any of the sides. Drifting through until he reached what was further down the hallway past the spraying pipe, the shipbreaker did what he did best and started breaking the ship. Cutting into the wall with his fusion cutter, he tried hard to ignore the huge gashes in the metal definitely left behind by shrapnel. Probably.

Spoiler: Dice throw

6 on the d20

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

Gellart's counterpoint wasn't entirely wrong, but Elenath could sense the doubt in the scrapper's voice. Nothing about this derelict station made sense yet...which made the Jedi consider visiting the security room after getting some life support back on.

Elenath also sensed the surprise in Gellart's demeanour when he ignited Giliath. The Echani had a moment of regret, revealing himself as a Jedi so quickly without a thought of his own secrecy. He turned, spotting the involuntary look of mixed curiosity and surprise through the scrapper's visor before Gellart also attempted to seal off the pipe. With neither of them successful, Elenath nodded in agreement and extinguished his blade when the vent was suggested.

The voidborne Echani's skill in navigating zero-g environments showed here. While Gellart made use of his grapple to effectively move around, Elenath had little trouble repositioning and launching himself from wall to wall. Together they crawled through the vent, with Beorn cautiously rolling behind them along the sides. "To sate your curiosity...yes, I'm a Jedi," Elenath stated while Gellart dismantled and cut through the wall with such fluidity and expertise as only someone in the trade could do. Before long, they were through and en route again, down another long hallway with only blinking red emergency lights illuminating their path. "And you seem adept at that fusion cutter...are you from Bracca perhaps?" It seemed an obvious conclusion, seeing as it was a nearby planet.

The low-voiced conversation was an attempt to distract Elenath from the myriad of sensations bombarding him as they plunged deeper into the station. Screams of terror...intense bloodlust...death. Intersecting hallways revealed more suspended globes of blood, often connected to a truly disturbing number of limbs and remains. Allowing himself a more thorough look down one of these halls, it seemed to Elenath that these bodies were ripped to shreds and then...discarded? Beorn beeped as they reached a T-section, indicating they travel right. Again, that undercurrent of rage the Jedi picked up when he landed and pushed off of the wall again. "I...don't know how much you believe in the Force and all, but...something went terribly wrong here." That sounded stupid. Of course something bad happened. "I-I mean, I can sense things. The past. This was no explosion or accident, someone did this," he elaborated, pushing away a frozen and headless corpse. "And...I think whatever it was enjoyed it..."

@Shalken

 

[Gellart Creed]

Okay, THAT was spooky. How did Elenath know he was thinking about him being a Jedi or not? Was it just a coincidence, or was this guy reading his mind? Despite the reassurance his companion wasn't one of the 'bad guys', Gellart couldn't help but feel a spike of annoyance. "You got that right...and I'm never going back, if I've got anything to say about it," he grunted, cutting through the last chunk of metal blocking their passage.

The way opened up to reveal yet another grisly sight. While Gellart had doubts before, the sheer number of eviscerated bodies gave credence to the Echani's theory of it being some kind of creature. Following the little astromech's directions, he scoffed at Elenath's question as they neared their first destination. "I try to stay away from any supernatural concepts of 'fate' or 'destiny', if that's what you mean. You just gotta deal with the cards you're dealt." There was no way he'd ever accept that the trauma he - or anyone else - had gone through was pre-ordained by some cosmic energy. Gellart didn't know if this guy was serious about being able to sense the past, but he couldn't argue the fact that something really bad went down on this station.

Their quick ingress was soon halted, as the control room doors were heavily blocked by debris. Getting to work on the nearest piece, Gellart grimaced at his progress. "Better get comfy, this will take a while. Normally I'd have access to a high-power cutter for stuff this dense."

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

Elenath side-eyed the spacer following his remarks about never returning to Bracca. The Jedi decided not to press what was clearly a sore point for Gellart. It wasn't as though they were pals, and this certainly wasn't the moment to be sharing deep secrets.

However, Elenath couldn't help but smirk at Gellart's mindset on fate and destiny. As he was not only a practitioner of the Force, but also a designated Jedi seer, the Echani was fundamentally opposed to the scrapper's ideology. "Fate carries us as it may, indifferent to our perception of it or belief in it," Elenath countered. "All we can do is merely accept it and seek for guidance...or deny it and be subjected to its whims regardless." Though his perception of the truth may be cold and uncaring, the Jedi had unshakable faith that the Force would guide them in whatever way was best for them.

Even if that meant hardships and blockages, such as the one before them to the control room. It did look rather significant, and Gellart's fusion cutter was unfortunately making little progress. While there was no immediate need for haste, this station seemed to grow more and more insidious the deeper they ventured and the longer they stayed. The shadows in Elenath's periphery almost looked as though they flickered and grasped for them at times. Grasping Giliath, the hallway's hue shifteded from a rhythmically strobing red to a brilliant, constant indigo. "Allow me," Elenath graciously requested, plunging the single blade into the twisted metal that barred their way. What may have taken an hour to remove was dismantled in minutes, with the hot plasma easily carving through. Before them now stood the closed, but unlocked door to the control room.

"Finally..." the Echani sighed as he pressed the controls and the door slid open. Yet even as it did, Elenath's breath caught in his chest and his blade swung up almost of its own accord, precognitively deflecting the first of a stream of blaster fire from a defense turret still active in the control room. Letting the Force guide his movements, the second blade of Elenath's saberstaff ignited and he entered into a perfect flow of dodging and weaving the blaster bolts. Keeping the turret's focus on himself, he continually repositioned so that the vast majority missed him by mere inches, and the rest aimed at his center of mass or at Gellart were deftly deflected into the walls and ceiling by his whirling blade. "Blast...it..." the Jedi said through intense concentration and gritted teeth.

 

[Gellart Creed]

Continuing to work through the thinner scrap as Elenath deftly cut through the thicker beams, Gellart smirked grimly. "Yeah, well, that's a load of banthashite. I make my own fate."

Though the blockage was soon cleared, their obstacles were far from over. Whatever had rampaged through the station had triggered the defense system, and one of the turrets still had enough power to remain active. Ducking to the side as best he could in zero-G, he looked back to see Elenath deflecting the stream of blaster fire, protecting the two of them. Taking a moment, he squeezed off several blaster rounds at the turret, but to no avail - the turret's plating was too thick. "Dammit, I can't hit through it! Try to deflect some bolts into it," he called out, eyes darting around for another answer. The turret's shots were definitely stronger caliber than what his blaster could fire.

Gellart then spied a large metal plate they had just cut loose, now drifting aimlessly in the hallway. "Hold on - I've got an idea," he shouted, pulling himself along the wall and grabbing onto the sheet. The shipbreaker knew nothing was deadlier in zero-g than high-speed shrapnel, and he planned to put that knowledge to use.

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

Blaster shielded? Elenath thought in consternation. Deflecting the bolts back at it might not work — cutting straight through the turret would be far more effective. The Jedi's only issue was that he needed propulsion in zero-g to move closer...

Having slowly been drifting backwards, his feet found purchase on the wall opposite the door. Elenath pushed off, continuing his defensive movements until his blade met and dismantled the turret inside the control room. The Jedi breathed a sigh of relief, extinguishing his lightsaber and moving to the console to assess the station's situation.

It was dire indeed. Several critical components were down - gravity and life support among them - with huge holes where reservoirs of fuel were previously held. "It seems you weren't entirely wrong," Elenath said to Gellart, flicking the switches to return gravity to normal levels and restore air. "There were several explosions..." Deep grinding and groaning reverberated from within the bowels of the station as numerous blast doors and passageways sealed off to prevent atmosphere leakage. Elenath's feet touched the floor and several previously floating paraphernalia also clanged on the metal decking.

"We should head to security next," the Echani suggested. "To disable any extra defenses. I also want to find out what happened here..."

 

[Gellart Creed]

Man, I gotta get one of those things, Gellart admired as Elenath cut through the turret like it was soft butter - while actively blocking its unrelenting blaster fire. Absolutely insane. So much for his smart shrapnel plan.

As Elenath started rebooted the station's basic life support, Gellart was more interested in learning exactly what happened. Accessing the engineering logs, a stream of automated reports populated the screen. "Good point, though I can get a bit of an idea here..." he trailed off, the data forming a grisly picture.

:: hangar 1 integrity compromised ::
// hangar 1 blast doors closing //
:: hangar 1 blast door malfunction ::
:: vent system malfunction | blockage detected ::
:: multiple route 2 door malfunctions detected ::
:: ALERT ALERT FUEL LINE 6 COMPROMISED ::
:: TANKS 3, 4, 5 CRITICAL ::
:: CATASTROPHIC STARBOARD DAMAGE ::
:: STATUS: CALAMITOUS ::
// initiate system shutdown //
...
...
:: reboot succesful ::
:: unknown energy fluctuations in mess hall ::

Gellart whistled low. "Looks pretty bad. Entire starboard side is just gone. Still no idea what we're up against, though; let's hope security can give us more answers." By then, the little roller astro had already plotted a route to their next destination, and this time thankfully with no blockages along the way. Following the path through the cold, dimly lit hallways, the duo would quickly reach the security hub.


@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

continued theme​

Peering over the spacer's shoulder at the data readouts, Elenath skimmed over them and felt a cold chill creep up his spine and into his scalp. Having spent his entire childhood and many of his teen years aboard his family's scrapping freighter, the Echani was very familiar with such automated reports and determining their root cause. "Something got...loose. Here, in hanger 1," he pointed to the first few lines of data. But something spoke to Elenath, something within his core told him that no...it didn't get loose. It was released.

Beorn had indeed already hooked into the nearest computer port and holoprojected a map and route towards the security room, not far from where they currently stood. Setting out carefully, the red emergency lights had been replaced by dim, cold ship bulbs. No longer needing to concentrate on navigating the hall in zero-g, Elenath took the opportunity to glide a hand along the wall and allow the Force to show him what it may. Steeling himself, the psychometry was indeed grim. Amid innumerable memories of terror, screaming, and blood, the Jedi also felt unbridled rage once again. Concentrating further, the beast took shape in his mind — a Dark Side abomination, mighty sinews of crafted and stitched muscle ravaging the station with reckless abandon. Pulling himself from the wall, the Jedi nearly retched.

"It-it's an abomination," Elenath choked out, leaning on the wall for support as they arrived at the security hub. "A Dark Side abomination." Taking the few extra steps into the hub, the first thing Elenath did was shut off all remaining security defenses. "I want to see what happened, how that thing got out." The Echani knew Gellart would be confused at this point, seeing as they hadn't seen any footage of all of the creature. Elenath could only hope that the loss of the starboard side of the waystation had also ejected the abomination. While his companion checked the tapes, he had the station do a quick scan for lifeforms other than themselves.

:: 1 lifeform detected ::
:: non-humanoid | unknown species ::
:: location: crew quarters ::

 

[Gellart Creed]

Heading down towards the security hub, Gellart watched Elenath's face contort and wince as the Jedi trailed his hand along the wall. Was he able to see into the past? Could he see what happened in this place? About to break the silence and inquire, the Echani suddenly almost emptied his guts onto the floor, choking out what he'd learned. Gellart raised an eyebrow. "A what now? I mean, obviously it's abominable, but what's the Dark Side? What are we dealing with here?"

As Elenath went to deal with shutting down the security, Gellart went to access the video logs, starting with the footage from Hangar 1. Rewinding rapidly to before the mass destruction that took place, he found the very beginning: an unassuming freighter. A Thyrisian Echani with long, white hair emerged from the extended boarding ramp, his face knotted into a spiteful scowl. Hauntingly purposeful and with no hesitation, the man pulled the quick-release on the cargo hold, dumping a dark, writhing shape onto the metal floor. Extending a finger towards the other hapless civilians milling about the hangar, a single word formed on the man's lips. Kill.

As he watched the man nonchalantly disappear back into his craft, leaving the station to its grim fate, Gellart's blood began to boil hot. This abomination didn't just get loose, it was released. This man - this monster - orchestrated the death of hundreds and didn't even bat an eye. Gellart's teeth clenched as he gripped the hand rail in growing rage, his knuckles white. Almost imperceptibly shaking, he slowly turned to lock eyes with the Jedi, his russet irises roiling with fury. Swallowing, his voice came out quiet and hollow, on the verge of erupting.

"Who. is. he."

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

"An abomination," Elenath replied. He paused for a moment, struggling to find the words to describe the differences between the Light and the Dark sides concisely. "W...well, practitioners of the Dark Side usually have their own interests in mind, even if that results in horrendous acts like torture and death. Abominations are physical manifestations of that, apex predators that only want to kill. Think of a rathtar dialled up to—" he faltered, seeing the security footage.

It can't be...

Yet his eyes did not deceive Elenath, and in his heart he knew the truth. He'd seen it on Sverend. The stars had shown him his fate.

"That's...my father, Amarthan Guldur. I haven't seen him in, well..." his voice faltered again. Running a salvage ship and hopping from system to system led to spotty communication. Neither party knew where the other was. "almost ten years," the Jedi finished. Something must have happened that shattered his father's world, and Elenath knew there was only one thing that could. He'd seen that on Sverend too.

Gellart's intensity surprised the Echani, and not in a good way. Elenath's senses told him this atrocity was almost...personal for the scrapper, in a different way than it was for the seer. Beside him, Beorn made a short, warning claxon and pointed to the security screen with a free arm. Elenath's attention shot back to it, and his eyes widened in alarm.

:: lifeform moving ::
:: location : hangar 1 ::

Gripping Gellart's shoulder, he turned the scrapper's attention to the screen as well. "We have more pressing matters right now—agh!" he gripped his forehead as the visions rushed in.

- A couple is brutally murdered before him, beaten to bloody pulps by a smiling man. -

- A teen wanders the scrapyards of Bracca, surviving alone and filled with seething hatred. -

- Now grown, he grips the controls of his ship, running down his quarry. -

Gellart was truly the most haunted individual that Elenath had ever met. Haunted, but with willpower honed into a steel blade that would cut down all in his path. He was driven by so much rage. The Jedi was glad the scrapper wasn't Force Sensitive, or the galaxy would have a threat that would raze entire worlds.

 

[Gellart Creed]

In a flash, Gellart's vibrosword snapped out to its full length, humming angrily. "Your father?! You're telling me that monster" - the word was practically spat from his mouth - "is your FATHER?!" He was absolutely livid. The coincidence that the son of the man who had caused this massacre was visiting after the fact was uncanny. Was he coming to clean up the survivors? Loot what was left over? He had no way to be sure.

Hardly even noticing the astromech's warning, Gellart quickly brushed Elenath's hand off his shoulder, ignoring the Jedi's winces. "No - we're dealing with this now. Tell me why I should trust you. How I know you're not also using this 'Dark Side' too," he demanded.

Once satisfied with an answer, a short-range alarm transmission from R1-GL lit up his datapad.

+++ unidentifiable hostile in hangar bay :: undeterred by firepower :: evacuated safely :: currently orbiting station :: X-wing damaged beyond repair :: immediate evacuation is advised +++

Dammit, Gellart cursed inwardly with a pang of shame and guilt. If he hadn't held up Elenath with his own personal vendetta, maybe this could have been prevented. "Your...your ship's busted," he admitted, his tone now subdued. He met Elenath's gaze again, the rage dissipated from his eyes - or perhaps just redirected. "Okay, you're the expert - tell me what we gotta do to kill this thing."

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

Gellart put into words what Elenath knew deep inside, but feared to say aloud. Monster. "Y...yes, that's my father. I haven't been in contact with him in nearly a decade — he's unrecognizable to me now," the Jedi replied fervently. Though he dared not meet the spacer's gaze, he knew that the unquenchable rage Elenath had felt within Gellart was now turned upon him. But now the man required proof. Trust cannot be earned in a moment, yet the Jedi would try.

Finally meeting Gellart's gaze, Elenath raised a single hand a channeled the Force through his fingertips. A ball of pure, yellow-blue light shone out, like as though he held a piece of starlight itself. "I am a Jedi, a protector of the innocent and guardian of the helpless. No practitioner of the Dark could summon this, for it is a pure fragment of the Light that I wield." Releasing the flow of power, the light faded to the comparatively dull blue and green lights that the security screens emanated. "And it is how I will weaken the abomination. Hopefully...our combined efforts will be enough to slay it."

Hearing the news about his ship was...quite bad. Elenath had no attachment to it, but that was his one ticket out of this doomed station. Unless...

He spun back to the console, seeing that the creature was approaching quickly. "Beorn, find me another ship in this space hulk. If there isn't one, I'll have to cram into your cargo hold," he stated to the scrapper. Though tensions were temporarily settled, time was running out. He beckoned to Gellart, running full-tilt out of the security room and towards the mess hall. Beorn had already accessed the central computer, beeping rapidly alongside Elenath's heels. There was another ship, potentially space-ready, in Hangar 2. That'll have to do...

 

[Gellart Creed]

Gellart was clearly taken aback by the sudden display of power by Elenath. While he didn't quite fully understand the light and the dark sides of the Force, this Jedi spoke with such conviction that Gellart's respect for him rose a considerable amount. While their methods might differ somewhat, they had very similar goals and morals. "Alright, come on. Let's check head to the mess hall, that should give us more space to fight this damn thing." Leaving the security room behind, it would not take long before the duo opened the doors into the mess hall.

To describe it as a literal mess would be an understatement. Clearly the crew had gathered here for shelter, but it had instead become their tomb. The walls, floor, and destroyed furniture were coated with gore and viscera. Parts and pieces of bodies scattered everywhere, nothing was left intact to form a complete corpse anymore. Perhaps it was a mercy that life support was only recently turned on again, or the bodies would be half-decomposed and the smell would be unbearable.

As gross a sight as it was, even more gruesome was the pulsating mass of flesh and...something that occupied the center of the space. Gellart had never seen anything even remotely similar to this phenomenon before; and while he couldn't feel anything from it, he couldn't help but feel unsettled and uncomfortable around it. It was somehow wrong, like it shouldn't exist but does anyway. "The hells is that thing?" he growled.

A distant boom echoed from somewhere else in the station, followed by a deep, gutteral roar. It was getting closer.

@Vosrik

 

[Elenath]

Elenath made no further comment on the matter, following Gellart's hasty footsteps with equal vigour towards the exit. Beorn rolled in silence ahead of the duo, scanners whirring rapidly. Once the two reached the mess hall, the Jedi halted in his path, eyes fixated on what he saw before them.

This is what he had felt previously, like some insidious parasite hiding beneath the metal skin of the derelict station. At the core of all this death, fear, destruction, Elenath was now face to face with what had emerged — a Dark Side Nexus. Now things began to become more clear. Amarthan had come here and released the abomination specifically to create this Nexus in the ensuing massacre. But this was still something the Echani would expect of a Sith Lord, not his own father that he knew and loved...

...or did Elenath really know him?

Such questions he would have to ponder later. The Jedi could see in his mind's eye the fullest extent of the Nexus, still burgeoning and not yet fully formed. Yet such was its power that even Gellart could inherently feel that something was wrong.

"That...is a Nexus of the Dark Side. The result of all this needless terror and slaughter," Elenath replied. He glanced at the dark-haired human while nodding towards the rip in reality. "The fact you can feel or even see it is proof that all people and all things, even if not Force Sensitive, are connected by the Force." The Seer strode confidently towards it, drawing and igniting Giliath's indigo blades in one hand and summoning the Light Side into his other palm once again.

"I cannot allow this Nexus to remain here. If you have any desire to protect the helpless and innocent, then please protect me while I do what I must." He took his position facing the terrible, writhing Nexus. It smelled of gore and felt like death itself. Elenath raised his hand, Force Light growing stronger in his hand to combat the darkness. Beorn let out a warning wail, spinning his head rapidly on his spherical chassis. "I know it's getting closer," the Jedi said through gritted, strained teeth. "Get to the hangar and prep that other ship!"

Thundeous footsteps echoed down the hallway. It was near.

@Shalken

 

[Gellart Creed]

Gellart eyeroll at Elenath's comment on everything "cOnNeCtEd bY tHe fOrCe" was so exaggerated it was nearly audible. As the Jedi got to work on removing that weird "nexus", Gellart spun around to face the entrance of the mess hall, preparing himself. "Yeah, yeah, just make it quick. That laser sword would be handy in a scuffle."

theme​

Not a moment later, a lumbering hulk of writhing flesh barrelled around the corner into view, charging full speed at the two living creatures in the room. Its multiple unholy mouths snarling and bellowing, Gellart bolted to the side, trying to direct it away from Elenath. Much to his surprise, the abomination recoiled in visible frustration and agony, now exposed to the light that the Jedi was creating.

Using the moment and this newfound discovery to his advantage, Gellart began a desperate and delicate dance around it, squeezing off shots and taking quick jabs at it with his vibroblade. While not able to get close enough to seriously wound it, he did have the advantage of agility, allowing him to barely stay out of harm's way from its powerful but sluggish swipes. As seconds dragged on into minutes, however, the spacer's energy was ebbing, and a momentary slip on a slick pool of gore put him off balance, the howling beast managing to rake a claw across his back. "Anytime now!" he grimaced, barely dodging a blow aimed for his head.

@Vosrik