Ask The Path to Balance: Courage

[Izel Thral]

​

Izel grunted as she laid on her back and kicked powerfully with both her legs, knocking open the escape pod's door. The Vratix turned over and climbed out, trying to regain her breath. Things had not gotten off to a marvelous start. The Gray Phoenix had been destroyed, shot down by some unseen force the moment they entered Umbara's atmosphere. It had happened so fast they barely had time to make it to the escape pods. Now they were trapped on another very hostile planet, this time alone. Immediately she reached out with her Force sense, trying to pinpoint the location of her friends and allies. There was Yulie... Captain Watam... And there was Isen. All alive, thank the Force, though there was a concerning distance between the four of them. Isen in particular was much further away. They would need to regroup quickly if they wanted to survive.

Reaching back inside the pod Izel recovered her lightsaber and started making her way through the bioluminescent forest. Even though Umbara was known as the 'Shadow World', an especially creepy looking planet that never saw the light of day, it felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the pervasive darkness of Ambria. This world was wild and dangerous yes, but the Force here existed in a pure and uncorrupted form. Were she not so distressed over their current predicament Izel would have liked to just stop and soak it in for a minute. As things were she remained on guard, highly aware of every movement and sound in the bushes, wary of predators. From what she had felt Yulie's pod was the closest. She would try to find her first, then the Captain, and then go after Isen. It was just as well, she trusted him the most to take care of himself. But it wasn't the natural dangers of the forest that worried her. It was the unnatural. The fallen Knight they had come here to find. She had already proven she was not to be underestimated. Izel only hoped they could regroup before the dark Jedi did any further damage.

"Yulie!" The Vratix called out as she continued making her way through the forest, antennae twitching and eyes scanning the environment as she searched for the young Dathomirian. "Padawan! Are you there? Can you speak up?" It was probably unwise to speak so loudly, but the Vratix worried for her friends. They were alive yes, but whether or not they were injured or in peril, she hadn't been able to tell. They were in the dark. They needed to find whatever advantages they could and fast...

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

A cold splash of biting cold water to the face awoke Yulie with a start. It burned her eyes as they fluttered open, as if it had been putrid smoke from a toxic fire. “Gah!” She squeezed her eyes shut, jerking her head away from the fountain aimed at her face and tried wiping it away with her arm.

The outer shell of her spherical pod had cracked like an egg, and as it lazy sank into the black depths of the lake, the frigid waters leaked through the air filters and into the cabin. It might as well have been liquid smoke in her eyes.

She untethered her harness and leapt to her feet, stumbling and splashing in a waist-high pool as she tried to find her footing. The pod was rocking unpredictably in its descent; the outside currents and the lurching waters within were fighting against the efforts of the shrinking pocket of air to keep itself upright.

Straining bleary-eyed through the pain, Yulie searched the chamber frantically. Emergency lighting pulsed red, each period of utter darkness longer than the one before. The water was winning, soon the power would short and she’d be stuck in a black capsule, but the water was rising too quickly to think about that, and she was starting to lose feeling in her toes.

Everything was a blur, the walls like smears of paint. Aside from the window of the hatch, every angle looked hopelessly identical in a nondescript haze, but somewhere there was a vacuum suit fit for a space walk. Desperately banging against the sides, her hands slipped across the sleek sides, searching for a bulging compartment containing it. Pod maintenance wasn’t on her list of chores, this room was the least familiar to her.

What did she see from where she was seated? The window was directly opposite was where she was strapped in, which side was the emergency supplies? She cursed herself for being so transfixed on the destruction of Gray Phoenix instead of taking inventory of her situation. Inventory. She patted herself down. Where was her lightsaber!? She panicked, the water level creeping to her chest. It must have dislodged when the pod bounced into the lake and skipped along its surface, the G-Force knocking her out before she could see where it went.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” She wasn’t going to lose her only memento of Stormkirk down here. Taking a deep breath, she plunged to the floor, sweeping her hands hopelessly for the metal rod before returning to the surface with an anguished gasp.

Space suit first! She told herself, returning to the task of finding that compartment. The emergency lighting pulsed for the last time, before finally dying, and she found the casing to her salvation right before the light vanished for good. Prying it open, the suit fell into the water with two distinct splashes, the second being the helmet.

Her pocket of air was almost gone. Standing on the her seat, she awkwardly danced as she slid herself into the suit one leg at a time, losing balance as the capsule’s rocking became tilted to more extreme angles. A waterfall spilled into the opening at the neck, and she only had time to dump half the water from the helmet before being forced to lock it on.

Outside the helmet, she could see a dark line a shade more black than everything else climb above her eye level. The capsule was completely filled now, and she had to keep her chin up so the water level inside the suit didn’t slosh above her nose. Her suit burped some air into the helmet, but that bespoke a new problem: with the water pressure inside, it wouldn’t know how often it would need to pump more oxygen. How much time did she have before she’d be breathing her own carbon dioxide? She tried not to think about it. There was still the matter of the lightsaber.

Squatting low, she tapped her feet, trying to puzzle out the bottommost point of the capsule. Slightly askew, it would surely roll there. After two minutes of searching with her toes, she bumped into something. The lightsaber? No, too heavy. The emergency cache. Still useful. She wanted to keep searching, but the suit began to ring an alarm, for the water inside was interfering with its oxygen pump.

Closing her eyes in grief, she turned to the hatch and pulled the manual release to jettison the door. Stepping through the mouth of the capsule, she dropped to the powdery mud of the floor of the lake, leaving the memento behind in its abyssal tomb.

Reaching behind her back with one arm, she braced herself and yanked the hose connecting the air supply to her suit. Until it vented all its atmo it was essentially a jetpack, and it dutifully rocketed her out of the lake, spitting her upon the beach, dangerously close to the line of glowing foliage.

The layer of water inside the suit absorbed most of the impact and it all burst forth from every seam when she landed. Even the face shield popped out from the sudden rush, and she just lay there, defeated, her spirit broken. Pieces of her home were still burning up in re-entry, leaving dazzling trails high above. She put so much into that ship, worked herself ragged to make it beautiful and run smoothly. She was its mechanic, tasked with keeping it together. And she lost her connection to Stormkirk, the price of her failure.

Sadly, she cracked open the emergency cache and fired a signal flare into the sky, bathing her surroundings beneath the glitter of its crimson light. With any luck, the others would see the flare and do the same, indicating their position and confirming their survival. Theoretically they should all be pretty close, escape pods tended to cluster in their descent, but Yulie still couldn't sense people through the Force. If she was the sole survivor, this was the only way she could know.

Survival. She was good at that. The lighting of the shadow was comforting, and this place was teeming with life. Undoubtedly there would be something to hunt, and she could get a fire going in the meantime. Keeping near the shores, she piled up the shredded remnants of space suit and pointed the helmet in the direction of the escape pod. Keeping busy kept the itching absence of the lightsaber from the back of her mind. At least she still had that chunk of Sleeper.

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel turned her head up to watch as the flare rocketed into the sky, confirming what she already knew about Yulie's general position. Unfortunately, that position would now be known to anyone else in the area as well. Including the people that had shot them down. "Oh dear..." The Vratix muttered with concern, and hurried her pace. She had to regroup with the Dathomirian before their hunters found them. She had no clear number, but from what she did know it was likely quite high. She could at least be hopeful that the flare would serve as a beacon for Captain Watam to follow as well.

It took about thirty minutes of trudging through the peculiar foliage of the Shadow World, listening to the constant calls of the myriad beasts nesting within, but eventually Izel emerged from the forest on the shores of a dark lake. Her antennae twitched. Yulie was close, quite close, and thankfully still unharmed. Cautiously the Vratix began skulking along the shoreline, calling out in a much lower voice than before. Her Force sense wasn't able to tell her if their pursuers were closing in or not, not with such a heavy population of fauna obscuring them.

"Padawan?" She hissed lowly. "Padawan? Are you there? It's Izel..." She would continue making her way down the lake's edge, holding her lightsaber pike in both hands ready to ignite on a moment's notice. She could feel the dark presence of the fallen Knight somewhere around here. She had no doubt the woman would have prepared a surprise or two for them. She couldn't have lasted in hiding this long if she wasn't clever.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

Shambling to the aberrant tangle of molluscan trees, Yulie clawed at the contents of her survival cache, groping the packages in search for soft pouches of thermal gel. Her elbows dug into her sides and her teeth chattered manically in the breeze. She had to get out of her wet clothes, find some way to warm up.

Her eyesight was still murky from the tainted water, making it difficult to tell one package from another, and her jittery movements weren’t helping. The contents of her cache bounced unhelpfully as her fingers rummaged aimlessly, and she yelped when she discovered the hunting knife. The tip plunged between her two smallest fingers and she dropped the box in surprise.

It barely missed her feet when it landed, sparing her from a broken toe, and the bottom popped off on impact to release the silvery material of an emergency rescue blanket. Yulie stomped her foot on it the instant she caught a glint of light sparkling off its rumpled surface and hastily scooped it up, uncaring of the blood she was smearing upon its surface. She bundled herself into it best she could, cocooning herself in the thin, insulating material.

With a cozy shield from the wind, she was free to rummage through the contents of the cache at a leisurely pace. Sticking her hand awkwardly through the folds of the blanket, first she found that damn knife and moved it aside, then she dressed her wounded hand with elastic bandage, and finally got hold of some thermal gel. Cracking that pill inside the pouch made it nice and toasty inside her little shelter.

Relocating into the edge of the luminescent forest, Yulie kept an eye on the beach while she worked on warming up. She slipped out of her water-logged outfit and gingerly expelled them from the warmth of her nest, using her good hand to stick her soggy clothes through the shuttered curtain of her blanket one item at a time.

They would take a while to dry even if she could get a fire going, so she took the colourful flora to find some way of covering herself should she have to move from her spot. Binding the blanket around her like a cloak, she sliced a pile of vines and knotted them together into a skirt, sticking leafier branches into the gaps to ensure that her dignity was tastefully walled out of sight. As an extra measure, she smeared herself with mud so no one could tell skin from shadow, knowing also that once it dried it would help keep her body heat from evaporating away. From the tentacle-like growths, she found longer, narrower trunks, split them vertically, and wore them as an eldritch tube top.

It was a productive twenty minutes of work. Her vision was almost clear now, she was warm, tastefully clad in nature’s offerings, and even rewarded herself with half of an energy bar. Now she just needed to get a fire going and wait for the others. Emerging from the blanket, she folded it tightly and placed it back into the cache. Back to work. Well, she would have gone back to work, but the unnatural sound of an engine made her go still.

Perpendicular to her position at the lake, something rolled through the woods and parked on the beach. A floodlight traced the shoreline, eventually stopping at the space suit she had heaped. Two figures stepped from the vehicle, silhouetted by the garish lantern that lit up the whole area.

Yulie held her breath and lowered herself to the ground slowly. Those were not the others. Crawling backwards as quietly as she could, she covered the cache with underbrush, keeping only the knife and the flare gun. Her mind was frozen, uncertain of what to do. Should she wait for the others, take her chances and hide somewhere nearby, hoping that these people would pass her over? Or should she get out of here while she had the chance?

The figures stopped halfway to her space suit, turned around and one of them made a waving motion of his arm to the vehicle. Yulie exhaled slowly with relief. They weren’t going to search for her, after all. For whatever reason, they were turning back.

That reason was because reinforcements had been radioed in, confirming the position of the flare. They were off in search of the other escape pods, although Yulie had no way of knowing. She remained shrouded among the wilds near the shoreline, doubting the wisdom in shooting that flare. No one else had done so. Had they been killed? Injured? Or did they just know better? A sense of unease grew inside her.

"Padawan? Padawan? Are you there? It's Izel..."

Yulie froze. She couldn’t quite tell from where the voice was coming from, and her throat dried at the thought of whispering back. Scanning the bizarre trees, she strained to find some unnatural shadows or an impossible silhouette, something to give the Vratix away. But she couldn’t find anything; this world was already so alien that everything looked strange. It was when she turned her attention back to the beach that she caught the shape of the oversized insect, a silhouette against a sparkling field of stars reflecting off the surface of the lake.

Crawling urgently to the edge of the wood, she whispered hoarsely "It's not safe on the beach, men were here."

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel continued creeping along the lake's edge, looking for any sign of the young Dathomirian. She heard the sound of an engine and stopped, remaining completely still as she listened. It was in the distance, and after a few moments it started getting quieter. Whoever it was they were moving away from her. The Vratix remained still for a few more moments, patiently waiting for the sound of the engine to escape earshot, then hurried forward. Hopefully they hadn't found her already. And if they had, hopefully they had only taken her prisoner. She hadn't heard any blaster fire or other sounds of struggle.

She could still sense Yulie nearby, alive. She called out again, still quietly but more urgent. Then she finally picked up a familiar voice. The Vratix cocked her head and turned to spot Yulie hiding just beyond the tree line. "It's not safe on the beach, men were here." She said. Izel just nodded silently in reply and approached her, taking cover in the underbrush alongside the Dathomirian. The Jedi let out a sigh of relief once she had given one last scan of their surroundings for any sign of enemies.

"Thank the Force..." The Vratix said softly as she turned her gaze back to Yulie, reaching out briefly to touch her shoulder reassuringly. It was then that she took notice of her unusual dress. "What are you..." She shook her head, trying to remain on topic. "Never mind. I have sensed Isen and the Captain, they are alive but may be in danger. We need to regroup with them and form a plan. Are you injured?" What with the girl covered in mud and leaves it was hard for her to tell.

Before Yulie would have the opportunity to answer the sound of engines returned. Two this time, and loud music blaring as well. It appeared their pursuers intended to have a good time slaughtering them all. As the Vratix followed the sound, antennae twitching curiously, she spotted two open-topped skiffs flying about thirty feet above the tree canopy. Both had a flood light fixed to the bow that they were using to scan the foliage. From the sounds of shouting and laughing she guessed there must have been ten men between the vehicles at least. Izel looked briefly at the Dathomirian and made a gesture for her to remain quiet, then turned her head up and slowly reached out with one hand. Using the Force she gently pulled over one of the larger stalk-like trees so that it would block the skiffs' view of them from above. As the loud vehicles coasted by lazily overhead slivers of light penetrated the foliage, but the two Force users remained undetected.

As the skiffs trailed off Izel remained still for a good minute and a half before slowly releasing the tree and letting it sway back to it's regular place. The Vratix would then turn her attention back to the girl. "We should move while we talk. You can move?" She asked, wanting to make sure the Dathomirian was in good health before they continued. If she wasn't, the Jedi would offer to heal any wounds with the Force.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

"Never mind. I have sensed Isen and the Captain, they are alive but may be in danger. We need to regroup with them and form a plan. Are you injured?"

The droning sound of engines returned with a vengeance, silencing the Dathomirian before she could find her voice. The rumbling reverberated through the forest, blending sharply with an intense drum beat and furious guitar. Yulie crouched low and pressed herself against the nearest twisted limb of a tree and frantically tried to spot where it was coming from.

Through the tangled wood she spotted wide beams of pale light working their way in search of the fugitive survivors. Shouts and laughter grew louder as her pursuers closed in, and Yulie felt a powerful urge to start running but her legs felt as though rooted as firmly as the tree she was pressing against. Looking to Izel for permission to start running, she was instead given a gesture to be silent.

It was a better idea than running. Yulie had nowhere to run to, no knowledge of this planet, no experience being chased. She was however very practiced at remaining quiet and very still, so she was able to keep it together as the floodlight swept over them. She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut but managed to keep herself in the shadows even when the light fell directly on top of her.

Looking up in surprise when the floodlight passed, Yulie noticed one of the larger trees had swayed over them, guided by Izel’s hand. The Vratix held it in position long after the music and rumbling engines had disappeared. Yulie felt better knowing it was there, even though Izel was being especially cautious in returning the branch to its original spot.

"We should move while we talk. You can move?"

“I’ll need a moment to get dressed.” Half an hour wasn’t nearly enough time for anything to dry, but the layer of hardening mud would be a good enough barrier against moisture. Not from her boots, however. Even if the water-logged footwear was comfortable enough to move quickly in, their wet, squishing noises were anything but silent. She would just have to carry her boots, and she made sure to tie their laces together.

“If you know a Force-trick for drying clothes, I sure could use it right now.” Yulie had to cut her arm band in half so that she could hastily wrap her feet. She jumped back into her pants, pulled her shirt overhead and cast aside her jungle attire.

It must be nice having an exoskeleton. Yulie thought to herself. Izel looked so baffled when the Vratix first saw her. Yulie knew she must have looked filthy but she felt dry. Then she felt naked when she saw the slave markings on her palm, the mud had mostly been wiped away clean from handling the damp clothes. She immediately balled her fist and hoped that Izel didn’t see it.

“Okay. Now I’m ready.” She wasn’t, but she didn’t have any excuses and staying put no longer seemed like a viable plan. Yulie motioned for Izel to take the lead. The empty space at her side where her lightsaber used to be was somehow weighing on her mind, so she tried reminding herself how foolish someone would have to be to choose a moment like this to shoot a signal flare into the sky. The lightsaber remained prominent in her thoughts all the same. "Will we be coming back here after we find the others? I had to leave something behind in my escape pod...at the bottom of the lake."

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel realized Yulie's comment about a Force-trick for drying clothes was probably meant to be a joke, but as she thought of it she realized with proper application there actually was. "As a matter of fact... I think I can help you with that..." The Vratix replied, still trying to keep her voice down. As the Dathomirian was in the process of cutting her armband to wrap her feet Izel would move forward and raise her hands. Aerokinesis was normally meant to be used in combat situations and on a much larger scale, but with a careful touch the principles could be used to create a makeshift open-air clothes dryer. With a gentle motion of her hands Izel would lift the apparel and boots up and create a hot gust of air, wrapping around them and turning them over, doing her best to expel the moisture before handing them back to the girl so she could change.

"You'll have to excuse the wrinkles, it's an expert level technique that I have yet to master." The Vratix said with an amused chitter before turning away so the girl could change her clothes in peace. Once Yulie was ready Izel would begin leading the way eastward, following her Force sense towards Captain Watam's signature. She kept her head on a swivel as they moved, antennae twitching frequently as she remained alert for any sign of movement or danger. As they walked the Dathomirian mentioned that she had left something in her escape pod and it was now at the bottom of the lake. Izel considered it a moment before answering.

"If we can we will." She did the best she could to reassure the girl. "I can't make any promises until I have full knowledge of our situation though. I'm sorry." She could still hear the skiffs in the distance. They would need to devise a way to fight them eventually, but they had to find their friends first. "It seems our enemy is numerous and well equipped," She thought aloud to Yulie. "And there's also the Dark Jedi somewhere about. At least in her case we'll have some forewarning, I should be able to sense her approach. For the time being we should try to avoid conflict, but a fight may be forced on us. In such a situation I will try to defend you but we may be separated. Do you have any combat training? Or any self-taught talents?"

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

"As a matter of fact... I think I can help you with that..."

“Don’t make fun.” Yulie said dryly, thinking the giant insect was teasing her. She was happy to have discovered a Gray Phoenix survivor, but had lost too much in one night to suffer even the most playful taunting. When Izel began weaving the air itself, Yulie felt a tinge guilty for being so prickly. The Vratix did indeed have a sense of humour, but the Dathomirian couldn’t recall a single moment where it had been at her expense. The girl kept her head down while she bound her feet like a prize fighter wrapping herself in tape.

"You'll have to excuse the wrinkles, it's an expert level technique that I have yet to master."

“Maybe I’ll perfect it someday.” Yulie almost sounded cocky, until she followed up with her self-deprecating style of humour. “Would sure make it a lot easier to do the laundry.”

Her clothes sure felt better after some Force-induced blow drying. Whatever dampness lay hidden in the fibres of her ensemble, it paled before what would have otherwise remained. A prolonged walk would have undoubtedly wicked away the crusty dirt and set her teeth chattering again an hour or two further down the path. Instead, she could likely go almost a full day before finding herself aware of her falling temperature.

Following Izel closely, Yulie kept an ear out for music or engines, anxiously aware that stealthier figures could be tracking them on foot. Would it be wise to use camouflage? Yulie refrained from asking. The Jedi hadn’t taken a mud bath or tangled itself in leaves, so it would probably be a stupid suggestion. When Yulie instead worked up the courage to ask about returning to the pod, the Vratix had a practical response.

"If we can we will. I can't make any promises until I have full knowledge of our situation though. I'm sorry."

“I understand.” Yulie said, uncertain if she felt relieved or fearful that the lightsaber may be left behind for good. On one hand, it was far less likely that she’d have to explain it to the Jedi later. Though her crime was somehow known, the prospect of going into greater detail was not a welcome thought. The Jedi may want the lightsaber for themselves, and they had a more legitimate claim to it than she. And how would she even begin to explain why she even wanted it, why she needed to keep that thing nearby even though it caused nothing but problems for her. They might even try to convince her to let it go. An unpleasant conversation no matter how it played out.

But leaving it felt wrong. Even if she could tell herself that she did what she could and her luck just happened to run out, there would be a part of Stormkirk at the bottom of the lake. She did not think that she could put something like that out of mind so easily. Even now, walking away from it just turned her thoughts to it, like it was somehow more important than being hunted down like an animal.

She wished she could let go of it so easily.

"For the time being we should try to avoid conflict, but a fight may be forced on us. In such a situation I will try to defend you but we may be separated. Do you have any combat training? Or any self-taught talents?"

“I can fight if I can get up close.” Yulie said. “But I don’t know how to stop myself from using the Dark Side. And if I do use it, I don’t know how to stop myself from fighting. You might have to protect them from me.”

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel clicked thoughtfully at Yulie's answer to her question. Well that complicated things. "In that case you should try to avoid getting into a fight unless absolutely necessary. Only if you believe your life is at risk." She looked back at Yulie as they kept walking. "It's good that you take the time to consider such things though. Most would not bother worrying over the safety of people trying to kill them. It shows promise."

And Izel did mean that, though Yulie's inability to control the dark side within her would likely cause them some problems in the inevitable upcoming confrontation. As they continued to stealthily make their way through the forest Izel would remain silent for the most part, thinking of how best to approach the situation. She figured that if they attacked their foes in low enough numbers she could deal with them herself. She didn't like the idea of facing the Dark Jedi Alsuna alone though. The woman had already slain three Jedi Knights, and several Sector Rangers besides. While she could match her in command of the Force, Izel was less confident what the result of a duel would be. She would have liked to have Isen by her side for such a scenario.

"We'd do well to capture one of them first... Learn what we can from them..." She finally spoke up as they kept moving, starting to piece together a plan. "Then we can pick them off in small groups. Whittle down their number until we have the advantage. It will be slow going but if we all work together I think we can do it." She glanced up at the black, clouded sky. She could still faintly hear the music of the patrolling skiffs. They were far away for the moment, not a danger. But the moment any fighting broke out they would be there in moments to offer aerial support.

"The skiffs will need to go first..." She concluded. "It's the only way we'll stand a chance." She looked back at Yulie. "If we were to try and commandeer one, do you think you could fly it while I dealt with the crew?" Yulie was tech savvy after all. The Vratix figured that would be easy enough for her to handle. And it would keep her out of direct conflict and lessen the likelihood of her losing control.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

"In that case you should try to avoid getting into a fight unless absolutely necessary. Only if you believe your life is at risk. It's good that you take the time to consider such things though. Most would not bother worrying over the safety of people trying to kill them. It shows promise."

I’m not sure if it’s their safety that I’m worried about. Yulie thought to herself. The loss of her ship and her lightsaber weighed heavy on her heart, the safety of her traveling companions in doubt. She knew that she typically turned her anger inwards against herself, but ever since Ambria, some of that anger was leaking into her feelings for others. It was important to be mindful of the lines she had drawn for herself, to never become a Sith.

"We'd do well to capture one of them first... Learn what we can from them..."

Yulie raised an eyebrow, mistaking the plan to involve torture in some way. It was pragmatic to be sure, but unexpected from one who kept talking about kindness. Perhaps they’d get lucky and find a weaker person of a more cowardly lot; the mere threat of unendurable agony would likely loosen such a tongue. Some people thought themselves to be made of harder stuff, but if they wanted to be regarded as durasteel it wouldn’t be hard to treat them like it. Metal was more pliable under extreme heat and could then be beaten to the desirable shape. No one had to die.

"Then we can pick them off in small groups. Whittle down their number until we have the advantage. It will be slow going but if we all work together I think we can do it."

“They might reconsider their efforts if they lose enough men. This is just a game to them right now, and I don’t think even soldiers want to fight to the last.”

"The skiffs will need to go first... It's the only way we'll stand a chance. If we were to try and commandeer one, do you think you could fly it while I dealt with the crew?"

“A skiff?” Yulie thought about it for a moment. Her flight expertise was entirely theoretical, lacking any practical experience to call upon, but she understood the mechanisms involved in far deeper detail than actual pilots. Yulie was even mildly critical of pilots who relied on astromechs to do the heavy thinking for them. A skiff wouldn’t even require heavy thinking.

The complexities, redundancies and technologies required for interstellar travel would be wasted on any vehicle with an open top, so the helm would be rudimentary compared to any spacefaring vessel. With so few buttons, switches, and knobs to distract her, Yulie was moderately confident she’d be able to figure it out fairly quickly.

Further, the performance of such a vessel would likely be limited; breaking the sound barrier would rip everything off the deck, hairpin turns would capsize anything so bulky. The Dathomirian was certain that there was little risk in testing the responsiveness of the controls. How hard could it be?

“A skiff won’t give me any trouble.” She assured, despite having never handled one before. “And I think I know how we can get on board.”

Yulie offered Izel the flare gun. Two shots remained.

“We can lure a skiff wherever you think we have an advantage. Just shoot a flare into a pond, or at one of their men on the ground. Anything would work, really. Everyone in the air is so revved up for a fight, they’ll double-time it to the glowing thing. You can even use the Force to make the shrubbery shake, so they think we’re hiding in a bush when their floodlight hits it. If they land, we hop in when some of their troops disembark. If they hover instead…are you able to Force-lift us to the underbelly? It shouldn’t be too difficult to scuttle up along the outer hull, I just can’t think of a quick way to get there.”

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel found herself agreeing with Yulie. Once they defeated enough of the gang members it was likely the rest of them would retreat. So long as they ensured Alsuna didn't escape they could let local law enforcement deal with the rest of the thugs. Without their leader they would be vulnerable anyway. The Vratix took the flare gun as the Dathomirian offered it to her and listened to her plan.

"Leave getting aboard to me." She replied to the girl. "You just worry about getting to the helm once we're there." In truth at the height the skiffs were flying at she likely wouldn't even need to augment her jumps with the Force. Vratix were excellent jumpers to begin with, and with her ability to cling to vertical and even upside down surfaces would make boarding the vehicle simple enough. She figured the girl was small enough to hold on to her while she did so, she just hoped Yulie wasn't afraid of heights.

Still, this was all planning several moves ahead. First on the list was linking up with Captain Watam. Izel could sense he was not far. Unfortunately they seemed to already be too late. Suddenly a man's terrified scream broke the peace of the forest, followed by several random blaster shots. Izel looked worriedly at Yulie, then rushed towards the sound without saying a word. She scuttled quickly over the forest floor, not bothering to watch for any dangers around them. With those shots the skiffs would be on their way. They had to find the captain and help him before the patrols arrived, or they were all dead.

The Vratix burst into a clearing to find a horrifying sight. Captain Watam was suspended about fifteen feet in the air, a powerful tentacle-like appendage wrapped around his leg. Beneath him was a glowing, fang filled maw, open wide and ready to receive him. The captain was, understandably, panicked, and firing his blaster wildly in all directions as he screamed, desperately trying to hit the creature while being swung about. Izel ignited her pike and tried to get closer, but was forced to stop and deflect a stray blaster bolt as it came in her direction. Instead of rescuing the captain she became preoccupied with slicing up the swinging tentacles that tried to ensnare her as well. Hissing in annoyance she drew the flare gun and tossed it back to Yulie.

"The mouth! Shoot it in the mouth!" She called to the Dathomirian while she continued to hack away at the incoming tentacles. Watam kept up his screaming and shooting, demanding they save him. In the distance, the sounds of engines and music were slowly getting louder. The skiffs were on their way.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

Yulie caught the gun with her palms, fumbling with it momentarily in deliberate effort to prevent her skinny fingers from slipping into the trigger guard. Pointing it at the writhing mass of carnivorous vines, she let her hands work themselves into a better grip while the straining to find the perfect moment to fire.

Long, plump tendrils waved back and forth while they reached into the air and slapped themselves at the Jedi. Finding a clean shot was no easy task. Captain Watam’s undisciplined errant fire and the rising crescendo of distant music put the kid on tenterhooks, her fingers trembling from a torrent of adrenaline.

She tried holding it steady, keeping what passed for iron sights level with the snub-nosed barrel and looked for an opening among the tentacles that would allow a straight line at the chomping maw in the middle. Then she doubted that would be the best moment. Blaster fire was almost instant, flares a lot more leisurely in comparison. Instead, she fired when the window was closed, and it opened again as the flare was sizzling mid-flight.

A flare is not a standard projectile, however. The ones fired a gun are rocket-propelled canisters undergoing a continuous chemical reaction, and the resistance of the air was enough to wobble its trajectory if not the eruption of gases exploding out behind it. The sanguine smoke-trail throbbed and bent from the moment it escaped the barrel, and the flare unhelpfully bounced off the hardened lip of the vixus’ mouth.

Yulie felt her heart rate double. The glowing fang-filled maw was in a frenzy now, swooshing its limbs to attack, defend, or feel around for whatever that had disturbed it. Yulie struggled to rotate the chamber properly for the final shot, her fingers not quite working the way she wanted them to.

You can’t make the shot. She warned herself. It’s impossible. The rocket will just randomly curve away from the target, no one can adjust their aim for something like that, especially not you.

She snapped the chamber into place, defying the veracity of her doubts. If she missed, they would either be forced to abandon Captain Watam or make their last stand right here. There was just no way a second attempt could succeed; shooting at the mouth was useless, the consumption of ammo would be pointless. It wasn’t pessimism, it was a ballistic fact, yet hesitation was no option, either.

Shaking, the Dathomirian closed her eyes. Keeping the gun outstretched, Yulie tried calming herself with a spoken mantra that she had been taught to aid her meditations. The alcove on the ship may have been the perfect place to begin training her focus, but she was also informed that she could meditate anywhere. Attuned to the Force, she was connected to all things, everywhere and always.

In that sense, Umbara was as much a part of her as the detritus of her ship. The waters from the Umbaran depths still lingered in her hair and threads of her clothes, while the breath of the world kissed her with its breeze. The soil was plastered upon her skin, and warm beneath her bare toes. She stood in both the light and shadow of the planet's haunting wilds. Yes, Yulie was able to connect with the duality of her surroundings and feel centered here, making herself a natural part of an environment utterly alien to her.

“The Force is with me, and I am one with the Force.” She quickly recanted. "And I fear nothing, because all is as the Force wills it."

Without resistance, she trusted her body to be moved by the Force to where it needed to be. She walked calmly, her arm rising, bending away from the center of mass where her target lay. It was like her limbs were moving on their own, independent of thought or intent. She thought only of her breathing, and her voice became steadier with each repetition of the mantra.

Centering herself was as much an adjustment of her emotions as it was a calibration of her poise. When her body and mind balanced themselves, She squeezed the trigger blindly and the rocket fired at her Captain. The vixus was in a violent mood however, and it passively moved Watam out of the way of the incoming fire. Instead, it hit the fat tentacle holding him and ricocheted straight down into its gullet.

Yulie turned excitedly to Izel, looking like she just discovered fire. For the first time, she was able to connect with the Force on purpose. The thrill of this most basic achievement was, for the moment, stronger than the terror that the rising music was inspiring.

Captain Watam yelped as the fines released him as they thrashed. He scrambled away, dodging the whipping tentacles, and found his own way of centering himself by berating his mechanic.

“Were you trying to kill me!? What in the blue sun were you even shooting at!? I suppose I have you to thank for putting that flare into the sky earlier.” He must have noticed the crushed look on her face as she lowered the flare gun, because he uncharacteristically changed his tune almost immediately. “I’m sorry. It has been a day. For all of us.”

"The day's not done." Yulie said, as if she had to remind either of them. Not one to take charge, looked at her superiors for direction, frozen in place and awaiting orders.

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel felt a twinge of doubt when Yulie's first shot missed the target. If she was unable to distract the creature the Vratix would need to rush within the range of it's tentacles to rescue the captain herself. Such a move could easily result in injury, if not from the vixus from the captain's deranged firing of his weapon. And if she were to be badly injured they were all as good as dead under these circumstances. But her fears turned out to be unfounded. She felt the shift in the Force as the young Dathomirian connected with the great energy field that intertwined all life on the planet, and watched with mingling surprise and elation as she was able to ricochet her shot off one of the tentacles directly into the beast's maw.

"Excellent work Padawan!" Izel praised the girl, unable to keep from uttering a delighted chitter as Yulie looked back at her wide-eyed. For just a moment she was able to forget about their dire situation and take satisfaction in seeing the Dathomirian's first major success as a student of the Force. Of course that moment passed quickly as Watam crawled to safety and immediately began berating the girl that had just managed to save his life. Thankfully he seemed to recognize the seriousness of their predicament and lighten up on his mechanic for once, leaving Izel to look back the way they came and watch for the incoming enemy.

The vixus was none too pleased by the flare that had been launched into it's maw, but it wasn't dead, instead screeching furiously as it's tentacles continued to whip wildly about. That was good though. The Jedi and her companions were out of it's range, and all the noise it was making would draw the skiffs right to it. As both Yulie and the captain looked to her expectantly Izel quickly fell into the roll of the group leader.

"Captain, get to cover, somewhere where you can't be seen from above." She ordered the human before turning to the young Dathomirian. "Yulie with me, we're going to take out those skiffs now."

"Right... Jedi..." Watam answered her with a nod and a slight grin. "I knew there was something weird about you guys." He looked to Yulie. "Don't get yourself killed kid, losing a ship is enough, I'd hate to have to find a new mechanic." Then in a surprising move he would offer his blaster to the girl before limping off into the underbrush. It seemed at some point while being tossed around like a rag doll he had been injured. All the same, Izel was confident she would be able to accomplish this task just with Yulie's help, she just wanted to make sure he was safe.

Once Yulie was ready to go Izel would lead her backwards into the forest about ten or so meters from the clearing where the vixus remained wailing. The music was booming now, the engines roaring. They would be above them at any moment. Izel would start to scale one of the stalk trees, offering a hand to Yulie if she needed it to get up. "When the skiff passes over us grab on to me." She hissed to the girl, trying to keep her voice down but still loud enough to be heard over the engines. "I'm going to jump us both up onto the rear of the ship. Once we're onboard you make a break for the helm, I'll handle the crew." The Dathomirian would have little time to protest. Their target was practically on top of them by the time she finished speaking, the music blaring and men shouting to prepare for a fight.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

Umbara’s mounting threats were paralyzing, freezing the teenaged Dathomirian in place like a ray shield trap, but a fresh set of orders liberated her from her cognitive blink. She stumbled forward as if she had been released from a tractor beam’s grip, and she started to move more freely. It was always easier to act when she didn’t need to think for herself.

“O-okay!”

Shoot the mouth, follow the Vratix; orders gave her the sense of purpose that she required to rise above her doubts and act despite her fears. But it was Watam who helped her elevate purpose into confidence. When he offered his blaster, it was so much more to Yulie than a reliable firearm. It was a gesture of trust, a symbol that she wasn’t just some nameless waif that he modestly tolerated to clean up after him, and she held it with the reverence it deserved.

“I’ll treat it well.” She promised, willing to use it if that’s what she needed to do for it to be safely returned.

As the Captain made his slow march into the twisted wilds, Yulie quickly unraveled the wrapping to her left foot and then hurried after Izel. By the time they made it to one of the stalk trees, Yulie had managed to slip the cloth through a belt loop and tied a knot around the blaster so that it would be tethered securely to her hip.

Yulie accepted Izel’s hand while they clambered up the stalk. With one foot slipping against its surface, it was necessary to maintain the proper leverage during their ascent. The plan was straightforward enough, but there was one detail that troubled Yulie: the skiff was hovering rather high. It remained at that troublesome safe distance away, further out of reach than the girl was able to plan around. Maybe the Jedi was going to Force-pull the whole thing down?

No, that would be impossible. Yulie concluded. “So when you say ‘jump’…?...” she murmured beneath the engine’s roar, hoping that didn’t involve what it sounded like.

It did.

She made a raspy gurgle of surprise when the Vratix sprung upward. Yulie had seen jumps like this several years ago when she had fleas, but it didn’t cross her mind that an oversized insect could pull off a proportionate feat. She clung to the carapace for all she was worth as the planet seemed to flip upside down and fell into the sky.

Luckily, the Dathomirian was light and wasn’t physically strong, so she couldn’t impede Izel’s movements even if she tried. When they made it upon the deck, Yulie let go, falling harmlessly upon her side before rushing the helmsman.

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Izel waited until the skiff above had almost passed them by before leaping. Even light as Yulie was it required more exertion than she was used to, but with a little help from the Force the Vratix was able to clear the distance between the tree canopy and the skiff. She flipped backwards in the air, landing upside down on the underside of the skiff and clinging to it like glue. Not wanting to risk losing her passenger Izel moved as quickly as she could, crawling on all six limbs over the back of the vehicle and coming up behind the helm. There were six men on the skiff in total including the man at the wheel. She would need to do this quickly.

The moment Yulie let go of her and fell to the floor the Vratix leapt into action and charged forward. The helmsman turned around just in time to meet the blunt end of Izel's pike, cracking his jaw and sending him sprawling to the ground. Without a driver at the controls the skiff immediately started drifting off course, spinning in the air and causing the other crewmen to stumble as they struggled to maintain their balance. Leaving the helm to Yulie, Izel continued to move forward across the vehicle's deck. While one of the crewmen was still disoriented she swung her pike hard, hitting him in the gut and knocking the air from him, causing him to double over in pain. Raising a leg the Vratix kicked him in the ribs, sending him flying into another of the crewmen and knocking them both to the floor.

By this time the remaining three crewmen managed to rally a defense. Raising their blasters all three opened fire on the Vratix in unison. Izel immediately fell into Form III, igniting the golden blade of her pike and spinning it about, deflecting the incoming fire. "It's a Jedi! Spread out!" One of the men shouted, and immediately the other two men tried to maneuver themselves to flank the insectoid. It seemed Alsuna had taught these thugs some tricks for handling Force wielders. Meanwhile the other skiff had taken notice of their attack and was starting to move closer, the men aboard preparing to fire on them as well.

Izel remained occupied deflecting blaster fire from the three remaining crewmen, also trying to ensure no stray shots made their way towards Yulie. The helmsman and the other two crew members that had been knocked down remained conscious, and were starting to get up. The two Force users remained in a dire situation.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

Yulie’s stomach lurched as she swung herself around the podium-like assembly. The motion of the skiff’s downward spiral made her ill, and the slanting deck fought against her footing. Clenching the curved levers mounted at the outermost sides, she shifted most of her weight upon her squalid wrappings lest the slick mud on her bare skin give way. One lever jerked under her weight and one of the struts protruding from the aft section of the skiff turned in unison. The deck heaved, groaning against the force of its own momentum.

Levers control the steering, Yulie deduced, fighting with them to stabilize the craft. It reminded her more of bending an antenna to get a clearer signal, so the design felt surprisingly intuitive. She just had to position them properly so the various displays would stabilize, and then she could focus on flying the rig somewhere. Leaning back on her heels, she fought with the levers and tried to level off the craft.

The men began to assume a formation before her, shooting at Izel from multiple directions. It was a remarkable sight to behold. When facing the carnivorous plant, Yulie had to center herself, recite a mantra, and slowly allow her body to assume the poise required of it. Izel was demonstrating the mastery of that technique, responding almost instantly to an omnidirectional attack. The insect was so much faster, far more graceful, and had grown beyond the need to tune out her surroundings.

There was a worry that it wouldn’t be enough, however, and Yulie didn’t want to stand at the back as a passive observer if the assailants managed to seize the edge. Knowing that any bipedal life form would be less balanced than the multi-limbed insect, Yulie aimed to throw them off their game. Quickly jerking a lever outwards and returning it to position made the skiff rock back and forth unpredictably.

“Get your grimy hands off that!” The helmsman grabbed a fistful of Yulie’s hair as she wheeled around in surprise, and he slammed her face into the size of the podium. There was a sickening crunch when her nose struck metal, a strong coppery stench filled her senses and a warm sensation ran down her mouth. “You’re going to stall us out if you keep that up.” He assumed direct control of the conn, easing the skiff into a controlled arch while Yulie struggled to her feet.

Indifferent to her broken nose, she tried shoulder-checking him but it was like jumping against a wall. All the effort did was annoy him. Before she knew what was happening, her stomach was bent over his knee and all the air left her lungs.

The strength that once flowed so freely when she fought was now out of reach, her aggression purposefully leashed. Unwilling to summon her anger as a tag team partner, the Force was absent from her strikes. Struggling to retake command of the helm, she truly was just a lanky kid. Scrawny arms were powerless to block the incoming strikes, landing against her side right beneath her elbow or into her cheeks. Every hit she took pushed her mercy down a little deeper, demanding even greater effort to hold back.

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

Yulie's quick maneuver gave Izel just the opening she needed to turn the odds in her favor. As expected the sudden lurch of the ship threw the human and near-human crew members off balance while the insectoid remained firmly rooted in place. As one of the crewmen stumbled towards her Izel reached out with one hand and grabbed his collar, yanking him closer as she drove her head forward, bashing it against his nose and being rewarded with a gush of blood.

As she released the dazed man and let him drop to the floor her antennae twitched, alerting her to what was happening at the helm. Seeing the Dathomirian was in trouble she spun her pike, deflecting two more volleys of fire from the remaining crew members before reaching out a hand again, this time directed at the driver assaulting her semi-apprentice. She made a fist and yanked her arm back. In response the Force answered her call. The driver released Yulie as he was flung against the helm, tumbling over the podium in a tangled mess and rolling closer to the Vratix. Unfortunately in the process his body adjusted the levers forward, sending the vehicle into a nose dive towards the canopy below.

As the last two crewmen fell on their backs and started sliding towards the bow, Izel crouched low and started crawling up towards the helm, grabbing the driver's head as he tumbled past her and slamming it into the deck for good measure. Either she or Yulie would have to right the skiff and soon, or they would be on the ground again. And probably on fire.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

Yulie trembled while she protected her head with her arms, her breath hissing through her teeth as she choked back a snarl. The girl knew that she crossed a threshold within herself, no longer entrenched in the foxhole of her baseline but in the overcast fog of No Man’s Land. The hungry pit of the Dark Side was pulling her deeper, swallowing her compassion and mercy. It would only take one swing and she’d lose sight of why she reduced her struggle to this lacklustre participation. One swing would become as many as she’d need to bludgeon the final breaths from the lungs of everyone else aboard the skiff, and for that reason she refused to even fight back.

Her only alternative was to endure what she could, but her resolve was collapsing faster than her body. The helmsman was getting aggravated that the stubborn child just wouldn’t go down, so he twisted her elbow with one hand and swung to pistol whip her right in the temple. One way or another, the lights would go out. She’d either fall to the deck unconscious, or she’d fall victim to her own rage and beat the life out of him before moving on to the rest of his crew.

Izel made sure it wouldn’t come to that. An invisible hand ripped him off the ground and flung him away from the Dathomirian. Yulie rushed a few paces after him, giving chase like a hungry animal mindlessly pursuing its prey just because something darted unexpectedly out of a bush, but when the bow dipped steeply the girl came to her senses. Yulie spun 180 degrees on her heel and leaped towards the podium, managing to hook her fingers around its side to pull herself up. Righting the levers was enough to rotate the craft to a more comfortable angle, but it was hardly enough to correct its dive.

Eyeballing the controls with twitchy pupils, her gaze fell upon a series of pedals on the floor. "Why are there six pedals when there are only four directions?" She stepped on them experimentally and fiddled with some dials. Each pedal made a separate roaring sound. Thrusters. Central pedals boosted the stern rockets, while the ones at the far ends boosted the ones at the bow. Standing upon those ones, she pulled back on both levers, using the boost to raise the nose back up above the horizon. Once that was accomplished, she hopped onto the central ones, granting enough lift to overcome their downwards velocity.

There was a loud whoosh, the rush of wind stripping away the topsoil that coated the dangerously close ground before the skiff found its way back into the sky. Its sister skiff was circling above like a scavenger, their crew beginning to open fire. Streaks of energy sizzled through the air, stray shots peppering the deck while most went wide.

Fresh out of patience, Yulie loosened the knot on her belt loop and shook the blaster at the opposing skiff, bellowing a war cry as her errant shots flew nowhere near them. "Ram them!" She decided. Swat them out of the sky and roast them with my booster rockets! Clutching the levers in a rage, she began stomping on pedals, fighting with the controls in a hostile effort to wrench the skiff into an impulsive intercept course.

@Reyn

 

[Izel Thral]

As Yulie took control of the helm and started to right the skiff, Izel turned her attention back towards the bow where the battered crew had collected in a tangled heap. As the vehicle leveled out those that were not unconscious scrambled to right themselves and pick up their weapons, still not willing to surrender. In response the Vratix reached out with one hand and called upon the Force once more. The blasters were torn straight from the crewmen's hands, lifting up in the air above them. Making a fist yet again, Izel crumpled the metal firearms like paper before hurling them back at the thugs, battering them with their own weapons.

"Any one of you moves and you're taking the quick way down." The Jedi threatened them, hooking her thumb in the direction of the skiff's railing. Unarmed and thoroughly beaten, the thugs finally relented, begrudgingly sitting down on the bow of the vehicle. Of course that only solved half the problem.

As a stray blaster bolt hit the deck from above Izel turned her gaze upwards, seeing the other skiff circling overhead and beginning it's attack. Remaining centered, the Vratix started to reassume her Form III stance, ready to deflect the fire back towards their attackers. She was interrupted however as the skiff shuddered, looking back to see Yulie fiddling angrily with the controls in an attempt to pursue their foes. Izel could tell she was losing control, and understandably so. The girl looked like she had taken quite a beating from the helmsman, and the Jedi felt remorse for bringing her into this situation not fully prepared.

"No, don't ram them!" She shouted to the young Dathomirian over the chaotic roar of the engines, the music and the blaster fire. "That is a very bad idea Padawan, calm yourself and think!" Whether or not Yulie would heed her words Izel began deflecting the incoming fire, specifically trying to redirect the bolts back up into the underside of the opposing skiff. If she could just manage to hit their engines that problem would solve itself.

@Zohrael

 

[Yulie]

"Wait, what did the bug just say? That kid isn't seriously going to ram anything with this, is she?"

"You didn't see her at the conn. She's flying this party boat like she thinks it's an A-Wing."

With a bare foot standing upon the bridge and both hands working the conn, Yulie had a visceral sense of the skiff as though it were part of her own body. The harsh wheezing of the boosters became one with her own breaths, the beating of her heart matched the throbbing base that was pulsing through the deck. Working the struts felt like was stretching her back, and she knew how the skiff tolerated her maneuvers just by the way the wind whipped through her hair. If it tugged too hard on the wild threads she would ease off the acceleration, and if it swooped uncomfortably over her face she knew to shallow the angle of her turns with a gentle motion of the levers.

As for the pack of thugs who were huddled together on the bow? They were nothing more than lice, and high heat would purge them from the craft all the same. Yulie scowled at them through her mask of dark blood and dirt. They were an eyesore, lumpy shapes made of organs and fluid and she couldn't stand the sight of them. She had no one else to blame for the destruction of her home, so she could tolerate the hideous stain they left upon the vista of Umbara's sky at least as long as it took for them to watch everything of theirs burn.

Izel was yelling something but the words barely registered through all the noise. Engines, music, and screaming air, muddied by her own wrath. Get out of my way. Yulie silently commanded, trying to look through the atmosphere beyond the life forms blocking her view. Though perfectly attuned to the skiff, her senses were still held prisoner by the tyranny of her flesh. She needed to see the clouds and the horizon, the wilds and the sister craft. For their sakes, it was a good thing her telekinetic ability was limited to only what she could touch, otherwise she would have backhanded the lot of them over the railing with a casual motion of her arm.

"That is a very bad idea Padawan, calm yourself and think!"

Undiluted rage was warping Yulie's judgment, twisting her objectives into something that Izel never intended. It confused her that the Vratix would even protest; wasn't this whole thing the Jedi's plan to begin with? The only reason they came up here in the first place was to take out the two skiffs, and now the insect was questioning the mission? But even intoxicated by the Dark Side, Yulie was conditioned for obedience. Having recognized Izel as an authority figure in Force-related matters, it was easier to yield to her orders than it was to become an unguided force of nature. She aborted the collision course while her frustrations boiled over.

"How else are we supposed to destroy the other skiff? This thing doesn't even have a cannon, and those grotesque little wormlings are just going to attack us the moment we ignore them!" She gestured angrily to the defeated thugs, and they recoiled from the blaster that was still in her hand. It was such a sickening display of cowardice that she wanted to gun them down on the spot, but then she had an idea of how to put them to some use. "How hard can you launch them? Maybe we can harpoon the other skiff!"

"Launch us? Jedi wouldn't do that, right?" He looked the others who really weren't sure what they might do. His eyes pleaded with the Vratix for leneancy.

"I beg you, don't splatter us, we surrender, we'll do whatever you say!"

"I believe you." Yulie admitted coldly, but she just didn't care. Then her eyes widened in horror, for those were the exact words she told Stormkirk back when he was pleading for mercy, right before she gave the order to a legion of spiders to feast upon him. The thugs had the same wide-eyed terror that he made when he had nowhere to flee. It was like looking back in time, and she felt like a little girl again, alone in the dark.

Her visceral awareness of the skiff disappeared, her state of mind unfit to retain the connection, and she clutched the levers accordingly. She lowered her head and stared only at the controls, unable to look at anyone else.

@Reyn