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Otterling
Still Dutch's Minion
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"Like a monkey on the sun, it was just to hot to live."
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last online Dec 25, 2012 18:03:09 GMT -5
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Mar 9, 2010 17:59:15 GMT -5
Post by Otterling on Mar 9, 2010 17:59:15 GMT -5
Aoife had to bite the inside of her lip to keep down the snort of amusement when Levin responded to Locke’s comment on his ‘girlfriend’. Even if he’d tried to play it off, she knew full well he hadn’t been joking. She’d yet to hear him joke in all the time she’d known him and had rarely left the man’s side for the last seven weeks. Despite his lack of humor though, or even perhaps because of it, the healer was terribly endearing. He was also more than handy to have in a fight and she found a small measure of comfort in the bright sterile glow of his saber as it hissed to life behind her. As the man made his way to her side, Aoife could feel Levin’s presence as much as see it and it shone through the Force like a beacon. Light flared from his outstretched hand, illuminating the darkness before them, and she felt her resolve strengthen with each brilliant pulse.
Every step the team took farther into the belly of the beast was a testament to the will and capabilities of both the Jedi and the guards with them. Nier’s statement that the pitiful handful of men left had once been among over a hundred and fifty others only made their survival all the more impressive in the face of things but it did little to set Aoife at ease. Still, her training served her well and she tried her best to maintain the lightheartedness she knew the men around her could certainly use. Her old master had once told her that laughter was one of the most powerful weapons one could wield against the darkness for while you could still laugh, you could still hold on to hope. Hope was something those guards could certainly use more of if the sorrow and fatigue in their voices was any indication. Aoife kept her mouth shut though and let Jejres handle the discipline aspect of things. While she could keep them smiling and laughing, it would be best if their commander still kept them alert and focused too. One was rarely much good without the other.
Finally a doorframe could be seen up ahead in the distance, illuminated by only a single flickering light coming from some source unseen to the left. What meager light it cast however fell upon a most grisly scene of carnage and Aoife tamped down on the cringe that rose up. Every step closer to the door brought more of the scene into view. An outstretched arm lay at awkward angles from beneath a table who’s shadow mercifully covered the body it was attached to. Dark stains and standing pools littered the floor and each flicker of the light cast garnet streaks across them ensuring there was no mistaking that the fluid was blood. Aoife’s boot made a horrid squelching noise as she stepped through a patch that had almost dried and she felt the tremor of nervous tension tear through her. Perhaps it was the number of people who’d obviously died in there or the graphic ways in which they’d been slaughtered but something about the whole room set her on edge. She withdrew her saber and flicked it on, taking some comfort in the warm sunshine glow that suddenly bathed her right side.
She had little time to look around though as Locke’s note of disgust, which mirrored her own sentiments, was cut short by a scream of terror even as Levin shouted a warning to them all. Aoife spun sharply in the direction of the door but wasn’t able to do much more than watch in open horror as the guard who burst into the room was wrenched to the ground under a flailing mass of limbs and then immediately torn asunder like a rag doll. The brutality of the attack made the inmates here more animal than sentient and it was this viciousness that made the Theelin’s stomach turn. A few shots ran out from Locke’s pistols into the throng but it was too late for the unfortunate guard.
"Aoife! The door!"
Levin’s words spurred the woman into action and she bolted forward with saber in hand and began to work her way toward the fallen victim. She knew already that he was far beyond her ability to help but it didn’t stop her from trying her best regardless. She dipped, turned, leapt and spun as she dodged through the hands reaching for her. Severed limbs fell at her feet still sizzling but the men seemed to be dulled to the pain, their eyes fevered and driven by a madness that had them clawing at her boots with singed stumps when they had no hands left. Aoife ended their misery with cold precision. She kept Levin constantly within the corners of her vision, relying on the bond they’d begun to form over their time together to aid her in keeping tabs on him. A brush of what felt like warm water washed across the back of her mind, gently asking permission for entry in the midst of so much violence, and Aoife welcomed the reassurance of the mental connection to her partner.
Trust me…
Levin’s voice sounded through her head and Aoife smiled in spite of herself. You know I do, she sent back warmly even as Levin’s hand wrapped around her wrist. His touch was strong and warm but she had little time to enjoy the moment as in the next instant she was moving with the momentum he was using to toss her forward, drawing on the Force to help aid her launch into the middle of the group, and in the next instant she was surrounded by inmates all trying to get a piece of her. Levin was behind her in an instant and suddenly the two rolled into a whirlwind of white and yellow that moved in such perfect tandem that one would have thought the two had been attached at the hip. A back swing from Levin would have Aoife ducking low beneath it while she sliced the legs out from under an inmate only to then leap up and roll up Levin’s shoulders to stab another inmate in the face as her partner ducked low. The moving whirl of death and light sliced through the darkness, both proverbial and literal, and soon they had driven much of the initial wave back toward one door. Aoife chanced a glance over at Locke to make sure that he and the other guards were managing well enough to keep the other tide of men at bay. Once she was sure he was ok however, she turned her attention back to ensuring both she and Levin stayed in one piece.
Suddenly images of Levin rushing out into the darkness and Aoife sealing him off with the inmates flashed into her head along with a reassurance from him that he would find her. Aoife, however, was anything but reassured and she sent back a wave of disagreement and concern at him. There was no changing the healer’s mind unfortunately and as he pushed off from her back she shot him a wave of acceptance. You’d BETTER find me Levin Caelum, or I SWEAR I’m going to show up to your funeral in nothing more than shoestrings and two postage stamps and tell everyone you were the father of my baby. Aoife grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “haven’t even gotten laid yet, better be the best piece of ass ever” under her breath as light flared hotly behind her and she felt the men fall to Levin’s blade. Aoife didn’t hesitate though to do as Levin had asked her to. As soon as he was through the doorway, she reached out with the Force and slammed the twin metal panels shut behind him, effectively trapping him in with the rest of the horde. She brought her saber down to sweep the tip along the seam of the door, doing her best to ignore the sounds on the other side, until the whole of the portal was closed off with no way of reentry.
The move of sealing the doors came at a price though. Aoife’s attention had been focused on the doors and on getting them shut and while she tried hard not to think about Levin out there alone with the madness, she also forgot for a moment about the few men still behind her that had surged around the pair while they were fighting. She was reminded rather rudely of this fact when a sharp pain seared through her left shoulder. Aoife spun instinctively to her right and brought her saber out in a broad horizontal sweep even as she dropped her weight. The drop saved her from having her head slammed into the door and the sweep took the legs out from under two of the inmates attacking her from behind but her left arm was refusing to respond to her commands. She ignored it for the moment and concentrated on staying alive. Her foot snapped out and slammed harshly into the ribs of one inmate with enough force that she could feel the bone give way and her saber sliced another attacker from groin to the top of his head. A few more quick thrusts silenced the last two and Aoife stumbled back a step toward the door she’d sealed.
She didn’t take the time to look at her own injuries, instead focusing with laser like intensity on the security of the rest of the room. Locke and the other guards were doing fairly well and Aoife barked out sharply to him. “SEAL THE DOOR!” It would be infinitely better to stop all incoming flow into the room so they could catch their breath and then they could choose one of the portals to cut back open and head through. Aoife wanted every option open to them at that point. Only a few moments afterward she heard someone running up from the door they’d first entered through. She took a few steps toward it before the form of Levin appeared, sliding along the floor on his side, and the doors slammed shut behind him. In the next moment they too were sealed off and Aoife let out a small breath of relief. The amount of joy she had at seeing Levin alive still, even if he was beaten senseless, was far more intense than she’d have expected…or for that matter, admitted.
Turquoise eyes widened at the sight of all the blood smeared over Levin’s tattered shirt and pants. His pale skin was marred by a web of thin crimson lines and thick ugly bruises but a grin was gracing his face that Aoife couldn’t help but echo.
"See? I told you Aoife Caaso, I found you."
“That’s fantastic, Levin. Now don't ever scare me like that again.” She scowled at him a moment but it was belied by the grin that was running from ear to ear. Then she looked down finally at her shoulder and didn’t see anything from the front but the back was a searing sort of pain that she knew would need addressing. Her fingers reached over her shoulder and felt down until they tapped against something hard and slick with a sharp edge to it. One of the inmates had stabbed her with something and as she wrapped her hand around the object, Aoife steadied herself with a deep breath. “This is going to SUCK,” she muttered bitterly before yanking the impaled object out. A high pained whimper was the only sound she made as blood spattered in thick globs at her feet and as she brought her hand back before her face, she stared disbelieving at its contents. “That…that is JUST not right,” she muttered as her fingers unfurled to reveal a shattered piece of bone slicked with her own blood. Someone had torn apart another being and stabbed her with a fragment of their victim’s ulna from the looks of it. She let the bone clatter to the floor and shook her head. “Oh I am SO getting a kiss out of this, Levin,” she growled.
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
6,347 posts
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Friendly neighborhood CEO
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last online Jan 12, 2024 11:24:20 GMT -5
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Mar 9, 2010 22:38:13 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Mar 9, 2010 22:38:13 GMT -5
Locke was in motion towards the one of the doors with the team of guards as Lev and Aoife rushed to stop the flow of inmates in through the other. They stopped behind a long table, and started to fire into the wave of men rushing at them. Locke's pistols were ablaze as Jejres lumbered up beside him and chuckled wickedly before bringing his massive gun to bear on the oncoming tide. The Besalisk looked to Locke for a moment and winked before opening up, and Locke's jaw almost dropped when he did. He didn't know how he didn't notice it earlier. Jejres wasn't using a normal rifle, he was using a gorram repeater, and a heavy one at that. Violent red flares of energy erupted from the weapon's barrel, slamming into and cutting down a great number of those rushing at them. When combined with the fire from the others, the effect was devastating, and the inmates fell into a great pile on the floor. And as more rushed in, the pile grew, making it harder for those behind them to get through the bottleneck that the doorway formed.
But, as nice as it would have been if it could last forever, Jejres had to stop his stream of fire before the weapon overheated to dangerous levels. With the single largest contributing factor to their fatalities temporarily removed, the horde started to push through over the pile of dead bodies and body parts and toward the table. Locke knew he'd have to act to stop them before the group was overwhelmed. SO he put his pistols away and did what he felt he had to do.
His orange blade flared to life again as he leapt over the table, using the Force to propel him so that he landed in the middle of the group of attackers before seamlessly flowing into his attacks. The first to fall to his blade were the ones that he'd over jumped, and he ripped them back toward him with a forceful telekinetic pull before cutting them asunder with his blade. He spun on his heel the next moment, cutting the neck of a prisoner that thought to attack him and sending his head flying through the air. From that he flowed into a Force push, letting the wave of energy throw a group of the inmates back toward the door . Locke took the brief respite to glance back at Lev and Aoife, or rather, just Aoife. Lev was nowhere to be seen. Strange... Before he could put more thought into it, a prisoner was on him, grabbing both of his wrists and forcing his arms apart. Locke struggled to push back, but the man was stronger than he was, and held Locke's wrists in a grip hard enough to make the young Knight cry out in pain. He desperately kneed the inmate in the stomach, but the man didn't seem to feel pain; instead, his grip only tightened before he threw Locke down on the ground, which made his lightsaber go bouncing from his grasp. Locke swore aloud as he felt fear start to creep into the back of his mind, and then the inmate collapsed down to the side of him. Locke looked up and around in a brief moment of confusion before seeing Nier nod at him and heft his rifle slightly.
He reached out with the Force to pull his saber to his hand again, and rose with a spin and a flourish, ruining another inmate's attempts to kill him in the process. Locke's wrists hurt a great deal, and he thought that, had the man squeezed a bit harder, they might have broken. That would have been terrible. But they weren't, and he could still fight, so fight he did. Two more fell to his blade before he risked a glance back at Aoife, who was looking to him from the other side of the room. "Seal the door!!" she called out to him, and he was in motion again to vault back to the other side of the table as Jejres unleashed another punishing stream of fire. "It's a work in progress, toots," he yelled back as the wheels in his mind turned for a plan.
Locke was over the table again when Jejres' attack stopped, and he drew deeply from the Force as he ran toward the remaining inmates. The Investigator struck out with both hands, sending a vicious blast of the Force at them that threw them back out into the hallway. Before they'd even hit the ground, he was acting, pulling the door shut with the Force before sinking his lightsaber in it to weld it close. A moment later, the deed was done, and a strange silence settled over the room. Locke walked over to Lev and Aoife and let out a long sigh as he slid down to the floor next to Lev and leaned his head back against the wall.
"Well that was fun," he said cheerfully after a moment. "Maybe we should recommend more classes in horde-slaying when we get back to the Te- aahhhh" He cringed involuntarily when he moved his right wrist in a way it obviously did not want to be moved and sharp pain shot through it. "I'm alright," he said quickly, putting on a weak smile; he didn't want Lev worrying about him. The healer's energy would be needed later on. Locke scratched at the stubble that always coated his jaw and pulled his hand back in surprise when he felt a wetness on his face. He already knew what it would be before he pulled his hand back to look, but there it was: the slick red of fresh blood. It was then that the adrenaline finally started to leave his system, and he could feel a number of injuries he hadn't noticed before. There was a small cut on his cheek, and another on his left shoulder; both of his sleeves were torn in various places, and his right sleeve had been torn off from the elbow down. That was strange considering that he'd rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, as far as he could remember; but who could say, the thing probably came down when he'd been fighting. Still, the cuts were within Locke's own ability to heal, meager as it was. He held his hand over the cut on his cheek and did what he little he knew to do. Luckily, the cut was shallow, and though he had to focus to close it, it closed. He did the same with the cut on his shoulder.
"See? There's no need to worry over me," he said with a look to Lev. "I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself." He winced again as another lance of pain shot through his wrist, and looked away before Lev could say anything.
"When you three are ready," Jejres said as he moved over to the group , "we can go across to the command room. It's about fifteen feet down the hall. There are some medical supplies in there as well, if you think you'll be needing some." He gave a nod to Lev before going on. "Just let me know when you're ready, and we'll lead you there."
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Dutch
Darth Awesome, Specialist at Everything
4,164 posts
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King All the Easy
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last online Apr 30, 2020 12:47:50 GMT -5
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Mar 15, 2010 11:58:18 GMT -5
Post by Dutch on Mar 15, 2010 11:58:18 GMT -5
Levin mentally grimaced at the sight of their party, they were a complete mess. At first it seemed that the Jedi had received the worst of the injuries- but he would be mistaken. His green eyes moved around the room to take note of everyone... and then they fell on Fiskis. "On no..." Muttered Levin as he glanced at the others before he slowly got to his feet. He gingerly stepped over towards the door Locke had sealed and knelt down. His head was bowed and a hand lay on Fiskis' chest, just over his heart. The Barabel had fallen, each of his hands had their talons around the necks of a couple inmates, the wicked claws sunk into the now dead inmates, but he lay there slumped against a wall with all sorts of items stabbed into him. A jagged pipe went through his abs, a table leg through his shoulder, and what looked like a broken human femur in his left pectoral. But by the residual chemicals that wafted around Fiskis, Levin could tell the Barabel went down like all his species preferred.
"I am sorry Fiskis, may your Gods welcome you into their fold."
After he spoke Levin removed the stabbed items one by one, as well as pried Fiskis' hands off the inmates. He lay the body down, and crossed Fiskis' arms over his chest. They wouldn't be able to take the body with them, and it was likely that after the Nexus was sealed, they would need to destroy Labyrinth. Levin stood up fully and stepped back to the group. It was time for him to get to work, and it was definitely cut out for him.
Aoife would be first, as she was the only one with an open wound that was serious. He moved to her back, and brushed her purple locks away from the wound gingerly. Levin didn't like the look of this wound, yes, he would be able to heal it, but even after she had pulled the bone out, there were still fragments within it. His eyes fluttered shut, and both hands hovered just over the wound before that white light shown gently off them. The wound would be mapped out, with each tiny fragment traced out and held in the Force. In one quick movement Levin pulled his right hand back and with it, pulled with the Force. The tiny fragments shot towards Levin's hand, but he instantly let them drop, and went back to sealing the wound.
About a minute later, and Aoife's major wound would be sealed, and his hands moved to the sides of her head. He began to pour healing energies into her, letting his presence in the Force wash off of him as Levin healed any other cuts or bruises. He breathed a sigh of relief, Aoife was in decent enough health physically now, but like all of the group, the attack had shook them to the core. Levin moved over to Locke, and crouched in front of his friend. With a gentle hand Lev touched Locke's chin, and turned his face to exam Locke's little heal he did, and then looked at his shoulder.
"You did good Locke Nemsee, they will not even scar. But your wrists you can not fix, bone damage is some of the hardest to mend. This may hurt a little."
Levin gave Locke a knowing look, and placed his two hands just over Locke's wrists. He knew that Locke detested being healed, and so the Healer always made sure to push calmness and warmth into the Investigator when needed- the same maneuver he would use on nervous younglings or Padawans. And how like a child Locke could be sometimes, but that was part of his charm Lev guessed. He certainly did enjoy the younger Knight's presence. Lev mentally pulled himself out of his thoughts and let the healing energies of the Force wash off of him and into Locke's arms.
Locke's right wrist was certainly fractured at the least, and his left simply seemed bruised, but there were many nerves within a wrist, and thus made it quite painful. In mere moments the left wrist was patched up. When Levin focused onto the right, it was apparent that it was more than just a mere fracture, a part of Locke's bone was actually splintered off the main part, and was jutting into a nerve cluster near a vein. If Levin didn't catch this sooner, Locke could have caused severe internal bleeding. Lev focused deeply into that wound, and with the Force, pulled the fragment out of the cluster- which would hurt, a lot- and slid it back into place. The slice in muscle caused by the bone piece would be stitched up with tendrils of the Force, and soon, the bones themselves sealed and mended.
He exhaled with relief and Levin stood up. Both Locke and Aoife were now more than well off, and Lev was grateful for that. Lev moved to Jejres, who waved him off, the Besalisk hadn't seemed to received any wounds, and Levin could see that. The human, Twi'lek, and Kiffar were surprisingly well off too- seemed that Locke did an admirable job protecting them. And last, but not least, Levin needed to heal himself- despite his wishes.
Levin knew it was not worth the stress that would ensue if he didn't heal his meager wounds. He sat cross legged on the floor, sadly, this new set of injuries was the worst he had received so far, and with so many cuts and stabs, would require more focus. His aura glowed just faintly white as Lev focused across his body, taking note and mapping every little crook and cranny in his flesh from the wounds. There was just so many, Lev was surprised that the inmates had managed to land so many blows on him. But then again, in that dark hall, there had been so many of them...
After all the cuts and such had been located, Levin increased the flow of the Force into his body, making his aura shine even more as the Light poured into his body like water. He inhaled sharply, and like thousands of tiny zippers, the cuts and stabs sealed themselves. Lev exhaled to release the healing trance and looked up at the group.
"Now, I am ready. We are getting closer to our destination, but the darkness is thicker, more insidious. These men are ill, if you could not see by the way they look. Some foreign cause is making them so not reactive to pain, and makes them this violent. We must all be on our guard, there is evil all over this place. No one can travel alone anymore, not even any of us Jedi. After this room, we will most likely begin to see manifestations of the Nexus- Jejres, you and your men will not be able to go further than the control room. Wraiths and other creatures are not easily seen by those without the Force at their side, it would be slaughter. I refuse to let you or any more of your men fall in this place."
Levin said with much determination in his eye. He meant every word of it, these were good men, clean spirits, and Lev, Locke and Aoife would be their protectors, just as the Jedi were meant to be. Levin stood gracefully to his feet, and let his lightsaber that was lying near Locke get pulled to his awaiting hand. It was time to get Jejres and his men somewhere safe.
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Otterling
Still Dutch's Minion
1,557 posts
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"Like a monkey on the sun, it was just to hot to live."
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last online Dec 25, 2012 18:03:09 GMT -5
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Mar 16, 2010 19:11:06 GMT -5
Post by Otterling on Mar 16, 2010 19:11:06 GMT -5
Aoife looked up from the bone fragment at her feet as Locke began to talk. She could hear the tightness in his voice that indicated he was hiding pain of some sort but she wasn’t overly concerned seeing as nothing was gushing out of places it shouldn’t be and Levin was within easy reach should Locke be worse off than he was letting on. Jejres’s words were a reminder to them all that the fight had only just begun though and they still had to fight their way along the hall to get to the safe zone for the security men. Beyond the sealed doors, Aoife could hear the chilling sound of inhuman wails as the inmates slammed themselves against the steel in an unending desperation to get in. To call the behavior animalistic would be untrue, even animals didn’t act like that unless rabid, and she supposed that was the best description she could give for the men’s behavior. The Dark Side within the prison was making these people rabid and they were still on the outskirts of the nexus. She could only imagine what was waiting for them farther in.
Aoife’s thoughts ground to a screeching halt as Levin muttered in sorrow and stood up. Her eyes immediately flicked about the room trying to determine the cause for the sudden loss of his grin until they fell upon the still form of Fiskis. She’d missed him in all the strewn bodies that littered the floor at their feet. He had become just another corpse among the many, a gruesome reminder of what they were facing. She forced herself to watch as Levin peeled the guard’s hands from around the necks of his enemies and laid him gently upon the floor. A muscle in her neck twitched with each wet sound that accompanied the removal of his impalements but she kept her face cold and blank. Another guard. Another innocent. At least this one had not died at her own hands but that came as bitter comfort in the face of his death.
Aoife looked over at the rest of the men and swallowed hard, her eyes moving from each face to the next. They were covered in grime and blood and wore grim expressions of a weight they should not have had to bear. Aoife wanted to move to them, to offer what ever strength she could but Levin was moving toward her in the next moment and she honestly welcomed his company. She didn’t like how much the deaths of these men were affecting her but her relief grew in direct proportion with Levin’s proximity. Somehow it was all a little easier to bear with him nearby, as if he carried the entirety of hope inside him and doled it out to those who needed it most. Aoife held perfectly still as Levin brushed her hair aside, as if afraid any movement would spook him off and ruin that brief moment of gentle contact.
She could see the soft glow of light as it built just behind her left shoulder and felt the reassuring wash of warmth over her skin but the soothing energy quickly turned to a brief flare of intense pain as the shards within her wound were ripped out. Aoife grunted but managed to keep her reaction to a minimum. She didn’t want Levin feeling any worse than he probably already would for having to cause pain on the way to healing. The feeling quickly died as warm energy poured back into the aching muscle and the flesh began to knit itself back together and Aoife breathed out a long low sigh. Her body seemed to unfurl a bit as she hadn’t realized how much she’d curled in on herself in her pain and she rolled both shoulders to stretch out the muscle once Levin as done. The heat had dissipated and left only a slightly stiff muscle in its wake which Aoife set about twisting and turning to limber back up.
She caught the movement of Levin’s hands as the came up on either side of her head and she paused in her stretching to allow herself a chance to take in what the healer was offering. Bruises she hadn’t realized were there quickly melted away under his attentions and she felt the flush of bolstering energy that he sent to her before that contact too was broken. Levin then moved to Locke and Aoife had to stifle a snicker as the investigator was approached. She had seen his reaction to it back in the other room when they’d first met and while she didn’t understand what his aversion was to being healed, it was obvious enough that he hated it. Aoife walked calmly across the room toward the remaining security team and smiled brightly at them. Levin had his duties within their makeshift team and she felt a certain obligation to offer her own.
Aoife dropped an arm around the shoulder of the human male and propped her other hand on her jutted out hip as she crossed her feet at the ankle, effectively leaning against him. “You guys are pretty damn tough and I can respect that. After we get out of this mess, I’m gonna buy you all enough alcohol to keep you happily drunk for the whole night. I know this great place on Coruscant where the drinks are strong, the girls are supple, and the music’s so loud you can feel it in your chest.” She glanced over at the kiffar and winked at him which drew a reluctant smile out of the man. Sure, they were all going through hell but the promise of a good time at the end of it would help keep the men going when most else failed. Joran beamed at Aoife and even managed a light chuckle which was the best she could hope for right then. She sauntered over to where Voris was standing and clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I know you have a wife and kids so no girlie shows for you but I’ll still get ya drunk and then we’ll send you on home to make your wife a very happy woman.” The man blushed a bit and then smiled lopsidedly at her causing Aoife to grin from ear to ear even if she didn’t really feel all that cheerful inside.
Aoife wandered over to Jejres but he just shook his head and let out a low snort of amusement so instead she just bumped him in the side with her hip and winked at him before making her way back to where Levin was sitting. She could feel the pull and push of Force energy around him as it wound through his body and sealed his wounds even though she couldn’t quite grasp the techniques he was using. Aoife had little in the way of healing abilities, it had always been a hard thing for her to learn due to her more impetuous nature, and her respect for Levin’s abilities were unending. She had no idea how someone who looked so young could have grown so powerful in the Force but she supposed some people were just born more talented than others.
Aoife walked around behind Levin and stood over him, the light of his aura washing over her and illuminating her face in the relative darkness of the room. It was a matter of sheer will power not to ruffle his hair and while normally Aoife wouldn’t have hesitated in the least, if only because she knew it would irk him, she held off in light of his injuries. It was imperative that he be of perfect health when they faced off against the nexus. Still, the desire to see if his dark locks were as soft as they looked was terribly overwhelming and she had to tuck her hands into her pockets to keep them at bay. The light pouring off the healer brightened the room for a few minutes, its brilliance clashing against the scenery around them before finally fading back down and leaving them all in a place a little darker in more than one way in its wake.
Levin’s deep voice rolled through the room and Aoife let his words of strength and surety wash over her. It was hard not to want to follow the man into the depths of hell and back when he said stuff like that, perhaps that was why she was there, and she smiled warmly at him despite their situation. As long as they stuck together, they would make it through this alive, of that she was suddenly sure. Aoife tucked a wayward strand of hair back behind one ear and moved across the room toward the door Jejres had pointed to earlier. Her hair was a mess but it could have been much worse. Tendrils that had escaped her braid were hanging down around her shoulders and into her face but she tried to ignore them the best she could. “I need a shower,” she grumbled unhappily as she looked down at herself. A thin layer of quickly drying sweat was coating her skin and making her itch and blood was smeared across the pale white of her shoulders and arms. She could only imagine some of it was on her face as well.
“I look like ten miles of bad road,” Aoife growled as she looked back over at Levin and Locke. She paused a moment and then shrugged. “Then again, both of you look like you lost a fight with a gundark so I guess I should be thankful.” Aoife turned back to the door and pressed her ear against the cold metal. The howling of the inmates had died down again on the other side and she glanced back at Locke and Levin, her face suddenly all business. “All right, I’m taking point,” she said quietly, the look on her face brooking no room for argument, “Locke should cover our backs, security to the middle, Levin somewhere between them and me.” She held up a hand to stop any potential argument that might come from the plan. “We can’t afford anything to happen to you yet Levin and Locke is better with ranged weapons so that makes me the best choice for point.” She turned her back to them as a means of ending the conversation before the idea could be shot down and ignited her saber again.
“Everyone ready?” Once she had gotten the affirmative from her comrades, Aoife’s saber sank into the metal of the door and she began to carve out a new opening. She wrapped the Force around the panel she was slicing out and used it to keep the metal from falling and potentially alerting the inmates to which exit they were using. She gently maneuvered the square out into the hallway and leaned it against the wall, clearing the way and revealing the yawning darkness beyond. Aoife held her saber aloft and beckoned over her shoulder for the others to follow her as she soundlessly made her way out into the corridor. She moved with surprising silence as she crept along the path toward the control room, stepping over the bodies of the inmates that had been slain earlier. Every sound she heard caused the Jedi to pull up short and bring her saber to bear as she readied for any sudden attempts on their lives but they managed to make it all way to the sealed door of the control room without incident.
Aoife waited patiently for Jejres to open the door which had become jammed shut for some reason. The Force was niggling at the back of her mind, warning her that something wasn’t right but with everything around her having gone straight batcrap crazy, Aoife wasn’t sure whether the feeling was from the overall place or something in specific. She discovered her answer as the door behind her finally hissed open with a gut wrenching squeal of protesting metal. She had been facing outward to keep the guards safe knowing full well that Levin and Locke would handle what was inside but her head snapped around at the cuss Jejres let out when the doors finally opened.
She caught barely a glimpse of what was inside before her attention was wrenched elsewhere as a filthy hand reached down from above and wrapped around her arm, yanking her harshly upward toward a hole where an inmate had removed a duct opening that led into the air conditioning tubes. The world around her was swallowed into darkness as she found her entire upper half pulled all the way into the duct and a hand wrapped painfully in her hair as fetid breath washed over her face. Aoife’s saber was still below on the outside of the vent and her left arm worked its way up through the opening to press back the being in front of her. She ignored the burn of scraped flesh on her left arm and braced herself against the floor of the duct, bringing her knees up to press against the ceiling to keep her balance as she fought to keep the inmate at bay. He let out a thin reedy cry that sent chills down Aoife’s spine but she kept her ground as she curled her right hand up and placed the flat business end of her saber against the ceiling, lining it up as best she could so it would be just under her attacker before igniting it.
The darkness was instantly illuminated by yellow light as the saber pierced straight up through the man and killed him instantly. The grip in her hair fell away and Aoife dropped quickly back down through the hole to land in the hallway. She didn’t take much time to register her surroundings before she turned and threw herself through the open control room door. She had seen enough to know that all of her party were inside that room and that was good enough for her. When she finally rolled to a stop in the middle of the room though, her jaw dropped at what she saw.
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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Mar 17, 2010 0:08:23 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Mar 17, 2010 0:08:23 GMT -5
For all intents and purposes, it seemed like the fight in the mess hall had gone well. As far as Locke could tell, everyone was in decent enough shape, compared to the condition they could be in. Yeah, there were some injuries that needed to be taken care of, his wrists included, but when he looked at the bodies on the ground, and thought of the terrible ways that the people must have died, Locke found that he could not at all complain.
But his eyes fell on Fiskis' body at the same time that Levin whispered his shock, and a wave of remorse rolled over him. I thought I... I thought that protected all of them, he thought as the image of the Barabel's corpse etched itself into his memory. When did someone slip through? When did I fail? Locke shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind. If he started to get into that mindset, it'd be hard to get out of it, and he did not want, nor could he afford, to start beating himself up over casualties to men he'd taken to defending. Fiskis was hardly defenseless, as the dead inmates around him showed. Still though, it always hurt to see the death of a comrade, even one that he didn't really know.
"And may you find peace within it," he muttered to himself after Levin gave Fiskis his blessing. Locke's slid closed, and he leaned his head back against the wall behind him, thankful for the respite from the fighting. Not that it'll last long. Indeed, after a few moments, he felt Levin's presence approaching, and new that it was time again for another round of healing. His eyes opened, and he let out a sigh that turned into a wince as another wave of pain shot up his arms from his wrists.
"You flatter me," he said wryly when Lev complimented him on the job he'd done healing his cuts. "I can take care of myself if I fall down some stairs and scrape my knee. That's about it, though." His brows furrowed when Levin said the healing that he was about to do might hurt. "Wait, what do you mean, hurt 'a little?' What does 'a little' mean to you, exactly." He didn't get a response. Instead, the healing progressed, he did, his usual shivering, and waited with a growing sense of dread for whatever it was Lev said might hurt 'a little.' It didn't take long to feel it, and it hurt a whole hell of a lot more than 'a little.' Locke felt his eyes tearing up and he let loose stream of swears--some of which involved Levin's mother-- he'd picked up over the years, and he didn't rightly give a damn what the others thought. "THAT'S a little?! Jeez, Lev, what does a lot feel like?" The young Knight pushed himself to his feet as the lest pangs from whatever Lev did faded away. A few quick movements told him what he already knew: that his wrists were indeed fine, and he shook his head with an exasperated sigh. "Hey look," he said as he turned to look at the healer, "you know I didn't mean any of that. Especially about your mother. I'm sure she was a, uh... wonderful lady. Just give me a little bit more warning next time, alright?" Locke laughed lightly as he ran his hand through his hair to push it back away from his eyes. "Still, I'm glad to have you along. And thanks," he added with a nod before turning to walk over to the rest of the team.
"Now, did I hear something about drinking," he said loudly as he came to a stop near Aoife. "I'm going to make a bet with all of you hear." He motioned everyone near, and his voice grew soft, as if he was going to tell them all some great secret, and his grey eyes filled with mirth. "I bet the Good Doctor over there can drink more than any of us here, even you Jejres." The Besalisk barked a laugh at that. "I've seen his type before. You think they can't hold half a glass, and then you're passed out in the street while they're still going strong." Locke looked to Aoife and nudged her playfully with his elbow. "I bet she knows what I mean."
Locke looked back over to Lev with a smile that faded somewhat as the healer began to tell them of what might be awaiting them. His shoulders slumped a bit at the thought of having to keep pushing through that Force-forsaken prison, but he knew it was his duty. Duty can be such a heavy thing, sometimes. But there's no helping it, I guess. Aoife came over and gave her plan, and Locke nodded. "Right, sounds good to me," he said as he rolled his shoulders before going on to put a hand on his neck as he stretched it until it popped. A quick check of his pistols told that he was fine in the ammo department, and he took up his place with both of them in hand. The group did some final preparations, and then they moved out.
A few moments later, they were at a door that was stuck shut, and Jejres went up to work the console to make it open. "The control room will be just in here," he muttered as he worked at the controls. "It has two areas: the main floor of the room, and what we call the 'war center.' That's the room we're going to. The doors and windows of that room are shielded, and all of the controls for the facility's defense and riot control systems are in there, along with some weapons and medical supplies." The door's controls whined and the metal groaned, but the doors slowly started to slide open."I thought I told the lieutenant to make sure this damn door got greased a week ag- what the hell?!"
"You've got to be kidding me," Locke said as he took in the grizzly scene that awaited them within the control room. Before he could say more, Aoife was suddenly jerked up, and his eyes followed as a spark of shock jumped through him. "Aoife," he called up into the duct after the other Investigator. Whatever had grabbed her didn't last long once she got her lightsaber up there, and the Theelin fell down into the hallway again once more a few moments later. Locke only shrugged, figuring that asking what had obviously happened would be a waste of breath, and returned his attention to the room before them.
That might have been a mistake on his part.
He felt his stomach roiling as he looked out on the scene in the abandoned room, but in spite of that his feet moved him forward, inching him into the room. The scent of death permeated the place, and there were bodies everywhere. It looked like some of the guards had made a desperate last stand in as they attempted to get into the war center, which was on the far side of the room, and only accessible by a flight of stairs. Some of them had been luck to only have their throats slit, or have been stabbed by crude weapons made from an assortment of things ranging from little pieces of metal to a pen to broken bones. But those who got off that luckily were in a very small minority.
Some had been flayed. Other had had their eyes gouged out and their ribcages split open. There were some who had been so badly mauled that Locke couldn't tell what species they had been to begin with. "By the Force..." Locke said breathlessly as he looked about, "what happened in here?" His hand rubbed against a desk, and he drew it away in shock as he felt the slick wetness of blood.
His eyes swept over the room and the many other horrors that lay within it before snapping up to see something over the main window of the war center. It was human skin. Someone had affixed it to hang on the wall and down over the window, and some sort of symbol was hastily scrawled on it in a red substance that could only be blood. Locke stepped closer, careful to avoid stepping on any bodies that were on the floor, and his eyes widened as he recognized what the symbol was. It was a symbol that he'd just recently learned the meaning of in the past few weeks and months.
It was the Sith's symbol.
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