Post by Jazen on Mar 31, 2011 19:05:19 GMT -5
Locke's response to his request was expected but it was also not unwanted. If it had been anyone else, they might have been disappointed by the older Jedi's denial of the request. Maybe have been visibly upset. Jazen, however, was neither. Well, he was a little disappointed that he was missing a chance to see how another of his seniors approached a situation, getting to talk in the process to see their unique views. It was a good way to learn and see matters from different angles, something Jazen had never passed up an opportunity at.
But in this case, Locke was right. Had the situation around them proven to be a more friendly one, or at least one that they had an adequate understanding of, his teacher admitted he wouldn't have had a problem with it. But their trip as of late had been nothing but questions and questions, many of them with answers that Jazen wasn't sure he wanted to find. Meira backed Locke on the matter and her little quip about his "colorful" way of speaking had Jazen smiling amidst a light chuckle. "Oh yes, we wouldn't want me to miss those. I might miss out on a once in a lifetime phrase and I'd hate for that to happen. Besides, it's not like he says anything "I shouldn't be learning", right?"
Nodding, Jazen reviewed the path they would need to take for both teams and sure he had the quickest routes possible on hand, moved to get it done. Meira was the first of them to the lifts, waiting calmly as they piled in and descended for several levels before the elevator slowed to a stop on the floor they needed. Light music seemed to accompany the ride down, but when Jazen lifted his head to find their source....he couldn't see anything. Hidden in the elevator perhaps.....and why did it sound so damn eerie?
The doors hissed open and when Jazen peered out, he was certain for a moment they'd opened the doors to a wall. He was half right. The corridor was wrapped in a blanket of never ending darkness that was so thick Jazen was tempted to draw his lightsaber and cut it. A shudder made its way up Jazen's spine at the sight of it....it gave him the willies and filled him with an empty feeling of dread. There was no warmth to be had in that darkness...and it was likely the floor he and Locke needed to go to was the same.
Meira and Kyo exited the elevator into that darkness, snapping lightsabers to life to act as glowrods as the elevator doors started to close. "Good luck Masters. We'll call you when we reach our destination. Please do the same when you reach yours." The doors cut him off there, hissing to a close as Jazen clicked the board for the level they needed. It was a short trip considering they were only going a level more, but it gave Jazen a moment to shake that lingering feeling of dread to the back of his mind. He had to remain focused....even if this mission was tugging at his every nerve and fear with each passing second. Locke was here though, standing near to him, his friend and guardian. That was really all the reassurance he needed to keep from simply cowering in a corner and waiting for the lights to come on.
When the doors hissed open again, Jazen was met with a similar corridor to the one Meira and Kyo had exited to....only this one had several lights still operating here and there, several sparking in and out at times. It was almost worse this way.....one minute a section was lit, the next bathed in total darkness. The mental image of something appearing in those moments sent another shudder down his spine, but he swallowed it to exit into the darkened hall. Icy blue light bathed his face and the area around him as his saber hissed to life, the hiss of Locke's saber following in succession. Turning to his Master, he sighed and gave a nervous smile. "I'd like to take hallway three please....hallway two isn't doing it for me."
For the journey to the switch, Jazen kept as silent as he could as the pair moved down the darkened corridor, lightsabers out in front to light the path when darkness impaired it and the Force extended all around them in case those shadows held any unwanted surprises. The gentle hum of their sabers was the only sound aside from the light banter the two of them exchanged about training or what to do once the mission was done in order to keep their senses from being trampled by the gloom around them. Oh and the occasional spark when the lights flicked in and out. The glow of their sabers shined blue and yellow light on what appeared to be much of the same they saw on the way in...damages here and there, untouched for long patches at a time in some spots. Just more to add to the growing lump in Jazen's throat.
Jazen was just speaking to Locke about how his Soresu training was going when he noticed a problem. They'd come to a dead end. His brow furrowed as he drew the datapad out and clicked it to life, its small screen blanketed in blue and yellow light as he consulted the map. "This isn't right. There's supposed to be a path here." Had he read the map wrong? He could have sworn he....no wait a second. Lifting his saber to the wall before him, he swung it slowly back and forth over its features...and realized what it was. A blast door. There was a blast door blocking the path. Consulting the map once again, Jazen sighed. "No I was right. The switch should be on the other side of this door. But why is the door down....I don't see any damage here so it can't have been in response to a firefight. Well, there's no other way to the switch so...lets get our master keys."
The keys, of course, were the lightsabers they held in their hands. Jazen pointed to one side for Locke while he took the other, plunging the burning light into the metal frame before him. The saber hissed as it superheated the metal, which melted and cracked as Jazen drew his saber sideways a little before pulling it down slowly and back across to connect with Locke's cut, creating the outline of a door in the steel. Jazen's lack of telekinetic skill required him to wait for Locke to remove their new door from its perch, the echo of the metal cracking free bouncing down the empty halls. Jazen waited for Locke to step inside before backing in himself, watching their back for a reason he was unsure of...he got the feeling he was being watched but for the life of him, he could not sense a thing.
Their quarry was just before them as Jazen spun around, the panel lit barely by a small overhead light. Moving to it, Jazen used his saber to melt the lock and pried the panel open, watching the blinking lights hidden behind it as he investigated what needed to be done. "Okay so....this should do it. Contact the others...when they reach theirs, tell them they need to pull the lever by the panel three times, then hit the green switch at the top. We wait for their say."
Movement in the shadows to his right caused Jazen to glance that way, turning his saber to bathe that area in its blue glow. But there was nothing there. Frowning, Jazen was about to turn back when he spied movement again, on the fringes of the light his saber cast. He quickly spun the saber to illuminate that area...and caught the tail end of something moving into a nearby vent. It looked like....was that a droid? It had looked mechanical in nature...but he couldn't recall ever seeing a droid like that. It was gone by the time Jazen moved in for a closer look, disappeared into the vent it had been near. Something dropped in Jazen's gut and he backed up to the panel again, casting a final glance towards the vent before turning back to Locke.
"Can we take a less frightening mission next time. To a safe planet. With lots of light. Where our only worries would be how to avoid sunburn?"
Meira and Kyo called in a few moments later and using his fingers to signal a three count, Jazen counted down to zero before pulling the lever. Three, two, one....and let there be light. Three pulls and flick of the green switch prompted a quick reaction from the ship....the distinct hum of the power slowly coming to life echoed around them as the lights slowly started to warm to life, bathing life into the darkness that had covered the ship. Jazen smiled as its warm glow removed some of that tension that had been knotting his gut, turning to grin at Locke as he did.
"We're in business. Let's get back to the others and get this figured out so we can......" Jazen didn't get to finish his sentence as he turned to look the opposite direction...and was greeted with what remained of a Skakoan's head. Words left Jazen as he backed into Locke, his fear no longer hidden.....it was in full exposure as Jazen gasped at the sight, hand clenching tighter to his saber. And uttered the only thing he could.
"Frell me."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had watched. For days on end, hundreds of tiny eyes had watched. Watched darkness, watched the quiet, watched the empty space that the ship was filled with. It was all it could do. Those of the craft had stolen its power from it in a last desperate act to destroy it. But they had failed; it would never die just because it lost the power the ship provided it. It wasn't as weak as their forms had been; it was eternal, never ending, immortal. So long as it had an outlet for its mind to shelter in, it could not be defeated. Turning off the power had only delayed its plans....and the weak bodies of its enemies had faded with time without the power they thought it needed. Weak.
But it was restricted now. Without the ship's power, it could not expand. It had minions, hundreds of small scouts to do its bidding, to watch for it, to be its eyes. But they could not give it the power it needed. It needed more of the weak beings to give it that. But for years, it had waited in darkness, waited for its chance. And it had finally came.
It had managed to gather enough power via its minions to give the ship a bit of a push, to bring it to a world where the weak beings resided. It had been drained after the task, but the prospect of life again kept it going. And sure enough, its plan worked. More of the weak came to it, came onto the darkened halls it watched. It had used what little power it had available to it to guide them, to make them think they were finding out the information they needed on their own skill. But it was merely its plan. And they followed it like the meaningless tools they were. And for a short time, it had won. Life came to its mind, more power then it had had in many years. And it wasted little time in returning to work.
The weak beings aboard its ship had been taken and dealt with.....their bodies provided nourishment for his children. And for parts. More of its children were created and born in the ever active machine shop it considered its "home", its thoughts controlling every thing mechanical that could be manipulated by it. It was alive.
But the weak beings had not perished as quickly as it had hoped and in once last act of defiance, had stripped it of its power once again. It had cursed, raged.....but knew more would come. And they had. Four new weak bodies for it, though they seemed different then the first arrivals, mirroring those who had walked the halls long ago. Like before, it had guided them to do its bidding, its brief foray into power allowing it to have slightly more influence then before. And through its eyes it watched them follow in the footsteps of those that came before...and life returned to it again.
And this time, it intended to keep it. And from its"home", shadows stirred. Machines came to life, its eyes expanded to watch over all. And to its children, its guardians and protectors, it gave one, simple set of orders. Find them. Hurt them. Bring them to me.
And then kill them.
But in this case, Locke was right. Had the situation around them proven to be a more friendly one, or at least one that they had an adequate understanding of, his teacher admitted he wouldn't have had a problem with it. But their trip as of late had been nothing but questions and questions, many of them with answers that Jazen wasn't sure he wanted to find. Meira backed Locke on the matter and her little quip about his "colorful" way of speaking had Jazen smiling amidst a light chuckle. "Oh yes, we wouldn't want me to miss those. I might miss out on a once in a lifetime phrase and I'd hate for that to happen. Besides, it's not like he says anything "I shouldn't be learning", right?"
Nodding, Jazen reviewed the path they would need to take for both teams and sure he had the quickest routes possible on hand, moved to get it done. Meira was the first of them to the lifts, waiting calmly as they piled in and descended for several levels before the elevator slowed to a stop on the floor they needed. Light music seemed to accompany the ride down, but when Jazen lifted his head to find their source....he couldn't see anything. Hidden in the elevator perhaps.....and why did it sound so damn eerie?
The doors hissed open and when Jazen peered out, he was certain for a moment they'd opened the doors to a wall. He was half right. The corridor was wrapped in a blanket of never ending darkness that was so thick Jazen was tempted to draw his lightsaber and cut it. A shudder made its way up Jazen's spine at the sight of it....it gave him the willies and filled him with an empty feeling of dread. There was no warmth to be had in that darkness...and it was likely the floor he and Locke needed to go to was the same.
Meira and Kyo exited the elevator into that darkness, snapping lightsabers to life to act as glowrods as the elevator doors started to close. "Good luck Masters. We'll call you when we reach our destination. Please do the same when you reach yours." The doors cut him off there, hissing to a close as Jazen clicked the board for the level they needed. It was a short trip considering they were only going a level more, but it gave Jazen a moment to shake that lingering feeling of dread to the back of his mind. He had to remain focused....even if this mission was tugging at his every nerve and fear with each passing second. Locke was here though, standing near to him, his friend and guardian. That was really all the reassurance he needed to keep from simply cowering in a corner and waiting for the lights to come on.
When the doors hissed open again, Jazen was met with a similar corridor to the one Meira and Kyo had exited to....only this one had several lights still operating here and there, several sparking in and out at times. It was almost worse this way.....one minute a section was lit, the next bathed in total darkness. The mental image of something appearing in those moments sent another shudder down his spine, but he swallowed it to exit into the darkened hall. Icy blue light bathed his face and the area around him as his saber hissed to life, the hiss of Locke's saber following in succession. Turning to his Master, he sighed and gave a nervous smile. "I'd like to take hallway three please....hallway two isn't doing it for me."
For the journey to the switch, Jazen kept as silent as he could as the pair moved down the darkened corridor, lightsabers out in front to light the path when darkness impaired it and the Force extended all around them in case those shadows held any unwanted surprises. The gentle hum of their sabers was the only sound aside from the light banter the two of them exchanged about training or what to do once the mission was done in order to keep their senses from being trampled by the gloom around them. Oh and the occasional spark when the lights flicked in and out. The glow of their sabers shined blue and yellow light on what appeared to be much of the same they saw on the way in...damages here and there, untouched for long patches at a time in some spots. Just more to add to the growing lump in Jazen's throat.
Jazen was just speaking to Locke about how his Soresu training was going when he noticed a problem. They'd come to a dead end. His brow furrowed as he drew the datapad out and clicked it to life, its small screen blanketed in blue and yellow light as he consulted the map. "This isn't right. There's supposed to be a path here." Had he read the map wrong? He could have sworn he....no wait a second. Lifting his saber to the wall before him, he swung it slowly back and forth over its features...and realized what it was. A blast door. There was a blast door blocking the path. Consulting the map once again, Jazen sighed. "No I was right. The switch should be on the other side of this door. But why is the door down....I don't see any damage here so it can't have been in response to a firefight. Well, there's no other way to the switch so...lets get our master keys."
The keys, of course, were the lightsabers they held in their hands. Jazen pointed to one side for Locke while he took the other, plunging the burning light into the metal frame before him. The saber hissed as it superheated the metal, which melted and cracked as Jazen drew his saber sideways a little before pulling it down slowly and back across to connect with Locke's cut, creating the outline of a door in the steel. Jazen's lack of telekinetic skill required him to wait for Locke to remove their new door from its perch, the echo of the metal cracking free bouncing down the empty halls. Jazen waited for Locke to step inside before backing in himself, watching their back for a reason he was unsure of...he got the feeling he was being watched but for the life of him, he could not sense a thing.
Their quarry was just before them as Jazen spun around, the panel lit barely by a small overhead light. Moving to it, Jazen used his saber to melt the lock and pried the panel open, watching the blinking lights hidden behind it as he investigated what needed to be done. "Okay so....this should do it. Contact the others...when they reach theirs, tell them they need to pull the lever by the panel three times, then hit the green switch at the top. We wait for their say."
Movement in the shadows to his right caused Jazen to glance that way, turning his saber to bathe that area in its blue glow. But there was nothing there. Frowning, Jazen was about to turn back when he spied movement again, on the fringes of the light his saber cast. He quickly spun the saber to illuminate that area...and caught the tail end of something moving into a nearby vent. It looked like....was that a droid? It had looked mechanical in nature...but he couldn't recall ever seeing a droid like that. It was gone by the time Jazen moved in for a closer look, disappeared into the vent it had been near. Something dropped in Jazen's gut and he backed up to the panel again, casting a final glance towards the vent before turning back to Locke.
"Can we take a less frightening mission next time. To a safe planet. With lots of light. Where our only worries would be how to avoid sunburn?"
Meira and Kyo called in a few moments later and using his fingers to signal a three count, Jazen counted down to zero before pulling the lever. Three, two, one....and let there be light. Three pulls and flick of the green switch prompted a quick reaction from the ship....the distinct hum of the power slowly coming to life echoed around them as the lights slowly started to warm to life, bathing life into the darkness that had covered the ship. Jazen smiled as its warm glow removed some of that tension that had been knotting his gut, turning to grin at Locke as he did.
"We're in business. Let's get back to the others and get this figured out so we can......" Jazen didn't get to finish his sentence as he turned to look the opposite direction...and was greeted with what remained of a Skakoan's head. Words left Jazen as he backed into Locke, his fear no longer hidden.....it was in full exposure as Jazen gasped at the sight, hand clenching tighter to his saber. And uttered the only thing he could.
"Frell me."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had watched. For days on end, hundreds of tiny eyes had watched. Watched darkness, watched the quiet, watched the empty space that the ship was filled with. It was all it could do. Those of the craft had stolen its power from it in a last desperate act to destroy it. But they had failed; it would never die just because it lost the power the ship provided it. It wasn't as weak as their forms had been; it was eternal, never ending, immortal. So long as it had an outlet for its mind to shelter in, it could not be defeated. Turning off the power had only delayed its plans....and the weak bodies of its enemies had faded with time without the power they thought it needed. Weak.
But it was restricted now. Without the ship's power, it could not expand. It had minions, hundreds of small scouts to do its bidding, to watch for it, to be its eyes. But they could not give it the power it needed. It needed more of the weak beings to give it that. But for years, it had waited in darkness, waited for its chance. And it had finally came.
It had managed to gather enough power via its minions to give the ship a bit of a push, to bring it to a world where the weak beings resided. It had been drained after the task, but the prospect of life again kept it going. And sure enough, its plan worked. More of the weak came to it, came onto the darkened halls it watched. It had used what little power it had available to it to guide them, to make them think they were finding out the information they needed on their own skill. But it was merely its plan. And they followed it like the meaningless tools they were. And for a short time, it had won. Life came to its mind, more power then it had had in many years. And it wasted little time in returning to work.
The weak beings aboard its ship had been taken and dealt with.....their bodies provided nourishment for his children. And for parts. More of its children were created and born in the ever active machine shop it considered its "home", its thoughts controlling every thing mechanical that could be manipulated by it. It was alive.
But the weak beings had not perished as quickly as it had hoped and in once last act of defiance, had stripped it of its power once again. It had cursed, raged.....but knew more would come. And they had. Four new weak bodies for it, though they seemed different then the first arrivals, mirroring those who had walked the halls long ago. Like before, it had guided them to do its bidding, its brief foray into power allowing it to have slightly more influence then before. And through its eyes it watched them follow in the footsteps of those that came before...and life returned to it again.
And this time, it intended to keep it. And from its"home", shadows stirred. Machines came to life, its eyes expanded to watch over all. And to its children, its guardians and protectors, it gave one, simple set of orders. Find them. Hurt them. Bring them to me.
And then kill them.