A Dreadful Dilemma

[Vako]

The smoke filled up the air thinly. It was drifting upwards in a strong trail but it spread out across the ground ever so slightly as well. It could be traversed through in a matter of moments and there wasn’t much stopping anyone from doing that. A sound of sparks could be heard as exposed electrical cabling lay torn about and jetted out power, trying to do what it was built to do, but incapable of doing so. A large number of dents lay along the metallic wall from which the smoke came from. There was some fire scattered about as well from bits of exploded and super heated materials. The wall itself was greatly conflicting with the ground it sat on. While the metal wall moved in and out at certain points if you walked a long it, and was smooth, what was beneath it was hard and rough dirt. It was rocky and harsh. Stepping out from the smoke came a blue creature with beady black eyes.


Four hours earlier


Warning lights flashed through every hall. Sirens blared, and alerts were given. The small number of people inside of the space to hear them all ran about trying do their duty or at least what little the could to help. There was no way to help though, and for the most part they all knew it. The vessel was shaking and rattling. Loose items were tossed all around the hallways and in the rooms, some hitting the crew that so desperately was trying to survive. The vessel was still level, so walking was still an option, though not one that was wisely used. People who tried were falling and tumbling as they tried to keep their balance. Everyone inside could feel the amount of force that was being placed on them, like a sinking, falling feeling. On the bridge the tone was no different, with the three men trying rigorously to keep the ship online. Fire and flashes overtook the frontal view port which they looked out to see their progress. In there with them was Jedi Master Shull Ya’su. He tried to help where he could, but he had never been very good at mechanical applications, and no one was surprised there. He kept a level head, and he was prepared for what was to happen. He’d recognized the risks of the time, though he had not anticipated this to happen. But knowing what the universe was Ya’su was ready for what he saw. The flashes on the view port stopped and the ship was cascading down at a rapid pace toward what was easily visible even from that height as a massive mountain range. The bridge crew tried feverishly to get the engines back on line and the ship drew ever closer to the ground beneath them. The vessel was still picking up speed as it dove in, and the men there still worked to try to save the ship. Finally there was a surge of energy audible throughout the vessel and something kicked over. It was an emergency surge to the engines which lead to some stabilization. They began to slow the ships descent as quickly as they could, and pulled up to make the vessel rise once more. But this was too little too late, as the vessel was too close to the ground to fix their troubles. The engines power no doubt would save their lives, but it wasn’t enough to keep the ship from hitting the ground. They came in closer and closer and closer until finally they struck. The vessel hit very hard, and things shook and jolted. Some men in the hallways that weren’t bracing themselves were thrown across the room. The sound of the metal scraping and ripping itself was immense, and everyone aboard wished with everything they had that it would stop. Finally it began to slow down, and stopped with another sudden jolt, though it was lighter then the last. With the final action the ship lay motionless.



Four Hours Later


What was intended to be a quick and easy trip to Tibrin had turned to be a rough and rocky ride to the mountainous surface of Umgul. Having dropped out of hyperspace to respond to a distress signal, Ya’su had known something wasn’t right. But he didn’t know what until they were attacked by the small group of pirates, who appeared to be rather good at crippling vessels. Fortunately they’d managed to scare them off, and survive the attack without being boarded or utterly destroyed. Now on the surface, all of that was irrelevant. They needed a way to get off of the planet, or at the very least get help so that they could get away from he wreckage of the ship. Some of the crew were still trying to get the engines online, but it was rather hopeless, since some of them were completely ripped off. They wanted to try to get the ship mobile and then take it to the nearest settlement, as it would never survive the trip through the atmosphere again. Master Ya’su was supposed to be going to Tibrin as he could relate to the aquatic species that lived there, and would be well suited to help the settlement that had been ravaged by a hurricane. Unfortunately the supplies in the vessel may never make it to Tibrin, as he had the feeling that someone may be aware of their emergency landing. The crew had two speeders, though they couldn’t hold much, and most certainly not the entire crew of sixteen, all of which who had miraculously survived the crash. Communications were being severely hindered by the mountains, and so they were stuck. The captain of the vessel sent a group of three of the crew out on one of the speeders in hopes they could find someone who could help. They had been gone for about four hours, which was longer then what was expected given the speed of the vehicle.

While Ya’su had been asked to go with them, he had opted not to, instead feeling that there was a danger there at the ship. He did not know what, but he felt a disturbance in the force. He didn’t know what, but he felt that those that remained were at risk, and he couldn’t leave them behind. They were sitting on top of things that any scavenger would love to get their hands on. Slavers weren’t uncommon in a region like this, and they had almost no weapons. Just a few scattered pistols among them. They were not a military ship, and had nothing more then the defensive cannons on the exterior, which were fairly useless at that point. So Ya’su felt that it was his calling to ensure that they were defended and kept safe. The sky was drifting from blue to orange, and so night would come in a number of hours. They were well supplied, but Ya’su hoped strongly that they would be saved soon, for he feared that something terrible may happen if they weren’t.

[Rugs]

[Okay, so I've been a bit busy lately and haven't been able to post regularly. Now I'm trying to get back into the groove, so I apologize in advance for the subpar quality in this. Hopefully should be sorted out soon]


"So your ship crashed, huh?" Nieraan pursed his lips and gave a low whistle as he stood, leaning against the side of a borrowed airspeeder. "And in the mountains? Bad place to go down." The Firrerreo spoke conversationally with one of three men who'd appeared of a sudden from the veil of mist that constantly blanketed Umgul. It had been terribly apparent they were looking for some other living beings, and when he heard their openly-broadcast distress signal, he'd decided that he wasn't opposed to playing the part of a fortunately-located passer-by--for his own reasons, of course.

So as they all came to a halt and he brought the speeder down, his lightsabers had been carefully hidden from sight on his person, and he'd told the boy that was along with him to keep his head on straight and not do something stupid to give them away.

And so they'd talked. It wasn't hard at all to hide the fact that he was a Sith from these obviously Republic-aligned fellows; he didn't wear robes, and it wasn't as if he had something proclaiming his allegiance pinned to the front of his chest. He looked scroungy, sure, but if they wanted to talk to him, well that was on them. It wasn't as if Umgul wasn't filled to the brim with scroungy types, after all.

After a short conversation, he'd learned they were indeed Republic men. They'd been on a mission to another world, but sent down by pirates. That was a confirmation of something Nieraan had felt a few hours prior. A disturbance; distant at the time, but it had still been there, clear as day.

Had the issue just been the crash itself, he likely wouldn't have taken such notice. But there was a presence on the world now, up in the mountains if the men were to be believed, and it felt like a Jedi. It was hard to be absolutely certain from so far away, but Nieraan's senses rarely led him astray.

"Well, tell you what, the nearest settlement's back east. About a 40 kilos if you just keep heading straight on like you were. " He stood up straight, gestured for Cadyren to get ready to get back in the speeder so they could continue on as they'd been heading. "Good luck, fellas. Hate that you had that sorta trouble. Come on, Cad."

The three men gave thanks and farewells, and then they zoomed off on their speeders. Nieraan's lips crooked into a twisted smirk.

The Force surged through him as he quickly spun about and thrust both of his hands out toward the two men. Through the force, he grabbed the two outlier speeders before they vanished into the mists and slammed them both in toward the center one. There was a burst of flame, the sound of yelling and a crash, and then silence.

"Change of plans, boy," he said as he got back into the airspeeder, casually starting it up as if he hadn't just killed three men.

"You felt it earlier, didn't you?" He asked, kicking the speeder into motion and up into the air. "The disturbance? We're going to go have a look, with the information our friends were so kind to freely give us."

Up the speeder climbed, through the mists, until it broke their ceiling and came out into the clear sky. Nieraan leveled it out and looked ahead. The mist looked like a great, white, roiling sea, but far off, near the horizon, he could see the mountains standing tall above it. And if he squinted his eyes just right, he could see a thin column of smoke trailing skyward.

"And if what I'm feeling in the Force is right, there's a Jedi waiting there for us." Nieraan made a noise that was somewhere between a short laugh and a snort. "Much better than what I brought us out here for." Which had been to check with an old gang friend of his from the years when he'd done some work in the underworld. It was mainly just to keep tabs; hardly exciting at all.

But now something had come along to make this trip to the misty world exciting. And Nieraan was ready to jump on it.

---------------------

A short trip later had the speeder arriving at a flat spot a little ways off from the site of the crash. It hadn't been hard to find it once they got close, with all the smoke drifting up from the wreckage.

"Keep your wits on you, boy," Nieraan said to Cadyren as he stepped from the speeder and clipped the three sabers to his belt. "There's a Jedi here for sure. And others."

Now would be the time to see what Cadyren was worth. He'd made it through the training in the crypt, but training and the field were two different beasts.

"Let's go."

The path he led Cadyren along was narrow and winding, but it took them to a ledge above the main part of the wreckage. Nieraan crouched down low and paused, peering over at the crash site as he pulled his presence in slightly. Not enough to hide it completely, but it would do to make him a bit harder to notice.

There were a few men below, milling about as they waited for rescue, no doubt. Nieraan wasn't concerned about them, though; they could be dealt with quickly enough if needed. No, he wanted to see the Jedi before he acted.

[Cadyren]

Cadyren didn’t understand why his master wanted to go talk to some spacers that had somehow crashed on a nearby mountain. He had felt something in the force, and he had thought that his master would have wanted to check it out as well, but how could these spacers be related to the danger Cadyren had sensed was approaching them? As they drew closer to the men Cadyren unclipped his Lightsaber from his belt, holding it in his hand for a moment before placing it inside of a large pocket in his pants. He knew of course that walking around with a Lightsaber at his side would raise questions, and neither master nor apprentice wanted to have to answer them.

Nieraan chatted with the men for a bit, Cadyren staying at his side as they left their speeder. He did his best to put on a friendly face, but he wasn’t sure how well he did. How long had it been since he had actually tried to be friendly to someone? It seemed like it had been forever ago.

Nieraan and the three men talked for a little while, Cadyren occasionally chiming in but mostly just keeping to himself. They found out that the men were from the Republic, and that they were on a mission to somewhere else when they were attacked by pirates. As they spoke Cadyren began to become interested in their story. Perhaps Cadyren was wrong, and these men were somehow associated with whatever disturbance Cadyren had sensed earlier.

As the conversation began to die Cadyren looked towards his master expectantly, waiting for him to draw his sabers so that Cadyren would know it was time to cut the men down. They were with the Republic, they were their enemies. There would be nothing to gain if they let them live.

He was surprised when his master instead pointed them in the direction of the nearest town, and then gestured for Cadyren to get back into the speeder. They were going to let the men live? Cadyren did his best to hide his surprise, but he still stared at his master for a moment before he began to walk towards the speeder. He heard the men say farewell and turn on the engines of their speeders.

As the trio began to ride off Cadyren felt it, a surge in the Force. He spun on his heel quickly as his master unleashed the build up power, and the sound of crashing and the last dying screams of the men assaulted Cadyren’s ears. He couldn’t see vehicles or their unlucky owners through the mist, but Cadyren could guess what had happened. Nieraan had grabbed the speeders with the Force, sent them into each other or maybe into trees or something. The riders were easily smashed, crushed, or ripped into shreds by an explosion.

If Cadyren had watched three men die a few years ago he probably would have puked, he had hated the idea of killing others. In the past year and a half however, Cadyren had grown used to it. There had even been a time when Cadyren enjoyed killing, when he first began his fall towards the Dark Side. He had grown out of that quickly however, after realizing that the people that he killed had family, they had friends. And those people must have felt like he did when Hett died, or when Elain died. Cadyren was still willing to kill, however he now took no joy from it.

Cadyren and Nieraan then got into the speeder, "Change of plans, boy."

As Nieraan asked him about the disturbance, Cadyren nodded. So the Republic men were connected to that. Nieraan then told him that there might be a Jedi up in the mountains, with the survivors of the crash. Cadyren was unsure as to what to feel about that. While he had left the Order, he had done so because he thought that he had to, not because he hated being a Jedi. He had no intentions of joining back with them however, how could he after he had finally freed himself from their code and their rules? But he knew he wouldn’t enjoy having to kill a Jedi, and he hoped that it was not someone he had known before he fell. Even if it is one of my friends... I’ll kill them if I have too.

-------------------------

The two Sith traveled in silence, Nieraan focusing on traveling up the mountain and Cadyren toying around with his Lightsaber in hand. It was a short trip, the mountain was not that far and the smoke coming from the wreckage was clearly visible. As they drew near Cadyren began to sense the presence of the Jedi, whoever it was possessed a great amount of power.

Nieraan stopped on a flat surface not to far away from the wreck. Both placed their Lightsabers on their belts and began to continue towards the Jedi on foot. The path Nieraan led him through wasn’t the straightest he had ever gone through, and it was a bit narrow to. But they managed to get onto a ledge that hung over what was left of the crashed ship.

Cadyren sensed Nieraan’s presence diminish, and he attempted to hide his presence as well. Cadyren had begun learning how to hide his presence a year ago when he had been under the tutelage of Grawn, but his apprenticeship didn’t last long and neither did his training in the ability. So Cadyren’s attempt was only mildly effective, but he hoped it would be enough.

Cadyren unclipped his Lightsaber as he waited next to Nieraan, ready for him to give him the go ahead to jump down from the ledge and begin to attack the men. Cadyren’s eyes searched for the Jedi, not daring to reach out with the Force to find him for fear of betraying his own location.