A Fork in Fate's Path

[Argetlam]

Currently under fire from the remaining droids Aiden was doing his best in an attempt to retreat to some viable cover while still deflecting the incoming blaster bolts. It was getting a little easier however as half of the droids the were left returned their attention back to his associates back on the other roof. His mind raced with each back peddled step what he heard next did not even begin to help. “Incoming, Aiden, get away from those droids.” Seconds passed before he heard the familiar whirring of engines getting louder and louder. 

Taking a moment he looked up to see the ship which had dropped the droids off was now barreling towards his roof he let out a sigh " Oh fuck me." 

The droids too now seemed to notice the shuttles collision course with the roof and opened fire to little affect. 

Using the moment of respite Aiden cut the power to his saber and ran for the door he'd burst through not too long ago. Not even caring he forced a hand towards the door and pulled it towards him. In turn the door ripped from it's hinges and skirted against the duracrete roof. The noise of the incoming shuttle was filling his ears as his foot touched the first step. Not wanting to waste a moment he hopped over the guard rails and onto the other flight of stairs. 


With his feet hitting the next level of stairs he felt the impact of the shuttle slamming into the roof. The initial impact threw him off balance leaving him tumbling down the stairs and hitting his head against the landing sending his head into a mix of ringing from his head bouncing off the duracrete and the impact of the shuttle which had showered bits of dust and a few hunks of duracrete down the stair well. 

Slowly sitting up Aiden groaned and rubbed his head pulling his hand away he noted the blood that had came away. He chuckled to himself and rested his head against the wall. 

[Rugs]

The neighboring building shuddered as the shuttle slammed into it. Io’an had intended to scrape the top of the building, clearing off the droids and grinding the shuttle to a halt along the roof. Turned out it was harder to control the thing with a remote interface and eyeballing its altitude than by being in the cockpit. Who could have guessed?

He saw flashes of translucent energy materializing in the air as he threw his arm up and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt a few loose pieces of rubble pelt off of him, but nothing was big enough to hurt.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a barrier of some sort fading away and a dusty, now slightly bloody Vance waving dust away from his face. The roof beyond was a mess of rubble and broken droids. The shuttle, smoking and sparking in the middle of a pile of broken duracrete, was dead at least.

Io’an felt a pang of regret. Maybe he should’ve tried something else.

“I’m ok,” he said, sounding distracted as he hurried to the side of the building. “I hope I didn’t hurt anyone.” He couldn’t see anything of the ground below, what with the dust from the collision clouding the air. He felt spikes of excitement on the ground below, but that had been the case for a while.

With a deep breath, Io’an reached to the Force. It filled him, empowering and horrifying at once as he reached through it to the natural world around him. His reach went wide, well beyond the two buildings, as he exerted a simple change on the air around them. He warmed the air below and gave it a nudge to urge it upward.

The rest took care off itself as a sudden updraft tousled his hair and pushed the dust higher into the sky. The dust climbed higher to where it’d meet stronger winds up above and, with time, disperse from sight.

The ground below was a bit of a mess as well, but he didn’t see anyone that seemed to be in trouble. Io’an waved his hand as he turned around, quieting the wind. “I think things are alright down there.” He touched a hand to his comm. “Aiden? Are you ok?”

[Neology]

The shuttle went up – or rather down in a whoosh of heat and a storm of debris. Between Vance’s force barrier and her impromptu cover, Lidah thought she’d come through more or less fine. Even so, she held up her arms and glanced down at herself to take a very quick visual inventory. She discovered a few scrapes and burns that she couldn’t identify the exact source of and a fine layer of commingled grit and perspiration. Well, what was the point of having a giant bath tub anyway? ”Fine here.” She walked over to Vance, frowning slightly as he smeared blood all over his face. The effect was very striking, raising rather useless protective impulses that she had to swallow down. At least, with a closer look, he didn’t seem to actually be bleeding from the head … The wounds on his arms did look nasty enough, but imminently treatable. ”Someone needs more practice if he’s going to keep copying the generalissimo’s moves. Perhaps you could pull Forte to shoot at you for a few hours? I’m sure he’d be thrilled.” Lidah took a sideways glance at Io’an as he pulled some unfamiliar trick with the Force. It seemed as though he’d conjured up real wind for a moment. Very interesting. She wondered, not for the first time, where he’d gotten his training from. He had a point about their fourth man, though. She sensed that Mr. Crest was alive and stationary near the top of the other building. Hopefully the rest of the structure remained stable, even with the roof so dramatically folded in. Lidah tapped the side of her commlink, connecting back to the Eye. ”I need a speeder and a doctor to my location.” Then, an aside. ”Do you think you can track where they were coming from, Io’an? Wondering if that might not be quicker than going to the other two uh … Those things.” She gestured toward the eccentric mess of antenna and equipment they’d come to fix.

[Fromikeable]

"Perhaps you could pull Forte to shoot at you for a few hours? I’m sure he’d be thrilled.”

"Don't give him an excuse. I'm not sure he'd stop." Offering her a reassuring nod, he brushed his hands against his pants, doing his best to wipe off what he could. Holding out his arms, he looked them over, twisting them this way and that to locate the shrapnel. Sure enough, a myriad of tiny pieces dotted their side, a few notably larger shards sticking out.

With a grunt and a contorted face, he grabbed the biggest one and plucked it out. Then the next largest. This continued until only the smaller pieces remained.

Refocusing on the matter at hand, Vance zeroed on in poor Aiden. Judging by his presence, the man was not only alive, but still conscious, though the unfocused way it seemed to swirl and laze couldn't have been a good sign. Looking to Io'an, he nodded toward Lidah. "You guys handle that. I'll get him." Taking off at a light jog, Vance hopped over to the other roof.

The place was really a mess. Ground-zero of the shuttle impact was essentially a crater, the flaming husk of the small ship only kept from falling into the rest of the building by a few well-placed support beams. Small fires burned where the ship's fluids had been spat out in the crash, causing quite the ambiance. Between that and the fact that the entire roof had been broken up into varied, slanted pieces (where there weren't holes, at least), Vance made sure to traverse it slowly.

Finally arriving at the stairwell, a flick of his hand cleared the door of obstructing rubble. When he found that the door was only hanging on by a single hinge anyway, another flick pried it off, placing it just to the side.

"Hey Aiden!" Calling down as he walked, Vance sighed in relief to see the man seated up against a wall. Dropping to a knee in front of him, Vance stooped his head, trying to catch the guy's eyes.

"You look pretty good for a shuttle crash dummy." Holding up a hand with his index and middle fingers up, Vance offered up a beleaguered smile. "How many fingers do you see?"