The Wolf's Lament

[Meira]

CaptainBonkers , Blue

The speeder bike's engine sputtered. It shook and dropped several inches, recovered, and then dropped again. Rather than risk losing it entirely and careening into a duracrete wall, Ylva eased it back down to the ground and let it die. Hoping from the bike, she paced, a current of frustration and rage coursing through her. She'd had him. With a growl, she gripped at one of the bike's forward stabilizer fins and heaved upward. The power of the Chorus surged through her, sending the speeder bike hurtling, end over end, down the street. She screamed after it, but the silence that followed only enraged her more.

It had been pointless from the beginning. She knew that, and she went anyway. Had she just waited, she would not be feeling this futile anger. She knew that, and she went anyway. Alive, dead, it didn't matter. He was gone from her forever; cut off from her voice and all the rest. She knew that, and went anyway. She kicked a rock the size of her head up from the ground and slammed her fist into it. The stone burst into a cloud of dust. She did this again and again, stomping in circles alone in the street. When her sides stabbed with pain at each breath, she stopped, hands on her knees and gulping air. She'd traced a circuit in the rubble with her footprints, everything around her covered in the chalky remnants of some destroyed storefront.

Above her, the Singing Spire loomed. It was the collective glory of her destiny. It sang out in a never ending harmony that broke her heart and lifted her spirit all at once. Never in her broken, insignificant life had she ever known anything so right. Soon -hours or even minutes now- the Spire would gather the voices of countless generations and unleash that perfection onto this world. Her weak body would be burned away. She would be burned away and reformed into an avatar of the Chorus, mighty and eternal. All of this pointless anger and suffering would be gone forever. Every fiber of her being could feel it coming. Her skin crawled, a dead shell ready to be cast aside. She wanted to rip herself apart.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?" she shouted into the sky.

Lashing an arm out in a sweeping arc, what remained of a courtyard fountain shattered and crumbled to the ground. Ylva crumbled as well, falling to her knees and slumping to the side. She felt as if her bones had melted. Like she was being cooked from the inside out. She'd felt it coming over the weeks. Each day the rush of life and power through her burned hotter. What had started as a thrill all that time ago in Mauve's office was now crashing against her skull every moment of every day. This body was too weak to hold such noise for so long. She knew... the Chorus knew, that the time was nearing. She just had to hold on a while longer.

[CaptainBonkers]

Ylva had been last seen heading this direction. Towards the Spire looming over the surrounding area like a sword plunged into the moon’s flesh. Most of Jayec’s instincts were telling him to turn around and head away; he was alone and heading to wards the centre of the enemy’s power. Chances of him running into opposition that could outnumber him critically were high and got higher with every moment he drew closer to the damn thing. However, Ylva was going into that direction and Jayec wasn’t about to leave the moon without her in tow. Whether or not she wanted to come along was irrelevant. Those mushrooms had done a number on her brain and was in no condition to make rational decisions. Jayec would most likely have to drag her along forcibly but this time she wouldn’t get a drop on him because he hesitated to use lethal force. This time he was packing mostly non-lethal weaponry.

It wasn’t all for Ylva’s benefit, though that was the primary reason for Jayec switching all his blaster’s pre-emptively on stun and bringing along stuff like shocksticks and flashbangs. Most of the people whom might be trying to kill him here were not doing by their own choice, which made Jayec feel somewhat conflicted about just mowing them down. He rarely had any qualms about inflicting death on other beings, he was a mercenary by trade and hunter by inclination after all, but slaughtering folks whom had no say in picking a lethal fight with him always left a sour taste in Jayec’s mouth. Usually that meant slave-soldiers or conscripts under less than legitimate regimes but today it meant poor buggers brainwashed by magical myconids. So, as perverted as it felt going through what was essentially a war zone with naught but less-than-lethal armaments, Jayec was going to stick by his choice. He was about ninety-percent sure that unless he ran headlong into actual Archeri, he could make it through the mess that was the Smuggler’s Moon without leaving too many bodies that hadn’t made their own mistakes behind.

The only piece of equipment sepcifically reserved for Ylva was the force-collar on his belt. Whet ever those shrooms had done to her had also made her able to tap into Jetii sorcery quite liberally. Now, even if Ylva’s control over her new abilities had improved after Bothawui, she still was no ori’jetii and didn’t carry a lightsaber. That didn’t mean she wasn’t a threat but made her less challenging to deal with. She could shit at him or him around at worst but she wouldn’t be deflecting any bolts back at Jayec so nailing her with a stunner was still a viable option. All he would have to do was get within range and get a clear shot at her.

The terrain this close to the spire was beginning to show signs of Archeri presence and also displayed the marks from the fighting going on. Strands of weird growths hang from walls of the buildings, scorched blaster scars decorated most surfaces and debris of all kinds were scattered across the battered streets. And somewhere, not too far away, Jayec thought he could hear Ylva screaming something.

[Blue]

Willam had lived through enough glorious last charges to know that he did not really fancy being involved in another. However, with that nasty looking Spire glaring down on the planet and things teetering on the edge of madness and destruction, the smuggler's options had been rather slim. In the end, it all boiled down to how he wanted to go out, not when or if. Yet, just when he had resigned himself to the fact that the end was nigh, hope was spotted on the horizon; distant, faint, and probably just the glint of dying light before the darkness enveloped them all. But it was enough. So, instead of charging off to get eaten and/or turned into crystals by crazy bug-mushroom creatures, Willam was doing something he had not done in many years: hunting a person on Nar Shaddaa. A very specific person, to be precise. Ylva, the woman who had hoodwinked himself and a good many others into committing a fairly horrid war crime, was on the Smuggler's Moon as well. Willam was not one to allow such providence to glide by ignored. The Zabrak woman still had friends. Friends that wanted her to not be insane anymore. But most importantly, she had friends who had money. It had been some time, but not so long ago that Willam considered himself rusty. The usual routes were closed to him; no knocking on snitches doors, no infiltrating a gang's membership. This was simple pavement pounding, grid searching, keeping the eyes open and the senses sharp. Or more specifically, Odd's eye. As the grumpy droid kept reminding him every few minutes. The plate sized hoverdroid was zipping about, Willam piggybacking the robot's point of view with his cybernetic eye. After some time, Odd had by chance noticed spotted a speeder bike in distress and closer inspection revealed the familiar horned features of their quarry. The spacer had jumped onto his own speeder, a well-cared for Meirm Bullfrog, and was making his way towards the area she had landed when he heard the screaming and the sound of what one might think was a demolition crew hard at work. Oh lovely, she's in a good mood. This should be easy. Stun blaster? Check. Flash and gas grenades? Check. Force collar? Check. Disarming personality? Check. Brown trousers? Double check. In all his years, he had never gone after a Force user with anything less than killing intent or, more commonly, several exits in sight. All he had here was plucky determination and the threat of imminent death hanging overhead, spurring him on to be stupid one last time. At least that was until Odd chirped in, just as Willam set his speeder down a little distance away in one of the least blasted areas, with the news that another figure was closing in on Ylva's location. The person was wearing armour that he recognised from that ill-fated mission to Bothawui. The Mandalorian? Well, that's convenient. He would certainly have more experience than I in taking down Jedi and the sort... A plan began to form in the smuggler's mind. A simple plan. A very, very stupid plan. One that left him dangerously exposed. One that- Bugger it. Time to roll or die. That was how Willam found himself striding out into the wreckage Ylva had wrought in some unfathomable tantrum with her magic powers. The captain felt an unexpected pang of sympathy for the woman before him in such a surprisingly vulnerable state, crumpled on the ground in what appeared to be exhaustion or despair... then he remembered Bothawui. "Hello there, lover," he called out to her, his smooth, warm voice echoing lightly around the devastated scenery. Willam was taken aback by the gentleness he injected into his tone, and found himself unsure on how much of it was actually fraudulent. "My, my... you're not looking too bushy tailed, are you?" Willam continued, halting his progress towards Ylva a handful on meters away, looking down at her with a smile on his face and a hand on his blaster.

[Meira]

With her rage spent, Ylva felt her limbs relax. They still burned, but it was a steady flame that she could take some measure of comfort in. Above her and through her, the Chorus carried on, not at all thrown off by the temper tantrum of one raw voice. The Song of All was not without pain, after all. That pain was the last dying note of discord before all became one. Without it, the perfection of the Chorus could not be fully realized. The gift of the song could not be appreciated properly. She knew this. That knowing came from someplace deeper within her than she could describe. She held on to it, burning and desperate, as she lay in the dust and debris of her swan song. The madness of an obsolete woman was nothing to be worried about.

"Hello there, lover,"

Ylva rolled her head to the side, her eyes taking in an inverted image of a man approaching slowly. The angle confounded her mind for a moment, making recognition difficult. But she knew that voice from... somewhere. She had no skill to reach outward through the gift and sense him, and so she rolled herself back up to a sitting position, rotating to see that it was that ship captain from the Bothawui mission. He came to a stop several paces away from her. What was his name?

He spoke again but she only got the gist of his words. She was too busy replaying their... encounter to pay too much attention. Still, she could not bring the name to mind. Such things didn't really stick with her anymore, useless as they would soon become. If she'd not already committed a name to memory before her initial exposure, it just didn't seem to stick. It also didn't help that she hadn't really had a knack for such things before either. She did, however, remember a certain knack he had shared with her. The thought brought a lopsided smile to her tired and soot covered face.

"Hey... pal." she said, giving up after a moment's hesitation.

His hand resting ever so casually on his blaster was not missed by Ylva. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end and every nerve in her body was pulsing with a warning of danger from the man. But then, he'd had to opportunity to shoot her while she was lying pathetically on the ground. He hadn't, so his intentions weren't necessarily to kill her. At least not outright. Consciously, she resisted the urge to flex her hands and bring a dozen chunks of duracrete to rain down on him.

"Wanting to go another round?" she asked. He wore no protection from the spores that she could see. Had he joined the Chorus? surely she would be able to feel him if he had, even with her weak senses. Was he an abomination? The thought caused her stomach to turn in revulsion. One side of her jaw flexed to push down the urge to spit. "Can't say I'd blame you." she managed, after a steadying breath.

[CaptainBonkers]

Jayec had just lined up the crosshairs on his rifle’s scope on Ylva, when the bloke walked on the scene. His appearance gave Jayec pause. The man looked vaguely familiar and approached Ylva with certain level of familiarity one would not have expected from a complete stranger. Her reaction appeared to confirm this, though she didn’t appear to be too familiar with the man, judging from the delayed reaction she gave. That, or the mushrooms had begun to addle her ability to think beyond making her do their bidding.

Where had he seen that man? Jayec was certain he had. Wait. Wasn’t that the smuggler bloke from Bothawui? William or Willem of something or another. What the hell was he doing here? Not perhaps on Nar Shaddaa in general, this was, after all, also known as the Smugllers’ Moon, but right here in the middle of a damn war zone under the shadow of the Archeri Spire. Considering the size of the galaxy, the smuggler’s presence there couldn’t be a coincidence. But whatever the bloke’s intentions were, him being there needlessly complicated everything.

Jayec focused his attention back through the rifle’s scope. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Instead of one shot he needed two. One for Ylva and one for the smuggler. He was just about to squeeze the trigger when a question entered his head. Which one to knock out first? If he sent Ylva to the land of dreams before the smuggler, he could do who knew what to her while if Jayec stunned the bloke first Ylva would be alarmed to his presence and could slip away before he had a chance to land a shot. Dammit.

Only one choice. Jayec had to get nearer and hope he could solve this situation from a closer range. He slung his rifle back on his shoulder and headed for the edge of the roof. It wasn’t a long drop but just in case he fired his jetpack moments before hitting the ground to soften the landing. After dusting off himself, he walked into the direction of Ylva and the smuggler fellow.

“Alright Wolfie, you’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to go.” he said once he arrived to the scene.

[Blue]

Close to, Willam swiftly saw that his comment had been far more of an understatement than he truly realised. Ylva turned her head to see him, revealing a face caked with dust and soot and made shallow with pain. Her eyes were filled with a feverish light that made the captain mentally shudder. Is this really the same woman who stepped onto my ship? The transformation in her was startling. Despite her weariness when they had met, she had still had the attitude, the assertiveness, the strength of personality that had impressed him. Now she just seemed... broken. Just be sure you don't mistake that as being harmless. This mindset was disrupted somewhat with a short snort of amusement that escaped him despite his thoughts, as Ylva clearly struggled to recall his name. "Glad to see I made such a deep impact on you," the smuggler said dryly. Willam watched the Zabrak's face as she continued talking, noting the quickly schooled look of revulsion that tensed her jaw. "Hmm... while the thought is most certainly a very tempting one, you hardly look like you'd be up for exhilarating walk, never mind a second tour of my cockpit. Beside, not to be indelicate, but I would have concerns about catching something particularly... virulent from you." Willam's eye glanced up into the sky briefly, catching sight of that nasty purple Spire lurking above the planet. "Not that that matters much at this point. Either they get beaten back and we win the day, or we all get turned into so much mulch." With a slight shrug of his shoulders, Willam turned his face down to Ylva again, eyebrow raised. "I'm honestly surprised you seem so eager for the latter. I had you pegged as a fighter the moment I set eyes on you, I would never have guessed that you would just lay down and die for anything. How disappointing... Then again, I suppose we can't all be as resilient as yours truly." With his cybernetic eye, Willam watched as Odd followed the Mando getting closer and start to line up a shot. Hurry up, hurry up. Get her fast, her eye is on me but the window is closing- Then the armoured man jumped down with a quick and loud burst from his jetpack, and called out. Willam stood staring at the Mandalorian, mouth agape, several syllables attempting to make their way past his throat. After a few seconds, the smuggler simply pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan of despair. "A curse on all thick-skulled bloody Mandalorians!" Willam spat in frustration. "What part of your genius tactical brain saw the opportunity to put a well-placed stun bolt between her shoulders when she was distracted, and instead decided to hop on down for this song and dance-" Throwing his arms up in the air in disgust, Willam cut himself short and attempted to rein in his temper. "Oh forget it. No point crying over spilt milk, and it's well and truly torn now. Guess we're going to have to do this the bloody hard way." Fast as thought, Willam's hand flashed with movement and pulled the stun pistol from his holster, loosing a flurry of shots at the prone Ylva.

[Meira]

"A simple no would have been enough." Ylva muttered under her breath at his wordy reply. The chatty side of the man was now fully remembered, since it was so well on display. She squinted her eyes slightly at him, trying to remember through the haze of the Eternal Song, but still his name escaped her. Oh well, she thought, he'll be gone soon anyway.

"I'm honestly surprised you seem so eager for the latter. I had you pegged as a fighter the moment I set eyes on you, I would never have guessed that you would just lay down and die for anything. How disappointing... Then again, I suppose we can't all be as resilient as yours truly."

Her eyes connected with his once again, brows furrowing in a moment of confusion. Die? Who said anything about dying? A huff of air escaped her, followed by a silent moment of her shoulders shaking. Then the laughter followed, rising out of her like spasms. "Oh, Captain." she managed after a moment. "You have it so, so wrong." She wiped at one eye where a mirthful tear was threatening to fall. "When that thing fires," she pointed up toward the Spire, "death will be meaningless for everyone like me."

There was a sudden sound of jets sent Ylva's heart beating double time as adrenaline instantly pulsed through her. She was on her feet in a flash, shifting her field of vision to cover whatshisname and... Jayec? She released a tense growl as the Mandalorian approached. She'd done everything she could to avoid him since Bothawui. There were a scarce few people in the galaxy that would want to stop or capture her now. And even fewer that would have the skills to do so. Jayec was right at the top of that list. She'd really hoped she would be able to avoid him until at least after the Spire fired. No such luck. Well, maybe this would be her chance to make up for her failure with Simone. And with soandso here too, it would be like a two for one special.

"Well," she said, her muscles tensing as she squared off against the two men as best as she could, "looks like my lucky day. We're all set for a good ol' fashioned menage et-"

"A curse on all thick-skulled bloody Mandalorians!"

Ylva's eyes shifted to whateverhisname when his outburst interrupted her. She arched a brow, staring as he continued, and even glanced back toward Jayec with a "is he for real?" look. But just when she was about to ask if he'd be finishing up the monologue any time soon, he'd reached for the pistol on his hip and drawn. Ylva barely had an instant to register what was happening. It had barely been enough. A twisted piece of metal rose suddenly into the air beside her, sending a dead center shot ricocheting wildly into the air. The other shots passed within fractions of an inch of her body. With a roar of frustration, Ylva threw her arm outward toward the man, sending the piece of scrap metal flying at him. Her eyes then turned back to Jayec, the true threat as she bolted to her right to grab cover behind a crumbling wall.

[CaptainBonkers]

Jayec was feeling just a touch confused by what had transpired before his eyes. It was a feeling every Mandalorian disliked immensely. Fortunately, there was a simple solution to that feeling; Jayec would simply pick a course of action, obstacles and consequences be damned, and power through come what may. The problem here was that the two most efficient approaches were unappealing, wisest strategy lacked honor and the last one was just plain dumb. Working with the smuggler or Ylva to get rid of the other was the probably the fastest way to settle this mess but the problem was that at the moment Jayec didn’t trust either of them. Ylva was high on spores and the bloke with the missing arm had showed serious lack of judgment by assuming that Jayec would play to his plan without coordination of any kind.

Smartest play would of course had been to let the two of them fight it out and then mop up the one that came up on top but that was just against Jayec’s sense of honor and fair play. Sure, it would be more efficient to stomp on a tired opponent but in a three way standoff like this sitting in the outlines while the two other parties fought it out was just downright un-mandalorian. The only acceptable reason to avoid a fight was if it served no point whatsoever. That, and picking a fight with someone obviously weaker than you on purpose. That was just bullying.

Finally there was the dumb option, the three way free-for-all. Just open fire at everything that moved and don’t stop until that everything had stopped moving. Or seized to exist if you were using lethal power but today Jayec was packing mostly less than lethal weaponry. ‘Immobile’ would be the condition for seizing fire today.

During the few seconds that he weighed his option, Jayec could hear his grandpa’s words echoing somewhere in his mind. ‘If you can’t do something smart and there ain’t no right thing to do, son, the do something stupid. That way you might at least surprise your enemies. Inactivity will get you killed in a fight.’ Jayec was inclined to believe the old codger; after all you the man was still alive and kicking despite gradually zeroing in on hundred and mandalorians didn’t hit those years without being damn hard to kill. Fuck it. Stupid option it would be. Damn free-for-all. At least he was well placed to come up on top, clad in beskar as he was and carrying enough weaponry to make a small infantry platoon suffer from feelings of inadequacy in the equipment department.

As Ylva and bloke-whose-name-began-with-a-w each darted towards cover, Jayec fired his jetpack and swept backwards for better ground. On his way, he leveled his weapon to the general direction of Ylva and the other guy and switched to full auto.

[Blue]

The rant served as a somewhat mediocre distraction, but one hell of a cathartic release. It had almost worked in its purpose for the former purpose perfectly, but at the last moment Ylva used her powers to shift some metal into the path of the stun bolts. Willam tried to shift his aim to slip one past but the cover was effective and nothing landed. Despite his valiant attempts, it was not the first time in his life that he had been pushed into conflict with a person with access to the Force. The shove came as expected and Willam was already springing backwards, the twisted metal sheet flying over the top of his rolling form. By good fortune, this same attack partially shielded the smuggler from the volley of shots that the Mandalorian threw his way, though one still winged his leg. The tough leather of his coat absorbed most of the effect, but his thigh still went partially numb and the captain swiftly scrambled behind some more solid cover; Ylva's tantrum had left plenty sprawled about. The one-on-one that could have been a two-on-one has now turned into a three way free-for-all. Nothing. Is ever. Easy. His hands were already moving as the bitter thought passed through his mind. The flesh and blood fingers fished the familiar weight of his Novis Marksman into his palm; his stun pistol would do nothing to the Mandalorian's armour, save perhaps scratching its paint. The smuggler was not even sure the powerful heavy blaster pistol would pierce it, but it would certainly leave a dent if nothing else, designed as it was to smash through personal shielding and armour. His metal fingers plucked a grenade from his belt, pausing only to double check through Odd's hidden point of view before arming it and sending it in an ark towards where he had seen the Zabrak woman take cover. As it was about to go off, Willam popped up, took a half-second to aim at the flying Mandalorian with practised ease, and sent a bolt at one of the jetpack's exhaust pipes. Grounding the man would at least level the playing field somewhat... if the shot did not accidentally detonate the device and blow the Mandalorian to pieces. The captain had a feeling that Ylva would not be best pleased if he exploded her friend, should any of them survive long enough for regrets. But hey, shit happens. As his pistol gave off it's trademark high-pitched snap, the grenade detonated into a cloud of gas on Ylva's position. Left over from his bounty hunting days, it was non-lethal, naturally. Either she would pass out or move from cover, assuming she had not already changed position. Speaking of which... Ignoring the pinpricks of pain in his leg as the feeling started to return, Willam darted to a much larger piece of cover, a smashed remnant of what might once have been a stone pillar, hopefully before his opponents could recover and pin him down. As he reached it, he switched back to the stun pistol and scanned the area for his erstwhile paramore and her bloody-minded friend from the birds eye view his droid companion provided, invisible from one of the nearby buildings.

[Meira]

She was slowly leaning out to peer around her cover when she heard the grenade in the air. Instinctively, Ylva lifted a hand as if to catch the grenade. It stopped in the air, maybe ten feet above her. Ylva let out a burst of laughter "Hey Jay-" she started to shout, then the grenade went off in a plume of gas. The gas quickly spread and Ylva found herself coughing as she stumbled away from the affected area. In her inattention, however, she'd managed to take in a good lungful of the stuff and so the world around her swam as she careened toward a new set of cover.

When she landed behind another wall, her hands gripped tight into the rubble, trying to keep the whole world from toppling over. Another of Jayec's shots spat a chunk of ground up into dust just beside her leg. Ylva Crawled sideways, trying to conceal herself more and saw that her foot wasn't responding like it should. One of them must have winged her as she moved. Grabbing her pant leg, Ylva pulled her foot to the side. Panting, she leaned against the duracrete of her cover. She then quickly turned to the side a vomited. She hadn't had anything to eat in ages, and the acid and bile stung her throat as she spat and sputtered.

"Fuck this..." she groaned, and forced herself back onto her feet.

Leaning most of her weight onto her good leg, Ylva stepped back from her cover and held out her arms. The world still lurched unsteadily around her, but she was through dicking around. All around her, large chunks of duracrete began to rise into the air. They wobbled, rose, fell, and rose again. Some dropped back to the ground only to lift up again a moment later. Slowly, more and more joined the first and they started to rotate around her like an asteroid belt around a star. More and more joined the drunken dance as they circled fast and faster. Ylva laughed, now tearing parts from the wall that had been her cover, spinning the rubble faster and faster. She took a step.

Ylva's stunned foot buckled, unable to support her shifting weight and she fell face first to the ground. In her shock, she lost control of the whirlwind of rubble she'd made around herself. Much of it simply fell with her, but the faster spinning pieces went flying wildly outward.

"GRRRAHHHHGGG! DAMMIT!" she yelled, pounding a fist into the ground, sending a shock wave out in all directions.

[CaptainBonkers]

The smuggler had a decent aim, Jayec had to give him that. Few could have winged a moving target like Jayec from that distance. Fortunately, all the glancing hit had managed to do was force the manadlorian to do few involuntary barrel rolls in the air to stabilize himself. Said spinning took him well out of the Bloke’s grenade’s blast radius, though whether or not the gas could have penetrated Jayec’s helmet and its air scrubbers was a different matter entirely. It was, however, a question he’d rather not find the answer for unless absolutely necessary.

Soon it became evident that worrying about the gas or the smuggler’s fire was least of his worries as Ylva began her jetii sorcery fuckery. Summoning her otherworldly powers she began gathering around herself a cyclone of dust, rubble and shrapnel that just kept on gathering speed. Jayec fired a few bolts at her but the swirling wall of banthashit turned out to be fairly hard to penetrate. The bolts were either completely blocked by the floating debris or else diminished to harmless energy levels by passing through smaller pieces.

Jayec was just beginning to look for other approaches when Ylva’s leg gave in and she planted her face to the cracked duracrete under her feet. Her loss of focus send the crap she had surrounded herself with zooming through the air in erratic arcs, soon followed by a shockwave of anger centered around where she was trying to get back up.

The worst of that particular jetii banthashittery passed Jayec mostly by, traveling as it was closer to the ground level. It was the flying debris that caused him problems. In an effort to avoid being squashed under some of the larger pieces Jayec had to accept being hit by few medium sized chunks duracrete and metal, one of which almost definitely one of his ribs. Breathing got somewhat painful but fortunately the adrenaline coursing through his veins suppressed the worst of the pain while his training allowed him to push the pain into the back of his head. Pain was good. It told you were still alive and kicking. Trouble was when you saw you were injured but couldn’t feel the pain. That was when you were screwed big time.

Ylva’s tumble left an opening in her defense, however. With the debris field around her down the road to her was now open for the time being. In a hot second Jayec did the math. She was the bigger threat considering that the bloke didn’t seem to be packing anything heavier than grenades and a blaster pistol. Hits from plasma stung a little but unless coming from a rifle or heavier gun they posed little threat of getting through real beskar. Grenades could be nasty but those weren’t easy to aim against a single mobile target like him.

Flying blunt objects on the other hand posed a serious threat. Sure, they weren’t getting through Jayec’s armor but they didn’t have to. A hundred pound chunk of duracrete and metal was still gonna break bones and badly bruise intestines if it hit, beskar or no beskar.

So, ignoring the third wheel for now, Jayec maneuvered himself to a good position for an aerial charge and the fired up engines, hurtling towards the still hopefully recovering Ylva before she had a chance to get her shit back in gear.

[Blue]

Though the shot did not have the intended effect of grounding the Mandalorian, it was able to drive the man backwards in the air. Willam allowed himself a split-second smirk as he watched Jayec's bulk twirl away like an awkward ballerina before Ylva made her presence the center of attention once more via the use of multiple large pieces of rubble spinning around her. Now, Willam was hardly the type to charge into danger if he could help it, especially when the person he was after looked about ready to keel over if he just waited a little longer. But the reward for bringing Ylva in was not insubstantial and, if he was being honest with himself, the chance to show up that pain in the arse Mando was enough to tip the scales. So, after taking a fortifying breath, the captain took advantage of the distance Jayec had lost and did something remarkably stupid: he spun out of cover and charged forwards into the maelstrom of debris. Once, while he was still in the Republic military, Willam had had a conversation with a Jedi assigned to his squad, in which she had espoused on the effectiveness of meditative techniques. Or more accurately, he had half listened to the older woman as she warbled on, not wanting to appear rude but being utterly uninterested in the subject. He vaguely recalled her blathering about something called a 'singular moment of serenity', were everything in the world just clicked into place around them. He had little time for such spiritualistic nonsense, but as Willam dove into that whirlwind of duracrete he could not help but feel like there might have been something to what that old Jedi had been babbling about. As the rubble spun and struck towards him, the captain entered a strange mindscape, absent of thought and emotion, as he dodged, ducked and dived onward towards Ylva as she cackled away. Progress was not exactly swift but he was gaining ground, which was more than what the Mando could currently say. The worst wound he received was a slight nick against his cheek as he rolled away from two larger rocks smashing together on either side of him. He did not even bother firing his stun pistol; all that mattered was the next heartbeat and closing that gap. Then the Zabrak woman planted herself face first into the ground. The momentum of the previously spinning masonry sent them shooting off into the space around them, but Willam had been close enough that the larger pieces missed him entirely. Hardly about to let such a perfect opportunity slip by, Willam short-armed a second grenade and threw it. Without the debris threatening to smash him into a paste, the Mandalorian would doubtlessly be zipping in fast and the captain needed the man distracted. With Odd's eye still fixed on the battlefield, he had had a good bead on Jayec's position, though the distance would be an issue. This issue was swiftly nullified as the frustrated Ylva pounded her fists on the floor and sent a wall of physical force outwards. This development knocked Willam a good few meters backwards, but it also neatly buffeted the grenade the extra distance it needed to put it straight into the Mando's flight path. Willam shut his flesh and blood eye as the flashbang went off, his cybernetic one only flickering slightly and the distance enough that the sound only disorientated the captain for a moment. He shook it off with hard-won practised ease, gritting his teeth grimly as, with a click from his boots, he shot forwards once more as the rockets installed in his footwear gave him back his momentum and punched him through the desperate attack. He let loose a flurry of bolts from the stun pistol towards Ylva as he grabbed the Force-collar from his belt, aiming to slap the cumbersome item onto her neck before she could spring anymore surprises on him. Whether or not he would throttle her a little after doing so in a fit of pique would be a roll of the dice, however.

[Meira]

She coughed and blood splattered the dust, bright against chalky grey. The world was still pitching around her. She thought she saw Jayec corkscrewing through the air but the image didn't make sense. She pushed herself to her knees, breathing deep and labored lungfuls of air. She was just managing to settle her weight onto her good leg when a searing bright light engulfed her field of vision. Her eyelids closed immediately, but it was not fast enough. The flash bang left her ears ringing. She knew that if she tried to open her eyes, she'd vomit again for sure. She flailed her arms out and wide to the sides, trying to maintain her balance while also, presumably, warding off whoever was coming at her. What she got was a stun bolt to the hip, and then another to the left side of her face. Instantly, the nerve endings at both spots went quiet, leaving behind an empty and numb sensation. Only her sense of balance assured her that she was upright, and it was tenuous at best.

When she finally chanced to open her eyes, they were filled with the sight of the captain barreling toward her. She tried to lift her arms to push him away, but they moved as if made of lead and were barely half raised by the time he slammed bodily into her. They both hurtled backward until stopped by a duracrete wall. The collision knocked the air completely from her lungs and she wheezed as she tried to push him away.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a sense of familiarity clicked. "Dammit, Willam!" she choked. "Get the fuck off of me!" I wasn't exactly what she'd said the last time, but their positioning was similar. In his struggle, Willam was attempting to bring something near to Ylva's head. Seeing it from the corner of her vision caused Ylva's violet eyes to widen. Another damned force collar? She twisted, but found no purchase, pinned as she was by Willam's cybernetic arm. She managed to squirm away from one attempt to get the collar around her neck, but the second was more successful. It encircled her throat, but did not fully latch.

"You bastard!" she spat, and then threw her head forward. She felt it connect with a satisfying thunk. She coughed again, the red blood making her pointed white teeth all the more gruesome looking. She writhed again, trying to rid herself of his grip. "I'll kill you." she growled.

[CaptainBonkers]

Jayec’s helmet noticed the grenade before its owner. The HUD highlighted the small object as it appeared on his flight path, apparently propelled by Ylva’s shockwave. Jayec simply closed his eyes and accelerated, risking his well-being on the likelihood that the grenade was of lees-than-lethal variety. After all, the bloke had lobbed it in the general direction of Ylva and so far hadn’t shown any signs of having given up on the plan to take her alive. If it was a flashbang his helmet would deal with the noise, armor with the concussive effects and closed eyes with the flash. If it was another gasser then he simply wouldn’t spend enough time in its effective radius for it to pose much danger. So on he went without adjusting his course.

He felt a not so gentle nudge as the grenade went off, but beyond making his flight tract wobble a bit it had little effect on his trajectory. With the threat of being blinded by the grenade gone, Jayec opened his eyes.

Ylva and the bloke were still fairly well tangled, though the smuggler fellow seemed to be reeling from what seemed to Jayec like a headbutt from Ylva. So both of them were in close proximity to each other. So a nice, small target.

He no longer had enough time to alter his course for a proper blaster shot; he could send a flurry of bolts in their direction from the hip but that was likely to miss at least one of them. Repeaters were unfortunately infamously inaccurate on full-auto and stabilizing for proper aim was no longer an option unless he wanted to engage in aerial gymnastics that would give his targets time to disentangle themselves. However, he had brought a number of less-than-lethal grenades along for the ride and was yet to use any of them. Now seemed like an opportune moment to use one of them.

He reached for a simple stun grenade on his belt and armed the fuse. It was a fairly common model, favored by both law-enforcement agencies and bounty hunters across the galaxy. In few seconds the grenade would release a concussive wave strong enough to knock out most unarmored known near-human species and species in the same weight class. Zabraks wouldn’t usually have fit into that category, being damn tenacious as they were, but Wolfie wasn’t looking too hot at the moment.

The smuggler bloke on the other hand ought to get a ticket to the land of dreams if he was caught in the concussive blast’s radius without head protection.

Jayec aimed his ‘landing’ between the two and cut the jets, proceeding the remaining distance with momentum alone. He hit the ground with a loud thump and used his remaining momentum to roll forward. On his way he dropped the grenade next to Ylva and the smuggler.

His roll was not enough to take him out of the grenade’s effective radius, not nearly, but it was enough to get his head just that extra bit further away from the worst of the concussive wave’s power. The grenade went off. It hit hard enough to kick the air out of Jayec’s lungs and sent him stumbling forward just as he was about to get on his feet from the roll. The only reason he remained on his two feet was because he staggered into jagged pile of debris that broke his stumbling by jabbing him to his broken rib.

Trying his best to focus, Jayec drew in breath through gritted teeth and turned around to survey the results of his charge. He was holding tight to the grip of his repeater and was as ready for a fight as one could be while seeing everything in two and barely able to breathe.

[Blue]

Willam struggled against Ylva as she squirmed about, trying her best to avoid the collar. If the Zabrak had been at full strength, the captain had no illusions about his ability to win; she would have very easily pounded his face into the ground. Thankfully, with her weakening rapidly and with the extra boost that his cybernetic arm gave him, the collar closed around Ylva's neck with only a little trouble. "Of course, now you remember my na-" Willam began, before his words were cut off by Ylva's forehead smashing into his face. Stars erupted behind his eye and his head flinched back, conscious of his erstwhile paramour's horns. He felt a sharp pain lancing across the corner of his forehead and the all too familiar trickling sensation of blood. By great good fortune, the gouge was far enough away not drip any of the red liquid into his one good eye, and the blow only served to make his grip on the woman tighter. She growled at him as he blinked the stars away. "Yeah, yeah. Take a number and get in line, love," he responded, trying to hold her up against the wall enough to finally latch the damned Force collar. A burst of Binary in his ear from the commlink alerted Willam to the fact that the roaring he was hearing was not a result of the blow to the head he had just received, but was in fact the sound of the Mandalorian's jetpack getting closer. Thanks to Odd's warning, the smuggler looked around just in time to catch a glance of Jayec landing, rolling and depositing a small, round object at his feet. His head still ringing from the blow Ylva gave him, the instinct drilled into him from a previous life kicked in with force. Willam called out "Grenade!" before lashing out with his foot to knock the explosive away while seizing the Zabrak woman by the arms and attempting to pull her down into what meager cover the rubble could provide. The stun grenade went off, and the concussive blast from it was enough to almost flip Willam completely arse over tit. The moment stretched on for a long time in his mind: the sensation of flying, then falling. Then the hard impact with the hard ground jolted him back. His ears were ringing. He could not see out of his flesh and blood eye, though his cybernetic one seemed to be working just fine, the wiring that connected it to his brain doubtlessly helping him make sense of the visual information despite the grenade's effects. His everything hurt. I've had worse than this, and I'm not dead yet. Get up, you worthless patchwork bastard. Get. Up! Ignoring the complaints of pain that echoed throughout his body, Willam quickly dragged himself up onto one knee about the same time as Jayec turned to observe the results of his attack. Ylva appeared to be out of it, and his arm whirred as he began fumbling for that damned catch again as he met the gaze of the Mandalorian's visor, his own hand now holding his heavy pistol. "Takes more than that to put me down, Mandalorian," he growled, his grip tightening on his pistol. "Time to back off. We can beat each other black and blue until the sky comes crashing down, but Ylva doesn't have that sort of time and I've got a job to do. She's coming with me back to the Blind Eye. Try to get in the way, and it won't matter how much... beskar you hide behind, I will put a bolt through your visor, neat as you please." It was a bit of a gamble, Willam knew. But it did not take a genius to put two and two together. Jayec was, like himself, using non-lethal methods to apprehend Ylva, which indicated he wanted her alive. Ylva worked for Lidah, and the Zabrak and Jayec clearly knew each other well (and with something more than simple professional interest, if Willam was any judge), so it would not be too crazy to think he would know the name of the Exchange boss' building. It was possible the Mandalorian even intended to do the same thing that Willam was. Well, it was not like the two of them had had any time to communicate before everyone pulled out guns. But hopefully, with a statement of Willam's intentions finally out in the open, the Mandalorian would come to his senses and stop shooting at everything that moved. Hopefully they could hold off killing each other at least until he had got paid. Hopefully. I give it fifty-fifty.

[CaptainBonkers]

Jayec took stock of the situation. Ylva seemed to be out cold, which was a definite plus at the moment. Hopefully, a minor concussion and a couple of bruises would be the worst she got from this experience. Maybe a few broken ribs. Still, Jayec was fairly certain that some physical pain and discomfort was preferable to being controlled by sentient mushrooms.

The bloke on the other hand, was surprisingly still standing and attempting to parlay. As rich as it was for the guy to who’d first pulled trigger to now try to talk things through, Jayec had to admit that the guy had some mandokarla. He had taken a fairly direct blast from a concussive grenade, just barely making it out of the insta-lights-out zone and wasn’t wearing much armor to shield himself from the blast. Sure, that cybernetic sticking out of his head might have been more extensive on the inside and offer some kind of protection but you still had to respect the fact he had managed to get back on his feet. His suggestion, however, was a non-starter.

Even if the bloke did indeed work for Miss Faine, Jayec’s ship was in the opposite direction from the Eye. There was no way in hell he was first going to drag Ylva to there and then to his ship. Judging from how roughed up the damn shroomspire looming in the distance looked, it wouldn’t take too long for it to come crumbling down under the combined assault of the Galaxy’s two largest powers anymore. Jayec didn’t particularly fancy having Ylva be nearby when that happened; being cut off a magical hivemind was bound to be a traumatic experience and he hoped that distance and maybe not being conscious would somewhat dampen the experience.

“I don’t know you aruetii, so excuse me for not taking your words at face value.” he began, his carbine lowered but still prepared to be used in a flash if needed. “I intend to get her off this fucking rock before that fucking thing goes down in blazes and that plan doesn’t involve a pit-stop at the Eye just so you can get paid.” he continued, nudging towards the Archeri spire with his head for emphasis. The last few words were delivered with a little more venom than he had intended but with adrenaline flowing in his veins, Jayec was finding that his social graces somewhat diminished.

“However, if you really are working for miss Faine, all you need to do is walk away and tell her you left Ylva in my care. She will pay you, I can guarantee that. Hell, if it’s just credits you’re after I’ll even match her offer.” Jayec wasn’t without means himself. With almost thirty years in the business, fairly modest lifestyle and mandalorian brand recognition giving his fees a boost, Jayec had accrued a decent nest egg for a rainy year or two.

“So how’s it gonna be, bud? Bugger off and get paid twice or risk your life for lesser gains? Just keep in mind while deciding that her coming with me is a hill I’m ready to die on, if need be."

To put an emphasis on his readiness, Jayec shifted his stance into a more ready one. He was still not pointing his carbine at the bloke but was ready to charge or dodge if need be. Hopefully, the man would do the smart thing and just fuck off but just in case the bloke developed an acute case of the stupids or had suffered some kind of paralyzing brain damage during the fight Jayec was ready to fight it out.

[Blue]

Willam's eye narrowed as the Mandalorian spoke, announcing his intentions and his ultimatum. In all honesty, the captain did not really fancy his chances going toe-to-toe with a person clad foot to fairly empty head in some of the toughest armour known in the galaxy, especially since he himself was not exactly in top condition right now. The smuggler had a few tricks up his sleeve, certainly, but it still did not look great for him. Between the possibility of dying now to a clean kill and the possibility of pissing off the boss of a criminal syndicate, however, he knew which he preferred. Still, while his motives may have been driven mostly by money, at least he had some vague semblance of a plan, unlike some. "That's it? That's your grand solution?" Willam said incredulously, his expression a mix between utter bafflement and exasperation. "Bundle her up onto your ship, do a runner and then, what? Kiss her boo-boo better, just in case love was the cure all along? Those things sent Ylva across systems to screw with the relief effort on Bothawui. Do you really think simple distance will make a damn bit of difference? And what if the destruction of the Spire doesn't magically free her, what then? Are you going to pull a cure out of your arse when the combined efforts of the Empire and Republic couldn't manage it? You need to set your damn pride aside and stop trying to be the one to save her, and try actually helping her, you shit-for-brains, pig-headed, utter bloody pillock!" I know this isn't helping, but by the Void it feels fucking fantastic. "You know what, let me make this entire fiasco really simple for the whole miserable lot of us," Willam spat, raising his mechanical hand to his ear while his other hand still held his blaster at the ready, just in case the Mandalorian decided to shoot him in a fit of pique. "Odd, patch me through to the Blind Eye, let Faine know it's urgent. Life or death, you know, the bloody usual." There was a pause as Odd beeped and burred in response, then the buzz of static as the hoverdroid began putting his call through. Willam's eye was fixed on the Mando as he waited, careful for any sudden movements that would betray violence. And then a familiar voice sounded in his earpiece. "Yeah, it's Willam Scathe. I've got Ylva here with me, albeit a bit unconscious. Problem is, I've got this real pri-... prize of a Mandalorian here, called Jayec something-or-other, that appears pretty set on dragging her offworld... Yes, surprise surprise, the Mandalorian became violent. Seems quite confident he can do what trained scientists the galaxy over could not with just his can-do attitude, and claims that you'd be happy to consider my job done and dusted if I let him waltz off with her... Well, we're about a hair's breadth from killing each other at this point, figured I'd let you know... Alright... Okay, y-... yep. Well, it's your credits, I'm just spending them... Alright, then. Toodles!" With that, the conversation ended and Willam's eye narrowed at the Mandalorian once more, his grip tightening on the blaster pistol in his hand. "She's all yours, old chap!" the smuggler announced cheerfully, his expression changing instantly into a bright smile as he pushed himself to his feet. Though his tone had become congenial once more, his hand never loosened on the pistol's grip. Willam took a few steps away from Ylva's unconscious form, eyes still glued on Jayec. "I hope this doesn't get her killed, for your sake. Because if she dies, I get this feeling that, ho-boy... you are royally fucked." The smile never left Willam's face at this proclamation, nor his hand from his blaster.

[CaptainBonkers]

As soon as the bloke got off the horn with miss Faine, Jayec was advancing towards the spot where Ylva was laying on the ground, surrounded by debris of varying sizes. She was still out cold, it seemed and more importantly, still breathing. No significant external damage that he could spot with a bare eye but there could be, and likely was, plenty of internal damage, both from the shrooms doing their shit and the blast she had taken. The med-droid on the ship would have to perform a thorough check up. At least she wasn’t chucking up clouds of spores; that would have been bad.

First things first though. Jayec knelt down and immediately checked the force-collar that the bloke had managed to snap around Ylva’s neck to ensure it was safely closed. She might have been out for the count cor now but if she came to with her jetii sorcery still on Jayec preferred she at least would have to figure a way to get the thing off of her before she could start chucking furniture at him with her mind.

As it turned out, the collar wasn’t quite fastened yet, even though it had almost closed around her neck. It hadn’t probably been designed to be clamped around someone’s throat mid combat like this one had. Probably a small wonder it had closed so well altogether. Jayec closed the locking mechanism properly and a small red light lit up, hopefully signaling the damn thing was online and functioning as intended. He might have to keep her sedated for the duration of the trip, just in case. The idea of having to fight a pissed off Ylva with maybe Force powers in tight quarters wasn’t an appealing prospect.

With the collar hopefully secure, Jayec carefully proceeded to pick Ylva up. She was lighter than he remembered, which wasn’t a good sing. It might have been just his mind playing tricks on him as well, but just in case Jayec added checking if she had been starving herself because her fungal overlords didn’t give a shit about their non-shroom slaves on the list of medical procedures he would have the med-droid perform once Ylva was safely on board.

Once he had managed to place Ylva’s unconscious body over his shoulders, Jayec turned towards the smuggler type. “I’ll get your account numbers from miss Faine.” he said. “You can expect your credits in two to three standard business days, provided all the systems are working uninterrupted. Ret’urcye mhi, aruetii.”

With that the mandalorian headed off in a brisk jog, moving as fast as a couple of broken ribs would allow him without also risking dropping Ylva on the way. His ship wasn’t too far away but the route there probably hadn’t improved between his arrival and now. Still, with any luck they would be offworld before those towers went down and right now that was all that really mattered.