New thorn in the side (Theron)

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Aunna and her small platoon had been moved from the planets of Talus and Tralus to Selonia, once again in search of a group of dark jedi. It seemed that their numbers had been increasing lately at a disturbing rate, and the jedi had their hands full taking care of the ones that were out in the open, and had no time to search for the small pockets of them that were hidden throughout space. The biggest problem the major now faced, beside the fact that the dark jedi were able to hide themselves easily, was that this planet was full to the brim of fringe members...people who wouldn't give a second thought to turn against you if they were payed enough.

A custom made electro-spear was held in one hand as she stood on a platform watching the various groups of soldiers spread out, searching the areas that were the least likely places for the targets to hide. Better to examine these places first and eliminate them from the list of potential hiding places than allow them to remain right under her nose, undetected. Previous to her reassignment to this planet, she had requested several transfers to be made, and tests done on those under her. Luckily the jedi had been willing to help, for the most part, and she now had a platoon full of strong minded soldiers who wouldn't easily fall prey to manipulation.

[Vex]

Vex had felt the need for "fresh air" as it were. Too much time spent on Coruscant could be stifling at best. The cosmopolitan center of the universe held some darkness within....and the Jedi would have been hard pressed to figure out and ferret the Dark practitioners living a speeder's sprint from the doors of their very temple.

Besides, there was the simple matter of a young, attractive military Major that had piqued his interest. The woman had connections...she had will...and she did not back down easily. They were certain qualities that he respected. Perhaps there were easier ways to go about getting what he wanted...ways that didn't require him to illicitly work in transportation across the sectors and the proper application of "persuasion" in order to learn where she was headed and what she was going to be doing.

Imagine his surprise when his unwitting informant divulged exactly what they were here to do. Vex laughed...he laughed so hard that he lost awareness of the area around him. It brought another squad...men that were soon pointing weapons and demanding things from him in an authoritative tone.

He tried to use simple Force Persuasion, but it didn't work. Despite the furious waves of his compulsion for them, they broke against the mental bulwarks of the mens' mind. Distantly, his approval for the woman rose sharply. As the man began to radio in, "Base, this is Romeo Two-Niner, we may have some huuugh-...!"

Vex wasn't playing gently anymore, he slammed his will like a spear into the mans head....the struggle was short as the assault al but wiped the psyche from the man, making him cry out and drop into convulsions. The other men switched to single fire...and that's when the violet saber flared to life.

The twitching man that spasmed on the ground managed to flick the comm switch in his helmet on completely by accident, letting the command hear him suffering from that shattered mind as well as the sound of weapons fire.

Pinpoint locations and call sign put them in a small sector of low-level buildings. It wasn't long before backup was called for.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Aunna's attention had been focused somewhere to the right of her, watching a group of her men search a shop, when suddenly one of her men started to say something over the com-link. With a sudden sharp cry, the man's voice stopped and a round of blaster fire to her left drew her attention. A violently vibrant violet light saber ignited and she picked up her com.

Back off! Back off! I don't want you slaughtered.

She ordered the men before switching frequencies.

C7-49er....back up needed other side of the square, and get those civillians out of there would you? Saber wielder on the loose, and it doesn't look like he's a friendly one. Keep your guard up.

She ordered, hoping to resolve this without getting involved herself. Snatching a pair of view-finders from a passing soldier, she zoned in on the current target. Cursing loudly, she wished she had never seen that face before. Either she was being followed, or this was a very BIG coincidence. Most likely the first of the two options.

[Vex]

"Roger that...squad, disengage! Fall ba...-gggh!" The squad leader's voice strangled out over the comms. Through the view-finders, she would see the Jedi standing in front of the trooper, who was strangely, rigidly at attention and seeming to tremble with random wracking tremors. When he spoke again, his voice was rather strange and distant. "If...you don't...want slaughter...stop hunting....a predator."

The man seemed like nothing more than a marionette and as soon as he'd finished his statement, that vibrant, violet blade flashed up, dissecting him from groin to sternum. The black eyes of the Force-wielder turned up to stare back at that platform that held Aunna and her command group.

Vex turned his back on her and that shadowed form drifted back into the urban sprawl, hiding from sight for the moment. If they wanted to flush him out...they'd have to come in after him.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

That was it. The gauntlet had been thrown. Ordering her men to back out of the area and keep their eyes peeled, she elected to go after him herself, since she had fought force users before. True, she didn't stand much of a chance, but she still had more experiance than these men did. Darting down the steps of the platform, she jumped the last few and darted into the crowd which was swiftly being dispursed by the soldiers to get them out of harms way. Slinking through the crowd, she allowed herself to flow along in a state of conciousness she hadn't let herself slip into for nearly a year now. Heading straight for the man, her eyes focused on the spot where he hid, though there were still people in her way. She could feel him there oddly enough....well, perhaps not oddly....she had been tested for force abilities. Unfortunately she didn't have a high enough count to be trained as a jedi.

[Vex]

He would feel her presence, the tingling of her minute, natural draw to the Force as she sensed him. Beneath that rebreather, he smiled to himself. He'd moved deeper into the buildings, choosing a dry-goods warehouse. It had many levels, many narrow corridors made by the goods packed therein. Sunlight slanted in through narrow windows near the ceiling, but the shafts of light only served to accent and emphasize the gloom of the place, instead of lessening it.

He stood there, as quiet and serene as he was able, calmly awaiting her arrival. He pushed his senses out, feeling those others forming the perimeter, leaving the civilians out of the danger zone. There, in the center of the room, he faced the door that she'd enter by, head bowed lightly as he waited.

She would feel his presence reach out, stroking against her...cool and dark, almost as intimate as a lover running his fingers against her cheek...toying with her mentally, probing this surprising woman.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Halting outside the warehouse she narrowed her eyes slightly before opening the door. Stepping inside, she found herself faced with a long hallway and allowed herself a moment to let her eyes adjust to the gloom of the area. Feeling something cold and silky brush against her, through her, she shuddered slightly and withdrew into herself, putting up her mental barriers. She knew that if he really wanted to get into her mind, he would, but something told her he wouldn't dare risk breaking her mind. There was something he needed from her, or wanted from her, either way it meant he wouldn't risk damaging her mind if he could help it. Not yet anyway. Sighing, she stepped foreward and started down the long maze of halls created by the goods stored there. Pausing every once in a while to drop her walls just enough to try and find him with her limited ability. She had never really been jealous of the jedi, but now was one time when she WAS jealous of their ability to find others through the force. It would have made things so much easier....and more comfortable....for her, especially since this man seemed to like to reach out and 'touch' her, sending chills down her spine each time.

Finally she reached the central room, and sure enough, there he was. His head was bowed as he waited for her. A flicker of doubt shot through her mind as she wondered just what she hoped to accomplish by fighting a foe so much stronger than herself...against someone who didn't use the force, she would have stood a chance, but here, now, she didn't and she knew it. Shaking those thoughts away, she stood tall and strengthened her resolve. Readying her spear, she hoped her adjustment would proove able to stand up to a light saber as she'd calculated they would.

You are charged with murder and interfering in the republic army's investigation of this city. Come quietly.

She stated, knowing very well that he most certainly WASN'T going to 'come quietly'.

[Vex]

"Murder?" He chuckled lghtly, shaking his head. "It is not my concern if the foolish and the inane choose to throw away their lives by interfering in mine." A graceful flick of his wrist twirled that lightsaber up, igniting it as it cut a violet swath through the air before briefly holding, poised perfectly vertical in front of him. Flipping it back down, he twisted it into a reversed grip, holding the blade t his side so it hummed along so close to back length of his arm, angling behind his shoulders.

"Put down your little toy, Major, and agree to help me. Things will be much simpler if you do...and no one else needs to let their stupidity cause their premature demise."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

She grunted slightly and firmly shook her head, holding her spear across her body at an angle the tip pointed down right.

I think not. I'd rather die than help you.

She stated, and swung her spear upward toward his neck and shoulder. Stepping foreward she thrust the spear foreward as she pressed a button, causing the spear to charge with electricity.

[Vex]

He let the Dark Side flow through him, quickening his muscles and his reflexes while the tremors in the Force gave him impressions of the future and arming him with knowledge of the moves she had yet to make.

He leaned back almost lazily, letting the sweeping arc of the spear head whisper harmlessly by mere centimeters from his throat. He stepped back, falling int the elegant, deadly dance of combat as she thrust the spear forward once more...a quick sidestep and twist pirhouetting him away from that deadly edge as it began to crackle with electricity. From the tightening of his cheeks around that rebreather, it was fairly obvious that he was smiling. Unfortunately for her, the emtion did not reach all the way to those carbonite eyes.

The low, throbbing hum of the violet lightsaber filled the otherwise quiet room, reverberating off the close confines. He had backpedaled a few steps to get some distance between them, but as he planted his foot on that last twist, he thrust forward, letting the Force make him as a blur as he lashed out towards her with a vicious diagonal slash, aiming to cross from shoulder to hip.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

He dodged effortlessly from her attacks, but she had expected that. He was much more able to dodge her than others she had fought, and honestly, she knew she stood no chance...this was just to buy time. Spinning to the side, she brought the spear above her then down across where his shins were. Only then did she notice he was smiling.

Grunting, she knew he was toying with her, and it angered her, but what could she do? She was nothing more than an annoying fly that MIGHT sting slightly if she landed a blow on him. Though that was obviously a rather far fetched idea.

[Vex]

He was not talented in manipulating the world with the Force...not on a physical level. He coul heal...he had the ability to heal grievous wounds in others...and he could speed up his own actions, but that was close to it. The amazing acrobatics...the vaulting leaps, those were closed off to him. Never would his lightsaber fly from his hand to strike out and come back. But he had worked around this shortcoming.

Her spinning away from his attack was not completely unexpected. He left himself open, let that swing come down towards his shins. He had apparently overreached, that blade in one hand, unable to be redirected to intercept. His other came in to his side, a useless defense, by the look of it.

Looks could be deceiving, however, as his hand closed on the other lightsaber he had behind him. Its blood-red blade flared to life, stabbing down and stopping her strike as he twisted, rotating the spearhead up and over him before he drew back, crossing the violet and crimson in front of him with a grin.

"You still have the option to capitulate, Major..."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

((damn, when did you put that strike in there?! I completely missed it! ))

Seeing yet another saber burn to life, Aunna cursed, rather loudly at that, and lept back as her swing was blocked. Keeping a firm grip on her spear, she shook her head at his statement. Never would she back down to one of these minions of the dark....she didn't have it in her. She never had. Never had she backed down from anyone or anything she didn't want to....from the class bullies in school, to the big wigs in the Republic, she refused to back down....to give in...to fold like they always wanted her to.

No.

It was a simple enough answer, and one he would just have to live with. If he wanted her to do something against her will, he'd have to break her first....and chances were that in the process of him trying, either he'd kill her, or she'd kill herself.

Watching his movements, the major narrowed her eyes and struck out again, this time with a swift stab toward his shoulder. Her body moved almost compulsively as a flash of energy pulsed unwelcome through her mind and muscles. This happened from time to time, her speed increasing as her body seemed to take over. It was often dismissed as 'battle instinct', but there was nothing 'instinctual' about it...she could tell.

[Vex]

He had sensed her minor link to the Force. Perhaps she'd never had been strong enough to qualify for the Order, but anyone touched by the Force had the ability to use it to aid them, whether consciously or not. She sped up, that thrust coming up faster than his senses had anticipated...catching him almost flat-footed. He twisted away, but barely, that blade coming close enough that the crackling energy of her spear arced into his shoulder, numbing it.

That rebreather mask hissed with his discomfort from the near miss, his arm tingling and less responsive as his nerves sought to overcome the shock. Dark eyes narrowed, the mirth gone from them as he stared her down.

"Your pride might be the death of you, Aunna." He spoke to her on that intimate level, as though they were companions and well known. His voice, echoing through the rebreather had a dark, razored edge to it.

He would match her, speed for speed as the two blades came up, flashing before him like technicolor strobes as he came at her, pounding at her defenses with a crashing tide of blows. Even if her link with the Force kept helping her, how long would that spear hold out?

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Aunna merely grunted in reply. Yes, she'd been told that before also, but what else had she but pride? Nothing, honestly. Everything she owned now was property of the republic, and even her own person didn't seem to be hers any more. Most of the time she didn't care, but sometimes it irked her....now, however, she was using this fact as a shield, something to strengthen her resolve. As his battery of blows fell upon her, she was forced backward, blocking anything, and everything, she could. More than once she found herself barely dodging a swing of red or purple, the heat from the blades sometimes singeing the hairs on her head as she bent away.

Finally, an opening appeared just as the handle of the spear was starting to overheat from the heat of the sabers. Taking her opportunity, she prayed that she could get at least one good hit in on this man before striking out like a snake, first with the butt of the spear to his foot, then a kick to the knee before she swung at his chest with the head of the spear.

[Vex]

Oh, she managed the strike to the foot, fouling his attempt to twist away from that kick...letting her land it on his inner thigh, his knee buckling as he dropped down. His head flicked up at her, the pain coursing through him...but he was far from done. He channeled that pain and rage, using it to strike out in a way her spear couldn't hope to defend again.

His thrust went for her mind, that dark presence slamming down against her mind and its shields like a molten spear, lancing that pain into her and boring against it, the whole of his will pressing against it to cause her agony.

He let himself fall back, the spear missing him in it's arc by a scant few inches before he brought his good leg up to give her a taste of her own medicine, aiming for the kneecap of her leading leg, the one that bore most of her weight.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

For one brilliant moment things were going as planned. The butt of her spear connected with his foot, her kick connected with his leg, dropping him to his knee...but that's when it all went horribly wrong. For a moment he recoiled, withdrew into himself, before like a whip, his mind...or something like it...lashed out at her mind. Blinded and in extreme pain, her barriers came crumbling down, though she fought to keep them up. Oh yes, she fought back against him, against the pain, both physically and mentally she fought. His foot connected with her shin just below the knee and she felt it crack forcing her to buckle....but something inside her wouldn't let her stop fighting. Perhaps it was instinct, the instinct to live, perhaps it was something else, but either way, she stood once more on her broken leg, barely able to see through the pain, and she thrust her spear forward, if only to buy her time, and perhaps a little reprieve from the pain he was inflicting.

Hissing in pain, she limped backward, trying to get away from this enemy, hoping that her men would be there soon. Little did she know that outside, they were having their own problems with the dark jedi they had been hunting earlier...and that they would not be coming for her. For once in her life, Aunna's resolve was faultering...her body near giving in to the pain, she lashed out at him again like a wounded animal, her movements faster than normal, if only by a little.

[Vex]

Vex rolled away. He'd felt the crack beneath his boot heel with the strike...felt the fresh wave of physical pain that had assaulted her. Her attacks were moot...he wasn't even within striking distance as he came to his feet. While the dark jedi was impressed with her mental fortitude and her ability to push on through the pain...he knew she was stretching herself thin. Those mental walls wouldn't hold much longer, trying to deal with so much at once.

Unlike her, however, his affinity with the Force was attuned and cognizant of the other Dark Siders that were currently wreaking havok amongst her men. They were problematic...if they killed her, then Vex would lose his chance. The woman was a lesser priority for the moment. As she lashed out, half blind from the pain, he would step to the side and disappear down one of those corridors of boxes, leaving her there alone with her pain.

Entering to the outside once more, he saw the men trying valiantly, but futiley, to subdue the Force Wielders...more than one getting cut down. Vex moved quickly...letting the Force spur him to greater speed, coming up on one of the Dark Sider's blind side. He was impressed that the other managed to react....and then the duel was on.

Her men, well trained as they were, had already been weakend from their brief encounter with Vex and the more trying one with his opponent. Given the rest, they did not interfere...instead choosing to regroup and try to get to their wounded...some actually hunting to see what had become of the Major.

Vex concentrated, shifting between the offense and his unusual Soresu defense with easy. He wasn't playing with this one as he had with the Major...there was no room for error here. The other two came to bear upon him, forcing him fully into that defensive mode as he moved like water, flowing around to keep them getting in the way of each other and unable to flank him. Like chess, he played his moves carefully, taking and giving ground, working his opponents into position and letting them think they had the upper hand. Their hubris was palpable as Vex seemed to be reeling back on the defense more and more.

Vex was battered down to a crouch, seemingly just waiting for the killing blow when his willpower sliced into the man like a scalpel. He had not given quarter to the woman...but this as different. He struck to rend, to shred, to destroy the fabric of the man before him. The cry was a shrill scream of indescribable agony as the man collapsed to his knees and clutched his temples...his weapon dropping from his hand and flickered dead, inert.

Bringing his blades up, he caught one of the other's, a female, arcing her blade up and over, slamming it down onto the third's wrist, severing it clean. As she widened her eyes in surprise and tried to push back, Vex deactivated his blade, already ducking as she was off-balanced as there was suddenly no resistance. Ducking and in her guard now, he slammed the emitter of his saber against her breast, black eyes staring into hers with satisfaction as he thumbed the switch and watched the violet blade erupt from her back. She quivered and then went slack as he shut off the saber again, looking back to the man whose mind he was still annhiliating.

Langorously, Vex rose up, twisting the screws in the man's mind, systematically wiping out everything that made him human...from higher thought all the way down to base instinct...until his mind was as blank as an unprinted piece of flimsy.

The Dark Jedi, now but a husk, collapsed onto his side. His eyes were wide but glazed, staring a hundred parsecs into nothing. Life was but a physical aspect...a cardiovascular system hard wired to keep pumping blood and taking in oxygen.

Vex left him there along with the woman...a puppet composed of flesh and bone. Something for the Major to find when she was brought out. The amputate Force user had fled. Oh well.

Then he left.

None of her remaining men stopped him