G
Genais
Guest
Gemini
In Orbit of Dantooine
"Darth Yeonara" Admin roused her from her meditation as he motioned before them "Light Cruiser ahead,Flare class, standard crew compliment of 60 personnel, limited armament, 3 main drives" Admin continued.
Yeonara shook her head and held up her hand to stop the droid "Is this the one we want?" Admin cocked his head to the side, confused as to why he was stopped "Yes"
"Okay, thank you, open a commlink, request permission to board, he should be expecting us"
After a few moments a reply comes back as audio only, the voice is clearly that of the 'Loremaster' on Jacoiba's payroll, Professor Belloq. A corellian with deep pockets, a knack for finding artefacts others wanted and the contacts to then sell those artefacts on the black market to keep his deep pockets filled. "Lady Lia, welcome to the de Mahieu. Please, come aboard, I'll have the parlour opened and drinks waiting." the voice was a cheerful one, though Rikai at least knew from experience with the man that he could just as easily be entire displeased to see them arrive.
Shortly afterward Yeonara and her party were aboard the cruiser and being escorted into the parlour, a lavishly decorated room, windows that spread along 3 sides of the room with a view of space all around them. Belloq himself was seated in an extravagant red almost throne like chair.
"quite a room" Rikai murmured to no-one in particular, having dealt with Belloq before he was acquainted with his expensive tastes.
Yeonara gazed around the room and smiled at Rikais comment. it seems Admin had also overheard the morgkhai, and so deemed it appropriate to also comment on the room
"Yes, the decor is Alderanian, Post cold war era from the design, All of it Authentic" he mentioned as he pointed to the large table in the centre of the room "except for that, which is a modern reproduction with holo projectors and com controls integrated into the design. An expensive room"
Rikai shook his head at the droid and Yeonara laughed as she greeted their host "Greetings, I am as you know Yeonara Lia, I believe you have met Rikai before, and this" she motioned toward Admin
"Is Admin, he's an intel droid, in-case you hadn't worked that out already"
They each made their way to one of the lavish seats. "Now, I believe my lady has informed you somewhat of why I am here?"
Belloq smiled as Yeonara made the introductions. "You'll find the table is my one concession to modern convenience in here. the original models were prone to breakdown and could be sliced by a first year student these days. My business demands better." he said as they took seats and were approached by two servers, dressed it seemed in outfits that would not be out of place in the setting but here on closer inspection holograms over droid frames. the two servant droids placed a tray of drinks on the small table in front of the group before one of them offered a tray to Belloq with a glass on it. "Your... Benefactor did tell me why you wished to see me, though I am slightly puzzled by the request, my expertise is typically in finding old things, artefacts of long dead civilisations and the like. Locating the living is not usually my field."
"No, its his field" She points at Admin, who went to comment and Yeonara held her hand up to him and he stayed quiet. "You however, I dare-say in your travels and explorations have discovered focal points, Admin here can give me the information required for the people I wish to find, you, can give me a place to start" Yeonara reached for the tray of drinks in-front of her and relaxed in her seat.
"If Jacoiba has told you anything of me its that while I occasionally hunt force related artefacts for her I have no connection to the force itself." Belloq replied dryly. "Because of this I cannot tell you where these focal points are as I do not know myself, for the most part that is."
"Yes, I am aware. However you're a smart man Belloq, you know the worth of your information" she gestured around the parlour "And I suspect also you would know these artefacts are often found in such focal points, temples, ruins, these places that an archaeologist such as yourself would find. I am not asking for an exact location, that is not within your power to do, I am merely after reliable leads, these focal points can be of great interest to those who do have a connection to the force"
Belloq was quiet for a moment as he considered things. "I don't know how populated such places may be, my travels typically take me to places other people avoid." He said as he reached for a dataslate. "But if its focal points you want a few options come to mind." He input a few queries into the dataslate and a short list scrolled down the screen. "You might try Ambria, a planet in the Stenness Node. The planet itself was devastated by a sith sorceress millennia ago, the planet was basically a beacon in the dark side the historical entries say. Some jedi locked most of the darkness away supposedly before the Great Sith War. There is not much there of interest to archaeologists these days and the planet sits mostly ignored, its possible you may find something there."
Yeonara nodded her head, getting that information was easier than she expected. "Admin? what do you know of this planet?"
" Ambria; Grid Coordinates O-10, Airon sector, 4 moons, terrestrial but barren, desert climate, no prominent settlements" he responded a few short moments later.
"Well that's helpful.." Yeonara muttered to herself. She turned back toward Belloq "Interesting, is that all you can tell me about this planet?"
Belloq smiled as he replied. "For facts yes, that is all. It appears to have the focal point you are looking for." he said before taking a a sip of his drink. "I did hear some unsubstantiated rumours a few years back that a small group of force users were living off the land on the planet, keeping a low profile and vanishing whenever anyone showed up. Could just be a spacers tale but it might have some truth to it."
Suddenly Yeonara was thankful for the company of morgukai her mistress sent with her, she hadn't counted on more than 1 force user, stupid thinking really. "Admin look into these rumours for me, and send a report to my mistress, she may know something more of this planet" She turned back toward their host "Thank you, I believe I have the information required, I will be sure to notify my mistress on your fine hospitality Belloq"
"My pleasure," Belloq replied. "I shall add my fee to your mistresses tab." He added while gesturing for one of the droids to show the three of them back to their vessel.
Shortly after on-board Gemini.
"Set coordinates for Ambria, Admin make those reports I asked of you asap, I want to know what my master knows of this planet, and those rumours, Rikai, come with me, we have plans to make"
a chorus of 'yes mistress' rang around Yeonara as she made her way toward her quarters. Stumbling blind onto an unknown planet was not what she had in mind, but perhaps she may find something of even more value on this 'abandoned' planet. But for now, she would await further information from her mistress, and trust in Rikais skill of tracking and knowledge of defeating force users.
-----------------------------
Stealth Ship
Jacoibas quarters
Mustafar system
"How is it we have nothing, absolutely nothing on this Ambria?, what good is sending an intel droid with her if the intel droid has no intel!?" Jacoiba had spent the last few hours going over books, tomes, anything and everything they had available to find something more on the planet her student was headed for, having her best die on a backwater empty planet because they didn't know enough was unacceptable, and they had come up completely empty.
She sighed as she stacked a book on the top of the pile in front of her. "Well, I suppose they are on their own with this one, send a report on our... findings, and give orders to Admin that while he is within close proximity to the triangle to discover what he can about it, that is now a priority for him"
A crewman nodded his head before leaving to follow orders. Eltarr and Helena both put up the texts they were reading, Yaggle was muttering something about incompetence while studying a book completely unrelated to their search.
The commlink buzzed as a crewmans voice echoed into the room "We are approaching The Smoking Forest mistress, we will be landing shortly"
Jacoiba motioned to her apprentices to stand and follow her out. "Lets get this started then".
Shortly afterward, Jacoiba, accompanied by Eltarr, Helena, Ugador, Yaggle and two of her infiltrators, exited their ship. "well, this should be fun" exclaimed Eltarr as he gazed around the landscape surrounding them.
The smell of the smoke was thick, Helena kept her nose covered while Eltarr picked fun at her for it. "how can you even deal with this, don't you have some kind of super doggy sense of smell?"
The shistavanen just laughed at her.
"lets go, stay quiet, no need to draw attention to ourselves" Jacoiba motioned toward her infoltrators who had accompanied them "You two scout on ahead, check out the surroundings, keep yourselves out of sight" They bowed before slipping away. The rest of the party began to make their way toward the ruins.
A short time later the comms come alive and the voice of an infiltrator comes through. "I've located the locals, heavily armed and they appear well trained, one of those i can see appears to have a lightsabre on their belt. they should be approximately 1.3 kilometers ahead of you." the infiltrator said before the comms went silent again.
"stay close, but do not get caught" Jacoiba motioned to the rest of the group "Eltarr, instincts, the rest of you, eyes open... Ugador.. well.. be as stealthy as possible for you I suppose" The giant grunted in response as Eltarr chuckled "yeah lets hide a giant, because that's just the easiest thing to do"
Jacoibas force instinct would pick up more than her apprentice, but with the two of them they hoped to avoid any unnecessary sneak attacks on them. Especially if they had a force user present.
As the group neared the settlement they made sure to stay well away, Eltarr remained with Helena, Yaggle and Ugador, as he was the only one with force instinct, Jacoiba made her way closer, her force concealment active, she could not afford for the force user to become aware of her students, if they weren't already.
As Jacoiba drew nearer she realised she couldn't sense another force user with the group ahead of them. The guards the infiltrator had found before moving on were clustered around a small lava pocket as though it was a campfire, none of them noticed her. she managed to get withing 10 feet of the men before she heard the distinct snap-hiss of a lightsabre igniting barely a meter from her as the missing force user swung at her.
She attempted, a little too late, to dodge the incoming attack, the sabre bit into her armour, burning her arm as she stumbled back to her feet, she used force to jump backwards and out of the way of her attacker, sending a bolt of lightning flying toward them as she moved, hoping Eltarr and the others would not be far behind her once they had heard fighting.
Eltarr motioned for Yaggle and Ugador to start moving around to the opposite side of their mistress and her attackers, while he and Helena moved to back her up.
The blot flew true and struck the sabre wielder in the chest, knocking them off their feet while the 4 men around the lava pocket scrambled to react each of them drawing blasters and firing at Jacoiba.
in their haste however only one of them came close to hitting their mark, which was casually deflected by Jacoiba as she ignited her own sabre.
As Eltarr and Helena neared their mistress, the young zabrak sent a force wave toward the guards shooting at Jacoiba, while Eltarr and Jacoiba both took to the sabre wielder with their own sabres. Yaggle and Ugador had made their way around to the opposite side, flanking the guards between themselves and their mistress. Yaggle attempted to force choke one while Ugador moved in closer preparing to pick them off by hand.
The sabre wielding attacker was climbing to his feet as Eltarr struck at him, he fended off the young apprentice with a contemptuous ease that quickly turned to near panic when Jacoiba struck and nearly disarmed him, literally.
Most of the others accomplished little for their efforts except Yaggle who managed to lift one of the attackers into the air by the throat as he began choking him.
The sabre wielder was not deterred however and struck back at Jacoiba while the three blaster armed men still standing turned to fire at the giant walking into their midst.
As the guards turned on Ugador he basically made a charge toward them, unarmed himself, he figured brute strength should do the trick. Helena moved in on the guards igniting her sabre, now their attention had been diverted to the giant.
Eltarr regained his balance and tried to force push the sabre wielder as he took another swing at Jacoiba, his mistress throwing up a sabre barrier as quickly as she could, at the same time as Yaggle seemingly tossed the choking victim into the remaining guards.
The sabre wielders blade was deflected casually by the sabre barrier erected by Jacoiba while he was sent backwards and again knocked off his feet by Eltarrs use of the force. Halena and Yaggles efforts proved less fruitful as the choking target dropped short of his comrades. Ugador on the other hand barrelled forwards like a freight rail, driving his massive fist into one of the attackers as he charged, crushing him into the ground. the remaining two on their feet kept up the first on the giant.
Ugador turned on the remaining guards swinging a fist into the closest, while Eltarr jumped at the sabre wielder while he was on the ground, intending for a kill. Helena and Yaggle both took to the final guard, a bolt of lightning shot from Yaggle as Helena rounded on the guard with her sabre.
Eltarrs blade came down in rock and dirt as the sabre wielder rolled away from the strike, getting back to his feet in one smooth and fast motion. Yaggles lightning flew wide while Ugadors target ducked under the fist which carried on into Helena's blade removing one of the giants fingers in the process. The sabre wielder then moved in on Eltarr, striking out at the apprentice while the two guards took a moment to fall back and prepared to run
Ugador howled in pain as he staggered backwards away from Helena, who was also shocked herself, sending out a force wave to whoever happened to be in-front of her. Jacoiba, who had now separated her hilt into paired sabres saw the sabre wielder move and immediately moved to intercept him with force speed as Eltarr deflected the incoming blow.
Yaggle jumped in as the giant was stumbling back out of combat and took his sabre to the first guard in his path.
Ugador flew into a rage and went for the first thing he could find to throw toward the running guards.
Halena's wave managed to shift a little volcanic ash on the ground but little else while Ugador in his rage tried to use his injured hand to find a large rock and only succeeded in sending more pain through the wound.
Yaggle however took the legs out from under the guard he attacked, literally, while Jacoiba's strike skewered the sabre wielder quite neatly. the one remaining guard took off at a full run towards the ruins, only to drop from a blaster bolt to the side of the head just before he passed out of the groups sight.
"Target eliminated, continuing to scout." came the voice of the infiltrator over the comms.
Jacoiba smiled, "you took your time, well done, keep a look out for your companion, I have not received word from him as yet"
As the group came together, Jacoiba inspected the giants hand "a clean cut Helena, would have been better on one of them however" she said as she pointed behind them at one of the dead guards.
"My apologies Ugador... mistress".. said the zabrak girl with her head lowered. The giant merely grunted in response, seeming to shove off the pain now that he had regained his senses.
Jacoiba looked around them at the dead bodies and sighed. "This was messy, you need to stay focused, any more mishaps like this and you may not leave this planet alive, I expect more from my students"
Eltarr had nothing but determination in his eyes, the very reason Jacoiba had seen potential in the young shivstavanen years ago, he knew how messy this had been, and he would use it to improve. Helena looked as though she had been beaten, evidence remained still of the countless months of torture she had endured at her mistresses hand.
Yaggle merely looked amused, the small man had an odd sense of humour. As for Ugador, he was testing his now 1 finger less left hand, a minor limb, but it would take some getting used too.
"Search the bodies, and anything left around, see if we can find out who they are" Jacoiba ordered, She made her way over to the dead body of her initial attacker, bending down she removed his sabre, taking a closer look before pocketing it herself.
Their search of the campsite and bodies revealed nothing useful, Jacoiba brushed herself down as she motioned toward the ruins, "that way, this time, I'll stay with you, we stay a safe distance until we know what we are dealing with, Eltarr, that the rear"
Eltarr nodded his head, his focused changed and he fell in behind the rest of the group, with Jacoiba taking the lead, keeping her senses keen as they made their way closer to the ruins.
The group made good time to the ruins, only taking 10 minutes to cross the intervening terrain. As they approached the infiltrator that had gone ahead spoke over the comms. "There's a half dozen guards on the main entrance, I see only one on a side entrance though."
Jacoiba motioned for the group to remain quiet and head for the side entrance, after their last fiasco and a now injured giant, she did not want to make that same mistake again. As they closed in, Jacoiba used her force concealment to attempt to take out the guard before he noticed her, the rest of her group staying behind so not to be noticed.
As Jacoiba approached something didn't feel right she reached the entrance only to find there was no guard that the infiltrator had reported. As she drew nearer the entrance the feeling grew stronger until moving on instinct she ignited her blade and raised it just in time to ward off two sabre blades that came seemingly from thin air in front of her. Thin air that moments later turned out to be where the guard had hidden himself in much the same way Jacoiba had attempted to.
She attempted to gain distance between herself and her attacker, aware that too much commotion would alert the guards at the front entrance to her presence. She sent a force push toward her attacker as she jumped away.
The push did little to affect the man before her and rather than gain distance he followed Jacoiba with another attack swinging through the air and was caught rather expertly on Jacoiba's own blade.
Jacoiba took the opportunity and lunged forward in a flurry of sabre swings.
Meanwhile Eltarr had instructed the rest of the group to move in slowly, but to stay out sight and out of the way.
Wile the first blade passed by striking nothing but air the man barely caught the second in tile to prevent himself losing a leg completely, as it was Jacoiba could hear the hiss on his breath as her blade touched skin for a moment. The return stroke was fast and followed up by a burst of force lightning from her attacker.
Jacoiba attempted to catch the bolt with force protection, and follow with a bolt of her own.
As the rest of her company moved in slowly they kept an eye out for any incoming re-enforcements from the front entrance, ready to move on them if need be.
the lightning crashed against Jacoiba's bubble of protection, dancing over its surface for a moment before vanishing along with the protection the bubble offered. Jacoiba's own bolt sailed harmlessly past the foes head however which prompted a sinister chuckle before the man attacked again.
Jacoiba flipped up a sabre barrier, offence clearly wasn't going well for her.
Eltarr signalled to Helena and Yaggle as they closed in on their mistress and the force user attacking her, Yaggle and Helena kept their distance, Yaggle shooting a bolt of lightning at the force user, which was soon backed up with a force push from Helena, Eltarr kept himself hidden as much as possible, using his own instincts to determine when best to jump in and assist his mistress.
Ugador stayed a distance back, keeping watch, he did not fancy losing another limb to a sabre blade.
Yaggles lightning struck far more true than Jacoiba's earlier attempt or Helena's poor effort, sending the attacker backwards by several meters into the wall of the ruins, dazing him in the impact.
Jacoiba took the opportunity to jump in for a killing blow on the force user, while Helena, Yaggle and Eltarr all moved in by her side, signalling for Ugador to join them.
Dazed as he was the attacker was unable to avoid Jacoiba's blade as it sunk deep into his chest and pierced the stone of the ruin at his back.
Jacoiba searched the body, finding a set of paired yellow sabres, She tossed the hilts to Eltarr who clipped them to his belt, the boy could get parts from them later possibly. As she pulled the robes back further she noticed her attacker was covered in half healed scars.
"Well.. that looks uncomfortable" She muttered as she turned to her group, Ugador had reached them now and told them no re-enforcements seemed to be en route.
"Very good, now, let's get inside, keep close, keep your eyes open, and your senses, we don't know what we are up against here"
As the group move into the ruins it becomes evident that whoever resided in them was either small in numbers or gathered in another part of the ruin. After about 3 minutes of wandering empty, decaying halls Helena felt a strength in the force, centred deeper in the ruins.
"Mistress, I can feel..something..like a great deal of force energy being used, deeper in the ruins" She spoke up quietly.
Jacoiba nodded her head "well done, keep your heads clear, whatever this is, we already know they do not appreciate visitors"
The group made their way further in, Treading carefully as they went, Jacoiba keeping force concealment on herself, if she could keep herself hidden, perhaps they may stand a better chance of going unnoticed.
As Jacoiba moved deeper she realised her concealment was not working as it should, she could feel the usually calm presence of it flaring wildly, it only took her a few moments longer to realize the force was in flux around them which would make using the force unpredictable at best.
"Stop, wait... keep your use of force limited, there is something... wrong here with it" She ordered her party.
The ruins seemed endless; cold, dead, empty walls was all they would see as they continued deeper in towards the force energy Helena had felt prior.
As the group grew nearer the source of force energy that Helena had felt then soon discovered they could all feel it right around the same time they started hearing the faint sound of chanting echoing down the halls of the ruin.
Slowly they made their way down towards the chanting, about 50 metres down they walked out onto a balcony, seems they were on a top floor of an amphitheatre. Jacoiba motioned for them stop, crouching down behind the balcony railings, her students doing the same, listening and watching as they did, Ugador stayed back aways, he would not be able to remain hidden on the balcony as they could.
Yaggle and Eltarr see little but storm clouds as they peer over the balcony, Jacoiba and Helena on the other hand perceive considerably more. the storm clouds are manifested through the force and causing multiple lightning strikes per second to strike the ground in the 'stage' portion of the amphitheatre. through the clouds the two of them could feel two people fighting and the faint sounds of clashing sabre blades drifted on the wind to their vantage point. Both were evading the lightning strikes and each others blades.
"Seems a fight I do not wish to interrupt mistress" Helena said quietly.
"No, I don't think we do, for now anyway" She motioned to the three of them "come, circle around with me, stay close, there is an exit around the other side"
She motioned to Ugador to remain here for now, keep watch, and to keep his ears open, if it came to a fight, which she hoped it would, he was to intervene, and for him to send orders to her infiltrators on the outside, for them to make their way to here. Their skills may be needed closer.
As Ugador tried to contact the Infiltrators the only thing that filled the comm line was static, it seemed the force induced storm down below was interfering with their comms as well at this distance.
Ugador motioned to his mistress as she was about to move on "The comms appear to be... well.. not working in here"
Jacoiba sighed and threw up her arms "Well lets add that to the list of shit that this planet seems to love handing out" She thought for a moment "Yaggle, go with him, once you can no longer feel the force fluctuation, signal for the infiltrators, and return here"
Yaggle seemed less than impressed with his new orders.. but began to lead the giant back the way they came regardless.
Turning back toward Emily and Eltarr, she motions for them to begin their descent once more.
The two groups go their separate ways, Yaggle and Ugador finding the way back just as deserted as when they had come through earlier. as Jacoiba and the others descended the chanting grew more distinct, though it was in a language none of them seemed to understand. It had the ring of ritual however rather than a gladiator crowd as might have first been guessed considering the fight happening on the 'stage' it seemed just about everyone in the ruins was on the ground floor of the amphitheatre though so they ran into no one as they reached the second level.
It seemed the entire ruins was made up mostly of this amphitheatre, each level another balcony for spectators. The force clouds creating the lightning storm that centred on the stage were at their level, however they couldn't see much other than obscure shapes through the cover and the storm below. Jacoiba was hoping to get an idea of how many people were down there, the fluctuation made it impossible to get a sense of how many force users there were.
She looked over her shoulder at her apprentices, all three stayed hidden behind the railings. Motioning for them to move forward to the stairs for the next level, they stayed crouched behind the railings, using the shadows to their advantage when possible.
As the trio descended it was clear the crowd was focused on the fight happening on the stage and were not expecting intruders of any sort, why would they, these ruin were highly remote after-all. From their position near the bottom of the stairwell they could all see the fight between the two on the stage was as intense as any the trio had seen before more so that even the sparing matches Jacoiba used to have with her former master. Like those sparing matches though there seemed to be an almost practiced rhythm to the way the two combatants moved, this was not the first time they had done this, perhaps with different partners, but far from the first time.
Jacoiba was not sure the three of them could take on the entire room of spectators and the two fierce battlers on the stage, but the only way they could go is further down. Jacoiba motioned for her apprentices to back up a little so they were no longer in view if any of the spectators turned around.
She kept her voice low, a whisper only the three of them could hear over the chanting. "You see anything?"
Helana nodded "Yes, 4 entrances like this one around the outside of the room, and two small doors on either side of the stage itself, up against the far wall"
"Well done, we need to try and make our way toward those entrances, seems the only way we will do that is by going behind them.." Jacoiba looked back down toward the room, she could see one of the 4 entrances Helena had spoken of, and points towards it.
"one of us at a time, stay close to the wall, heads down, quiet, I will go first,if I make it past and there are no guards waiting for me, I'll signal you, Helena, you come after I am through, Eltarr, the same after Helena"
Jacoiba in a rare show of talent crossed to the next doorway without even the slightest hint of detection, even without being able to use the force to cloak herself. Helena followed next, not so stealthily but still failed to draw any notice from the crowd.
Eltarr on the other hand, did a terrible job of imitating Helenas attempt, managed to kick a pile of pebbles in his scramble and alerted several of the crowd near him to his presence. One of whom, slight of stature and build thrust their arm out at the boy and lifted him clear of the ground with the force, holding him there unable to resist.
Helena went to jump back in to help Eltarr, Jacoiba grabbed the zabrak woman by the arm and yanked her back inside the door. "No!" she hissed at her. Although Jacoiba herself felt the need the rush to the boys side, it would be a suicide mission.
"We can come back for him, but for now we need to be smart about this" Jacoiba felt that familiar pang of regret as she walked further back along the corridor, the same feeling that stopped her before killing Cyphor on The Wheel a long time ago...
Helena looked on in horror at the shistavanen boy, her former jedi training screaming at her to help him.. but she followed her mistress, swallowing back a sob as she did so.
Jacoiba, once far enough way sat down with her back against the wall and sighed. Helena soon caught up to her and watched her mistress. "With any luck they won't kill him... but I'm going to kill them... first we need to regroup with the others.. but we cannot go back the way we came... come, we need to keep going, back to the surface, or at least the top level of the theatre.. with any luck Yaggle and Ugador have caught up with my infiltrators.."
The two continued on in silence, listening for any sound from the theatre to indicate what was happening to Eltarr. As the two headed up the stairwell at the rear of the entrance they has snuck over to they could only hear the same sounds of chanting, lightning and fighting they had heard on the way down, it seemed the cultists had not stopped their fight on account of Eltarr. Reaching the top level again they found Ugador, Yaggle and the infiltrator that had assisted them earlier, waiting for them to return, a few hand signals and the three quickly came around to the stairwell Jacoiba and Helena had emerged from.
"Only one infiltrator? That makes two down then.. they have Eltarr, priority one is now getting him back, all 4 of these trances lead down into the amphitheatre, storming the place would prove a very bad idea, there's an unknown number of force users in there. We need to find an alternative route into that stage, the two doors at the back of the room behind the stage..do you find any other entrances on your second time through?"
They all shook their heads, one way in, one way out it seems. Jacoiba paced slowly.
"comms don't work in here, which means we can't really spilt up, both of the entrances we have taken already had no other side doors or anything, and we entered in here through that one" she pointed towards the north most entrance. "which means" she points toward the southern most entrance "that is the only one we haven't taken as of yet, and so, we are now, keep quiet, keep out of sight, and keep your eyes open"
She led the group toward the southernmost entrance and they all began to search. As the group descended the levels again in their search the came to level 1 with no results. Ugador however started getting excited as he located a door in the far end of the balcony near the stage section. when he went to inform his mistress however her pet infiltrator was already filling her in on the discovery.
Ugador grumbled to himself as his mistress and the rest of the group moved toward the door he thought he had found.
The group made their way through the door, it led to a staircase which seemed to lead to the backstage of the amphitheatre. Jacoiba motioned for the group to wait as she made her way down slowly to attempt to see what if anything awaited at the bottom.
Jacoiba saw no one as she moved through the door at the bottom of the staircase, and so it came as something of a surprise when a blast door slammed shut behind her. the sounds from the crowd and the stage were still audible from the backstage area but heavily muffled from the stone walls between them. a quick glance at the blast door revealed it would take at least a few minutes to cut through it with a sabre.
Helena and Yaggle were quick to get to the bottom of the stairs, both igniting their sabres as they started to cut through the blast doors.
Inside Jacoiba ignited her own sabre, attempting probably in vain to sense if anything was close by, the fluctuation causing havoc with her concentration.
Jacoiba could feel very little through the termoil in the force caused by the storm outside. and so when the voice came from deeper in the room, conveniently shrouded in darkness it caught her a little off guard. "Why do you intrude on my home?" came the voice of a man, clear, deep, likely a man in the prime of his life.
Keeping her sabre ignited, Jacoiba tried to shake the nervousness from her voice "I was not aware this place was inhabited, much less a home for anyone"
"My people and I have called this place home for near a thousand years. You avoid the question; Why are you here?" the voice said from the darkness.
"I came in search of artefacts, sources of force energy I suppose" She thought of Eltarr outside those doors in that room full of force users.. "My apprentice, he came here with me, you're.. people captured him"
"So I was informed." The voice said as the light level in the room started to rise, revealing the man seated behind a stone desk at the far end of the room, a pyramidal holocron on the desk in front of him. "You confess you come to plunder our secrets, now that you have been caught, how do you think to go about that?"
Jacoiba thought for a moment, as her 'host' appeared to her, she would not make it out of here alive if she tried to force her way out. "My priority at this moment is my apprentice, As I said before, we did not know these ruins were inhabited when we arrived" Civility was not her strong point.
"Commendable to worry for your people, he has potential that one from what my people have told me." the man leaned back in the chair, quite relaxed despite the ignited sabre. "How far would you be willing to go to have him returned? What would you sacrifice?"
Jacoiba thought for a moment, that was not a question she was used to being asked. What would she sacrifice for her apprentices? "What is it you would ask of me?" was the only way she could think of to reply, as she did not know the answer herself.
"Let us make it a test of skill then. you have seen the acolytes outside sparing. You have two choices. The boy fights against a suitable opponent from my people, if he wins, you all go free, if he looses well the rest of you may leave with your lives." the man said.
Jacoiba thought for a moment, Eltarr was strong, but those acolytes were like nothing he had even sparred before. "Let me fight for the boy, give your acolytes a real fight"
"Again, commendable. that was to be the second choice." The man said as he stood up and approached a large set of double doors that lead out onto the stage area. "If you wouldn't mind telling your people to stop destroying my door as well it would be appreciated." he added as he walked past Jacoiba and threw the double doors wide. the fight on the stage came to an abrupt halt and the lightning stopped, thought the clouds they emanated from remained.
Jacoiba shouted out at Helena and Yaggle to stop cutting through the door. She turned toward the now open doors, the two combatants were watching the man and her, she scanned the room looking for Eltarr, she found being held at the front, no longer in the air but he was still restrained.
The man steeped up to a raised section of the stage near the doors and raised his voice slightly, using the acoustics of the amphitheatre to carry his voice to everyone gathered. "Brothers and sisters of the Blackguard. Outsiders have breached our walls, seeking our knowledge. I have sensed a darkness within them, but also a glimmer of light, perhaps they may be suitable to learn our ways." The man announced, before gesturing to Jacoiba and continuing. "This one, their leader, has shown a measure of compassion, I have chosen to return the favour and decide their fate in a trial by combat. She will fight for the right to leave us, alive." The man pointed at one of the those gathered around the sides, the same in fact that had captured Eltarr in the first place. without a word they approached and leapt up onto the stage, with a clearer view it was obvious she was female, but little beyond that was apparently the concealing robes and headdress.
Jacoiba made her way onto the stage and faced her opponent, if she was anywhere near as skilled as the two sparring moments ago, this would not be an easy fight. She began to centre herself, an old trick Cyphor had taught her to help keep her concentration. Who would have thought jedi training would ever come in handy. Fighting in this storm, she was glad she was never truly skilled in force use, her skills were physical.
The leader of these people stepped to the back of the stage as the crowd started chanting again. in a few moments the lightning strikes started, a few at a time but nowhere near as fast as it had been coming down earlier.
"BEGIN!" The man said loudly.
Jacoiba wasted no time in jumping in on the offensive, her paired sabres ignited in seconds and she jumped toward her opponent, using one sabre as a guard and another swinging down for impact on her opponents shoulder. She was mindful of the lightning striking the ground in random intervals, wondering if she could perhaps find a pattern in them as the fight went on.
Meanwhile behind the blast doors Helena, Eltarr, Yaggle and the infiltrator were listening intently to the fight begin, Helena looked behind her at the Infiltrator "He knows about Yaggle and I, you and Ugador head back to the top level, make your way down another of the passages, do not interrupt the fight, but be ready to"
They both nodded their heads and began to climb the staircase once more.
Helena put her head back to the door, Yaggle nodding at her in agreement with her thoughts. Interrupting this could be disastrous for them all, it shows a lack of honour which she doubted these people would take kindly too. But she had been around sith long enough to know you can't trust the word of anyone, regardless of their moral standing, she was living proof of that.
Jacoiba's strike was accurate and against a less skilled opponent would have been quite dangerous, her blackguard opponent however knew what she was doing as she intercepted the blade and parried it effortlessly before disengaging a moment before bolt of lightning struck where she had been standing, Jacoiba would notice the bolts were picking up speed rapidly not the fight was in motion, she would need to stay on her toes to avoid them all. she only had a moment to realise this however before her opponent leaped back towards her with a sabre strike of her own.
Jacoiba attempted to dodge the attack in order to keep moving away from the lightning bolts, attempting to place herself as close to behind her opponent as possible and follow up with a sabre strike of her own.
Yaggle turned away from Helena for a moment and laughed, he started heading back up the stairs as Helena called after him "where are you going??" she called after him.
"We're standing at a door listening while we could be watching you idiot!, we're in a theatre, and we have balcony seats"
The Zabrak laughed at the realisation, and began to follow Yaggle until they came out to the level 1 balcony, they had a full view of the fight between their mistress and her blackguard opponent.
Jacoiba's footwork leaves something to be desired, as her movements are repeatedly hampered by barely missed lightning strikes, she takes her chance to strike out regardless however scoring a glancing blow on the opponents shoulder. to which only silence issued from the woman's mouth before she spun on her heel and struck back in retaliation.
The blow missed and Jacoiba used the opportunity to try and put some distance between them, she jumped backwards, preparing to charge back in at her opponent before the lightning sped up too much from the lull in activity.
Jacoiba never get her chance to strike back before her opponent moved to strike again, the woman moved as if by instinct through the lightning, something she had clearly been trained for over the years she had been with the blackguard.
Jacoiba struck out with her offhand sabre to catch the blow successfully, she had to stop overthinking so much, she had to concentrate, she focused herself again and struck out with her sabre, while still holding her opponents sabre with her offhand blade.
The blackguard woman ducked under Jacoiba's return strike before freeing her blade and swinging upward towards the sith woman from a low angle, she misjudged her timing ever so slightly however and caught a bolt of lightning on the blade, deflecting the blade from connecting with Jacoiba by mere millimetres.
Jacoiba attempted to roll of a sorts out of the way of the swinging sabre and gain an advantage while she regained her footing, striking down toward the woman as she did so.
Jacoiba's blade found only empty air as it came down followed by multiple bolts of lightning in close succession one of which struck her directly causing her to flinch heavily as her opponent came at her again, taking advantage of the lightning strike.
The blow missed just barely as Jacoiba managed to regain her footing, swinging her sabre up at her opponent as she straightened herself up and attempted to jump backwards again.
Jacoiba's followup strike worked in her favour as she scored a blow against the opponents leg, a relatively shallow strike but with lightsabre it was a wound that would slow her down. it did not however stop her from striking back again as she followed Jacoiba's backwards movement, connecting with Jacoibas left leg.
The only upside was that it wasn't her right leg, which carries most of her weight. The pain seared through her leg, she focused harder, trying to clear her head with the storm raging around them, going on the defensive for the moment.
Her opponent chose not to hold back however, pushing forward despite the leg injury and striking out leaving herself open for a moment to Jacoiba's defensive posture, though Jacoiba failed to take advantage of the vulnerability.
Jacoiba remained on the defensive, clearing her mind while waiting for another opportunity to strike out, she felt as though she was in a dance with the lightning and her opponent.
As Jacoiba opened her mind to her surroundings and the storm and opponent in particular she started to feel the lightning, noting her opponent seemed to know in advance of the strikes when they were going to land, the only time one had come close to hitting her had been the failed strike against Jacoiba. Jacoiba now felt she had that same awareness, assuming she could keep her concentration. her opponent lashed out again, arcing around a bolt of lightning , her blade flashing through air another bolt had been a moment earlier as she attempted to strike at Jacoiba again.
With her concentration sharper than ever Jacoiba deflected the blow on her off-hand sabre, striking back with her main-hand at the first sign of an opening, her opponent caught the strike an her blade, deflected the strike swiftly, flicked off her sabre and reignited it a moment later inside Jacoiba's guard, a risky manoeuvre but one she felt she could pull off.
Clearly she was wrong as Jacoiba ducked the blow barely avoiding it, bringing her off-hand sabre up at her opponents blade and her main-hand shortly followed striking out at her opponents ribs once more.
The blade hit its mark, scoring a nasty gash along the woman's left side, the only sign of pain from the woman however was a sharp hiss of air escaping her mouth as she disengaged and moved back to gain a moment to breath.
Jacoiba had a small opening, taking the weight off her left leg, she attempted to use her right leg to making an all offensive charge toward her opponent, bringing her sabres down as she neared her.
The first blade was caught by the woman, the second however slipped by taking a sizable chunk of flesh out of the exposed arm revealing the bone underneath, nothing that couldn't be fixed with some surgery, but the arm was effectively useless until such treatment was possible. the only reason the woman wouldn't bleed out from the wound was for the lightsabres habit of cauterising the wounds it made.
Jacoiba attempted to use the moment to knock the sabre out of her opponents hand, and follow it up with a quick strike to her injured side once more.
While the opponent retained her grip on her own sabre she was unable to stop the second strike from connecting as it severed the crippled arm entirely, this time eliciting a cry of pain from the woman at the shock of the severing. it was about all she could do to remain standing and on the defensive as she tried to prepare for another strike from Jacoiba.
The strike came swiftly, both sabre blades came swinging down on her opponent, intended to finish the fight, but not to kill her opponent, they did not kill Eltarr when he was found trespassing.
Her blades came down with precision, one taking the woman's other hand off at the wrist, the sabre hilt sliced in half in the same strike while the second blade stopped at the woman's neck.
The room Jacoiba would realise, was totally silent, the lightning and storm clouds as well as the chanting had stopped a short time earlier as the exchanges between the two heated up. the only sound was the footsteps of the man who was the blackguard leader a he strode across the stage towards the pair of women. he stopped just over a sabres length from the two women and looked at Jacoiba with a raised eyebrow.
Jacoiba flicked off her sabres and looked at the man. "You could have killed my apprentice, and you did not. She is no longer able to fight back, I believe I have proved my skill"
"We also did not maim your apprentice." the man said. "As you say, she is unable to fight, and as such no longer of use to us." he added as he withdrew an electrum plated sabre hilt from his robes and ignited the blade, moving towards the woman, who stood straight rather than backing away.
"In respect to her skill, maiming her seemed the only way to defeat her" she bowed her head in respect to her opponent as she stood awaiting her fate. These people intrigued her, they see strength in compassion, however they kill off their no longer useful tools.. just as she has done many times.
The man struck the maimed woman down without hesitating, before switching off his blade and replacing the hilt in his robes once more and turning back to Jacoiba. "You have earned the right to leave with your lives. go before we change our mind."
Eltarr soon joined his mistress on stage, shaken but otherwise unharmed. He seemed almost awed by her at this moment. Jacoiba nods her head toward the man, before speaking again. "May I make a request?" She did not wish to push her luck with these people, but she did not want to waste an opportunity either.
The man rounded sharply on Jacoiba. "You have come into our home, killed our fellows, for which we granted you the courtesy of fighting for your very life and those of your people. Yet you want more from us?"
"I mean no disrespect" Jacoiba stood firm, however she was slightly shaken, and her leg was beginning to burn now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "Your people are like none I have faced before, your unique fighting style" She motioned toward the holocron she had originally come searching for. "You know our initial reason for coming to this planet, I did not expect to find... well.. this" she gestured around the theatre, then looks back at the man and regains her composure somewhat. "I wish to train under you"
The man had not expected this request and his commanding presence faltered to confusion for a moment before he regained his composure and looked at Jacoiba with a questioning eye. "Which side do you serve?" he asked after a long moment of pause.
Jacoiba thought about the question long before finally looking back up at the man and answering. "I have served both sides... now? I serve myself"
"I see..." the man replied, not entirely convinced. "And would you surrender all your power and authority to train under me, as everyone here has done?"
Helena and Yaggle both stared at each other, they were not sure what to make of their mistress's choices. Ugador and the infiltrator stood, silently awaiting Jacoibas response. Eltarr stared at her, waiting and watching for any indication of what she was thinking.
"If I were to do this, Can I return to my own students, and my own responsibilities when you believe my training is complete? I cannot completely abandon my own people, as a leader yourself, you would know the burden of power" Jacoiba showed no signs of disrespect, she was merely negotiating.
"When you commit to the blackguard, it is for life." the man replied.
"I cannot commit that much, I cannot give up my position amongst my people. "I can commit to remaining an ally, or a compromise of sorts, but I have my own to return to also"
"Perhaps something can be arranged at a later time. If you chose to visit at a later time approach unarmed and say you seek the Kursk. You will be brought to me. For now though, Leave."
Jacoiba nodded her head. "I thank you, you will see me again" She motioned to her companions and they all made their way back toward the surface; to their ship. No one made any real effort at conversation, Jacoiba was sore, and the rest of them were replaying that fight over and over in their minds, with a new found respect for their mistress's skills.
Jacoiba set a course for Yavin 4. This mission would stay burned in her mind forever, she had not thought of the mut master in a long time, but today he was the forefront of her mind during that fight.
As they cleared the atmosphere a presence flared to life in Jacoiba's mind from the rear of the cockpit section. a second later the snap hiss of a lightsabre was heard and Jacoiba could feel the anger, the hatred, the intent to kill emanating from the presence quite clearly as the ignited blade struck out towards her head.
Jacoiba ignites her sabres and quickly turns to block the assailant, Removing herself from her seat as she did so to gain better footing. The strike was easily intercepted by Jacoiba, though the assailant turned out to be a young woman, who seemed equally shocked at Jacoiba's rather effortless defence from her strike.
Jacoiba took the chance to swing at her opponents wielding arm, perhaps she could disarm them before they could get to her again. The force of the blow coupled with the shock of being blocked in the first place knocked the sabre from the young woman's hands, the blade dissipating almost instantly before it could damage the vessel at all as it fell to the deck plating.
Jacoiba kicked the woman to the floor and held one of her sabres at her throat. "Who are you?" she demanded.
The woman stared up at Jacoiba defiantly after regaining some sort of composure, and her breath. "You killed her!" she practically spat at Jacoiba.
Jacoiba sighed and rolled her eyes at the woman "I've killed many people my dear, but I haven't killed a woman today I'm afraid, maimed one perhaps, but I did not do the killing, and quite frankly, I'm sore and I really can't be bothered dealing with an upstart like you"
"You may not have struck the final blow but you killed her none the less!" the young woman said as she raised a hand, dark energies dancing across her fingers before seeming to fizzle out.
Jacoiba moved her ignited sabre down slightly to the joint in the woman's shoulder and lightly jabbed her, a surface burn.. mostly "I can kill you in an instant" her words sounded like venom. "give me a reason I shouldn't"
"You already caused my mother death today, and it appears I can't even avenge her." the young woman said as tears of anger, pain, frustration began leaking from her eyes.
Her mother... well shit.. Jacoiba hadn't planned for this. She flicked off her sabre. "Get up.. come on get up" She ends up pulling the girl up from the floor, being mindful of the now burnt left shoulder.
"I gave your mother the opportunity to live, you know where I come from, there's such a thing as implants that fix up those lost limbs"
The woman scowled at her "Within the blackguard, there is no "fixing up" you're useful, or you're dead"
Jacoiba shrugged "I was not aware of that, I was fighting for the lives of my own people, you're mother fought for your blackguard, and she fought well, I can sense a similar strength in you, however it is clearly untrained, you cannot return to the blackguard in any hurry, come with me"
By this point, Eltarr, Helena and Yaggle had made their way to cockpit after hearing the commotion. "What's this then?" Asks the zabrak woman
Jacoiba looked toward her apprentices "She is the daughter of the woman I fought today, she came here to kill me, failed miserably as you can see"
The woman looked almost sheepishly at the three apprentices who were now sizing her up, as if they were deciding which one of them was going to take her down next. She looked back at Jacoiba. "You could train me to fight like you? Fight like my mother?"
Jacoiba nodded slowly "I cannot train you as a blackguard would, but yes, with me you will be able to use you're hatred, you anger at your mothers passing, use them to better yourself, it would seem a waste to have to kill you, you have a lot of potential"
"My name is Elisa" she said as she cleaned the last of her tears off her face "you are right, I cannot return.." she said quietly as she realised the truth of the situation, either she died here, or she trained under the woman who inadvertently killed her mother...
As though Jacoiba could sense the defeat inside the woman she motioned to Helena "Show Elisa to the apprentice quarters, walk her through what we do, make her feel... welcome of sorts, we will arrive home soon"
"Yes mistress, come, I will get you acquainted with our giant, he's fun" Helena took the young woman by the arm and led her out of the cockpit, followed by Yaggle.
Eltarr remained behind a moment, watching his mistress. "Thank you, my master, for saving my life"
Jacoiba slightly started by the boys words looked at him, she waved for him to leave before saying "You are my apprentice, it would have been a mark against my name had I let you die in there" The boy nodded and left.
Jacoiba sat back down in the cockpit and thought to herself, if it was Helena who had been caught, she is not sure her day would have gone the same....
In Orbit of Dantooine
"Darth Yeonara" Admin roused her from her meditation as he motioned before them "Light Cruiser ahead,Flare class, standard crew compliment of 60 personnel, limited armament, 3 main drives" Admin continued.
Yeonara shook her head and held up her hand to stop the droid "Is this the one we want?" Admin cocked his head to the side, confused as to why he was stopped "Yes"
"Okay, thank you, open a commlink, request permission to board, he should be expecting us"
After a few moments a reply comes back as audio only, the voice is clearly that of the 'Loremaster' on Jacoiba's payroll, Professor Belloq. A corellian with deep pockets, a knack for finding artefacts others wanted and the contacts to then sell those artefacts on the black market to keep his deep pockets filled. "Lady Lia, welcome to the de Mahieu. Please, come aboard, I'll have the parlour opened and drinks waiting." the voice was a cheerful one, though Rikai at least knew from experience with the man that he could just as easily be entire displeased to see them arrive.
Shortly afterward Yeonara and her party were aboard the cruiser and being escorted into the parlour, a lavishly decorated room, windows that spread along 3 sides of the room with a view of space all around them. Belloq himself was seated in an extravagant red almost throne like chair.
"quite a room" Rikai murmured to no-one in particular, having dealt with Belloq before he was acquainted with his expensive tastes.
Yeonara gazed around the room and smiled at Rikais comment. it seems Admin had also overheard the morgkhai, and so deemed it appropriate to also comment on the room
"Yes, the decor is Alderanian, Post cold war era from the design, All of it Authentic" he mentioned as he pointed to the large table in the centre of the room "except for that, which is a modern reproduction with holo projectors and com controls integrated into the design. An expensive room"
Rikai shook his head at the droid and Yeonara laughed as she greeted their host "Greetings, I am as you know Yeonara Lia, I believe you have met Rikai before, and this" she motioned toward Admin
"Is Admin, he's an intel droid, in-case you hadn't worked that out already"
They each made their way to one of the lavish seats. "Now, I believe my lady has informed you somewhat of why I am here?"
Belloq smiled as Yeonara made the introductions. "You'll find the table is my one concession to modern convenience in here. the original models were prone to breakdown and could be sliced by a first year student these days. My business demands better." he said as they took seats and were approached by two servers, dressed it seemed in outfits that would not be out of place in the setting but here on closer inspection holograms over droid frames. the two servant droids placed a tray of drinks on the small table in front of the group before one of them offered a tray to Belloq with a glass on it. "Your... Benefactor did tell me why you wished to see me, though I am slightly puzzled by the request, my expertise is typically in finding old things, artefacts of long dead civilisations and the like. Locating the living is not usually my field."
"No, its his field" She points at Admin, who went to comment and Yeonara held her hand up to him and he stayed quiet. "You however, I dare-say in your travels and explorations have discovered focal points, Admin here can give me the information required for the people I wish to find, you, can give me a place to start" Yeonara reached for the tray of drinks in-front of her and relaxed in her seat.
"If Jacoiba has told you anything of me its that while I occasionally hunt force related artefacts for her I have no connection to the force itself." Belloq replied dryly. "Because of this I cannot tell you where these focal points are as I do not know myself, for the most part that is."
"Yes, I am aware. However you're a smart man Belloq, you know the worth of your information" she gestured around the parlour "And I suspect also you would know these artefacts are often found in such focal points, temples, ruins, these places that an archaeologist such as yourself would find. I am not asking for an exact location, that is not within your power to do, I am merely after reliable leads, these focal points can be of great interest to those who do have a connection to the force"
Belloq was quiet for a moment as he considered things. "I don't know how populated such places may be, my travels typically take me to places other people avoid." He said as he reached for a dataslate. "But if its focal points you want a few options come to mind." He input a few queries into the dataslate and a short list scrolled down the screen. "You might try Ambria, a planet in the Stenness Node. The planet itself was devastated by a sith sorceress millennia ago, the planet was basically a beacon in the dark side the historical entries say. Some jedi locked most of the darkness away supposedly before the Great Sith War. There is not much there of interest to archaeologists these days and the planet sits mostly ignored, its possible you may find something there."
Yeonara nodded her head, getting that information was easier than she expected. "Admin? what do you know of this planet?"
" Ambria; Grid Coordinates O-10, Airon sector, 4 moons, terrestrial but barren, desert climate, no prominent settlements" he responded a few short moments later.
"Well that's helpful.." Yeonara muttered to herself. She turned back toward Belloq "Interesting, is that all you can tell me about this planet?"
Belloq smiled as he replied. "For facts yes, that is all. It appears to have the focal point you are looking for." he said before taking a a sip of his drink. "I did hear some unsubstantiated rumours a few years back that a small group of force users were living off the land on the planet, keeping a low profile and vanishing whenever anyone showed up. Could just be a spacers tale but it might have some truth to it."
Suddenly Yeonara was thankful for the company of morgukai her mistress sent with her, she hadn't counted on more than 1 force user, stupid thinking really. "Admin look into these rumours for me, and send a report to my mistress, she may know something more of this planet" She turned back toward their host "Thank you, I believe I have the information required, I will be sure to notify my mistress on your fine hospitality Belloq"
"My pleasure," Belloq replied. "I shall add my fee to your mistresses tab." He added while gesturing for one of the droids to show the three of them back to their vessel.
Shortly after on-board Gemini.
"Set coordinates for Ambria, Admin make those reports I asked of you asap, I want to know what my master knows of this planet, and those rumours, Rikai, come with me, we have plans to make"
a chorus of 'yes mistress' rang around Yeonara as she made her way toward her quarters. Stumbling blind onto an unknown planet was not what she had in mind, but perhaps she may find something of even more value on this 'abandoned' planet. But for now, she would await further information from her mistress, and trust in Rikais skill of tracking and knowledge of defeating force users.
-----------------------------
Stealth Ship
Jacoibas quarters
Mustafar system
"How is it we have nothing, absolutely nothing on this Ambria?, what good is sending an intel droid with her if the intel droid has no intel!?" Jacoiba had spent the last few hours going over books, tomes, anything and everything they had available to find something more on the planet her student was headed for, having her best die on a backwater empty planet because they didn't know enough was unacceptable, and they had come up completely empty.
She sighed as she stacked a book on the top of the pile in front of her. "Well, I suppose they are on their own with this one, send a report on our... findings, and give orders to Admin that while he is within close proximity to the triangle to discover what he can about it, that is now a priority for him"
A crewman nodded his head before leaving to follow orders. Eltarr and Helena both put up the texts they were reading, Yaggle was muttering something about incompetence while studying a book completely unrelated to their search.
The commlink buzzed as a crewmans voice echoed into the room "We are approaching The Smoking Forest mistress, we will be landing shortly"
Jacoiba motioned to her apprentices to stand and follow her out. "Lets get this started then".
Shortly afterward, Jacoiba, accompanied by Eltarr, Helena, Ugador, Yaggle and two of her infiltrators, exited their ship. "well, this should be fun" exclaimed Eltarr as he gazed around the landscape surrounding them.
The smell of the smoke was thick, Helena kept her nose covered while Eltarr picked fun at her for it. "how can you even deal with this, don't you have some kind of super doggy sense of smell?"
The shistavanen just laughed at her.
"lets go, stay quiet, no need to draw attention to ourselves" Jacoiba motioned toward her infoltrators who had accompanied them "You two scout on ahead, check out the surroundings, keep yourselves out of sight" They bowed before slipping away. The rest of the party began to make their way toward the ruins.
A short time later the comms come alive and the voice of an infiltrator comes through. "I've located the locals, heavily armed and they appear well trained, one of those i can see appears to have a lightsabre on their belt. they should be approximately 1.3 kilometers ahead of you." the infiltrator said before the comms went silent again.
"stay close, but do not get caught" Jacoiba motioned to the rest of the group "Eltarr, instincts, the rest of you, eyes open... Ugador.. well.. be as stealthy as possible for you I suppose" The giant grunted in response as Eltarr chuckled "yeah lets hide a giant, because that's just the easiest thing to do"
Jacoibas force instinct would pick up more than her apprentice, but with the two of them they hoped to avoid any unnecessary sneak attacks on them. Especially if they had a force user present.
As the group neared the settlement they made sure to stay well away, Eltarr remained with Helena, Yaggle and Ugador, as he was the only one with force instinct, Jacoiba made her way closer, her force concealment active, she could not afford for the force user to become aware of her students, if they weren't already.
As Jacoiba drew nearer she realised she couldn't sense another force user with the group ahead of them. The guards the infiltrator had found before moving on were clustered around a small lava pocket as though it was a campfire, none of them noticed her. she managed to get withing 10 feet of the men before she heard the distinct snap-hiss of a lightsabre igniting barely a meter from her as the missing force user swung at her.
She attempted, a little too late, to dodge the incoming attack, the sabre bit into her armour, burning her arm as she stumbled back to her feet, she used force to jump backwards and out of the way of her attacker, sending a bolt of lightning flying toward them as she moved, hoping Eltarr and the others would not be far behind her once they had heard fighting.
Eltarr motioned for Yaggle and Ugador to start moving around to the opposite side of their mistress and her attackers, while he and Helena moved to back her up.
The blot flew true and struck the sabre wielder in the chest, knocking them off their feet while the 4 men around the lava pocket scrambled to react each of them drawing blasters and firing at Jacoiba.
in their haste however only one of them came close to hitting their mark, which was casually deflected by Jacoiba as she ignited her own sabre.
As Eltarr and Helena neared their mistress, the young zabrak sent a force wave toward the guards shooting at Jacoiba, while Eltarr and Jacoiba both took to the sabre wielder with their own sabres. Yaggle and Ugador had made their way around to the opposite side, flanking the guards between themselves and their mistress. Yaggle attempted to force choke one while Ugador moved in closer preparing to pick them off by hand.
The sabre wielding attacker was climbing to his feet as Eltarr struck at him, he fended off the young apprentice with a contemptuous ease that quickly turned to near panic when Jacoiba struck and nearly disarmed him, literally.
Most of the others accomplished little for their efforts except Yaggle who managed to lift one of the attackers into the air by the throat as he began choking him.
The sabre wielder was not deterred however and struck back at Jacoiba while the three blaster armed men still standing turned to fire at the giant walking into their midst.
As the guards turned on Ugador he basically made a charge toward them, unarmed himself, he figured brute strength should do the trick. Helena moved in on the guards igniting her sabre, now their attention had been diverted to the giant.
Eltarr regained his balance and tried to force push the sabre wielder as he took another swing at Jacoiba, his mistress throwing up a sabre barrier as quickly as she could, at the same time as Yaggle seemingly tossed the choking victim into the remaining guards.
The sabre wielders blade was deflected casually by the sabre barrier erected by Jacoiba while he was sent backwards and again knocked off his feet by Eltarrs use of the force. Halena and Yaggles efforts proved less fruitful as the choking target dropped short of his comrades. Ugador on the other hand barrelled forwards like a freight rail, driving his massive fist into one of the attackers as he charged, crushing him into the ground. the remaining two on their feet kept up the first on the giant.
Ugador turned on the remaining guards swinging a fist into the closest, while Eltarr jumped at the sabre wielder while he was on the ground, intending for a kill. Helena and Yaggle both took to the final guard, a bolt of lightning shot from Yaggle as Helena rounded on the guard with her sabre.
Eltarrs blade came down in rock and dirt as the sabre wielder rolled away from the strike, getting back to his feet in one smooth and fast motion. Yaggles lightning flew wide while Ugadors target ducked under the fist which carried on into Helena's blade removing one of the giants fingers in the process. The sabre wielder then moved in on Eltarr, striking out at the apprentice while the two guards took a moment to fall back and prepared to run
Ugador howled in pain as he staggered backwards away from Helena, who was also shocked herself, sending out a force wave to whoever happened to be in-front of her. Jacoiba, who had now separated her hilt into paired sabres saw the sabre wielder move and immediately moved to intercept him with force speed as Eltarr deflected the incoming blow.
Yaggle jumped in as the giant was stumbling back out of combat and took his sabre to the first guard in his path.
Ugador flew into a rage and went for the first thing he could find to throw toward the running guards.
Halena's wave managed to shift a little volcanic ash on the ground but little else while Ugador in his rage tried to use his injured hand to find a large rock and only succeeded in sending more pain through the wound.
Yaggle however took the legs out from under the guard he attacked, literally, while Jacoiba's strike skewered the sabre wielder quite neatly. the one remaining guard took off at a full run towards the ruins, only to drop from a blaster bolt to the side of the head just before he passed out of the groups sight.
"Target eliminated, continuing to scout." came the voice of the infiltrator over the comms.
Jacoiba smiled, "you took your time, well done, keep a look out for your companion, I have not received word from him as yet"
As the group came together, Jacoiba inspected the giants hand "a clean cut Helena, would have been better on one of them however" she said as she pointed behind them at one of the dead guards.
"My apologies Ugador... mistress".. said the zabrak girl with her head lowered. The giant merely grunted in response, seeming to shove off the pain now that he had regained his senses.
Jacoiba looked around them at the dead bodies and sighed. "This was messy, you need to stay focused, any more mishaps like this and you may not leave this planet alive, I expect more from my students"
Eltarr had nothing but determination in his eyes, the very reason Jacoiba had seen potential in the young shivstavanen years ago, he knew how messy this had been, and he would use it to improve. Helena looked as though she had been beaten, evidence remained still of the countless months of torture she had endured at her mistresses hand.
Yaggle merely looked amused, the small man had an odd sense of humour. As for Ugador, he was testing his now 1 finger less left hand, a minor limb, but it would take some getting used too.
"Search the bodies, and anything left around, see if we can find out who they are" Jacoiba ordered, She made her way over to the dead body of her initial attacker, bending down she removed his sabre, taking a closer look before pocketing it herself.
Their search of the campsite and bodies revealed nothing useful, Jacoiba brushed herself down as she motioned toward the ruins, "that way, this time, I'll stay with you, we stay a safe distance until we know what we are dealing with, Eltarr, that the rear"
Eltarr nodded his head, his focused changed and he fell in behind the rest of the group, with Jacoiba taking the lead, keeping her senses keen as they made their way closer to the ruins.
The group made good time to the ruins, only taking 10 minutes to cross the intervening terrain. As they approached the infiltrator that had gone ahead spoke over the comms. "There's a half dozen guards on the main entrance, I see only one on a side entrance though."
Jacoiba motioned for the group to remain quiet and head for the side entrance, after their last fiasco and a now injured giant, she did not want to make that same mistake again. As they closed in, Jacoiba used her force concealment to attempt to take out the guard before he noticed her, the rest of her group staying behind so not to be noticed.
As Jacoiba approached something didn't feel right she reached the entrance only to find there was no guard that the infiltrator had reported. As she drew nearer the entrance the feeling grew stronger until moving on instinct she ignited her blade and raised it just in time to ward off two sabre blades that came seemingly from thin air in front of her. Thin air that moments later turned out to be where the guard had hidden himself in much the same way Jacoiba had attempted to.
She attempted to gain distance between herself and her attacker, aware that too much commotion would alert the guards at the front entrance to her presence. She sent a force push toward her attacker as she jumped away.
The push did little to affect the man before her and rather than gain distance he followed Jacoiba with another attack swinging through the air and was caught rather expertly on Jacoiba's own blade.
Jacoiba took the opportunity and lunged forward in a flurry of sabre swings.
Meanwhile Eltarr had instructed the rest of the group to move in slowly, but to stay out sight and out of the way.
Wile the first blade passed by striking nothing but air the man barely caught the second in tile to prevent himself losing a leg completely, as it was Jacoiba could hear the hiss on his breath as her blade touched skin for a moment. The return stroke was fast and followed up by a burst of force lightning from her attacker.
Jacoiba attempted to catch the bolt with force protection, and follow with a bolt of her own.
As the rest of her company moved in slowly they kept an eye out for any incoming re-enforcements from the front entrance, ready to move on them if need be.
the lightning crashed against Jacoiba's bubble of protection, dancing over its surface for a moment before vanishing along with the protection the bubble offered. Jacoiba's own bolt sailed harmlessly past the foes head however which prompted a sinister chuckle before the man attacked again.
Jacoiba flipped up a sabre barrier, offence clearly wasn't going well for her.
Eltarr signalled to Helena and Yaggle as they closed in on their mistress and the force user attacking her, Yaggle and Helena kept their distance, Yaggle shooting a bolt of lightning at the force user, which was soon backed up with a force push from Helena, Eltarr kept himself hidden as much as possible, using his own instincts to determine when best to jump in and assist his mistress.
Ugador stayed a distance back, keeping watch, he did not fancy losing another limb to a sabre blade.
Yaggles lightning struck far more true than Jacoiba's earlier attempt or Helena's poor effort, sending the attacker backwards by several meters into the wall of the ruins, dazing him in the impact.
Jacoiba took the opportunity to jump in for a killing blow on the force user, while Helena, Yaggle and Eltarr all moved in by her side, signalling for Ugador to join them.
Dazed as he was the attacker was unable to avoid Jacoiba's blade as it sunk deep into his chest and pierced the stone of the ruin at his back.
Jacoiba searched the body, finding a set of paired yellow sabres, She tossed the hilts to Eltarr who clipped them to his belt, the boy could get parts from them later possibly. As she pulled the robes back further she noticed her attacker was covered in half healed scars.
"Well.. that looks uncomfortable" She muttered as she turned to her group, Ugador had reached them now and told them no re-enforcements seemed to be en route.
"Very good, now, let's get inside, keep close, keep your eyes open, and your senses, we don't know what we are up against here"
As the group move into the ruins it becomes evident that whoever resided in them was either small in numbers or gathered in another part of the ruin. After about 3 minutes of wandering empty, decaying halls Helena felt a strength in the force, centred deeper in the ruins.
"Mistress, I can feel..something..like a great deal of force energy being used, deeper in the ruins" She spoke up quietly.
Jacoiba nodded her head "well done, keep your heads clear, whatever this is, we already know they do not appreciate visitors"
The group made their way further in, Treading carefully as they went, Jacoiba keeping force concealment on herself, if she could keep herself hidden, perhaps they may stand a better chance of going unnoticed.
As Jacoiba moved deeper she realised her concealment was not working as it should, she could feel the usually calm presence of it flaring wildly, it only took her a few moments longer to realize the force was in flux around them which would make using the force unpredictable at best.
"Stop, wait... keep your use of force limited, there is something... wrong here with it" She ordered her party.
The ruins seemed endless; cold, dead, empty walls was all they would see as they continued deeper in towards the force energy Helena had felt prior.
As the group grew nearer the source of force energy that Helena had felt then soon discovered they could all feel it right around the same time they started hearing the faint sound of chanting echoing down the halls of the ruin.
Slowly they made their way down towards the chanting, about 50 metres down they walked out onto a balcony, seems they were on a top floor of an amphitheatre. Jacoiba motioned for them stop, crouching down behind the balcony railings, her students doing the same, listening and watching as they did, Ugador stayed back aways, he would not be able to remain hidden on the balcony as they could.
Yaggle and Eltarr see little but storm clouds as they peer over the balcony, Jacoiba and Helena on the other hand perceive considerably more. the storm clouds are manifested through the force and causing multiple lightning strikes per second to strike the ground in the 'stage' portion of the amphitheatre. through the clouds the two of them could feel two people fighting and the faint sounds of clashing sabre blades drifted on the wind to their vantage point. Both were evading the lightning strikes and each others blades.
"Seems a fight I do not wish to interrupt mistress" Helena said quietly.
"No, I don't think we do, for now anyway" She motioned to the three of them "come, circle around with me, stay close, there is an exit around the other side"
She motioned to Ugador to remain here for now, keep watch, and to keep his ears open, if it came to a fight, which she hoped it would, he was to intervene, and for him to send orders to her infiltrators on the outside, for them to make their way to here. Their skills may be needed closer.
As Ugador tried to contact the Infiltrators the only thing that filled the comm line was static, it seemed the force induced storm down below was interfering with their comms as well at this distance.
Ugador motioned to his mistress as she was about to move on "The comms appear to be... well.. not working in here"
Jacoiba sighed and threw up her arms "Well lets add that to the list of shit that this planet seems to love handing out" She thought for a moment "Yaggle, go with him, once you can no longer feel the force fluctuation, signal for the infiltrators, and return here"
Yaggle seemed less than impressed with his new orders.. but began to lead the giant back the way they came regardless.
Turning back toward Emily and Eltarr, she motions for them to begin their descent once more.
The two groups go their separate ways, Yaggle and Ugador finding the way back just as deserted as when they had come through earlier. as Jacoiba and the others descended the chanting grew more distinct, though it was in a language none of them seemed to understand. It had the ring of ritual however rather than a gladiator crowd as might have first been guessed considering the fight happening on the 'stage' it seemed just about everyone in the ruins was on the ground floor of the amphitheatre though so they ran into no one as they reached the second level.
It seemed the entire ruins was made up mostly of this amphitheatre, each level another balcony for spectators. The force clouds creating the lightning storm that centred on the stage were at their level, however they couldn't see much other than obscure shapes through the cover and the storm below. Jacoiba was hoping to get an idea of how many people were down there, the fluctuation made it impossible to get a sense of how many force users there were.
She looked over her shoulder at her apprentices, all three stayed hidden behind the railings. Motioning for them to move forward to the stairs for the next level, they stayed crouched behind the railings, using the shadows to their advantage when possible.
As the trio descended it was clear the crowd was focused on the fight happening on the stage and were not expecting intruders of any sort, why would they, these ruin were highly remote after-all. From their position near the bottom of the stairwell they could all see the fight between the two on the stage was as intense as any the trio had seen before more so that even the sparing matches Jacoiba used to have with her former master. Like those sparing matches though there seemed to be an almost practiced rhythm to the way the two combatants moved, this was not the first time they had done this, perhaps with different partners, but far from the first time.
Jacoiba was not sure the three of them could take on the entire room of spectators and the two fierce battlers on the stage, but the only way they could go is further down. Jacoiba motioned for her apprentices to back up a little so they were no longer in view if any of the spectators turned around.
She kept her voice low, a whisper only the three of them could hear over the chanting. "You see anything?"
Helana nodded "Yes, 4 entrances like this one around the outside of the room, and two small doors on either side of the stage itself, up against the far wall"
"Well done, we need to try and make our way toward those entrances, seems the only way we will do that is by going behind them.." Jacoiba looked back down toward the room, she could see one of the 4 entrances Helena had spoken of, and points towards it.
"one of us at a time, stay close to the wall, heads down, quiet, I will go first,if I make it past and there are no guards waiting for me, I'll signal you, Helena, you come after I am through, Eltarr, the same after Helena"
Jacoiba in a rare show of talent crossed to the next doorway without even the slightest hint of detection, even without being able to use the force to cloak herself. Helena followed next, not so stealthily but still failed to draw any notice from the crowd.
Eltarr on the other hand, did a terrible job of imitating Helenas attempt, managed to kick a pile of pebbles in his scramble and alerted several of the crowd near him to his presence. One of whom, slight of stature and build thrust their arm out at the boy and lifted him clear of the ground with the force, holding him there unable to resist.
Helena went to jump back in to help Eltarr, Jacoiba grabbed the zabrak woman by the arm and yanked her back inside the door. "No!" she hissed at her. Although Jacoiba herself felt the need the rush to the boys side, it would be a suicide mission.
"We can come back for him, but for now we need to be smart about this" Jacoiba felt that familiar pang of regret as she walked further back along the corridor, the same feeling that stopped her before killing Cyphor on The Wheel a long time ago...
Helena looked on in horror at the shistavanen boy, her former jedi training screaming at her to help him.. but she followed her mistress, swallowing back a sob as she did so.
Jacoiba, once far enough way sat down with her back against the wall and sighed. Helena soon caught up to her and watched her mistress. "With any luck they won't kill him... but I'm going to kill them... first we need to regroup with the others.. but we cannot go back the way we came... come, we need to keep going, back to the surface, or at least the top level of the theatre.. with any luck Yaggle and Ugador have caught up with my infiltrators.."
The two continued on in silence, listening for any sound from the theatre to indicate what was happening to Eltarr. As the two headed up the stairwell at the rear of the entrance they has snuck over to they could only hear the same sounds of chanting, lightning and fighting they had heard on the way down, it seemed the cultists had not stopped their fight on account of Eltarr. Reaching the top level again they found Ugador, Yaggle and the infiltrator that had assisted them earlier, waiting for them to return, a few hand signals and the three quickly came around to the stairwell Jacoiba and Helena had emerged from.
"Only one infiltrator? That makes two down then.. they have Eltarr, priority one is now getting him back, all 4 of these trances lead down into the amphitheatre, storming the place would prove a very bad idea, there's an unknown number of force users in there. We need to find an alternative route into that stage, the two doors at the back of the room behind the stage..do you find any other entrances on your second time through?"
They all shook their heads, one way in, one way out it seems. Jacoiba paced slowly.
"comms don't work in here, which means we can't really spilt up, both of the entrances we have taken already had no other side doors or anything, and we entered in here through that one" she pointed towards the north most entrance. "which means" she points toward the southern most entrance "that is the only one we haven't taken as of yet, and so, we are now, keep quiet, keep out of sight, and keep your eyes open"
She led the group toward the southernmost entrance and they all began to search. As the group descended the levels again in their search the came to level 1 with no results. Ugador however started getting excited as he located a door in the far end of the balcony near the stage section. when he went to inform his mistress however her pet infiltrator was already filling her in on the discovery.
Ugador grumbled to himself as his mistress and the rest of the group moved toward the door he thought he had found.
The group made their way through the door, it led to a staircase which seemed to lead to the backstage of the amphitheatre. Jacoiba motioned for the group to wait as she made her way down slowly to attempt to see what if anything awaited at the bottom.
Jacoiba saw no one as she moved through the door at the bottom of the staircase, and so it came as something of a surprise when a blast door slammed shut behind her. the sounds from the crowd and the stage were still audible from the backstage area but heavily muffled from the stone walls between them. a quick glance at the blast door revealed it would take at least a few minutes to cut through it with a sabre.
Helena and Yaggle were quick to get to the bottom of the stairs, both igniting their sabres as they started to cut through the blast doors.
Inside Jacoiba ignited her own sabre, attempting probably in vain to sense if anything was close by, the fluctuation causing havoc with her concentration.
Jacoiba could feel very little through the termoil in the force caused by the storm outside. and so when the voice came from deeper in the room, conveniently shrouded in darkness it caught her a little off guard. "Why do you intrude on my home?" came the voice of a man, clear, deep, likely a man in the prime of his life.
Keeping her sabre ignited, Jacoiba tried to shake the nervousness from her voice "I was not aware this place was inhabited, much less a home for anyone"
"My people and I have called this place home for near a thousand years. You avoid the question; Why are you here?" the voice said from the darkness.
"I came in search of artefacts, sources of force energy I suppose" She thought of Eltarr outside those doors in that room full of force users.. "My apprentice, he came here with me, you're.. people captured him"
"So I was informed." The voice said as the light level in the room started to rise, revealing the man seated behind a stone desk at the far end of the room, a pyramidal holocron on the desk in front of him. "You confess you come to plunder our secrets, now that you have been caught, how do you think to go about that?"
Jacoiba thought for a moment, as her 'host' appeared to her, she would not make it out of here alive if she tried to force her way out. "My priority at this moment is my apprentice, As I said before, we did not know these ruins were inhabited when we arrived" Civility was not her strong point.
"Commendable to worry for your people, he has potential that one from what my people have told me." the man leaned back in the chair, quite relaxed despite the ignited sabre. "How far would you be willing to go to have him returned? What would you sacrifice?"
Jacoiba thought for a moment, that was not a question she was used to being asked. What would she sacrifice for her apprentices? "What is it you would ask of me?" was the only way she could think of to reply, as she did not know the answer herself.
"Let us make it a test of skill then. you have seen the acolytes outside sparing. You have two choices. The boy fights against a suitable opponent from my people, if he wins, you all go free, if he looses well the rest of you may leave with your lives." the man said.
Jacoiba thought for a moment, Eltarr was strong, but those acolytes were like nothing he had even sparred before. "Let me fight for the boy, give your acolytes a real fight"
"Again, commendable. that was to be the second choice." The man said as he stood up and approached a large set of double doors that lead out onto the stage area. "If you wouldn't mind telling your people to stop destroying my door as well it would be appreciated." he added as he walked past Jacoiba and threw the double doors wide. the fight on the stage came to an abrupt halt and the lightning stopped, thought the clouds they emanated from remained.
Jacoiba shouted out at Helena and Yaggle to stop cutting through the door. She turned toward the now open doors, the two combatants were watching the man and her, she scanned the room looking for Eltarr, she found being held at the front, no longer in the air but he was still restrained.
The man steeped up to a raised section of the stage near the doors and raised his voice slightly, using the acoustics of the amphitheatre to carry his voice to everyone gathered. "Brothers and sisters of the Blackguard. Outsiders have breached our walls, seeking our knowledge. I have sensed a darkness within them, but also a glimmer of light, perhaps they may be suitable to learn our ways." The man announced, before gesturing to Jacoiba and continuing. "This one, their leader, has shown a measure of compassion, I have chosen to return the favour and decide their fate in a trial by combat. She will fight for the right to leave us, alive." The man pointed at one of the those gathered around the sides, the same in fact that had captured Eltarr in the first place. without a word they approached and leapt up onto the stage, with a clearer view it was obvious she was female, but little beyond that was apparently the concealing robes and headdress.
Jacoiba made her way onto the stage and faced her opponent, if she was anywhere near as skilled as the two sparring moments ago, this would not be an easy fight. She began to centre herself, an old trick Cyphor had taught her to help keep her concentration. Who would have thought jedi training would ever come in handy. Fighting in this storm, she was glad she was never truly skilled in force use, her skills were physical.
The leader of these people stepped to the back of the stage as the crowd started chanting again. in a few moments the lightning strikes started, a few at a time but nowhere near as fast as it had been coming down earlier.
"BEGIN!" The man said loudly.
Jacoiba wasted no time in jumping in on the offensive, her paired sabres ignited in seconds and she jumped toward her opponent, using one sabre as a guard and another swinging down for impact on her opponents shoulder. She was mindful of the lightning striking the ground in random intervals, wondering if she could perhaps find a pattern in them as the fight went on.
Meanwhile behind the blast doors Helena, Eltarr, Yaggle and the infiltrator were listening intently to the fight begin, Helena looked behind her at the Infiltrator "He knows about Yaggle and I, you and Ugador head back to the top level, make your way down another of the passages, do not interrupt the fight, but be ready to"
They both nodded their heads and began to climb the staircase once more.
Helena put her head back to the door, Yaggle nodding at her in agreement with her thoughts. Interrupting this could be disastrous for them all, it shows a lack of honour which she doubted these people would take kindly too. But she had been around sith long enough to know you can't trust the word of anyone, regardless of their moral standing, she was living proof of that.
Jacoiba's strike was accurate and against a less skilled opponent would have been quite dangerous, her blackguard opponent however knew what she was doing as she intercepted the blade and parried it effortlessly before disengaging a moment before bolt of lightning struck where she had been standing, Jacoiba would notice the bolts were picking up speed rapidly not the fight was in motion, she would need to stay on her toes to avoid them all. she only had a moment to realise this however before her opponent leaped back towards her with a sabre strike of her own.
Jacoiba attempted to dodge the attack in order to keep moving away from the lightning bolts, attempting to place herself as close to behind her opponent as possible and follow up with a sabre strike of her own.
Yaggle turned away from Helena for a moment and laughed, he started heading back up the stairs as Helena called after him "where are you going??" she called after him.
"We're standing at a door listening while we could be watching you idiot!, we're in a theatre, and we have balcony seats"
The Zabrak laughed at the realisation, and began to follow Yaggle until they came out to the level 1 balcony, they had a full view of the fight between their mistress and her blackguard opponent.
Jacoiba's footwork leaves something to be desired, as her movements are repeatedly hampered by barely missed lightning strikes, she takes her chance to strike out regardless however scoring a glancing blow on the opponents shoulder. to which only silence issued from the woman's mouth before she spun on her heel and struck back in retaliation.
The blow missed and Jacoiba used the opportunity to try and put some distance between them, she jumped backwards, preparing to charge back in at her opponent before the lightning sped up too much from the lull in activity.
Jacoiba never get her chance to strike back before her opponent moved to strike again, the woman moved as if by instinct through the lightning, something she had clearly been trained for over the years she had been with the blackguard.
Jacoiba struck out with her offhand sabre to catch the blow successfully, she had to stop overthinking so much, she had to concentrate, she focused herself again and struck out with her sabre, while still holding her opponents sabre with her offhand blade.
The blackguard woman ducked under Jacoiba's return strike before freeing her blade and swinging upward towards the sith woman from a low angle, she misjudged her timing ever so slightly however and caught a bolt of lightning on the blade, deflecting the blade from connecting with Jacoiba by mere millimetres.
Jacoiba attempted to roll of a sorts out of the way of the swinging sabre and gain an advantage while she regained her footing, striking down toward the woman as she did so.
Jacoiba's blade found only empty air as it came down followed by multiple bolts of lightning in close succession one of which struck her directly causing her to flinch heavily as her opponent came at her again, taking advantage of the lightning strike.
The blow missed just barely as Jacoiba managed to regain her footing, swinging her sabre up at her opponent as she straightened herself up and attempted to jump backwards again.
Jacoiba's followup strike worked in her favour as she scored a blow against the opponents leg, a relatively shallow strike but with lightsabre it was a wound that would slow her down. it did not however stop her from striking back again as she followed Jacoiba's backwards movement, connecting with Jacoibas left leg.
The only upside was that it wasn't her right leg, which carries most of her weight. The pain seared through her leg, she focused harder, trying to clear her head with the storm raging around them, going on the defensive for the moment.
Her opponent chose not to hold back however, pushing forward despite the leg injury and striking out leaving herself open for a moment to Jacoiba's defensive posture, though Jacoiba failed to take advantage of the vulnerability.
Jacoiba remained on the defensive, clearing her mind while waiting for another opportunity to strike out, she felt as though she was in a dance with the lightning and her opponent.
As Jacoiba opened her mind to her surroundings and the storm and opponent in particular she started to feel the lightning, noting her opponent seemed to know in advance of the strikes when they were going to land, the only time one had come close to hitting her had been the failed strike against Jacoiba. Jacoiba now felt she had that same awareness, assuming she could keep her concentration. her opponent lashed out again, arcing around a bolt of lightning , her blade flashing through air another bolt had been a moment earlier as she attempted to strike at Jacoiba again.
With her concentration sharper than ever Jacoiba deflected the blow on her off-hand sabre, striking back with her main-hand at the first sign of an opening, her opponent caught the strike an her blade, deflected the strike swiftly, flicked off her sabre and reignited it a moment later inside Jacoiba's guard, a risky manoeuvre but one she felt she could pull off.
Clearly she was wrong as Jacoiba ducked the blow barely avoiding it, bringing her off-hand sabre up at her opponents blade and her main-hand shortly followed striking out at her opponents ribs once more.
The blade hit its mark, scoring a nasty gash along the woman's left side, the only sign of pain from the woman however was a sharp hiss of air escaping her mouth as she disengaged and moved back to gain a moment to breath.
Jacoiba had a small opening, taking the weight off her left leg, she attempted to use her right leg to making an all offensive charge toward her opponent, bringing her sabres down as she neared her.
The first blade was caught by the woman, the second however slipped by taking a sizable chunk of flesh out of the exposed arm revealing the bone underneath, nothing that couldn't be fixed with some surgery, but the arm was effectively useless until such treatment was possible. the only reason the woman wouldn't bleed out from the wound was for the lightsabres habit of cauterising the wounds it made.
Jacoiba attempted to use the moment to knock the sabre out of her opponents hand, and follow it up with a quick strike to her injured side once more.
While the opponent retained her grip on her own sabre she was unable to stop the second strike from connecting as it severed the crippled arm entirely, this time eliciting a cry of pain from the woman at the shock of the severing. it was about all she could do to remain standing and on the defensive as she tried to prepare for another strike from Jacoiba.
The strike came swiftly, both sabre blades came swinging down on her opponent, intended to finish the fight, but not to kill her opponent, they did not kill Eltarr when he was found trespassing.
Her blades came down with precision, one taking the woman's other hand off at the wrist, the sabre hilt sliced in half in the same strike while the second blade stopped at the woman's neck.
The room Jacoiba would realise, was totally silent, the lightning and storm clouds as well as the chanting had stopped a short time earlier as the exchanges between the two heated up. the only sound was the footsteps of the man who was the blackguard leader a he strode across the stage towards the pair of women. he stopped just over a sabres length from the two women and looked at Jacoiba with a raised eyebrow.
Jacoiba flicked off her sabres and looked at the man. "You could have killed my apprentice, and you did not. She is no longer able to fight back, I believe I have proved my skill"
"We also did not maim your apprentice." the man said. "As you say, she is unable to fight, and as such no longer of use to us." he added as he withdrew an electrum plated sabre hilt from his robes and ignited the blade, moving towards the woman, who stood straight rather than backing away.
"In respect to her skill, maiming her seemed the only way to defeat her" she bowed her head in respect to her opponent as she stood awaiting her fate. These people intrigued her, they see strength in compassion, however they kill off their no longer useful tools.. just as she has done many times.
The man struck the maimed woman down without hesitating, before switching off his blade and replacing the hilt in his robes once more and turning back to Jacoiba. "You have earned the right to leave with your lives. go before we change our mind."
Eltarr soon joined his mistress on stage, shaken but otherwise unharmed. He seemed almost awed by her at this moment. Jacoiba nods her head toward the man, before speaking again. "May I make a request?" She did not wish to push her luck with these people, but she did not want to waste an opportunity either.
The man rounded sharply on Jacoiba. "You have come into our home, killed our fellows, for which we granted you the courtesy of fighting for your very life and those of your people. Yet you want more from us?"
"I mean no disrespect" Jacoiba stood firm, however she was slightly shaken, and her leg was beginning to burn now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "Your people are like none I have faced before, your unique fighting style" She motioned toward the holocron she had originally come searching for. "You know our initial reason for coming to this planet, I did not expect to find... well.. this" she gestured around the theatre, then looks back at the man and regains her composure somewhat. "I wish to train under you"
The man had not expected this request and his commanding presence faltered to confusion for a moment before he regained his composure and looked at Jacoiba with a questioning eye. "Which side do you serve?" he asked after a long moment of pause.
Jacoiba thought about the question long before finally looking back up at the man and answering. "I have served both sides... now? I serve myself"
"I see..." the man replied, not entirely convinced. "And would you surrender all your power and authority to train under me, as everyone here has done?"
Helena and Yaggle both stared at each other, they were not sure what to make of their mistress's choices. Ugador and the infiltrator stood, silently awaiting Jacoibas response. Eltarr stared at her, waiting and watching for any indication of what she was thinking.
"If I were to do this, Can I return to my own students, and my own responsibilities when you believe my training is complete? I cannot completely abandon my own people, as a leader yourself, you would know the burden of power" Jacoiba showed no signs of disrespect, she was merely negotiating.
"When you commit to the blackguard, it is for life." the man replied.
"I cannot commit that much, I cannot give up my position amongst my people. "I can commit to remaining an ally, or a compromise of sorts, but I have my own to return to also"
"Perhaps something can be arranged at a later time. If you chose to visit at a later time approach unarmed and say you seek the Kursk. You will be brought to me. For now though, Leave."
Jacoiba nodded her head. "I thank you, you will see me again" She motioned to her companions and they all made their way back toward the surface; to their ship. No one made any real effort at conversation, Jacoiba was sore, and the rest of them were replaying that fight over and over in their minds, with a new found respect for their mistress's skills.
Jacoiba set a course for Yavin 4. This mission would stay burned in her mind forever, she had not thought of the mut master in a long time, but today he was the forefront of her mind during that fight.
As they cleared the atmosphere a presence flared to life in Jacoiba's mind from the rear of the cockpit section. a second later the snap hiss of a lightsabre was heard and Jacoiba could feel the anger, the hatred, the intent to kill emanating from the presence quite clearly as the ignited blade struck out towards her head.
Jacoiba ignites her sabres and quickly turns to block the assailant, Removing herself from her seat as she did so to gain better footing. The strike was easily intercepted by Jacoiba, though the assailant turned out to be a young woman, who seemed equally shocked at Jacoiba's rather effortless defence from her strike.
Jacoiba took the chance to swing at her opponents wielding arm, perhaps she could disarm them before they could get to her again. The force of the blow coupled with the shock of being blocked in the first place knocked the sabre from the young woman's hands, the blade dissipating almost instantly before it could damage the vessel at all as it fell to the deck plating.
Jacoiba kicked the woman to the floor and held one of her sabres at her throat. "Who are you?" she demanded.
The woman stared up at Jacoiba defiantly after regaining some sort of composure, and her breath. "You killed her!" she practically spat at Jacoiba.
Jacoiba sighed and rolled her eyes at the woman "I've killed many people my dear, but I haven't killed a woman today I'm afraid, maimed one perhaps, but I did not do the killing, and quite frankly, I'm sore and I really can't be bothered dealing with an upstart like you"
"You may not have struck the final blow but you killed her none the less!" the young woman said as she raised a hand, dark energies dancing across her fingers before seeming to fizzle out.
Jacoiba moved her ignited sabre down slightly to the joint in the woman's shoulder and lightly jabbed her, a surface burn.. mostly "I can kill you in an instant" her words sounded like venom. "give me a reason I shouldn't"
"You already caused my mother death today, and it appears I can't even avenge her." the young woman said as tears of anger, pain, frustration began leaking from her eyes.
Her mother... well shit.. Jacoiba hadn't planned for this. She flicked off her sabre. "Get up.. come on get up" She ends up pulling the girl up from the floor, being mindful of the now burnt left shoulder.
"I gave your mother the opportunity to live, you know where I come from, there's such a thing as implants that fix up those lost limbs"
The woman scowled at her "Within the blackguard, there is no "fixing up" you're useful, or you're dead"
Jacoiba shrugged "I was not aware of that, I was fighting for the lives of my own people, you're mother fought for your blackguard, and she fought well, I can sense a similar strength in you, however it is clearly untrained, you cannot return to the blackguard in any hurry, come with me"
By this point, Eltarr, Helena and Yaggle had made their way to cockpit after hearing the commotion. "What's this then?" Asks the zabrak woman
Jacoiba looked toward her apprentices "She is the daughter of the woman I fought today, she came here to kill me, failed miserably as you can see"
The woman looked almost sheepishly at the three apprentices who were now sizing her up, as if they were deciding which one of them was going to take her down next. She looked back at Jacoiba. "You could train me to fight like you? Fight like my mother?"
Jacoiba nodded slowly "I cannot train you as a blackguard would, but yes, with me you will be able to use you're hatred, you anger at your mothers passing, use them to better yourself, it would seem a waste to have to kill you, you have a lot of potential"
"My name is Elisa" she said as she cleaned the last of her tears off her face "you are right, I cannot return.." she said quietly as she realised the truth of the situation, either she died here, or she trained under the woman who inadvertently killed her mother...
As though Jacoiba could sense the defeat inside the woman she motioned to Helena "Show Elisa to the apprentice quarters, walk her through what we do, make her feel... welcome of sorts, we will arrive home soon"
"Yes mistress, come, I will get you acquainted with our giant, he's fun" Helena took the young woman by the arm and led her out of the cockpit, followed by Yaggle.
Eltarr remained behind a moment, watching his mistress. "Thank you, my master, for saving my life"
Jacoiba slightly started by the boys words looked at him, she waved for him to leave before saying "You are my apprentice, it would have been a mark against my name had I let you die in there" The boy nodded and left.
Jacoiba sat back down in the cockpit and thought to herself, if it was Helena who had been caught, she is not sure her day would have gone the same....
Jacoiba and co head to mustafar looking for artifacts, hilarity ensues, followed by some feelings, and ELSA.