Tonight... A Clone spills his drink. A Jedi looks sideways. And a man grows a moustache.
-Chapter 135: The Lost Legion-
Location: Droxu
"A friendly face is more dangerous than an enemy's frown."
Her breathing was hard and gasping, seeking air after having been lost to ecstatic pleasure. The past few hours had been nothing short of bliss-filled, albeit a little strenuous requiring much exertion.
But Ahsoka was not complaining. Not when she felt this amazing.
"You've got that look again." Dynnal hummed, pressing kisses to her cheek as he pulled her naked back against his chest.
"Wha... What look?" She breathlessly asked.
"Like you've got stars in your eyes." Her lover answered in a whisper, pressing another soft kiss to her burning skin. Ahsoka imagined for a moment that she really did have stars in her eyes and that was how she looked every time she climaxed. She giggled.
"That's your fault." She said teasingly.
"And I'll accept the blame wholeheartedly." Dynnal said, his arms warm and tight around her. She could feel his breath on her skin, hot and constant. Though he tried to mask it, she could tell he was worn out. It wasn't easy to do that to someone with augmented near-superhuman stamina and Ahsoka took a measure of pride in the fact that she could.
While she was tired herself, one of her favourite parts of lovemaking was cuddling in the afterglow.
Her hand reached for his, giving it a gentle squeeze of loving affirmation. Ahsoka closed her eyes, basking in the warm sensation of the afterglow. Dynnal pressed another kiss to her cheek. "Be right back, babe." He whispered, untangling himself from her and rising from the bed.
"Hm?" Ahsoka sleepily inquired.
"Just gotta use the 'fresher." Dynnal responded, disappearing through the door.
"Mm." Ahsoka sleepily affirmed. She lay still for a moment, her mind wandering briefly as she relived their recent round of lovemaking. She smiled, her body shuddering with warm tingles at the thought of being intimately united with Dynnal again. Her eyes open, her tiredness slowly abating as she used the Force to rid herself of the rest and replenish her stamina. Sitting up, Ahsoka considered settling into a pose for when Dynnal returned, something sexy and enticing. Surely it wouldn't take much, it never did.
The door to the refresher began to slide open and Ahsoka quickly propped herself up against the pillows, her hands behind her head to show off her body. She smiled in anticipation of his reaction, but the smile quite suddenly died as shock floored her body and drained it of arousal.
His eyes had changed, from human green to reptilian amber.
"What's the matter, Ahsoka?" Wraith asked, his voice calm and collected without a hint of worry. "Something wrong...?"
Ahsoka awoke with a start, sitting up in bed and gasping for air as the dream subsided. She looked around her common quarters in the Jedi Temple, nothing out of place and everything just the way she remembered it.
Breathing a sigh of relief everything was normal, she paused to contemplate her dream... or was it a vision? Or a nightmare...
She didn't know. She had no idea. Pressing her palms into her eyes, Ahsoka loosed a groan. Why did these things have to keep plaguing her like this? She figured that one Dynnal had manifested, Wraith would cease to be... but was he really gone?
"It's too early for this sithspit." She mumbled, laying back down and drawing her thin sheets tightly around her. The Togruta closed her eyes, pushing thoughts of both Wraith and Dynnal from her mind.
In the corner of her room, a green and yellow-feathered convor watched her silently.
Elsewhere in the galaxy...
The Venator-class cruiser Ironside streaked through hyperspace, en route to a remote sector of the Outer Rim. Jedi Knight Mina Podia stood tall on the bridge, a young dark-skinned human woman with curly black hair and steady brown eyes. She wore the traditional armored robes of a Jedi General, her brown tunic contrasted by the white along her shins and forearms. Used to being sent on combat missions, this was her first time responding to a distress signal and she was looking forward to the variation.
Beside her stood her designated second-in-command, Clone Commander CT-7747 "Bolt". A capable and dependable man, like all Clones were, he was born during the second year of the war but had seen enough action alongside his General to render him a seasoned veteran.
"Begging the General's pardon, but does this rescue mission really require an entire cruiser to perform?" He asked in his usual, business-minded tone.
"Someone on Coruscant certainly thinks so." Mina responded. "You remember the details of this mission, Commander?" Bolt stiffened.
"Yes ma'am. We are going to the remote world of Deltron to recover the survivors of the Dawnlight, who activated its rescue transponder less than twelve standard hours ago." He replied in a nearly machine-like manner.
"Correct. Now, once more, Commander, with feeling and less-so like a droid." Mina teased with a slight smile.
"I'll make a note for next time." Mina appreciated Bolt's sense of humour, the man having learned how to cut tension with a witty remark over countless prior engagements.
"For some reason, the Dawnlight simply fell off the grid. Failed to check-in, failed to respond to transmissions, and so on. Now it suddenly needs to be rescued from Droxu." The Jedi continued.
"So we're looking for suspicious activity." Bolt concluded.
"High Command wants us to find out what, where, when, why and how, if at all possible." Mina told him. The Clone slowly nodded in understanding.
"That would explain the need for an entire cruiser." He mused. "How would you like to handle this, General?"
"Let's aim for a two-pronged approach. You and I will take Aurek Company down to look for survivors while the ship scans the crash site for a possible reason for Dawnlight's downfall. Provided someone's alive and this rescue beacon isn't just an automated feature, we're gonna want to hear their side of the story." While she loathed the notion of all the paperwork that came with a mission like this, Mina was just as curious as everyone else was about Dawnlight's fate.
"Very good, General. Are there any notable legions we should be concerned with?" Bolt inquired. Mina shook her head.
"Not that I know of. I do know there were two Jedi aboard, but that's about it."
"I suppose we'll have to look for identifying markers then." Bolt determined.
"What do you know about Droxu, Bolt?" Mina asked, taking her chance to pry an answer from him.
"Outer Rim, ringed moon, pretty deserted, plenty of dust and rock. Just on the other side of Hutt Space, something the Seps aren't currently worried about controlling." Her Commander stated nonchalantly. "My knowledge of star charts is a little rusty, but I think it's just off a trade route, and the Seps seem hellbent on controlling those."
"The Triellus Route." Mina added, having read the briefing beforehand. "It's between the Kessel Run and the Shag Pabol route." Bolt raised a brow.
"That doesn't sound like Basic, ma'am."
"It's Huttese for 'Slave Road'. That route runs into Hutt Space and goes right to Nal Hutta." Mina explained.
"Should we be watching for any prowlers then?" Bolt inquired. If they were this close to Hutt Space, who knows what manner of lowlifes might be journeying across the trade route looking for some cargo to hijack and pilfer.
"Let's hope there's no sleemos out here willing to take on a fully-operational Republic cruiser." Mina remarked. Their banter paused as one of the bridge officers made a report.
"Coming up on Droxu now, General. Dropping out of hyperspace in five." Mina nodded in understanding.
"Thank you Lieutenant. Prepare to exit hyperspace, Bolt, let's go round up the boys." Mina said. The Commander nodded and slipped his helmet on over his crisp, regulation-grade haircut. Together they turned and made for the turbolift, Mina stopping by the door and pausing quite suddenly. There was a ripple in the Force, a sudden shift that made her feel uneasy. Something was wrong and she couldn't put her finger on it.
There was a presence. A wrong presence. Something unnatural was close by, something about this system sent a chill through her spine as she felt a dark tendril pry at the enclosure around her heart. A tentacle of dark energy tried to slither its way into her emotions, searching out her need to belong, her need to feel approved, her need... and matched it with its own.
"General?" Bolt's words shook Mina back to reality. She turned to the Clone, her eyes blank and her expression barely readable. "Are you alright?" He asked. The tentacles retreated and Mina shuddered in their wake.
"Let's be in and out, Bolt. This place is giving me a weird feeling." She confessed.
The lone LAAT broke through Droxu's atmosphere and descended towards the lunar surface. It was a barren world, comprised of rocks covered in thick lays of oxidized dust, giving off an orange-red hue wherever they looked. With the transport doors pulled open, Mina and her company hovered near the edge, glancing this way and that as they looked for signs of the Dawnlight's wreckage.
Their pilot tracked the rescue beacon towards a broad canyon, the rolling plains of dust and rock soon giving way to a yawning chasm where the landscape feel away into steep cliffs of weathered ores.
"I can see why this place is lifeless." A Clone called Aurik remarked.
"Probably just microbes around here." Another, Drix was his name, added in reply.
"Don't tell me you're not enjoying the view?" Trooper Daiv chimed in. "Rosy landscapes, caramel skies,"
"The eternal feeling of lonely nothingness stretching out for miles around?" Tug cut in sardonically. They shared a laugh. They were good men, Bolt thought to himself. They'd been front and centre as members of Aurek Company for months and they were men he'd trust with his own life.
"Breathe it in, gentlemen. We're living the dream out here." Mina remarked, her hair whipping about in the breeze. She said so to keep herself even with the men's spirits, but she still could not ignore that nagging feeling within her. The tentacles were there, kept at bay by her own self-consciousness, but the fact they remained was of great concern to her. Something had brought them into existence in the first place and Mina was partly convinced she didn't want to know why.
"If you say so, General." Tug said. The conversation stalled just before Bolt tapped Mina on the shoulder.
"General Podia, we have visual contact of Dawnlight. Just up ahead." He reported.
"Take us in, make sure we can all see it." She responded. Bolt relayed the order to the pilot who shifted the LAAT's thrusters up a notch, the ground beneath them passing by a little quicker than before. The ship rolled slightly and veered left, angling its passengers so that they got an optimal look at the incoming wreckage as the transport climbed higher.
The terrain shifted from smooth sand to disturbed, shuddering waves that flowed past them, bits of debris growing larger and larger the further along they traveled. Soon the pieces grew large enough to coalesce and formed the broken, ragged bow of the Dawnlight. It was caved in and sheared to pieces, a large hole forming the base of a long crack that ran up the length of the ship until it paused just under the bridge tower, which had collapsed forward. The edges of the hull were crumbled, partly torn away and hidden under the Acclamator and indicating the ferocity of the impact. To Mina it seemed as if the ship had ground to a halt and drifted to its current position, it had not fallen from the sky and slammed into the ground, but had coasted as best it could until it began to skid and grind to a halt.
The pilot banked around, offering the passengers a brief view of the dismembered and distorted engines just before the vast expanse of Droxu came into view, marred this time by a long and deep trail that was pockmarked with pieces of debris.
"Spawn of the Sith!" Tug exclaimed.
"She crashed something fierce." Aurik whistled.
"Skid a good 5 or so kliks, based on that rut." Daiv noted. Mina flicked on her wrist comm.
"Pilot, set us down near the engines. We'll take a look on foot, scan for survivors from the air." She tasked. The LAAT circled back around and dropped them off before taking flight again, leaving Mina on the sand-like surface of Droxu with her troop of five Clones.
"Orders, General?" Bolt inquired, his blaster rifle primed and operational.
"Find the rescue beacon, if we can, but check if anyone survived this mess first." Mina answered. Reaching out with her senses, she used the Force to sweep over the wreck site and its debris field. She could sense no living beings, just a sea of broken, twisted metal and death, plenty of it. Maybe that was why she had such a funny feeling about this place. The entire crew of the Acclamator appeared to have been killed during the crash, death permeated every inch of her surroundings.
But then, she felt a spark of life and reached out to it. Light appeared within her senses, one becoming two as it grew stronger the more she reached for it.
"Pilot, check for survivors near the bow." Mina ordered, quickly breaking into a jog as her men did too. None of them questioned her choice, all of them having grown familiar with her Jedi abilities and how she could do things no one they knew could. usually her instincts were always right on and in a battle that meant lives saved. Having been spared death before thanks to her, the Clones certainly weren't doubting her now.
The drone of the LAAT's engines was loudest as it passed over them, the transport arriving at the bow area first and hovering in place.
"General Podia, I've got two survivors out front. They appear to be unharmed." The pilot revealed through Mina's commlink.
"Bring them around our way." The woman quickly ordered. The LAAT appeared to blink its forward running lights several times before slowly floating back towards Mina and her men. The Jedi looked on to see two figures round the front of the ship before they began moving towards her. Both were clad in the common tunics of Jedi, the leading figure a honey-haired woman and the latter a dark-haired man. As they drew closer, their appearance was ragged and careworn, their clothes strongly suggesting they'd survived the crash someway. Mina wasn't quite sure how, something this catastrophic that had killed everyone else...
"Thank the Force, we thought no one was coming!" The man exclaimed as he neared them. Mina slowed her pace, walking towards them now as her men did likewise.
"We picked up your transponder signal just recently. Sorry we weren't sooner." She apologized. Taking a moment to give the two a once-over, she deemed them Jedi (the lightsaber hilts on their belts an obvious giveaway) but not ones she knew. "Your names?"
"I am Callista Masana and this is Geith Eris." The woman answered. "We thank you for coming, Master..." She trailed off, hoping for a name. Mina helped up her hand.
"Knight. Mina Podia." She clarified. "Forgive me, but I'm not familiar with either of you."
"We're the Padawans of Master Altis." Geith explained. "I guess some call us 'Altisian' Jedi." Mina nodded in slow understanding.
"I'd heard Master Yoda had asked your Master for assistance. I suppose that's what you were doing aboard this ship?"
"Yes. Until this happened." Geith remarked, waving his hand across the length of the shipwreck.
"We'll get to those details later. Someone on Coruscant will be very interested in them, I'm sure." Mina responded in a good-natured tone that made Callista smile. "For now, though, let's get you two off this moon."
Ironside was just entering hyperspace by the time Callista and Geith were settled. While the relentless mental pounding brought on by the need to get a jumpstart on her paperwork hounded her every move, Mina knew there would be no getting through to either survivor until after they'd had a moment to recover. For now, she could begin the other portion of her paperwork: a preliminary study into the Dawnlight wreck site for the cause of the ship's downfall.
A wing of the bridge contained a twin-sided terminal where a pair of analysts went to work pouring over the scan data the LAAT brought back. Using this information, they were able to compile and compress it into a 3D map of the wreck site, which in turn allowed the maintenance officer to explore the ship's remains and determine what went wrong. As Mina entered the room, the analysts and the maintenance officer were in the midst of a heated discussion.
"I trust we're making some manner of headway, gentlemen? Not that I'm trying to rush you." Mina asked as she strode in and immediately quieted them all with her presence. The officer cleared his throat.
"Perhaps a fresh set of eyes might be just what we need, General Podia." He proffered, a twitch of his lips wriggling his thick moustache.
"If I may be of service, I'll gladly do what I can." Mina replied. "What am I to look at?"
"Simply put, this." One of the analysts stated, enlarging the holomap and spinning it around so that Mina was staring at the port side hull. "Tell us, General, what do you see on this part of the ship?" She paused to examine it, feeling the same inky tendril from before suddenly creeping into her soul the longer she peered at the wreck. She feigned a deep breath of concentration, closing her eyes and briefly using the Force to fortify her defence against this darkness. When she opened her eyes again, nothing new jumped out at her and she could see nothing different apart form what she'd already seen during their flyby.
"I'm sorry Mister, uh..." She trailed off, racking her mind for a name. She prided herself on knowing at least the first names and ranks of each of her core crew, but his was escaping her. The young man merely tilted his head in acceptance of her lack of an answer.
"Second Lieutenant Brandt, battlefield logistics, General." He introduced. "I'm the guy everyone wants answers from when something goes wrong." Mina nodded, filing him away as a man who spent less time on the bridge and more below decks surveying hull integrity.
"Ah. Well, Second Lieutenant Brandt, I confess I don't see much of anything apart from smooth hull plating that abruptly ends in jagged and broken hull plating." She admitted.
"That's just it, General. There's no scoring or penetrative damage to the hull, it's clean, the ship was not attacked from what I can tell." Brandt responded, his voice strong as his own suggestion was positively affirmed. Mina trailed off, the dark tentacle striking hard at her shields and sending a shudder up and down her spine. A thought came to her, one truly revelatory but quite possibly the furthest thing from correct.
"At least... not attacked by an external vessel." She quietly mused, glancing down at the render again.
"Do you have a suspicion, General?" The officer inquired, overhearing her. Stowing her worries and stuffing her rising insecurity back down, the Jedi shook her head.
"No. Not really." She said, half-believing herself. "Do carry on."
"Well, we were just telling Brandt here that nothing internal, not the hyperdrive, not the engine piping or the power cores, could've caused this sort of damage. When something like that goes, well, there wouldn't be a Dawnlight left to study." The officer explained, nudging his moustache with his finger. "That's his theory since he's convinced there's no evidence it was shot down."
"And there isn't." Brandt emphatically insisted. "We've been over the charts already, General, the Separatists are nowhere near here. They're avoiding Hutt Space and the Kessel System." He told Mina.
"But they control Teth, do they not?" His opposite countered. "How easy would it be for them to launch even a light frigate from there?" He asked. Brandt sighed, rubbing his forehead.
"Technically yes... but where's the evidence of a battle? There's no orbital debris, all of it is trailing behind the Dawnlight on the surface of Droxu." Brandt described.
"Let's just conclude that there's some discrepancies to sort out." Mina suggested, intervening in order to move the discussion along. "Is this the only issue or are there others?"
"Well, yes, there is one other thing we've noticed." The maintenance officer said, clearing his throat once more. Gesturing to Brandt, the Lieutenant swiveled the holomap around once more to show Mina the Dawnlight's engines, sitting in a jumbled mess of parts piled haphazardly on top of each other. Mina recalled the sight well from their initial landing. "You see the way the engines fell, General?" The officer inquired. Mina nodded.
"I'm assuming their broken state is far from normal?" She asked.
"No ma'am. This isn't consistent with an explosion, or even an implosion. Usually there's a hole or a blast scorch or an impact crater after something like that. These engines are deeply set within the ship, you can see the inner cores hanging out!" Brandt answered, explaining their structural truths. "It's almost as if the engines were... torn out."
Elsewhere...
Bolt had fancied himself a snack and made his way to the mess hall. The rescue mission was open and shut, with little else to do apart from enjoying the ride home, the commander figuring he could spot himself a moment of relaxation with no immediate reports to fill out.
The rest of Aurek Company were also milling about the mess hall, along with a small cadre of other Clones. Many of them nodded at his presence in recognition, they were at ease and off-duty but still knew to respect the chain of command. Bolt nodded back and made his way over to the instant-caf dispensers, fetching himself a disposable cup as he keyed in his preferences.
"Helluva mission, eh Commander? If only they were all this easy." A Clone remarked, striding up beside him. Bolt nodded, despite the sameness in all of their voices, he could pick out Drixo with ease.
"I suppose it just reinforces our need to not be choosy." Bolt replied, stirring his caf before taking a sip. It was far from the smooth quality offered in high-end tapcafs, but it would do. He turned to look his fellow soldier in the eye and paused mid-sip when he caught sight of Drixo.
There was absolutely nothing different about him. His hair was cut the same way it always had been, his signature 'Aurek' tattoo under his right eye had not changed, the striping pattern on his armor had no changed. And yet Bolt just knew innately that was not Drixo.
Whoever it was, they were a very clever impersonator, able to nail Drixo's voice, mannerisms and look flawlessly. A lesser commander might've even carried on like nothing was amiss, but Bolt could only thank his vigorous flash training for being able to tell the difference between his brother and an impostor. Bolt continued to sip, but his eyes now warily flicked to the side as he took note of the Clones sitting around the mess hall.
Dammit! Those ones looked like Aurik and Tug, but the posers had got to them too! His entire unit had been changed out for impostors! The cup slowly left his lips as Bolt processed the situation, taking into account the probability that an unknown alien race might've infiltrate their ranks while on Droxu. It was a moon no one cared about, maybe it had some dark secret hiding on its surface. His first thought was to find General Podia, surely a Jedi could help him... but he also could not ignore the nagging possibility that she might've been replaced as well.
"You alright, Bolt?" Drixo asked, snapping his attention back to the impostor-Clone. "Feeling a little... out of place?" Such a pointed thing to say. Surely the impostor was on to him. Combat training filled Bolt's mind as the Clone quickly devised a means of escape. He had to get to the bridge. "Surely you must be," 'Drixo' said with a sneer, "you're not like one of us, are you?" Bolt summoned his composure. The mess hall had grown oddly quiet now, but the Clones were still eyeing each other. Maybe they were planning a strike of their own...
"Just the kind of thing an impostor would say." Bolt remarked. A twitch of his hand sent his hot caf splashing across Drixo's armor and face, blinding momentarily as Bolt took off amid his cries of pain. He vaulted a table and sprinted for the exit, jamming the emergency closure panel on his way out.
The evidence put forth by the analysts was pretty convincing, but Mina did not have a definitive answer for them. What she did know was that the dark tentacle was slowly piercing her internal barriers and growing stronger with every passing second. It made her feel anxious and wary, like something was amiss in the Force itself. Something very wrong had started on Droxu and she had a feeling they had not left it behind, but rather, brought it with them.
She left the room with the maintenance officer who was saying that he'd send his comments along with her final report. But she sensed there was something else bugging him and bade him to speak further.
"Now, don't take this the wrong way General, but don't you find it a bit strange that just two Jedi happened to survive and no one else did?" He asked, his gaze one of simple curiosity, merely inquiring of her opinion on the manner. But Mina felt his gaze boring into her, weighing heavily on her shoulders and pressing her downs towards the tentacle reaching up from the inky blackness. "A crash like that should've killed everyone." He commented in passing. Mina slowly put the pieces together. Maybe it should've. Maybe Callista and Geith should be dead. But they were Jedi... weren't they?
"You'd, uh... ahem... You'd be s-surprised what a Jedi is capable of." Mina answered weakly. She cleared her throat again, her mouth suddenly feeling dry, thick and constrictive all at once. One thing was for certain, she was positive Geith and Callista had rested long enough. "If you'll pardon me, I'll go speak with the survivors. Perhaps we can glean some information from them." She offered, excusing herself. Quickly leaving the officer's company, Mina took the turbolift out of the bridge and reached out to the Force. It was there, constant, always available as it always had been. But something new had entered its omnipresence, an aura, cloudy and chaotic as it lashed out at her senses in a brutal assault. It was from this aura that the tentacle grew, attempting to worm its way into her heart and take hold of her very essence... quite possibly, Mina determined, forever.
She exited into the crew quarters, her stride turning into a passive jog as she summoned the Force to surround and quell her emotions. But the more she did, the more she felt the chaos grip her heart, as if the aura infected her Force sensitivity like ink clouding water. Her jog turned into a run and she skidded to a halt before the door to Callista and Geith's quarters. It was open before she could knock, the golden-haired Callista standing before the dark-skinned Mina.
"I sensed you coming, is everything alright Mina?" She asked, looking worried. Mina shook her head.
Something is... very wrong." She began, glancing back and forth. The dark aura was strongest here, before the door, a nexus of stormy chaos that was rapidly expanding. Mina looked Callista in the eye. "Can you sense it?" She asked. Callista cocked her head.
"Sense what?"
"In the Force. There's something... something wrong." Mina continued. "I-I've never sensed anything like it." Suddenly, Geith appeared behind Callista.
"We haven't sensed anything." He said dismissively. Sudden a sharp pang struck her senses and Mina looked up in alarm, her expression passive but her eyes were wide. She zeroed in on Callista and reached out with the Force.
Something about Callista Masana was very, very wrong.
"Are you alright, Mina? You seem a little... pale." Geith asked. Mina could not answer, still fixated on the realization that Callista may very well be the source of what she was sensing. The blonde merely smiled and stepped forward.
"Oh, you poor thing, I see it now." She whispered kindly. Mina glanced up. Did Geith know? "I think I understand now. Don't worry, Mina. Let me help you. I know a few techniques tha tight calm your nerves." Callista offered, reaching out to the Jedi Knight.
In one horrifying instant, Mina Podia was suddenly shown the truth behind Callista Masana.
Her hair faded in color until it was silvery-gold, reaching down the back of her head in thin, sparse locks. Her skin paled, her eyes shrunk until they were mere pinpoints of silver starlight set against two black wells. Her lips thinned, her mouth stretching from ear to ear like her head was nearly split open. And her hands, the hands reaching for her changed in an instant, growing stumpy and blunt as her fingers grew into tentacles. Tentacles! Complete with underside suckers no less! Wriggling and waving they reached for Mina who stood still, frozen in place by a fear no Jedi training could ever belay...
Bolt had broken into a dead sprint. Every single person he passed was suddenly not the man he'd boarded the ship alongside. They'd been replaced... every single one of them had been replaced.
He was scared now, panicking, a terror gripped his soul in a crushing hold and refused to release him as Bolt ran to find General Podia. He was sweating, hearing the thundering footsteps of a dozen others behind him. He had to find his General first. He simply had to!
His quest took him to the crew quarters level, sprinting down the hall and taking a sudden right to throw off his pursuers. They were out to get him, replace him, take him to wherever they'd taken his brothers. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let it happen!
Another right and another left and there was General Podia, standing before Callista and Geith was the blode's hands left her face. The human was smiling, she was at ease and at peace. how could she not sense the change? Bolt asked himself. How could she not tell that something was wrong with the whole damn ship?
"General!" He cried, slowing his pace and huffing and puffing from his marathon as he came to a halt before the collective of Jedi. Both Callista and Mina turned to look at him, offering passive smiles of warm recognition.
"Commander Bolt. What appears to be the trouble?" Mina gently asked. Still fairly out of breath, Bolt wasted no time trying to speak.
"G-General, I..." He tried to begin, pausing and choking on his next words as the reality washed over him. "There's... The men. Something's wrong, something's... changed!" He spluttered, feeling his emotions grow in tumultuous fury as he broke down before his Jedi. "I-I can't trust them. I can't trust any of them! I don't know what's real! I don't know what's true!" He sobbed, falling to his knees spent and out of breath. He heaved for some time, trying to calm himself down to no avail.
And then, he felt the gentle touch of a hand on his head. It slowly moved, curving around his face until it rested warmly on his cheek. He looked up into the bright eyes of Callista, the Altisian Jedi appearing like a motherly figure as she tended to the Clone.
"It is alright, Commander." She cooed, soothing him with her words a little rubs of his hand. Bolt felt a warmth grab his soul and chase away the terror, a sense of belonging gripping him and pulling him towards Callista until she was all he could see. Nothing else mattered, only this woman. "I am truth, I am real. You needn't be afraid of me." She promised. She tilted his head up a little higher and used her free hand to dry his eyes. "Will you serve me, Bolt?" She gently asked. Bolt took a split second to nod, eager to be closer to whatever was keeping him safe and secure.
"Y-Yes." He stammered, then swallowed to find his composure. "Yes!" He said boldly, more clearly. Callista smiled and helped the Clone to his feet. She turned to look on the rest of Aurek Company who had followed their Commander, their expressions one of equal distress and dismay. She reached out to all of them, the warmth of a mother's touch caressing their souls and drawing them in.
"I am truth, I am real." She repeated to them all. "Will all of you serve me?"
"Yes ma'am." They all said softly after a moment. Callista smiled.
"Good." She said simply, glancing around and basking in the troopers' adoration of her. She could sense their adoration of her and their desire to please her and in turn feel safe and secure, a trait that was easier to manipulate in non-sensitives. Not very rewarding compared to Force sensitives, but she didn't care, Abeloth would take it regardless. "Very good."