So, uh, funny little realization. You remember how I said the Thundercat was based on a cursed image of an A10 with Tomcat wings? Yeah, turns out the Russians actually made something like it in real life. It's called the MiG 27, and was based off the MiG 23. Even has a 30mm cannon, how about that? Granted, it shook the whole airframe to shit, but still.
Read and review.
Kyra was in the Dropstorm's training room, practicing with the training sabers that Sawei had left out from their last sparring session. She was doing two things – first, she was tightening up her form with a lightsaber, eliminating any slow, unnecessary movements that would make her vulnerable to attack. Second of all, she was trying to figure out what she wanted out of her own lightsaber, attempting to think of a design that would work best for her.
However, she ultimately knew little about how to design a lightsaber, and she was perpetually stuck at the drawing board, drawing out her frustrations at the holographic targets that kept appearing around her, usually in her blind spots, and causing her to constantly be watching her back with the Force. After a solid twenty minutes or so of the cycle of hitting a target in front of her and immediately evading the attack that was coming from behind, Kyra decided to end the session and let herself get hit. The attacking hologram shattered to pieces, and the training room shut down automatically.
Now left with some time to herself, Kyra let go of a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and sat down to give her body a brief rest. Her mind now left to wander, her thoughts naturally fell upon Nax. Once her body had calmed sufficiently, she began to meditate, reaching out towards him through the Force, hoping to at least try and comfort him.
Instead, what she got was pain unimaginable. Nax was actively being attacked, but not by any conventional weapon. He was having stones and other sharp objects thrown at him, cutting his skin open, only for the wounds to rapidly heal, creating a sickening cycle of pain, healing, and then more pain.
"Fascinating how resilient the human body is, isn't it?" a familiar, dark voice questioned behind Kyra. Kyra drew her '44, and in one swift motion, shot the figure clean in its head. But there was no thump of a dead body hitting the ground – instead, Dantinian stood there, calm as ever, looking somewhat amused. "I had imagined he would break fairly easily, but that hasn't happened." he continued. Kyra kept the '44 pointed at him at all times, just in case he turned physical. Dantinian easily picked up on this, and his figure started to multiply, encircling Kyra. "Did you know that, in spite of all that I've done to him, he still holds out hope that you'll rescue him?"
"You're a Suns-damned monster for what you've done to him." Kyra sneered, keeping her eyes focused on the 'original' Dantinian.
"That," Dantinian said, raising a finger, "...is a matter of perspective, Dreamer." he contested, each copy perfectly mimicking his movements, like a wave. "I do what I must for my people, and I have no regrets. Can you say the same, Dreamer?"
Kyra's face twisted into an expression of disgust. "I've seen what you do to 'your people' - you round them up like animals and slaughter them! You're committing actual, stars forsaken genocide! Against the few survivors of your race!"
"Dissidents are not my people, Dreamer." Dantinian denied, looking down on Kyra with just a smug hint of superiority over her, as if in his mind, the outcome of the war had already been determined. "And the other aliens here scarcely deserve better treatment than livestock. Yours, in particular, deserve a far worse fate."
"Always charming when leaders reject and dehumanize those that hate them." Kyra snarked in response, making her sarcasm as obvious as she possibly could. "Can't imagine why anyone would rebel against you."
That clearly struck a nerve with Dantinian. "You know nothing of statecraft – of what it took me to get where I am!" he hissed, enraged by Kyra's words. "I took a stagnating, failing technocracy and transformed it into an empire to retake the worlds of old – to reclaim our lost glory!" he boasted, furious that she had the insolence to question his abilities as a leader. "What have you accomplished with your life, short as it will be?"
"More than you could ever hope to, or ever will." Kyra responded ominously, choosing to let the response hang in the air, and then not elaborate on it.
Dantinian was visibly frustrated by Kyra's unwillingness to relent, and instead of using words, decided to use actions to get it across that she was hopelessly outmatched. Each of his duplicates drew a weapon that looked almost like a lightsaber, only it was more… primal, for lack of a better word. The hilt was considerably longer than the lightsabers Kyra had grown accustomed to, making the weapon look unwieldy enough to require two hands. The grip, which appeared to be either made of a polymer or rubber, coiling around the hilt like a snake, leaving the exposed dark green metal to give off a dull shine wherever Dantinian's hand hadn't covered it, and right where the blade was supposed to come out, there were four protrusions arranged evenly around the hilt that went out beyond it – stabilizers, maybe?
There was a distinct snap-screech rolling around the room as each duplicate activated their lightsaber. The blade was a dark crimson, with a black core, as opposed to the white core of regular lightsabers. The blade seemed… unstable, occasionally growing in size momentarily, before being reeled back in by the stabilizers. It kept flickering and trying to break loose, giving off sparks, and the sound it made when idle was like a speederbike engine that was about to give out.
The duplicates raised their lightsabers just over their heads, prepared to charge, and ran towards Kyra, rapidly closing. Acting quickly, she jumped out of the trap and over the heads of the duplicates, quickly pulling a training saber to her hand. Using the Force, she broke the chain on her necklace, freeing the kyber crystal. Popping the front end of the training saber open, Kyra ejected the green training crystal and slotted her blue one in, sealing the weapon.
With a snap-hiss, the cyan-white blade shot out of her lightsaber, and Kyra readied herself. Two duplicates came at her, both using different angles of attack to maximize the chance for a hit. Parrying the attack of the one on the right, Kyra slid underneath the blade of the one on the left, its crimson blade just narrowly missing her nose. Shooting a blaster bolt into the chest of a third duplicate that was rushing her down, it dropped dead, and she had enough time to fling herself up and kick the duplicate that had been on her right in the back of the head.
Shifting to the side ever so slightly, Kyra evaded a stab that was meant for her heart, and she responded in kind by stabbing her lightsaber into the remaining duplicate's sternum, before cutting it clean in half from the chest up, giving out a cloud of black smoke as 'blood'. She quickly finished the duplicate below her off, decapitating it, and then she turned her attention to the remaining five.
Said five immediately formed a phalanx, each one adopting defensive position best suited to provide maximum coverage for each other, and proceeded to slowly advance. Clearly, there was no way through the formation, but around…
Focusing the Force into her legs, Kyra launched herself to the side of the formation, just narrowly out of range of their lightsabers. Holding her weapon outwards, Kyra ran straight through the formation, bisecting three of the duplicates, before she felt a sharp tingle in her spine, and broke off the attack – something she was right to do, as the duplicate that was last in line had his lightsaber right where her neck would have been.
The two remaining duplicates sneered at Kyra, before merging into one. The remaining duplicate appeared tired and irritated that he had been so easily thwarted, and seemed more focused on that than actually fighting with Kyra. Preparing for another attack on Dantinian, Kyra readied herself, and launched herself upwards, going for a strike down on Dantinian's head. A scant few seconds before the attack connected, though, Dantinian disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, leaving Kyra to awkwardly cut at the floor.
Getting up, she quickly glanced all around the room, looking for any visual sign of Dantinian, but found none. Quickly checking with the Force, she found that his presence was gone, and she was alone again, save for Sawei, who was rapidly approaching. Kyra took the time to catch her breath, and Sawei broke into the training room, lightsabers at the ready to assist.
However, upon seeing the training room empty, aside from the obvious signs of actual lightsaber combat, Sawei ran through the same motions that Kyra did when Dantinian disappeared. Visual scanning, then confirmation with the Force, and then running over to assist Kyra. "I came as fast as I could, Kyra." Sawei stated, looking around, just in case Dantinian wanted to come back for seconds. "What happened? How did he get here?"
Kyra finally shut the lightsaber off, the blade hissing as it retracted into the hilt, and she ejected her crystal, pulling the original training crystal to her and slotting it back in. "...I don't know." she frankly admitted, giving Sawei a half-look over her shoulder. "I tried to reach out to Nax, but all I got from him was… pain, and then Dantinian appeared." she answered.
"Pain?"
"He's being tortured, Sawei." Kyra grimly answered, managing to fight back her emotions. "Not to gain intelligence over us or anything." she continued, her expression sinking. "It's to get at me, and that sick bastard knows it's working."
Sawei avoided broaching the topic further, knowing that it would only devolve into an argument over the attachment issue, something she knew Kyra didn't need right now. Kneeling down next to her padawan, Sawei thought of something. "...Kyra, perhaps he was able to attack because you left yourself vulnerable by trying to reach Nax." she suggested, trying to avoid accusing Kyra of anything. "Were I to shield you, you would be able to connect with him for however long I would be able to hold off Dantinian." Sawei continued, and Kyra gave her a kind of pleading look, silently begging for her to do so.
Sawei shut her eyes, focusing on concealing Kyra with the Force, and Kyra felt her presence. Knowing that she was now protected, she felt out towards Nax's mind again. Once again the pain Nax was enduring encroached upon her, and she kept wincing from how intense it was, threatening to break her concentration, but she powered through. "Nax?" she softly said to him through the Force. With that one word, the figurative storm that was coming from Nax calmed down, if only slightly.
"...Help." was the only thing Nax was able to respond with, before a fresh storm of pain swarmed over him. He sounded… terrified. Afraid. Kyra had never heard him like that before – he had always been defiant in situations like this. The pain once again abated, and she could feel Nax's sorrow seeping through.
Kyra frowned, choking back and only just managing to keep herself composed enough to stay focused. "…I will, Nax." she said, trying to comfort him to some degree, letting her words linger in his mind. "Please, just hold on a little while longer – we're coming for you." she finished. When Kyra felt the tide of pain return shortly afterwards, Nax's agony drowned out every other thought. She wanted to stay longer, but there was no time – Sawei's protection was running out, and if she stayed, they would be vulnerable to Dantinian again.
Kyra regretfully let go of the connection, and Sawei soon followed. Kyra said nothing – she just stared ahead at the wall, letting everything she just experienced process. Sawei looked at Kyra sympathetically, and felt tempted to discuss the relationship again, having gained a much more intimate perspective on the pair. However, she chose to hold her tongue, and instead stood quietly by her padawan, watching over her.
Dantinian snapped out of his trance, and stared forward, a blank expression on his face. Normally, his meditation chamber calmed him – helped him disconnect from all but the Nexus for a while.
This was not the case at the moment.
Getting up, Dantinian opened the door to the chamber with a flick of his wrist, and exited out into the corridor outside. He didn't have a particular destination in mind, or at least, not yet, but deep inside, Dantinian was absolutely furious. Passing by a set of windows that opened out to show Noridar's tiers, Dantinian stood by, staring out and watching the artificial sunset with his arms behind his back, fists clenched.
As it so happened, the first one to come by him was Dunius, attending to the remainder of his tasks for the day. "Dunius." Dantinian called out, the calm in his voice betraying the rage within, and Dunius immediately snapped to attention. "Our current plan for this war is untenable, given how much ground is being lost. See to it that a new plan is drafted immediately."
"Yes, sire." Dunius replied, holding his dataslate to his chest. "I must ask, though – what would this new plan entail?"
Dantinian paused to think. "Our enemy prefers precision strikes – they cripple us by destroying critical defenses and seizing air superiority before bombing our ground forces. Defense in depth appears to be the name of the game with them – grind them down with attrition and beat them that way." he laid out, recalling the many after action reports indicating similar events – air defenses knocked out, bombs and precision munitions dropped on remaining priority targets, ground forces left vulnerable before being annihilated by a quick strike force consisting of automated infantry, sometimes mechanized, but usually airborne.
Their tactics were clearly working against their existing strategies. Overlapping anti-air coverage was paramount to success, and clearly, better squad level tactics would need to be devised to respond better to these QRF strike teams that overwhelmed garrisons, which were mostly trained to deal with lightly armed guerillas, not well trained soldiers and highly advanced droids practicing maneuver warfare and outflanking them with ease.
A doctrinal change would certainly cause some problems within the ranks, but the damage would be far more severe if the strategy of the Interlopers was not immediately blunted – losing some small towns and irrelevant checkpoints was unfortunate, but was to be expected. Wargate's loss, however, was completely unacceptable.
"I also want recon on their main encampment. Either orbital probes or the standard ops teams." he ordered, not taking his focus off the sunset. "The rate at which they're producing new equipment is astounding – they're even outproducing Myshov's craftmasters. I want to know where this equipment is coming from."
Dunius nodded in acknowledgment, before heading back down the way he came, towards his personal office.
Once again left alone, Dantinian focused through the Nexus, connecting with the Dreamer once again. "...Your time will come soon enough, Dreamer." he hissed to her. In response, the Dreamer gave him the closest thing she could to a punch in the gut, which was to say, a migraine through the Nexus, albeit, one that was easily mitigated.
Her power was growing at an exponential rate – while his attack earlier had been mostly to prod at her abilities and keep tabs on her progress, it was alarming just how far she had come. The Dreamer being able to effortlessly focus on the multiple copies he had created was a concern – lesser beings would easily fall prey to the tactic. Then again, the stronger she got, the more she would have to give when she was inevitably defeated.
Letting out a sigh he didn't know he had been holding, Dantinian blinked a few times, and realized that he had been watching the sunset so long that it was nearly midnight already, and quickly got a move on with the scant few tasks he had left to do.
Satio and Mailo sat in the back of an MPLV that was headed for a place they hadn't been in many thousands of cycles – Transport Hub Ste'vopol, one of six planned hubs, and the only one they actually managed to construct, before realizing the terrible cost necessary to make it functional.
The twins were particularly quiet the entire ride there from the Dropstorm. The clones had been building bits of infrastructure for ease of use by their forces, mostly paved roads, but every now and then they would come across a checkpoint, or some basic air defense systems. Patrols, too, but as far as the rings went, this region was fairly quiet and only needed a light presence.
The MPLV's engine started to wind down, and the twins heard the driver shifting the gears down as they approached Ste'vopol. Stopping the MPLV at a large checkpoint, the driver honked the horn, and two searchlights crossed over the vehicle from the guard towers. The lights remained on momentarily, before shutting off, and the forcefield blocking entry to the surface base dropped. The driver pulled the vehicle in, before swinging it around and parking it just near the entrance, before signaling for the pair to get out, which they promptly did.
The twins were immediately approached by a trio, two organic soldiers in mint condition armor, and the likely commander of the firebase, a clone wearing a naval officer's uniform with a simple plastoid armor vest. "...I take it you two are the experts we've been expecting?" the officer questioned, glancing between the twins. "The labcoats have a lot of questions for you – the head one is in the main lobby, and, fair warning, he'll have you for hours. Scraglicker just about talked my ear off."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but when you live as long as we have, these kinds of things tend to blend together." Satio replied, and the twins gave the officer a friendly smile, before heading for the facility, leaving him bewildered as to what they meant by that.
The old security locks they had left in place had, naturally, been overridden and replaced by the current occupants, but the guards posted nearby were evidently under order to let them through without a need for them to show any kind of identification. As soon as they were in the airlock to the facility, they heard someone in a heated argument. "I told you already, your model is bunk! The resonance and counter-resonance are completely out of sync!" a man yelled, and the airlock cycled just in time for the twins to see a mix of races scurrying about the front entrance, all of them in either safety equipment or body armor, and all of them armed with, bare minimum, a blaster pistol, and all of them turned their heads to the twins when the doors opened.
The scientist who had been in the argument immediately walked up to the pair and offered them a handshake. He was human, and had short chestnut colored hair and green eyes, with a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. His face was angular, blocky, even, and he had a thick goatee, and he was of above average height, just shy of standing head and shoulders with the clones. "I'm Gravesky Frejmon, the only theoretical physicist here with any practical experience, and I can't overstate how happy I am to make your acquaintance." he said as Satio shook his hand, and Gravesky motioned for them to follow. "Work here figuring out how your teleporter works has been, well, slow, to say the least. There are maybe ten others in my field here, and all of them were in the middle of their CITS educations, so they're having a bit of trouble grasping the concepts behind your teleporter, something I was hoping you would be able to enlighten us on."
Mailo nodded in understanding. "I can sympathize – we only had a light understanding of how it worked when we first built it. I can't imagine starting from scratch." she said as they came up to the viewing station that opened to the central chamber. A couple of techs had surrounded the gazebo, poking and prodding at it with their equipment.
"That's… worrying." Gravesky admitted, shooing away a guard who had come up to question him. "...But, care to inform us as to how it works?" he requested, pulling out a datapad to record his notes.
Satio stared out the window at the gazebo. "Teleportation, as we have come to understand it, isn't quite as simple as 'enter in at point A, come out at point B." he started, curling his lips as he thought of how to put it into words. "It's a special interaction within spacetime, with a bit of a nudge from the Nex-" he tried to say, catching himself. "-the Force." Satio corrected, before turning to continue further into the facility.
"The Force?" Gravesky echoed, already feeling out of his element. "What kind of nudge would the Force give to enable teleportation?" he continued to question, until he was brought before the first destroyed tank, stained from its vitor content.
Mailo frowned, knowing full well what she and Satio had done all those millennia ago. "This tank contained a living being – a clone of one of the Infinite Empire's champions. There were three others like him in this facility." she started, picking up one of the restraints in the tank, taking great care to avoid cutting herself on its sharp edges. "They were chemically lobotomized to minimize function, but their potential with the Force remained. In short, we used them as batteries." she admitted, still horrified that they had even gone as far as to test their theory.
"These… batteries unleashed dark side energies, which we used to create an appropriate rift in the local volume, one that could be traveled through." Satio finished explaining, looking mournfully at the empty tank. "This was something Virgilius could not abide, torturing a living being for our own convenience of travel, and we all agreed to abandon the project."
Gravesky was, evidently, not as concerned with the ethics of the batteries as the twins were. "Would it be possible to convert the system to accept input from a different source than the batteries? Say, Moryne or Klorr?" he inquired, glancing inside the tube, before looking away.
The twins glanced at each other. "Theoretically, yes. We would need to make sure the teleporter is still functional, which shouldn't take too long. In fact, the only real challenge here is replacing the input from the clones to a more safe method, one that won't bring harm to the Dreamer or Klorr." Satio answered. "Then, we'll be able to use the teleporter system at will, provided one of those two is available."
"Wait, you mean this facility actually connects to other places here?" Gravesky questioned excitedly, desiring to know more. "Where?"
"Noridar." the twins said in unison. "It was the only functional teleport destination before cancellation." Satio finished.
Blackwall glanced over Gravesky's report some days after the twins had been sent to the teleporter facility. The work they were doing on getting it running again was progressing quickly – most of the critical infrastructure had actually already been repaired under their guidance, and with a little bit of assistance from Foreman, a prototype for the replacement for the batteries was already under development.
Sawei was… perturbed when she first heard the details of how their system worked, but was nonetheless willing to help prototype the system when it was ready. Now, though, all that was left was to determine what to do with the teleport when it was ready to go.
Rapping his fingers against his command chair, Blackwall glanced between the report on the datapad and the morning haze outside the viewport as the sun rose on their section of the rings.
Sending actual infantry teams through to attack was Blackwall's first idea, one that he immediately discarded. Noridar was almost certainly the most heavily defended position on their side of the ring – infantry squads would be set upon like dogs and cut down, and with the teleporter exposed, Dantinian's forces would have direct access to the Dropstorm.
That would simply not do.
The next best thing would be single man infiltration units, sent through one at a time to avoid attention. His first picks would be those with infiltration experience – the few surviving commandos and ARCs under his command. The key problem there, though, was that they don't have a particularly effective way of concealing themselves in the middle of the city – not yet, anyways. That was something Foreman was working on.
Rakatan volunteers were the next best option, but there was a very real possibility that any of the volunteers were known and wanted fugitives. They get captured and interrogated, the jig is up, and the teleporter needs to be destroyed, throwing a highly valuable advantage away.
Infiltration droids were also out of the question at the moment – Foreman was working on an upgraded version of the BX commando droids, but those were still in prototyping and not ready for production, let alone field work.
That left one option to send through, and she was standing right in front of him. "Sapphyra, normally I wouldn't even consider putting someone I couldn't guarantee was right for the job through something like this, but considering I've basically no other choice until we can get something for the commandos..." Blackwall started, still sounding rather hesitant.
"I get it. You want me to reassure you that when I go through the teleporter, it's not immediately going to go belly up and ruin everything." Lexi responded, leaning on the command table. "Let me tell you something, Commander. I kept myself alive on Coruscant by staying out of sight of the cops, the gangs, and running slicer jobs to keep myself fed. I am one of – no, I'm the best slicer you have on hand." she said with absolute confidence. "I know I don't have proper military training, not like your commandos, but a lot of them are out of their prime. Again, I'm the best choice for the first one to send through, unless you happen to have some Imperial special forces lying around."
Blackwall let out a long, drawn out sigh. Lexi seemed hellbent on going through, and he had a feeling he knew why. "I know you're doing this for Strag, Sapphyra." he bluntly said, and Lexi barely reacted. "I want to be perfectly clear – recovering him is not our primary objective – if he's even still alive, that is. Your mission is to recover intelligence on their defenses, industrial capacity, and troop movements within the capital. You are not to engage in any form of sabotage – do not kill unless it's necessary to save your life. As far as the enemy should know, you don't even exist." Blackwall laid out firmly while Lexi listened. "Am I clear?"
"Crystal." Lexi replied, standing at attention. "What do I do if I find any rebel groups in the city?"
"Make note of their movements, but don't interact with them – we'll leave that to the volunteers." Blackwall ordered, before double checking something on his side of the command table. "I want reports going out every three days – you'll be provided with a secured datapad to make them. Don't risk contact if your presence is suspected."
"What about an extraction plan?" Lexi rightly asked.
Blackwall paused briefly. "Listen for the artillery shells and bombs." he remarked, remaining mostly serious. "You're going to be on your own behind enemy lines and without support until we can get more through the teleporter – the only relief you'll get is when we come knocking at their door. Once you're in, you're in for the long haul." Blackwall continued, before glancing up at her. "Still think you're up to the task?"
"Absolutely." Lexi immediately answered.
Blackwall worked to iron some things out on what he was doing with the command table. "...You'll be contacted when the teleporter is ready to go, Sapphyra."
Several days later, Lexi had been informed the teleport was ready to go, and had been brought to the facility. Compared to how Kyra described the area when she had been sent here a while back, the 52nd had done a lot of work fortifying the area. Heavy patrols of guards, gunships, anti-personnel and anti-armor emplacements, and an air defense network were all scattered about the area. The interior was even more surprising – hasty accommodations had been made to the facility for the myriad species working on getting the teleporter running, many of which obviously didn't fit in with the original design.
Not far from the airlock, Lexi was caught by one of the support staff, and escorted to one of the observation rooms, where Kyra, Sawei, and those in charge were waiting for her, discussing things among themselves, until Sawei glanced over her shoulder and spotted Lexi. "Looks like we're all here." she said, and they all turned to face Lexi. "Who wants to tell her how this is going to work?"
The Rakatan twins stepped forward. "Greetings, Sapphyra." they said in perfect unison, creeping some of the scientists out. "We're running behind schedule, so we'll make this brief. You will be put into the testing chamber and are to wait close to the teleport structure. You are not to enter the structure until directed to do so." they directed sternly, and Lexi cast a concerned glance in Kyra's direction. "We will be communicating the startup sequence to you through the vox system. Once the teleporter is active, you'll have a short window to get through before we have to shut the system down. Is that clear?"
"Clear enough." Lexi responded, with a growing hint of concern. "One question though, what happens if I miss the timing?"
Gravesky, the lead scientist, was visibly drawing blanks, leaving Satio to answer the question. "If you just miss the timing, we need to restart the sequence. If you go through, though..." he trailed, leaving a hint of uncertainty in the air. "...I cannot say what will happen with absolute confidence, other than that death is highly likely."
That did little to ease Lexi's worries.
Gravesky decided that was enough talk. "Alright, we're behind schedule as is. To your stations, people!" he shouted, and the group dispersed, except for Kyra, who chose to remain to have a word with Lexi.
"Lexi, when you go through the teleporter, can you-" she started.
"-look for Nax and send a message back about his condition?" Lexi interrupted. "Blackwall told me that he wasn't my concern, but I was never a good listener anyways." she half-joked.
Kyra shook her head. "I already know what's happening with Nax, Lexi. He's being tortured." she admitted bluntly, surprising Lexi. "I tried to reach out to him with the Force a few days ago, and all I got back was just… pain." she detailed, her expression dimming. "I don't think he's even being tortured to get information – I think it's just to get to me."
Lexi was understanding, and gave Kyra a hug. "I'll look for him, Kyra." she said reassuringly, and Kyra returned the hug, before they separated.
"Stay safe, Lexi." Kyra replied, and the two parted ways, with Kyra heading to her station, and Lexi being brought to the entrance to the chamber. Checking over her equipment one final time, Lexi activated her mask, and her HUD clicked on. Slowly, the hermetic doors unsealed and opened, letting her into the chamber. As the doors closed behind her, there was a painful ringing as the intercom turned on. "Testing, testing..." Gravesky's voice echoed through, and he cleared his throat. "All right. Sapphyra, approach the teleport and maintain a distance of twelve feet from the structure. Vahns, begin feeding power to the teleport." he ordered, and as Lexi approached the teleport, there was a distinct whine as the chamber powered up. "Power output one hundred percent. Keina, drop the arms and begin the resonance cycle." Gravesky directed, and three arms dropped down from the ceiling, each with a large green crystal attached to the end, and each arm began to rotate around the structure, while the crystals started to glow with a faint yellow-orange hue. "Cycling." a nasally voice replied over the intercom, and the crystals shot out beams of yellow energy over the teleport, colliding and directing down towards the structure, and the pad within began to glow a faint orange as the energy was distributed to it. "Braun, deploy stabilizers." Gravesky again directed, and there was another mechanical groan as another set of arms deployed from inside the existing circle, with some sort of laser attachment at the end of it. When the stabilizers were primed, they started rotating clockwise with the crystals, firing the laser down into them that changed their yellow-orange hue and energy to a kaleidoscope of colors. "Moryne, Klorr, it's your turn. Open the rift."
There was no response from either of them, but several seconds later, the wild, frantic energy being shot out of the crystals became a highly focused beam, even as said beam started to warp and fluctuate. There was a crack of what almost sounded like thunder, and a thin beam shot up from the pad, slowly widening into a view of the other side. Readying herself to run, Lexi waited for the signal to go. "The portal is open, Sapphyra! Go!" Gravesky called out, and Lexi went on a dead run for the pad, jumping through the tear, which stayed open for several more seconds, before snapping shut behind her.
Lexi wasted no time readying herself when she was on the other side. Drawing her blaster, she quickly scanned the room for hostiles, which was easier said than done since the lighting was almost completely out. Flipping her HUD to a low-light display, she saw the true state of the Noridar teleport – dingy and run down, practically ruined. There was a distinct musty smell in the air, and it was a miracle the teleporter even worked to begin with with how much of its internal electronics had been stripped out.
As her eyes adjusted, Lexi spotted several objects of concern, namely, tents. Either a rebel group had set up their base in the teleport chamber, or a homeless camp had cropped up. Either way, she immediately activated her cloak and headed for the chamber door, which was halfway opened already, and judging by the damage to it, would probably never move again.
Slipping underneath the door, Lexi headed up the stairs into the control rooms. Again, signs of recent habitation were littered around the place – what looked like hot plates and other food-prep equipment were squared away in one corner of the room that led to the chamber, while some temporary tables were in the corner opposite, with plates still set out. Wary, Lexi kept her blaster at the ready, and proceeded down the corridor to the right.
Passing through the doorway, she continued finding signs that the facility had people living there. The first room she passed through was some sort of communal living area, nothing too particularly fancy, just some basic seating with soft padding haphazardly thrown onto it. Some other things of interest were strewn about on the floor – toys of some kind, ancient looking datapads, and a few other things Lexi didn't know how to describe.
Again, she cleared the room, finding no actual living people, and she moved on to what was, surprisingly, the last room before the exit. Unsurprisingly, it was a guard post, partly barricaded on two sides to create a crossfire between the barricades and the door. The left barricade had an emplacement gun, something akin to an E-Web with the barrel chopped, and the right barricade had a small collection of medical supplies and an ammunition type Lexi had never seen before. It was obviously a slugthrower round, but it wasn't for standard infantry. The round was huge, reaching all the way from the tip of her middle finger to her wrist. Taking it and slipping it into her coat as a souvenir, Lexi quickly vacated the facility. She didn't know why it had been seemingly abandoned in a haste, but that wasn't her problem. Not right now, anyways.
Moving out into the exterior, Lexi was more than surprised to see that it didn't lead somewhere within the city limits. Instead, she was in a massive, metal ravine that went down quite a ways. There was the scarcest notion of a guard rail at the edge of the platform she was standing on, and when she leaned over it to look down, Lexi's eyes went wide.
This was a massive transport hub. Not for organics, though. Far below her feet, swarms of maintenance droids flew every which way, disappearing to parts unknown on the rings. It was hard to get a good visual on the droids themselves since they were moving quickly, but the sounds they made reminded Lexi of the nights she would spend near the portals and skyways, listening to the airspeeders fly by.
Stowing her blaster, Lexi walked along the platform, gliding her hand over the railing, making note of little crevices in the wall that droids would come and go from, sometimes carrying a cargo container underneath them, sometimes not. Not a single one of them paid her any mind, just mindlessly going about their assigned tasks.
Eventually, Lexi came to another hermetic door lying ajar in its frame, only this one was much smaller. Getting her foot into the crevice, Lexi got a good grip inside, and pulled the door apart with surprising ease. Slipping through, she went up another flight of stairs, passing through the dim red lighting, and coming to a flat wall with a service ladder built for a much wider species than even the Rakata. Climbing up, Lexi eventually came to a manhole cover of sorts, and, carefully pushing it open to peer onto the street, found the city streets completely deserted.
Granted, on this side of the ring it was the middle of the night, so perhaps that was to be expected. Gently moving the manhole aside to make as little noise as possible, Lexi crawled out of the access point, and carefully slid the manhole cover back over, just the way she found it.
Noridar's streets were surprisingly quaint, given Kyra's preconceived notions about the Rakata under Dantinian. She had expected something more oppressing and brutal – towering duplicate duracrete apartment after towering duplicate duracrete apartment, organized and planned, almost like a machine. Instead, Noridar was almost like something out of a fantasy holobook – constructed with a distinctly pre-industrial style, with, granted, mostly modern amenities. Where Coruscant or Corellia would have straight, paved streets, Noridar's were filled in with stone bricks and tended to wind, which was actually fairly aesthetically pleasing. Whatever shops Lexi passed by usually had a big metal rod hanging over the door, with a wood or metal sign dangling from it in the breeze, all with the name of the shop on it, typically offering some sort of deal on whatever good they were selling.
The homes didn't look too bad either. Their exteriors were mostly wood painted a lighter color, with metal supports keeping them stable, and they all had metal roof tiles. Quite a few of them were two story homes, not the full on apartments like Lexi had been expecting. Regardless, she was here to gain intel, not to admire Rakatan architecture.
Lexi found her way up to an open-air cafe that, with some maneuvering, would give her access to the rooftops. Hopping up on top of the guard railing, Lexi easily kept her footing as she pulled herself up onto the rooftop. Taking a moment to take in the city from her new vantage point, she realized something – Noridar was a ringed city, not a traditionally planned one like Coronet. The tier she was in was near the bottom, the next one up had what appeared to be industry of some kind, and at the very center of Noridar was a large keep of some description, probably where Dantinian lived. There was one notable landmark on her tier, though, and that was this pyramid-type structure on the far end of where Lexi was standing
After briefly thinking of where to proceed, Lexi moved across the rooftops, before jumping onto the outer wall's battlements. She would be able to move quickly around the outer tier, and given how there were bridges that connected the wall to the second tier, probably that one as well. A convenient way of ignoring any civilians and guards that happened to be patrolling the streets below. Moving to the closest bridge, Lexi pressed inwards, still wondering why she hadn't seen any guards yet.
This was the most heavily defended piece of Rakatan territory, was it not? Where were all the guards? When she was halfway across that bridge, though, she heard footsteps below, and froze in her place. Glancing down to the streets, Lexi's fears were strangely eased at the realization that there were, in fact, patrols on this tier. Once the guard was sufficiently out of earshot, Lexi resumed her travel. Coming to the second tier, she felt compelled to follow it around to the right. Though, once she was a bit into that path, she realized why – there was the distant sound of a small, angry crowd.
Dropping down from the wall and onto a rooftop, Lexi moved closer to the place the mob was gathering, which was a plaza in the middle of the first tier. The closer she got, the louder the sound of rocks being thrown grew. As she came to the edge of one of the rooftops, she realized what was going on – the crowd was throwing whatever they could find, mostly rocks, at… Nax?
He was chained naked to the wall of one of the buildings surrounding the plaza, hooked up to a bulky machine that fed tubes and wires into his body. Taking out her macrobinoculars, she realized what the purpose of the tubing and electronics was – every time Nax was hit by a rock or other piece of debris, the machine would react and inject him with a fresh load of vitor.
Terrible didn't even begin to describe his condition – the wall behind him had been coated with dried blood, dripping all the way down to pool below his feet. Nax had bruises and scars all over his body, many of them fresh, others still visibly healing, or at least, making the scarcest notion of attempting to heal. It was then that Lexi realized something – Nax was visibly thinner than when she had seen him last. He wasn't quite emaciated yet, but he was certainly getting there.
Peeling away from her macrobinoculars, Lexi spotted a series of light flashes across the plaza, on the rooftops. One, two, three flashes. Then, in another spot, there were four consecutive flashes. She didn't have to wait long for her to spot movement, and, pulling her binos back up, got an admittedly poor look at her guests. They clearly weren't a guard patrol – whatever they were wearing was light and easy to move around in, while the guards seemed to prefer heavy armor. What was obvious was that they were Rakata, and Lexi spotted a few shadows dropping down from the rooftops onto the street below. Watching for them to show themselves, a few of them in civvies rounded the corner into the plaza.
"Hey!" one of them shouted, with Lexi's suit automatically translating from the native language. "We just caught some Interloper trying to sneak around!" they continued, and Lexi froze up. Were they hostile? Had they just spotted her and decided to rat her out? Her cloak was still on, so unless…
Drawing her blaster and turning around, Lexi found nothing. Not a single soul had been watching her. Anxious, she kept her blaster on hand, and went back to observing the crowd, who were now following the mysterious figures down the street, ready to bash someone's skull in. That, thankfully, meant the plaza was clear now, and she could freely get a quick look at how Nax was doing. Checking the rooftops for the mystery Rakata one last time, Lexi found none, and began to cross the rooftops to get to Nax.
The closer she got to him, the more her heart sank. Dropping down to a balcony about level with where Nax was chained, Lexi disengaged her cloak, feeling that she was concealed enough in the shadows to not be spotted. "...Nax?" she asked softly, listening to his pained breathing. "...What have they done to you?" she questioned in shock, reaching out to touch his hand.
There was no response from Nax, but he started moving with what limited range and strength he had left. When Nax gave Lexi a half-cocked look, she caught a glimpse of something horrifying behind his long, blood-matted hair – Nax had no eyes. They had been completely torn from their sockets, leaving an empty pit where they once sat. "What kind of monster would..." she trailed quietly, before noticing the large scar across Nax's throat, and then she made the connection of why he hadn't said anything. "...They ripped your vocal cords out." she commented in horror. "You can't even scream. Stars alive, you can't even scream." she repeated in realization as to just how far Dantinian was willing to go to torture Nax.
Horrified at what had been done to him, Lexi immediately looked for a way to free him. The shackles were an easy enough prospect – they were just metal chains clamped around Nax's limbs. The wiring and vitor tubes were another story, and she leaned over the platform, looking down at the machine feeding him vitor to maybe look for a shutdown. When she looked back up, though, she saw those same tubes poking out from inside Nax's body, and it was then she realized there truly was nothing she could do. Any attempt at removing Nax from his restraints would cause him to bleed out and die. "Nax, I'm sorry, but I have to leave you." she said grimly, touching Nax's hand again and gently squeezing. "I can't free you on my own, but I'll come back for you. I promise."
What looked like tears began to flow down Nax's cheeks, but he made no sound. The only acknowledgment that Lexi got from him was him squeezing her hand back. She almost didn't want to leave him, but she knew she was powerless to help him right now. Squeezing his hand even tighter, Lexi fought back tears, before re-engaging her cloak and climbing back onto the rooftops, now determined to find a way to get him out of there. If he were to be saved when the 52nd showed up at Noridar, it might already be too late. She had to find a way to save him before then.
For her first stop, she was going to start tracking down the mystery Rakata, moving across the rooftops in the direction she had seen them last, and, with any luck, she could shadow and make contact with them, orders be damned.
That's that chapter.
Apologies for the delay, college started and I've been a bit busy with that, and kinda just trying to keep my head above water with personal family matters. Regardless, it's here now, and that's what matters.
Anyways, I got tired of having Lexi basically sit on her ass and do nothing the entire arc, so she finally gets to do something of actual importance behind enemy lines while the ground war happens.
'Till next time.
-Tweak