I think I finally have an answer as to why the chapters have been so slow to release – it's that I'm running out of steam for this arc. I know how I want the plot to progress and how I want it to end (in fact, I should let you guys know that the conflict will formally be ending with chapter 40) but actually getting there is a slog for me personally.
Moving aside from my lack of motivation, I dug up an older text document from 2019 going over planned elements for the current arc that I thought would be interesting to share, since we're nearing the end anyways. Some differences include; one section of the horizontal ring not being fully completed and being desert at the incomplete portion, the system the rings being in being a pulsar called Relkahn (which in earlier plans was the origin of the name Pulsar Company) and the rings drew energy from it, similar to the Star Forge, a Clone Commando who would have been with the 52nd that character wise, was essentially the Soldier from Team Fortress 2, down to hallucinating talking to his dead war buddies, Gargans being mutated Rancor instead of their own species, plans for a Nihilanth-like antagonist that eventually got turned into Dantinian, the Overseer being a bit more involved, the inciting event being a result of Vopa sending them out looking for the Void Charter, which in the document was still named the Dark Star with Vopa just being named the 'Coruscant contact' since he wasn't actually in the story yet, and some nonsense about Force entities on the rings that were functionally fucking Stands from Jojo, and I vaguely remember that idea turning into something akin to Warframes, before being dropped altogether. Also of note is Lexi's total absence in the document – it just mentions Nax and Kyra, meaning this was towards the end of Tatooine when I still hadn't fully decided what to do with Lexi.
Anyways, reviews.
To misteryman526: I didn't know that was how repulsorlifts actually worked, but anyways, you're thinking of centrifugal force, not centripetal. If it were centripetal, everything would be at the center of the rings in the void of space, not sticking to the surface. Regardless, ringworlds in fiction only generate gravity through centrifugal force if they're sticking close to the Niven ringworld, like the Orbitals in the Culture or even the ring station that was in the Book of Boba Fett which is what is implied to keep the gravity there. The Halo rings (which were the primary inspiration for the Rakatan ringworld in terms of design, NOT the Niven ringworld) generate their gravity artificially, not through their spin, which I assume is just for the day/night cycle and maybe the inclement weather. Also, considering that in Star Wars, everything from light freighters on up has artificial gravity, I don't think it's much of a reach to believe that it's the same case for the Rakatan ringworld.
Anyways, read and review.
Vu'Shol slipped back into the waking world once more, or at least, what he assumed to be the waking world. He was still aboard the Interlopers' voidship, that much he was sure of. What he was less sure of was exactly how much time had passed. Rough guess was that it had been about a week. His thoughts drifted to his predicament – his captor and primary interrogator, that Twi'lek thing, Sawei, had initially tried a straightforward interrogation with him. It, obviously, did not work, so she changed tactics.
Unfortunately for Vu'Shol, that meant he was now restrained inside of a sensory deprivation tank, partially submerged and in complete and total darkness. This would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that the tank seemed to have been made out of a special material that isolated whoever was inside from the Nexus, and there was some kind of chemical in the water that deadened his sense of touch. In other words, for someone of his ability, this was nothing short of agonizing. She had also seen fit to throw in another device with him before locking him in the tank, which contained a little pre-recorded message for him that occasionally played. "Say when you're ready to talk." it said in its disgusting pig language. It was the only thing that served as a reminder that he was still alive and not, say, consigned to oblivion, though at this point, oblivion would be preferable.
Considering that the Dreamer had basically turned him into a defenseless vegetable that was unable to fend for himself, alongside the fact that he had been isolated from five of his six senses, he had ended up reaching his breaking point. While the Hand was resistant to physical torture if somehow captured before they could commit suicide, this was such an abstract form of torture that Vu'Shol had his doubts that Dantinian had even considered it in the first place, and his mental fortitude could only carry him so far.
Right as he opened his mouth to yell that he was going to talk, the door to the tank burst open, blinding Vu'Shol immediately and forcing him to shut his eyes for a few seconds until they adjusted enough for him to see. What he didn't see, or feel, was Sawei, reaching her hand down into the tank and grabbing his head with an immensely satisfied grin on her face. She never intended for him to talk of his own will – she just wanted to wear him down, and it was only as Sawei began to root through his mind for anything and everything he knew that Vu'Shol realized this. No matter how much he twisted and contorted and struggled in his restraints, it would not shake the disturbing feeling of someone else rooting around in his mind, someone other than the Reclaimer. He was powerless to resist it, too, as the deprivation tank had completely worn him down mentally. As his feeble attempts at resistance were effectively ignored, Sawei pushed him down in the liquid, submerging him and giving him a panic response not unlike that induced by waterboarding. After a while, the feeling stopped and Sawei released her hand, pulling up Vu'Shol in the process. Before he could hurl some kind of insult at her, she slammed the tank shut again, leaving him to stew in his own rage, completely helpless against whatever they had in store for him now that they had what they wanted.
Sawei passed the keycard to the tank off to the officer in charge of guarding Vu'Shol. "...And that is how you do an interrogation." she said smugly, while the officer looked at her, beyond dumbfounded that she barely needed to touch Vu'Shol to get the information she needed. "I'll write up what he had and hand it off to Blackwall. You on the other hand..." she trailed, thinking of what to leave as a standing order. "Just let him sit in there. Don't touch him, don't let him out, don't even make a noise. It's what he deserves." she said, and the officer saluted, before seating himself, prepared for the rest of his day to be mind-numbing boredom watching over the hostile vegetable.
Sawei made some final checks to make sure the tank was sealed, and then left the interrogation room after being scanned by the B1A at the door. When she left, she was greeted by Blackwall with his helmet off, exposing his battle scars and wearing an impatient look. "I hope you've made some progress, Sawei."
"Progress?" she echoed, revealing an excited grin. "I've got everything we need. He lasted three days before I sensed him cracking, and the rest was just a matter of tearing through his mind for what I wanted." Sawei revealed, and Blackwall's expression turned to a very pleased look. "Walk with me to the medbay. I'll tell you what I learned from him on the way there." she said, before heading for the nearest turbolift, waiting for Blackwall to enter with her, and she keyed in the deck medbay was on. "There are twenty three members of the Hand of the Reclaimer that are active." she revealed as soon as the door shut. "Kyra dropped that from twenty five when she killed the one, and we captured Vu'Shol. Of those twenty three, six are what I would consider veterans worthy of our direct attention, including Shuu'Tao, their most senior member. The rest I would consider to be threats, but they could be taken out by BX-D hitsquads if they don't end up crossing paths with Kyra or I first."
Blackwall took this in. "...Convenient, as I just ordered the deployment of our BX-Ds to the front. Foreman had taken the initiative and given them additional combat programming from the Magnaguards, so they're almost certainly going to be able to grind down the greens in the Hand through attrition." he mused as the lift came to a halt, letting them out into the medbay. "How experienced are the other six?" he asked as they proceeded down the hall, troopers and civilians alike saluting Blackwall as they walked by.
"Well, Shuu'Tao is the oldest. He was the former Executioner of the Noridar guard, their equivalent of a police chief, or maybe head of the PDF – not sure which applies better, but he's seen a lot of action – a handful of instances of commanding riot control, coordinating city defenses against Gargans and skirmishes against the Vortahee, and plenty of recognition for being an extremely skilled fighter in something that I genuinely can't even pronounce, though I know that it's roughly analogous to a lightsaber style, of which they have several." she recalled, before casting a glance ahead and finding they still had a ways to go. "Around the time Dantinian took power, Shuu'Tao began to manifest Force sensitivity, and Dantinian had him put in charge of the Hand." she continued to explain. "...The other five seem to be cut from the same cloth as Shuu'Tao. They're all members of the local defense force, and have distinguished themselves in some way through their service – their names are Vel'Nil, Gharn'Saas, Khaj'Olik, Lapa'Trann, and Hab'Zis. They're all accomplished fighters, and if Vu'Shol's memories are correct, Khaj singlehandedly took down three Gargans bearing down on the gates of Noridar. The others are equally impressive, but that one stuck out to me the most, considering what one Gargan did to us." Sawei reminded him, earning a slight scowl from the clone at the reminder of the abysmal state their defenses had been in before the Odynaro entered the picture.
They were coming up on Kyra's room, so Blackwall decided to cut it short. "If they've got their own fighting styles, how long do you think it'll take for you two to be able to counter them?"
Sawei shrugged. "I can only do so much without having physical practice against them, Blackwall. I can theorize strategies all I want, but that won't mean anything if those theories fall apart in actual combat."
Blackwall seemed fine with this, however. "As long as you've got something, you'll be fine, Sawei." he responded in an attempt to console her, before something visibly crossed his mind. "By the way, I'm having the sim pods opened up again." he suddenly stated.
That caught Sawei somewhat by surprise. "Why? Aren't most of the troops at least regulars by this point? They've all seen action, so I'm not sure what you intend to-" she tried to question, only for Blackwall to interject.
"It's for special training. You and I both know the Dropstorm will never fly again. She's far too integrated as the town's main power source to just pack up and leave, and I doubt she'd ever get anywhere under her own power these days anyways." he started, and that immediately gave Sawei some inkling of an idea of why he had opened the pods again. "When we brought the Actions down from the junkfield for refitting, we found an extra Action VI that wasn't even damaged, like it had just rolled off the assembly line, so I figured 'what the hell,' and, well… the Trade Surplus is the Hellstorm now." he revealed, and Sawei's eyes lit up. "Foreman's making new drop pods for her refit – the greenbacks will finally understand what it's like to be a Helljumper."
Sawei didn't know how to respond for a few brief moments, and she was about to say something indicating excitement, before reality smacked her in the face again, and she calmed herself. "How long are the refits going to take?"
Blackwall smiled, still finding himself impressed with the speed at which Foreman could handle such a task. "Should be done by tomorrow morning."
Sawei's lekku moved slightly at the answer. "That fast?!" she questioned out of surprise, raising an eyebrow. "Refits with the Republic would take months, even years at a time. I'm amazed Foreman can get them done that quick." she confessed, before leaning on the wall, arms crossed.
"Droids don't need to eat, sleep, or use the 'fresher. They're the best thing I've ever had working support staff, considering they don't bitch like the Republic's contractors used to." Blackwall bluntly stated, before taking a second to remember just how bad those contractors were. "Stars, I had actually forgotten about them. Sorriest bunch of scrapheads that the Republic ever hired." he then admitted, his tone betraying the memory of frustration he had dealing with those contractors.
"Are you going to use it in the Flat?"
"No." Blackwall replied. "The area at the mouth of the Flat that I intend on taking is too wide for a drop. I'm saving it for Noridar – much more condensed of an area to work with for an Action."
"...What about those hologram vehicles you wanted Foreman to make?" Sawei pressed.
"Similar timetable, ready by tomorrow evening." Blackwall replied, his confidence clearly shining through his hardened exterior. "Then, we'll be ready to bait his forces into the trap, and from there, it'll be a breeze all the way to Noridar." he stated with utmost certainty, and the pair continued onward to Kyra's room.
"You don't think that Dantinian's going to pull something out of his magical bag of tricks and ruin the offensive, do you?" Sawei inquired, hoping that Blackwall had something prepared, just in case.
"He might, but I doubt whatever he has would be able to withstand the sheer firepower of our armored and airborne forces." Blackwall suggested, before putting some further consideration to the topic. "...And even if it can, we've still got some of our nuclear complement on-board. Enough warheads to go around for whatever he pulls out in case it's too tough for the regs to deal with it."
Sawei hid her more immediate concerns with how willing Blackwall was to nuke a target, and focused more on the bigger picture. "You know that if you do that, the genie will be out of the bottle..." she trailed, knowing that Blackwall would figure out where she was getting at.
"...And we can't put it back in. I know." he replied, his tone growing grim. "If he has warheads of his own, it's going to be nothing short of a shitshow. Our air defense over the Dropstorm is solid enough that I don't think anything will get through, but beyond that..." Blackwall trailed, trying to figure out where the worst affected areas would be. The pair had come to a stop outside of Kyra's door. "Write down the rest of what you pulled from Vu'Shol and send it to me when you can. I'm going to go order an inspection of our stock of Starbird missiles. Just in case." he said, before walking off, his mind already clearly going twenty different directions.
Fueled by a copious amount of energizing stims, caffeine, and the occasional power nap, Lexi and Kintik had managed to decode and translate the maintenance drone's entire manifest of the caches. All four thousand, six hundred and thirty nine caches. "Is that it?" Lexi questioned, bags having developed under her eyes from the near total lack of sleep she had gotten. It had actually been a very long time since she had pulled something this physically taxing – the last time had to have been when she got hired to crack a Bank of the Center wide open – not one of the smaller branches, one of the big ones near the surface, where all the bougie kiddies pulled the money from their parent's accounts to buy whatever trite garbage they didn't need. Even then, that had to have been maybe… five, six years ago?
"...I think so." Kintik replied, his eyestalks drooping at a shallow angle from the lack of sleep. They had not found the Worldshaper's cache, despite their best efforts in actually cracking and translating everything. Maybe they had missed something? Kintik tried to organize the files, and the datapad momentarily froze up from the load it had suddenly been put under trying to sort things, but a good thump to the side got it working again. "There's got to be something we missed. Has to be." he continued, his tone growing agitated over the fact that all of this effort may have simply gone to waste. "Please, please, please..." he begged to nobody in particular.
As if to relieve them of their duty, Venta entered the room, looking like a ray of sunshine compared to the two slicers. "How goes the work?" she questioned, bringing another round of stims to the pair – Kintik took one but didn't administer it, and Lexi abstained.
"We're done." Lexi bluntly said, clearly having trouble even staying conscious. "We got every single cache decoded, but no Worldshaper." she admitted, and a look of concern crossed Venta's face. "Over four and a half thousand entries, and nothing about what we're looking for."
Venta tried to adopt a reassuring look. "I'm almost certain you're wrong. There's no way you didn't just miss it."
"Venta, we looked-" Kintik tried to start.
"Kintik." Venta said in a stern tone. "It's been three days, and you two collectively have maybe sixteen hours of sleep between each other. You're absolutely missing it due to how tired you both are. Get some sleep and then come back to it – I'll take over for you in the meantime." she continued, and Kintik opened his mouth to protest. "That's an order, Kintik!" she affirmed, shutting down any and all resistance he may have had.
Lexi didn't need to be told twice, and she immediately powered down her suit, before laying flat on her back. Not the most comfortable position to be sure, but considering how tired she was, she didn't much care. Before she actually closed her eyes, though, she pulled her bag over, resting her head on it as a makeshift pillow, and just like that, she was out like a light.
Kintik, even though Venta had ordered him to get some rest, was still rather apprehensive about actually following that order. It wasn't until Venta physically took the datapad from his hands that he did as he was told, getting up to relieve himself in the latrine before finding a comfy bunk to sleep in. Venta then took over his work, browsing through the list quietly, occasionally glancing at the sleeping Lexi. They certainly weren't lying about the size of the list, that was for sure. In an effort to make it less time consuming, she narrowed the search down to what they had determined was terraforming equipment – after all, that's what the Worldshaper was intended to be. Suddenly, the practically mile-long list had been chunked down into something much more manageable. Still, though, there was no sign of the Worldshaper, until she came across a specific passage that caught her attention – 'The last miracle of the Dread Factory, clad in the metal of a thousand dead worlds. In one moment, it shapes the face of continents and rivers for the Children of the Infinite, and in another, it snakes and coils around their throats, strangling them even as they claw for their freedom from its terrible reign.'
The more she read into it, the more convinced Venta became that Kintik and Lexi had found what they were looking for – they just missed it from the workload they'd been put under. Venta then expanded out the passage and analyzed whatever the pair had found, including its location, which was…
...right between the polar control center and Noridar. Venta didn't even bother verbally reacting, and instead just let out a frustrated sigh, setting the datapad down and burying her head in her hands. It was then that the Tetrarch decided to make his entrance. "How goes the-" he started, before noticing the sleeping Lexi and the visibly upset Venta, who turned to look at him, motioning to keep his voice down.
"They found it, Tetrarch." Venta quietly answered as she got up from where she was sitting, before casting a glance at Lexi. "We'd best discuss this in private – I'm sure she's already promised the information to you anyways." she continued, and the pair quickly left, entering back out into the main camp. In the short few days that her group had been under the care of the Tetrarch's cell, relations had gone from open animosity to begrudging tolerance between the two sides as they came to terms with the reality of the situation. They couldn't afford to bicker and fight over something most of them weren't even around to remember, especially not with the war being what it was. Veterans in both camps had gone from drawing knives on each other to trading stories, and the younger members even managed to stop throwing their old gang signs long enough to talk in whatever barely intelligible form of cityspeak they had picked up. It was a strange sight to see such a rift resolved so quickly, but Venta was not one to complain.
The pair entered the Tetrarch's tent with relative haste, and the Tetrarch ordered the guards inside to vacate, which they did promptly, leaving Venta and the Tetrarch alone. "The Worldshaper's cache is located about halfway between Noridar and the polar control center, buried deep under the tallest mountain in that section of the ring, and, presumably, with a small army sitting directly on top of it."
"Mount Lehon?" the Tetrarch asked, adopting a thoughtful look, and Venta nodded to confirm. "...We've never had the time or resources to investigate it in depth, but from the few reports I have-" he started, reaching into the cabinet of dataslates and digging around for the most recent one, before finding it and yanking it from its spot, laying it out on the table, active. "-the immediate surface of the mountain isn't heavily defended, but the surrounding area is thick with what I assume are quick reaction forces. Multiple FOBs that receive regular resupply from both a nearby airbase and Noridar, plenty of foot and vehicle patrols, and it's safe to assume that there are many early warning systems in place to alert them to intruders. I don't think we'll be able to get inside."
Venta interpreted that as defeatism. "The same was said of Wargate, was it not? Yet the Helljumpers took it almost immediately as soon as the war started." she pointed out, trying to remind the Tetrarch that if such a fortified position could be so easily overwhelmed and taken out, then the Worldshaper wouldn't be much harder.
The Tetrarch, however, narrowed his gaze. "Wargate was different – it was a strategic frontline target, one within immediate striking distance for the Helljumpers, who have considerably more resources at their fingertips. If the cells alone tried to assault it, we would have been wiped out. In order for the Helljumpers to assault Mount Lehon, they would need to not only get past the Durado Flat, but also Noridar itself, and I doubt that Commander Blackwall intends to reach that far into enemy territory on our word alone."
An uneasy silence fell over the pair as they tried to think of a workaround to their predicament. "...What about going underneath?" Venta eventually suggested.
"The underground tunnels are likely too heavily fortified for us to be able to get through." The Tetrarch pointed out, shooting that idea down.
"That is not what I meant." Venta clarified, and the Tetrarch adopted a look of interest for her suggestion. "There are hatches that occur at regular intervals along the outer surface of the ring so that the maintenance drones can perform any repairs needed out there. If we had a voidship that could dock with one of those hatches, we could force it open and be practically right underneath the Worldshaper, bypassing most of the defenses." she theorized, and the Tetrarch remained quiet for a while.
"...You know this will be a suicide mission, correct?"
Venta immediately nodded. "Fully aware, which is why I'm taking volunteers only. Lexi, Kintik, and Shu'ul are likely to go regardless, as will most of my men, but I'm not going to force anybody to go."
The Tetrarch buried his head in his palms and let out a sigh. "...I can't spare any men to join you, unfortunately." he admitted, before sitting up straight again. "The most I can offer is the voidship to take you to the hatch – it's in a nearby hangar and hasn't been used in a while, but I'll make preparations for takeoff. When do you expect to-"
"Tomorrow. We've wasted enough time already just trying to find the Worldshaper – we can't afford to waste more." Venta quickly answered. "It's do or die, Tetrarch." she finished, before getting up and leaving to make her own preparations.
Venta stood before her surviving partisans, feeling a mixture of emotions as she mentally prepared herself to give her speech. "...Brothers and sisters, it has been a long, arduous journey for us all. We have come far since the great shame that doomed the rest of our kin to Dantinian's reign, but the shadow of that mistake still haunts us – our kin are distrustful of us and view us with suspicion, and had anybody other than the Tetrarch been in charge of this camp, it's likely that we would not have survived being forced from Noridar." she started, still uneasy about where to take the speech. "That mistake is why I come to you today. We have uncovered the location of the Worldshaper of myth, and it is in Dantinian's hands." she revealed, causing what little chatter there was to cease, as a stunned silence washed over the partisans. "If Fate were a kind mistress, the Worldshaper would be somewhere that our kin and the Helljumpers could assault, as they did with Wargate. Alas, fortune is not on our side. The Worldshaper is far behind Noridar, deep beneath a mountain of earth and steel, protected by an army too large for us to openly handle, but it poses too much of a threat for us to simply ignore." she continued, managing to steel herself. "I will not lie – this will be a suicide mission, which is why you have a choice – either join me in this assault, or step aside. Nobody will blame you if you don't come, but remember what terrible destruction could be wrought by the Worldshaper if Dantinian decided to unleash it. It's not just your friends and families that would perish – it would be all of us." she finished, hoping that was enough to motivate them.
The crowd before her didn't move for a while, with conflicted looks on their faces, and Venta nearly took that as hesitation. Shu'ul, though, was the first to show any sort of resolution towards the mission, and pounded his fist to his chest over his heart, and the others soon followed him, except for Lexi, who just nodded when Venta cast her gaze to her. More notably, not a single partisan had walked away. That, admittedly, calmed Venta's nerves quite a bit. "We leave in two hours. There will be a briefing en-route." she informed the crowd. "Dismissed." she finished, and they dispersed to make their own final preparations – last wills, leaving possessions for loved ones and such.
Lexi immediately approached Venta. "Not much chance of a rescue, then?" she quietly asked, still worrying about Nax, even though she should be more worried about her own immediate future.
Venta shook her head negatively. "I'm sorry, Lexi. If things had gone more smoothly, and if the Worldshaper wasn't so far behind the frontlines, then maybe we could have had a chance of rescuing him, but as it stands..."
"We all play the hand we're dealt, Venta." Lexi replied, sounding resolved to the imminent operation and its danger. "It's just that we've got a shit hand, and now we have to play it, or the dealer kills everyone at the table."
"You don't have to play, though." Venta reminded her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You still have the opportunity to walk away."
Lexi responded with a smirk, and shook her head. "That's a nice thought, Venta, but it's been personal since Wargate." she admitted, idly tapping her fingers against her hip. "Dantinian tried to take Kyra first, then he got Nax and butchered him. I'll send his favorite toy up in smoke if it's the last thing I ever do, which it honestly might be." Lexi continued, hiding her anger beneath a mask. "Besides, if I walked away, I'd never be able to look them in the eye ever again, or live with myself, for that matter." she added on.
Venta's left stalk raised slightly, which for a Rakata, was about as close as they could get to raising an eyebrow. "You really care about him, don't you?" she inquired, causing Lexi to adopt a confused look, as she thought this topic had already been gone over before, though she may have been mistaken. "You say he's your friend, and I believe that, but the lengths you've gone to to ensure that there was at least the possibility of us rescuing him speaks volumes of your dedication to him – dedication that goes beyond being mere friends." Venta laid out, and Lexi instinctively got a little uneasy. "What does Nax really mean to you?"
Lexi knew exactly what Venta was implying, and halfway opened her mouth to give her the answer she wanted. Then, she stopped, and actually thought for a second. "...It's not really like that." Lexi ended up refuting. "...He means so much because I can't bear to lose both of them." she continued, giving a surprisingly somber response that wasn't where Venta was going with the topic at all. "Aside from those two, I don't have anybody else. Mom died when I was a kid and dad disappeared not long after, only to come back a few months ago and then die anyways. Most of the people I knew growing up are dead, missing, or in prison, sometimes any combination of those three, so as far as people that I'm close to goes, Nax and Kyra are it, and if he goes, then she'll go, too." Lexi explained, only to immediately feel weird that she was letting this all out to someone she had only known for a few days, though with the odds being what they were, she might as well get that off her chest now.
Venta's eyes widened in surprise at the response. "You believe that the Dreamer will kill herself if he dies?" she questioned, greatly alarmed.
"That, or it'll ruin her completely. She's not just in love with him – she adores him completely, practically bordering on devotion. If she had to move a mountain to kiss him or even just hold him in her arms, she absolutely would, and nothing would be able to get in her way, ever. Nax dying wouldn't just break her heart, I think it would completely change her outlook for the worse." Lexi opined, causing Venta to gesture for her to elaborate. "...When Nax was first captured, Kyra's attitude changed – anybody would have been able to tell that there was a lot of anger brewing inside of her, but she kept it under wraps – controlled it, and I think that was only because she held out hope of saving him. If Nax dies, that anger would come loose, and she wouldn't stop until everyone who ever hurt him was dead, regardless of if they were military or not."
Venta considered what Lexi was saying, and there was a brief silence as she thought of how to respond. "...If you truly believe that her life hinges so much on his, then walk away. Rescue him yourself." she eventually replied. "Joining us on this mission will almost certainly result in your death. I guarantee that the both of them would do the same thing in your shoes. Go." Venta continued, trying to talk Lexi out of coming with.
"But our agreement-" Lexi tried to protest.
"-is untenable. You have fulfilled your end practically perfectly, and I thank you. However, the Worldshaper must be destroyed, above all else. Not only that, but you are likely to have a better chance saving him as a lone infiltrator, rather than all of us as a group." Venta countered, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You and I have only known each other a short time, but you've shown remarkable skill and determination – it's thanks to you that we even have this information in the first place. I believe that you are capable of carrying this out, whether you agree with me or not." she finished, before releasing her hand from Lexi's shoulder. "You still have time to decide, but I do genuinely believe it would be best for you to save him yourself."
With that, Venta walked away to make her own preparations, leaving Lexi to stew in her own thoughts and decide what to do. Stop the Worldshaper, or save Nax? She paced back and forth, trying to decide what to do.
Eventually, Lexi made her decision.
Venta made a final headcount of those who had boarded the ship. All had been accounted for, save for one, and it was exactly who she expected. Shu'ul nudged her, still looking pretty beat up, but at least he was in something resembling fighting shape now. "Where's Sapphyra?" he questioned, seemingly agitated that she had abandoned them.
"I talked her out of coming." Venta replied, looking back to the men under their command, and Shu'ul gave a surprised look to Venta. "She came to us with the goal of having us help her friend after we destroyed the Worldshaper, but considering what's about to happen, I gave her a choice; come with us and meet her end, or leave and save her friend." she continued, adopting a smile. "She chose correctly."
Shu'ul's agitation immediately disappeared. "It seems that she did." he replied, before the ship's engines kicked on, giving everyone a slight jolt as it exited the hangar. "I think now would be as good a time as any to give the briefing, Venta." he suggested, and Venta nodded, before stepping forward and loudly clearing her throat.
"Atten-SHUN!" she bellowed, and her soldiers immediately snapped to face her, and she gave a slight pause to let them focus on her. "We will be approaching the Worldshaper's cache from a maintenance port on the exterior surface of this ring. The floor below you now will open once we have a pressure seal, and from there, we'll head to the Worldshaper's chamber. There are enough explosives on this ship to blow the Worldshaper, the mountain it's under, and everything within a three segment radius out into the void, but I'm certain it won't work on the Worldshaper from the outside. We'll need to plant the explosives inside the Worldshaper so that it gets torn from the inside out. After that, well, we'll have to make a mad sprint back to the ship for extract. I guarantee that we're going to be under heavy fire the entire team, and every little firebase will be baring down on us as soon as we make contact. I must repeat myself – we are not expected to survive, but if we can destroy the Worldshaper, then our deaths will not be in vain." she laid out, giving the briefing as frankly as she could. One hand shot up in the back of the crowd, and she pointed out to whoever it was. "Speak freely."
"The Worldshaper is supposed to literally carve the surface of entire planets, isn't it?" a younger-sounding voice asked. "What kind of explosive could we use to destroy it, even from within?" he continued to question, and the sense of gravity momentarily left them as the ship exited the atmosphere, before the artificial gravity generators kicked on, keeping them secured to the floor.
"Good question." Venta simply said, before straightening up and putting her hands behind her back. "Sitting in this ship's cargo hold are several examples of what the Helljumpers call 'seismic charges,' some sort of mining explosive used for breaking up large asteroids – the Tetrarch received them as a gift from the Helljumpers, apparently. I have good reason to believe they will render the Worldshaper into scrap, if not completely sunder the actual cache itself."
Another hand shot up. "What if the charges don't destroy the Worldshaper?" an older, grizzled voice inquired.
"Then we move on to the backup plan – we disable the Worldshaper's reactor to keep it from being activated." she quickly answered. "Then, we smash up any and all control surfaces it may have – terminals, control rods, exposed synthmuscle – all of it. Replacement parts will almost certainly be nigh-impossible to find, so at that point it will be little better than scrap metal. Any other questions?"
Silence permeated the crowd, answering her own inquiry. "We'll be arriving at the maintenance hatch in thirty minutes. Sync your chronos and set vox frequencies to two-oh-seven-point-one. Do a final check on your gear, too. There's some spare ammo in the hold, so pack extra – as much as you can carry." Venta said, an impending sense of finality in her voice. With that final set of orders, the crowd dispersed to make any last minute preparations they needed to do. Venta didn't move much further from where she initially stood, and started her gear check on the spot. Shu'ul, though, did nothing, not even the slightest of patting his webbing down or anything, which Venta rapidly noticed, even as she immersed herself in checking her equipment over one final time. "...Shu'ul? Are you alright?" she questioned, giving him a sideways glance, before ultimately pausing her work to focus her attention on him. "You look… pale." she commented.
Shu'ul turned his head to her and broke his self-imposed silence. "...I feel that we are coming up on a great horror, Venta. One meant only for the eyes of the divine." he ominously warned, sounding audibly shook, even though they hadn't even begun the operation proper. "Is it… anguish, that I sense? Grief?" he wondered aloud. "Whatever it is, it's agitating me. I can scarcely think straight, let alone with my nerves being what they are."
"Is it the Worldshaper?" Venta questioned. "It's not unlikely that it would have some form of presence within the Nexus, one that even we could feel."
Shu'ul simply shrugged. "I have no idea. Until we see it with our own stalks, we're just going to be shooting in the dark." he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck out of worry. "It might not even be related to the Worldshaper at all – it might just be an anomaly within the Nexus itself. None of these options are particularly pleasing." Shu'ul finished, before finally beginning his gear check for the operation.
Lexi was aware that the operation itself was to begin just after nightfall, taking the time to travel into account. Thus, she left the base about twenty minutes before the Rakata left to destroy the Worldshaper, having requisitioned a speeder from the Tetrarch's cell and making haste for Noridar's outer wall. She had mulled over what to do for over an hour and a half, constantly going back and forth – save Nax, or destroy the Worldshaper? She kept getting lost in the details of each scenario, what would happen, how it could end, and so on, stressing over every little minor thing, particularly when the potential for failure arose. She couldn't decide what to do, not with how she was over-analyzing everything.
What finally helped her make the choice wasn't some sudden memory of something Mom or Dad said when they were still around, nor was it some random piece of advice from a bystander like she had seen happen in so many holos. What happened was that she stopped herself from stressing over the details, and instead sat down, and, while she considered this so cheesy that she would never, ever admit this to anybody, Lexi ended up letting her heart make the choice.
There were no second thoughts, even as she stared up at the walls of Noridar while the last trickle of daylight disappeared beyond the artificial horizon. She had left her speeder behind quite a ways, so any guard at the walls would have no idea she was there. Not unless they had proximity alarms and motion sensors set up.
Far off to the left, she spotted one of the main entry gates, with a massive metal door keeping it sealed shut. She started to move to the road that led out into the wilds, intent on hitching a ride on an inbound transport and sneaking in that way, but as soon as she did, one pulled up, too far away for her to make it in time. The gates opened for the transport, and as it moved inside of Noridar, Lexi noticed a faint red shimmer stretching from one side of the gate to the other. Almost certainly some sort of biological scanner that would trip an alarm if she went through. "Sithspit." she cursed under her breath, already seeing her options disappear before her. Going underground wasn't exactly possible, considering that her options for movement were limited, and Dantinian almost certainly had his soldiers down there permanently after her little stunt. Thus, the only option really seemed to be going over the wall.
Which was going to be a problem, seeing as how the outer wall was completely smooth, meaning she couldn't just climb straight up the wall. Again, she looked to the gate, and noticed that the frame for the gate had a slanted outcropping that went nearly all the way to the top of the wall. Seeing no other option, she proceeded to the gate, popping her stealth module as soon as she left the cover of the foliage. Lexi made it to the outcropping without much issue, and momentarily appraised on how to get up, before deciding that pushing herself up with her stomach against the outcropping would be the best course of action. At first, she expected to just slip and fall right back down, but surprisingly, the material of her suit was adhering extremely well to whatever the wall was made out of, though the position she had to crawl up in wasn't exactly comfortable – her left hand was reaching around the outcrop to hold herself in place, her left thigh was squeezing against it at such an angle that her foot could help prevent her from falling, and her right arm and leg were both respectively pulling and pushing against the actual wall to move her forward, but she was still making good time. Even though Lexi felt like she had good traction against the wall, she still worried about losing her grip and falling off, so each movement was extremely careful and deliberately planned.
Against all odds, Lexi climbed her way to the top of the wall on the first try. She poked her head up to make sure there were no guards in the immediate vicinity, which there weren't, and then pulled herself up and over. Lexi momentarily collected herself, before turning her attention to Noridar's interior.
Compared to the last time she had such a wide view of the city, everything seemed to have been practically turned upside its head. Searchlights marked every street corner, illuminating the heavy guard patrols below, while drones zipped about, covering any blindspots that were left behind. Checkpoints were frequent and heavily guarded, usually with an exo or some sort of dog-like attack droid as heavy support for the guards. 'Kicking the mynock's nest' did not even begin to describe what her stunt had done, and in such a short amount of time, too.
Lexi quickly focused on her objective and started trying to orient herself roughly in the direction that Nax was, using Dantinian's palace as her primary method of determining as such. Despite her expectations and the existing precedent, there didn't seem to be any guards on the outer wall, giving her the impression that this level of security was more or less automated since next to nothing would be able to actually scale them, an impression that was proven correct when she came across a searchlight pointed to the wilds that was moving autonomously, without a Rakata manning it or even as much as some sort of visible indication of remote control.
Lexi then caught herself making a mistake – she didn't need to orient herself around Dantinian's palace to find Nax – she remembered that he was near the first inner wall, in the residential tier. She would just have to get to the inner wall and run around to eventually find him. The more immediate problem, though, was evading security on the way there. Running across rooftops would likely only do so much for her, especially if the flying droids could somehow pick up on her. Regardless, Lexi found the closest, tallest building to the outer wall, momentarily judged the drop, and then vaulted over, miraculously not breaking her legs on the spot, though they were strained considerably from the impact.
Lexi then proceeded to make her way to the first inner wall, though she didn't get very far before she heard a loud, annoying buzzing off to her right. She took one look at the source, before dropping to the floor and freezing up. The buzzing grew ever closer as the droid patrolled perilously close to where she was hiding, and as it flew directly over her, Lexi made a greater effort to minimize her presence, slowing her breathing and keeping absolutely quiet. Only when the buzzing had moved far enough to her left did she get up and resume traveling to the inner wall, keeping as much of a low profile as she could.
Traveling the rest of the way was nerve-wracking, but surprisingly easy – that first droid was basically the only close encounter she had with security. Of course, she was in the path for multiple others, but they were far enough away that by the time they actually reached her, Lexi was way ahead of them, and even then, only a few would lazily follow roughly in her direction, though it wouldn't be long before they would turn off on their patrols.
Lexi eventually made it to the inner wall and climbed to the top of it to get the best vantage point possible, a task that was considerably easier than with the outer wall, since more than a few of the buildings next to the wall reached up to or near the top. Once she was at her desired position, all she had to do was circle the inner wall until she found the plaza Nax was imprisoned at, and Lexi began to circle counterclockwise, keeping her head angled off to her right, constantly scanning for the plaza.
As she circled the wall, the scenery became much more familiar to her, until she spotted a break that, while mostly recognizable to her, had some additions made to it that seemed to advertise what was nearby. Lexi quickly moved across the wall, and sure enough, Nax was there, though she couldn't make out much detail.
This area had no patrols for the moment, nor were there any civilians, considering the heavy security warranted a curfew. Lexi traced the route she used the first time she was in Noridar, and quietly dropped down to the balcony next to Nax, and what she saw made her heart break. When she was last here, Nax was obviously malnourished, but could still be identified as, well, him. Now, though, he was completely skin and bones, save for the tubes running throughout the inside of his body. His skin had long since discolored to a horrifying mix of red, blue, and purple, save for a few visible parts that seemed to have been intentionally protected, likely where major arteries and such were. "...Nax?" Lexi quietly asked, very much afraid of the likelihood that he was dead, and his corpse was just here for entertainment as some sort of sick, twisted pincushion. Unlike last time, there was no response from Nax, and Lexi seemed to have her worst fears confirmed, beginning to tear up until she leaned in closer, tuning out the background noise.
Somehow, against all odds, Nax still drew breath, as pained and labored as it was. "...I'm getting you out of here, Nax. Not in the future, right the hell now." Lexi suddenly said, barely concealing her rage over the state that Nax had been reduced to. She then turned her attention to his bindings, which were mercifully physical, and seemed to be made out of a spiked metal chain, almost certainly intended to cause as much pain to whoever would be bound to it as possible. Cutting them wasn't an option since they were too thick, so the next option was to look for a lock, which was surprisingly kept on the outside, dangling ever so slightly off of Nax's calves and forearms. Grabbing her lockpick, she started to work on his left leg.
Clickclickclick-chunk!
Then, she got to work on the lock on his right leg.
Clickclickclick-chunk!
With both of his legs free, Lexi moved to Nax's right arm, climbing up on a bit of wall detailing to get at it.
Clickclickclick-chunk!
Nax fell forward into Lexi, who held him for the most part, wrapping her left arm around his body to keep him from falling any further forward. Then, she started picking at the lock on his left arm.
Clickclickclick-chunk!
Nax fully collapsed into Lexi's grasp, and she probably should have expected this, but it still caught her off guard just how light he was. The two hundred pound mountain of a man she had known had been reduced and broken down into what was basically a ninety-some pound skinbag.
With Nax free, Lexi's next task was to disconnect the tubes and wires feeding into Nax's body. She was very much aware that they were pumping Vitor into him to keep him from dying from the attacks, but without disconnecting the tubes and actually getting them out of his body, he wasn't going to get very far, and if she just ripped them out, he would just go into shock and then bleed to death. She had to do this right.
Ever so carefully, Lexi descended from the balcony, carrying Nax over her shoulder to bring him down to the machine below. She gently sat him down on the ground, and directed her focus to the machine's interface. Her suit took a moment to translate the on-screen text, which turned out to be Nax's vital signs. She was no doctor, but even she could tell that, as far as the machine was concerned, Nax was on death's door, and had been for quite some time if the machine's records were to be believed. Taking only a moment to fiddle with the machine's terminal, she quickly found the shutdown, which when Lexi attempted to initiate, spat out a warning about Nax's vitals and refused to shut down on the spot. After messing around with the machine more, Lexi figured out how to shut it down, namely by administering a mixture of vitor that the machine referred to as 'extended release'. Once that was busy being administered, she queued up a command for the internal tubes to recoil and return to the entry points, and the machine slowly retracted the tubes inside of him – a disturbing sight, considering they were clearly visible just from how emaciated Nax was. Nax began to squirm and writhe in obvious pain as the machine did its work, and Lexi immediately moved to hold him still so that he didn't accidentally injure himself. "Calm down, Nax!" she whispered, trying to keep him in place. "I know this hurts something awful, but please, just try to hold still!" she continued. Eventually, the writhing ceased, and though Nax's insides were no longer occupied by the machine's tubes, it was still attached at the entry point, pumping him with vitor.
Lexi checked the terminal as soon as the tubes were done, and found that she could finally initiate the shutdown, which she did the second she saw the option. The machine continued to pump vitor into Nax's body for several seconds when the shutdown procedure was initiated, and Lexi was tempted to kick it anyways, but the fluid inside the tubes quickly changed to a darker, opaque red, before stopping all together. With a hiss of air, the tubes detached from Nax's body, leaving only circular wounds where they once attached. Just as a matter of assurance, Lexi drew a bacta syringe out from her bag and administered it to Nax where it would be least likely to hurt him. Then, she finally grabbed him in full. "It's time to go, Nax. This will all be over soon." she said in a quiet, reassuring tone. "The docs'll put you back together, and you'll be back to your old self, and..." she trailed as she got a move on. "...and you'll see Kyra again. Just… please, hold on a little bit longer. Please." Lexi pleaded as she made for the underground.
"Brace for connection!" the pilot said over the bay's loudspeaker, and the warning was so abrupt that the partisans barely had enough time to register it and grab on to something solid. With a thunderous clang, the ship connected its ventral side to the hatch. "Opening bay doors… now." he called out again, and there was a whoosh of air as the pressures equalized.
"Attach magboots!" Venta called out, and a round of whirring began as the partisans turned their magboots on, latching themselves to the floor. If they were to just simply walk out of the hatch or rappel down, they would simply fall back into the ship, creating a loop between the two different sets of artificial gravity where they would basically keep falling 'down' forever, or at least, until either the hatch closed or momentum caught up with them. "Move out!" she ordered, and the partisans exited the ship in two groups, taking up each side of the shaft to create a wide angle of fire if something were to pop out at them.
For a maintenance tunnel, it was awfully quiet – the drones weren't actively using it at the moment, and it was suspiciously unguarded. The lack of guards was particularly worrying – the Worldshaper was Dantinian's ace in the hole if he couldn't win the war any other way, so why would he leave the area so undefended? Surely he would have expected this kind of insertion?
Something was not right.
The partisans made their way to the elevated interchange that led to the Worldshaper's cache with little issue, and after simply walking up the wall to get into it, they were met with the first sign of anything resembling security, and that was a large armored hangar door. "Kintik!" Venta called out, and she didn't have to bark any further orders for him to already go ahead and start slicing the door open through a terminal on the right wall. "Take defensive positions!" she ordered, signaling for the squads to fan out and get ready for potential contact. Her squad took position next to Kintik, who leaned his head towards her as he did his work.
"This terminal is new." Kintik pointed out to her. "Newer than the crap I usually hack at in these tunnels, anyways. Let's see if I can..." he trailed, deviating slightly from his original job of simply opening the door. "...There, I have the interior security feed now. It's… empty." Kintik said, somewhat disturbed by the lack of what he was expecting.
"Empty?"
"There's no guards. I don't have a fix on the Worldshaper, but the place is barren." Kintik clarified, flicking through the different feeds. "It's not even like they used to be here and then left all of a sudden – there's nothing there. Full stop." he continued, giving a somewhat concerned look to Venta, who had a look telling him to proceed as planned. "...Opening the door now." he said cautiously, and the squealing of the hangar door quickly overtook what little noise the partisans had been making.
Kintik quickly took position with Venta's squad, expecting something to at least come out from inside the doors, but even as they widened, revealing more and more of the interior of the cache, there was nothing, save for a large shadow directly overhead, which most had an immediate idea of what it actually was. The squads pushed forward, keeping their weapons trained on the hangar door, while a smaller rear guard kept watch in the back to make sure nothing would come up behind, even though that possibility seemed increasingly unlikely.
When they passed the hangar doors and looked up, not a single one of them could find the words to describe the sight of the Worldshaper. Its appearance seemed to shatter all expectations and preconceptions that they may have had about it. In fact, the only thing that was really consistent about it was that it was a massive mechanical worm. The Worldshaper was segmented, with each segment carrying four dull red 'eyes' in some sort of port that seemed to be able to rotate around. With the way the Worldshaper was coiled up in the cache, Kintik took a rough guess and estimated that the number of individual segments was in the low hundreds. Venta ever so carefully got closer to the Worldshaper and examined the segments more closely, and quickly realized that there were several panels that appeared to be weapon bays, carrying who knows what inside. She didn't dare touch it though, for fear of reactivating the behemoth. Venta then looked upwards to see the piece that was casting the shadow they saw was suspended by some heavy duty scaffolding, with the inside of the Worldshaper's 'mouth' barely being visible to them. Mercifully, there was a temporary staircase that had been put in place that led up to the top level. She turned back to the partisans, casting her gaze to the group carrying the seismic charges specifically. "I want two of you down here loading the charges into the tail section. Whichever two aren't staying down here, I want up with me. Double time it!" she barked, her voice echoing throughout the cavernous chamber, and the partisans who weren't on demolition split up, half stayed down, the other half went up with Venta.
There was a nip in the air as the group proceeded up the stairs, cold and unnatural. Venta and Shu'ul looked at each other, nodded, and then ordered guns to go up as they approached the head. The actual design was slightly different from the rest of the Worldshaper, as the head was enlarged somewhat, and had a forward facing eye. The scaffolding also connected to a hatch on the top of the head, and, figuring that there wasn't a better way to get inside, Venta opened it, finding a horrifying surprise inside waiting for her.
It was a cockpit, that much was obvious, but locked inside was someone that Venta did not expect to find. The Traitor Knight, the old commander of the Interlopers years ago, was inside, his body essentially fused with the Worldshaper, locked in an agonizing, silent scream. The sight confused and disturbed Venta, as well as the multitude of partisans who had their guns trained on the hatch. The Traitor Knight was loyal to Dantinian – why would he end up like this? She thought for a moment that it might have been voluntary, but the fact that the Knight was very much conscious and tracking her movements quickly ruled that out – this was a punishment. She stopped to consider freeing him, but ultimately decided against it. Punishment or no punishment, he had made his choice long ago.
"Load up the charges." Venta ordered, only for none of the demos to proceed behind her. She was about to repeat the order, only to find that her mouth seemed to be glued shut, and in fact, she couldn't move at all.
"Hello." a sickly, ice cold feminine voice said behind her, before she was forcibly spun about to meet the source, and Venta's blood quickly ran cold. Squatting on the railing was none other than another member of the Hand – Vel'Nil, if Venta's memory was correct, one of the old guard. "This post has been so terrifically boring for me. Really, there isn't a whole lot to do but stare at the traitor over there." she said in a bored tone. "But you've done me a service and brought company!" Vel'Nil exclaimed, before standing up and turning around to take a closer look at the partisans behind her. Then, she spotted Shu'ul, and jumped over to be directly eye level with him. "You even brought your second in command with you!" she continued, running this act for as long as she felt like. "I'm so glad to see you, and I'm sure my brothers and sisters will be, too! Even the Reclaimer!" Vel'Nil went on, before her tone took a much more sinister turn. "...But they don't have to see you right now. After all, we're going to have so much fun together." she finished, before snapping her fingers, causing all of the partisans to immediately black out and drop to the floor.
The underground tunnels were exactly what Lexi had expected – infested and thick with patrols. It felt like she couldn't even breathe with how tight the corridors were, and how frequent the guards kept coming around. Every half-minute or so, one would walk by, mostly ignoring the dark hall that she and Nax were hidden in, and those that didn't never did more than just cast a glance inside without thoroughly looking. Figuring that the best course of action would be to take the guards out and hide them inside the hall, Lexi pulled her knife, ready to kill the first one that showed up.
Heavy footfalls began to approach, and Lexi readied herself, listening as they got closer and closer.
Gripping her knife tighter, Lexi positioned herself to pull the guard in and slit his throat. What she didn't expect to have happen was the guard coming around and staring directly into the corridor, weapon raised. Time seemed to slow as Lexi prepared to disarm and kill him, quickly adapting to her target facing her head on.
She was so focused on moving for the kill that she didn't hear the rapid metal footsteps coming from the same direction the guard did, and Lexi was halfway through her attack when a large vibrosword burst through the guard's chest, before quickly retracting as a metallic hand reached around the guard's head and silenced the scream, as a smaller blade went through his head, dropping the guard to the floor. Lexi's mystery savior was a heavily modified BX commando that was staring directly at her with its ice-white receptors. The droid then drew its blaster on her, and Lexi threw her hands up in surrender. "Friendly, friendly!" she hissed.
"Lexi Sapphyra." the droid spoke in its typical deep monotone voice. "You have missed multiple reports, and Commander Blackwall has deemed you as MIA. Explain yourself." the droid demanded, inching its blaster closer.
Lexi pointed to Nax, who was sitting behind her, slouched forward. "I abandoned my original objective to save Nax." she admitted, and the droid considered this for a moment. "I know that Blackwall told me specifically not to do this, but if Nax dies, then Kyra will, too. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that her killing herself would mean disaster for anything done after the war. Just think for a second about how important the Rakata consider the Dreamer – lose her, and the Helljumpers lose in the long term." she pointed out, and the droid lowered its blaster. "I need to get him out of here, but it's so thick with guards that I need a distraction to make it back to the teleporter."
The droid stared blankly at her, saying nothing for a long while. "...A reasonable assessment." it eventually said. "Very well. You will face judgement from Blackwall directly." the droid acknowledged. "The teleporter is five segments down the way I came from. When you hear the shooting, you run, and don't stop running until you make it." it finished, before taking its blaster and dashing off in its intended direction. For a while, there was silence, without as much as even a guard patrol coming by, but Lexi did as she had been told, and stayed put. Then, she heard the distinctive pfhoo pfhoo pfhoo of repeating E-5 fire in the distance, and Lexi immediately grabbed Nax, before running as fast as she could to the teleporter. All around her, she could hear heavy footfalls of guards moving to the source of the fight, in side hallways and on levels above and below her, but they were so focused on reinforcing their allies that they probably didn't even think much of the sound she made.
Her luck wouldn't last forever, though, as two guards popped out of a side hall in the third segment, directly facing her with weapons drawn. Acting quickly, Lexi drew her blaster and fired a burst at them – the one in front caught two to the chest, and the one behind him got a bolt to the head for his trouble, and both dropped immediately. Still, that didn't slow her run even a bit, and the burst was so quick that any guards who were further away probably just assumed it was another shot from the droid.
When she reached the fifth section, Lexi still didn't slow down, and ran inside of the teleporter facility as soon as she saw the door to it. She didn't even stop for a break inside the facility, and instead gunned it straight for the interior chamber, avoiding the trash that had been left behind by the previous occupants with almost catlike skill. Once inside, she finally stopped her run and sat Nax down, before taking a seat next to him. "I..." she started to try and say, before she immediately began to cough and hack as her body caught up with her. The fit lasted nearly a minute before subsiding, though her heart was still racing, fighting to break out of her chest. "...shit…" she quietly cursed as she recovered, before turning her attention to Nax and his abysmal state. The very first thing she did was grab her canteen from her belt, pop the cap, and put it to Nax's mouth. "...Here, I've got some water for you. Drink up." she said, keeping his head tilted back slightly so the water would go down fine, making sure not to overdo it. Nax had been starved, and she knew that she couldn't overfeed him, or else he would die – refeeding syndrome or something like that. Lexi reached for her bag and pulled out one of her untouched ration packs, one of the ones with the little tube of nutrient paste in it. She pulled the cap off the tube, sniffed it to make sure it wasn't some old Republic-era stock that had somehow found its way into her package, and then she turned back to Nax, opening his mouth. "Here, this is going to taste like crap, but this is the smallest portion I can probably give you out of my rations." she quietly said, before squeezing the tube to get the paste out onto his tongue. "There, swallow?" she said, and Nax did it with no trouble at all, which was especially surprising considering the horrid taste. At least he wouldn't need to be fed through a tube for the rest of his life, though he would have to be on soft food for a long time.
With food and water out of the way, Lexi realized just how cold it was in the chamber, and considering that Nax had literally nothing on him, he was probably freezing. "I'm going to get a fire going to keep you warm, then I'll bandage you up and get some actual clothes on you, if I can find any." she informed him, before taking off her coat and laying it over him like a blanket, just as an interim. Before Lexi left to search the facility for things to get a fire going, she gave Nax an extremely gentle hug. "...I'm so sorry that I took so long to get you out of there." she apologized, her voice barely above a whisper. "You shouldn't have had to suffer as long as you did."
With that, Lexi got up and headed for the chamber door, only to feel a strong, unnatural cold sweep through the room. She immediately unholstered her blaster and took cover behind an overturned table. She heard multiple sets of footsteps – too many to count, but it was a large group, that much was for certain. Were they guards? Venta and the others come to look for her after all, maybe?
She didn't have to wait long to find her answer.
"You can come out, now." a voice called out, sending chill's down Lexi's spine and making her heart race. "I know you're in there, Sapphyra. There is no escape."
Dantinian.
Some small part of her hoped it wasn't actually him – that this was some guard bluffing using a vocoder or something. That hope was almost instantly dashed, as through a small crack in the table, Lexi saw him come down and enter the chamber. He didn't even look in her direction, but Lexi soon found her sense of weight leaving her as he picked her up with the Force. "...No, no, no!" she shouted as he pulled her out from her hiding spot. Lexi tried to draw her blaster on him and shoot, but he simply ripped it from her hands, and passed it off to one of his entourage. Instead of simply killing her on the spot, he placed her in front of him, forcing her to kneel.
Rakata were usually hard to read, but Dantinian was very clearly pleased with himself. "...It seems that my bait caught the wrong fish, no?" Dantinian mused, casting a slight glance over to where Nax was sitting. "Such strange creatures you are, risking your own lives for those who are not of your own flesh and blood. I do admire your audacity though, foolish as it is." he continued, before holding his hand out for something, and a member of his entourage placed something in it, before Dantinian promptly threw it at Lexi's feet with a metallic clatter – it was the head of the commando droid that she had cause a distraction for her. "A shame it was all for naught."
Lexi tried to force herself to stand, visibly straining herself against Dantinian's influence. "You're… hah, not going to..." she started through gritted teeth, and she somehow managed to get one foot out. "...Get very far." she hissed out of spite, before being forcibly slipped on nothing and falling face first. "...The trail ends here..." she went on, still trying to force herself to her feet, and still having to be forced down. "...With me."
"Does it?" Dantinian replied, looking to the teleporter. Lexi soon realized that was a rhetorical question. Dantinian then lifted her up with the Force, while staring down at her with a sardonic grin. "Do you take me for a fool?" he questioned, and Lexi spat in his face in lieu of an actual answer, though the spittle never actually hit its target. "Three infiltrators slip into my city completely unnoticed from any external defenses or early warning systems, and your commander didn't think I would know exactly how you are getting in?" Dantinian pointed out in a piercing, yet still calm tone. "I should thank you, really, for showing me that the Twins' pet project is up and running when I thought the technology had simply been lost. As a reward, hmm..." Dantinian trailed menacingly, faking thought as he decided upon a proper 'reward' for Lexi. "...Ah, I believe the honor of witnessing the death of your beloved Kyra is suitable, and you two being the first to die at the hand of our returned power." he threatened.
"Bastard!" Lexi screamed, somehow managing to rapidly lunge forward at Dantinian with her knife drawn, even after all the effort he had went through to keep her pinned. The members of the Hand that had come with Dantinian quickly intervened, stopping Lexi's attempt on his life and quickly kicking her in the head and into the floor with such force that she was quickly knocked out.
Dantinian let an annoyed breath out, and then looked to his ever-loyal Hand. "Have the engineers move the lover's equipment into the temple and place both of them inside. We have final preparations to make."
And that's that chapter done.
So, on to more important news, namely regarding the rewrite. Aside from the obvious of my improved writing skills since 2019, there are some key things I want to mention, the first being that Lexi is going to be present from the start, and not just a last minute addition as a character. I don't feel like she ever developed properly, since her behavior in Coruscant was more or less a clusterfuck and was basically instant as opposed to being gradual – unironically, since she was unplanned, I was writing her as I went along. If I had a word to describe the new Lexi in the rewrite, it would be 'selfish.' Her background as an orphan who turned to crime to make ends meet, especially after her mom was killed in the bombing and her dad disappeared, isn't exactly conducive to her characterization as basically a loose, carefree party girl in the original draft. The insurgents that Nax and Kyra team up with will also be changed to be pretty much voluntary, contracting them out as mercs instead of pressganging them in at gunpoint. Val and Nax's past relationship will also be rewritten, and Thel will get more screentime. Also, I sent a friend of mine who is working on his own projects the incomplete rewrite of First Hunt, and he provided a lot of valuable feedback, so I more or less have a beta reader now, and he actually suggest a couple of the listed changes. Anyways, First Hunt is probably going to be rewritten and posted along with Chapter 39.
Until next time, guys.
-Tweak