STAR WARS
THE CRIMSON BLIGHT
Episode 12: Within Darkness
OUTER RIM: Somewhere flying through hyperspace.
When Briza awoke from her sleep on board the Silent Fang, she realized that they only had a few hours to get ready, before they would reach the rendezvous point. She noticed that her sister was still asleep, she thought about waking her up, remembered she was supposed to remain hidden anyway, so she could sleep as long as she wanted.
She dressed herself in one of her usual black light armor, as her more social clothings wouldn't be preferable when entering the upcoming war meeting.
She later found Terrow already up and working. Terrow smiled when he noticed Briza entering the bridge. "Since we are now in a safe and secure range, I took the liberty to send our findings to Imperial Intelligence. They are analyzing our findings as we speak."
Briza smiled in return, "Good work, inform me as soon as they have uncovered something of value."
"As you wish my lord," Terrow replied politely while making a small bow.
"Morning," Mathorn yawned, as he too entered the bridge. Both he and Terrow were clad in the typical gray imperial uniform, with only their ranking emblems to differentiate them.
"Good Morning," said both Terrow and Briza, with the latter adding, "Make sure you are ready for our war meeting, once we arrive."
"Breakfast first, then I will be ready," Mathorn grinned and left for the kitchen.
Briza just sighed, and muttered mostly to herself, "Some day, I'll get myself a proper apprentice."
When the Silent Fang exited hyperspace, they found an army awaiting their arrival. Looking out of the front viewport, they could easily see a dozen frigates and support ships. Spearheading the fleet was one of the empire's mighty dreadnoughts.
It didn't take many seconds before they received an incoming call. "We see you Silent Fang. This is the dreadnought Malice, you are ordered to dock at hangar bay five."
"We will begin the landing procedure now," Terrow replied, as he looked to their twi'lek pilot, who immediately began to land the ship, as was instructed.
Lines of imperial troops were standing at attention, as Briza with her brothers by her side, exited their ship. To their surprise, Deedrah herself was awaiting them at the hangar bay. She smiled at them, as they descended down the ramp, "Lord Briza. Welcome on board the Malice."
"Thank you Darth Deedrah, we are most honored," Briza spoke politely, as she and her brothers bowed slightly.
"Please follow me to the war room," Deedrah said invitingly, as she gestured for Briza to walk beside her.
Despite the many times Mathorn had been in the presence of Imperial personnel, being escorted by an imperial honor guard, felt strange and a little foreboding.
"I am very delighted to see you have succeeded in your mission," Deedrah smiled, as she led them through corridors of the dreadnought. "How was the surface on the planet?"
Briza smiled in turn, as she replied, "Though we sensed the immense dark force present at all times, the planet was surprisingly calm and relaxing to explore, even beautiful at times."
"Would you say it is a worthy price for the empire's conquest?" Deedrah asked with an ambitious smile on her lips.
Briza nodded with a similar smile of ambition, "I very much believe so. It looks to be full of gas and rich in crystal materials."
Deedrah in a sigh of satisfaction, she uttered, "I'll look forward to seeing this Crystal planet for myself."
As they neared a large door two guards bowed. The one standing to the left pushed a button and the door slit open for the lords to enter. The War Room was huge and decorated with red banners all over the oval room, in the middle a large holoprojector was showing the blueish crystal planet and surrounding it were dozens of seats. But despite the room's massive size, only two human males were present as they arrived, an admiral in a well decorated uniform and another imperial intelligence officer.
Terrow immediately recognized the officer as his former superior Richard Nilleun, better known as Watcher Twelve. They nodded respectfully to each other, as their eyes met.
The three Zabraks took a seat around the holoprojector, opposite the two humans, with Deedrah still standing. As soon as the door slit shot behind her, she began to speak, "Thank you everyone for coming on such short notice. As you all know by now, we are facing a dangerous foe. Watcher Twelve, please relay our current situation."
Richard rose from his seat. "After analyzing the Information that Lord Briza has provided us with," he said in a professional, but also admiring voice with a small bow. He continued in a more serious tone, "But we have also confirmed that we are up against an army, far larger than we previously anticipated."
"Do we believe we have enough forces to take the planet?" Briza asked, as she sensed an uneasiness among the gathered.
It was now the Admiral who rose from his seat to address the gathered, "N5, or as we have recently learned thanks to the data you have acquired, the planet called Necilon is a well protected hideout." Glancing over at Briza's team as he elaborated further, "We have found out there is a small army hidden in shelters all over the planet. More importantly however, is that the Dreadnought named Hellfire and a tiny fleet of Tenkan syndicate ships are hiding on the moons, ready for an ambush."
As to ease the nerves among those in counsel, Deedrah revealed her current information, "I have received permission from the Dark Counsel to gather as many forces as we can spare from our core worlds. A dozen more frigates and another Dreadnought, will rendezvous with us in taking Necilon."
"That should give us the edge we need to blockade the planet and annihilate the ships in orbit," the Admiral announced proudly, but his speech betrayed a small hint of doubt.
Richard cleared his throat, before speaking his mind, "One problem we haven't addressed yet, how do we make sure Psiron does not escape?" He had lost too many good operatives to this madman, to go about it in a careless manner.
"We will divide our fleet into two assault groups. The main fleet will appear over the three moons and overpower the ships waiting in ambush. The second fleet, that would merely comprise frigates, will be tasked with surrounding the planet and making sure no ship will escape," the Admiral explained his strategic vision.
"While you make sure we have absolute air superiority, I will be spearheading our ground forces and making sure Psiron cannot turn our forces against our own," Deedrah spoke, in a both reassuring and firm voice.
Briza was a bit taken aback, when she heard that Deedrah would be leading the landing task force herself. Ground battles was not something her long-time ally was known for, and to her knowledge Deedrah had never participated in field combat on a large scale.
Deedrah could see that her longtime ally seemed a bit puzzled, "Lord Briza, as soon as we established a foothold on the ground. Your primary objective is to locate Psiron. Once located, we will join our forces and eliminate him together. I firmly believe we will need everyone strong in the force on this task. As we yet lack the knowledge of his full power."
"How many force-sensitive are we talking about?" Briza questioned, most of the reports she read indicated, that the main bulk of the empire's force sensitive was already engaged near the front line, against republic forces.
"Though we only have a handful of sith acolytes, we do have three dozen sith warriors," Deedrah politely informed.
As Deedrah was speaking, Richard received a message on his datapad, it was the news had been waiting for. "I have just received news that our requested reinforcement will arrive within the hour."
"Very good, it means we should be ready to begin the invasion in two standard hours," Deedrah replied pleased.
"My people have already begun coordinating things between them, and we are already assembling scouting teams, both air and on the ground," Richard assured proudly.
As the ones in charge began to discuss the details for their invasion of Necilon, Terrow received a message with a high clearance encryption key on his datapad. His previous superior had apparently decided to give complete access to look over all the missions parametrized without supervision. After receiving an approval, in the form of a smile from Richard. Terrow immediately began looking over the gathered data for their combined invasion force, as he thought himself, "it's an army alright. If our data is accurate, we will have complete control over the planet in less than a standard rotation." He notices that their newly hijacked frigate, the Anvil, is also part of the fleet.
Mathorn was getting bored with this meeting, he was waiting just to get down there again, so they could beat this Psiron problem. But he had to admit, heading down on the battlefield side by side with a group of sith warriors, seemed strange to him even now.
Once again in her life, it was vital that Tikala cloaked herself in the force, as she could sense a multitude of dark side force users, both on the dreadnought they were currently docked with, but also from other ships that recently came in through hyperspace. "It's difficult to remain in serenity," she mumbled to herself, ending in a sigh.
It nearly frightened the young jedi, when the ramp to the ship lowered and her siblings returned. While she could easily sense their presents, she still needed to take an extra look to make sure they weren't followed.
Briza wasted no time, in a commanding tone she just announced, "Everyone! We leave for Necilon in one standard hour. Get everything ready asap."
While Tikala was a bit confused by the name of Necilon, the twi'leks have already been informed about the planet they visited not long ago.
Feeling uncertain, Tikala asked in after taking a deep breath, "I need to know, should I keep me out of sight and only assist you in through our force-link? Or do we risk my reveal and I'll go with you?"
"We risk it," Briza uttered determinedly. "Psiron needs to be stopped and I doubt we will have the necessary power to handle him without you. Besides, don't you have a Jedi Master to save?"
"I can save him for you," Mathorn offered kindly.
"No Mathorn. You are being monitored as a possible spy, you would never get anyone off world quickly without being hunted immediately," Briza firmly pointed out.
"Darn. And here I thought I could be the hero for once," Mathorn joked with a disappointed smile.
While everyone else ignored the supposedly renegade jedi, Tikala did however give her brother a smile, "I am sorry Mathorn, but this is my burden to bear. You just make sure our people survive, yourself included."
"Yes sis, I will do that," Mathorn acknowledged with a smile of his own.
Flying through hyperspace back to Necilon was strange. Most people were calm and quiet, some were even napping, as they just had to pass the time until the ship arrived in orbit around Necilon. But others, including Terrow, were very focused on looking over the detailed battle plan again and again, nothing could be left to chance.
The plan is as follows. Since the Silent Fang is a stealth ship, their mission is to go to the planet's surface, destroy control towers and Anti Air cannons, so the ground invasion can commence. To add them however, the Imperial intelligence is also sending its stealth ships with Cipher agents to lay down the groundwork, while Briza's people will focus on killing any force users that could otherwise hinder the Cipher agents' demolition work.
Briza, Tikala and Mathorn sat together in meditation, connecting each other through the power of their force-link. On one hand, they all knew this was the last time they had the opportunity to practice their ability. But on the other hand, they had now reached a point where they could very easily connect to each other, so much in fact that this was now an none issue and had become second nature to them.
They were now a pool of various energies of the force, ready for any of them to tap into at any point. It was all so peaceful, yet all so very exciting. They shared small thoughts and memories, mostly of their past selves. They took turns to make them all hover slightly over the ground, while making sure they stayed in the air, as they smoothly transitioned control from one to next.
Even Mathorn had no trouble keeping everything under control, he occasionally sent Briza mental pictures of him beating up other Sith lords and annoying Jedi Masters. Which Briza approved of... and Tikala less so, since she could see them anyway.
Despite feeling like a jedi doing this, Briza was overjoyed with the fact that this was now so easy. She had trouble not to imaging how powerful they could be as a group and how much they could achieve with this ability. She now firmly believed that she could rise above her current position and take the title as a Darth and later become a Dark council member.
Tikala really likes the fact that she was not only a part of it, but that everyone now could contribute with an almost equal share of the work, which will give her the freedom to remotely call upon their help, if she needs assistance in getting her Master to safety, once she finds him.
For the next couple of hours, they managed to use the force to reverse gravity in the chamber, so they could meditate cross-legged on the ceiling, instead of the floor. They felt confident in having a good chance of handling whatever could come between their shared destiny.
Tikala showed them a beautiful sunset on the beaches of the planet Spira, her siblings felt the late red glowing suns, gently warming their skin, along with tempered wind cooling them in turn.
Mathorn took them through a tour of some of the most colorful parts of Coruscant, with its massive skyscrapers filled to the brim with insanely massive shopping malls, luxurious restaurants, and various entertainment centers.
Briza in turn gave them a sight of a volcano with an unusual rainbow crystal-like magma flowing down its sides, it was an awe inspiring sight to behold, but also surprisingly calming.
They went on tours through ancient temples, to aquatic caves and unbelievable nebulae.
After they suddenly realized that they had spent more than half a day doing this, Briza promptly said, "Enough, we need to get some rest before the attack commences!"
Mathorn returned a look of irritation, "Darn it Sis, it was so fun."
Briza was about to make a remark, but it was Tikala who spoke first, "As much as I want to remain in this state for longer, it's important that we get everything ready."
"Remember, if we succeed in our mission tomorrow, with all of us alive... then we can do it again. I feel we have only scratched the surface of what we can share together," Briza added for emphasis.
Mathorn sighed in defeat, "Yes Lord Sister and yes Master Sister, I will do as you ask."
After checking up on Terrow and making sure everything was in order with the crew, they went to bed.
As Briza was about to lay down in her bed, she noticed her sister just sat down cross legged in the corner, entranced in deep meditation, "We have been meditating for several hours. Get some sleep Tikala!"
"I want to be able to sense if my Master calls to me, so I'll prefer to rest in meditation," Tikala explained in a slow voice, with her eyes closed.
"We have already been on the planet, I think you would have known by then," Briza firmly commented. "Come on, it's bedtime for you little sister."
Tikala was about to explain, but remembered that it irritated Briza when she meditated. "Very well," she mumbled and laid down on her side in this huge bed. It didn't take long before sleep took over, when she noticed her sister giving her a peck on her forehead, she paid it no mind.
Unlike his sisters, Mathorn couldn't sleep immediately, he kept thinking about the fact that if they found Master Buz, wouldn't that mean that their mission was over and they had to go back to tython space?
So when Terrow entered the sleeping cabinets a few hours later, he noticed Mathorn looking at him. "Can't sleep?"
"I don't want this journey to end, I want to stay with you people," Mathorn muttered in his honest frustration.
Terrow gave him a warm smile in return, "Despite our best effort planning this operation, we have no way of knowing how everything will turn out."
"Just promise me we will talk this over, if this is the end road," Mathorn half asked half pleaded.
Terrow nodded, "I will. And who knows, maybe the war will be over when we are finished with Psiron."
"I'll like that," Mathorn couldn't say he believed that it was possible, but the thought made his mind at ease, and soon after he was sleeping soundly.
It was a strange and tense feeling, the people on board the Silent Fang could only wait, now that the ship was only minutes away from exiting out into a war zone, that would be known as the Battle of Necilon.
Everyone, including the siblings, have been preparing for the past two hours. On one hand their forces seem to be far superior to what Psiron could possibly have obtained. On the other hand, everyone constantly had the feeling this was a huge trap, Tikala especially began to feel more and more worried.
The three siblings had already connected themselves together through the force-link, and used it to cloak their presence in the force.
Everyone instinctively held their breath, as the Silent Fang exited hyperspace and the blue light of the hyperspace was replaced with a massive amount of green and red lights from turbo laser cannons. The Battle of Necilon was already unfolding beneath them on the moons of Necilon.
The Empire's two dreadnoughts and various assault ships were firing on the Tenkan Syndicates' frigates and the stolen dreadnought the Hellfire, which was trying to get as much distance from the invading forces as possible in fear of being surrounded.
Briza really wished their mission was to reclaim the Hellfire, as it had belonged to her master Darth Veness and now ought to belong to her personally.
They could also see that the rest of their fleet had already begun the blockade of Necilon.
With clearance from Briza in the form of a nod, the pilot began the descent to the planet's surface. Terrow meanwhile was looking over the data to find the best possible seclusive landing spot below.
A beep from Terrow's datapad confirmed that Imperial Intelligence had already landed and begun their infiltration of radar installations and anti air cannons, all in preparation for the ground invasion.
They found a secluded area for landing, when they touchdown on the crystallized surface, Tikala was given a firm embrace by both Briza and Mathorn before she could get off the ship. "Remember to contact us if anything should overwhelm you," Briza firmly insisted. With Mathorn adding, "Go Sis, kick their behinds until they weep."
"I promise I will," Tikala smiled in return. She then headed down the ramp and aimed directly for the area where they believed Psiron could be hiding.
Meanwhile, Terrow was talking on the comm unit. Once getting all necessary updates, he hurried over to Briza to relay the current situation, "My former boss is requesting urgent assistance! Two enemy platoons have pinned down a group of cipher agents with vital information. Also, a few force users have been spotted, they are currently hampering our efforts to sabotage a major AA turbo laser cannon!"
With a determined look in her eyes, Briza delegated the work, "Bring Mathorn and I to the AA cannon, we will deal with force users. Terrow assist the Cipher agents with what we have."
"Acknowledged," Terrow nodded and hurried to the bridge to delegate the orders.
Mathorn smiled widely, "Finally we get to see some action again, in need to crush some mind controlled skulls."
Briza lay a hand on his shoulder, as she smirked, "Excellent my apprentice, just remember to keep alert at all times. We don't want Psiron to get the jump on you."
"Will do, my sinister Sister," Mathorn grinned in return.
In order to reduce time, Briza and Mathorn just jumped out of the ship in midair. Using the force to soften their landing, they were now only a single yard away from the huge gray AA cannon.
Both of them immediately sensed multiple odd force presences inside the durasteel structure. "Be on guard, let's take them one by one if possible," Briza ordered, as they both ran inside the building.
What greeted them inside was three hideous looking red skinned sith-ish mutated monsters, equipped with looks to be ancient sith war blades. "OG...LY!" Mathorn burst out, as a reaction of coming face to face with these beasts.
The red beings didn't reply, instead their black and hollow looking eyes stared at the two Zabraks, as if they were on today's menu.
The Zabraks instantly ignited their lightsabers, as the beast attacked them head on. Mathorn clashed blades with first of the sith beasts, while Briza had to handle the other two on her own.
As their blades clashed in a series of slashes and parries, Briza noticed that while the strength of these red beasts were formidable, their finesse however left a lot to improve. Most of their attacks were so overly telegraphed that she could side step most of their slashes and cleaves with ease, which meant she had ample opportunity to counter attack with quick thrusts, burning small holes into the flesh of these things.
Using the Djem So style, Mathorn first blocked the incoming cleave and retaliated with a quick thrust, burning a hole in It's knee, this only seemed to anger the red thing, who in turn slammed his blade away. Mathorn noticed that only the sharp edge of It's warblade was impervious to lightsabers, the remaining of the blade was scorched. With a faint attack he lured the warblade up in a highguard, as if he came in with a high heavy slash, he redirected his lightsaber slightly to hit the warblade from its side on the rear point.
The Beast had paused its attacks, as It was confused by its warblade only being a fourth of the length it used to, followed by the sensation of being penetrated in the heart by something yellow and very hot.
Making sure she was standing away from Mathorn, Briza smiled with glee, as her brother cut the unsuspected red things down from behind.
Mathorn looked down at his handiwork and grimaced with disgust, "Darn they smell bad... burned sith thing is not good recipe."
As she too could smell the foul stench from the things, Briza had to nod in agreement. Focusing on the task at hand, Briza informed, "Since none of us know how to slice the cannon systems, I say we break the pillars that support its structure instead."
Mathorn was about to cut the durasteel pillars on by one by one, but Briza intervened by quickly yanking them all lose with the force, "What you are doing takes too long, do as I do and make sure the cannon tilts away from us."
"Yes Darth Sister, as the evil Mistress wishes," Mathorn muttered, slightly irritated.
"Shut up and get to work," Briza commanded unamused, nevertheless the little brother did what he was told.
It didn't take them long before the cannon was becoming very unstable, with Briza breaking the pillars furthest away from them with a powerful force crush. With nothing to support it, the huge anti air cannon canted over and collided into the surrounding crystal rock formations, breaking it into several large pieces.
"All in a day's work," Mathorn uttered proudly, but with no response, he looked over at Briza who was reaching out with her senses.
"More of these sith beasts are approaching!" Briza hastily informed, as she and Mathorn used the Djem So fighting stands, as well as powering each other through their force-link.
Five sith beasts ran into the ruined cannon complex, the first of them attacking head on with an overhead cleave. Syncing their movements with each other, Mathorn intercepted the cleave, with Briza cutting off the beast's head in one motion.
As the rest of the beast was about to surround them, Briza, who had been concentrating until now, raised her hands up, spread her fingers and unleashed the dark life draining force ability known as deathfield. The four remaining monsters were engulfed in a cascade of red lighting, they collapsed on the ground before they had any chance of getting in close, they could only witness their own life essence flowing out of them in the form of red and purple coiling rays.
Briza felt the unmistakable sensation of the beast's life essence streaming into her, she reveled in the sensation.
Mathorn could feel the darkside power surrounding him, but it didn't hurt nor drain him of energy. "When did you learn to do that?!" he asked in surprise, while he was putting the beast's out of their misery one by one.
"For some time in fact," Briza smiled at her handiwork, as she added, "It is however only through our force-link that I can use it without harming you in turn."
With all the red beasts dealt with, Briza looked at her comm unit, with a message from Terrow, saying that he could use some assistance when time permits. "We are done here, our brother need our help."
"Righto," Mathorn grinned, as he followed Briza to Terrow's current position, both of them using the force to speed enhance their sprinting to an insane degree.
Down in a dimly lit valley, lay a settlement of crystal made barracks and houses to all sides. Troops of various humanoid creatures were mobilizing from every building, in a chaotic scene, with everyone scrambling to get to their assigned posts.
As this was happening, Tikala was running silently from building to building, clinging to the shadows as she moved. She could sense around sixty thousand people in this area alone,"This planet is more populated than I had originally sensed, this could pose a problem for the invasion."
While none of these people seemed utterly mindless, Tikala did find them uncomfortably hollow to be nearby, like their essence's had already been consumed. The realization that these people were already doomed to live out their lives in servitude to Psiron, she knew not of any jedi who could bring their essences back.
Tikala detested the idea of waging war on anyone, but if it meant ending a monster such as Psiron, she would at least find comfort in the fact that this monster wouldn't find more victims to enslave.
Tikala could sense powerful energies emitting from the end of the valley. Once she got closer she spotted a massive gate that seemingly entered what looked like a dormant volcano. To her relief, no one was actually guarding the gate, people occasionally exited the gate with all haste, she didn't have to wait long before she saw her chance to enter unseen.
The sight that greeted her, was a massive cave stretching as far as her eyes could see, it didn't take her long before Tikala realized this was a lava cave, filed to the brim with glass like crystal to all sides, which reflected the dim light coming from the small bluish candles on the walls, as to origin of the cave, her best guess estimated that the volcano had erupted a century ago.
Tikala kept near the walls, as she silently moved deeper into the cave. So far everyone who passed her paid her no mind, she hoped this was the force cloak's doing, as she had trouble getting a good read on these people. As she walked, she noticed a stairway leading deeper underground, without knowing why, she had the feeling this was the right way. Walking down the stairs, she came to a narrow corridor like a tunnel that stretched as far as she could see, mostly as a result of lack of any light source to speak off.
Wandering within these black and crystal-like surfaces felt like it was actively trying to get to her psyche, this by far was the most ominous place she had ever entered. It felt like the darkside was reflecting in the very environment she trotted. She was slowly beginning to fear what she would find down in this abyss. "I am coming for you my master, please be alright."
On one hand, she had a feeling she was going in the right direction, as she did sense something amiss down these pathways, but something worried her greatly, she still couldn't sense her master presence in the force.
After descending even lower into the crystal castle dungeons, she noticed a number of large red beast-like sith patrolling the area. They seemed oversized for the job, as their massive bodies had trouble walking upright in these narrow tunnels. Tikala moved as quietly as she could, inch by inch, keeping as close to the walls as possible, as some of them moved in her direction.
She counted five beasts walking past her in the crammed tunnel, she made herself as small as humanly possible, trying to be one with the black crystal wall itself. Once they passed her, she continued on in a slow and silent pace... suddenly she sensed a warning, the beasts had turned around and were now running towards her at a surprisingly quick pace.
Tikala had to slam herself against the wall yet again in order to make room for them to pass, as two of them passed her, she knew it wasn't because of her. SMACK! Something hit her forehead in the passing... It took Tikala what felt like forever to realize that in her hast, she had forgotten to crouch down and now one of the beast's hands was bleeding from scratching against her horn protruding head.
The five red beasts stopped instantly and starred in both confusion and in hunger... at the now exposed little Zabrak, who just realized that her force cloak had been literally knocked out of her. With no space to unsheathe their blades, the beasts attacked head on with their long claws, as the Zabrak ignited her lightsaber, engulfing the tunnel in a green hue the black crystal reflected the light around them, momentarily blinding the beasts.
In sheer desperation, Tikala enhanced her movement with force speed and in quick succession, sliced off the beast's claws and fingers. The beasts cried out in pain, with pure malice in their eyes they screamed at her, it was amplified by the dark side turning it into a force scream, blasting Tikala at point blank range, physically tearing several holes in her jedi cloak and making visible wounds all over her body.
Tikala barely managed to pull herself together, as the beasts went on to try and bite her head off with their sharp black teeth. In one swing, she severed the heads of all five sith beasts from their bodies.
Looking around at the carnage she had just caused, she shuddered, "There is no death, only the force," she tried to calm herself down and turned off her lightsaber. But as she was about to cloak herself in the force, she sensed a massive dark power coming to life. A very dry voice echoed in her mind, "You came after all, I welcome you to my humble domain."
Tikala did manage to eject the dark present from her mind, but it was now actively tracking her. Her first instinct was to flee and get out of this nightmare cave, but she remembered her duty and firmly removed the fear from her mind, "Time is of the essence!" As she force cloaked herself anew and quickened her pace onwards.
In the meantime, near one of the comm towers, Terrow found himself against odds he hadn't exactly planned for. The control tower, which was supposed to be rubble at the moment, apparently had an underground reinforcement tunnel, stretching all the way to the barracks. In other words, they were now trying to get the cipher agents out of the building, instead of inside it.
While Terrow could see the agents in question, they were pinned down in a corner between the durasteel wall and a few office tables. To make it all worse, they seemed to be running dangerously low on ammunition, as the army of green and orange mind warped Tenkan syndicate troops were gaining in number.
The only bright side at the moment, was the confirmation that the Silent Fang had taken out the control towers sensory and comm functions, which essentially made the tower itself inoperable and strategically insignificant. But it didn't seem to make the enemy ease up on shooting at him, nor his twi'lek soldiers or the pinned down agents were getting any mercy at the moment.
Throughout his career, he had seen many comrades lying dead on the ground, and until now he had never had any trouble remaining calm under these situations... But seeing some of his own personally trained twi'lek soldiers shoot dead around him and the remaining troops being scared or injured, was getting to him more than he would have liked and he was constantly debating whether he should pull back and abandon the agents to the syndicate troops.
Despite knowing full well that abandoning the empire's agents, just for the safety of a few twi'leks, would most likely result in him being branded as a traitor. He nevertheless was about to give the retreat order, when he received a message from Briza saying they were coming to his aid. The news gave him enough hope to stay in the fight for a little longer, if he could just keep his remaining twi'leks alive for a brief period. He gave them the order to keep as low as possible to ground, while they kept firing over their heads in order to faint a coordinated suppression fire.
As Terrow and his twi'lek team kept holding out, more and more of the syndicate troops kept coming and they were now trying to overrun them with superior numbers, making this seem more and more hopeless. Then he noticed a red, a yellow and a blue lightsaber flying over their heads and severed whatever body part came in contact with these burning blades. Both he and the remainder of his team let out a sigh of relief, as the blades came back to the owners, who stood ready to attack anew.
Mathorn found it disheartening, when he saw some of their twi'leks laying dead on the ground and the rest all injured. It was at least nice to see Terrow was already full at work helping the injured as a medic, with the kolto spray he brought with him. Briza in contrast seemed mostly unmoved by what had happened and just charged at the remaining enemies with Mathorn following her example momentarily.
Seeing the opportunity, Terrow signals the agents to move out of their entrenchment and get over to their side. The agent's quickly responded to the signal and quickly ran to the safety behind Terrow's defensive line.
Spotting more troops coming through a tunnel beneath the structure, Briza immediately seals the tunnel by making parts of the building collapse in on itself and on top of the tunnel.
All the while, Mathorn cut down the remaining syndicate troops with ease, to him, these seemed weaker than usual, or maybe he was just getting too great at this, he smirked at the thought.
The agents, who didn't think they would get out of this alive, bowed deeply in front of Briza, showing their utmost appreciation for being saved.
Briza accepted their gratitude with a slight nod, but paid them no further mind. Instead it was Terrow who spoke to them, "I have arranged for a medevac, they will tend to you." In all honesty, he did it to save the many badly injured Twi'leks, after a quick reassessment, he realized that his entire fighting force was completely out of action.
In the meantime, Briza was getting an update on the progress of the invasion. So far the space battle had gone in their favor, which she already knew from the wrack of syndicate ships in the sky, burning upon entry into the atmosphere and crashing into the planet's mountain's. However the land war hadn't gone completely according to plan, while the communication towers had successfully been destroyed, many AA cannons remained intact and they had sustained a very high casualty rate of imperial cipher agents.
Starfighters and bombers began to swoop down overhead, attacking the remaining AA towers and other military infrastructures, making way for the troop transporters and the imminent invasion.
Briza smiled as she looked at her datapad with a message from Darth Deedrah, "Everyone. The battle in space is won! The invasion will begin in earnest, your current mission is complete."
"Finally, we are seriously in need of reinforcement." Terrow sighed in relief.
Briza's mood however faltered, when she read that her old sith master's Dreadnought had just self-destructed to avoid being captured. Looking up at the sky, she could somewhat make out the fireball further out into space. "Well... I'll get myself another Dreadnought," she muttered slightly to herself.
Terrow, who noticed Briza's sudden change of mood and self monologue, just calmly commented, "If we follow our current victory streak, it shouldn't take too long before you'll get your wish."
Briza smiled in return and remarked sarcastically, "I will assign YOU to be on the lookout for any purchasable Dreadnoughts."
"Can I name it? Pretty please," Mathorn pleaded with excitement.
Briza just shook her head and replied with a cold, "No."
"Buzz kill," Mathorn complained, slightly moody.
As the imperial Dreadnoughts began to fire on the enemy military installations, they also began unloading troop transport ships from their hangar bays.
Upon entering the atmosphere, some of their transport ships were getting hammered by lasers from all over the planet and some were even blown up by a concentration of hidden mobile AA gunners, who had evaded the bombing runs and orbital bombardment.
This attack was quickly followed by a swarm of small high altitude speeders and armored hovercrafts, also successfully hidden around the planet's surface.
Terrow quickly aimed and fired his TK 700 sniper rifle at some of the speeder bikes flying overhead. He managed to hit and damage a dozen speeders, but he was fastly running out of filled gas canisters.
Reaching out with the force, Briza managed to rip a few low flying bikers off from their speeders and watch them plummeting to their deaths on the mountain side. Using force-link with Mathorn to enhance her reach, she managed to send one more unfortunate biker to a certain death, but now the remaining was way too high to reach.
While the Empire's starfighters were busy eliminating the intercepting speeders, Briza decided to assist the invasion by hunting down all hidden mobile AA gunners.
Tikala, who at this point was so far underground that even breathing was becoming a bit of a challenge. So far she had managed to avoid the red beasts, who were now actively looking for her.
Eventually she reached a large durasteel made double door, with only two red beasts guarding it, she could easily sense a dozen living beings behind those doors. "This has to be the prison chamber." Tikala used mindtrick to make the guards think rapid footsteps were coming from the opposite side of Tikala's whereabouts. Seeing the guards chase the sound, she quickly went over to the door, carefully used the force to unlock it and hastily went inside, closing the door behind her.
Entering the Prison chamber was a sight she would have given much to unsee. Tikala witnessed people of all races placed strapped to the wall, others were placed on what looked to her like an autopsy bench with wires and tubs hanging out of them. It took a few seconds to notice that many of these beings were force sensitive, one in particular caught her attention, a tall and slender pure blood sith with a burned sign on her naked body saying: 'Veness'. The pure blood was rambling nonsense, with the occasional screaming at the ceiling. It was a terrible noise, mostly because the other inmates would all echo each other, in a symphony of pure dread.
Tikala's heart stopped, she now stood facing her Master, who was bound to a chair. The once mighty keldorian, deformed beyond much resemblance of his former self, he rambled and screamed just as much as any of the other ill fated.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Seeing through the force, Tikala realized the nightmarish truth... his mind has been forever altered... The madness was visible in his sporadic, but blank stare, not knowing what he was looking at. He didn't even seem to notice, when this young zabrak grabbed him in a tight embrace.
Whilst the invasion was entering its next phase, their team was in full swing killing a platoon of AA gunners. Briza and Mathorn suddenly felt a massive amount of sadness and loss. They both stopped their assault and... they could only look at each other, utterly stunned... their little sister is crying.
Mathorn looked frantically at his sibling, "We need to help Tikala now... RIGHT?!" Mathorn shouted angrily and very frustrated.
Briza sighed deeply, not sure what to feel about it, "No, this seems to be a struggle for Tikala to face alone."
"SERIOUSLY!" Mathorn yelled livid, why aren't they doing anything! Tikala is in pain.
Mathorn was about to make a run for the crystal fortress, but Briza quickly moved in front of him. "NO MATHORN! Tikala is NOT in real danger! We need to wait for reinforcements first! Don't go in there just to die for nothing!"
Terrow, who also felt a bit of what his siblings were feeling, intervened as well, "Trust Tikala to find her way out of this. Please, I beg you!"
"We should make sure we are ready, should she find herself in actual danger." Briza could see that Mathorn finally seemed to calm down and began to think again. The funny thing is, that a sith lord would typically let their apprentice go, letting him give in to his feelings and fuel his emotions. But this is a war zone and she needs him here, not dead in some crystal hell hole.
Her tears just wouldn't stop pouring out, Tikala could faintly hear her thoughts trying to calm her. "There is no Death... Only... the Force." But that did little to calm her enormous loss... And the absolute feeling of helplessness. "Why did he of all people succumb to such a faith! This is not RIGHT!" Those words repeated in her mind for some time, not knowing if they would ever stop.
"Was this all for nothing?!" her mind was in utter turmoil, keeping her mental defense up no longer seemed possible. She sensed the evil entity could see her as clear as day... but unlike before when she sensed Psiron actively searching for her, he now focused on something else... Her siblings!
"NO!" She nearly screamed, she couldn't bear more loss, and stormed out of the prison, leaving the rambling Master Buz behind.
This time stealth was a second priority, she sprinted up the way that seemed the most direct route back to the surface, despite being spotted by the Red Beasts several times on her way up, they would quickly be cut down, if they so choose to cross her direct path.
Despite some losses, the first wave of landing ships managed to get through Psiron's laser barrage and unload its troops and support personnel.
Briza could sense that Sith warriors too were being transported to the surface, she receives a message from Deedrah saying, "Contact me when you have a moment, there has been a change in the plan." Briza wasted no time in establishing a connection, "Darth Deedrah, you wish to speak with me?"
"Lord Briza, thank you for your quick response," Deedrah spoke softly, but quickly turned very serious, "Have you had the time to locate Psiron's whereabouts?"
Seeing an opportunity to assist her little sister, Briza immediately replies, "I can sense a massive nexus of power coming from the mountain with the massive gates, it needs to be stormed." She relays the data as she speaks.
"I see," Deedrah muttered, as she was thinking of the next step. "Now that we finally can deliver troops to the surface, I want you to command the front battalion and assault Psiron's crystal fortress, you're troops should be in route as we speak."
"This will be done, I'm already heading to the chosen landing coordinates," Briza proudly reassured.
"Very good. I will command the rear battalion myself," Deedrah firmly stated, but with a clear hint of excitement in her voice. "Let us make this day, one for the history archives," she smiled and disconnected.
Despite still feeling the impact from the sorrow they sensed from Tikala. Mathorn was more than eager to help lead an army, imperial or not. "Let's help Sis and raze Psiron's fortress to the ground!"
Once they arrived at the chosen landing, most of the troops had already disembarked the transports and were forming a defensive perimeter.
Briza immediately headed to whoever seemed the highest ranking. It turned out that her new battalion was made from five smaller groups, each with a sith warrior as its superior. She wasted no time in assigning Terrow as her personal coordinator of the five groups, who went straight to work on gathering all the necessary information for the emanate assault.
While they didn't have many siege weapons, only a few walkers and a dozen droids in their army, they did however have professional trained troops, all in well protected body armor.
Mathorn was pumped to be in the front line of the assault, "Please tell me I'm going to be in the front center. Right?"
"Absolutely not!" Briza quickly cut him off.
"Why? I'm always put in the front," Mathorn asked, slightly confused.
Briza sighed, as she realized his typical place in the Republic army, "You are not going to protect their lives, you are going to protect Terrow, his life is in your hands."
Mathorn and Terrow looked at each other a bit surprised. "Boring... Fine I'll do it," Mathorn muttered, he still wanted to get the action going now.
Briza made a small smile, when he understood her words' meaning, "Good, we can't be sure of anything just yet. Be vigilant, expect anyone to be an enemy."
After a little while, which to Mathorn was an eternity, they finally began to form up in ranks and began the push forward. The three siblings were all sitting in light Imperial four legged walkers, about three times taller than a humanoid.
It was weird for Mathorn, to see all these imperial troops marching in front of them, with him being back guarding Terrow, who was looking over holo-maps and making orders on behalf of Briza... despite Briza never issuing any orders, she just kept an eye on everything and made everyone stay in line.
To Briza's delight, Deedrah's forces had formed up behind them, giving them protection from the rear. It was only their flanks and what was in front of them, she needed to focus on at the moment. So far they had only encountered minor resistance, mostly pillboxes and other laser emplacements. Briza and the others could see the valley, and at its end the main gate. She could still sense the unnatural darkness emitting from within the fortress, "I hope I'm right about Psiron being in there."
Terrow had already sent scout parties and platoons to secure the valley, as the valley itself looked like the perfect place for a massive ambush. If he hadn't constantly been in contact with both his former superior and the admiral, who both gave information on how to proceed, he would have felt like he was suddenly elevated to general.
Briza smiled widely, almost malicious, as her forces spread out all over the valley and its sides, systematically eliminating the few of Psiron's forces who dared stand in their way, "No matter what, this is worth remembering."
Terrow looked almost pleased, when all their artillery were being calibrated and aimed at the front gate, he had trouble not to make a smile on his lips, when he received the all clear for the bombardment to commence. "Lord Briza, we await your order to commence firing," he almost smirked, when he handed the comm unit to Briza.
Briza grinned as she took the comm and issued the order, "FIRE!"
All sense was overloaded when everything fired on command. The blinding sight of several thousand plasma discharges, the deafening explosion of impacting proton bombs, the massive vibration from the other walkers' cannons, the smell and taste of the burned tibanna gas in the air around them.
The once awe-inspiring gate was reduced to a pool of molten metals in mere seconds.
For within the now very much open fortress, came a hail storm of blaster fire, killing every personal who stood too close to the opening. "Front Infantry take cover! Walkers Return Fire!" Terrow ordered immediately.
Finally near the top of the fortress, Tikala could feel massive vibrations going through the crystal made structure. At first she was worried the roof could collapse at any point, luckily the building seemed to absorb shock waves easily enough.
Tikala could see laser fire of various colors at the exit of the tunnel she was moving through."Going through the front gate is no longer an option, I need to find another way out," she thought to herself, as she looked around for other possible routes going upwards.
She sensed her siblings were part of the empire's invasion forces, who had broken down the front gate, and more importantly, they seemed well and energized. But she still felt this evil mind focused on them, or… everyone outside this fortress, "Whatever Psiron is planning, it can't be good."
After a short exchange of heavy laser cannons. The imperial forces overwhelmed the entrenched defenders of the crystal fortress and stormed the upper hallway, with little sign of further resistance.
Despite the seemingly easy victory, Briza could sense something very sinister was brewing from within the crystal fortress. Like this was just another part of a greater experiment, one where life and death seemed to be just a number in a calculator.
An explosion of dark mist was pouring out of the Fortress, covering all their troops in an electric ooze like substance from top to toe. "What... IS! That!?" Mathorn exclaimed in shock and confusion.
"Status report!" Terrow shouted in their walkers calm unit... but no one responded.
Trying to feel around with the force, Briza could only sense hostility and pure malice, it became deadly clear this was a trap. "OUT NOW!" She ripped out the exit hatch and without even looking, she force gripped both her brothers and sprang out of the walker. Which was obliterated in an inferno of flames, a split second later by their own artillery.
With all hast, the three siblings sprinted to the mountain side, trying to reach cover before they were shot dead out in the open. As Terrow was much slower, Mathorn grabbed him and ran as fast as he could, concentrating on maximizing his force speed, with their sister covering them from behind.
Briza hastily sends a distress signal to every other imperial unit, right before she had to ignite both her lightsabers to deflect a hail storm of blaster bolts, aimed at her and her brothers.
Mathorn felt the burning pain of a blaster bolt grazing his left knee, "SHIT SHIT!" Toughing up, he ignored the pain and despite running at his full speed, he tried to strengthen his force bobble, hoping this could somehow enhance their survivability. He felt another bolt in his back, "OUCH! Just when I thought this was ALL going so well!" Luckily his light body armor took the brunt for the blast, leaving him numb and brushed, but otherwise unscathed for now.
Despite Briza's impressive two bladed defense, she too was grazed by several laser bolts, some managed to torch or destroy her equipment. One particularly nasty one, was a painful burn she had received on her right shoulder, while she could use the pain to fuel her movement, she knew that she and her brothers would be dead if they didn't get behind some cover in the next few seconds.
In the midst of their possible demise, they found themselves in the sensation of suddenly being force pulled with an unfathomable speed, flying right into a narrow cliff passage, ending in a painful landing on the hard crystal like earth.
"Ouch!" all three ached. Before finally noticing their sister Tikala looking over at them very worried, "Are you all alright?"
It almost shocked her siblings, when they witnessed the filthy and teary eyed Tikala. "Thanks sis, you saved us," Mathorn muttered in pure relief, as he was regaining his breath.
Tikala's eyes instantly turned to Briza, who was seriously burned on her shoulder. "You are hurt!" and went over to assist her.
For once, Briza was too tired to think about her pride, so she let Tikala help her up without saying much. And when Terrow offered the last of his kolto to patch her up, she just nodded her acceptances.
As they walked away from the battlefield, Mathorn again looked at his younger sister, "Why were you crying?! And... And... Why is everything suddenly going bantha poodoo!?"
"My Master is dead. Psiron... turned him insane, his soul is gone," Tikala somberly muttered, tears rolling down her chin again. "Coming here was a mistake."
Though Terrow was focused on healing Briza, he did look up at Tikala with a heavyhearted sadness, "I'm so sorry. You have my sincere condolences."
"Thank you Terrow," Tikala smiled, trying to control her feelings, doing her best to focus on the here and now. "At least I was in time save you all."
"I am very thankful you did," Terrow smiled in return, when his comm unite began beeping. "Tikala Cloak! Mathorn, take over for me," which Mathorn did immediately. "This is Dexten," Terrow replied quickly.
To his surprise, it was Deedrah who appeared as a small hologram, very distressed, "You're TROOPS! are ATTACKING MY FORCES! What the blazing are you DOOIING!"
Terrow was about to respond, but Briza responded first, "Psiron mind controlled our forces, we barely escaped with our lives."
Deedrah's expression changed from livid, to concerned in mere seconds. "Get to my forces in a hurry, I need all you alive if we are going to win," and cut the connection.
"Oh no!" Tikala nearly screamed, as she sensed a dark realization.
"What?" Briza was about to ask, but she too noticed the massive disturbance. "Psiron is trying to mind control our FLEET!" she instantly messaged Deedrah, urging her to order all ships to stay at a safe distance.
"I don't get it, is Psiron just trying to sacrifice his former slaves, to get some new once? All of this just seem like pure madness," Terrow angrily puzzled the motives.
Briza suddenly realized Psiron's intention. He wasn't aiming to kill them specifically, as much as he needed them gone, in order to fully mind control their troops for his own purpose. This purpose likely means throwing them at Deedrah's troops.