A beep was indicated from the astromech, directing it to his owner as it spun its domed shaped head to her.
"I know, Artoo. Looks like a shit mess and I sure as hell don't trust anything in it." The blonde haired, azure eyed woman nodded to her companion with a comment as they circled the planet onboard the starfighter. Her eyes were attuned to the massive fortress-like structure that was standing wide and tall.
Even without the Force, she could clearly feel the danger that was presented to her.
From within, the Chosen One even then, could clearly feel what lay within the stronghold of the Separatists. Something that was dangerous, off, and that wasn't of the Force, but so closely aligned with the Dark Side that the entire situation was not right.
"General Skywalker?"
She answered her com. "Rex. What is it? How are you holding up?" She could still hear the blaster fire and screams from the other end of his side.
"We got this side of Cato Neimoidia locked down with the Seppies retreating. You're all good to go!"
"Good. Follow my coordinates here when you and the rest of the boys are done." After numerous days of fighting in this war and with Republic intelligence gathering information, they were finally able to take a lead on Cato Neimoidia where it was located deep in the heart of the planet.
Exiting the comlink call, she circled around the stronghold once more, debating on a place to land. She couldn't detect any hostiles of the Separatists but even then, danger presented itself around and everywhere, even eluding the detection of the Force. She landed her starfighter from a fair distance away, Artoo beeping as he popped out of the fighter.
"Stay close to me buddy." The astromech beeped. "Yeah, I know."
With a leap enhanced by the Force, she leaped high and over the walls as Artoo followed, hovering over the strong walls. Both landed within the stronghold's walls, continuing within as Anika drew her lightsaber, not activating it yet.
Caelus decided if there was ever going to be assignments regarding hunting Stellarons, then he hoped it wouldn't be in the middle of a fucking warzone!
Damn fucking Elio…
The Stellaron Hunter stared at the mess that surrounded him from across the distance, the brutality from both sides of the war. He remained undetected and avoided the conflict as he watched from his vantage point.
He had done research into the conflict of this side of the galaxy known as the Clone Wars that was currently being fought by both sides. The Republic and the Separatists. Or also known as, as he would aptly put it: two brainless factions trying to end each other when in the end, they were all going to die when Nanook and the rest of Paths clashed. Wouldn't Blade have jumped at the prospect of fighting… he wondered, as he watched one of those armored soldiers called Clone Troopers gun one of those droids down with machine blaster fire, before a blast impacted the bridge he and his allies were on and left them plummeting to their ends as their screams filled the air from a cannon that rocketed and tore the bridge apart.
They were thoroughly fucked in one way or the other. Caelus simply shook his head.
In a case such as this, Silver Wolf managed to hack into both the Republic and Separatist databanks from their cruisers, with Blade dropping him off in the midst of the conflict, and it was clear as day that the Stellaron managed to embed itself deep into Cato Neimoidia's stronghold within its planet. Of course, the Separatists managed to find it and were attempting to utilize it as an energy source, responding accordingly to their desires. Those ignorant fools... At least even the Republic seemingly realized the threat it represented. But, in the end, they were all deluded and blind, fighting in a bid for a source of energy that was a literal disease to the planet and the population it represented.
Complete hopeless moronic fucking idiots. He could almost hear Firefly chiding him for his language now. Well, he could hardly give a damn when they were just looking to end one another. He was half tempted to let the Republic just take it and let it infest their planet, if not for the fact that Elio required the Stellaron, even if it meant getting into the midst of a massive galaxy spanning war that thankfully did not poison anything beyond from their side of the galaxy, though he doubted the Borisins wouldn't mind throwing themselves into the midst of the conflict.
They should be grateful that he was doing them a massive favor. Once it was gone, they would just quickly resume killing each other, as they always had.
The talk was akin to those of Nihility but it had some truth to it, did it not? Everything here was just going to wither eventually, since their heads were stuck far up their asses.
Nevertheless, the Stellaron Hunter wasn't going to let it fall into the hands of either of them. It sure as hell didn't belong to them, and Caelus was going to take advantage of the opportunity presented by both sides fighting in their bid for it to snatch the Stellaron and leave as quickly as possible, neither being the wiser as they remained in the carnage and chaos of war.
The grey haired young Stellaron Hunter thus made his way away from the carnage.
With only a few assassin droids in the stronghold that were swiftly dealt with, Anika had not expected it to be so lightly guarded or protected. It just felt entirely off to the Jedi. Nothing about this felt right and as she approached the source of the darkness, it muddled together in a near incoherent jumble of darkness that was so closely aligned to what she should be against, and what she had been taught, thrumming with such corruption that spread.
Even more befuddling to her that the assassin droids that came from the darkness had black growth on them, like a fungus or a sort of disease that riddled their programming to be even more hostile and aggressive than what she had ever seen before on them.
All the better to locate it to prevent it from being in the hands of the Separatists.
Artoo hid himself from plain sight. She dispatched the few Seppies left within the fortress from where they were working, deflecting their own blaster fire back at them before she extinguished her lightsaber. Reaching out with the Force once more, she felt no danger presenting itself.
She noticed it then. A glimmer of something golden that was almost akin to a Kyber crystal from Illum, yet it did not resonate with the Force. Surrounding it was a murky black form of something that spread from the golden shimmering orb she knew touching it would only be dangerous.
That was it. She reached out with the Force…
A burst of darkness swamped her clarity of perception, seemingly reacting to her attempts to use the Force on it, her senses overloading, as it tried to draw her in for her attempts, refusing to let her go.
Indistinguishable shouts and cries flooded through her as she was nearly overwhelmed. She could barely even make out the incoherent jumble of voices that mixed in with violence. Chaos surrounded her, and the golden energy beckoned to her, a desire to stop it all as she could feel its limitless power with her grasp, a whisper of an offer for her to take and accept and she saw silhouettes of indistinguishable figures wielding a crimson lightsaber before it faded to nothingness, having the sense to cut herself off temporarily to stop herself from reeling with the effects, the last echoes of it ringing and pounding her skull, still beckoning her and tempting her with power far beyond. She then saw a monstrous being staring down at her, appraising her, before darkness swallowed her.
A beep from Artoo sounded from the side, the astromech coming over in a series of concerned beeps.
"I'm fine, Artoo." She didn't even know that was her voice until she spoke, uneven and croaky, and she was lying on the floor.
Her azure gaze narrowed at the sight of it after she steadied herself to her feet, shaking and trembling. With no other hostiles in the vicinity left, all that was to do was contact Rex and his boys and they would take whatever this was and get the hell out of here.
Yet she couldn't shake off the tremors of whatever that was. She didn't even realize her hands had been shaking until she picked up her lightsaber.
Had that been a Sith in what she had seen? Was that something far more catastrophic and dangerous? She couldn't even make sense of the vision, but she knew that it was all tied to the golden crystal that hummed brightly and yet ominously before her. The energy within, not of the Force, yet she knew it was still far dangerous nonetheless. The Council definitely needed to know about this.
Then Anika felt something was off.
It felt as if someone was here, yet she could not feel it through the Force as clearly as she could. It was muddled and she was certain the golden crystal before her was the cause of that, leaving her not blind but her senses dulled as if she was partially drunk, and she didn't dare try to touch or interact with the Force on it ever again.
She had tried to reach out to determine what it was, but it was off kilter, due to the crystal before her in which she felt she didn't dare try to remove it from its position with the Force, at least not until Rex and the remaining 501st arrived. She partially wished she had Obi Wan or Ahsoka here with her, but the former was off on a different campaign, and her Padawan was with Plo Koon for another assignment. Dammit.
A shuffling noise brought her addled senses back to high alert. From there up on the balcony…
She glanced at Artoo, drawing her lightsaber once more. "Stay here, buddy. I'll check it out."
Artoo disagreed with a series of quiet beeps, sounding out his clear distaste for her leaving, but could do nothing as she had leaped up to the balcony to locate the sound of the noise. He settled back into his hiding spot, remaining stationary as he was attuned on the golden crystal before him.
Even the loyal and committed astromech didn't like the golden crystal as it seemingly attempted to draw him in. He just wanted to get out of here as quickly as he could.
For Nanook's sake… He bit back a curse.
Caelus watched down below as a blonde haired woman, along with that small droid from what he learned around this galaxy as an astromech approached the Stellaron.
He had learned all about the Republic side within the Core Worlds galaxy known as Coruscant. That was, who was leading the Grand Army of the Republic, or GAR, was the Jedi Order.
He knew about them, and almost had to scoff at their ridiculous Code, for one at that matter. For the monks that they are, they were so blinded by the war that they couldn't see beyond their own narrow minded delusions. Keepers of peace his ass.
The Stellaron Hunter chided himself. He should have expected it. He would have to find an alternative means to snatch the Stellaron and the more time here meant the less chance of success of obtaining it and getting off this world without anyone noticing him.
A gap presented itself in Caelus' field of view. That was it. The Stellaron Hunter squeezed his way inside.
All good so far. She took the bait.
Caelus managed to distract the Jedi with a series of noises that he knew would investigate the source of it.
The astromech was there though, and Caelus, though he had nothing personal against the small fella, would have to disable him. He would have to be quick as he knew that the Jedi would not take kindly to her astromech being disabled.
Although the Stellaron Hunter could handle himself, the stories he and the other Hunters had heard of them with their connection to the 'Force' and many different abilities regarding telekinesis, telepathy, and enhanced senses and reflexes, he didn't think ambushing the Jedi would be suitable. Though he enjoyed the prospect of a fight and sparring sessions with Blade kept him alive with knowledge of fighting forms and styles, he'd much prefer to get the hell out of here right now as the Jedi was currently the sole obstacle to his current objective, and from intelligence gathering within his phone, the Republic would eventually win their battle against the Separatists on this planet and arrive here to pick up the Stellaron with the Jedi and her droid.
The Stellaron Hunter couldn't have that, and as such he moved quickly while remaining undetected.
Now it was just the astromech as the Jedi was gone to locate the source of disturbance.
He moved with a careful grace and stealthfulness that Kafka and Silver Wolf and time in the group had long since taught him, inching closer and closer.
Leaping off, he landed gracefully, drawing a device of sorts from his jacket. Given to him by Silver Wolf, it would allow him temporary time to disable the droid or any sort of electronics, not enough to permanently disable it. But it would buy him plenty of time while the Jedi was gone.
Artoo continued to scan the vicinity with his single photoreceptor, watching the golden crystal that hummed to him, tempting him as it did to his master. He knew that touching it would be dangerous.
He couldn't wait to step off Cato Neimoidia and not be anywhere near that crystal. The more he stayed within the vicinity of it, the more he felt as if he wasn't going to be himself anymore.
His photoreceptors for a moment detected a flash of movement, as he caught it. Then he tilted his dome plated head and looked to see a figure lunging at him. He barely got out a squeal of surprise and shock before he felt himself being overloaded, his photoreceptors fizzling out in a crumpling heap.
Caelus stepped back and cursed, more so at himself than at the astromech who detected him. Dammit. Was his ability to remain undetected that badly hampered that even a simple droid caught him? He could imagine Kafka chuckling at him now.
Idiot, nice job.
Before he could even contemplate on how to take the Stellaron away or his next step of action, his precious time ticking further and further away, a snap hiss echoed where he felt his face glow ominously in an azure blue gloom.
"I had a feeling that someone would come for whatever… whatever that is." The saber hummed near his ear, just scant inches away from his neck, the blonde haired woman standing behind him with her saber hovering dangerously towards his neck. "So tell me, are you a Separatist? Who are you?"
Caelus did not answer. Inwardly, he was cursing his lack of awareness and belief that the Jedi would be fooled by such distractions. He thought he had outplayed the Jedi, when in reality, he was the one who had been blatantly played.
There was only one option.
Anika waited for the grey haired man to respond. She had a good look at him. His golden eyes shone similarly to the golden crystal before her, with grey hair. He donned a hooded jacket with trousers and an undershirt, which outlined his muscles. Even then, she could tell that this man was experienced in combat and seen his fair share of the chaos and violence in the galaxy.
"Well?" She continued, not even daring to lower her saber. She glanced to the side to where Artoo was. She didn't want to leave him as bait of the sorts, but there was no good place he could remain hiding in this vicinity, and she had a feeling that if she had been gone, then someone would have struck Artoo and taken the golden crystal, just as she had predicted. She would have to owe him an apology later on for using the astromech as bait, even if it had not been the intention. Her own mood only soured at using the astromech as bait.
When the man didn't respond, though she could see the clear flash in his golden eyes that he was extremely displeased at his current predicament, she shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to call my men over here and arrest you then once we take you back to Coruscant. Speak now and maybe you won't rot away in a cell for the rest of your life and get the possibility of a lighter sentence. I'll put in a good word… maybe."
She barely considered the possibility of plunging into his head for information before a warning from the Force flashed through her head with a blur of an elbow to her face. She gasped in pain for a moment as she stumbled backwards, clutching her stinging face. Something hard struck her in the ribs as she was sent flying backwards. She barely avoided the follow up from the warning with the Force as something cracked the ground beneath her into splinters and earth. Reaching out with the Force, she called her lightsaber back to her hands, igniting it.
Fine. It wouldn't be her fault if he lost a limb or two.
Swinging her saber down, she expected to slice through his weapon and through his chest with ease, as there was very little in the galaxy that could withstand or resist the energy blade of a lightsaber, only watching in barely concealed shock as his weapon, a slightly curved object of sorts that was reminiscent of a stick but not entirely, was coated in some type of energy and parried her blow, deflecting it in a shower of crackling energy from the collision of both, ducking just under to avoid the swing at her head that she was certain would have either broke her skull.
She slid back a few meters, her eyes narrowed.
That energy she felt… it wasn't of the Force, yet somehow it deflected her lightsaber?
She felt it from the man as well. It didn't feel like the Force at all. It wasn't of the Force. It felt… irregular that was partially reminiscent of the golden crystal before her. It wasn't the Force, yet it felt no less powerful.
The man studied her for a moment, his own weapon twirling in his hands. Then, he finally spoke. "How about you go and fuck off? It's not for you or your Republic."
Anika blinked. "Oh…" She sarcastically answered. "Do tell. So what is it then?"
He didn't answer her, only lunging at her once more, forcing Anika to take a few steps back as she parried and deflected the blows. With the Force, she hurled a chunk of debris at him to which he leaped over.
Force, she hated this fucking asshole…
Caelus caught her wrist before she could swing her saber down to bisect him. At the same time, she caught his own, preventing him from moving his bat.
The two grappled as they prevented each other from trying to gain an advantage in the fight. Caelus squeezed with all his strength and the saber extinguished itself back down to its hilt, clattering to the floor.
Anika's eyes narrowed and she responded in kind. Now both were disarmed, devolving into a brawl.
Caelus had trained in hand to hand combat and martial arts by Kafka and Blade ever since he had long since been a child working with them and under the command of Elio in which he and the Hunters followed, but it seemed the Jedi was just as good as hand to hand combat if not more so. She deflected a series of punches and retaliated with her own, to which the Stellaron Hunter was able to deflect and counter. Even though her face was in concentration and in pain for which she received a couple of blows that she wasn't able to block, she kept on fighting.
Pulling out a knife from his wrist compartment, he thrusted it forward to stab her, the Jedi reaching out to catch the blade a second too late as it impaled the palm of her gloved hand, but instead of blood and piercing through flesh and bone, he only saw and heard a screech and sparks of metal as it was caught in between the junction of whatever that made up her hand.
Caelus could only stare at the mechanical prosthesis in her hand in his own shock, a split second that was all that was needed, before she curled up her fist and punched him hard in the jaw. The Stellaron Hunter saw red, his jaw ringing in pain and agony. The punch nearly made him blacken out, and it was just as hard as one of the blows of Blade.
Anika pulled the knife out of the palm of her hand, flipping the hilt around to catch it before she was on top of him. She was not taking any chances now. She thrusted the blade to impale him through the chest.
The Stellaron Hunter's instincts surged and he halted her descent, grabbing her wrist to prevent himself from being impaled. Both Jedi and Stellaron Hunter fought desperately for survival, no longer even trying to apprehend or escape, their objectives now forgotten as it was just on each other.
Caelus had to pour all his focus and strength in order to not be impaled through the chest as the woman bored down on him, her azure cerulean gaze flashing dangerously in cold fury. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips in which she took a punch to the side of her cheek. She looked more like a warrior than the peacekeeping preaching assholes of the Jedi Order rumored from Coruscant, with the faded scar that ran down her eye.
The Stellaron Hunter knew he would die if he didn't do something fast. And so he did. He slammed his head against her, headbutting her hard, their skulls cracking against each other, that it was enough for Caelus to throw her off of him. He ignored his own forehead splitting open and the blood he had to blink rapidly away.
Before he knew it, before he even had time to summon his lance, he felt something close in on his throat, an invisible grip that tightened around his neck and squeezed hard. Caelus' eyes widened as he desperately grasped and clutched his neck, trying to free himself from the grip that began to cut off his breathing, recognition of what she was doing followed almost immediately. He could barely see the fury in the Jedi's eyes as she held up her hand in a claw-like grip, cutting off his breathing.
Darkness swam all over his vision as his eyes blurred. He attempted to pull out another one of the knives in his compartment, anything to free himself in a last bid to release himself.
Before he even could, however, he felt himself being hurled across the room. His back impacted hard against the wall, and then his head. Darkness consumed him entirely.
Anika fell back down to the ground, her own blood soaked into her Jedi armor and cloak the moment she saw him unmoving and unconscious. Force fucking dammit… she coughed up blood as she felt her ribs cracked with a few punches.
Her com flickered with noise, and her trembling fingers scrambled to find purchase, holding it up. "General Skywalker?"
"Rex. Get here now."
"General, are you all right?!"
Fuck… was it that obvious she sounded so weak right now? She shot a Huttese curse at the man who was out cold and perhaps in just as bad shape as her if not more so. "Just get here now. They're on retreat?"
His confirmation was at least some comfort. "We got them on the run. Cato Neimoideia is ours now. The boys and I are immediately heading to your position."
She cut off the communication and fell back to the floor, breathing heavily. That was all. She just wanted out of this planet now.
Her eyes fell to the man on the far corner of the room in his own bloodied heap.
Who the Corellian hells was he?
She decided to get some rest, her eyes shutting.