Quicksand

[Kressara Thryn]

Some new face was brought onto their ship, but Kressara hadn’t so much as gotten a “Hello there” out before a wrenching in her gut sent her running for the nearest place to puke the contents of her stomach out. everything that was inside her leapt up into her throat and out of it faster than she could gather what had happened, and once her heaving was over then came the spinning sensation. A chill cold as the dead space they occupied seeped through her bones like ice water running over from head to toe. The realization hit her and without a doubt Kressara Thryn came to an alarming conclusion.

Get out of here...get off the ship. Go home. Go home right now.

Kressara’s every thought was wrent so far from the previous excitement of her adventures and now not even a promise of eternal glory could keep her from flying home like a bird with its tail feathers aflame, onward bound in search of rescue from the fire.

“...I have to leave, Jacobi.” She muttered, though the likelihood of being heard by anyone was nill. The queasy blonde pulled herself together long enough to find something to serve as mouthwash, then stumbled in a stupor towards the bacta tank in which her companion was resting. He seemed to be recovering well, but it didn’t stop the young sith from worrying that he might be in poor company with the newest addition to their ship. In a hurry Kressara thought to do Jacobi some form of favor before she called for evacuation to Sojourn, by leaving a message for him with one of his crew droids. Shaken, the bright eyed sith composed herself just barely. Surely he would notice something horribly off about the girl, but this was the best she could do. She smiled the sort of soft grin one gives a friend, voice cracking before taking an unusually nervous pitch.

“Jacobi! Hi...you haven’t gotten out of the tank yet and I couldn’t wait, but I need to return to my master. Truly, it pains me not to say goodbye face to face. I know we’ll meet again very soon though! I won’t let you hog all the fun with this discovery of yours.” Words came less easily the longer she tried to excuse herself like this and soon the sith was picking at her lip with her teeth and staring off camera. “I uh…” What was she going to tell him? Would it matter who she told? Actually YES. If Blood discovered her secret then he might attempt to murder both her and their…

“I’m afraid I have bad news. Honestly, this might be a mistake but I feel the need to tell someone in the event that I might be correct in my assumptions. I may need to flee Sojourn. Blood- My master...he might.” She let a first name basis slip. Oh, to the depths with it!

“I may be carrying Lord Blood’s child as we speak and I find myself foolish for ignoring the signs until now. It was stupid of me. I need to return home, decide if I will tell him or not, and possibly leave Sojourn for good with my master fast on my heels. Should this happen I would appreciate your help in vanishing. I will pay you if need be both for your assistance and for your silence.”

Sometime during this explanation her leg had begun to twitch with the repetitive bouncing of her boot heel on the floor. No more, was the fierce fighter he left Vorpaya with, but just a scared girl trying to piece together the future before it even happened. Her smile didn’t fade, but it wasn’t for presence of hope. Now more than ever it would show how masterfully she wore that blasted grin like a mask.

“I am sorry. This is likely a major inconvenience for you. I wish I could help it...but at any rate I would like to inform you that another passenger boarded the ship from our last stop. She seems docile, but I don’t have the time to genuinely scope her out. I don’t feel right leaving you without eyes on her, so I’ll be locking you in this room with the blast doors shut and some droids to tend to you. And umm...here.” Vibroblades, one a dozen. Kressara unlatched the blade from her belt and showed it to the camera so that Jacobi could see her laying it out of sight just beside the tank. “Just in case you need it in a hurry. Oh, and look!” She pointed the droid’s camera to his floating body in the bacta and forced a jesting smirk. “If you ever wondered what you look like asleep, now you know!” Now the poor thing was just floundering.

“Yeah...I’m bad with recordings, so I’m going to just end this now. Goodbye for now, Mr. Wylcott! I sincerely hope that our next meeting finds you well. I’ve left my personal contact information behind. I wish you luck in your journeys...seeya.”

And with one last well meaning smile she cut the recording and gathered her things, locking the doors as promised behind her so that only jacobi could open them once awake. It wasn’t long before her evacuation orders reached a nearby sith ship which she boarded hesitantly. Even returning home for a moment in this condition could be the biggest mistake of her life. Still, a love she felt for her master whether it was rightfully earned or deceitfully taken would not allow her to run away from home, from him. If she was right about this then he deserved to know.

[Jacobi Wylcott]

---MANDALORIAN SECTOR - O-7
---CONCORD DAWN
---72 STANDARD HOURS LATER

Jacobi Wylcott sheathed his combat knife, a long curved affair in a forward facing xiphos pattern - the blade was designed with the dismemberment of appendages in mind and it worked devastatingly well. He could feel the sinister cancer growing within him but yet still held in check by his overall lack of connection. For a moment he thought to not even bother pursuing his plan but then he reminded himself that it was inevitable that Tormentous would arise once more - at least this way it was a conscious decision and perhaps he could find a nugget of information on the Harbinger that would help him to one day cast down the devil and destroy Tormentous once and for all. It was a long shot - but it was all he had.

For Tormentous had to be utterly annihilated - not even his spirit could be allowed to remain. The Jedi were incapable of seeing it through to the end, the Sith wanted to use if not follow Tormentous and the Empire just wanted the body to be slain in a face value of justice - if they only understood that Tormentous was more than mind, body and soul then they’d be better off. Jacobi was but a vessel and this was his burden to carry.

Moving to the armory he took up his trusted pistol, a Westar. It was a good weapon and had seen him through much in his life. While he stood there he looked down at the holo that had presented Kressara’s message to him. The poor girl, carrying the child of a monster. It wasn’t the child’s fault and Jacobi sympathized for it - if Blood found out then he’d stop at nothing to destroy it. But Jacobi also knew that if Tormentous was given leave to the information then he too would do untold horrors to the child just to gain an advantage. Jacobi worried for Kressara and the child. Granted they weren’t his responsibility but one didn’t sit in a trench with another person and spill the same blood in the same mud without forming a bond.

The bond wasn’t the bond of a friend. It was the bond of a warrior caste and Jacobi treasured it. Kressara likely didn’t feel the same kinship that Jacobi did but that was ok. She wasn’t Mandalorian and not subject to the same set of mind.

Regardless - Jacobi legitimately cared and since her departure not a moment passed where his mind wasn’t settled on the “how to keep her safe without Tormentous and Blood knowing or acting” it was a terrible conundrum and one he didn’t relish. There were many times he wished he could just go to fisticuffs with Tormentous and kill the bastard - but things in this life were never so easy. He could kill Blood, but that was only part of the issue here.

He let out a grave sigh and stood to his feet - legs felt fresh yet rubbery - he’d only recently gotten out of the bacta tank. A light was blinking on the wall and so he approached the terminal and accessed it - they were nearing Concord Dawn, the location of the resting Harbinger. There was no turning back now.

With a whoosh of pressure the locked door - thanks due to Kressara - opened and admitted Jacobi into the larger portion of his ship. There he spotted Mercy and his eye couldn’t help but trace her curves more than once, she was a looker sure enough but he also knew she was dangerous and while he was confident in his ability to throttle her into the deck with his bare hands - that was no way to treat a guest was it?

“Get your boots on. We’re almost to where we need to be.”

A holographic image of Concord Dawn came up, the shattered world was beautiful as it shimmered in the sunlight of its star. A vivid violet glow hued the world and a red dot blinked on its surface. Zooming in Jacobi pointed, “Make sure you have a sealed suit, we’ll be going out in some very thin atmosphere.” Their destination was not in the safer areas on Concord Dawn where Mandalorians dwelt but near the demolished hemisphere where the air was thin and the surface of the world was volatile.

[Slade Xandir]

Mercy wasn't nearly as controlled as Dastan was with his poker faces, and when her eyes landed on Darth- what? Feeling out with the Force, she subtly searched for his signature, and it came up....weirdly blank. His eye ran over her as her eyes followed suit, and instinctively her nostril sought to wrinkle at her interpretation of him checking her out. It was so many times she had crossed a man running their gaze over her assets but every time she couldn't shake her need to issue clear warnings that she wasn't remotely interested in a relationship.

Liar... her mind hissed with the thoughts of a different darkly clad individual who she hadn't seen in eons. Or what felt like eons. shutupshutupshutupshutup her chant burned fiery caws at the sizzled and cindered memories. Instead she thought of Dastan's other lessons, where she could have used her feminine charms to will over any remotely interested adversary, but with the automatic glare, the Phoenix might have blazed that one to ash. Instead-
She did what she seemed to be best at.

Following orders.

Miss Vyler clomped over to the closet desk, waved a activation card over the sensor and out swung the cabinet of Hazard Suits. Underneath the bright yellow and oranges, a tucked away and neatly stuffed etch grey and orange trimmed Enviro-suit hung tightly in her grip as she slammed the closet with her other hand. Unbundling it, she put on the default medium sized suit, which hung a bit poofy on her petite body, but held enough of her frame to show she did in fact have hips and a punch of bust. A lady wore this suit, and that was really all you could get as she zipped up the hood and held the matching ventilator mask in her newly freed left hand.

"Ready, whenever," she affirmed before beginning the programing of the ventilator with a confirming 'wheeep click'.

[Jacobi Wylcott]

Home of the legendary Great Clan Fett - Concord Dawn was no stranger to war and equally great beings who had gone down into galactic history as famous or even infamous. Among these Jango Fett himself, template of the Empire’s Clone Trooper program had been said to call this world his origin. But there were also stories and legends from long before this day and age where Sith plied the stars as conquerors and rulers of all. A day and age when the Republic knew to fear the Sith - it was also a day when the Mandalorians were glorious of strength and boldness, when the name Mandalorian was synonymous with their warrior namesake.

There had been said in the whispers of the underworld of a clash between the two greatest warrior castes - the Sith and the Mandalorian - and it had ended in great bloodshed. Many lives had been lost but too many machines had been felled in this skirmish. Yet there was one key item here among these lost legends - the Harbinger.

A Nightfall class Destroyer of mighty proportions. It had been front and center of many engagements yet had gone down near Concord Dawn itself. Rumor had it and the speculation here was large - that the ship hadn’t been destroyed in the battle at all but had been taken down to the surface - crashed by a team of boarding Mando’ade who had learned of the dire threat that the Harbinger actually posed and the repercussions of its destruction outweighed the loss of life incurred by boarding it and bringing it down to the surface of the world.

The Jai-Galaar breached atmosphere and cruised at the extreme of those limits whilst her AI sensory programs went to work in detecting the telltale signs of battle. Being many hundreds of years prior to today there wouldn’t be any residual carbon scoring or radiation due from ship explosions remaining - but there would be topographical scars that had tried to heal naturally over time - though the details were forever left to history.

After several long hours of searching the sensor pods of the Firespray did pick up strange readings of deformed terrain. Jacobi scanned the images thoroughly and he too caught the visage of terrain scarring. Where there had once been a mountain range that appeared was dominated by a volcano, now that mountain feature was a vast lake. The scarring took place or began three kilometers to the south - gouged into the rock and drug through a great length of the volcano. His ship AI suggested that the ship had been buried. He supposed that the Mandalorians after securing the vessel had decided to blast the rock around it and leave it to rest forever.

“There.” Concluded with his thoughts he pointed to a holographic location at the peak.

Soaring down the Firespray came over the dormant volcano lake and took a single flyover of the area to test and see if there were any anti-air resistance, there was not and so the vessel touched down on the rock and dropped ramp.

Jacobi Wylcott, clad in his steel silver Mandalorian armor, crunched down on the ancient volcano lip with his rifle raised and ready to put targets down. Blasted rock remained where thin atmosphere could not support the proper growth of life. Heat spilled from cracks in the earth where magma dwelt far below in the deep. His helmet swept left and right, no threats and so he lowered his weapon but held it fast.

Traveling forth through the winding rocks he approached the lip edge of the volcano and where the ground dropped away and gave to the mouth of the mighty mountain’s maw he spied the vast lake and its dark waters did not look inviting as a hot springs. On the contrary, the sea broiled and in some placed it churned. His eye narrowed and his comm clicked to Mercy, “Looks like this volcano isn’t quite as dormant as we thought. "

[Jacobi Wylcott]

The duo moved down the terrain. Massive obsidian boulders, old slag, each step was sunk deep into the soot and dried crunchy ash. Immediately their attire was covered in the dull tones of the surrounding environment. They wasted no time in trekking down the side of the mountain, tumbling rocks and miniature rock slides threatened their way yet they managed well enough for the circumstances. Steam shoots occasionally expressed their displeasure with intruders in their midst yet the Mandalorian and the Misfit moved ever deeper into the tomb of the Harbinger.

Jacobi was a hunter, born and bread. He had been born a hunter on the far flung world of Rhen Var and when the Mandalorians took him to Onderon - to the moon of Dxun - the Demon Moon - he had been trained to hunt the galaxies’ most fearsome predators. That knowledge, that instinct, served him now. Faint depressions in the blasted dirt caught his eye and he took a knee. Moving two fingers across the depression he confirmed the difference in depth and size - a boot indentation. “We aren’t alone.” His helmet clicked over to Mercy a warning that they were not the only ones here on the volcano’s flank. He glanced up at the skies for weather patterns and his armor’s system brought up the weather reports of the last week and more more. Matching the weather with the surrounding climate and finally with the depression he concluded his thoughts and shared them with his companion. “Two days ago. More sign is older. This mountain is occupied.” There was no way to tell what type of track it was so he only assumed the basics.

Rising from the kneeling position he took strides forward and into the jaws of yet another conflict on yet another world. Jacobi Wylcott loved battle and he sang its song willfully. It thrilled him and it made him feel alive. The dormant Tormentous could never thrive in battle as Jacobi did. It was his second nature - it was his life blood.

So when it would come, he would be ready.

Hours passed by and Jacobi was ever on the alert. They passed through outer terrain and interior alike, vast caverns where easily they could have gotten lost though through instinct Jacobi led the pair through endless tunnels and darkness to come out to nowhere though he ever seemed to know where he was going next.

Eventually through roughly six miles of one particular cavern where the temperatures began to soar to incredible and near unbearable heights - they arrived at a vast gorge fifty yards wide and the depth was pitch blackness - untold leagues of nothingness.

A natural rock bridge only wide enough for a single man to walk across at a time spanned the width of the maw. Jacobi paused a moment and observed the area before lifting his weapon to the low ready and striding forward. It was so dark in this cavern that even his helmet was having difficulty adjusting with the low lighting.

But as he crossed the chasm he came to a dead stop and froze with his free hand shooting up and signaling Mercy that she should do the same.

Out of the darkness, someone else was on the man bridge barring their way though the real question here was how many actually stood between them and their goal and what quality was this foe really?

[Jacobi Wylcott]

“Out of the way.”

Jacobi called to the thing out before him for there was no room to move passed. In addition to the fact his pride would not allow someone to stand in his way. Either they would move - or they would die. No answer came from the shaded man. There would be no second warning and Jacobi Wylcott snapped his hand to his side and ripped free his pistol. On the draw he was sharp and clean, muzzle coming up and drawing a bead for center mass where his finger depressed and clicked, the discharge of the blaster bolt cracked through the cavern - and never hit.

The bolt of red pierced through the being. A layer of smoke wafted away only to be replenished. Jacobi looked on in disbelief and no little amount of anger. It was a great shot wasted on apparently nothing. He spat a curse and fired again - perhaps the second shot would do better - it did not.

Worse yet, his pistol was yanked from his hand and cast away down into the depths of nothingness. Instinct covered his sudden vulnerability and he ducked as a massive brace of rock was slung at him. Rolling up to a knee he aimed and unleashed fire from his right gauntlet, the shade was devoured and he smiled beneath his helmet only for a moment. The shade came at him and he felt it fly right into his helmet and into he own face. He flinched back and hit the ground rolling, coming around with his combat knife and shoving it home into the sternum of the shade. Again he killed it not.

He moved and it moved, it sparred with him and he could feel himself tiring - not physically, not at all, but his will - or perhaps his soul? Whatever this thing was it was not of this world. This was the Dark Side of the Force at work here.

Even so, this shade could not fell him. He moved with brilliant speed and finesse. It was not as an Echani Warrior but it was one who knew how to fight in a manner more than a second nature. It was his heart and soul born on the knuckles of his fists and fighting spirit. He was so much more than a natural fighter - he was the incarnation of what combat should and ought be. He was perfection in war. Every movement was without waste and every motion to act would have killed his foe - should his foe have been anything else than a shade.

Where his blades and strikes fell, he noticed the dissipation of the shade just a little more than the last. He couldn’t kill it - but he was overcoming it. The question here was could he overcome the shade before he ate him from within. Anger swelled in his chest and he violently surged forth into a pugilist’s stance, blow after blow he slung into the shade, each strike he felt less of himself than the last.

Then it came to pass that he struck a would-be fatal blow - again the shade quivered yet came back again - before he could blink next he was on one knee and striving for breath.

Jacobi looked up into the eye of a glaring demon.

He saw it smile - it was coming to deliver him unto oblivion itself.