Between the Light and the Dark: Shadows (Open)

[Zasabi Ray]

Zasabi once again was left in mild shock, but in this case it was from the condition of the Vibroblade the droid held. How long had this droid...rock....person been operational?

"Just, uh, when did you run with the Jedi crowd? We talking recent or...uh, pre-Empire?" He reached into his trench coat, retrieving both of his lightsabers. Holding them both for a moment, he tossed one to Harbringer before laying the other one before him.

The lightsaber hilt was a heavier example of it's kind. The shaft was a dull grey, reflecting the light of the room darkly. Krayt teeth encircled the emitter like the teeth of a sarlaac, adding to it's vicious look, and the pommel was a sharp diamond-shaped slab of metal, weighted to give it's wielder the advantage in saber clashes. It was an inelegant weapon, but the black blade it projected matched the aesthetic of the lightsaber perfectly.

"Try not to break it," Zasabi offered with a smile. "It'd be inconvenient to replace." His gaze turned to the other lightsaber, a white and gold number with a basket guard covering the grip in a protective embrace. The two blades had served him well for a long time. He could only hope it would do so again today.

The Force twanged, a menacing chord that set goosebumps crawling across his skin. "They're close," he said aloud, eyes staring off into the distance.

Meanwhile, the Sith ship tore through the atmosphere, descending at a dangerous speed before suddenly leveling off. Circling once, it settled next to the still-smoldering ruins of Zasabi's ship. Two figures emerged, hoods and cloaks flapping in the breeze from their ship. Before long a small sphere emerged from under one of their robes, floating briefly before speeding off. Another followed, streaking in another direction, and another. In total, eight droids were tasked with finding the Sith's prey.

[Ashara Rys]

At first, Ashara wondered if she should just count her lucky suns and make a run for it. The vessel-that-looked-like-a-Sith-vessel had leveled off at an altitude just above her present position and, seemingly not taking note of her, had shot towards another direction.

"Alright, Ash," she muttered to himself. "You're usually not the luckiest Togruta this side of the Perlemian trade route, but, for once, the Sith don't appear to be after you, so, just, leave. Yeah, you heard yourself. Leave. Now."

Despite lecturing herself like that, Ashara continued to take several steps forward. Her curiosity seemed to override her entire monologue of self-reasoning. "No, Ash. Don't. Don't butt into things that don't concern you. Again," she said to herself, even as she withdrew her twin Westar-34 Blaster Pistols and slowly stalked over the surfaces of the downed starships, closer to where the Sith ship had landed.

For you see, Ashara had spent too much time with the Blue Stars to be anything less than a pirate at heart. Sith didn't just show up at junkyards randomly. There was a considerable, if not obvious, chance that they were after something of value. A bounty. An ancient vessel. A holocron. Intelligence. All of those were things Ashara knew she could purloin--err, utilize, to her own ends.

So, when the Twins Tall, Dark and Hideous pulled droids out of their cloaks, Ashara hid behind the damaged wing of a Cronian battlebird about a hundred feet away, and began charging her blaster pistols, the togrunephrine pumping through her veins, heightening her senses and readying her for the fight response.

"Ashara, daughter of Wimoweh, Rys," she muttered to herself, "I hate you."

[Harbinger]

Camera's were scanning the skies as quickly as their motors could pan them across the hulks they'd been attached, a light and constant whirring that went unheard as Harbingers new eye's looked out in all directions. The microphones on most things in the hangar had long been added to his consciousness, aswell as a particular security camera in the corner that was focused on Zas. The droid itself kept loading the ship with pallets, even while the shards voice seemed to come out of several speakers at once.

"Before, during, and after. Friend there's a good chance i'll outlive some stars out there. So long as i'm not destroyed outright, time is just a way to count the days" said the harmony of speakers around the room. The droid itself was coming back out of the ship itself, having more or less filled it full at this point with the more choice pickings from the past months of salvaging. Its hand shot up while walking across the room to hop up and sit on one of the cargo piles, catching the sabre and igniting it in the same flourish. Holding it loosely by its hilt, he took a moment to examine it in detail with his optics "Oh trust me friend, I'm well aware. Mine's been out of commission for a very long time"

Shutting off the black blade, he let it clank against his hip as he activated a strong magnet to keep the weapon secure. From a compartment built into the droids leg, he pulled out a tarnished and battered hilt. It wasn't elegant or crude, it just was. It looked like it had been made by a padawan during their training. A long silver hilt with a simple beveled end jutting above the emitter. It had a small guard around its end, a rounded metal disc that had once been engraved. It was bent in several places, and looked to have been shot with a blaster given the scoring.

Giving it a toss towards Zas he stood and pulled the black sabre from his hip and began to go through his forms in the hangar "Consider that a promise to return. Eye for an Eye and all that" he said as he used his onboard programs to conjure up a virtual opponent for himself and began to spar just to brush the dust of his anti-force user training. None of his forms looked very clean, he was moving strangely. The display of his slashes and guards were very tight and showed little in wasted movement. The ways of the blade from the perspective of a machine, it lacked the emotional element entirely that most organics had that showed their enjoyment or pride in skill. It was cold. Then the force pulsed, and a cold feeling of hate washed over the shard.

"I feel it too... two. Let me check the camera's!" The droid didn't move but it did put its sabre away once more "Yup, ships in the low atmoshpere... I've got them about where you crashed. On the destroyer... They're sending out droids in all directions I think. What do you want to do? We've got the advantage on them for now, But that won't last"

[Zasabi Ray]

Zasabi looked up at the droid, watching him practice with curiosity. It was odd to see a droid so clearly not following a routine formed by copying the movements of another sentient but instead learning the form and adapting it themselves. It felt wrong to the martial artist, in a powerfully profound way. Still, another blade could only help.

He stowed the lightsaber the droid had tossed to him, not bothering to look at it. His mind could only be blown so many times in one day and he needed to keep sharp. Instead, he focused on continuing to heal himself, the soft chimes of the Force ringing through his mind before something much like a violin being strangled swept over him.

"They're here," he said softly. "And they're looking. We won't have long to hide."

He rose to his feet, pulling his coat tightly around him. "Alright, the only chance we have is to lure them into an ambush. I'll go out there and get sighted by one of their droids. They'll show up, probably monologue for a bit, and you'll have a chance to sneak up on them. Your Force signature doesn't seem to read quite the same way that it does for most organics, so they might not even notice you if they're paying attention to me."

He cracked his neck, suddenly feeling the weight of the last few hours settle over him like a funeral shroud. "Whatever you do, don't die. The fact that you're helping me is enough."

~A very short while afterward~

"Something... is here," whispered the Faust, grey brows furrowed. "I sense something is hunting us."

"A local predator, perhaps," commented the Devaronian as she examined her datapad. The droids camera feeds were all relaying to the same device, offering a panopoly of views that automatically switched to the most relevant feed. "Don't let pre-battle jitters shake you."

"No, not an animal. Something..." The Faust began to reach out with the Force toward Ashara, hand outstretched in her general direction. "Something-"

"We found him!"

Surprised, the Faust turned their attention to the datapad. One screen replayed the last few moments, a drone wandering too close to a green haired figure before suddenly slamming into a nearby outcropping. "The fool. He thought destroying it would keep us from finding him." Glee spread across the Devaronian's face. "It just made sure that we knew where he is. Mount up!"

Obediently, the Faust walked to the ship, returning with a pair of speeder bikes. The two Sith settled onto their speeders and began to fly toward their quarry, cloaks fluttering violently in their wake. They were not far- it would be but a few minutes before they would find their prey.

[Harbinger]

(jumping the turn order to keep the flow going)

It was enough in that moment to allow the Jedi to take the lead on the matters at hand. The ship was loaded and ready for them to depart once they dealt with their unwanted guests, And it didn't seem like they'd have more time to do much else. With a final brutal slash against his virtual opponent, leaving a red scar in the wall of the hangar as the shower of sparks fell down around him. His demeanor had seemed to change and it was evident even in his emotionless metal frame.

Stowing the sabre once more the lights and power around them seemed to all start shutting down at once, the back ground hum of electricity fading away as monitors went black and the only light left inside was the natural light of the sun coming down through the toxic clouds high above them outside the wrecked ship they were holed up inside of.

"If they're hunters, hiding was never an option to begin with" Harbinger said as he took a small satchel bag from a hook on the wall and tied it around his shoulder to hang behind him. Looking to the now standing Zas, Harbinger nodded as he listened to the plan being laid out between them. "Seems like thats our best bet, you choose the location and i'll find a place to hide nearby. I know these wrecks fairly well. Just try not to get brought into any of them. I fear close quarters combat in these unstable ships wouldn't do us any favors"

With that the droid itself tossed a small ear piece towards Zas and walked out of the immense hole in the bulkhead out onto the ship parked beneath the one that had been his home. "Just pop that in your ear and I'll be able to find you with ease if we get separated, aside from being able to communicate. Don't worry friend, The odds are square and balanced. This is going to be a glorious battle" he said as he pulled his cloak around him, even going so far as to put up his hood as the harsh winds whipped at him. Making his way down into the wrecks towards a wide open expanse that was one of the few places around that was actual bedrock, a cliff jutting out over a signifigant drop down into the toxic sea below them. His spot of choice was going to be the burned out remains of an imperial shuttle near the edge of the cliff itself, giving him a chance to come in behind their unwelcome guests.

[Ashara Rys]

(OOC: So sorry for being so late!)

Ashara felt it; disgusting, grimey, and filled with terrifying darkness, like the sewers of Lotho Minor, she felt the hand reach out towards her in the Force. Gasping, she recoiled, her left foot landing rather noisily against the metallic mainplate of the downed starship she was crouching behind.

Noisily enough to blow her cover.

'... Druk!' she mentally cursed, blue eyes snapping back in the direction of the two Dark Siders, hoping that somehow they were deaf or something and they hadn't heard her.

"We found him!"

And they hadn't.

Blinking, Ashara watched as they departed on speeder bikes. She whistled as she felt them leave, and quickly made to follow. While she couldn't catch up to them on speeder bikes, she would make it to the general location they were going eventually, preferably in time to scavenge whatever she could off of the remains of whoever was on the receiving end of the Double Sith Surprise.

[Zasabi Ray]

It wasn't long before the Sith found their quarry. He lay on his back against a jutting shard of rock that was the first piece of natural land the pair had seen all day. His breathing quick and shallow, one hand clutched at a red patch on his duster while the other shakily held a blaster pistol in a white knuckle death grip.

"How sad," mocked the Devaronian. "I had hoped for a challenge." She could feel the genuine pain he felt in the Force, now close enough to drink deeply from his aura.

"Oh, don't...worry," he wheezed. "I'm not finished yet."

She let out a toothy grin as she stepped off of the speeder bike, cloak whipping in the caustic breeze. "No, not yet. I expect to torture you for some time before we let you rot on this hellscape of a world. You've led us on quite the chase, and it's time you paid us back for that in full."

Still on their speeder, the Faust frowned. Something about this didn't seem right. Other hunts always had the key element of finality to them, as if the Force itself was whispering to them that their quarry's life was at an end. While the pain the green-haired shadow felt was, as far as they could tell, genuine, something about this scenario seemed off.

"Be careful," the Faust began. "He's not... wait a moment"

The patch of blood on Zasabi's duster was too pale, clearly long-dried. The blaster he held was missing it's power pack and had not been used against the droid they had sent. The final, and most important clue- a dark square cartridge, clearly the ammunition for a blaster pistol the like Zasabi held. It had gone unnoticed, save for in this moment where the dark exterior began to give way to a glowing scarlet.

The blaster's power pack suddenly exploded, it's stored tibanna gas cartridges fueling the flames that burst between the two Sith. The Devaronian rolled forward, the Force warning her moments before the blast went off, but the Faust was still mounted. Moving faster than the bike, the Faust threw themselves clear as the wing of an Imperial Lamba class shuttle fell between the two, bisecting the speeder they had just been riding.

"Clever," the Devaronian remarked as she rose to her feet. An elegantly designed lightstaff revealed itself, both ends crackling with barely tamed crimson. "But this is still two on one."

"Not quite," Zasabi admitted as he rose to his feet. The affected injury was dropped along with the empty blaster pistol, the pain still remaining present but clearly manageable. "I like to keep things a little more fair than that."

As the Faust looked up with searching eyes, they noticed a presence unlike any they had sensed prior. "We're not alone!" they shouted, the slight quaver to their voice revealing their fear. Pale fingers grasped a lightsaber that had clearly only recently been constructed.

The trap had been sprung. With the shuttle wing laying between both Sith, they had been forced into solitary combat with their opposite number.

[Harbinger]

Laying in wait was something that Harbinger had long since found to be a prime time to meditate. Holed up inside the wreckage of the lamba sitting in one of the jump seats that still had a semblance of structure to it, he powered down to the bare minimums and quieted his mind. It wasn't long before voices were clearly being picked up on his jedi friend's earpiece, keeping him abreast of the situation and ploy. As the explosion rocked the area around them, he let his power cell reignite his body as he stood, despite the blast sending debris scattering all around him as the wing of the ship broke free and fell.

Walking out onto the windswept cliff top, he kept his hood up and faced into the wind, seeing a rather unsettled Faust clutching a clean and fresh looking hilt in his fingers like it was going to be taken from him. Zasabi would handle the other one, and if needed, they would do this together, though the shard rejoiced in the chance to clash with an opponent once more.

"No, You're not alone. But You very well may die that way. Have you crossed blades with more than a training droid whelp?" he asked as the strong wind threw back his hood, revealing his cold featureless face. Red eyes glowing with intensity as they sized up the Faust before him for any details that would aid him in battle. This race wasn't known for its physical prowess, but he looked lean and nimble. Not knowing what powers this one had to his disposal, Harbinger took him as a serious threat, even if he looked ready to soil himself.

Pulling the sabre from his side, the shard took up a stance in his own unique way, best to confuse his opponent at the start with his irregular combat style. The black blade crackling along his forearms as he held in across his chest, ready for the blows to begin landing. It wasn't the Light that was filling the shard at this moment, his hatred for the Sith, and all they stood for was ironically fueling his battle lust in this moment.

"Come Sith, make your time spent training have some value, Surely you're not afraid of a machine?"

[Zasabi Ray]

OOC- Sorry for the long delay. You know how life is.

IC

White light erupted between Zasabi and the Devaronian Sith, both of the Theelin's wiry hands coiling around the hilt of the blade of his lightsaber. He rarely fought with only a single blade, but it wouldn't hinder him unduly.

His opponent was clearly experienced, and the lightstaff gave her a number of options both offensively and defensively. None of that worried the Shadow- he had fought worse and prevailed.

With a fierce snarl, the Sith leapt toward him, blade flashing in a figure eight to obscure the direction her attack would come from. Rather than staying on the defensive, Zasabi dashed forward, sweeping upward to disrupt her rhythm and force her to defend. In midair, she had no choice but to block the brilliant white blade, using the momentum of his attack to shorten her fall to the ground and landing behind him in a crouch.

Rising, her body seemed encircled by crimson energy as she and the blade spun. Forced on the back foot for a moment, Zasabi parried the incoming staff blows, slipping out of the powerful Djem-So stance into a more defensive Soresu stance. Sparks flew as their blades crossed multiple times in a moment, driving the Theelin back with sheer ferocity.

Meanwhile, the Faust squared up with his droid opponent. "I'll dismantle you like the rest of the garbage on this planet," the Sith replied, clearly having come to terms with their situation. Their stance was defensive, their pale red blade extended out toward Harbringer to create distance.

It became clear why this was the case when a number of stones behind the shard began to leap from the ground at alarming speed, heading directly for the former Jedi. It was clear that whatever this Sith lacked in blade skill, they made up for with telekinetic barrages. While the Shard was engaged with this sudden ranged assault, the Faust leapt forward in a lunge, their blade seeking the droid's chest. They didn't know exactly what would injure their opponent, but it seemed as good a place to strike as any.

[Harbinger]

The emotions on Raxus had never been so high, not in a very long time. Harbinger was more than happy to embrace them as the battle across the wreckage unfolded, filling him with a sense of pride as his sensors kept him aware of how his friend was faring against his opponent. The shard was a little annoyed with the seemingly better duel on the otherside of the wreckage however, compared to who stood before him. He stood with his blade held in wait, watching as the Faust before him simply held his blade out at arms length to keep the already considerable distance between them.

"By all means... Do your best, I'd consider my first duel in all these years a waste otherwise" He said as his sensors alerted him to the fact of the rapidly approaching stones. Some punching clean holes in the droids cloak as it obscured his exact form and definition in the dusty caustic winds that beat his cloak against his frame. Others found their mark true and left scratches and small dents upon his plates as they broke upon impact. Distractions, he paid none of them any mind until one of the larger ones hit him in the back of the knee joint. Stumbling forwards, He could only bring his sabre upwards to catch the falling Sith as he brought his blade down, intent on driving it into his chest.

The sparks that showered the droid made the plates that still held a sheen to alight in a blackened glow of scarlet as he put his strength to bear and rose back up to his feet with a firm shove. There would be no forms, no stances, no this opponent had no honor and would not be treated with quarter. "Tricks is it? Well let me show you a few of mine..." the large droid said in a low bass tone edged with frequencies that were deeply uncomfortable to the ear. Leaning on the force, Harbinger used his imposing size and engineered design to strike fear into the Sith before him. It wasn't going to be enough to sate the Shards pride to simply defeat the Faust. No, he wanted him to be broken, and destroyed before falling to his borrowed blade.

Each step forwards brought a fierce slash from the black bladed sabre in his grip, the force aiding his speed while his body ensured each stroke was calculated to be as impractical to block as it was awkward. Given his range and fluidity of motion, he pressed the attack, hoping to push the Faust towards the fallen wing of the shuttle behind them. Any retaliation was calculated down to the site of impact, and whether or not it would do critical damage that could not be repaired. Glancing blows across his armor would be allowed, and nothing save for a killing or disabling stroke would be blocked, The war machine was going in for the kill.