Kakuto Ryu

Ryu cautiously took the canteen from Armiena. He wasn't sure if he believed they would not turn on him, but after such a long isolation he was more in need of companionship than he was willing to to admit--even to himself. He took a sip from the canteen, then after a moment contemplation, a second much longer drink, half emptying the canteen before passing it back. As the boy rekindled the fire he decided to take a seat. Ryu listened intently as he spoke, ruminating on the boy's glib explanations of where he was, and why they had followed him. He sat in cold silence for several moments following his line of questions, apparently lost in though. "My plans do not extend far beyond this moment. I'm hoping to find some new clothes and a replacement for my arm. I was planning to tear one off the next droid I encounter, though in this wilderness I don't expect that would happen any time soon. If it is true that I'm not being pursued by anyone but you, then I suspect my past is quite lost. I don't know where I came from, and you who came after me when I escaped that prison don't seem to know why I was there either. I have no direction other than away from that cell." Ryu stared into the fire. A few remaining ants from the Canteen were crawling on his arm, but as he he watched the flame he did not seem to notice them. Do you remember anything related to your past? The words stirred up what little recollection he had within him, horrific visions of an endless war on all that lived. He could hear the screams of countless dying men and women, and in the fire he saw entire worlds burning. He did not really understand what it all meant, when or where he was remembering, but he had a dreadful sense that the violence that haunted him was his own doing. He felt sickened by the notion that this carnage was all that laid behind him, guilty that he was likely the cause of immeasurable suffering but lacked any sense of why it had happened, or what had driven him to do it. He knew that despite Armiena's condemnation of his imprisonment, the words of the baleful specter that had haunted his cell were most assuredly correct. He did deserve it. He had earned that suffering and much more. The ants were biting into his flesh now, sharp mandibles tearing away minute hunks of his flesh. He remained motionless, his eye still fixed on the flame. He opened his mouth to speak, but still took several moments before he found the words. He considered denying that he knew anything at all, sure that any admission of truth would change the Jedi's minds about their desire to chat. Yet, a sense of penitence drove him to admit what little could form into a coherent thought. "All I know is that my name is Ryu. Kakuto Ryu. And your mercy is most certainly wasted on me."

Ryu was confused by the actions of his pursuers. Despite efforts to allay his fears, he was still deeply distrustful of their words. When the female disarmed herself, he wondered if it was a ruse. Even so, without a ranged weapon it seemed unlikely that she would able to attack him if he left his cover. Grudgingly he decided to stand up, revealing his sorry state. He looked like a ghost in the moonlight, his skin, hair, and eye in varied shades of gray. His flesh was a tapestry of scars, telling a story of violence that spanned hundreds of encounters. He was thin, emaciated from only intermittently eating what was provided for him in the cell. One of his arms was missing, a dark gray mechanical socket indicating that there had once been a cybernetic arm attached. His face was largely hidden behind the wild unkempt hair and bushy grey beard, his one glittering silver eye peeking out from the mess. No Longer hiding, he studied the two before him. The boy seemed unimposing, looking like a fairly average spacer. He could see the lightsaber on his hip, but Ryu's intuition was that he hadn't a lot of experience with it. The woman concerned him more. Her gaze was stern, her stance told him that she had seen many battles. Even disarmed, she could be a a threat if she meant to be one. Looking in her pale green eyes, he sensed something... familiar. His muddled memory could not place what it was though. He had some slight inclinations of his past, but he knew only what had come back to him in the hallucinations he experienced from his cell. "I..." Ryu began to speak but trialed off, hesitating. "I am lost. I think my memory has been tampered with, and I do not recall how I came to be here. I'm not even sure what planet this is. What..." Ryu trailed off again, taking a few steps forward from the dense grass. "If you don't intend to kill me or to put me back in that cell, what is it you want from me? Why have you followed me, and what do you intend to do now that you've caught me? "

Ryu's blood ran cold at a the figures stepped out into the open, the sight of the lightsaber filling him with terror and dread. He was certain now. They were Jedi--or at least one of them was. His instinct was to run as fast as he could, but in his heart he knew he was unlikely to be able to evade pursuit for very long. The second person spoke up, affirming his desire to have part of Ryu's nerf. Though his heart screamed for him to run, he decided to continue leaning on the art of diplomacy. After a few moments of Shuffling in the grass, Ryu popped up into view with a large slab of bloody uncooked beef in hand. With a heavy groan he launched the still warm mass of flesh toward Genesis's head. Despite having only one arm to throw it with, the meat sailed through the air with alarming speed and accuracy. Without waiting to see where it landed, he dove back into the grass. "Here! That's all you get though! No more! I'm not going back to the dark place! It's... Too... damn dark! You can't make me! Take my meat like you took everything else! There's Nothing left!"

The Holonet is for posting about communications made over holonet. It's kind of like the Internet/Cable TV networks for Star Wars. You're deep down the rabbit hole now--you're looking at the internet, within a fictional RP Universe, within the Internet. Tag your posts as "Public" for broadcasts anyone can view, and "Private" for encrypted transmissions between specific people. The Darknet subforum is for RPing outside of RP canon, and is generally used for unofficial character dueling and testing beta mechanics.

Ryu's ears rang with the sound of the stun blaster, adrenaline pumping and cold sweat forming on his skin. On impulse he dove into the grass, keeping his body low to the ground to try to obscure himself in the brush. He didn't see who fired, but he saw the stun blast go skyward--a clear signal that it was a warning shot and not meant to hit him. He was overwhelmed with indecision. Was it a Jedi, or maybe just some farmer? Perhaps somebody looking for the Nerf he'd slain. If they meant to kill him or throw him back in the cell, a stun blaster and a warning shot didn't seem like a good start. His instinct was to run, but abandoning the spoils of his hunt seemed unappealing. He tried to peek out through the grass to see who was coming, but he couldn't make out anyone in the darkness. He settled on attempting diplomacy. "What do you want? Go away! This is my Nerf. You can't have any! It's terrible anyway, you wouldn't want it!" Ryu shouted to the unknown person approaching, then whispered to his meat slab, "I didn't mean that, you're wonderful" Ryu's attempt at negotiating sounded a lot more crazy and desperate when he heard it out loud. His voice was course and raspy from disuse. He began to crawl slowly, through the brush, toward the river. He was prepared to make a run for it based on what he heard in response, or as soon as he heard an approach.

Ryu trudged on through the cavern, heading up a steep slope. The crystal made his progress faster, but what guided him now was smell. Mixed in with the damp cave air, he smelled grass, and better, the air was moving now. He was close. Around the next bend, he saw light, and with a growing sense of urgency he began to run forward until at long last he felt the light touch his skin. Immediately after passing through the mouth of the cave he fell to his knees in pure bliss. He saw the setting sun ahead of him, the open endless sky above him, and felt overpowered by its beauty. The cool wind blew across his skin and filled his nostrils with fresh air. He raised his hands into the sky, reveling in the glory of freedom, and stayed in that very spot for nearly 20 minutes. It was such a relief to see sunlight again, to be out from under a roof again. In that moment he became certain that he would bite off his own tongue and bleed out before he'd spend another day in that cage. He would accept only freedom or death from this moment forward. ---- A stray nerf grazed idly in the tall grass, lifting it's head to look around upon hearing a shuffle. After a few moments it lowered its head and resumed chewing the dense grass that covered Dantooine. It heard a second shuffle, and raised its head to look around with a mild but noticeable sense of anxiety. When it heard and saw nothing more, it tried to continue feeding, when suddenly Ryu leapt up from the grass and landed on its back, jabbing it in the neck with his Kinrath Claw. The beast thrashed, but bled out quickly from the wound on its neck. When it stopped moving, Ryu grabbed it by the horns hauled it off into a clearing by a stream, where he had started a fire using primitive methods. He eviscerated the creature clumsily with kinrath claw then suspended some of its meat above the fire. He smashed the creature's skull on a rock then took a horn to replace his claw. While he waited for the slab of meat to cook, he went over to the water, taking a drink and then stopping to look at his own reflection. He barely recognized the filthy hobo that stared back at him. His beard was huge and bushy, his hair was extremely long, matted and unkempt, and his body was covered in dirt and blood. He decided to wash off some of the filth while he waited, and climbed into the stream. He let the current of the river do the work, just staring up at the sky until the stars appeared. When he was done he sat down on the nerf pelt and tamped out his fire with a rock, afraid he would be detected but unwilling to do anything more until he ate. He took his charred hunk of nerf flesh by an exposed bone and bit into it. It was, by far, the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted.

Ryu inched onward through the darkness for what seemed like hours, freezing when he heard noise, in constant anticipation of Kinrath attacks. Had run into two more since he entered the cave, taking a few claws to his chest and knees before he was able to blindly grapple and stab them to death. He could feel blood trickling down his left leg from where he'd been gouged. Passing around a corner, he noticed a dim light ahead. He approached slowly, concerned that it may be the glow of a lightsaber, but was relieved to instead find a cavern illuminated by glowing crystal formations and bioluminescent moss. He breathed a sigh of relief and approached the cavern. On one edge there was a small pool of water, and several Kinrath eggs. He approached a redi/pink crystal and hacked at the base of the shard with is severed kinrath claw until it broke off. He shoved the crystal into his waist band so that it may serve as a dim lantern. He could now see the blood that was running down his leg. He walked over to the edge of the small subterranean steam, washing off the blood and packing the wound with mud to prevent it from bleeding further. It was deep but the pain wasn't severe. He was more concerned that the Jedi would follow the trail he was leaving behind than he was for the wound itself. Strange... he pondered, I would have expected the Jedi to be catching up with me by now. I must be better at spelunking than I had thought I was. Ryu stood and began to head for the nearest exit to the cavern. He hadn't gotten very far before he heard the crunch of an egg under his feet, along with the angry shriek of a kinrath in the distance. He muttered a slew of curses as he wiped the gooey contents of the egg no the floor. Then, raising up his severed claw, he waited for the Kinrath to come into his reach.When each came close enough, he slammed the severed claw downward into each of their heads, dispatching them very quickly. It was a lot easier to stab the insects when he could see where their heads were. Ryu pressed forward, disappearing into another path opposite of where he'd come in. With the new crystal lighting his way, Ryu continued into the depths of the earth.

Kakuto Ryu emerged from a cell in the deepest level underneath the temple, a dim and dusty untrafficked subbasement. He still wasn't sure if he was dreaming or just hallucinating in the dark, but in either case he planned to make the most of the opportunity. Down the hall he heard the chittering and squeaks of a large arachnoid. He contemplated his options carefully. He could either try to escape from inside the temple, where he was likely to encounter Jedi and be killed or worse, be placed back in that cell; or he could try figure out how the beast got into the temple and use its route to get back outside. At his disposal he had nothing, the rags he wore and his fist--and only one fist at that. He inched down the hall slowly to try to see what manner of creature awaited him. He peeked around a corner and saw it shuffling in the dark. It was Kinrath--a large 4 legged insect with one big digging arm. Not an especially fearsome beast, but one that lived in hives. To get outside, he would surely have to cross paths with many of them. Even so, it seemed like a better bet than facing down a bunch of Jedi. He began to worry that they would be coming for him if he waited too long. Surely the Jedi would be notified of the failure of his prison cell and come to investigate. Without the force he would have no way to sense their approach. There was precious little time to plan. Abruptly he heard the kinrath begin to shuffle down the hall. He didn't think it had seen him, but after a decade in a cell with no shower it most certainly smelled him. Ryu held up his hand and prepared to engage it. As soon as it peeked around the corner he grabbed it by its sharp digging claw and lunged at its head, sinking his teeth into its neck. It squealed with hostility, thrashing its arm to try to stab him. It had a hard exoskeleton, but with great determination and a small amount of fear he might have his journey end at the hand of such a humiliating foe, he managed to bite through its neck and tear the creature's head off with his teeth. Ryu spat out the insect's head and bitter disgusting blood, more than a little disappointed that his prey didn't taste good. After a decade with bland synthetic paste to eat, a steak was high on his list of priorities. It would have to wait though. When the kinrath stopped twitching he put his foot on its digging arm and tore off its claw. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing. Tracing the path of the kinrath back to where he had seen it initially he found a large hole in the wall, an entrance path into a pitch dark cave. Evidently the creature had burrowed straight into the temple. He noted a torn cable sticking out of the wall where it had come through, suggesting this was what caused the door to his cell to open. For a moment he almost felt bad that he had bitten the head off of what was actually his savior. Perhaps if it had not tried to stab him he would have left it for the Jedi to deal with. He felt a bit of dread at the prospect of groping blindly in a cave that, for all he knew, could be miles in length before he reached the surface. Still, it seemed like a better option than fighting his way through Jedi with a kinrath claw. Reluctantly he entered the cave and began slowly feeling his way along walls, his severed kinrath claw raised--ready to stab the next one he encountered in the face. "At least I won't have to kill the next one with my teeth."

GENOCIDE AND GENESIS In pure darkness laid a man. Alone on a stone floor, he sat in silence. Could it truly be this black, or did I go blind? Is it really this quiet, or am I deaf? Am I truly so alone, or have I am I just no longer able to reach anyone else? It feels like I have been here forever... He focused on the cold stone floor beneath him. Though all his other senses were blank, he could feel the cold, and cling to the hope that at least it was real. "Perhaps I am already dead, and this is purgatory." The man ruminated on the sound of his own words. It too seemed real, though it offered him little comfort to consider that it might be. He could remember nothing of who he was or what existed outside of the suffocating darkness. He wasn't even certain that there ever was a world beyond the blackness that enveloped him. "You are not dead yet." Echoed a metallic voice. The voice sounded very close. He groped blindly for its source, but found nothing but cold stone. "Is someone there?" He pleaded. With a flash, a white light pierced through the oppressive darkness, radiating from the blade of a silver lightsaber. It was held by a tall, imposing figure, clad head to toe in bone white armor, with dark metal hand. A mask covered his face, its empty dark eyes giving the impression of a skull. The strange voice hissed from the masked man, "You ARE alone, Ka-ku-to Ryuuuuu." The man looked down to see his own hands, pale gray skin in the white light of the ghastly figure's blade. Hearing the name aloud, he felt a certain that it was his own, yet could remember nothing more about himself. Ryu picked himself up off the ground to face the armored man. "How did I get here?" Dimly, he saw the outline or a transparent cylindrical tank. Ryu approached, a dull blue light illuminating a body inside from below. Though the frame was smaller, childlike, he recognized it as his own. Ryu put his hands on the glass tank as he studied the figure. In the reflection on the glass he noticed two men standing behind him. They were tall with tan skin and silver hair much like his own. One held a datapad while the other scanned the floating body with a handheld device. "You really screwed up this one. You said you'd run the simulations before you tried anything novel. The Boss is going to be mad." Remarked the man with the scanner. "I did run the simulations. They came out exceptional! This one will be strong and durable, an excellent laborer. Look at how this muscle tissue is forming, it's nearly twice as dense as predicted. Sensory and motor neurons are hyper responsive. Its skin is remarkably tough. It's even growing faster than the other samples." Said the other man with the datapad. "But it's not taking the cognitive entrainment. It might not even be able to understand basic at this rate. The point of this project was to create workers who would require a minimum of training, so we could put it to work on complex tasks. We weren't paid 250,000 credits a head to make mining drones!" Replied the first man, visibly annoyed. "Okay, fine, maybe integrating the massassi DNA sequences didn't work out as well as I expected, but It's not a big deal. These things happen in experimental eugenics. It's not as if there aren't plenty of asteroids to mine. The boss will still get his money's worth, I'm sure." The two figures turned and walked away, fading into the blackness. When Ryu turned to try to see where they were going, he was met instead with the man in the skull mask. Before could react the masked man grabbed him by the top of his head. Ryu's hands gripped tightly around the the cold metal wrist of the Masked man, powerless to break free. "You hear that? You were a mistake. If only they had any idea how massive of a mistake it was, they would have put you down when they had the chance." The Masked Man repositioned his thumb on Ryu's left eye, pressing in. Ryu screamed in agony and horror as his eye made a grisly pop and blood sprayed out onto the armor of his tormentor. ---------- Ryu was awakened by a bare light fixture activating on the roof of a cave. He squinted and opened his eyes, finding himself laying on a roughly hewn rock floor. Packed tightly in the unfurnished room were dozens of others who looked like him. Men and women with ashen gray skin and silver hair, dull silver eyes. They wore ragged, dirty jumpsuits, with metal rings around their neck, wrists, and ankles. Each began to rise to their feet, their bodies stiff from the rocks they had rested on. "Rest interval has ended. Line up to receive your nutritional supplements and work directives." Crowed a black overseer droid, standing just inside a doorway. Four identical droids flanked him, wardens subservient to the overseer. One was holding a tray of doughy grey bricks and the rest loaded with an assortment of mining equipment. The others in the room did as they were told, leaning over to receive one of the small bricks of synthesized protein before being sent away with a droid. Still on the floor, Ryu noticed that a woman in the line was staring at him, her eyes revealing an unspoken concern. Before he could wonder why Ryu was hit with sudden wave of pain. The cuffs on his limbs and neck began to emit electricity with an loud crackle, sending him into convulsions for several seconds. In that moment Ryu felt his consciousness pull out into a place that felt distant, until he was high above, watching himself be dragged away by the warden droids as they scolded him for delaying the work schedule. I had forgotten this place. This was my first day at the mining camp. The first of too many days to count. This was a hopeless, joyless place. Except... The view of that room faded to blackness, and in the next instant Ryu found himself in his body again, face to face with the woman who had been staring at him before. He had become aware he was trapped in a memory, and could only watch as the events unfolded as they had in the past. "Take this." Ryu said aloud, extending his hand to the woman. "The overseer did not want it. He said it was a different from what we usually dig up." Ryu dropped a transparent silvery crystal into the hand of the woman, who brought it close to her eyes to inspect it. He saw her smile as she turned it around between her fingers, seeing how the light danced across its surface, reflecting colors they had never seen before in their monochrome existence. To her, it seemed like the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. But for me, it was her smile that was captivating. Like the shimmering colors in the crystal, it was something I'd never seen before, and it became the only thing I valued. After that day, she would spend every moment she could at my side. We could only be together between labor shifts, when we were told to sleep and the few minutes before and after. She would lay next to me in the dark, and I would feel the warmth of her body, the softness of her skin. In that rocky prison, she was the only thing that had ever been warm or soft. We rarely spoke, and now I can't even remember what her voice sounded like. But even so, I think that I loved her... Ryu heard the metallic voice of the masked man, laughing derisively. "You think you loved her?! Ahahahaha-" Ryu found himself in the mine, a sonic hammer clutched in his hands. "You don't even remember her name, or a single word she said!" Ryu Raised the tool up over his head, and then slammed against the wall of the cave. Crumbled rocks fell to the ground as he raised it again. "A monster like you never loved anything, it's not a feeling you're capable of!" Ryu brought down the hammer again and again, bits of rock flying through the air as he tore through the wall. "If you ever felt love, it was for violence. You only know how to hurt people." Ryu continued flurry of strikes, a large fissure spreading vertically as he pounded. "You deserve to suffer." Ryu stopped hammering, but the fissure continued to grow, splintering more and more. He took a step back, but it was too late. A roar of wind accompanied the collapse of the wall, sucking him out into open space. He tried to scream, but his lungs were emptied of air. He could see the tears in his eyes turning to steam as he felt his body decompress, his flesh expanding like a balloon the the vacuum. The pain was unfathomable, simultaneously freezing cold in the shadow and boiling hot in the sunlight. It was less than a minute before he passed out, but it felt like an eternity. Ryu reawakened in the black room, laying face down the floor. With his one good eye, he could see blood pouring from his hollowed out socket. He felt a heavy boot on his shoulder, and the cold metal hand of the masked man gripping his left wrist. His arm was bent backward, already dislocated from its socket. "This is your punishment." The masked man began to pull, Ryu howled in agony as his flesh started ripping. There was a nauseating shredding sound as his muscles and sinew were torn apart, until finally his arm completely detached, only to be discarded on the ground in front of him. His body grew cold from the loss of blood, and quickly he fell unconscious. ----------- "Amazing... He's waking up." Ryu's eyes opened to the sight a bright examination lamp. Every inch of his body ached. One of the Arkanian scientists was taking readings off him with a medical scanner "I've never heard of anyone surviving 10 minutes in a vacuum before. You've gotta be the luckiest slave alive. If we weren't afraid that a cargo ship might pick you up and start asking questions, we wouldn't have even bothered to retrieve your body." The Arkanian set down the scanner and began making notes on a datapad. "Needless to say, nobody expected your heart to still be beating when we got you back inside." The scientist left the room, pausing just outside the door to inform the warden that he would be ready to resume work on the next shift. When the morning came, a droid led him to the main barracks where the slaves slept at night. He entered the room as the lights kicked on, and the overseer began the day as he had every other. "Rest interval has ended. Line up to receive your nutritional supplements and work directives." Ryu didn't expect much reaction from his fellow slaves, but he had anticipated at least one person would smile when they saw that he was still alive. "Where is -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ ?" Amid the solemn faces, he did not find the woman who he cared for. Though they all looked much alike, to him she was unmistakable. The way she carried herself, her expressions, the way she walked--in the time he'd spent there, these were the only things he'd thought were worth learning. He began to pace around the room, double checking everyone's faces as they were lining up for food and being sorted into groups. "Why isn't she here? Where is -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ ?!" The familiar buzz of the stun cuffs rang in his ears as waves of electricity ran through his body. He fell to his knees, but recovered as soon as his punishment ceased. "Terminate all communications, report for work directives immediately." the Overseer insisted. Ryu begrudgingly approached the overseer and snatched up his brick of synthesized protein. None of the others were going to speak for fear of being shocked, and the droids weren't going to start being helpful now. "Follow Warden Delta to Sector 6." Crowed the droid. Ryu gnawed on the tough flavorless lump as he walked toward his assigned area. Upon arrival at the mining site, he picked up his mining hammer from the warden and began to strike the wall. "Alright, I'm smashing rocks, looking for gems. Now, will you tell me where -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ is?" Ryu shouted back at the droid as it watched to make sure he didn't stop working. "You are not authorized for requested information, and slaves are not authorized to speak during labor interval. Terminate all communications." Ryu seethed at the response. There had been other laborers who had disappeared like this in the past. If they were injured while mining, they usually returned once their wounds were treated. But others had disappeared without warning, and they never returned. For Ryu, neither possibility would be acceptable. He lowered his hammer and turned to face the warden droid. "And what if I refuse to work until you tell me?" Ryu demanded. The warden's response was predictable. The stun cuffs and collar began to pump electricity throughout his body, bringing him to his knees. Ryu's jaw clenched, the pain only serving to anger him more. Ten seconds later the voltage halted, and the warden repeated his orders. "Terminate all communications and resume labor immediately." "No." Ryu spat back defiantly. Again electricity surged through his limbs and neck. His flesh started to bubble up, lines of burns in the shapes of the electricity scorching into his flesh. His arms and neck tensed, but this time, he stood firm. Ryu grit his teeth and began to scream, both for pain and for rage. He raised up the hammer he used to break the rock walls and began to march toward the warden droid. The Droid looked around as if in confusion. The nearest containment door began to close, and an alert siren sounded. The hammer smashed into droid's chest with a satisfying crunch, crumpling its torso and sending its pieces flying in 5 different directions. The stun cuffs deactivated with the droid, allowing Ryu to breath a sigh of relief. By luck the droid's torso slid into the door frame, blocking the door from sealing fully. Ryu sneered the droid's severed head then gave it a kick across room. He didn't really know what he would do next, but the path forward was clear. He slid his hammer under the door then, feet first, followed behind it. Ryu made his way to the part of the facility that was ordinarily restricted to slaves. He had only ever been to the medical bay, and so that seemed like a good place to start looking. He arrived to find it empty, the lights off, the exam tables and bacta tanks inactive. His jaw clenched in frustration. Undeterred, he checked the other rooms nearby. Across the hall was the cloning lab, unmanned and filled with empty maturation tanks. The next door down seemed like a sort of storage facility, filled with chemicals, equipment, and unused droid parts. It wasn't until the fourth room that he ran into one of the Arkanian scientists. The scientist gawked in disbelief for a few seconds before frantically digging in his pocket and withdrawing a control device for the stun cuffs. Disbelief gave weigh to panic when the stun cuffs activated but failed prevent Ryu's advance. "Oh c'mon these are supposed to subdue a wookiee!" the Arkanian shouted, smashing the button repeatedly. Ryu smacked the stun cuff remote out of the scientist's hand with his hammer. The remote clacked against the floor, then crunched beneath Ryu's foot. The scientist, meanwhile, recoiled in horror at the sight of his hand, which had snapped at the wrist and was dangling straight down. Ryu disregarded his cries of pain to scan the room. His gaze fixed immediately on a set of transparent capsules lined up along the walls, one of which contained a female body. Its surface covered in frost, Ryu approached it with purpose and began to scrape away to get a better look at the face of the woman inside. There was no mistake. It was definitely her, her eyes closed, a peaceful expression on her face. She seemed serene, as though sleeping, and so he started to knock excitedly on the glass. "Hey, wake up, we're getting out of here!" The woman remained motionless, unresponsive, even as he began to pound his fist into the glass. Ryu sensed that something was wrong and he began to grow frantic. He turned to the scientist, now quivering in the corner and clutching his wrist. "Why isn't she waking up? What did you do to her?!" Ryu shouted. "Shes... She's in Cryogenic suspension. She's being shipped off colony tomorrow. You can't wake her." Answered the Arkanian, increasingly fearful of what the slave might do. Having never heard of Cryogenics before, Ryu had no idea what this meant, but was rapidly growing impatient. "Fix it. Get her out of there, now." Ryu Growled. "I can't, we-we-we don't have the facilities to revive her on the station--" The Arkanian Quivered. Ryu grabbed him by his broken wrist and threw him into the wall. "GET HER OUT NOW!!" Ryu insisted, his demands echoing throughout the whole facility. "It-it- can't be done, I'm sorry-" The Arkanian admitted, grudgingly, between wails of pain. Ryu howled in anger. He looked back at the capsule, then raised up his hammer--intent on opening it himself. "NO, YOU FOOL!" The Arkanian cried out impotently. But it was too late. Ryu shattered the tank with a single swing of his hammer, a radial web of fractures spreading across it's surface. He jammed the handle through the glass, careful not to hit her. Gripping the hammer near its head, he pried the glass away, then tore away the broken pieces with his hands. His palms lacerated and bleeding, he reached into the tank and touched her face. "Wake up -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ ! We're going to be free. -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ ...." Her skin was cold and hard. She was motionless, not even breathing. He slid one hand to the side of her neck, taking her hand with the other. His bloody palm print stained her cheek. "Please... -̴̢̢̝̤̰͚̄̈́↑̸̨̨̡̝͚̯̟̬̂͝☺̷͓͓͉͠♠̵̯̻̹̼̥̔̉̋̈́ ...." A hairline fracture formed across her face. Ryu gasped in terror, and then more fractures radiated from the first, until she was covered in a web of cracks that enveloped her whole body. Ryu held his breath, his heart sinking, and a moment later she shattered into thousands of pieces. Ryu stood stunned, trying to process what was happening as shards of her hand slipped between his fingers. The silver crystal he had given her fell into his palm, having evidently been in her hand when she was frozen. Ryu clenched his hand into a fist, lowering his head to see the grisly mess of her remains. Shaking now, he closed his eyes and screamed again. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" The Arkanian scientist stood in stunned horror. Ryu turned toward him slowly, tears streaming down his face. "What have you done-" Before the Scientist could complete his sentence the mining hammer struck the top of his head, fragmenting his skull and shooting bits of blood, bone and brain matter in every direction. Ryu watched as the lifeless torso slid onto the floor, blood pooling from where its head used to be. He stood there, unblinking, blind with rage. The anger that had been building since he was born had boiled over, and in this moment it became an overwhelming madness. Ryu walked into the hallway outside the cryogenics lab, where he met with another Arkanian scientist and the remaining four droids. They had come to find the source of the commotion, only to find Ryu splattered with the remains of the first Arkanian. "Subdue him." ordered the second Arkanian scientist. The droids activated the stun cuffs on Ryu, but this time they had no effect. The electricity flowing through him strobed, lighting up the hallway as it danced along the surface of his neck and limbs. The droids drew stun batons as Ryu turned and raised his hammer. The scientist began to panic when he saw Ryu's furious gaze, a feeling which increased ten fold as the droids were smashed to bits by four swings of the blood soaked mining hammer. Before he could bring himself to run away, Ryu's hand was around his throat, the electricity of the stun cuff passing into him and making him convulse as Ryu strangled the life from his body. There was a awful crunch, and the scientist fell limp, his tongue hanging from his mouth and his eyes growing empty. Ryu dropped him to the ground with a sneer then proceeded to smash the remains of the droids into smaller pieces until the stun cuffs stopped firing, and then a little more after. When the droids were barely recognizable hunks of metal, Ryu did the same to the body of the second Arkanian. He began to howl like a wild animal as he crushed the body into bone fragments and bloody paste. A terrified whimper came from the other end of the hall, and Ryu turned to identify it's source. A third Arkanian screeched in terror at the grotesque scene. Seeing Ryu's white skin painted head to toe in blood was enough to make him turn his back and run as fast as he could. Ryu's bloodlust still unsated, he took up the chase, letting out a bestial growl as he began his pursuit, bloody footprints trailing in his wake. Having seen his colleague mutilated, The last Arkanian was prepared to abandon the station entirely. He sprinted to the hangar and ran up a ramp to a cargo shuttle. Barely in the door he shouted for the automated droid pilot to take off immediately. Before he could even reach the pilot seat the gore bathed hammer shattered his spine. He doubled over, his stomach touching the floor but his head his chest facing the ceiling. Blood pouring from his lips, he gurgled and sputtered. The last thing he saw was the blood cloaked nightmare looming over him, raising the hammer into the air and bringing it down on his face. ----------- A couple hours later the cargo shuttle touched down on a landing pad in the snowy wastes of Arkania. A dozen of its inhabitants rushed out of a nearby facility to meet the shuttle. As the landing ramp opened a particularly well dressed Arkanian began to voice his confusion. "Hey, what's going on here, this shipment isn't scheduled for another..." The Arkanian trailed off when he saw a blood soaked man with a hammer run down the ramp. Ryu charged headlong into them, taking each man out with a bone shattering swing of his hammer, one after another until only broken bodies remained. He continued in through the door they had emerged from to continue the slaughter. The massacre would end some hours later, the base still and silent, purged of all life save Ryu's. Fresh blaster burns and vibroblade wounds marred his flesh, but were ultimately insufficient to stop the rampage. The other slaves who Ryu had left behind ultimately starved in captivity, no one left to free them or bring them supplies. In effect, it was a sort of suicide, as he had erased every trace of his existence by eliminating every person who knew of it. At dawn he sat outside on the landing pad, a plume of flame billowing out of the door of the secret facility, blood and bodies around him freezing in the bitter harsh wasteland. Ryu turned the crystal over in his fingers, watching the light of flames and the rising sun flicker across its surface. He hardly noticed when a massive flying reptile arrived at the scene, attracted by the stench of blood, and began feasting on the corpses. It was nearly as big as the ship he had rode in on, black with two massive wings and a mouth big enough to consume a man whole. He looked up at it, and it stared back at him for a moment, but gorged on the dead, it did not seem interested in Ryu, and flew off without bothering him. Some time later I would learn the beast was a rare arkanian dragon. At the time, I remember thinking that it could have killed me but chose not to out of some form of kinship. It and I were just beasts that existed to terrorize weaker forms of life. Now I look back on that day and think that it spared me because it believed that by doing so, I would make more corpses for it to devour. "It was right." Ryu was back in the dark room, atop masked man, pinning his arms down with his knees. His left arm and eye gone, he repeatedly bashed the skull mask with his remaining fist. His knuckles grew bloodied and bruised, staining the white mask as he relentlessly pummeled it. Finally the mask began to crack, then fell apart to reveal his face. Beneath the mask Ryu found his own face, and in it he saw flashes of a lifetime of murder, a trail of flame and mangled corpses that had led him to this point. Unphased by the horrific memories, he did not relent in pummeling his doppelganger, instead smashing his head against the ground over and over until the face was no longer recognizable. ----------- Ryu found himself in the center of a large windowless room with a single light overhead. He was trapped in a small round forcefield, unable to move. His left shoulder was just a socket where a mechanical arm was mean to attach and his left eye merely a hollow socket. His body was covered in fresh wounds from what seemed to be a recent battle, one that he had evidently lost. In front of him was a massive stone door, nearly a meter thick, in through which filed a procession of cloaked Jedi. They took positions surrounding him, their hoods up and their faces obscured by shadow. "We are gathered here to pronounce sentence on the Sith Lord Kakuto Ryu. For your crimes against society, for the innumerable lives you've ended, and for the instability and chaos you've sewn across the galaxy, we believe that are too dangerous to be allowed to exist. Yet, it would be against your principles to simply execute a defenseless man. Thus we have decided that you will stripped of the Force, you will be stripped of your memories, and you will be stripped of your freedom. You will be confined to this cell, deep underneath the temple, where you can never harm another again." The council reached out their hands in unison, calling on the force to invade his mind. He could feel them prying open the gates around his thoughts, unlocking his memories and then obliterating them. He tried desperately to fight back, to lock his memories away, but before long there was nothing left. He felt the force being cut off from him, his sense of the universe that surrounded him growing silent. In the end he was an empty shell, isolated within himself, and purged of all sense of identity. He fell to the ground, alive but catatonic. The Jedi filed out of the room, and sealed the door behind them. The force field deactivated, leaving him all alone in an empty cell with just a wall mounted food synthesizer and a hole in the corner of the floor. The single light deactivated itself moments later, leaving him in complete darkness. There he would remain for nearly a decade, his mind struggling to repair the damage that was done to it in this place of quiet and shadow. Ryu finally understood that this was the place he found himself at in the present, and that all the hallucinations he had experienced were his mind trying desperately to piece his memories back together. Where he had once felt the force, he now experienced a scar on his soul, a great emptiness that was even worse than the darkness and the silence that had filled his days. His newly found sense of self only served to magnify his suffering, and he contemplated smashing his head into the wall until he could end it for good. Unexpectedly, in his darkest hour he saw a thin strip of light leak in from the door frame, growing to a blinding glare as his cell opened to the outside world again. Unsure whether it was real or another hallucination, he got up from his spot in the floor and approached the doorway. Struggling against his own disbelief, he exited the cell. The moment of his rebirth was at hand.

"If you want to save him, you need only bring him with you..." The words rang in Ulan's ear as a distant memory what had transpired. His recollection of the time after passing through the beast's jaws was gone. In his green, ooze coated claw he clutched the hood of a shallowly breathing Gavin.Though he miraculously bore no mark of the struggle, the echoing pangs of an all too real dismemberment would haunt Jedi Knight. Amidst a crater full of flaming robot parts, what was once the Sith's ship now lay decapitated and scattered across a Bespin City Block. The reunited apprentice and master found themselves in a pool at the center of the impact, just too sticky with the putrid ichor to be on fire. Kakuto was gone. The Cloud City Management, aware that the carbonite reactor was soon to blow, detached lower blocks of the city to mitigate the collateral. Among the city lost in the sky that day was the last known location of Sith Master. It is unknown whether or not Kakuto Ryu was able to escape the drop into the clouds. He is presumed lost in the groundless skies of Bespin.

Nar Shaddaa Astrographical Information Region: Mid Rim Sector: Hutt Space System: Y'Toub System Orbital Position: moon of the 3rd planet Moons: one of 5 Grid Coordinates: S-8 Physical Information Class: Terrestrial Atmosphere: Type 1 Breathable Primary Terrain: polluted cityscape Points of Interest: Rimmer's Rest, Promenade, The Slag Pit Societal Information Indigenous Species: Ganks Immigrated Species: Hutts, t'landa Til, humans Primary Language(s): Huttese, Galactic Basic Faction Affiliation: neutral Defense Rating: Level 4 JediRP Canon History: …to come… Old description in spoiler: ((Summary compiled by Amidala Skywalker. Thank you!))

OOC Note: The chronology on this is a bit askew, bits are thrown about everywhere, but the only thing that's important is that everyone is The Streets of Bespin Waves of blaster fire washed the mech as it besieged the Streets of Bespin, the commander's speeder backpedaling to stay out of the beast's way. A cigarra spike clenched sharply between his teeth, he yelled at the visibly quaking driver in the seat next to him. ”œDear Woden Man, don't stop now! This is robot county!”

The Jaws of Uriel As Ulan slipped between the golden plates he was met with a thick blue ooze washing over him in waves and pulling him into the belly of the beast with an unseen current. In the blades of light that pierced through the gaps in the ever darkening mouth the shadows of free floating teeth loomed. The plates surrounded and overwhelmed Ulan, his lightsaber malfunctioning as they formed a cocoon around him, squeezing the air from his lungs and replacing it with the the cold blue fluid. The taste and smell of blood overwhelmed his senses. The interlocking teeth of slid shut as as the final plate fell into place, leaving the padawan to drown alone in total darkness. Beneath the Carbonite Regulator Core The delicate floating array ceased its battery as the wave of Carbonite interrupted its rotation and disrupted the careful balance of the parts. Stray arcs of energy erupted from the mass as he strained to preserve its cohesion. Though the arm itself was immune to Darex's blade, the interference of the magnetic field caused it to bind suddenly, pieces expoding off and disappearing into the carbonite flow. A half formed hand appeared in the maw, grinding as the mangled wreckage failed to fold back into the intricate form of his arm. Instead what emerged from the carbonite was a a three fingered claw, shuttering and thrashing with loose ends, the ruby amulet shining brightly through the gaps. "You are Mistaken, Darex." Kakuto's crimson saber emerged from his palm to match the pearl saber in a two bladed stance as he stared down his enemies. He had never seen Darla give into the dark side, and after so long trying to drive her to her breaking point he reveled in the opportunity. His victory was in grasp, he would capture her and make an apprentice of her or he would die trying. There would never be another chance like this. "I'm far from done with you." He charged at Darex with his blades raised, letting loose a flurry of slashes at his neck. He wanted to Darex to die quickly so that he could claim his prize. The Impact Site Police and rescue workers began to swarm around the impact site, blocking off the streets and trying to pull survivors from damaged buildings before they collapsed. Speeders with heavy laser cannons rolled up on the billowing smoke cloud, a palpable sense of dread lording over the dutiful guardians. Attempts to contact with Gavin's vessel failed, the communications array disabled. A wing of cloud cars slid into the street row in line to make a pass over, hoping to get a better look at what had happened. As they came close two volleys of red laser fire erupted from behind a curtain of smoke, swatting down a pair of cars and sending them careening toward the police perimeter. A single pilot floated gracefully away on a parachute, caught in the updraft of the burning building, struggling not to be capsized or sent beyond the outer edge of the city. The gargantuan white mech's glowing red eyes peered through the smoke before it emerged, heaving Gavin's ship at mass of speeders before the twin laser canons on its shoulders lit it up. The creature's terrible wings extended as it slowly trod into view, one slashing through the remainder of a building and causing it to collapse and fill the streets with waves of flaming debris. In the Maw of Madness Suddenly a sensation unlike anything he had previously imagined rumbled within Ulan. It was a sound like a voice roaring from inside Ulan's body, vibrating every fiber of his being with sense of overwhelming malice. Lights began to dance around Ulan, flashing in tone with the inescapable menace, growing gradually more intricate until it became apparent that not only was Ulan able to see all of cloud city in the breadth of a single gaze, but that he could see inside of solid matter, people and buildings. And yet, his own identity became harder and harder to recall as his thoughts became drowned out by the extra-dimensional bombardment. His nerves began to tingle with life, sensations caused not by his own body, but the body of a creature he was gradually being drawn into.The self awareness and lucidity began to return to Ulan, but marked with sharp sense of helplessness. The body of the fifty-five foot monster was in fact his own, but at the same time it wasn't, as he had no control over its actions. Waves of lasers began to erupt from the Bespin Security officers to glance off its great armored shell as the huge metal feet paced slowly forward.

Clash's move seemed a little better grounded. I dunno, I had a hard time comprehending why Marco' needed to throw away his weapons. It's not a strategically sound move, and you could probably break ceiling tiles with just gunfire. It seemed like a rather difficult move where shooting at him would have been just as, if not more, effective. <>

OCC Notes: This post is broken into parts specific to each group of the fight. For the purpose of more interesting exposition, the timeline may overlap or skip around between scenes. Because you're all split up it's easier for me to split the story into parts based on each of your experiences. Also, please forgive me for the time it took me to write this post. There aren't enough words for explosion in the English language to accommodate a perfect KR post. I may have to explore German. As you can see, this post was exceptionally long, but challenges every character separately for once. Let me know if this was worth the wait The Streets of Bespin, Gavin's Landing Pad A sense of dread drowned the streets of Bespin in silence. The attacks had made the small, vulnerable community uneasy. Though their threat was only a single Sith, they were usually omens of worse fate to come. The crushing realization of the situation's gravity had not long to stew in the Conscious padawan's mind when when his perceived safety would be threatened once more. A strong, foul disturbance in the force radiated from below them, the alien's large ears ringing with a stirring reminder of what had taken place. "THERE' S NO ESCAPE!" An emergency broadcast from Bespin Air Traffic Control arrived in the cockpit. A series of alarms from the flight computer interrupted the liftoff procedure, cloudcars roaring just overhead. "Comm: Bespin Air traffic Control to All Ships... Be Advised... Large Unidentified Vessel on Collision Course with the City coming in off South Face..." The comm trailed off into some coordinates, and the takeoff process resumed. The was comm was downed out Ulan's ears by the soothing rumble of the engines. The flight computer started whirring again as with an alert from the rear sensors. The Cloudcars had vanished. Air Raid Sirens blared, scattering the sparse crowds from the surface of Bespin. "...Target is hostile, repeat, target is hostile..." The Bowels of the Carbonite Regulator A barely audible laughter preceded the warrior's erratic approach. "You don't Understand, Darla." He swept low with his saber, charging in to sweep the saber between his arm and his blade. The impact pulled he hilt opposite of her block, sending the blade fly wildly through the air and embed in a durasteel column. Her guard down, Kakuto raised his arm to batter her face, the steel joints quivering with hesitation. His attack stopped short. "You are not the one who tried to Escape me..." The back of his hand glanced her cheek, his unfeeling fingers alive and warm with electricity. Near the Cold Carbonite Regulator Core "Darex's confidence has Betrayed him. He has Split himself between the two people he has come to protect, leaving him in a position to defend Neither." A loud bang followed a shudder in the facility, a small vibration as though from a building collapse. Black smoke and debris poured from the open door at the peek of the elevator shaft. The rope they'd used to overcome the lift fell past Darex, an end still on fire. The force revealed something far more sinister than the explosion could even portray, however. Eclipsing Gavin And Ulan was a tremendous shadow, something large like a ship, with the vulgar vibrations of an engine, but strangely... alive. The Streets of Bespin, Gavin's ship "For you see, they will find the surface to be FAR from the Safety they had anticipated." An impact to the ship interrupted the power, the horrendous crash turning the bay to darkness. Ulan was thrown from his bed, the IV ripped from his flesh as he was thrashed around the ship. The sensors went berserk, controls unresponsive--the ship flipped through the air, the view from the cockpit pointing skyward. The clouds zoomed by for one peaceful moment before the ship was pushed through the wall of a building, thrashing the pilot without destroying the cockpit entirely. The Darkness of the thrashing med bay broke with a flash of light, an enormous vibroblade of glittering sunlit corusca gems blazing a line through the floor, before twisting and disappearing from whence it came. Eight gargantuan robotic fingers slipped through the hull breach like the legs of a spider, spreading out pry open the ship like tin can. What lie beyond looked like a war droid, but moved like a creature--something fierce and savage. Its huge robotic face peered in through the fissure. Lunging forward, its massive steel jaws unhinged to reveal an oozing blue maw of razor sharp gold plates, from whence came the psychic roar of a creature from regions beyond imagination. Its cheeks caught on the narrow opening, the steel beak of the abomination falling just short of the tiny alien. The Bowels of the Carbonite Regulator His thumb forced down on her windpipe, his fingers wrapped firmly around her neck. His head was hanging low, the blood caked platinum hair obscuring his face. "And as for Why?" Kakuto lifted Darla from her feet, her neck cracking loudly. "I wish to Break that which you hold dear. I want to Drive you to the Darkest parts of you mind and watch you Suffer there." He lifted his gaze up to Darla. His neck was tense, and his eyes wild with a mix of contempt and misery. His teeth were clenched, bits of his blood leaking from the corners of his mouth as he spoke. "So why, Darla," Kakuto took a few heavy paces and slammed her against a vertical pipe. His fingers breached the pipe, carbonite pouring through to flash freeze his lock on her closed. He loosened the grip slightly to let the air into her lungs. "Would you still fear for my life, when it is theirs that may yet be saved?" The Sith reared back as though he were going to release Darla, but as paced back his shoulder merely grew farther from his palm, the mechanical arm pulling apart. The red amulet shimmered with electricity, the loose pieces and floating rings that comprised the device swirling around it. Flashes of lightning began to arc between the parts and the ruby, sending shocks running through Darla's body. The three cylinders in his shoulder erupted, each filled with a copper rich blood, swirling in a magnetic turbine to channeled the force lightning through the alchemic circuitry of the device. A visible halo of charged blue ions hung in the air just above the force dynamos. The energy he produced went through the amulet, which animated the parts on magnetism alone. Spread apart, the loose pieces of his arm acted a massive array to project lightning to a focal point in between his fingers--where he held Darla fast. The only thing that saved her from being obliterated by the rapidly escalating electric torture was the pipe that helped to ground her. Near the Cold Carbonite Regulator Core Crimson lights flashed below him, a sinister Cackle filling the air. Kakuto's voice came clear as day from across the distance, echoing in Darex's mind. "All of your companionions are within my Grasp yet you have None of them within yours." Boxes with electronics erupting into flames as he fell down the great trunk of the machine. The Electricity was a coming steadily up the walls and arcing wildly between the pipes. The unsettling feeling of electric charge was strong all around him, and the Carbonite Regulator was making a furious rumble as the pipes fought seizure. "How Careless it was of you to leave her Alone with me..." The howl of something inscrutable echoed down from the repulsorshaft, a stirring clue of the horror that roamed above. White smoke poured downward from the ruined elevator, making the air smell of charcoal. "...Meanwhile the Green One with his Master vulnerable to It." The surges of unchecked energy continued to cut through the sea of darkness below him, illuminating the path as the eye of a blinding thunderstorm. "Time is Short Darex!"

Okay, so here's the deal. HK--When you make a killshot, it's supposed to be the last word on the subject. This is the move that you think will do the deed. If you declare war on a thread you have to anticipate that a lot of hands will come on deck. You can't keep posting or stack other requests on it before the moderation resolves. That's the point of the setup posts--you get everything into place, and you make your move. I commend the other players in keeping it civil, but I wish somebody would have explained it to him in a PM after the first time. So try to keep this in mind and time your killshots more concisely next time. That said, I cannot give these posts my blessing. Your tactics were questionable at best, you tried too hard to escalate the situation by overpowering the enemy, and generally didn't have it under control at any point. Onderin rips the HK's arm off, and Joreel's blast the droid sends tumbling down a trash chute. The crushing sound of a droid being scrapped is cut short by the sound of the droid exploding, doing little but wrecking up the trash compactor. Nearby patrons applaud and drinks begin to show up for Onderin and Joreel. <>

Tears... He watched in wonderment as they dropped down her cheek. In the glimmer of light catching the tear he saw a bottomless pit of visions. Faces of people he'd killed. People he'd made cry. It was a gruesome feeling to see someone reduced to tears with fear of what he'd do to them. Sadness over what he'd done to those around them. It was a sensation he once reveled in. A profound terror overwhelmed him, his body gone cold, numb. There was a question he couldn't answer. Something that, until this instant, was unimaginable. When her lips met his own and the empathetic link between grew strongest, his senses fell blind. Both the warm touch of her kiss, and the strong emotions he felt through her were alien to the depraved Sith. She loves him... The most wretched depths of his imagination offered no reprisal from this feeling she had. All the might he could muster would not be able destroy this detestable feeling--it would persist beyond even the destruction of their mortal frames. To have something he so close to his mind was maddening. She would send him away... His mind flooded with memories of those who'd sacrificed themselves to protect something. Their home. Their family. The future of their race. Efforts spent in vein. Lives thrown away for causes long since forgotten. And yet, they were lives offered willingly and without remorse, to protect that which they loved. But why- The sharp pain of her teeth piercing his lip slashed through his psychic torpor. The fragments of his sheering mind scattered in a thousand intangible directions--a strong disturbance echoed in the force. Through the red tinged blur Darla faded from view, his body slipping into the darkness of enormous machine. Several seconds after Darla came to a halt a duo of crashes rang throughout the amphitheater. Kakuto laid in the dented grating that had absorbed his crash, his own blood pooling in the back of his throat. Motionlessly he stared upward, his breath still, his eyes unfocused. His breastplate had taken its last hit--the two large gashes Ulan and Darla met, cracked under the weight of an unaided fall. His thoughts had betrayed him. The answer he needed would not come. Focus on the Pain. Standing up, the breastplate fell to the floor, exposing the burns that radiated from his arm and the gaping wound in his side. His steel thumb flipped a latch to drop his gauntlet. With little hesitation he jammed his fingers into his lightsaber wound, grinding his teeth as he pried the cauterized gash open. A groan of agony came softly between stridulous coughs, gradually amplifying to a furious howl. His eyes clenched shut, he thrust his skull into a plasteel pipe, lifting his head only to force it back down again, then again, as though trying to beat the bad thoughts out. Kakuto pulled his hand out of his wound, his fingers sticky with with gore. His eyes began to shift around the room. Beneath the tube where Darla hid, the rhythmic tapping of his footsteps was inescapable. At first they seemed to get closer, then stray away, getting softer and louder at random. The footsteps went faster by the second, soon coming from any and every direction until it seemed as though there were hundreds running through the facility. Two steps rang in the pipe over top of Darla, dreadful silence followed for only an instant before the unmistakable wail of his lightsaber activating. "THERE' S NO ESCAPE!" The pearl blade erupted from the tube to glance her cheek, steam billowing from the hole it carved. Kakuto pulled his saber out and began jamming it down into the pipe aimlessly, using the fear he felt within her to gauge how close he had come...

The metal Dynamos in Kakuto Ryu's shoulder had extended like pistons, bolts of lightning arcing as the anger seethed within him. Now, with the weight of fear in her mind, he struck through the force, digging into her consciousness on scar of and old wound--the bond they shared. At first he seemed confused by what he felt. Like groping for a sign in the dark he could not comprehend a single sensation. He turned his head slowly, a blue eye flashing as Darex came into view. And as his scarred eye caught Darex it began to hit him as dull sinking sensation, followed closely by frenzied malice.. He threw his steel finger out at the Jedi Master, the metal joints shuttering loudly as it quivered with rage. "You cannot stop me!" Sith steel plates began to peel apart, interlocking mechanisms inching apart. Arcs of lightning jumped between the growing cracks in the ruinous mechanism, spreading up from the elbow until the threatening finger he pointed at Darex disappeared into the twisting metal. Blooming like a sinister flower, the crimson amulet emerged from the core wreathed in a crimson electricity. Spinning coils and freely hanging graspers swirled around the single point of light. The light swelled quickly, forming a second ball of lightning like the first--growing larger as the device pulled back, struggling to contain the dark force that it was harnessing. The Dynamos in his shoulder receded, the energy he had stored up spent his creation. "NOW DIE!" At nearly two feet in diameter the lightning ball didn't so much fire as it did escape, free of the Warrior's grasp to buzz toward Darex. Bolts of electricity jumped from the sphere, carving lines of destruction in the floor as it gracefully swooped toward its target. Kakuto began to run opposite the great ball of energy, his arm forming back into a familiar shape as he charged toward Darla. He dove like a pouncing animal, driving his weight into Darla with such force to shatter the walkway she lay on, sending them both falling through the labyrinth of piplines toward an uncertain destination below. His wrist pressed firm against against her chest as they fell, he stared through her with his cold piercing eyes...

"Impressive..." The Warrior groaned, taking uneasy footing where he had intended to land on the Jedi. His eyes sharpened at Darla's unexpected flight. As she took advantage of the surprise by pressing him with a cone of flame, he realized he had underestimated her, "...Most impressive." With his hand still buried in the console his motion was limited by avoiding the huge beam of electricity that connected it to his wrist. He raised the arm to try to block the flames. The bone white armor was built to withstand heat of this sort, but not since Ilum had it been sealed. He had not taken the time to repair the gaping slash in his breastplate from Ulan's blade. This wound he kept away from Darla, but the break in his shoulder surrounding the dark limb was exposed directly to the fire. Bits of shrapnel still protruded from the scarred ceramic plates, as well as the boiling flesh between. "It didn't take much to get Ulan to walk in my footsteps. I showed him my dreams, told him that they would come true, his fear of the Darkness drove him to make them realities." The heat building up in the Sith Steel arm turned it from dark crimson to shades of molten orange. Black tendrils deep below the exposed gash in the Warrior's shoulder were illuminated by the intense glow. "His zeal could be the ruin of many. He sees the future as the road he must travel, not the sum of his footsteps. With one tiny step further he would have caused the death of this city. In not making that step, he has failed me." Slowly and deliberately the Sith replaced the pearl saber with the staff saber on his back, tensing his body in preparation for his move. Kakuto heaved his weight away from the console he held--a heavy tug on an intangible string of energy to uproot the computer and send it flying toward Darla. In the same motion, Kakuto heaved his lightsaber hilt. Like a shark, the spinning blue blades circled around Gavin and Ulan, cutting the walkway out from beneath them. The disembodied hand released it's grip on the computer, reconnecting with his wrist in the next instant. At the conclusion of his turn he caught the saber, watching with sadistic satisfaction as the platform collapsed and the wrecked computer assailed Darla. "But it is no matter..." Kakuto had only a moment to recover his strength. He was sure from the start that the Computer would not catch Darla far off guard, and with another light side aura in the distance he knew he had to press the attack now. Swirling ribbons crimson lightning began to dance in the still glowing metal palm, forming a loose sphere. It shifted and contorted gracefully but inconceivably fast, minute beautifully dancing lights. Mere inches around, he released the sphere to drift slowly toward Darla. Bolts of lightning seemed to erupt from anything around them to hit the ball, the charge growing stronger and the lightning ball larger with every passing second. At times it froze in place, or vanished entirely to reappear in another place. "...You will all be mine soon enough." ((OOC: Not quite happy with the post, but I decided it'd be better to get it posted and keep it moving. I'll be sure to make notes if I edit, but I won't be changing it much if at all.))

"So be it..." As the explosion tore through the pipe that Kakuto had stood on, a stream of liquid erupted from gash to on the walkway. A control panel encased in a sheet of crystallized carbonite was For a moment, the room was silent save for the groaning hum of the regulator as it tried to reroute the pressure from the shattered pipeline. Though Bespin had been saved from a total meltdown for the time being, it was clear by the noise that this machine would not weather the fight so easily. Hideous laughter echoed through the chamber. As the Padawan fell from his grip, the Master took the latent energy he had pent up inside the alien and ripped it away from him, the limp body erupting with a short fan of force lightning. With the taint he had instilled in Ulan Dissolved, Kakuto Ryu could no longer mask his presence. Ryu thoughts were as evident in the force as if he were screaming them aloud, the feeling of rapture as he was finally able to spring the trap he had agonized so long to create. Restraint was a difficult for Sith, and soon his thoughts began to blur with the laugh, incoherent psychotic ramblings that broke into malicious jubilation. The miserable shredding sound of the pearl lightsaber cut the laughter short. High above the platform, The Sith brought down his sword, twisting in quick circles. When the pipe turned gold the side exploded out toward Ulan and his would-be saviors. The severed section of the durasteel pipeline missed the platform, but the Jet of carbonite gunned straight for Darla. Kakuto's white boots sprinted across the dense air-hardened fountain, trying to maintain its cohesion. With each step he sank a little deeper, his boots growing laden with molten carbonite. As he ran his tattered robe disintegrated, revealing black char marks radiating from the untouched red arm. Clearly, the missile had come come close to the mark. With one final leap The Warrior thrust his palm forward, his hand ejecting from from the wrist. Sith Steel fingers clenched down on a console, crushing the sheeted plasteel with ease. A blinding flash of crimson flooded the room. When it subsided, a bolt of ruby lightning connected the hand to a electricity coiled amulet. The beam acted like a power coupling, pulling the two ends together. Kakuto flew toward Gavin, kicking down at him with the carbonite encrusted boots while stabbing his saber toward the Jedi's Chest.

Tough call... Low tech fights are always fairly straightforward. Adenn, I liked the direction you went with the EMP, but I think you would have had more success if instead of just reducing everyone's firepower to your level, you'd had a weapon to pull out afterword for a more distinct advantage; Something that was either shielded from the blast or immune by nature of it's construction. In the second post you didn't really have anything to fall back on. Even the Cantina Riot you summoned to help deal with the numbers was sadly absent from the post. I was hoping you'd continue working the riot your advantage. I found the second post kind of plain in comparison to the first. Meanwhile Black Sun continued to press their numbers advantage. Overall, I felt Black Sun gave a better show. That match was pretty even, but I thought BSO's actions were just barely more thought out. <>

KAKUTO RYU'S CHARACTER SHEET Identity [!ident] Name: Kakuto Ryu Title: Former Dark Lord of the Sith, Master, Warrior Homeworld: Arkania Species: Arkanian Hybrid Offshoot (Arkanian/Human/Massassi Sith) Physical Description [!dscrp] Age: 42 Height: 6'8" Weight: 170 lbs Hair: Platinum (Long, usually in a Ponytail) Eyes: Gray (Right), The Left is an empty socket, with a large scar running through it. Skin: Ash Grey Sex: Male Cybernetics: Kakuto Ryu has a plug in the base of his skull which he uses to connect his mind directly to computers, and a broken joint where a mechanical arm should connect. Equipment [!equip] Clothing: Ragged prisoner jumpsuit Armor: Destroyed Weapons: None Common Inventory: None Faction Information [!factn] Force User Alignment: Chaotic Evil Current Faction Affiliation: The Sith Current Faction Rank: Former Dark Lord, but his powers have been lost. History: [!hstry] Force Side: Dark Trained by/who: Records lost (Server Ate them) Known Skills: Having Sith DNA, Kakuto Ryu very literally feeds on the dark side of the force. He is also extremely skillful in warfare. Background: Kakuto Ryu was created as a slave, instilled with a deep abiding hatred of everything. He murdered his former masters and became a Sith, rising all the way to the top and becoming the Dark Lord of the Sith. He was defeated, captured, stripped of the force, and wiped of his memory. A decade later, he has escaped from his prison and now seeks to forge a new identity for himself. A short story that covers the backstory for the character can be read here. It should tell you about everything you'd ever need to know about him. Ship Registration [!ship] Ryu's ship has been lost, but someday he may find it again.

Interesting play. Given the Cantina crowd would be at a marginal disadvantage, it wouldn't seem so great as I am convinced they would we wiped out in a single sweep, nor the bartender sufficiently disabled. I say this goes into overtime. You've got a bar fight that borders on a riot. Also, fire EVERYWHERE. <>

The Menace would not relinquish his grip on the Padawan so easily. Unconscious, his power over him receded, but it was not long before The Dark Master's voice began to haunt his in his dreams. "There is still time..." An arc of lightning shot from the lift console on the far side of the room, spurring the platform to jerk upward, then slam down through it's shaft to explode out the bottom. The walkway shook violently as the only apparent escape was shredded. The sharp edge of the square platform caught a horizontal pipe, piercing the side with a great billow of gaseous carbonite. The destroyed lift froze in place--standing on it's edge. Peering through flashes beneath the darkness, Kakuto fluttered through Ulan's mind. As the darkness receded he formed wearing naught but his scars, from whence he bled shadow. Where Ulan had cut the beast poured a massive cimmerian flow. "I can give you the power to continue, but it will come at great cost..." A sharp pang struck Darla's mind, prompting her to look up to an angled pipe near the apex of the massive machine. There he stood, robed in black; a feint outline save for the glint of his lightsaber hilt. The warriors left hand appeared for Ulan as a silhouette, surrounded by a feint blue glow. In his right hand, he held the hilt of sheathed sword. When he spoke his silver hair came in and out of view, as if below murky water. His right eye never came into the light. "You know what it is I offer you..." Kakuto's sinister grin peered out from below his hood. "The force is with you, Darla, but you have not beaten the Darkside yet." From beneath his robe he withdrew his mask, sliding it up beneath his his hood and locking it to his armor. With a whistle it sealed shut, and the rhythmic shutter of his oxygen mask began to ring through the amphitheater. The Kakuto's features slowly slipped back into the darkness until only the hand comprised of shadow itself was visible. Kakuto's palm extended toward Darla. "Take my Hand." he ordered, his words heard clearly by Darla and Ulan alike.

"She hasn't seen what you've seen..." Kakuto's imposing visage appeared to Ulan just behind Darla. It was clear neither her nor Gavin could see him as The warrior's head drifted over Darla shoulder. The skull mask did little to disguise how enraptured he was by her attack. His gloved fingers reached to touch her shoulder, but instead appeared on Ulan's. The profile the bone white mask drifted into his peripheral vision. "The clock is ticking, and the man you threatened has not the faculties to do what you ask. " Even through the attack, the technician never blinked, never flinched, just repeated his grisly warning with the same empty gaze. "Don't Do it. Don't do it. Please. Please don't do it." Kakuto's fingers raised up, then swung down to Ulan's shoulder. The sound that should have accompanied it coming instead from above the great machine's console, where the Warrior tapped out the seconds on the the metal top. "I wonder if they will be counted among the dead if you fail in your cause?" Kakuto looked down, watching the keys input the access codes on it's own, in pace with the Sith's tapping. With a final tap the Sith vanished again, the screen changing to reveal a number of options.