Falleen

[Sandy Sarna]

The force was strong on this world, its dark hue battering against each of her senses as she strode down the boarding ramp onto the dark duracrete landing pad. Even the smell of the world was off, as if an evil was clinging to each molecule of oxygen. Clawing its way down her throat with every breath. Furtive gazes looked up from datapads as the pedestrians and techs did their utmost to not be seen. An oppression could be felt from their every action. Minds closed off from the outside worlds in fear and submission. 

 

She glanced back at the group behind her. Her whisper carrying only as far as their ears. 

 

“Remember, if we show ourselves as Jedi, and that includes calling each other ‘master’ we are likely already dead. Let us find a place to stay the night, and a place to base our operations out of.” 

 

She let her eyelids flutter closed as she tentatively reached out into the force, it was only for a moment, and she could feel a dim presence she had not felt in many years. A comforting presence, even if wracked by grief. She could not put her mind directly on the presence, and quickly withdrew behind her own silent mask. Blending into their surroundings as they walked towards the market square. There would be information to be found there. 

[Sandy Sarna]

Sandy could feel something off in the force. Not just the constant drudgery of evil that seemed to permeate the world, but this was coming from her new friend, someone who always struggled with her own evil. Sometimes thrust upon her, and sometimes, like now, the vain temptation put forward by biology and desire. This was certainly an odd world, and though she had experienced the pheromones of the local species before, it always came as a shock. It stirred emotions deep in the pit of her stomach desires that she hadn’t really put fully away after her time with Aidan. But she did learn to control those feelings so long ago, that it felt like secondary nature to let them pass through her and out. She took a breath, using a little bit of her energy to dispel temptation and desire, and replace it with the fierce calm of the force.

 

She reached out a scarred hand and lightly touched Keenava’s wrist. She let the force flow through her touch. Not the willful and forceful touch that she may have experienced from prior masters, but a calm reassurance. Letting her lean on that strength, should she need it, to resist temptation and to steady her nerves. There was no reason to harm herself to try to regain composure. 

 

She smiled warmly at the waitress, and took a seat next to Kirlocca, slipping a thin arm around him to give him fierce hug. He had lost much. More than all of them. And though his presence was a surprise, she was very glad to see him here. There was no one better to rely on than the wookiee Jedi master.

[Sandy Sarna]

Sandy kept her place next to Kirlocca, playing the part of close company, her own hood pulled up enough to cover the bright platinum of her hair. She spared a smile for the imperial officer, but her pale green eyes kept watch between the door and the bar. Leena had done the right thing exiting when she had, and it spaced their already overcrowded group out. And gave an avenue for escape should the need arise. Her gaze turned to her apprentice and the hutt she was talking to. She would have cried out in alarm and grabbed her sabre from its hidden place had the force not told her that there was no threat from him. She kept her gaze on him for a moment until a new danger revealed itself in the form of two massive Falleen men and a lithe lilithesque figure. 

 

She let her gaze fall naturally down to the table. Willing herself and her allies to not be seen as a threat and for them to be passed over as normal patrons.

[Sandy Sarna]

 

Sandy stood up beside the Wookiee, keeping herself in his large shadow. Her hood covering most of her human features, except for the scars that covered her chin in a latticework of lines. She was here, and despite her apprentice and Lenna leaving, she would stay beside her fellow member of the Jedi Council. And what better way to know the enemy than keeping in the heart of their plans.

 

“Name your price and target.”

 

A slight and nearly unnoticeable pull on the force and her voice carried a false dark aire. Portraying herself in the masque of a bloody mercenary. Someone who the dark leaders of this planet would trust with whatever mission this could be. But when she touched the force, Sandy could also feel something else. Something Kirlocca would no doubt also have felt. A darkness. Thick and unyielding at the edges of her perception. Danger

 

[Sandy Sarna]

The avarice in the air was palpable. It bit at the back of her throat like an acidic bile, but there was no danger sense. But there was a stillness in the shadow of the Wookiee Jedi Master, a calm that brought reassurance, even as the storm rose into a gale outside. She pocketed the thousand credit chip, noting its Sith mintings before she slipped it into her cloak. Stashing it alongside the two lightsabers that lay hidden in their holsters. They were manufactured lightsabers from the Imperial Armories on Nar Shaddaa and Carida. Both had been gifts, and the smallest of them had belonged to Aiden Darkfire. 

 

She looked back to Kirlocca with a smile and extended her wrists as well.

[Sandy Sarna]

There was a pull there from the marking, a tap into something distinctly foreign and that called back to the terror of her youth. What was that call? It tasted of blood, sweat, and anger. If she bent herself to its will, how far they might go, how much could they partake. She could delight in it, she could wallow in the blood as Adenna once had. She could find that Togorian pirate that-

 

No. She blinked. Letting the call, the emotion, and the evil will slip off of her mind. She kept close to Kirlocca, not daring to touch the blood. He whispered the same advice to her and she smiled up at him as he towered over her. She nodded her head with a smile. 

 

Then the world exploded in the pull of the darkside. It flowed everywhere in the street in front of them. Like a many tentacled beast, touching everything and pulling them into the depths of hell. She stumbled from the shock of it and fell heavily against Kirlocca. Dangersense creeping up her spine. As she put a steadying hand on his arm, letting her calm sooth and protect them both from whatever wiles the sith had begun to spin on this planet. 

 

She reached a hand beneath her cloak and retrieved the long handled lightsaber, she pressed it into his hand. Trusting herself with the shoto. They were both Jedi Masters, but he was far better than she would ever be with a blade. They would need to work very closely together to get out of this mess. And if there was someone to be trusted with her life, it was Kirlocca. A stablizing figure that she had known since childhood. 

[Sandy Sarna]

A death echoed through the force. It barely registered among the claustrophobic press of the darkside, and the mass of death from the Alliance invasion on the northern stretches of the city. 

Close. Blocks away. A close moment of terror that spiked through the muck and quickly cut off in a spasm of death. But there was something beside that death in the force. A rage and malice that could only be attributed to…

 

The Sith Lords. 

 

This was not the ancient slumbering evil that permeated the planet like a fog, this was the same vigorous malice that had been supposedly ‘defeated’ in the months before. She could have thought herself mistaken, but then the evil presence declared itself openly in the force like a beacon. An avarice and lust that broke through any pretence. Calling, begging, for her to confront it. A familiar feeling. A familiar evil that harkened like a memory across the years to the first cracks in the Galactic Alliance, a Jedi Council that had sat in silent judgement, and a daring mission to Nal Hutta.  

 

The memories came flickering across her mind strong enough that she could almost smell the sweat and burned duraplast armour. She had been in her teens, when she had last seen that Massassi warrior. A man carved from the shadows of time. A man that had not taken a hand offered in redemption. A voice, a name, brimming with anger, whispered in her ear as the layers of memory echoed through her mind. 

 

 "I am Trodai Narat iv-Adas. Descendant of Adas himself"

 

A name that fit the evil that he had brought to this planet. She took a steadying breath and squeezed Kirlocca’s arm. She smiled in reaction to his force presence and let her own fully manifest itself. With a breath, fear melted away and she opened herself fully to the force. They were no longer alone indeed. Presences filled her mind as she reached into the force for guidance. Stern and loving Kirlocca appeared at the forefront of her mind. A creature of virtue and steadfast in the storm, whose sadness stuck to his fur like oil tar. She hugged him tightly, not knowing if they would see each other again until after the battle was long over. There would be victory over that pain. There would be victory over despair and revenge. 

 

In that instant she could also feel the presence of dear Leena and Lallu facing their own battle for survival. Brave Leena. A leader now among the Jedi Order. Strong Lallu, a woman undefeated by her demons. They would win their fight. And easily too. Her mind touched theirs, giving reassurance. The next second she could sense the Sovereign Knights, their grim determination and battlemeld feeling like a shield in the force. They were fighting like the heroes of their ancient houses. She said a quick prayer for their safety as she let the grey blue cloak fall from her shoulders. She ran towards that beacon of darkness. Her own rpresence a bright ray of light. 

 

It was time to face the Sith again without fear. It was time to put to rest forever their terror.

[Sandy Sarna]

There. She could feel him before she could see him. A man, such as he was, a head above and  standing in the centre of a sea of the perverse ‘Linnorm’ breed of Falleen. Outside his ring of men lay the corpses of the resistance. Crumpled, lifeless, and cut down before they could see their summer of freedom. More names to carve on the memorial to those who had fallen in the face of Sith tyranny. Names of simple folk beside the names of empresses and princes. Equal in courage and in death. 

 

The Massassi had grown since they had last met. Both in stature and in power, a power driven by the sharp burning of rage which echoed off of him like waves in the force strong enough that she could almost feel the heat of his anger on her face. An anger quickly explained as he opened his mouth to speak. She slowed to a stop, standing a distance in front of the Sith Lord as he spoke. In her experience with the Sith, save for cat-eyed Nryrys, there was always the desire to monologue. To build themselves up in cloaks of words befitting kings before they set to their bladework. To justify their evil deeds and to mock those they had destroyed. Trodai was no different. He spent his breath in a blusterous outrage about his desire for revenge and gratification for his destruction of all that may have been good about Falleen. 

 

“You may call me what you wish Trodaí, but I will not call you the name which you have claimed. It is a name of suffering, of agony and angst that does not deserve the breath it takes to utter its foulness. I only wish that you had taken the chance of redemption all those years ago for you have wrought only destruction in your pursuit of me. Show me what you have learned in the darkness.”

 

It was time. She took another breath, her bright green eyes glancing across the ruined street then back to the Sith Lord. She shook her head. Bright golden hair bouncing past her shoulders. It’s platinum locks catching distant light of fires that lit the horizon. Her hand fell to the lightsaber shoto that hung from a ring at her hip. Her other hand outstretched to the civilians and militia that lay in the gutters, their bright red blood mixing with dust and fallen ashes. 

 

“This planet cries out for Justice against you Troidai, and I will see it done.” 

 

The same thread of justice that had brought them together on Nal Hutta. The same justice that had shaken the galaxy to its roots. She pulled upon that thread, and prepared to fight. 

[Sandy Sarna]

The Jedi master took a centering breath. Listening for the song. Though the breath stank of copper blood and fading fear. The force moved along the street, tracing to the foundations of a planet that sang out in a mighty cry for Justice. The song sang for redemption though the Sith lord spat and prattled against it. 

 

Sandy’s bright green eyes flickered across the street, across the brainwashed Linnorms who stood in rapt silence, and across the stains of death. Death itself was no unnatural thing, countless generations who had lived and died in peace were buried in the soil of this planet. Princely bones lay in their great tombs. Their family names and crypts wearing away under the thunderstorms that beat down upon the industrial city. But the Sith had brought the unnatural stain of mass murder. Cutting threads of fate like a farmer with his scythe. He had brought slavery and wickedness, a brutality that cut to the heart of every person that had walked upon the streets of Falleen. But still its people had maintained hope. Its earth carried that great hope though soaked in martyrs blood. 

 

The very planet cried out in the name of justice. For where blood had spilled its crimson tide, the rocks wept the names of the dead. She could hear its song, a chant, a plea. A lament for justice against the heavy yoke of slavery. For its people had been stripped of their identity, they had been enslaved, and now they were murdered and discarded in the name of power. But still they hoped. Trodai had claimed his wrath and rage, he had striven in shadow, to beat the brows of all around him. Wrapping himself in the short stinted glories of terror. While the very earth below his feet screamed a song of rebellion. It called the names of its martyrs. 

 

Khalen. The mechanic who lay in the gutter by his work. 

Preseni who had been cut down before the gates of her father’s house.  

Old and feeble Thrandria who had dared lift her eyes and spit in the face of the Masters of the Sith. 

 

Names sang in the Jedi Master’s ears, joining a chorus that echoed from street to street, to the glens and hills, and into the untamed valleys of Falleen. There would be justice, there would be hope, there would be Redemption for this Land.

 

For Trodai had made his pitiable choice and marked it with a thousand meaningless words. There was a finality in him. A complete surrender to the darkness. He would be brought to face the planet's song of justice and answer for its slaughtered children. Sandy reached to the force and it flocked joyfully to her call. It gathered around her, spreading out along the street as the force moved. With every breath the world cried for her to act, a deep voice keening in joyous thunder for the end of Sith perversion. Its joy and hope touched her heart and the Jedi Master would gladly join its song. 

 

With a twitch of her booted foot, the street split in its foundations and the very rocks and earth moved like a mighty wave, to dash the massassi upon the stone facade of the streetfront. The earth would subsume him and all his perversion.

 

((1))

[Sandy Sarna]

The Jedi Master took another breath as she felt the force move. A violent and evil movement from the Sith warrior that split rock and stone with explosive vigor. His laughter echoed above the sharp reports of the shattering stone and moving earth. Dangersense pawed at the back of her neck and alongside the half heard laughter came also stones, sharp and propelled by the vicious nature of the dark side. Trodai was only a mass of fury and malice. A bright beacon of anger in the force, standing in stark contrast to the song which called in chorus for a turning to redemption. A song that the Massassi would never hear.

 

Her body moved almost of its own accord, following the rhythms in the force and pushing off with her booted feet. She moved quickly, the force guiding her steps and letting the majority of the shards pass her by as they wasted their hated energy against the air and fell harmless to the broken street. But two found purchase, one cutting a furrow along her jawline and the other skipping off her left arm. Both drew blood, and Sandy could feel its warm wetness oozing down her neck. Mixing with the dirt and sweat to stain her tunic a ruddy crimson. There would be time for pain and recovery later. Her own pain could wait until the Sith had been laid low and Falleen redeemed. Laughter died in her ears as she let the force flood her senses. 

 

The chorus sang again names of those that had had their fate cut short by the childish rage of Trodai and his men. So many names that reverberated in bass undertones. A song of mourning that would raise to a hopeful conclusion. 

 

Jin-har, the last of her family who died only minutes before.

Kaelin who had held a blaster for the first and last time in her life

For little Fenra who did not live to see ten summers and had been cut down in crossfire.

 

Bodies that would sit open eyed under the turning of the stars as their people were ravaged by the Sith. A people enslaved that cried for justice with every voice. Sandy raised her hand. Her fingers running across the threads of the force that tied the world to its foundations. She let the song direct her hand and the force flowed in a joyous chorus.

 

For Trodai had named himself Wrath and Anger. He had named himself Monster and the very planet raised itself in rebellion to his yoke of slavery. It only took a nudge of the force and a casm split and opened under his feet, to break and falter his spiteful advance. Falleen could not bear such malice to tread upon its streets save to open him a grave. She gestured with her hand and the crumbling stone facade of the buildings next to him tremoured in the force. What great buildings they may have been before the occupation of the sith, when all business and leisure were driven from its tall shadow. Abandoned now and rotting under the beating rain.  Great chunks of load bearing hewn stone and blast molded durasteel reinforcement split from the abandoned great structures and sped at Troidai with the awesome power of the force. A deluge to bury a pitiful monster in his grave.

 

((2))

[Sandy Sarna]

The monster had been injured but not destroyed, but as with all great works, nothing was instant. A great work of symphony could take any minutes, hours even, to get to the crescendo. And the Force moved heavily as Sandy and the pitiable monster began their last chords. A clash of bright light and utter darkness. Threads of Redemption against bitter anger and brutalism. A planet and people long scarred by an oppression that had stolen everything from them. Trodai in his blind passion had destroyed the identity of an entire species, kidnapped their youth, and had led them to a slaughter. And for what? A crown that had already slipped from his brow? He was no Dark Lord. Others had seized that title and had dispensed of their entire galactic might leaving Trodai without the power he had sought so hard to find. 

 

Even in revenge there would be no relief. There was no final satisfaction in such an act, for a life consumed with rage and passion could never be truly fulfilled. There must always be an objective, a center of the rage, or passion or lust. For if there was none of those it would turn upon itself. It was a pitiable lifestyle. A snake eating the world until it had eaten all but itself. Turning to eat its own tail. A story, a song, as old as humanity itself. And somewhere beneath the song and the movement of the force Sandy felt her heart weep for Trodai. Even as he bounded towards her, his lightsaber reaching for her soul. For though there was a righteousness in the defeat of such an evil, he had still been at one point a man. Before bitterness and rage had filled every ounce of him and burned him beyond recognition. 

 

He had gotten close, and the song filled her ears as she began to move in concert with the Sith Lord. She could not defeat him blade to blade, that was not her battle. So the Jedi Master began to move as the song directed her. A thousand opportunities and a thousand more possible directions, most ending in almost instantaneous death. All required a sacrifice of pain. 

 

She took another steadying breath and let the force guide her, there was little time and the song was coming to its crescendo. She took a step back and pushed off with her right leg, letting the force flow through her to amplify her push away. The Sith would not find the easy delight of her death. 

 

The first and second blows found purchase, cutting through the light cloth and scoring a wicked burn across her midriff. The flesh burned painfully and the second blow caught her outstretched left arm as she pushed away. Burned to the very bone, a sudden stiffness catching at her tendons. Another wound that would take a very long time to heal. Just like the world that she was trying to save. 

 

Distance was what she needed and the threads of the force now lay arced to where she once had been. Where the Sith Lord glowered in malice. A malice that had led him into a deathly trap. The force moved heavily in anticipation. And the Jedi master let it guide her. 

 

Sandy flexed her uninjured hand, gathering the threads that the force had connected to her, and with a pull the song did the rest. 

 

The names were too numerous now, thousands and thousands. Those countless sons and daughters of Falleen that had been led to their doom above Nar Shaddaa. Whose bones would never settle in the earth of their home world. An unnumbered loss, which the planet cried out for justice. Tens of thousands of memories, of childhoods, of lives lost for useless wrath and useless rage. 

 

Justice the song sang in ten thousand voices. 

 

And the buildings all around where she had been echoed the song. How many joyful days the great stone buildings had seen. When avenues were full of smiles and laughter. Now long gone and the streets full of rot. Full of the one who had brought damnation to the world and its peaceful inhabitants. 

 

The buildings themselves fractured, their edifices already torn and their foundations shattered. The tall buildings came down as fast as the force could pull them onto the pitiable Trodai. The planets song reaching to smite him for his evil with every brick and stone. With effort Sandy lifted her injured arm and let the force flow through it. Letting it form a bubble of protection that expanded out before and above her. A shield of the bright white light of Justice. 

 

The Fanged God would be defeated even if it’s twisted minion threw himself upon her shield. For Justice had called his name and Falleen would be redeemed. 
 

((3)) ((Great Duel my friend))