028 - Week 3 Day 5: Follow the Breadcrumbs

Eye twitching at the amount of rage and darkness pouring off the Zabrak as his head tilted and his left arm raised Cora's Premonition kicked in. The milliseconds were filled with the information of the next few moments. A wall of Force, shrapnel, the Zabrak leaving, Zhâlu bleeding out.


Decision made as the Zabrak lifted his arm Cora pulled over a bed with a yell. The bed fell in front of Zhâlu a millisecond before he would have been sliced to ribbons and impaled. As it was the shrapnel that would have impaled him was a hair's breath from piercing his chest. "Zhâlu? Padawan? We should follow him. Something is very wrong with that Zabrak, besides the obvious. Trama I would think. That was a large dose of Force Rage."

Even as the bed flew up between himself and the possessed Zabrak, the Sith Pureblood had begun moving, throwing up his own wall of the Force and bringing his lightsaber's blades to bear as well. However, it would prove unnecessary as his master had acted ever so slightly faster. Admittedly, Zhâlu couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief as the bed took the brunt of the damage instead of having to try and deflect it himself and he wasted no time in turning to see where the Zabrak had gone. Cora was right, but..."Master, I don't know that we can do anything other than follow him. He doesn't seem very keen to listen to reason."

He deactivated the twin blades of his lightsaber and faced his master properly, holding up a hand. "However, I think you should stay here. I can feel your fatigue and worry for Master Dominick. Not to mention we need someone to be here for the Shadow and her Padawan. I'll track him and report back once I know where he's gone."

Jaw tensing Cora looked at Zhâlu. "I appreciate the vote of confidence Padawan but you will not be going alone to track the Zabrak. I will not lose you. No we are both going and Evie can get updates from us while we are on the way to… wherever he is going." Her tone held no admonishment but rather was a tone much like the one she got before surgery. She knew what they were about to do and she knew the risks. Confidence in what they were doing.


Quickly Cora motioned to Zhâlu to follow as she secured her ship with Dominik and Val inside. She'd be alerted if someone broke in but they could get out if needed. Seconds behind Zhâlu she thought about masking her presence and thought better of it since they didn't know what was ahead of them. 


Catching up to her Padawan quickly and quietly Cora watched for signs of the Zabrak. A bit of fauna taking wing or flora that was disturbed.

Takryn moved steadily across the landscape. He felt himself filled with restless energy that he used to Push objects out of his path. He kept moving forward, with no discernible destination. He cared not for what was around him. To him, the world was dark with only a solitary light off in the distance. Soon he would acquire it. He continued through underbrush, pushing away branches and rocks as he walked, each booted step more sure than the last. He did not run, saving his energy for what was to come. His body ached, but he pushed it all to the side. Anger fueled him, made him stronger than he'd ever felt before.

The sounds of many trees falling as their escaped patient moved through the forest wasn't hard to find once the two Jedi had found it and Zhâlu insisted on being in the lead. While he might not have been interested in maintaining a level of stealth, the two Jedi following him didn't have that option and Zhâlu followed as closely and quietly as he could, though since he had been behind the departing Zabrak to begin with, he doubted he'd see the levitating man before they found where he was heading. "Master, what exactly is the plan for this? Are we going to attempt to restrain him?"

Looking over at her Padawan Cora shook her head. "No. No, we are going to follow him. It looks like he is searching for something. It was far too coincidental that he landed in a ship that brought relief then to be attacked and have your shipmate captured. This all seems. To… contrived. Like someone knew about it." She slowed thinking then shook her head.


Stepping around a log Cora continues.  "Perhaps he is looking for his companion? Possibly even another knight or his Padawan? If so he may lead us right to the Sith base. Leading us to the Sith base also gives me a look at the defences. This is reconnaissance not engagement. Hopefully we are not to late and we don't get anyone else captured."

Zhâlu doesn't reply to his master right away, pausing a moment to assess the damage the young Zabrak was causing. This was indeed a full on Force Rage, though it was hardly the most powerful the Sith Pureblood had ever seen during his time. His former Sith Master, Darth Braxis, was a wookie and known to possess a Force Rage so powerful, the mere presence of it had killed those with lesser fortitude, though in his experience, those were merely rumors. Perhaps the only useful thing that the corrupted Wookie had ever taught him was that patience often served better an impatience and so too did the Jedi. Eventually, however, as he resumed his pace and followed the trail again. "And if he engages the Sith when we get there, Cora?" He was confident he knew the answer he was about to get, but wanted to be absolutely sure she was on the same page as he was.

Smiling at the question Cora knew what he wanted to hear and opened her mouth to say as much only to hear something over comms.


"To the Jedi that I'm sure are out there listening. Lo is alive but collared by the Sith. Of which I have counted five. The base is at location fifteen, mark twenty-five, sixty-two, four; by negative twenty-seven, mark seventy-two, thirty-eight, one. My name is Jaslyn Dayne. Tell Master Rothul this was the best I could do and I'm sorry." 


Tipping her head Cora thought about what she was going to do about this. Two Padawans, unless Jaslyn was a Knight by now, were in the hands of Sith. This just became more complicated since apparently one of them was able to get contact information out. “Well that was informative. I always thought that child was bright. Zhâlu I would have your opinion on the situation.”


Doing the probabilities in her head Cora came up with no good news. Five Sith with a starship that likely held many more troopers to keep their numbers fresh did not bode well for the Four Jedi Knights, a Master and two Padawans. Though she had to give Zhâlu credit he was practically a Knight in all but title. Take into consideration the fact that one of those three Knights was in a rage and armless, the Master was not completely healed from the Sith toxin, and the fact that they did not have any reinforcements was not a good hand. If this were Sabacc she would have folded this hand long ago and started a new one. Sadly this was real life not Sabacc and this was the hand she was dealt.

The Pureblood considered the development carefully, weighing his knowledge. The name that had been spoken had little import to him, though Cora knew it, which meant the odds of her having been forced to try and lure them out were slim, though he couldn't rule out the possibility entirely. Pulling out his datapad, he punches in the coordinates that the girl had provided and hummed to himself when they loaded. "I say we continue to follow our Zabrak friend. We seem to be heading in that direction at the very least. If we're going to plan any kind of rescue attempt, however, we need to know the defense layout, otherwise any attempt to infiltrate could end before it begins." Not to mention that they were already this far and to stop now would be folly of the highest order.

Moving to follow the Zabrak once more, Zhâlu only pauses long enough after a few minutes to listen for some indication of how far behind he and his master were. And it was a good thing he had, because if he hadn't, he would have walked right in front of the squad of eight Sith Troopers who were on patrol. They'd likely come to investigate the sounds of the Zabrak moving through the woods and now he and his master were caught. "Hello there." Drawing his lightsaber, the twin white-cored blue blades sprang to life and he leapt forwards, slashing through the first trooper. "Seems we have a party here, Master."

Smiling at the comment Cora drew her sabers as well. “Zhâlu you have the uncanny ability to see the strangest things in any given situation. Do try to leave one alive for questioning. ”


As the six troopers fired on the pair Cora danced around reflecting bolts of fire back. The economy of movement was such that no movement was wasted. Surprisingly the troopers had not seen the Zabrak but had instead stumbled upon her and her Padawan. She was surprised that they, the troopers, had looked as startled by the pair of Jedi. She would have told her troop that Jedi were about or like to be, but she was not in charge of the troopers.

"But of course, Master." Springing forwards again, the first of the six troopers fell to a quick slash, one of his twin blades bisecting the unfortunate man as he was reloading. Another two shifted focus from the Pureblood's master to fire on him instead while Zhâlu danced back, his lightsaber forming a defensive barrier in front of him. He deflected the bolts away from himself while one of the remaining troopers traded his blaster rifle for the vibrosword on his back and ran at Zhalu. "A brave soul you are, trooper. Have at ye!" With a Force Push, he slams the two troopers firing at him into trees and blocks the first slash from the sword-wielding trooper. Pushing him back, Zhalu advances with a series of standard slashes that the trooper parries and counters against with no small amount of skill. If he'd been gifted with the power of the Force, the Sith Pureblood was beyond positive her parents would have sent her to either Dromuund Kaas or Korriban's academy to make them Sith, but instead, as her lithe form struggled to find a real opening in the Jedi's defense, he made a decision.

On her next attack, he used the Force to augment his jump over her and upon landing, planted a kick in her gut as she turned, sending her sprawling and removing her from the fight for a bit. The two he'd slammed into the trees had recovered and each got off another couple of shots before his thrown lightsaber's blades cut through them each, leaving gashes in their chests. "I leave the last two for you, Master."

Nodding at the comment from her Padawan Cora leapt forward and quickly subdued the other two troopers. They were frozen in place as Cora rifled through their belongings and finding cuffs set about locking them together. Setting them in an awkward position she hummed a tune while she worked then locked the pair together with the cuffs. She was not one to outright kill people off but she knew at times it could not be helped. Now was not one of those times. They could afford for the troopers to report back some false information. "Padawan if you would be so kind as to ask our three...friends some questions." She started out in Basic so that everyone knew what she was saying.

Looking pointedly at Zhâlu and smiling Cora explained in Huttese. "Jeejee doth meeto toe woy wa dondichola see hhacs. Jeejee dayan hoohah bai phaba da dotkot koumi see ten ai dotkot hee da la doth chamoha tee che haku Dobra koona."

Spoken in Huttese: