Battle of Kalee: In the Trenches
After learning the secrets of the Disciples of Twilight, I headed back toward CNS space. There was something itching at the edge of my perception, that I would be needed this month somewhere, and I needed to go there. Thing was, these two were almost on opposite sides of the galaxy. The planets spun by, my movements almost on automatic going to Bespin and then picking up bacta on Thyferra. I continued to do the meditations Darra had shown me that would improve my power in the Force, continued to perform the exercises from my Matukai training to focus my body and with it my mind. Blazing Chains was so strongly rooted in my mind I didn't need to spend much time on it. All the same, I did play around with the gun turrets a bit in empty space, blasting a bit of space trash, just to keep those skills sharp. I dropped off the bacta on Tython, barely making the time to say hello and dropping it off. "The Force is calling me elsewhere, but this was on my way," I explained.
This nudge was joined by my comm around the time I crossed back into CNS space in the galactic north. The message was simple: "Get to Kalee and earn the ridiculous paycheck we give you." Well, Kalee it would be. It had been determined that while Mandalore might be the head of the CNS and Taris its wallet, Kalee was its beating heart.
I landed at the Watcher military compound and wore my mask, my green cloak, my scythe. I still had my blaster and lightsaber on me and within easy reach, my medical kit on my back, but the scythe and the mask were why I had this sort of standing with the Kaleesh, my roots with Grievous and his personal guard. I was directed to the sacred temple of Shrupak.
The temple complex was beautiful and wild, like the rest of Kalee. I wasn't the first there, either. Grievous stood on top of the temple, along with HK-47, Kygeetu, the Silencer, and Ciaran in her mask. So, let's get this straight. A future war god of the Kaleesh, a legendary droid who'd recently gotten a lethal tune-up, the first Abyss Walker, the man responsible for Metalorning becoming a verb, and Darth kriffing Traya.
How the heck did I belong with them?
You're a Jedi Knight. You've got an eclectic collection of knowledge and talents that isn't quite at Ciaran's level but is certainly in her style of gathering obscure bits of lore to assemble something greater than the sum of its parts. You're also the only one with anything resembling medical training and the ability to heal people with the Force. Every raid group needs a healer.
It was probably telling that the voice of my mental pep-talk sounded a lot like Darra. I wasn't too proud to say that my time with her had done at least as much good for me as for her.
Introspection done for the moment, I looked to the skies, trying to find where the enemy would be coming from. It wasn't lost on me that the scene would look like a certain clip from a
movie I'd liked. Granted, I felt more like the guy with the bow and arrow or the girl with the blaster pistol, but...I fit. Okay, let's be fair, I was also probably one of the better-looking folks in the group. Except for maybe Ciaran. But...let's not let that train of thought run too far.
I knew, if I was here and Kygeetu was here, the others would be here. "Koliya, any sign of them?" He'd saved my bacon at least once before, so knowing he was around as a sort of guardian angel would be comforting.
"I just asked the new Walker sniper that," I heard his voice purr out of my comm. "Nothing yet. Wait. Yeah, hostiles inbound, I'm hitting the alert."
With the alert came Grievous' usual inspiring battle speech. I drew on my training, and while everyone else was getting more alert and focused, I sat and meditated, bolstering morale and putting an image of victory into the minds of our allies; I pushed fear into the minds of the Huk who I knew would be landing.
<"FOR THE FUTURE OF KALEE!"> I heard Grievous shout.
I stood at that, drawing my Dragoneye Reaper and firing at the droids, with Blazing Chains ensuring I'd hit.
Every raid group needs a healer, the thought sat in the back of my mind. Back before I'd gone to Byblos for school, some friends had played a group computer game. I'd enjoyed the story aspect of it and wanted to participate, but I had other things I was doing and wanted to accomplish the most with the least intellectual effort. They recommended a "nannybot" priest; hang back, cure conditions, heal damage, and let them all do the fighty bits. Even when they weren't on, I could always find people willing to take me through parts of the game and do the fighty bits and other bits so all I had to do was the keeping-people-alive bits.
Why was that thought in the back of my head? Oh. Ciaran was chaining attacks through Separatist Hssiss droids and racking up a combo that would make a fighting game character blanch, her eyes glowing with power.
I saw Kygeetu slay another droid and start moving up to support her Lady. My precognitive sense shouted back to me. No. I reached forward, caught her by the shoulder. "I have no idea what the hell's gotten into her, but from what I can sense you should not get close to her right now."
I checked back on the others, watching the Kaleesh fall back to defensible positions and seeing the explosive carnage. The flood of Hssiss droids seemed endless. Time to start in on the tricks. I remembered my training from the Disciples of Twilight and began bending photons away from Hssiss droids, briefly blinding them before they were shot. I'd sling those photons in front of another droid, blinding it with a scattered phantasm of light in front of its photoreceptors. It wasn't much, but it helped. Cheating with cheap tricks and letting my allies kill things.
The droids disgorged from the lander like a river on their way to our lines; a river with an enormous cyan-glowing boulder in the middle of it. That was Ciaran. That was our lady of destruction. That was...the lynchpin of the organization getting drawn way out away from the relative safety of our lines. By the time I'd realized that, her sister Asajj was already on her way.
Something on the air. I couldn't pick up anything else. I holstered my blaster and drew my scythe. While I hadn't quite perfected vanishing in broad daylight, I could certainly try to blind the droid before attacking it. I found my opening and struck, to find that behind the droid was General Kenobi himself. A Master. On the Council. Here?
I held back and let the big players talk.
That was probably a mistake. Apparently Grievous wanted me to go with him to Abesmi to protect it from the Huk. Along with HK and Silencer. Three individuals who could easily make it to the Kaleesh war pantheon...and me.
I'd heard his squad talk about Abesmi. About the last time Grievous went to Abesmi being after his lover died. How he'd begged the gods to see her one more time, how he became the one who grieves after her death. It was their Olympus, on the Jenuwaa Sea.
I'd gotten onto the shuttle, sat down, and began to meditate again. An image of victory. Of lots of defeated Huk. Of our side victorious. I projected that image, with a ring of truth to it. Battle meditation was something I had pursued probably the most of any of the Walkers. Granted, I'd initially pursued it trying to get away from frontline combat, but it was still useful even if I was going to be there.
Grievous began his speech, this time trying to intimidate the enemy. I backed his words with my own meditation, sending wave after wave of fear at the Huk, that this battle was already lost for them, that there was no way they would survive.
<"Since they are so eager for death, it only seems fair that we grant it!">
I drew up my scythe, pitched my voice to sound like an immortal spirit in the business of taking souls.
"Death walks among you, and for the Huk? Things are...grim."
A/N: Does Riphath still have self-confidence issues? Sure. Has working with Darra helped with that? Oddly, yes.
Though I doubt we'll get any more from this turn's results. Next turn, though....
