Log:Jedi Order: Echoes Through the Ages VI

Jedi Order: Echoes Through the Ages VI

OOC Date: November 15, 2019
Location: Abandoned Jedi Temple, D'Qar
Participants: Ban Iskender, Elrych Cometburn, Yuun, Aryn Cole, Kiko Alde NPC

There's something to be said about the peace and tranquility found in watching the snow fall. Buried beneath a sea of pine and cedar like trees that have had time to grow tall again, the ruins of the old Jedi Temple on D'Qar have faded into the mystery of this planet's enigmatic past.

Aryn Cole has stepped off the ship walked into the snow covered flat land that once had served as a landing zone for Jedi from the past. She could feel, through her connection with the force, that this very spot once teemed with business and life. Instead of the cold, chilling wind and near soundless wisps of snow falling, voices reigned, and droids moved to refuel vessels.

Now, snow covered this place with patches of yellow straw like weeds that had grown before the harvest and died at the sudden arrival of winter. The temple loomed ahead, shaded and overgrown by trees and other foliage. To their right, the ruins of another hangar had collapsed some time ago. Anything of worth had long been stripped, of course, but the trash that remained was trapped beneath a crumbled roof of ancient stone, and snow blanketed the grave.

Aryn hugged her fur-lined cloak closer despite the chilling wind taking the lengths of the cape to carry it into low flight behind her; much like a flag might entertain the brief touches of a breeze.

Lady Kiko arrived next, wearing her ornate armor, cloak, and presently slinging her rifle across her frame. "What do you think lingers within, my Lady?" Kiko asks. Aryn turns her head, then shakes it after observing the hangar ruins. "Hopefully, it's not the ends of our journey." A look back to the noble Lady Alde, and Aryn grins to show she was jesting. Kiko is reluctant to grin, but it follows. "Then it remains to be seen." Kiko adds.

As before, the party of Jedi (and Kiko) are accompanied by Lord Ban Iskender, who walks off the ship with head high, and posture impeccable. Clad once more in light dragoon's armor and half cape, the black haired gentleman comments evenly, "Perhaps the ruins are common stones, bereft of any significance. Though in light of prior explorations, I would not lay coin on the likelihood." A tight smile briefly tugs at his lip with the dry words, but it passes quickly.

Elrych Cometburn puts his hands on his hips as he steps off the ramp of the ship, boots crunching in the snow. Sunglasses scan, protecting his eyes from the glare the white fluffy stuff might cause to harm the corellians vision. "I thought we had been here before breifly." That feeling of deja vu might just be the force echo of this place pushing its way into the ace pilots mind.

"Your memory serves you well, Elrych." Aryn answers, her tone and reference to him more familiar sounding. They had been Jedi together for awhile now. Lord Ban is considered a moment, his smile being reflected by the young blonde noble in return. "We have learned one thing; expect the unexpected. Still, this place.. I look around at this solemn place and feel so alone. To think these walls once held warmth, harbored students that only sought to make the galaxy a better place. How can establishments such as these fall into this state?" Aryn steps forward and Kiko steps after her, their boots crunching in the snow. "My father says," Kiko began, addressing the group. "..that when you look at art, it's only about how it makes you feel. Were this same view upon a canvas in my family's hall, I would feel only sadness when I gaze upon it."

The direction of the temple takes them beneath the shade of tall trees. A set of old stairs are cast in ice, and Aryn slips. "Careful.." Kiko says a moment after before slipping herself and cursing under her breath. Color finds the Commander's cheek, but she'd blame the crisp air.

The entrance to the temple was caved in, and they saw this once reaching the top of the stair. An adjacent wall, like one might see for a compound, had crumbled from age and the weight of a large tree falling upon it. It left a large enough gap to pass through. Reaching the other side was difficult for those who wore armor, but once there.. Elrych and Aryn might recall this very paddock as Peace Park.

A large, obsidian stoned monument stood at one end of the alcove of trees, and a fountain was near it. Large, circular, and made of white marble, the fountain had only frozen over, leaving a miraculously transparent view of the faded phoenix sigil of the Jedi Order and formerly, the Rebellion. Even through the icy water, the colors had faded, and much of its outline showed signs of aging, but it survived despite everything.

The park was overgrown and peaceful looking. Where trees had not blocked the snow, flakes fell peacefully. There was an unexplainable calm here, yet.. the melancholy of its emptiness persisted.

How could such a place fall? "Time, my Lady. It is the force which lays all low, great or common, wicked or wise. The foul and fine alike must fade in time, and fresh steps must fall where once-" Distracted by his own musings, Ban also finds his balance briefly threatened by ice before steadying himself and clearing his throat. He doesn't resume speaking, instead eyeing the others and surveying the obsidian monument for a long moment.

Elrych Cometburn makes his way along with the others, admiring the ruins but keeping a watchful eye.

The peace is suddenly interrupted by the sudden rise of an object from further in the park. It stands erect, snow falling from its body to give shape to the white, cracked armor of the First Order. Then another rises, and another, before 16 in total have the entire party surrounded. Aryn slips again upon the ice, trying to back up, and Kiko steps in front of her, the rifle she held at the ready and her stance widening. "State your business, droids, or be gone." She demands.

16 droids surround the Jedi and company within the middle of Peace Park. The park is roughly 100yds in each direction with the obsidian monument at its center. Walls stand tall, marking the perimeter, and only one wall has crumbled where a tree has fallen over it; this was where the group had come in moments before.

The first droid took a step, shaking more snow from its chassis as an arm extended and pointed. "You'rrrrrrrrrrrrre tr-tr-tr-tres-PASSING. Yooooooou will-will-will-will--Prepare to die, Jed-Jed-Jed-Jed ERRMMMMM..SCUM!"

The droid reached back to yank free its F-11D blaster, and the other 15 did the same.

Aryn casts back her cape and unclips her lightsaber. "Defend yourselves!"

Ban's naturally stern expression darkens into a proper frown, with a gloved hand that he had been extending to offer Aryn aid in rising shifting instead to the pistol holstered at his side. He doesn't immediately draw, not while there is any hope for defusing the standoff, though the moment that hope is spent, he draws and fires a trio of bolts, destroying a pair of the curious malfunctioning (?) hunter droids. "Trespassing," the young officer echoes with sharp disdain.

Elrych had his hood up to keep away the bite of the cold on the crisp morning here at the long lost Jedi Temple. Dark shades glare emotionlessly towards the droids as they show them selves. His right hand reaches out and pushes back the hood from his head, revealing his finely woven hair filled with product and probably shaped up every other day at the base Barber. Powder rises up from around him as the dorce swells within him. His Lightsaber slips off his belt, grabed by the mystical force and put in his hand. The snow powerder then expands rapidly, a loud clap hurt, his hair blowing about from the concussive nature. Some sort of shockwave from the power. His blade screaches to life, left and raising to send a droid flying across the temple and violently into a wall. The pressure continues untill it breaks the stone and marble that's left... and the droid. "First Order?" He asks.

Yuun managed to mamke it to the others, but as he does he sees that the group has been surrounded. His hand reaches for his lightsaber and as he takes it and activates it, the electric blue snap-hiss of his lightsaber coming to life. Yuun allows his mind to clear, having mangaed to speak with someone about his issues, he feels a lot lighter. Focusing on that clarity, the dark skinned Jedi Initiate moves in to engage the Hunter Droids, he moves with precision and grace, slashing his blade accross the middle of the first droid, he spins and brings his blade upwards in a diagonal slash to take out a second droid, he than spins the blade to finish off a third.

Kiko blasts the one that addressed them with an overcharged shot from her rifle before chicken winging it under her arm and turning away. It's to Aryn she moves, using her free arm to tug the Jedi back to her feet. Aryn takes hold of Kiko's gloved hand and grunts, rising up and activating her weapon a second after. The snap-hiss of her lightsaber was as distinct as the other two, and the sapphire colored blade stood out bright against the backdrop of pine green, brown stone, and snow. Simultaneous attacks follow as droids open fire on the entire party.

Aryn cuts one down, crying out with two additional swings that miss their intended targets do to the droids being faster than she anticipated.

"There's a larger one!" Kiko calls, as a much taller droid kicks out the door into the facility proper. This droid stands at 7ft, easily, with wide shoulders and a chassis of total black. Its circular head has cute, globe like eyes, and its arms and hands are long and capable of bludgeoning. It charges forward, joining its comrades.

Ban Iskender stands much as he had in prior battles: upright, arm extended, firing with precision and cutting a rather gallant figure, much like duelists in a fine painting might. Of course, this leaves him poorly suited to dodging, and while his courage holds, so too does the aim of a pair of droids, and the young lord is struck once in the torso, and a second time in the right leg. Though his armor absorbs the worst of the blasts, the injuries are telling. Teeth clenched in resolve, he hears Kiko announce a larger enemy, but must content himself with blasting away at his tormentors.

Elrych is moving with a grace and speed that one might call... unnatural for a human. As a droid raises it's blaster to return fire on Ban once he's finished his attack, the Jedi strikes out and removes the arm holding that blade... along with it's entire head. He twists out of the way of a blaster bolt that impacts against a wall before striking out at another droid. It dodges, the neon blue blade carving orange white hot streaks into the wall nearest him and his enemy. Sparks fly, but the rebound catches the droid and carves it in two with a deadly humm. The point of impact nothing more than molten slag now.

With the destruction of the first three droids, Yuun quickly rolls to his left, bringing himself away from a blaster shot that he didn't see. COming up and cleaving through the battle droid that attack him. Still Yuun doesn't retreat, his movements coming to him fluidly as he brings his blade around taking the head off the droid. Yuun rolls past one of the droids and in a sweeping wide strike Yuun brings his blue blade around cleaving through two of the droids. THough as he takes them down he feels something dangerous and he moves without thinking, guided by the Force, he brings his blade up in time as one of the Hunter Droids was about to fire on Aryn and he brings his blade up and deflects the bolt back at the droid that just fired on her saving Aryn.

WHOOSH!

The heavy arm of a massive droid swinging misses Aryn just as Yuun appears behind her, smacking a blaster bolt intended for her back to its origin. Aryn doesn't have time to say thanks, she's trying to defend herself! One swing misses, and another finds air, before finally.. Aryn cuts the droid across its chest and slides by it. Rather than maintaining a balanced stance, the Jedi comically waves her arms trying to find balance as she slips again.

Three Hunter droids remain, and the larger droid is there too. Kiko is quick to find Ban, pressing herself near his position. "Are you well, my Lord?" Asks the Commander while blasting another hunter droid with her rifle.

"Well struck, master Cometburn," Ban grinds out through a tight jaw. The nobleman's eye is drawn to Aryn and Kiko as the pair assail the towering black armored battle droid. The ghost a smile tigs at his lip at the sight, before he sees one of the droids turn its aim to Aryn. He draws breath to shout a warning, but lacks time. In the instant, Yuun deflects the bolt and the Captain contents himself with gunning down the offending droid in his first shot, blasting the last remaining hunter droid with his second. "A fine guard, master Yuun." Kiko is regarded with a short nod. "I am well enough for the fight still ahead, Commander. Now let us toward your lady."

Elrych pushes forward, swinging up and across the last droid that Ban shot, carving it in two. He doesn't stop, continuing on towards the bigger droid. He jabs with the point of the Lightsaber's arc which is handedly avoided by the well programed attack droid, but the Jedi uses the momentum to power a slash across the Droid's tordo... which brings the thing to a halt as the top half slowly slides off the bottom, sparking with superheated slag from the slice. His Neon blade's glow reflects in his dark dark shades as he watches. "You sure you're okay there?" He asks of Ban.

Making a slow turn, Yuun reaches out with his senses as he watches their surroundings. "Is everyone ok?" he asks as he looks to everyone, keeping his lightsaber up in a guard.

Aryn deactivates her weapon after watching Ban gun down droids, and Elrych split the massive one in two. A big grin is on her face and she rises back to her feet. "What the blazes is the First Order doing here?" She begins, swiping a hand near her face to guide the blonde away from it. Her gaze surveys the others for injury and lands on Ban, seeing fresh marking on him. She steps /carefully/ toward him to run a field kit over his wounds.

Kiko strays from the group, quiet in her observations as she steps toward the very door the droid had kicked down to reach them. She switches the tac-lite on, then shines it into the hall.

After a moment, she turns back to the park entrance and stands in the door. "I think I found the way in..." Kiko is not alone in the door way. Something tentacle like snakes over the threshold and curls around her feet. Before she can react, it tightens, and the young Commander spills forward losing her weapon. She hits the ground /hard/ crying out, then is dragged through the threshold and out of sight. Her screams are delayed, but then.. they're heard. "AHHHHHHHH! HELP ME!... AHHH!"

"I have borne worse, master Cometburn," Ban assures the Corellian Jedi with a short dip of his head. Aryn is thanked for her ministrations with a quiet word and a short bow oof the head and shoulders. As for the Order, "Perhaps some widespread surveillance of ancient Jedi sites?" he muses aloud, before his eye is drawn toward Kiko's discovery. Green eyes widen, in alarm and a warning is shouted too late, as the soldier hurries toward the threshold as swiftly as his injured leg permits.

"Lets just hope they didn't get any pictures off before we took care of them." Elrych says in kind. He was still a questionmark even after the rescue of Angouri from the Knights Clutches. As far as he knew. The wonders of covering ones face! Here however, he wasn't as covered. The Jedi is distracted by his thoughts as Kiko shouts out and turns just to see her dragged into the threshold. He moves along with Ban, keeping his blade up and ready. "The heck was that?"

Yuun allowed himself to relax after a few moments, taking a breath. He turns off his lightsaber and walks over to Aryn, "Hey you ok?" he asks as he looks at her and smiles. "I'm glad I was able to make it to you in time." eh says as he looks at the destroyed droids around them. He sighs a little until he hears Kiko's scream.

"I'm fine, thank you, Mr. Yuun." Aryn was just finishing up with Ban when she heard Kiko's call for help. She turns in time to see the soldier dragged away, and for a moment, Aryn freezes as she relives her own terrifying moment of being separated from her friends. It's Ban and the others moving into the temple itself that draw Aryn back to reality, and she follows after them stopping only to sling Kiko's weapon.

The group makes it into the corridor of the temple, passing by rooms that have caved in. Skylights are shattered and broken, with branches from trees poking through. Small nests and general natural debris crowd the hallways, while the cold air robs them of any warmth. The group, as they run, can see their breath.

The corridor's only path brings them to the largest atrium of the temple; larger even than its great hall. It's the court yard, a massive dome shaped location comprised of stone flooring, its own stream of mountain water, trees that stand as tall as the highest point in the atrium, and the very monster that resides at its center, using a nest of fallen droids to rest itself. Its size rivals that of a rancor, and its extremities are blue snake like tentacles that open on their ends to flash razor sharp teeth.

Glowing purple eyes glare at the intruders before it yells a very intimidating screech. Kiko is held up by one arm, she swings her dirk, cutting herself free to land on her back some 15ft below. A slow crawl has her scrambling toward her companions only to be captured again and dragged back.

Kiko is tossed airborne with ease, caught, then tossed again, this time landing in the mouth of this blob like beast, which swallows her whole.

"KIKOOOO!!!!" Aryn screams, and she activates her weapon and charges in blindly, only to encounter a small army of tentacles that slow her progress to their host.

Ban's green eyes widen in horror as the colossal beast is revealed, and cruelly cuts short Kiko's escape. Jaw muscles standing pit beneath his skin, Ban rushes forward on Aryn's heels, drawing his sword in the left hand while firing his pistol in the right. His efforts to clear their path are middling, blasting off one fanged limb, and wounding another. "Take care cutting at its stomach!" he shouts, indulging dual optimisms: one, that Kiko might survive for a time within the monster, and the other that they can even find its gullet.

Elrych just stands there and watches the visage of lady Kiko swallowed whole by the blob monster reflected like a holo-film in his shades. Aryn screaming bloody murder and on the warpath draws his attention. "Aryn! Wait!" They needed to focus, the needed calm. It was too late for the Jedi to stop his comrade from the brash choice. Now, he had to assist. He lashes out with his blade at the Tenicals, hoping to get the blob monsters attention. "HEY! HEY! You Fat Ugly Bastard. Eat Me!" There is a pause, "I SAID EATTTTT MEEEEEE!"

Yuun hears the scream and turns around as the others begin rushing towards the monster that just swallowed Kiko. "Kriff!" he calls out as he too rushes moving to flank the damn monster. "Keep watch for those tenticles, lay down cover fire as you attack the tenticles!" he calls out to those using blasters. Flanking off from Elrych, as he screams. Yuun just shakes his head and leaps into the fray as the creature's attention is divided. He quickly ignites his lightsaber, the blue blade sparks to life and with speed that belies a Jedi, he slices through the remaining tenticles. He spins around landing on the opposite end of the creature.

Tentacles are lopped off, or put down with fire, but Aryn has tunnel vision. She charges forward, cutting down the single tentacle in her path only to leap slightly and drag her lightsaber across the side of this beast. It screeches so loud that glass begins to shatter from nearby skylights. It disorients Aryn so bad, she misses a second swing and stumbles off kilter, holding her ears while the blob moved to attack her. Aryn kept enough sense to move, rolling away after deactivating her weapon only to transition back to her feet and reactivate it. "SWARM THIS MONSTER, AND FREE MY FRIEND!" Aryn demands, already charging ahead again!

Against such a monster that survives the cut of a lightsaber, Ban is struck with a moment's doubt that common sword or pistol could even harm it. Aryn's shouted demand prompts a sharp nod, and Ban fires his pistol at the beast's glowing eyes, though to little effect.

Elrych does just about the only thing he knows how to do in this one moment... hack and slash. Which about sums up what he does with that neon blue blade of his. Voomp, Woomp, Shhkkkkch. "Kiko!" He shouts, "Hey hot stuff... I know you got something that might make this thing blow up on you... come on, I know you can hear me. It's lard ant that thick!" Maybe it was.

Yuun is one that doesn't talk during a fight, with the creature moving fast, he moves with it daring in as quickly as he can. His blue blade whipping around him as he strikes in quickly towards the blob. Sinking the blade in along it's side three times rather quickly.

They have the beast surrounded, and everyone is doing their best to cut at it. Elrych pummels it, Yuun pummels it, and even Aryn is cutting across its hide all the while this beast screams and screeches, opening and closing its mouth.

The fight appears to be going well, but the Blob shows now signs of halting when suddenly it does just that. There's a faint glow beneath the flesh of its stomach, and the blade of a dirk pokes through. It cuts through like butter, creating an opening that is large enough for the gore and goo soaked Kiko to get out, only when she does step free of it, the beast dies and falls back upon her, consuming her in its guts again.

As silence reigns, a muffled voice from inside commands. "..get this thing off me!!!!"