Log:Jedi Order: It Is Watching

Jedi Order: It Is Watching

OOC Date: April 4, 2022
Location: Kulma
Participants: Jedi Order: Rey Skywalker, Rune, Nora Frayus, Zandra naMuriel, Yuun, Ax, Jax Greystorm, and Finn with Ben Solo

The ISD 'Warmonger' is a derelict Star Destroyer from the Galactic Civil War. For 30 years its been stuck in the asteroids of the Kulma System.

Its engines have been periodically firing on and off that entire time. The Jedi Order, in a desperate bid to get inside the ISD, flew through the main engine after it shut off, to shoot their way through the armor and hull of the ship. They boarded the destroyer, and have been looking for answers as to the nature of the 'Sentinel Prime', as well as its wereabouts, or anything of value about it.

After two teams split up, one going down to the droid bay, the other up to the bridge... they are now returning to the hangar to prepare to make their exit.

Maz Kanata's salvage teams are trying to cut through the asteroid that is blocking the main hangar, so that the Jedi ships can escape, while an Imperial cruiser has arrived in-system, and has sent fighters to tangle with Maz's meager starfighter defenders.

Time is running out for Maz's forces, and the Jedi need to launch quickly once the path is clear!

---- 

The lift plate from the vehicle bay is lowering down, with Rey darting from it before it even fully settles on to the floor of the main hangar's far aft section. The Jedi Order ships are strewn about the landing area, some of them in very bad shape. "We have to get moving!" Rey shouts to everyone within ear shot. "Maz's team isn't gonna last very long out there. If your ship is damaged, beyond repair, then try and suit up with Aryn or Jax's ship!" She advises as Artoo is in the droid socket of Silver Leader, whistling something frantically toward the arriving Jedi.

Rey stops near the ships and turns to see everyone is making it back. "How did things on the bridge go?" She asks any, and all, members from that team who are arriving back now...

Rune looks at the sparking hulk of metal that is Saber Six with a frown. "There is probably no chance that is going to fly anytime soon." Ecksdee comes rolling around the side of the destroyed ship which was just finishing being loaded into one of the other ship's cargo bays, beeping furiously as he circles his friend. "It uh... things may have gotten out of hand." the Ysannan replies to both the questions posed by his droid and Rey.

With a sigh, Rune leaves the lost ETA-2c behind and makes for Aryn's ship, his BB droid in hot pursuit, and nods to those boarding with a hopeful smile. "Looks like your crew is a little light and I am without a ship for escape, mind if I help out?" The Padawan waits at the bottom of the lift, hoping a positive response is forthcoming.

"Things went fine. The ship is set to self-destruct. We should make our retreat a hasty one, unless we wish to join our friends here," Nora says, gesturing towards some of those corpses of long-dead Imperials that litter the floor like common refuse. She brushes past Rune and towards the other members of the Jedi Order. There does seem to be more than a thread of tension between some members of the bridge party but, for the most part, it seems Nora Lin would rather leave it at that. She turns to look over her shoulder at the others as they begin to arrive, keeping her right hand on her hip and her left grasping the grip of her sword as she so often does.

Zandra is not the best at ship repair, but she is reasonably good at telekinesis. She has been helping move things and doing what she can, to hopefully help get the ships too wrecked to fly put away so they can bring them back go Vega and team to cry over. Okay, to fix really, if they are fixable. Or cry. As the others start coming back, Zan turns to look their way. "Time to beat a hasty retreat? And help Maz's team get out, yeah?" She might be a crazy enough pilot to try helping Maz and company, if she can. She listens to the words from the others, and then starts towards her eta, Saber 5 being undamaged so far. "Sounds like a good enough reason to slide on out of here," she says, as the canopy opens, the astromech with her having been keeping the fighter hot and ready for launch.

"Come on you hunk of junk, work for me!"

A loud metallic thud like a hydrospanner being smacked into a ship's hull. "We gotta work fast or they'll have to shove into what, two ships?" Finn was a good fighter, but he elected to cover the team's escape route. Plus, as a joke, he 'needed a break'. He's not the best spaceship mechanic in the galaxy and Chewie's been showing him a few more things.

"Zan! Toss me t-" The team is coming in hot. "Nevermind, we're moving." Finn hops off a ship and lands a little wobbly. So much grace. "We got some ships a little fixed, as we could since we don't have the tools. I take it the talks went well?"

Jax had remained quiet on the lift ride down from the bridge. Nowhere as chatty as he had been on the way up. The jedi knight steps off the lift to Rey's questions. "As Nora said the self destruct was set. There was issues that occurred that will need to be resolved at another time and location. I don't believe this is the time nor place of a meeting of jedi or meditation." He says with a winced expression. "Did you find Elrych and get the mission resolved? Who ever flying with me, somebody besides Bizz is on the turrets."

The Painted Guardian is still damaged but it wasn't enough to be focused on being repaired and Jax says as he moving towards the small freighter.

Yuun is covering the Bridge Team, making sure he's the last to step off the lift, Yuun sees teh hanger bay and the state of the ships, he sighs as he comes in still running but lagging behind as he is still looking around for any danger. Hearing what's being said, "I will be back with you Jax." Yuun says as he starts to make his way towards Jax's ship.

Ax's avenger took a pretty nasty hit on the flight in, one that he'd have to do some explaining about to his wife, no hiding this one. Fortunately, it was a tough little bird for a TIE and he felt confident it was at least still space-worthy as long as it didn't get too much more abuse. He just hoped it powered up before the ship self-destructed.

Rushing to shrug on the life support harness and ridiculously oversized helmet, Ax looked to the others. "I'd really like to survive this mission, but if not, someone other than Bizz please look out for my wife and the twins. She's going to need help with those two."

When the group from the bridge returns to the hangar in their lift, Ben is no exception in looking less than particularly enthused. The man in black all but stalks from the back of the turbolift car, approaching Rey at an overly-rapid, overly-businesslike walk. "It went," he replies archly, sending an oxymoronically cool glance towards wherever Nora wandered off to. Stepping into Rey's personal bubble, he looks down at the woman and speaks in a quick, flat tone. "We need to speak about what happened up there. After. Once we're off this ship. Don't let me forget and don't think about it now." That should be easy.

He immediately turns towards the hangar door, the asteroid obscuring their view out to space still blocking withdrawal. "Is there anything we can do from the inside? Shoot it with shipboard weapons? Drop a bomb between the atmospheric shielding and the rock?"

Rey looks around at all the faces and just exhales softly. She firstly nods to Nora, then looks to Jax at his words. His question gets a light nod also. "We only were able to download some of the files, but I think between the four of us we got quite a lot. It should be enough..."

At Ben's approach, Rey looks over, and up at him. She listens to his serious tone, and just tries to process the request. At least there's plenty of other things to think about in the moment. "We could..." She looks over toward some of the Imperial hardware still in this massive hangar structure. There are AT-ATs standing in their service verths, and the TIE Fighter racks that go up, and down in to the ship's super structure. "Perhaps fire on some of those on our way out..." She's pointing, when it happens.

A scream. A male's voice, a loud scream from the fore of the ship. At least 50 or more yards away.

A second of silence, is broken by another scream. It's tormented, it's loud, it's in pure agony, and that agony flows from the Force toward the Jedi, at the aft of the same hangar space.

There, in front of the far away, asteroid-blocked exit of the hangar, is a large black robed figure. The black robe is tattered and the figure is standing on four spiked-black robotic legs.

It's face? It's hidden inside a hooded cloak, the void as black as space, suddenly coming to life with the eerie bright blue of what looks like the face of a ghost. A face that is screaming, the source of the horrible painful noises.

"Yuun!" The voice in agony shouts. "Jax!" It then screams.

"Rey!" It whimpers the last name out. "Help me!"

The glowing face is distorted, like its being pulled apart before it sweeps from the far left side of the large hood, to the far right, where its replaced with the face of him, Palpatine. His unmistakable glare. His old lips upturning in to a big smile, that is replaced with laughter.

Then, his face too, fades and is replaced with an underlit face, of a man staring downward inside the hood. Blue light cast upward on his calm looking visage. He just stands there inside that black suit, the body of a droid visible under the waving fabric of the cloak.

His face suddenly opens his eyes, and looks up toward the far away Jedi. He raises his right arm up, a robotic arm, and ignites a blue lightsaber blade, that he aims all the way down the hangar complex toward the Jedi fleeing to their ships!

An eyebrow raises as Nora pushes past him, her anxiety and irritation as clear as day. Rune's lips pull into a thin line before he shrugs off the moment and focuses his mind on the objective ahead. As the others make their way toward their respective ships, he beings to board the Rainstorm, ducking his head while he scales the ramp. Ecksdee rolls up and passed him into the corridors beyond to see where he's needed most.

Rune had almost disappeared onto the ship when the scream tears him from the relative safety of the ship. Back down into the hangar he comes, eyes wide at the following screeches that reverberate across the expanse... and there he is, that damnable visage, the most evil of beings he'd encountered in the galaxy thus far, the blue face of hatred scowling at the lot of them.

With barely a thought, the black hilt at his side leaps from his belt into his hand, the green blade erupting from the emitter while the Ysannan is already in stride. "The only help you will receive is vanishing into the void, once more." Rune growls as he sprints across the black reflective floor, the verdant glow of his lightsaber trailing him as he goes.

Nora Frayus' eyes wander back towards Ben and Rey and narrow for a brief moment, but she pushes a huffing breath from her lips and looks back over her shoulder towards the hallway they are meant to retreat down. She nods along in agreement with the sentiment of the others around her. "Yes. We should be quick about this. I do not wish to remain on this ship a moment longer than I have--" she begins to say.

It's interrupted by the agonized screaming from down the hallway, and it draws her eyes towards the dark. "To," she says, finishing her thought.

The hand on her hip draws across her torso to rest on her blade, watching with some scrutiny that washes away into a sort of horror that makes the young woman take a surprised step back and away from the figure at the end of the hallway. The display is truly unsettling and upsetting -- with that evil laughter, that robotic body beneath the cloak, and that ghostly projection that vanishes into the face of another.

"Wretched," she murmurs, and when the blue lightsaber sparks to life, instinct alone compels Nora to draw her blade -- as if durasteel is any match for a lightsaber.

Her jaw works and she closes her eyes, attempting to reach out to the Force. To see the strange, unsettling sounds in her head quieted, even if just for a moment. She opens her eyes as she exhales and grips that blade a little tighter.

Zandra is ready to board her ship when that scream echoes and the hackles at the back of her neck rise. She pauses to turn and look, her own lightsaber coming to life, at least one of the double blades. There's a moment of pause, a very startled sad look on her face, as she recognizes the voice, her worst fears here coming true. "Elrych," she murmurs softly. There's no time to mourn now though. It's not likely they can pull him out of that monster, is there. "Is there any way to rescue him, or is death the only freedom for him now? Is it even really him or just his voice recorded to hurt us?" That's her expectation, really. But she's not entirely sure. "Let's get this over with, we none of us have time."

Finn looks like he's getting ready to move to a ship. He opens his mouth but no sound exits. A crack in the Force echoes in such, well, force, that even a novice in the Force like Finn can feel it. Zandra's reaction demands a similar action from a stunned Finn, green blade igniting from so simple a hilt.

"What was that?" Finn wasn't with the teams. Hd didn't witness horrors and answers. He shoots Zandra a fierce look, his steps carry him forward to protect the ships. "I didn't have a way. If there's no way home for them, then everything we believe is a lie. Can't let that happen."

"I've got your back." The fear rises in Finn. No time for fear. Fear doesn't command him anymore.

Yuun was nearing the ship, he looks to the others to make sure people were moving to the ships they were going to be boarding. "Rune I will not take your seat." he says knowing he would sit behind the pilots seat. Letting out a breath, hopefully they will figure something out. THough at the mention of using the shipboard weapons to the obstructions. "That sound....." Yuun pauses as he turns as he hears the scream.

Hearing the scream, then again he hears his name being called. He heard it when they were on the bridge. He turns in the direction of the voice, and he sees the dark figure, and slowly he draws his lightsaber to his hand, then as he looks to the figure and the blue glow shows the face, "Elrych..." he says as he looks to his friend. Taking in what he sees, the legs, the lightsaber. "I don't know but, we have to do something." he says to Zan. "Elrych, I see that you're in pain my friend, please lower your weapon." he says in hopes of possibly talking him down if this really is him.

There's a chill that runs up Ax's back, the white hairs on his neck stand up and he pauses from putting on the giant helmet required to access all the sensors and such of his TIE/av. "That's not good," he mutters as he turns towards the sound of the voice. He remains silent for the moment, watching, waiting, unsure of how to act. This was messed up, in so many ways.

Once in a great while, a moment occurs during which Ben Solo feels entirely vindicated in all the decisions he has made over the course of his eventful life and career as a player in the galactic drama.

This is one of them.

There is some speculation from the others about just what or who the Sentinel has become, and to all of that, Ben simply replies, "No time." Like the others, he draws his weapon, the fiery blade springing from its hilt with an angry hiss that seems to give voice to the mood he's doing a poor job of holding in.

Maz's voice comes over the comms again. <"Jedi. We are almost through. We're going to cut loose this tunnel that they have created, and it should break away from the hangar and free your ships. We really could use your help out here too!">

Of course, now everyone is a little pre-occupied to respond to Maz, Rey included. With their exit route still blocked off, they can't exactly just jump in their ships and run the Sentinel Prime over...

"Elrych..." Rey quietly says as she sees his face also. His eyes inside that helmet within the hood open and glaring the Jedi down.

The questions, the comments, the asks of him? They go ignored. Whatever was allowing the man to speak before, seems to have stopped. Now his ghostly underlit face just raises u within the hood, and the large droid lunges toward the Jedi! It's robotic legs giving it extra power in its jump as it seems to be aimed toward Rune firstly! It comes arching down toward Rune with the blue saber blade growling through the air as it tries to strike him down from a diving slash!

From above, the clanking and clattering of more robotic feet can be heard, they start to pour out of the TIE Fighter racks, and the vehicle bays above, small, Spiderling-Probe droids that activate their laser-cutter teeth and start covering the pipe-lit Imperial decorated walls with the ebony shine of massive amounts of droids!

"Cover the ships!" Rey shouts! "Once the hangar is open, we have to go! This is not the time for playing in to this things hands!" She tells the others as she reaches for her belt and begins to raise her saber up, the golden hued blade snapping forth like the others amongst her group!

At the Sentinel's sides, three more arms spring out, and with it 3 ruby red lightsabers all hhiss to life. One of which has the shimmering instability of its cross-guards snapping out as well!

Rune's eyes widen as his charge stops short, the bright green of his blade being brought up quickly to deflect the initial overhead swing of the Palpatine droid's attack. He manages to beat the azure blade aside mostly, a nick along his right forearm to show for his effort... that is until the unnatural speed of the droid is revealed and the Ysannan takes a gnarly slash across the back.

"NNNNNnngh!" Rune grunts as he stumbles forward, a hand darting to the smoking, cauterized line that decorates his back. There's no time to waste in examination of the wound, not yet at least, and Kasia's Padawan steps forward to engage the enemy with his own series of attacks. Each flash of the blade is met by one of the droid's whether its a blue or red column that leaps to meet his slash, every advance is dashed to the side, their blades sending up sparks and melted plasteel marks along the hangar floor.

The other Jedi seem to know this man. The name carries some weight. Whoever he was, it would seem, is at odds with what he has become. As the others make their impassioned pleas to him, all Nora can see is that ragged, near lifeless face. There's nothing human about it. Not that she can see, at least. And when more sabers spark to life, Nora glances down at her sword and slowly glides it back into the sheath at her hip. Her heart is beating quicker in her chest now, but the same hand that tucks away that sword is now retrieving the near weightless cylinder of the stunsaber. An awkward, bumbling thing. Its swings have no heft to them. It feels... clumsy.

She holds it down to her side and presses the button upon the cylinder, the pale white reflection in her big blue eyes coming to life as that 'blade' reaches towards the floor.

"Very well," she says, and holds it out in front of her, as if it were the very sword she'd just put away. When that thing lunges towards Rune, her instinct is to remove the threat immediately. She swings towards the Sentinel's flank, but all three of her strikes are blocked with a single blade. She gasps and pushes herself backwards, taking up a defensive stance once again.

Zandra isn't about to leave the padawans and initiates without help. She moves to attack, at least trying to distract the sentinel prime from some of the young ones if she can. She races into the fray, trying to stay calm. Her blade dances out, sparks flying as her blade hits one of the prime's blades. She moves into a defensive stance, but keeps her blade moving, trying to keep the prime from destroying their ships or their being if she can.

Finn holds ground. He stands right where he is, no charge, no last stand. He makes no effort to attack Sentinel Prime at this time. His attention in all on the slide droids who come from multiple angles. A green flash of light glides a vertical line through one and Finn ought to hope it's been destroyed.

Do droids get bloody noses? Maybe he gave it a good swab under the mechanical nose. He swings and misses the other two, their limbs and agility make them hard targets. But he must defend the ships or nobody is going home. He won't be dead weight again.

Jax runs towards the droid as it attacks Rune. The jedi knight engaging the droid with a series of blows and flurishs that the droid turns away. The middle one nearly striking home and causing the Prime to have to dodge, "Come on Prime, I cost you an arm last time. That's a padawan. I'm a knight." Jax says trying to draw the droids attention as he reaches out to the force trying to find a way to strike the droid down as his attempt to push himself faster fails.

Yuun sees the threat they face and feels the danger as well. Looking around as the spiderling probe droids begin coming in from all sides. They all can't fight like this, shaking his head as otehrs rush, "Padawans, focus on the Spider droids, and keep them from cutting us off, we'll handle this!" he calls out providing orders as he too move to engage Sentinel Prime.

Yuun runs to his left making sure to have a clear spot to attack from. He leaps in and slashes towards Prime, working in tandem with those who are attacking Prime now, but hopefully the Padawans and Initiates heed his words.

Ax drops the enormous helmet and draws his saber, all in one motion. Unfortunately, his helmet bounces and his saber grazes it. The helmet and his ship now have near matching scorch marks. "Dammit!" he mutters as he moves forward, dual-bladed saber staff whirling quickly, leaving a blur of light as he engages with Prime. Elrych was gone, this was not his old student and associate. Whatever it was, it needed to be put down so that he and his allies could escape this deathtrap of a ship.

It's all fun and games until the Sentinel lights up the extra lightsabers. When the staggered ignition of a familiar weapon catches his eye, all sense of calmness evaporates. Ben's expression darkens and he charges in with the others, a furious sweep of his saber barely missing the Sentinel's distorted head. With robotic flexibility, the figure bends over backward to avoid the sweep.

Ben plants his foot hard, his boots sliding on the flight deck, drawing lines in the layer of dust that's gathered in this disused space and pivoting to direct a backhand that is battered aside with unnatural alacrity and strength.

Disoriented by the amalgam's unique attributes, the flashing blades, the tortured Force aura all around it, he takes a step back, off balance, frowning fiercely. "This. A galaxy full of this, that's what he wants. Wanted." How do you speak of the dead when their plans refuse to follow them to the grave? "Everything I did was to stop /this./" The flashing of the whirling blades reflects brightly in the polished paths left by passing feet, dimly against the dust, the world that is peering through as the world that should be is pulled away.

The attacks that come to the Sentinel Prime's many sabers are turned aside, the sparks, the flashing of saber beams against saber beams cascade out around the hangar complex of the Star Destroyer! The face inside the hood is lit up from within the body of the droid beneath the tattered black robe.

The Jedi who engage with the Prime are given different looks at the faces within its hood. Rune saw the Emperor's visage, Zandra, Jax, and Yuun all see Elrych's face, while Ax and Nora saw nothing but blackness as it turned their attacks away.

At Jax, Elrych blue tinted features just glare at him, with eyes that are slit like a snake's. "I'm more powerful than you remember me now." The Prime says to Jax, in Elrych's distorted voice, piped through a vocalizer, as the brilliant blue beam of Elrych's saber does the majority of his blocking swings where able to, while the crimson beams pick up the slack where needed!

Rey is right there with Finn, defending the group's ships from the incoming spider-droids. Their lazer teeth sparkling as they attack back at the Jedi, those lunging at them getting shredded by Rey's lightsaber blade as she tries to cut their numbers down.

Artoo raises the X-wing that he is still in the droid socket of. It lifts up off of the Destroyer's deck and its S-Foils suddenly spread open. the Droid sweeps the fighter around,a nd aims it up toward one of the places that the Spider Droids are coming out of. Suddenly the very loud sound of X-wing laser fire thawaps thwaps thwaps through the area as the droid blasts the entrance to shreds, causing a swath of the spider-droids to get incinerated before they can make it to the deck to reinforce their multi-legged friends!

The Sentinel Prime slides backward away from the Jedi attackers. Its four blades all growling hungrily in unison as it holds them all out to the sides, then sweeps them all forward to point toward the Jedi. "I've made my future. Restoring the true power of the Sith to the galaxy. You pathetic shadows of other's glory are nothing but mongrels, waiting to be put down!" The tainted voice of the former Jedi spits back at them before he attacks again, a flurry of blue and red!

Sabers fly as the others join in on the attack, blue, purple, green, white and fiery orange, all darting in to spark and deflect against the blood red sabers and the solo blue of the Prime droid. Pain laces down Rune's back, the Jedi wincing with every move, every parried stroke, the effort of combat hindered by the ugly scar of red from his shoulder blade down. Still he presses on, his lips pulled back into a slight snarl as he concentrates on his foe. Even if he were to hear the other's voices, his attention is laid squarely on the skittering droid, the face of evil frozen in a mocking cackle that delves beneath his skin.

"You are the one who is pathetic!" He screams as his blade flashes back and forth, joining the medley of colored columns that harass this foe. Strong words from the Padawan that can't even land a blow, his verdant blade being turned aside as easily as if he scripted the fight before hand. Frustration mounts along with the pain that builds in his back, sweat beading on the young Initiate's forehead as he rages against the machine.

Nora turns her eyes towards Ben as he speaks, but she doesn't let it linger. Her feet carry her in a clockwise motion around the Sentinel as the others attack it and she waits. Waits and watches. For an opening, for a pattern. She moves that stunsaber in her palm with some distaste, feeling its weightlessness all the way up towards the tip -- the only heft of it in her palm. And then, when an opening presents itself, she brings that saber down towards one of the arms that holds a saber!

The stunsaber -plonks- harmlessly off the hull and slides down and away. She gives an irritated grunt at the feeling of it.

"Useless thing," she says, and swings her saber in a rough backhand towards a nearby spider-bot. The backhand is done in a way that would be the flat of the blade on a traditional sword, but with the stunsaber, it all cuts the same. Well. It doesn't cut. Not this thing, anyway. She gives it another smack for good measure.

Zandra is not about to give in. She knows there are spider bots, and Maz's forces going to blow the hangar doors. Still, she's trying to keep at least one of those arms busy. If it's busy aiming at her, it's not aiming at anyone else. She continues to use just one blade, her guard up. Her feet are on the move, as she stays out of the way of all the flashing sparking colours of all the other lightsabers. "I'm sorry, Elrych," she calls out. "It's not your fault." There is sympathy in her voice, along with sorrow. She's ... going to need a lot of meditation after this. A lot. She tries at least to add, "Don't listen to him - it. It's - you don't have to do this." Like that will work, but she appeals to Elrych's friendship, his strengths, if she can. Even while trying to remove an arm from the robot body that has captured him.

SWISH! SWASH! Finn fights shoulder to shoulder with Rey and Nora, their blades strike in harmony, none of them interfere with one another. "Hey Rey, good to see you. How was work?" Hunor in spite of the odds is a good thing. Finn's right! Don't ask him if you want a different answer. But they gotta take care of business here. Finn's precision has improved since Rey's harsh training in defense.

They cut more and more."Good swinging, Nora!"

He looks. The Sentinel was still causing trouble. "We -have- to beat him!"

The force turned away the strike meant to take his head off, Jax brings his saber up to turn away another attack. "I've noticed." Then as Jax uses the force to flow through him circling with the droid, he has a moment of clarity showing him where to strike to cause damage. A couple of quickly lunges to sever the connection between the base and the torso. The droid knocking them away, "There's a weak spot where the torso and the leg base meet. If you can get to it. It's denying me."

Yuun strikes miss or blocked, the multiple blades and teh movements, Yuun hasn't had a challenge like this in a while. Watchig the clashing of blades, Yuun quickly spins in, his movements are fast and precise, striking low then high, weaving his attacks in between the others who are also attacking, though as he strikes at Prime, he moves in a way to try to push Sentinel Prime back, though he sees that his is either missing again or being blocked.

Going purely on the offensive, Ax is a blur of motion. His twin-bladed saber cutting high, cutting low, cutting left, cutting right, and each attack is parried, one after the other, all but one that is, the silver blade of the Echani's saber makes contact, and on a mortal man, would have likely been enough to cleave them in half. Of course, this was far from being a mortal man.

The fight is brutal and almost horrifically one-sided. The most talented individuals in the galaxy fighting in concert can barely lay a finger on this monstrosity, this protestation against the natural order. They're holding their own but they've taken a few licks and the thing has little more than a scratch on it.

Ben holds down one corner of the fighting, seeking to hem in the droid where it cannot escape. This is a vain hope, given the mobility it has exhibited in past encounters. Still, he hedges intently, rousing back around from that moment of disorientation following his initial pellmell rush.

Jax calls out a weakness, and dark eyes instinctively click onto the mentioned area. With Ax occupying some of the machine's defenses, he makes his move. The fiery brand he wields drives straight in at the core of the droid's locomotion, and each swing is delivered with reckless abandon, pent-up fury tainting his presence in the Force for the others as Ben draws on that anger. There is no peace in the way he delivers the pair of rapid chops at the thing's midsection, no grace in the stumble as his third meets unexpected resistance, and no serenity in the feral whirl back into a guard posture when his balance finds him again a long skid across the dusty floor later. "The Sith disowned you," he spits vengefully at the man/droid amalgamation, salt in the wound. Or water. Whichever hurts worse.

The visible rock formation blocking the hangar exit at the far end of the hangar suddenly pulls downward as the comms light up again with Maz's voice. <"We got it, Jedi! Your pathway is clear! And no sooner than we could hope for! We really could use some backup out here!">

With the asteroid free of the Warmonger's hangar, the view of space outside is visible, as two TIE Fighters are chasing one of the mining vessels now, firing brilliant bright green laser fire at its wake!

The Sentinel Prime continues its barrage of attacks against the Jedi! Parts are cut away from its chassis, with sparks spraying across the polished deck of the Destroyer's floor! The coldly menacing face of Elrych inside that voluminous hood is suddenly replaced by the face of Palpatine, once more sweeping off to the right, like he's coming from Elrych's face itself. He just... cackles, before his stretched, and distorted face, is pulled back in to Elrych's angered own.

Another attack from the Jedi scores another hit that shreds more of the robe, and breaks free another part of the Sentinel Prime's body.

Then it turns to Zandara. This time the face of Elrych pushes forward again, like his soul is trying to tear from inside his own body within the hood of the droid. "Zandra! No, no! If you cut the droid to pieces, I'll die! He's using drugs! Drugs to manipulate me in to doing this! You can't let him get away! Help me, ZaaaAAAHHHH!!!" The scream echoes out of the hood as the face is pulled back inside of the calmly cold, cruel, visage of Cometburn.

Rey's golden blade slashes down upon another spider droid, before she twirls it around and cuts another going for the other Jedi vessels. "Focus!" Rey corrects Finn, ever the stickler in these situations! "The hangar is open! Fall back to your ships! It's time to go!" She shouts as she leaps up in to the air to land atop the fuselage of Silver Leader floating and spinning around to face the Sentinel Prime now!

The Sentinel Prime, having started to take damage, begins to skitter backward and toward the safety of some of the oncoming Spider-droids! It holds its sabers up, and the cackling of Palpatine starts up again after Ben speaks of it being disowned. "My boy... I am the Sith." He says before leaping in to the air, and firing his booster rockets to take him up toward the TIE Fighter racks above, leaving just the smaller spider-droids to try and tear the Jedi ships apart should they not board them soon enough!

Rune locks sabers with one of the Prime droid's, alternating flashes of yellow and white accompany the familiar sizzling sound of lightsaber combat. Then, with its proclamation of encompassing all the Sith, as well as its sudden retreat, Rune screams out, "Is that so? Well the Sith is poodoo, then!" he's not the best with insults, after all, he barely received a child's education before being lost in the wilderness for a little more than a decade.... at least he's trying.

There's little time to contemplate a better one liner before the skittering droids surround them and begin their assault. Fortunately, Rune was able to dodge the sudden attack from one of the machines, his saber swinging in a wide arc to drive the droid back. Rey's announcement to board the ships manages to snag his attention, along with the horde of spider droids that start flooding into the room from nearly everywhere, and he turns to sprint back toward the Rainstorm. He doesn't extinguish the green blade yet, darting to the lowered ramp to defend it until others can gather and board. "Let us go!"

There was a time to walk away, and a time to run. This was the latter. Rushing towards his ship, only to come to a sliding halt and run to retrieve his helmet, Ax is again trying to get to his TIE. Maybe in the future, he'd find one of those TIE fighters that didn't require the goofy suit, but until then, this is what he had to work with. Once in the ship, he fires it up and it sputters a bit before the ion drives come to full power. Oh yeah, his wife was going to have words with him if he made it home.

When that rock formation comes crumbling down, Nora turns to look over her shoulder in the direction of the woman calling for backup on the comms. She can't help it. She -laughs- at it. She staggers back a few more steps, towards where that rock face had crumbled down. Her eyes turn to the Sentinel Prime and the other Jedi that begin to carve into it. When it screams out to Zandra, Nora's nose wrinkles in a mixture of horror and disgust. The sounds it makes. The words it says.

Deeply upsetting.

Still, it skitters out of the way and presents an opportune time for retreat. She presses the button on her stunsaber and it retracts back into its hilt to be tucked away.

More spider bots pour out from seemingly everywhere, and Nora's eyes focus on one in particular as it settles down. The sounds of its legs are percussive. Ting ting ting. Metal on metal, and somehow, she can sense some sort of rhythm to it. Her hand lifts and she gives a stiff yank, throwing it roughly into the ground. And then, here feet carry her towards the exit.

"Time to get off this cursed ship," she murmurs and follows shortly behind Rune to the Rainstorm.

Zan shudders at Elrych's words. Stop it, don't let it get away, but don't cut it into pieces ... yeah, ouch, that's a tough one. A very tough one. She wants very badly to help Elrych out - but she cannot see a way. She breaks off the fight, though if the Sentinel prime is skittering towards those spider droids, so is Zan. It might look for a moment or two that she's chasing it, until she breaks off, her saber slashing out at the spider nearest to her eta fighter. Zan hits the button to deactivate the saber, slides into her seat in the fighter, and the lid closes, her astromech in position. << Saber 5, taking off, >> is her next comment. She's primed and ready to blast out of this disaster of a mission. << Let's get out of here. >> She goes quiet then, her comms off. nobody can see her now, or hear her so they won't know if she's crying or not.

Yuun backs off from the attacks, managing to deflect a saber strike and quickly moving weaving his saber in a defensive motion deflecting lasers from the spider probe droids, eyes narrowing as Sentinel Prime jumps away from them. They really didn't have time to give chase, their allies were being hard pressed, "Copy that Paragon Skywalker." he calls out and quickly begins to back away, his heart feels heavy, and as Yuun attempts to swing at two spider droids he misses. He grips his saber and tries to steel himself, they fought a twisted version of Elrych. What the hell did they do to him. This wasn't sitting with with Yuun, he quickly moves

"I'm always focused!"

Finn's natural counterattack for firm strictness in battle is confidence. His lightsaber stays in his hand as he starts to back up, spider droids advancing while Sentinel Prime retreated from the battle. "Go!" Finn thrusts his hand forward, the invisible hand of the Force shoves a spider droid back into the far wall with authority.

"Ben! " Finn calls, insisting he join them. Finn's going to turn off his saver, hiss of the weapon as the green light is replaced by empty space.

He holds on tight for the space dust they're gonna burn.

Jax turns to look away pained at the cry from Elrych. He conflicted at the moment. Though he looks to Ben and his outburst. The jedi turns to look at the spider droids crawling on his ship. He raises his hand at them and with a release of the force strikes at them letting out a yell of frustration and anger. It was nto his proudest moment. Then he's racing toward his ship to get the crew with him out of there.

When the Sentinel decides to make good its escape, Ben knows on an intuitive level that there is no time to chase it. Maybe it doesn't even have time to make good its escape. Maybe it will make decent or even poorly its escape. Still, he stands staring after it for a moment until Finn's call finally cuts through the fugue and he glances sharply that way. It doesn't take him long to follow look with movement and jog over to the ships, boarding literally any of them that has the space and settling in for what is sure to be a bumpy ride. "Let's hope we beat the blast out of here."

Rey is standing atop the fuselage of Silver Leader as it hovers up off the ground now, its four red engines carrying it toward the hangar exit, but hanging off to the side to let the other Jedi fighters all take off and rocket out of the Destroyer first. With her golden blade still active, Rey looks after the spider-droids as they frantically try to catch up with the fighters, in vain.

She casts her eyes up to the TIE racks where the Prime had vanished, but upon seeing the last of their fighters leaving, she deactivates her saber and jumps in to the X-wing cockpit.

Her helmet is brought up and on, and Artoo pilots the ship out in to space, as the canopy locks in place....

Outside, the Imperial fighters break off from Maz's forces, as the signs of reinforcements come out of the Destroyer's hangar. The TIE Fighters turn tail back toward their distant cruiser, while Maz's forces form up on the Jedi. <"Lets make for a hasty retreat, shall we?"> Maz's voice says to the Jedi craft.

From beneath the Destroyer, the black circular shape of the Sentinel Prime's ship can be seen also exiting the doomed ISD. Its six red engines, and one bright central yellow engine all fire hot as it roars off toward that distant cruiser in the wake of the TIE Fighters....

<"Lets get out of here, everyone."> Rey says over comms. "Locking coordinates for our jump in. We'll... free Elrych from that monster... one way or another.">