Log:Knights of Ren: Clear as Crystal Part Two
The Knights follow the trail to its end. An Artifact is found.
OOC Date: March 4, 2021
Location: Berchest
Participants: Tarq Najjic (GM), Andro Tain, Imani, Malik Ren, Tamsin Cas, Sebek, Knights of Ren
[Tarq Najjic]
Calius saj Leeloo, the crystal city of Berchest, is a single crystal carved out patiently for over a thousand years by its patient artisans into a place where the streets are crystal, the sewers are crystal, the warehouses are crystal, and the safehouse apartments are crystal.
"If Derra spoke true, cult owns apartment building. Entire thing! Believers enter; warriors leave." Tarq adjusts the comm pressed into his ear and straightens his robes. "Workshop and leaders up top; barracks and training grounds below. Sebek!"
The ramp of the ship abruptly starts lowering. "Will try to sabotage escape, provide intel." The ship slews and flares its thrusters. Below the shimmering apartment building roof is mere meters below, and Tarq jumps out. Does he land safely? Who knows! The ship continues onward and down, settling gracefully in the evening shadow of the apartment.
"Peaceful Rest," the name over the door proclaims in Basic, but few windows of the ten-floor building have lights, and the double doors (two distinct pieces of crystal!) are shut and locked. The doors are the obvious way in, but so are windows with a little climbing and perhaps rope.
[Sebek]
The phrase 'fly casual' could mean a lot of things, including getting a Lambda Shuttle up-close-and-personal with an SSD's viewport. In this case, though, it was how Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts was sitting with one leg crossed over the other and holding the ! NIGHT BUZZARD !'s yoke in his fingertips. The Dungeon-class was like oil in water, weaving its way down and tainting the air with its very presence as the Falleen guided it to its ground-bound perch. "Finally, we bring forth doom upon the pacifists." They were not pacifists, Sebek. "For too long has Tei Tenga gone hungry." It's been like two fracking days! "Blood must be spilled, glory must be attained," he rambled as he finished the power-down sequence, "flesh must be consumed." Was that a bloodstain around his mouth? "Come forth, then, brave Warriors of Ren! Thus the slaughter must begin!"
[Tamsin Cas]
Tamsin had left the question of their prisoner to others. She had concerned herself solely with keeping the old priest alive as long as was necessary. And when it was no longer necessary, she had left him to shuffle off his mortal coil, perhaps to be recycled by Imani into something to satisfy Sebek. Unless, of course, Sebek ate all of the good bits first. Always a culinary risk. For now, she left such corners on the ship, as she made her way out with the other knights, studying the structure and it's entry points. "I can get one or more of us up to the windows, to allow for an entry to open those doors or some other way inside." A moment of thought, "Or I could simply pull the doors down."
[Andro Tain]
A little climbing? Perhaps some rope? If Andro Tain brings anything to the party, it would be a well-stocked adventurer's pack. Rope, pitons, a pickax, flares, snacks... Was that bulge in her pack a grappling hook, or was she simply happy to see everyone? She may not come prepared for a good fight, but she's always ready to find a way in, by whatever means possible.
It's really no surprise she ever wound up in jail.
"He dead, yet?" Andy asks of their 'informant', nudging him with a foot. Her boot comes away wet. "Oh, gas it, Sebek." There's disgust there, but more at the inconvenience of a dirty boot than at the indecensy of their pilot's choice of consumption. She wipes the boot against the floor to little avail, re-adjusting her pack as she had prepared to disembark.
But now they stood before 'Peaceful Rest', her nose wrinkled. "I vote windows." She muses, tugging at the hood she had chosen to wear with her raiment armor.
[Imani]
Whatever it is Imani makes this jerky out of that goes predominantly to Sebek, it doesn't appear to be human. Or near human. Or probably sentient. There are no attempts to carve or preserve once questioning is done. More jerky is handed off to Sebek even, if only to stop him from gnawing (more?) on any person here, or anyone they run across. "A whole place made of crystal? It just doesn't seem practical. Or comfortable. Pretty though." She doesn't offer opinions on entry options, she's just going to rush in wherever.
[Malik Ren]
"You're all attached to the idea of infiltration through the windows?" This is Malik Ren, voice distorted by the vocoder of his distinctive black and silver helmet. There is no attempt made to be secretive about his identity; there usually isn't. He is who he is, and he is willing to make that everyone else's problem. "As no one here is particularly well-versed in stealth, I think we could have the same or similar efficacy just knocking on the door and then speaking nicely to the occupants." 'nicely' "But, as you like it."
[Sebek]
Frack this, spaketh the brain of Sebek of the Desert. "To ponder extensively is the death of momentum!" There was a horrible snap-hiss noise as Tei Tenga burst to life, growling and hungry as was its due. "Behold, the knock of politeness!"
What came next was neither a knock nor polite. It was a vicious downward swing straight through the gap between the crystal double doors. Y'know, he could have just poked the lock with it, but this is Sebek. If he wasn't being extra he was dying. Then what followed was a hefty kick to the center of the doors, slamming them both open to behold...
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
The room inside is dark, but even as the Knights look in to find their foes, bright lamps that sear the eyes cast the inside of the room into sharp relief, and blind the unwary:
The bottom three floors of the safehouse apartment are a shooting gallery. No, really: this is an urban combat course. A 'street' proceeds directly from the front doors into the back, making everyone standing in front of it a sitting duck to the snipers hidden in perches. One of the bright lamps is there.
There is an alley path that winds its way across the room that has at least one switchback, because the back of the room can't be seen down it. Here the lamp hangs from the ceiling.
A few blaster shots come out, but they go wide. They came from near the blacked out windows and down the 'street'.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Tamsin said not a word, as Sebek made his way to the door, cutting the lock and kicking it open. The bright glare of the lights did not seem to bother her, though any who might bother to look in her direction might see a grey haze now covering her eyes. When she stepped forward, it was not to rush forward, but to move with a deliberate caution, as she scanned the interior that could be seen. A frown, as she looked from windows, to allow to the lamp glaringly bright. A huff of her breath, and the lamp jerked, not smoothly, not easily, but as if it had been grasped by an unseen hand afflicted by some palsy. But, it was grabbed, and it did come down, shattering into a flurry of pieces, winking out the light there, and, with luck, doing some damage or upset to the cultists who had fired on them from that bit of protection.
[Andro Tain]
"Weird." Andy comments, peeking over Sebek's shoulder to see the layout of the... Stree course? Regardless, she isn't one for a direct fight. While the boom-boom brigade makes their decisions, she is plucking supplies from her bag - she is going for that window.
Pulling a simple rope-grapple from her bag, Andy takes a few steps back and begins to spin it, lining up her shot. The gentle whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of momentum building doesn't create too much noise, but her mis-shot that shatters through the window certainly does. But no one heard that, right? She assumes not, and after testing the strength of the grapple's hold once, twice, thrice, she begins to climb. It's at the top that she slips, just slightly, and lets out a loud squeak of surprise - but no one heard it!
It isn't until Andro Tain, brilliant archaeologist, makes it to the top and crawls through the window that she comes face to face with a sniper. "Oh, this is where /you/ were hanging out." She says dumbly, before fumbling for her vibroax.
[Imani]
Imani stays back as the doors are slashed apart, trusting Sebek to use his extra methods to create optimal levels of property damage. She cringes back further as the shots ring out, but almost at once she's pointing. "Shots are being fired from there, and there, and..." Using the tech in her helmet, she marks where the shots came from and then shares that to everyone with helmets that can receive and view said information. Then she takes a deep breath, silently psychs herself up, pulls her weapons loose, and then makes a mad dash inside as fast as she can manage over the door destruction to the nearest cover inside.
[Malik Ren]
"This is NONSENSE." That's what Malik Ren thinks of this crap street course room that has appeared just beyond the door. He snaps his saber angrily to life, and voices his chief complaint, which is not the snipers. "There isn't even a FOYER."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Sebek sliced the door open and revealed a combat course, dutifully manned by cultists and illuminated by extremely bright lights. Tamsin toppled the bright lamp at ground level, scattering the fighters at the far end of the wide main path. It looks like the fastest route, but it's also the most exposed.
Andro Tain climbed up to the window, breaking into a sniper's nest. The sniper has all the right optics to be looking at and shooting distant targets, and there's not much space here for both the sniper and Andy. The sniper pulls a knife, while Andy has an ax. WHO'S SNIPING NOW?!
Thanks to Imani's helmet and warning, the location of the other sniper and the shooters in the street are beheld by all. There are five at the end of the street, while the second sniper is at the far right, just opposite the sniper on left Andro Tain is tangling with.
There is also still a bright spotlight hanging from the ceiling. Its main job seems to be to obscure your vision and illuminate you for your enemies.
Malik is still offended by architecture, at the door with Sebek.
[Sebek]
"The time for discourse is over!" Sebek proclaimed to nobody in particular, before he became an edgy blood-fuelled black-and-red blur of sheer speed. Perhaps discourse meant blaster-fire. Or maybe it meant self-preservation. Either way, he crossed that distance /absurdly/ fast, and finished up with a typical Falleen greeting of well wishes. This greeting, as studied by noted galactic anthropologists, is most accurately displayed as leaping diagonal slice downwards that quite often cleaves from left shoulder to right hip. Indeed in this circumstance there is no need to argue with noted galactic anthropologists, because that's exactly what the furious blade of Tei Tenga did. "The fall of one, the doom of four! COME FORTH, HERETICS!"
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Tamsin, still remaining in the rear, watching others proceed ahead of her either by literal hook or by crook, scanned the areas it was laid out, marking the points of contact Imani had passed on from her targeting system. Her aim was not wholesale destruction. Far be it from her to attempt (and fail!) to live in imitation of Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts. Instead, Tamsin used her most valuable asset. Her brain, and she turned her attention to the sniper, the one who could still aim at Andro, the one who could still target the knights, and her expression hardened, as her hands shook down the sleeves of her robes. Any who might have keen hearing might hear the sound of metal being bent, any who looked the sniper's way might see the barrel of his rifle distorting, curving down unto a U. Try to shot something now, cultist.
[Andro Tain]
Not great, not great, not great! Andy, vibro-ax clutched in one hand, grits her teeth with some desperate mental calculations. She could just fight this guy... Or she could get this over quickly, hook him in and fling him bodily out the window. She decides that this is the best approach.
It is not the best approach.
Missing entirely, her ax embeds itself, still buzzing with vibrations, into the scaffolding of the sniper's next. "Kriff." Andy manages. "No chance you'd be up for a bribe now, is there?"
[ Imani (I)]
With the snipers being less of a concern now, Imani once again takes a beat to ready herself, then steps out of cover again. Being much closer to those people at street level, she doesn't hesitate to rush and stab into the first non-Knight body she encounters, yanking the weapon back, then swinging around to bask another person in the face with the hilt of her weapon. Perhaps not fatal, but violent and painful serves the moment as well.
[Malik Ren]
Malik Ren is still pissed there's no foyer, guys. This is a completely unacceptable floor plan. Like Sebek, he has no time for subtlety... or discourse! Unlike Sebek, he is not fast enough and swift enough to make it all the way to the end where the heretics are, in no small part because there are now corpses in the way. Navigating around them takes some time. "I honestly don't know what they expected here," he remarks, proper and conversational, and possibly to himself. He'll get there when he gets there.
[Tarq Najjic]
Between Sebek and Imani's assault upon the would-be street fighters, their numbers drop from five to a a badly-injured one in a matter of seconds. Saber and bilari chain-whip whirl and slice. "You will ... not ... kill the master!" Malik Ren is close enough to hear the same, just before he shoots his blaster at Sebek, to no avail.
This assault went without a hitch because the second sniper's weapon is useless. As he was taught, without his weapon, he is useless - and so it is. He takes potshots with his pistol, but no one is in any danger. That sidearm wasn't meant to be used at range. He is angry and swearing. Worst sniper, guys.
Andro Tain is locked in mortal combat with the other sniper, who having dodged her attempt to hook him out the window, sinks his knife into her leg.
The door at the end of the street rises slowly, revealing a turbolift. Tarq Najjic's voice hisses through the comms: "Avoid stairs. Are trap." There's some sound in the background, and then the transmission cuts.
[Sebek]
"A trap merely means more glorious combat!"
If you ever needed a character explanation of Sebek of the Desert, that, ladies and gentlemen, is it.
Tei Tenga whirled idly, bisecting the last remaining shooter completely by accident, as the frothing Falleen focused on the promise of further battle. "A metal tube in an arena of battle, thus it is already a coffin! Take it, Knights of Ren! Proceed to the goal of He Who Jests! I shall take the stairs and fell every single pacifist," again, not pacifists, "between here and there to prevent a back ambush!" And that was the scope of Sebek's tactical thinking.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The ground floor was wenn and truly UNDER CONTROL. Good job team! Tamsin, of course, had nothing at all to do with any of that. The knightling had not even remembered to draw her stunsaber. But that did not stop her from being clever. Tamsin Cas could clever with the best of them. She could also spot a tussle when there was tissling going on, and she sighted the sniper in the middle of a throwdown with Andro. And Tamsin threw him down. That spectral hand grabbed the sniper bodily, yanking him away from Andro, and slamming him down to street level. Get him guys!
[Andro Tain]
Andy isn't unintelligent, but she should have known that her chances of survival dwindle significantly the further she strays from her dangerous, magical, blood-thirsty allies. She can live well lurking on their coat-tails - but instead, she haaaaad to climb the building! Big, bold, stupid Andy.
Mental self-flaggelation complete, the Mirilian returns to her task of wrenching her ax free of the building itself. In this, Andy can't quite move aside fast enough to avoid a slash from the sniper's dagger. "OUCH!" She shouts, more a scold than anything. She can feel her own blood between the solid protection of her armor, hot and damp and a stark reminder of her own mortality, and the speed at which her poor decisions bring her closer to it.
With a mighty roar, she rips the ax free and whirls around - ready to face her death in combat, ready to take this cultist with he- wait, where did he go. Andy blinks dumbly, suddenly alone, before managing out a quick: "...Oh, thanks!"
Time to climb back down. And avoid the stairs.
[ Imani (I)]
No more immediate threats, Imani shakes any lingering blood off of her weapon as best she can and turns to head for the turbolift. Her head turns to watch as Sebek chooses the stairs, staring a few moments before forging on. She isn't going to follow him to the glue steps, or the awaiting swinging paint cans. Those can mess you UP. No, instead she's going to get muzak.
[Malik Ren]
Malik Ren is taking his time getting to the lifts, you know? Just calmly walking along picking his way around bodies while chaos and violence and the unrelenting bloodshed of the Knights of Ren whip around all around him. He is the eye of the storm here, a center point with complete confidence in the swirling destruction at the periphery. "We will not kill the master, hm?" he muses, casually sticking his saber into the last victim. "Agree to disagree." Proceeding, he makes his way to the turbolift, calmly pressing the button. "Sebek, stay with the group, please, or I'll kill you myself. No stairs. Thank you."
[Tarq Najjic]
The turbolift door opens. Beyond looks like a machine shop, with a dozen workstations scattered around a large room, crates on shelves lining the walls. There is a computer terminal just inside on the left. The entire right wall is glass, offering a gorgeous view down the edge of the city towards the Leefari Sea.
Standing at the window with her arms crossed in front of her is a woman in a white robe, hood down, revealing her blonde-and-white hair. "You're early." Flanking her are two women in body armor of both plates and lighter material.
The craftsmen in the room hastily retreat towards the far end of the room. There is a door there. When one presses the button, the door doesn't happen. A red light appears on the terminal. He presses it frantically a few more times.
"You have killed enough of my people. Now you face righteous judgment. You do not know whom you now face." She and her guards jump - and travel thirty feet across the room to land between the Knights and the craftsmen. What look suspiciously like lightsabers with white blades protrude from the gauntlets of both guards, and what's definitely almost a lightsaber with a white blade extends from the hilt in the cult leader's hands.
They shouldn't have been able to jump like that. Something is wrong. Cybernetics? Augmentation? Miniaturized power armor?
[Sebek]
"Judgment?!" hissed Sebek, possibly offended to his core. His /core/. "Who are she to pass judgment, heretic?!" His skin was fluctuating towards a lovely limey shade, taking the challenge to his pride very personally. "Upon your soul I damn you! I damn you!" The Falleen, sinking deeper and deeper into that weirdo alien battle trance, waved Tei Tenga furiously and pointed it straight towards the false idol. "Thrice damned and none!"
The advent of the Holy Guards upon the proclamation of Sebek of the Desert did not go unnoticed. With the Force consumed by the Knight of Ren, the bout was joined, and empowered by the placidity and peace of overwhelming pride, it was brief. It was rapid. It was far, /far/ quicker than the fight downstairs. And when it ended the first Knight of Holiness lay upon the ground in four mismatched pieces, with the Falleen barely breathing hard. "Infidel warriors. Pretenders to the throne of joy. Power is /nothing/," the Knight clasped his fist in front of him, "without /earning/ it!"
[Tamsin Cas]
Tamsin's caution had been a useful thing so far. Or perhaps, it was fairer to say her thinking outside of the box had not gotten her killed. Yet. Possibly soon. It was always on the table. As she came in with the group, towards the rear as she had drawn Andro back to the back of the group, using the knights as her meatshields while she did what she could to tend to Andro's wound, she got full view of the three leaping like kushiban into the fray. "Cybernetic enhancements," That was to the Knights, not that Sebek, you know, cared, or was detered...at all. "Their enhancements might be external grafts as well as internal augmentation." Look. Don't slow a girl's roll while she was doctoring.
[Andro Tain]
It takes Andy a moment to climb back down the way she came, proving that this endeavour was entirely useless, unless distracting a sniper counts for anything. She doesn't think it does. "Yeah, uh, good job. Team. Goof effort from everybody." Yup. Back with the group, and crammed into a turbolift, Andy idly hums a tuneless non-melody... All the while, Tamsin tends to her. The second "thanks" of the night is offered to the other woman. And then those doors open, and a hop, skip, and a (way too large) a jump later, she's crouched down and cowering around a corner of the turbolift, just peeking out.
Andy can't see much, and she deduces even less from what she doesn't see.
"Um... When y'all get it, uh, just show me?" She's hanging in the turbolift until this is over. She isn't /un/intelligent, at least!
[Imani] The lift ride up was enough time for Imani to glance over her weapon and check that things are in order, which leaves little room for small talk. Which is fine, they have enough time for that on the ships and on the base, and everyone here gets frequent doses of cheerful Imani chatter. "You, right? We face you?" is all she asks the deacon, but then the guards are launching toward them unnaturally. This might unnerve her had she not spent the better part of the last year fighting with people who can jump araound just like that, so she wastes no time ogling the enemy and charges straight into battle, attacking the guard that Sebek does not chop up.
[Malik Ren]
They're early? Hardly. "We've arrived exactly when we meant to," Malik gently contradicts the Deacon, voice still, as always, proper and polite behind the vocoder of his helmet. "Do you imagine yourself the master of my schedule -- or indeed, of anything at all? Do be cautious. Hubris is both common and treacherous for your kind. You place it in your path, and then close your eyes and --" A delicate pause, "Misstep."
The word is like a cue that cries havoc and lets slip the Sebek of war, and the Imani of war! Dismemberment, immediately, and Malik's smile can be heard more than seen, wearing his mask as he is. "Just so," he agrees with Tamsin's assessment of cybernetics, having backed this up in his own way as he saunters closer.
"Do you imagine yourself equipped to judge me, creature?" Just a friendly, normal, conversation. "If such will be a comfort to you, of course I kindly invite your attention. Consider well, whatever you choose. If enough is left of you to consider this a life, then that has reached a predictable conclusion."
[Tarq Najjic]
Sebek's dismembering and division of one of the guards serves as illustration to Tamsin's intuition and Malik Ren's sense through the Force about the true nature of these three: they're somewhere between human replica droids (which are surely merely myth) and people. They have cybernetics with external power-armor-like attachments that can allow them to handle the additional stresses of unnatural strength and speed.
Imani's strikes knock aside and then chop off the guard's right hand, which is revealed to have been entirely cybernetic. It's just parts in there, and she needs to go back to the mechanic.
Mariell Holva looks down at her nose at Malik Ren with an imperious manner. She's a tall woman; she can actually manage it, and it's weighted down with the authority of someone who expects and has received deference, respect, and obedience for decades. "All die and become one with the Force."
"But if you wish to consider what a life looks like when it has already ended, Malik Ren, I suggest you look in the - mirror!" She strikes with that last word, and as blades clash, there is a sound of static and a high-pitched whine that stops as soon as the lightsabers are not in contact. It seems to be coming from Mariell - or rather, her apparently off-brand lightsaber.
Her remaining guard attacks Sebek to avenge her fallen comrade, but to no avail, each attack blocked by Tei Tenga.
There is a box in one of the shelves that shifts slightly, as the craftsmen drop to their knees and pray, continue battering at the door, and the more resourceful attach a datapad to the panel by the door - at which point the box moves closer, rises to its feet, and lobs itself at the datapad-user. "Tarq Najjic is sorry, but cannot let you do that." His stunsaber points at the man. "Drop datapad. Will be over soon."
[Sebek]
The Notsaber struck Sebek across the torso, pushing him back and burning through his armour. The skin underneath was definitely quite sunburned.
When the Falleen looked up from the wound to the Holy Guard, the look on his face was murder.
He took one step forward and got to work. Tei Tenga swung furiously in surprisingly efficent slashes, one through just below the waist, a second across the leg, and the final strike went STRAIGHT UP, between the legs, through the torso, and straight through that forcefully-enhanced noggin. It was no surprise that the cyberguard was reduced to a pile of chunky kibble on the ground, and there stood the tranquility of the furious Sebek, saber held aloft in the killing blow with gritted rage on his face. "And thus the pretenders fall. Every action you take proves your inferiority. Your doom is not notable. It is merely tidying."
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Tamsin, she of the never saber, moved to advance, not into the line of battle, but adjacent to it. She did not worry for Sebek, for he had Imani to assist him with the Holy Handmaidens, or whatever, bad pop culture reference. No, Tamsin cast her eyes on the Deacon herself. surely, if she was their leader, she was their best construction. Tamsin shook back her sleeves, looking for all the world as if she were going to do some operating, and she focused her attention on that 'lightsaber', watching it strike at Malik, studying the way in which the Deacon's hands moved, and then, she clenched her hands into fists. She did not, often, need to wave her digits about like some cut rate charlatan, but this time, she did not want to miss, as she forced her will to wrap around the hands of the woman, attempting to crush ehr wrists and make her hands useless.
[ Imani (I)]
With the Holy Handmaidens of the Discount Saber dealt with, Imani whips around to face the head honcho that's engaging with Malik. She holds back for several moments in an effort to time it right, darting in after the attack on Malik to strike her with the unpleasant edge of the chain whip. The second swing swipes too low, missing her, coming too close to Malik, and making a metallic screech as it connects briefly with the ground. She wastes no time retreating to give that red saber room to work without her being in the way.
[Malik Ren]
Malik Ren got bopped with the Notasaber! But it's NOTHING, even the little scratch that might have been managed is dismissed as though with the easy wave of a hand. Nothing! His modeling career is still intact, no edgy scars for him. "Tiresome," he chides Mariell Holva gently as he returns fire. "Tiresome, and demonstrably incorrect. But I suppose that's on brand for you people."
What's that over --? Boxes? Moving? Ah. "I'm so pleased you're not dead," he greets Tarq, who has arrived! "Rather a lot of hours invested in you, and I hate to waste time."
[Tarq Najjic]
The Deacon blocks the first two strikes from Malik before the third cuts into her body - but there is no blood, just some kind of viscous oil that begins to leak at low pressure. That's when Imani strikes home on her thigh. Again, no blood. Where is the part of her that's still living?!
"There are deaths, and there are deaths." A few cracks come from her wrists, and she cries out, but her hands are mostly steady. Mostly, but a bit of imprecision has been introduced from the damage. Her blade sweeps out into a wide swing at Imani, a thrust at Sebek, and one final slice from the bottom up at Malik Ren, none finding their target.
She backflips away and drives her !lightsaber into the door panel, which opens with a whoosh of equalizing air pressures. The cultists begin running. "Hey! HEY!" Tarq calls as they make their escape onto the roof, where a light transport is parked with the ramp down. "Grim Omen, have target for you-"
Deacon Mariell Holva stands between the Knights of Ren and the rest of her followers.
[Sebek]
"And then there is yours."
Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts entered the boss battle with the slow walk and far-too-wide grin of a hungry predator. He was beyond steeped in power, almost literally shimmering with, ironically, peace. Not the weakness of the Jeedai, let us be sure of that, but pure, uncompromising, and thoroughly unshakeable belief that he was the most dangerous person in the room. There was no turmoil. No chaos. No swirling vortex of power. Nothing to compare him to the murderous insanity of the Sith.
Only peace.
And that is why Sebek of the Desert was beyond irredeemable.
Tei Tenga darted out with surgical precision. Perhaps the Falleen had been taking lessons from She Who Rages. With minimal effort, and looking almost /bored/ he gently severed both threatening arms from the Heretic Deacon, and in the same second motion he removed a leg. His intentions were pure, and honest: Incapacitate the target, and leave her to become the plaything of He Who Leads. "And thus, we conclude our festivities," was the plain-spoken retort. "Let us commence with the ritual slaughter."
[Tamsin Cas]
Oh good. There she went. And, as a bonus, there was sudden, unexpected Tarqness to lighten the mood and brighten the day. Tamsin, forgetting the two dead Holy Handmaidens and the one also dead Holy Head Handmaiden, swept past the leavings. Even Sebek would balk at that, and moved on swift feet towards the door which the Deaconess had opened for her followers, cultists, fan boys and fan girls. "That's a perfectly good ship. It would be such a shame to waste it." Because that was a thing she worried about. Tamsin stomped her foot as she made the doorway, "No, not that way." And then, much as she had once done when she had summoned that wave of force to raise a sandstorm over the knights, a wave of force rolled out from the good doctor, an invisible whelm that picked up the fleeing cultists and flung them out over the edge of the roof. They made it out on that invisible wave for perhaps a half a dozen meters, far too far to be able to catch anything as they fell, and then. They fell, plummeting back down to the ground and out of sight.
You know those old holovids where the space coyote realizes he's running on air and suddenly drops like a rock? Like that.
[Tarq Najjic]
Sebek chops through the Deacon until all that is left is her 'meat': her torso and head seem to be all that was still flesh and bone.
As Tamsin sweeps the fleeing members of the New Dawn off the rooftop, they scream, and the screams fade and end abruptly.
Tarq Najjic reaches down to sort through what's left of Mariell Holva with a wrinkled nose. "Saw her lock it away." He takes up a keycard, picks up her severed hand, and wipes it on the fallen woman's robes. Then he taps the card against the computer by the turbolift.
Up from the floor in the center of the room rises a strongbox. Tarq presses the thumb of the severed hand against the box's console for a few seconds, then it opens with a hiss of compressed air.
Within lies a dual-bladed lightsaber, meant for someone with large hands. Upon closer examination, it's three pieces held very closely together, to mimic how it looked when it was intact. With it is a single khyber crystal. Tarq reaches for the crystal and holds it up. Then he shrugs, holds up the padded bag for their findings, and places the lightsaber pieces in carefully.
