DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games CFH: A Call For Heroes CFH12m: Don't let them escape!

GM

There is a world outside the bunker.

Yellow sky, yellow earth. Black mountains and silvery spray on the wind.

The mountains form a crescent. In the hollow, a shining lagoon with an elevated conveyex track running straight across to the far side, the opposite end of the range. Somewhere over there is the operating base but it's hidden behind a vast dust cloud, streaked with lightning. An ionised dust storm.

Mirror Team can see all this because they hang from the top of the hyperwave antenna. The cooling shaft obviously ran all the way up its middle.

Jix has fallen seven or eight metres from the top vents, onto one of the huge rings encircling the antenna. On his belly and leaning over the edge, he holds onto a dangling Amos with both hands gripping the ex-marshal's ankle. Below them, a vertigious drop to the mountainside.

Above, J.B. shoots from the vent as if propelled by a muzzle blast, a plume of fiery destruction from inside. She immediately sees they're a bit higher up than expected, at the top of the antenna, some 600 metres in the air.

As J.B. aims for a soft landing (probably on the same ring as Jix and Amos?) the antenna shudders, the shudder intensifying.

And Amos thought he was getting too old for flying up the antenna.

Everyone's comlinks crackles:

«We're at the hanger. It's about to get hot. There's at least one EG-5 Jedi Hunter here. Winta out.»

Jix

He keeps his body spread, increasing the contact with the ledge and maximising the friction to help anchor him in place. He doesn't waste words, never has, just holds on hard, determined not to let go of Amos. Either Amos will do something to help or Jelly Bean will be along to help.. or he will let go. But he is not there yet.

Amos

Hanging upside down with only a view of a tremendous drop below him, Amos's head pounds as the blood pools toward his head.

"Well damn....."

He looks to see how far a drop it is to the next ring.

[Ghosted for Phoenix Prime]

Jeleasi'Beni

She shot out of the exhaust vent and for a moment her thoughts, her emotions were vacant, silenced by the sensory experience.

After the murky darkness of the bunker, after the bright white and fury of the shaft, she was suddenly back in the natural world. And what a spectacular view!

What an immense height!

The red-skinned Twi'lek reacted, piking and aiming for a spar jutting from the side.

She grabbed it both hands, swinging into a neat, sturdy somersault.

JB nailed the landing, feet together like gymnast, not so far from Jix and Amos. On the same ring at least.

If she made it she'd first help Jix then focus on their surroundings.

There had to be a way down. She wasn't one for saying I am one with the Force and the Force is with me, that was Preach's thing. But c'mon, couldn't a girl catch a break?

GM

10 metres down to the next ring, though Amos is more likely to bounce off the lip and keep falling.

Jix has the strength to lift Amos but not the anchorage until J.B. sits on his calves.

First Amos's ankle, then back of his knee. His other leg can now hook over the side and soon all three are rolling over and lying face up... staring at a stormy yellow sky, Meleenium rain spattering against their visors.

Another violent shudder through the superstructure reminds them that they're still in jeopardy.

A quick assessment.

Amos. Weapons check, both blaster pistol and scatter blaster. Out of grenades. Breath mask functional. Stimmed, fighting the effects of crawler venom. Possible abdomenal injury from a blaster shot. Knee wrenched.

Jix. Weapons check. The DLT-19D was damaged upon entering the duct, the static pulse adaptors dented. It'll need a new barrel before it can fire accurately again. Three stimpacks left. Break mask functional. Armour deflective qualities reduced. Stimmed, possibly serious crush fracture above the ankle.

J.B. Weapons check. Lightsabers intact. Light repeating blaster pistol intact. Thermal detonator used. Breath mask functional. Stimmed with possibly severe burns to one arm.

They've been through the proverbial trash compacter. They're roughed up, dirty but alive.

Surveying the surroundings, Jix spots an old gravsled moored at the next ring down, wired up to a rusty old gonk droid. Even if it doesn't have power to climb, it might have enough juice to slow descent.

Amos meanwhile sees a spar jutting out from their ring. A tension cable is strung between it and a spar fixed to the next ring down. If they can climb out along the spar, they can slide down the cable to the next ring.

The antenna shudders again, black smoke billows from its top.

J.B. can hear something else above the wind and sound of internal explosions. Higher pitched.

Suddenly a great black beast emerges from the smoke, twin ion engines blowing it aside.

The TIE Echelon assault shuttle. Four heavy laser cannons on the hardpoints, a nose-mounted light laser turret and battle-ready deflector shield.

It swings around, engines wailing, red light leaking from the cockpit. Its ramp is lowered. It's dropped something off...

Slam! Metal hits metal as a droid lands on the ring with Mirror Team. Humanoid, blue paintjob, red eyes and carrying an electrostaff that crackles with violet energy. IG-100 MagnaGuard.

«Don't let them escape!» The droid is commanded, heard from its comlink.

J.B. might recall Professor Huyang's teachings: Battle droids of this type even gave Jedi General Kenobi a run for his money during the Clone Wars.

Amos

"Oh for Kruntzer Sake!" he growled, swinging his scatter blaster around to rest comfortably in his hands and he starts blasting away at the droid.

"Get to that spar and go down the cable. I will cover you."

Jix

"Gravsled just below us. Could work."

And he is off towards the spar and the cable. They don't have time for anything including arguing. He just hopes the cable will hold him.

Jelly Bean

There was a moment where she felt the heavy burden of her own self-imposed mantle melt away. She never would be a Jedi. She didn't want to be the thing that Maz warned her could happen if she couldn't control herself and her emotions. But right now, she felt all of hat and none of it, and there was a weird peace in being somewhere in the greyness of it.

"No Amos... this thing won't be stopped or even held off by regular weapons, and probably not even my lightsabers... but I have an idea... You and Jix get to that sled.... get it running... circle under... maybe you can catch me."

With that said, her hands fell to her sabers. It was a Jedi Hunter... a machine so fast it could mimic the preternatural grace and control that Jedi possessed. Its armor could withstand saber slashes and even slow a piercing thrust for far longer than a Jedi could survive the counter attack.

No, the object was not to engage it directly.

"Go. This isn't suicide. I'm not even going to try to kill it... just hold it off and use's its strengths against it... Go."

JB just had to hold it off... make it focus on her. Igniting her lightsabers should force it's priority protocols to focus on her. Jump here, jump there. Just like chess. Stay away from it, on the rings. Weaken a few key places with her blades as she slashed 'errantly' on purpose. and when she gets it into a place where she can use the Force to break the rings apart. Maybe it and she would fall.

For now though, she had to make it pursue, and keep it interested in her as a better target than her team mates... her friends.

Jix was already moving to Amos' instructions. JB stood up on her toes and kissed the elder lawman on the weathered cheek.

"You better catch me," she teased lightly and just a little provocatively. It has been a while since anyone had seen this part of JB's personality.

Amos

The old conflict between wanting to protect and admitting that she had more skills than he to delay fought inside the ex-lawman but his lips quirked just a touch at her tease.

"Watch it, I might throw you back in." he said and turned, moving for the spar and cable.

[J.B. vs MagnaGuard, Amos and Jix vs TIE Echelon. I should have this posted tomorrow, guys. Sorry for the delay.]

GM

The hyperwave transceiver would sway at the best of times. With an ionic dust storm a few kilometers away it would sway a lot.

But it shudders and shakes as its innards melt, structural integrity failing in an irreversible cascade.

Repair crews haven't come running from the operating base---Smoke Team must have tangled them up---and now it's too late.

GH-531 node is going down and across the sector, across the region, possibly the Galaxy, Ghidrah nodes are being burnt by 2BB-2's attack. The First Order is in danger of losing the whole system.

But someone sent the TIE Special Forces; maybe the Star Destroyer that the team evaded above Jakku? And they're expecting Force Awakened. Why else send a MagnaGuard?

J.B. ignites her lightsabers, two shoto blades, one acid green, one blue. She leaps to engage the MagnaGuard and its crackling electrostaff.

Jix meanwhile swings down over the end of the spar and grabs the cable with his legs then hands. His Verpine carahide should withstand the friction burn.

Amos is immediately above Jix, balancing on the spar when the TIE Echelon hovers into view, close range, nose turret twitching, trying to lock onto Jix.

The pilot doesn't know that the transceiver is doomed. He can't risk hitting the top secret hyperwave installation so he'll pick them off with carefully aimed shots.

Jix can feel the vibration from the repulsorlifts and in the cockpit sees the black helmet with red stripes of TIE Special Forces.

Amos has a height advantage over the TIE Echelon but his weapons won't penetrate its deflectors. What can he do?

Something slow moving should be ignored by the deflectors, something dropped or thrown, but what? Himself?

A boom from above, sounding like a blaster shot...

It isn't. It's J.B.'s lightsabers connecting with the droid's electrostaff.

They bounce off its Phrik alloy haft and the MagnaGuard swings at J.B.'s legs, forcing her to somersault backwards. The tip of the electrostaff clips a stabilizer boom, blowing it to smithereens...

The MagnaGuard advances, spinning its staff like a turbine blade. According to Professor Huyang this is how MagnaGuards overwhelmed Jedi. Pressuring them with sheer mechanical speed, upsetting the Jedi's inner calm, pushing them to make mistakes.

An electrostaff is a much longer weapon than J.B.'s shotos and the MagnaGuard knows how to use it. Intimidating, but Professor Huyang also explained that Jedi Generals learned to beat MagnaGuards by staying focused and using their surroundings creatively.

J.B. also has powers the droid might not be aware of. If she can lay a hand on its electrostaff she could short it out with the Force. Then it'd just be a big stick.

Amos

He sizes up the situation in a moment and frees one of his hands to pull his vibro-machete and take careful aim.

"Just like skewering bo-lizards back home." he mutters and throws the activated weapon directly at the pilot of the craft. If nothing else it should startle him and throw off his aim to give his insectoid friend a chance to get away.

[I just thought, Amos could sacrifice his precious longcoat! Having that stuck across the windshield might be more of an inconvenience. What do you think?]

OOC: 1. Slow moving? Check on machete. 2. Vibro-blade should cut through the cockpit glass or whatever they use. Check!

Give up my long coat? Are you kidding?!!

Jix

He is aware of his predicament but there is not much he can do until he can free his hands and then might have more of a priority to deal with. So, hive instinct still intact, he focuses on getting down as quickly as he can, hoping his comrades fare well.

[Ghosted for Phoenix Prime]

Jelly Bean

The MagnaGuard came at her full throttle. There was no time to think, her training and natural reflexes had taken over. She hadn't expected to beat it but an idea came to her unbidden, fully formed and ready for action.

When the droid carelessly destroyed the stabiliser boom, JB's subconscious must have taken note: Do not get hit by that electrostaff but also That droid isn't paying much attention to its surroundings.

The ring she stood on wasn't solid metal and duracrete. Like the rest of the tower it was a complex, assembled structure, an underlying frame with attachments... and attachments could be detached.

Using the Force she felt the floor beneath her, visualising where and how plates were fixed. And then she backed off with a flashy, acrobatic spectacle, striking the floor with her lightsabers as she did, targeting rivets, brackets. That was the ground she gave to the droid. It was not safe ground. And the moment the droid was standing on it, she Force pulled the ground from under it.

GM

The nose turret on the TIE locks onto Jix as it yaws, edging the transceiver out of the background. In the cockpit, the TIE Special Forces pilot stops dialling in the lock and presses the red thumb-trigger... just as something hard bounces off the canopy, crazing a deep scar across the transparisteel. The pilot flinches causing the laser cannons to strafe the main structure. Was that a machete!?

Jix slides down the tension cable, his carahide blistering. A laser bolt severs the cable and he plummets, missing the lower spar but retaining his grip on the loose cable. One end is severed, the other anchored at the lower spar.

Momentum brings him down and then swinging back up towards the sled, like a Brylark conker on a string. Jix could use his momentum to leap from the cable at its apex, try to grab onto the sled. Or he could keep hold, try to sap momentum and climb back up the cable.

Amos's situation is no less precarious. The blowback from hitting the transceiver plasters the TIE's canopy with superheated debris. Too close, the pilot rolls his craft away as it's rocked by hot gases

One of its distinctive solar wings catches the tip of Amos's spar. Sky ground sky ground. He's thrown through the air, disorientated before shoulder-planting into a hard surface. He skids, his coat snags on a protrusion--- An impulse detector, such as you'd find on a starship. The decal next to it reads NO HAND HOLD in arabesh.

That's when he realises he's lying on the roof of the TIE Echelon, its engines whining as it tries to tear free of the twisted metal spar.

On the ring higher above, J.B. fights for her life against the MagnaGuard. Her ploy makes it look like she's out of ideas, giving ground after her failed surge. She aerials, a no-handed flip, lightsabers slicing into the flooring, then steps back, guard up, all-out defence.

The MagnaGuard's feet clump as it advances for the kill. But as soon as both feet are on the section of damaged flooring, J.B. throws out her hand to the side, ripping out the floor plate with the Force. Taken by surprise, the droid lunges forwards, defenceless but saving itself from being decanted. Not from being decapitated by J.B.'s dual saber scissor-cut.

The droid's head bounces at the Twi'lek's feet and she has a second to assess her team-mates' situation before the MagnaGuard falls back on its thorax sensor. It's now clumsy, short-sighted but still armed and dangerous.

Jix

He realises he is falling. Spends a last thought wishing his teammates well before his arms are almost jerked from their sockets as he swings, trying to understand what is going on. Wait to stabilise? Climb the swinging cable. He is never one to give a time advantage to the enemy. He needs to move.. NOW!

He starts to climb, focusing on his grip, ensuring he has secure holds before reaching for another. His whole world becomes that cable, keeping that in view and not looking at the swinging world beyond it. Focus on one task. The hive mind rises to the occasion.

OOC: thank you for the Ghosting. That's fits the ideas I expressed in my last post very nicely. I appreciate it.

***
Jeleasi'Beni

The killing machine had it's back to a gaping opening in the ring. The time for games was over. She needed to end this quickly and help her friends. With a few steps of distance between them, JB exerted her will, through the Force to push the droid back toward the newly created edge of her ring. With it's limited sensory inputs it was less efficient, but no less deadly if if could manage a charge. She wanted to make it push against her force push to stay on the ring. Keep it occupied, while she kept distance, and then... effectively do it again... cut another section out of the ring in front of her, but not giving the machine time or the distance to lunge forward this time. Use it's weakness against it. She wasn't sure she could cut all the way through, but two blades gave her the best possible chance of success and survival. Once she moved to cut the ring, she would release her Force push... but if she had to, then she might be able to do something different with the Force next.

Only peripherally could she see her team mates, but she forced emotion away from her mind, even when she saw the cable get severed and Jix fall. Finish this task and move to the next.

Amos

The world went flying end over end for a few seconds and ended with a painful thud as Amos landed on...something!

Glancing down, his eyes widened in shock as he realized that he had landed on top of the craft, hanging on by his coat snagging onto a part of the ship.

Taking quick inventory, he pulled his blaster pistol and found the top hatch that led into the interior of the fighter. He planned to open or blast open the hatch, shoot the pilot and get inside.

[You're welcome PP. I try to capture your essence as best as possible. Resolved a couple of rounds here to keep up with the other team. Sorry for any liberties taken.]

GM

Amos surfs the roof of the TIE, taking aim at the crew hatch's locking mechanism with his heavy blaster pistol.

A couple of shots and the emergency over-ride triggers, springing the hatch and Amos sees the TIE Special Forces pilot look up from below, ripping his SE-44C blaster pistol from his holster.

Above and behind the pilot, Amos's first shot hits the heavy duty flight seat, his second blasts a chunk out of the pilot's helmet and careens off into an instrument panel.

The pilot is knocked out, squeezing off a burst into the overhead panels before slumping in his harness. Amos jumps in.

The assault shuttle convulses, engines straining as it tries to tear free of the wreckage.

Then the whole transceiver tower seems to drop by 10 metres as one of its subterranean levels collapses. It slams to a halt and teeters.

On the topmost ring, the MagnaGuard's shock-absorbers prevent it from pancaking.

Buoyed by the Force, J.B. isn't harmed but uses the fall and jarring impact to bury both lightsabers into the ring's floor plating. Crouched, she brings the hilts together, cutting through the lightweight floor plating. The battle droid is fast though, a well-aimed kick to the torso sending the Twi'lek flying back.

Scanning, the headless MagnaGuard spins up its electrostaff and advances, but J.B. rolls to her feet, coughing blood into her breath mask. She throws one of her shoto lightsabers.

It thrums through the air, missing the droid so completely it's ignored. But the droid isn't the target. The lightsaber slices through the last beam holding together the floor under the droid.

The tangle of metal and MagnaGuard plummet into the yellow void as the lightsaber loops back around to its owner.

Jix narrowly avoids the flailing, headless droid as it falls passed.

The Verpine has clung to and climbed the cable with the tenacity of a Wookiee. Covered now in cable-oil, metal spatter and crawler ichor, Jix limps over to where the gravsled is anchored, vaulting over the rail.

Jix cycles the power, tests the controls. Dead. What about the on board GNK droid? Flick tap! It lights up, weak and low on power. Probably used as a recharge point for other droids and tools, it could be used to power the gravsled for a very short, rapid but probably non-fatal descent. How will Jix transfer power from the gonk to the sled though? What else is lying around in the sled? Toolboxes. A pair of old gription boots. (They allow the wearer to clamp to metal surfaces, walking up walls or hanging from ceilings.) But no power leads.

Jix could use his Ultramesh. He would literally be sticking one finger in a socket on the gonk and another finger in a socket on the sled. But the Ultramesh is designed to carry a charge.

Meanwile, in the cockpit of the TIE Echelon above, warning lights flash on every panel. Sparks, smoke from the stray blaster bolts. Amos drags himself up from the floor after the tower's 10-metre drop. Stormtroopers hammer on the other side of the cockpit door and the navicomp is trying to tell him something.

Its vocoder is garbled Galactic Basic.

"M-Malfunction! Malfunct--- Initiating lightspeed sk-skip on reverse co-ordinates in T-minus 13, 12..."

This TIE is still snarled on a spar of the tower.

Mirror Team hear Winta's voice on comms.

«Where are you, and can we help?»

Jix

He is probably in the best position to respond.

"Top of hyperwave antenna. Amos in TIE fighter, probably needs extraction. Jelly Bean on collapsing antenna. Ditto. Jix heading to ground on gravsled."

Done what he can for his companions, he shrugs mentally, braces himself and prepares to be a living (hopefully) conduit.

Jeleasi'Beni

JB wheeled around, knowing the Magna Guard was no longer a threat before her shoto blade returned to her grasp. She didn't even need to see it as it came back at her from behind. Ignore the pain, ignore the btaste of blood. She saw Jix finding a route of escape. It would be... her hand snapped outwards to her side as the blade spun itself back into her grip.She could feel the power of the Force coursing through her, around her, and she was enveloped within and a part of it all at the same time.

She couldn't hear the computer voice that Amos was hearing on the inside, and, if she heard the comm chatter from the other team or Jix's response she didn't respond. Without hesitation she sent blades blades flying again to cut the spar cables to free the TIE with Amos in it. That would give him a chance to control the craft. But what of her own escape from the collapsing antenna array?

Her blades would find her again. She leaped into the air, somersaulting to land atop the Tie, as though she were going to ride it like a sand wave across the Y'frateni wastes of Ryloth. Bring the blades to herself from there.

[Ghosted for KenSeg]

Amos

If he survived he would congratulate himself for taking out a TIE assault shuttle with a machete and pistol.

Hearing the countdown from the navicomp, Amos felt pretty sure staying on board wasn't the best option for his continued survival.

Through the TIE's slitted windshield he saw Jelly Bean jump from the tower and heard her land on the roof.

"Good luck!" He said to Stormtrooper's on the other side of door, jumping and scrambling up through the top hatch.

As soon as he could, Amos grabbed Jelly Bean's shoulder, making sure he got her attention.

"This thing's gonna lightspeed skip in ten seconds." He yelled over his headcomm, looking around for Jix and hopefully the gravsled.

GM

Jix jams his fingers into the power sockets on the droid and sled. Energy pulses across his Ultramesh and the sled's controls light up. Quickly set hover mode, finger back in the socket, and release the docking clamp with a kick.

The sled drifts, juddering as its repulsors starve. Jix feels the heat building in the Verpine circuitry of his armour, looking up for his Hive-mates.

Above, with barely a second to spare Amos and J.B. have little choice but to jump.

J.B.'s lightsabers have cut the TIE Echelon free of the transceiver tower, giving them line of sight to Jix's gravsled.

It will be a leg-breaking fall to the hard deck of the gravsled. J.B. might be able to soften the landing with the Force if they cling onto each other.

Inside the TIE cockpit, the Stormtroopers reach the door from the cargo bay and rush in, F11-D blasters readied.

It's now or never for Amos and J.B..

[This feels like an appropriate moment for a pithy exchange of dialogue.]

Jeleasi'Beni

In a whirl of fluid and graceful steps, like a dancer spinning herself around a pole, the Twi'lek disengaged the lightsabers and hipped them both on her belt, as she twirled around to wrap up Amos tightly in an embrace.

"Hello Handsome, are you going my way?" she asked with a toothy smile and a wink just a moment before she dragged the pair of them off the top of the shuttle in a Force driven jump. Her focus then shifted to the landing... or maybe just surviving the fall.

Jix

He doesn't know how long he can keep this up but right now there is no choice. He tries to close the distance to his companions. The less distance hey fall, the less they get hurt. It is a simple equation. As soon as they land, he will have to head down, see how far he can get. In his head he is already plotting a disengage, fall, armor cools, reengage, slow descent, rinse and repeat. It may work, it may not but the same simple equation works for them heading down too.

Amos

He is taken by surprise as the graceful twi'lek wraps her arms around him and then they are suddenly airborne, flying through the air toward what will no doubt be a painful landing. He twists them in mid-air, his own arms around her as he attempts to take the impact. She is the pilot and needed more now than an ex-marshall.

"Hold tight"

Jeleasi'Beni

While she doesn't have the body mass or the physical strength to resist Amos' gallant effort to take the brunt of the fall, she can refocus her use of the Force to help land them as best she can. JB knows he is force sensitive. Everyone assigned to this mission was classified as such. Two Jedi, herself whose training had not been completed, and Amos, Jix, and Sirra… and of course, Babay, whom she carried with her in her pack. He wasn't force sensitive, but he was part of the team and about to be involved in this landing as well. He probably would have had a solution to help the team right now, his cables to slow them... something...

The team...

Jeleasi'Beni wasn't sure this would work, or if it was even possible... What if she could channel her force through Amos' and add his strength to her own? She didn't have time to ask him. But he was repeatedly determined to make sure the mission succeeded, even if it meant his own sacrifice. She was determined not to let that happen. She didn't want to lose anyone else, but this would be a risk...

GM

No time left.

The Stormtroopers fire up through hatch; Amos and J.B. jump for it. Jix steers and powers the sled as best he can with only one pair of hands; there's never an Ardennian around when you actually want one.

Behind the Amos and J.B., the TIE Echelon 'lightspeed skips', a blind hyperspace jump along the navicomp's last plotted course.

But its wing pylon is badly twisted, weakening the lateral spaceframe. The main body of the shuttle jumps to lightspeed, tearing off its solar collectors and becoming a streak of white hot flame across the yellow sky.

The transdimensional explosion hurls Amos and J.B. towards the sled. The ex-marshal turns his shoulder into the fall, trying to protect J.B.. And with Amos pressed against her, she focuses the Force through him like a lens.

Amos sees Jix lined up, the deck rushing towards them.

Black.

Amos's arm jerks, waking him up.

He's dozing in a comfy recliner. Its repulsorlift bobs in the late-afternoon breeze coming in off the savannah.

The entire side of the house is open, the walls concertinaed to the sides. Beyond, the sun dips low over the plains of Dantooine. The faint crescents of two moons hang in the sky, and a flock of white-wings come home to roost in the sprawling Blba tree.

Home.

Equinox Day and Amos is sleeping off a large lunch at the summerhouse. He hadn't had much sleep the night before, what with celebrations in full swing in town.

It's much more peaceful out here in the savannah.

Eyes closed. Amos hears laughter and barking. Somewhere around the side of the house, his son and the family dog are flying his new toy glider. Shaped like a Brith, his son's present was excitedly unwrapped that very morning and won't survive the day, destined to be carried off by a real Brith who probably mistook it for a pup.

"Hey, Marshal." Says a soft, loving voice. Feminine and familiar.

Amos might be confused. Is this a memory or a memory of a dream?

Opening his eyes, squinting, he sees his wife standing over him, smiling, looking lovely in her summer dress.

She always calls him 'Marshal' but the way she says it is a lot different to the townsfolk.

"Think you best go make sure Davey don't run off." Jenny strokes his head, his hand. "Up you get, sleepyhead."

She pulls... Amos's arm jerks, waking him up.

His breath mask is rattling with moisture, he hurts but not the intense pain of broken limbs.

Wind rips across the deck of the gravsled. J.B. grips the rail, stunned but pulling herself to her feet. Jix clenches the control panel with one hand, an old gonk droid with the other.

Smoke trails from the Verpine's Ultramesh armour as it peels and burns in patches.

The yellow sky is engulfed by the tower as it roars, collapsing, shedding wreckage around them.

The sled spirals downwards, barely controlled, 50 kmph.

This could be it. The end. But at least they're together. At least they succeeded. They got the message out and 2BB-2's slice will ensure the First Order's other Ghidrah nodes have a very bad day. They saved the Galaxy but saving themselves was never a priority.

Jix

This could be the end. It sure feels like it. He is fighting to stay connected, to ignore his armour burning away, to last out as long as he can to control their descent as best as he is able. Even despite his predicament he can be awed by the view of the tower exploding like some demonic volcanic eruption scattering its not so molten lava all around them.

His conclusion.. job done!

GM

Somehow J.B. had landed her and Amos on deck without bones being shattered.

Eyes closed against the blast, Jix didn't see how the Twi'lek did it but she must have used the Force.

As the two get to their feet, the yellow sky around them is filled with streamers of black dust and smoke.

Looking at their mammalians faces, Jix feels a connection. It's not Verpine, not an insectoid sense of hive. It's more like insight into their inner selves. They are more than personalities, more than emotional states, they are stories, ever unfolding, chains of events all tied together. For a moment, as the rugged terrain gains resolution below, the three are more than a hive, they are one.

Jix pushes his fingers tighter into the sockets. More power. The repulsors wheeze, searing pain shoots through Jix's chest. Electricity, heat, both, he can't tell but his optic nerves are lit by irridescent agony.

The energy current has burnt through his carahide into his flesh and organs.

But the repulsors brake just enough... Here come the rocks! Airspeed reads 30 kmph.

The sled crashes into the ground with a bone-jarring impact but its noise is swamped by the collapse of the hyperspace transceiver.

J.B. and Amos live, though their muscles are leaden. They're engulfed in thick black cloud and the slope is littered with burning metal.

They can hear wreckage still hitting the rocks around them.

They find glowrods in amongst the tools scattered in the bottom of the sled.

Where is Jix?

They find him lying on his back, barely breathing, eyes staring blindly. His torso exoskeleton is blackened and burst, the soft innards bubbled up from the cracks.

He's dying.

[Gypsy, Jix has filled his Physical stress track. Um, congrats? He must now make a Physical Defence (Brawn) roll to cling to life. Your next post will determine any extra Positive dice we add to that roll.

I'll let PP and KenSeg's next actions contribute too.]

[OOC Have a brawn of 4 - what dice do I roll? ]

[I'll handle the dice, np. But we need to gather the dice pool first. What goes through Jix's mind in this moment? What might help him cling to life? Verpine physiology might be such that the wound looks worse than it is, for example, but what might give Jix the will to carry on? Etc.]

Jix

He cannot see, only feel.. and feeling is not pleasant, but it will not last. He knows he is dying but hopefully his sacrifice is worth it. And it will be if his two companions survive. The whole group has become the closest thing to a hive he has known since that awful day when he lost everything, all reason to continue existing, wracked with survival guilt and has been serving his penance ever since. Not long now..

But wait! Is he condemning his team to survivor guilt? Forcing them to endure what he has? He would not wish that on anyone. And is he taking a coward's path, releasing his pain at the expense of others. That is not his way! And what if they need him? Obviously not now but in the future. What it he is given an opportunity to save his team-mates.. and he is not there because he took the easy way out. A hive mentality is about sacrifice for the others, not about reducing your own suffering. He needs to live, not for himself but for this group, all of whom have put themselves is harm's way for his benefit. Images flood his mind: Sirra who has already suffered much in this life but with her bravery undaunted, her desire to make a difference even more determined; Winta with her quite direction and guidance, a fitting hive mother but one with power and fortitude, one who will continue to exert her influence in future years; Amos and Preach carrying their wisdom and talents to where they are most needed, brave fighters, brave fighters of the hive; BB who is lost but may still be recovered; and finally Jelly Bean, his friend and his shining example. How can he let her down? How can he let any of them down. They are his hive now. A different hive true, but he is not alone, not any more.

He takes a deep shuddering breath. For the hive!

Jeleasi'Beni

It was hard to move. Everything hurt, especially her lekku. She rolled herself over, clenching her teeth. Her body worked and the pain was not any more or any less when she did. Amos was alive. What a stupid, foolish thing she did... but she didn't see any other alternatives. When Amos decided to sacrifice himself to shield her from the impact, she reacted. Losing Babay had taken her to the edge. She didn't want to go back, but a part of her would always stand at the edge now.

Where's Jix?

The last thing she remembered... was... was... He was... was... oh, dank farrik...

JB staggered to her feet to find her verpine friend.There... "Oh, kriffin' karabast... what did you do?"

The sight of her was gut wrenching, but Jeleasi'Beni didn't hesitate. She wasn't going to lose another friend today. She summoned all of her reserves, what little might be left, and ran, if it could actually be called running at this point, and fell atop her friend in a straddled position.

"AMOS," she screamed as she leaned in and put her forehead against the carapace of JIx's head, her hand upon her injured chest.

"JIX!"

"Stay with me... Please... Fight... Listen to my voice. You aren't dying today. I won't let it happen... Not today... We still need you. I need you!"

"Get over here Amos... hurry."

If Jix were a ship, a computer, or a droid, she could put her hands on him and just know what was wrong and start working on it. JB could make things work when they shouldn't work. But Jix wasn't a machine. Jix was a living being.

Oh Child... The Force isn't a thing to have or not have... It the thing itself that connects us all... every living being is a part of it and it is a part of us all...

Maz's words echoed in her head as a memory of her early days of training came back to her.

The Force. Could she connect to Jix? Could she use the Force, be a part of it that Jix needed right now. She had only ever connected to machines... but... but, weren't they all some kind of machine? Living Machines? Her Force and Jix's Force were the same Force... THE Kriffin' FORCE!

The Force was life and Jix needed life right now.

"I need you here Amos... He's dying. Help me!"

Between the pair of them there might be something medically useful. Amos would have to deal with that.

She closed her eyes and drifted into the Force that flowed through her, trying to find the connection to Jix, focus on it, feed it... fix it... fix him.

[Excellent posts, guys!]

Amos

After all of the pain and suffering his visions had been of peace and the love that he had thought never to have again. At least not on this side of the veil.

But it was all torn away from him as Amos came back to consciousness, tears streaming from his eyes as the loss hits him all over again and every muscle and fiber of his body hurts.

But there is a voice....his name.....Jelly Bean is screaming for him!

Hacking out whatever was in the air, he rolls over and gets to his feet to look over and see their friend on the verge of death and yet another ache is added to the burden.

He shambles over, reaching for the verpine's medical pack to see if there is anything within that could possibly be of service against injuries this tramatic.

"I am here JB."

[OOC Jix carries stimpaks but Neil will need to confirm they are OK and would work ]

[I didn't want to disrupt your creative flow, but yes, Jix has stimpaks and a medpac. Since Jix is already stimmed, he can't be stimmed twice, but he also has an antishock blanket that's used for stabilising critical injuries and was used to stabilise Mhar-li back on Jakku and is counted as Superior equipment for cling to life rolls. Jix also has doses of nullicaine that allow someone to ignore any Traumas on a roll. Both would be very handy here.]

Jix

Somewhere in the black depths of his pain, he hears his name, hears voices. He is not alone. The others are here. So dark. But the voices give him direction, a focus. He tries to speak. Nothing. So hard. Tries again.

"Tha.."

It is as much as he can manage.

GM

J.B. touches her forehead to Jix's. Amos rips the antishock blanket from Jix's backpack and spreads it over the injured Verpine.

The metallic blanket lights with a warm amber glow, extreme low power relativistic shielding, the same tech used on starships but here designed to slow body functions and restrain cellular damage.

Like the blanket, a feeling of well-being comes over Jix. Pinpricks of light in his vision become stars and perceives a great work, a pattern, lines, geometry, order from chaos, meaning.

Out of time and space, his spirit travels the World Between Worlds, aeons and parsecs in every heartbeat, sensing the scale of mystery around him but also realising the truth: That everything will be all right.

Jix walks with Verpine in a luminous Hive, hearing the brainwaves familiar yet long past...

In front of an old GX1 shuttle with plom blooms painted on the hull, Jix greets two Twi'lek, a young couple hand-in-hand, that remind him of J.B.. Glad to see him, they embrace him with welcome arms and emotional tears...

Elsewhere Jix chases a dog, a scruffy horned mongrel, part Kath Hound with a biscuit-coloured coat. It leads him to a human woman who's dressed like a fringer, busy in a ranch kitchen, other folks helping out, chatting and laughing merrily, wearing party hats.

There's a party hat waiting for Jix anytime he wants. But he yearns to be alone for a while---not long---just some peace and quiet to enjoy this relaxation he feels. Time to stop thinking, to sleep like a baby, to recover, to grow....

Darkness now, not black terrifying oblivion but the cosy darkness that promises a deep, invigorating sleep and with such wonders and happiness awaiting him when he's ready. Standing beside Jix in the darkness is a small green-skinned being with soulful eyes and wing-like ears. It's a friend, someone Jix trusts innately.

"Yes. Rest now you can." It says softly, "If you need me, here will I be."

And so Jix exhales his last breath.

J.B. senses the Verpine's spirit leave. Remembering Maz Kanata's words, J.B.'s connection with the Force has never been stronger and in the moment of death she feels the same oneness that Jix had felt. They could be part of the same person, simply evolutions of each other, like yesterday's you, today's you, work you, off-duty you, all sitting around a table. All different, all you, always. It's feeling cosmic in its vastness yet utterly intimate.

Focused Amos tweaks the controller on the antishock blanket but it reads no life signs.

Lifeless. Jix is dead. But J.B. and Amos are left with a sensation, startling in its realness, that death is not the end. They have a long journey ahead but they'll tell Jix all about it when they see him again.

Their comlinks crackle, a broken transmission from Smoke Team.

«...We can see the collapsed tower. Where are you?» Winta's voice. They must be airborne.

[This is a tough scene. Gypsy, imagine Jix is settling in for the best sleep ever. What will he dream of first?]

Jix

The universe is truly a marvel. He is with his old friends and at the same time they are all amongst the stars. He feels carefree, rolling over in the cosmos, visions of happy times coming to him, some he remembers, others not, but none of it seems to matter. Comfort. Companionship. Feeling part of something.

He waves to Yoda and flies in his direction. Everything is effortless, amazing, beyond belief.. he is at peace..

GM

After the roar of the tower's collapse there all smaller bangs and crashes of lesser collapses. The three Resistance fighters are covered in dust, surrounded by rubble and gouts of flame.

Jix's mortal remains settle into their final, rested state. Amos and J.B. are silent, perhaps out of respect or grief, or perhaps just processing the chaos of the past half-hour.

Through the dense cloud of debris, a beam of white light suddenly shines down on Mirror Team.

Above, rolling vortices of wind part the cloud and the circular shape of a Corellian light freighter descends, hovering with its repulsors.

[Go to CFH13: Conditions of Victory]