The Avalan Crisis: Return of the Rift
Posted on Sun Nov 18th, 2018 @ 11:22pm by Thane & Bomoor Thort & Theon
Edited on on Wed Jun 8th, 2022 @ 2:01pm
2,127 words; about a 11 minute read
Chapter:
Additional Stories
Location: Iziz, Onderon
Timeline: During the Thirteenth Battle of Onderon
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There was a moment of terrifying helplessness as the now-trusting creature seemed to be inevitably plummeting towards the busy streets. Bomoor felt sick as it now felt as though they were almost guiding this innocent creature to its death and possibly the deaths of the unaware people below. The din of shouting and warfare seemed to disappear as that fate seemed inevitable.
But then, they felt the influence of another upon the drexl; the creature had stopped falling and was held there as though an invisible hand had caught it at the last moment. It was enough to allow Thane and Bomoor to regain some of strength and begin moving the creature away from the busy street and slowly towards and empty rooftop.
Bomoor looked around and saw another human standing on a platform a little further down the road: it was Rift Knight Theon!
NEW
Another instalment of The Avalan Crisis posts, chronicling the young Padawans, Thane and Bomoor Thort.
OOC: Ambient war sounds: The Thirteenth Battle of Onderon
The Ithorian edged towards him, still keeping his calming essence projected onto the drexl and what telekinesis he could muster from this angle.
Although Thane felt the sudden shift in momentum of the drexl, no longer struggling to stall the beast as it now levitated aloft, he did not have the luxury to divert his attention from the creature to examine what exactly had changed in their circumstances. Whilst the strain had lessened, sweat continued to trickle down his pale features as he continued to guide the native reptavian safely to the surface below.
Having closed his eyes to allow himself as much focus was was possible, Thane fully relied on his presence within the Force to map out the terrain about them. With not so much as a flick of its wing, the drexl, and its attached (if dislodged) rider, allowed itself to be carefully placed upon the cracked concrete ground alongside Bomoor, even dwarfing the impressive height of the adolescent Ithorian.
With the beast and the people below safe, Thane finally released his telekinetic focus upon it, and slumped his shoulders with obvious and palpable relief. The young Caanan did not give himself long to enjoy it, however, as his mind returned the last mystery; what had suddenly saved Thane from entirely failing to stop the drexl's free-fall.
Looking down to Bomoor, he saw his friend's eyestalks directed upwards and away. Following them, he saw their focus.
Stood atop a nearby building, his broad chest heaving and expanding with each heavy breath, was indeed Theon, Knight of the Rift Jedi. Only hours before, Thane had fought the man in a grief-fuelled duel within the bomb-damaged Regal Hotel after the murder of Theon's master, with Thane having narrowly escaped being cleaved into pieces on more than one occasion during the battle with the larger and older warrior. The melee had only truly ended with the timely arrival of GalactaWerks and their reprehensible intendent.
His mind addled with concern at seeing the burly Human - which was not aided by his recent exertions - Thane jumped down to be beside Bomoor once again, who had briefly turned his attentions to the injured drexl, which had seemingly been lulled into a sleep by their previous efforts to calm it. Theon, too, had jumped down, and was pacing towards them with his grime-ridden face stony and bruised.
Thane had to stop himself from brushing his hand over his lightsaber hilt as he regarded the man, who only hours ago had found himself clutched within the throes of his own darkness and pain at the terrible death of Sazar. The last he and Bomoor had seen of Theon, his unconscious bulk was being transported away by the callous intendent on a GalactaWerks speeder as a prisoner. Regardless of the corporation's interpretation of 'justice' for the so-called traitor, Thane wondered at how Theon had altered his fortunes so effectively in so short a time. He also did not believe Marius Thendleton would allow his trophy Jedi prisoner to escape so easily.
"How'd you get away?" Thane challenged the older Human, altering his stance as Theon drew closer. As justified as Theon's anger towards GalactaWerks had been, and as conflicted as Thane was himself at facing a fellow lightsider, as so many had during the Second Outer Rim Conflict, the padawan had no doubt as to the darkness that had earlier consumed the Rift fighter.
Theon took a moment to regard the two Reborn padawans under heavy eyebrows as though he was considering whether to continue his grudge from earlier now the heat of the moment had died down. It seemed he decided to relax as he allowed his body to relax slightly, “It was not hard to run; I kept going until I was out of the city. Ended up in some old ruins…”
He pushed forward to observe the drexl, running a hand over his wing, stopping when he reached the scorched hole in his wing, which caused the beast to shuffle slightly in its slumber. His face turned grimmer again as he now looked at the deceased Beast Rider, “It was much harder returning.”
“We understand,” Bomoor said, rising up from the ground by the beast’s head, now showing himself as the tallest among them, even with a bit more growing to do, “It was not right of Thendleton to accuse you like that but we were simply worried it would look worse if you ran away.”
Theon shot back, “If you think I came back to hand myself in, you are mistaken. I came back to help Onderon and show the people that they can count on a Knight of the Rift Jedi... just as Master Sazar would have done.”
Bomoor was drained and not emotionally prepared in that moment to adequately ease Theon’s grief. But he was even less prepared to engage in another confrontation, “Thank you for coming back,” he hummed, “I don’t think we could have stopped this creature without you.”
Brushing aside Bomoor’s comment with a wave of his hand, Theon scoffed slightly, “We Rift Knights work best in the heat of conflict,” he turned to Thane, “I would’ve beaten you earlier, if it weren’t for… well…”
He trailed off, presumably thinking about his Master once more.
Thane visibly stiffened, a prideful reflex he wish he had managed to control at Theon's slight against him. He did, however, quash the urge to argue with the man, regardless of the verity of his statement. Instead, he matched his gaze with Theon's and simply offered him a hand.
Looking at the hand, then at the pair of Jedi, Theon sighed and accepted the handshake, grasping it briefly but firmly, “I trust you two are working in the interests of the people too or else you would not be out here.”
He walked over to Bomoor and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I guess the pair of you aren’t too bad. If you fancy fighting for something worthwhile, you should contact Master Kessar. I can vouch for you.”
Not waiting for any response, he released Bomoor’s shoulder and began walking away, back towards the heat of the conflict. He paused and added, “Don’t bother telling ‘Thendlekriff’ where I am, I won’t be around long enough.”
With that, he launched into a run before leaping up onto a low bridge and then up to the rooftops again, hopping away until he was out of sight.
“Hmm, I’m not sure I’m arrogant enough for the Rift Jedi,” Bomoor remarked to Thane, being mildly judgemental, “But I don’t think they deserve quite the scorn they get from some of the Masters, at least not if they are like Theon and Sazar.”
"Thendlekriff?" Thane repeated Theon's word with an upturned nose and a slant of his face, unimpressed and seemingly oblivious to Bomoor's other comments. "If that is the Rift Jedi's approach to humour, much to learn, they still have." The young Human had carried on gazing after the wake of their on-and-off ally, being in two minds on his beliefs regarding the warrior and his order.
When he had learned of their mission to Onderon some days ago and that they would be meeting, and perhaps working alongside, Rift Jedi, Thane had been somewhat anxious to meet them. He was certain a degree of that fascination and keenness was born out of his own personal history with the Kel Dor sage whom had taken up residence in his father's court as a child, before he had been taken by the Jedi Order.
From what he remembered, Dora-Sul had been more alike to Master Sotah than most Jedi would be comfortable within the Reborn Order; it remained quite popular, especially with the wounds of the Second Outer Rim Conflict so raw still, to relegate the Rift Jedi to a faction of rebellious warriors and political idealists. Whilst Thane could see why Sotah had earned such scepticism from his peers, he had now decided that Theon, whilst his heart appeared to be in the right place - as Sazar's had been - was nothing like Masters Sotah or Dora-Sul.
Rebel warriors and idealists, he pondered to himself solemnly, before a blaster shot in the near-distance interrupted his trail of thought. "How far away do you think we are from the Sky Ramp terminal?" He asked the Ithorian, focusing himself, even has some of the din of the fighting seemed to dissipate. His eyes glanced over the nearby slumbering drexl and its fallen rider with wary emotion.
Still looking out across the rooftops where Theon had bounded away, Bomoor was forced to remember their present mission: to find the courtier that had betrayed her Queen by working with an outside force to orchestrate the chaos and violence that they now found themselves in the midst of.
“Oh, uh…” Bomoor fumbled slightly, still not quite used to taking charge when their masters were away, “I don’t know; we could sense that she was close just before this poor beast was shot down. I am sure we can pick up the trail again.”
Looking back at the drexl, the deceased rider was still attached to its body, though a mesh of harnesses. Bomoor could not see quite how the rider was tied in so he instead ignited his blade and simply cut away the binds around the beast’s wings and neck, leaving the beastrider corpse to drop down to the ground.
“Let me just set his body to one side,” Bomoor lifted the smaller body easily and placed it gently down on the pavement in the supine position, “Someone will come for him later, hopefully. His troubles are over; his beast will have to go on living with the scars of this battle.”
Thane came to stand beside his friend, looking down at the felled Beast Rider with an expression of commiseration playing across his features.
“Such a loyal creature…” the Ithorian thought, echoing Thane's own unspoken feelings as memories of the creature’s past slipping back in before he brushed them aside, “But I suppose we should both focus together now to pick up this Lady’s trail again.”
The younger Human struggled to draw his gaze away from the two natives. A maudlin, poetic aspect of his mind considered how this image perfectly encapsulated the crisis consuming Onderon, the great Dxun reptavian, injured needlessly, nestled up against its deceased Onderonian companion, both drawn into yet another chapter of the planet's galactically-fuelled infighting.
"Yes," he confirmed, turning back to Bomoor. Keen as he was to move on from the fraught emotions, it was a consciously difficult task to do. Still, just as the proud drexl and the Beast Rider had honoured their duty, so too did the Jedi have theirs. Although the fact would seemingly go unbeknownst to the citizens caught within the crossfire and mayhem of the conflict, Thane knew that were these two particular padawans successful, they may yet hold the key to ending the bloodshed before a true war erupted.
"Find the traitor, get the truth, save the masters, convince two Royals to forgive one another, and stop a civil war." Thane shrugged awkwardly, looking out at the smoke and blaster fire ahead of them, and gave Bomoor one sad, hopeful smile. "No pressure."
“It seems padawan were made to suffer,” Bomoor hummed sarcastically back to his friend, as they cast their minds away from the deceased and back towards their mission, “It’s out lot in life.”
TBC
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