Revival

Posted on Sun Nov 8th, 2020 @ 10:41pm by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Amare & Valavai Tarses

2,656 words; about a 13 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Medical Facility, Bastion
Timeline: After "Ghost Ship"

OLD

ST-1138 was not a superstitious being, believing instead in the physical and the scientific. Magic was excised from their empire, the rule of Bastion falling to the capable and knowledgeable elite. However, sighting this remarkable monstrosity caused something innately within her to recoil and tense, with much of her instinct warding her away from its unnatural visage. To her, it looked like no scientific experiment.

It was just, as the sergeant had said, wrong.

And, for some reason that she could not truly fathom, they were going to bring it, and this accursed ship, with them into the bowels of their nation.

With a final glance into the closed eyes of the creature dwelling within, her curled finger briefly quivering over the trigger of her gun, ST-1138 was convinced that those blinded eyes were goring her very soul.

NEW

The state of bodily shutdown Thane and Bomoor had entered into left them completely isolated from their senses and unaware of their surroundings. They were none the wiser as their bodies had been initially transported from the med bay of the Red Raptor to the far-more-advanced Medical Wing aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Indictor, and finally to a medical facility on the surface of Bastion itself. They felt nothing as they were suspended in large sealed Bacta tanks with various monitoring cables and tubes attached to their flesh. The only indication they had of their continued existence was their awareness of each other and of the vast network of the Force which kept them just barely alive.

Perhaps some time had passed, although neither of the men could tell, but it seemed as though something or someone was reaching out to them from beyond the veil of their ethereal realm. The emptiness began to take shape and they could feel their bodies once more; cold and numb.

A familiar voice spoke a name, “Tarses,” and, as though the word had peeled back a veil, a flood of visions washed over the pair. They saw a large training yard with hundreds of men and women, all encased in the glistening white armour of Imperial stormtroopers; they were in small groups, each led by a commanding officer who instructed them to move in different patterns about the yard. The vision drew them to a figure standing above, observing the drills. A silvery-haired Human male with dark, heavy brows and a firm but, rounded chin wore the dark black uniform of a high-ranking officer.

As they began to see more of the man, the scenery shifted to a weapons facility where the same man paced along a production line and stopping to examine the construction of a weapon. The others present in the facility appeared uneasy at his presence, shifting uncomfortably as the officer felt the weight of the weapon in his hands.

"Thank you for the report, commander," said the elderly man in a baritone voice weighed down by age and a lifetime of unpleasant memories. "We will deal with this beskar problem later. For now, I see no reason to believe our guests are Republic spies. When they awaken, have the doctor bring them to me, starting with the Human. I will personally conduct the interrogation. Involve only your most trusted men and maintain the highest discretion for as long as possible. Edwoff must not know of their presence. Not yet.."

The man’s face faded away as Thane and Bomoor felt as though their minds were plunged deep into an ocean. There, they saw another, more familiar face: the pale blue aquatic body of Amare floated before them, cocooned in the Azoth they had left her in. Although, this time, they were inside with her.

There was a chaotic chorus of whispers from many voices, some familiar, others not so much. Amare herself, locked in state between sleep and wakefulness was chanting words in kind, as if answering all the voices at once.

"Sigils never understood while young and alive...
...now reveal the end of the cosmic, and the birth of the living...

"When one spawned under foreign star...
...casts a cursed yoke upon the ocean...

"Bethink you to keep the crying offspring...
...far from Krysaor..."

Then Amare's eyes snapped open, blazing red fire in them, like twin stars alight beneath the waves. Her words poured forth with the thunderous force of an Ithorian's most powerful bellow...

"Your time draws near...RISE!!"

On command, the vision was ripped away and the next thing the pair felt was their blood pumping as it raced to oxygenate their awakening bodies. Through blurred bubbles, their hazy eyes spied clean, white surfaces and display panels with a medical droid on standby in the far corner. As the monitors detected their reviving organs, the droid came online and slowly floated over towards the tanks.

However, before it could make it to the monitor, it stopped in its tracks as it detected the sound of escaping water; a little trickle, a crack and then a larger hiss as the thick, reinforced glass of both tanks began to break apart from several locations before finally bursting forth, sending a wave of water and kinetic energy across the room and disabling the machine. The Human and Ithorian bodies tumbled to the ground, heaving as they took in deep gasps of air while the dull medical alarm continued to whine in the background.

“Back… in the land of the living…” gasped Bomoor, bacta-infused water dribbling down from the creases of his hump, down onto the ground, “Amare… did well in reaching us…”

Thane did not immediately say anything in response, the sudden restoration of his faculties also bringing with it a plethora of sensations, both physical and metaphysical. The Force bond that was typically omnipresent between the two former Jedi rapidly-reestablishing itself in a normalised fashion, not that it was ever truly severed, and Bomoor was treated to a portion of the stark discomfort coursing through the Human.

He reached further forward with an outstretched palm, which collided with some force of his weight into the sterile floor of this unfamiliar locale. As a combination of confusion and pain swept over him, a few tremours spread out from his hand into the cold surface, causing a slight amount of twisting in the material. Fortunately, the prosthesis occupying half of that hand was unaffected.

"Tarses," he finally managed, his voice a little broken from his dry throat, although his eyes still looked down to the floor, his strength only beginning to return to him.

The light sound of the alarm continued in the background, but the room was mercifully bright and well-lit, filled with advanced machinery that easily outstripped the usual fare encountered in many Third Republic facilities. There were certainly a number of beings occupying various levels and sections of the building, but security was not so heavy here as it was wherever Amare was being kept; the Nautolan and her azoth had undoubtedly attracted the heaviest attention from their 'saviours'.

"It worked," Thane then managed to say in a breathy voice, just about managing to start bringing himself up. Fortunately, both of them had been garbed in minimalist clothing for their time receiving treatment.

His Ithorian companion rocked back slightly into seated position before pushing himself upright with only the slightest wobble as his muscles groaned at the sudden call to action, “Bastion…” Bomoor confirmed, “Not a place I ever thought I would find myself; the living, breathing legacy of the Empire of old.”

He glanced at the crushed and water-logged droid, uselessly flexing its servos, “You saw the visions Amare shared; this society is anything but stagnant. They’re ready for more than just another border skirmish with the Mandalorians and, if GalactaWerks has some interest, we can be sure there’s someone being ripped off here. Perhaps this ‘Tarses’ holds the answers?”

Thane was not quite managing to recover as quickly as the Ithorian, not being anywhere near as eloquent yet, even if his powers were restoring apace.

"Yes," he said confidently, nodding gravely at Bomoor's assumption.

Form-fitting bodysuits had been put over the pair, and Thane tugged briefly at the one hugging his torso, finding its material smooth and quite alien. Again, it was clear that Bastion had not remained a backwater pariah state without progress. Rather, their isolation seemed to have resulted in a parallel development, if even their brief observations thus far held any merit.

He stepped over awkwardly to a nearby table, on which two large white cases, appearing to be made of the same slick-plasteel material as the flooring and walls of the clinical medical facility, were position. Aurebesh lettering was engraved over both of them, indicating these were the belongings that had been on them when they were recovered.

Inwardly, Thane wondered at how many of their possessions, either on them or on the Red Raptor, might now be misplaced or lost to them. At the very least, he felt confident the vault was still secure - for now.

A brush of his hand was enough to prompt the case to open, and his simple dark robes were folded inside, along with some other basic equipment. As Bomoor stepped over, they suddenly both brought their heads up, the Force indicating that their solitude would soon be ending, as a team of Imperials were making their way to their chamber.

"We need to leave this facility as soon as possible," he said, now finally able to speak unimpeded. "I do not believe we can immediately afford to find the others; they will remain secured here, if they are even here, or comatose. The Raptor and/or the droids might be here, too." He pulled over the robe quickly, time being of the essence.

A flicker of thought shot through the Ithorian’s expression as he contemplated the thought of leaving without the others, “Agreed, it will do no good to linger for their good as well as our own,” he said quickly, shaking some residual fluid from his arms and drawing his own belt and robe from the container and sweeping them about his person.

There was only one way in and out of the room, so Thane and Bomoor quickly exited and sped along the corridor in the opposite direction of the approaching lifeforms. They were not far behind as they heard the sound of heavy boots rapping at the grated floor just a short distance away. In fact, the entire building was full of life but, fortunately for the two escapees, it seems that the alarm they triggered was localised and so most other entities were not converging in on them.

The unconscious tug from the Force allowed them to progress swiftly through the hallways until they reached a loading bay, where the building opened up to the outside. Soft orange twilight flickered into their eyes as they caught glimpses of the sky from between the loading vehicles. Slipping between them, and easily escaping the notice of the loading droids, they then found themselves breathing in the lukewarm city air being carried to them from yellowy-green mountains in the distance beyond the steely-grey skyscrapers.

“Bastion, I presume,” Bomoor commented, his tone curious but wary as he gazed up at a long red flag bearing the round, wheel-like crest of the modern Bastion Empire, “Seems we were interesting enough to bring all the way here.”

Thane's eyes followed Bomoor's own, examining the cityscape that stretched out all around them. Unlike Coruscant, it did have the mountainous range in the middle-distance, a stark beauty against the utilitarian, yet elegant, design of the modern Imperial capital. Although it still struck them as an advanced and powerful city, this world was nothing like the Republic's nexus, in spite of its own Imperial history.

"They're like the Centrality," the Human member of the pair observed, his attention shifting from the nearby flag Bomoor had examined to the various other ones in sight, suspended from different buildings and emblazoned across numerous structures and vehicles. However, deep in the city as they were, it was difficult to sight much in other directions or to see a great deal of the sky.

Spartan crimson foliage had been tastefully placed in key locations, perfectly complimenting the hue of the nationalistic banners that seemed to be present in any direction an onlooker might glance. Otherwise, metals and greys accented most constructs surrounding Thane and Bomoor, with both bold and sleek designs forming what was clearly a typical art style for the Bastion state.

Whilst they were in the centre of a very administrative-looking section of this city, they could spy a nearby open space that stretched further into the heart of the city. It was constructed in a wide fashion, being broad enough for any manner of military parade or large transportation. Given what they knew about the Imperial mindset of old, that was not so surprising. That, and, given the hardware and décor all around them, it was clearly a very militaristic nation still.

"We are not far from the palatial district," Thane added, having spotted a nearby metal structure that was a little taller than him sprouting from the pavement nearby.

An intricate map was machine-etched into the metal, serving as some sort of public guidance. Clearly, they were in a more restricted zone, typically frequented and managed by governmental personnel, both military and medical, with no openly-public transportation advertised on the slate. Instead, it primarily highlighted the various sectors and the key junctions to travel between them. From where they were, they were just a couple of kilometres from what was labelled 'Disra Palace', in the heart of the city of Ravelin.

In turn, the palace shared its district with the Pallaeon Gardens and a planetside shipyard - a rarity, save for vessels requiring the specialist development or secrecy afforded by surface-based construction. Clearly, whoever had brought them here had intended for them to be close to the heart of Bastion's power, or took a particularly keen interest in their traits and circumstances.

“That seems where we are destined to go,” Bomoor continued the thought out loud, now looking at the same metal diagram as Thane. He stared for a moment, before his eyes flicked down a level, drawn by a steady electrical hum belonging to a long monorail transport that was slowly approaching the platform below. A few individuals were waiting at the platform, all watching for the approaching transport. When it came to a soft halt, the closest doors slid open and a soft orange light beckoned the passengers inside.

“It seems to be going in the right direction,” the Ithorian gestured towards the rail that stretched over towards their destination, “Shall we find a quiet car and slip aboard? A Human and a quiet Ithorian should hopefully not draw too much attention.”

While it was understood that the Bastion Empire was not as xenophobic as old Imperial regimes, they were still a predominantly-Human society and, even with the aid of the Force to keep attentions lowered, the non-Human Force-user knew to be cautious of drawing undue attention.

"You couldn't make it up, could you?" Thane said somewhat whimsically, actually managing a lopsided grin for his friend, perhaps being the first time he had mustered some sort of humour since they had entered Imperial Space. "The two of us, sneaking into the last remnant of an ancient empire, armed with medical underwear and hopping onto a service train into a palace."

Seemingly caught off guard by Thane's light-hearted turn, Bomoor went to speak and then stopped. He glimpsed that faint slither of familiar blue in his Human eyes and they both shared a brief pang of recollection to those many moments before the dive into action on their various expeditions as young Knights of the Reborn Order.

"I don't know, Thane. Seems like something we'd do."

TBC

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