The Descent

Posted on Thu Mar 6th, 2025 @ 9:36pm by Bomoor Thort & Mentis & Amare & Reave
Edited on on Thu Mar 6th, 2025 @ 9:40pm

4,262 words; about a 21 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VII: Uprooted
Location: Red Raptor, the skies above the Elenca Settlement, Öetrago
Timeline: End of Week Five (After "Root and Branch")

The old motors whirred and thudded as the large loading airlock was released in the starboard cargo bay of the Red Raptor. The three force users and one armed Jawa braced themselves as the thin atmosphere tugged a chunk of the oxygen in the sealed room out into the Öetregan skies. The pressure stabilised as the hatch opened further and daylight began to pour into the room along with blustering winds that pelted them and assaulted their ears.

Bomoor's voice cut through the din, however, as his firm legs edged towards the opening and the ramp, usually designed for loading and unloading cargo, began to stretch down into the abyss below finding no purchase upon which to secure itself.

"Okay, we're almost in position," he belted, "These drops are dangerous, even for experienced Jedi, so Rex will get us as low as he can and we must not hesitate to jump right and the base of his descent. I don't know what we'll find down there but I can sense we will not have time to gather ourselves once we reach the ground so be ready and, if I do not get to say it again: thank you for being here one and all. This fight may be against familiar foes, but they have threatened my family and my home and I cannot let them get away with this."

The Ithorian turned his attention to Reave, not knowing if he had taken in the words and still could not really judge the tiny gunslinger's motivation, but the small humanoid had seemed ready to fight nonetheless.

"Reave, if you are willing, climb onto my back and hold on tight. If I do this right, you will barely feel an impact as we land."

'If' being the operative word, thought Bomoor, knowing that he had never attempted this Jedi technique from such a height before, even in all his escapades as a young knight with Thane.

Reave had a tight grip of low handle welded to the bulkhead to Bomoor's side. By some unnatural miracle, his wide-brimmed hat, despite the rapid flapping of its pale material, stayed firmed affixed to his head. The hand-rolled cigarra that had been perched between invisible lips, however, was less fortunate. The Öetregan wind had torn the tobacco piece from the former dune-dweller, evoking a rapid succession of shrill curses in a dialect unintelligible to his companions. Had it not been for the Jawa's beloved repeating blaster, which further dwarfed the surly master-at-arms, he may well have dramatically outstretched a gloved hand at the lost cigarra.

The glinting orbs that were his eyes glinted hatefully from beneath his hat towards Bomoor a second later - an expression typically reserved, they had found, for Rex and, quite frequently, Mentis. There was a silent accusation at the Ithorian that lingered for a moment too long, but logic appeared to make him relent, and he thrust himself forward to grasp Bomoor's outstretched limb, and he shuffled ungracefully onto the former Jedi's hump. No effort was made to not shove his own hands and limbs sharply into Bomoor, and the BlasTech repeater scraped roughly against his trunk.

Normally, Amare would have enjoyed observing the Jawa's indignant fury, but she was focused, trying her best not to lose her nerve for the moment when it was time to make the potentially fatal leap of faith. She was taking in slow, deep breaths, trying to remember her Sith training, her past experiences, her moments of instinctive use of the Force to achieve levitation, and falling out of tropical trees as a troublemaking child; none of which succeeded to ease her inner tension.

"I'm not scared to jump in case anyone wants to ask," she lied. She was a bundle of nerves, hearts beating like no tomorrow. She was able to build her very own complete lightsaber with her own power. How hard could one simple jump into a hot zone be? "I can do this..." then she repeated it again to herself in a whisper with her eyes closed without realizing she was visibly shaking, struggling to smash her fear and surround herself with dark power.

Mentis eyed the Nautolan, spying her wide eyed look and seeing her softly speaking to herself but not hearing the words over the roaring wind. She must have spied him looking and, in turn gave him a narrow scowl, which he responded to with a small shrug before carefully inching himself over and holding onto a small protrusion on the wall so he could safely peer forwards alongside Bomoor. As he passed Reave, he gave the Jawa a small grin as he watched the small sentient digging his heels in like a rider on a bucking bantha.

"If I'd known this was coming, I would have practiced my technique with you all but, if you envisage yourself like any other object in the Force, you can reduce your momentum to zero," Mentis addressed the assembled as he gazed down at the ground, "Just remember to ease it in slowly so you don't end up smushing your insides with the sudden force. I never did study much physics, but I understand you can bend reality but never fully cheat it, much like the Force itself."

Bomoor looked at the younger man, whom he had taken under his wing, still realising that he had as much to learn of his own experiences as the Rattataki had of his own. Mentis had accepted the goals and objectives of the Red Raptor with little question and, despite falling into some bad habits with Rex, had shown a great deal of loyalty for one who had once served a being of such darkness and evil. While the Jawa grasping his back was somewhat of a distraction, he made a mental note that he should repay the kindness of this man once this was resolved. Force-willing it resolved in their favour.

"Good advice," he uttered simply, "The less smushing the better. Now, let us all get to the edge as I sense the moment is approaching."

As Bomoor finished speaking, Rex's voice crackled through the intercom, the static only slightly distorting his words. "Alright folks, we're on final approach. I'll get you as close to the ground as I can, but after that, it's all on you. Remember your training, and if you don't have any, well, remember that I'll be fine in the ship." There was a brief pause, filled only by the howling wind and the deep hum of the ship's engines.

"May the Force serve you well," Thane briefly added, although a slight strain had even entered his even tones.

No sooner had the comment been received, that all the Force-sensitives present felt the ripple in the fabric of spacetime that told them it was now or never. As if reading to dive into the waters of Glee Anselm or Velusia themselves, three sets of legs dropped swiftly from the ledge of the platform towards the green hillside that lay below them. For a few seconds of freefall, they watched Öetrago's surface move towards them and time seemed to slow as their clothes and fabric were battered with the air's feeble efforts to slow their descent.

On Bomoor's left, Amare crossed her arms over her chest, leaned forward over the edge, and let gravity pull her into freefall. She somersaulted a few times then uprighted herself, descending feet-first, her head tresses flowing like fourteen flapping fingers wagging up at the sky. Her arms then outstretched, and her hands were burning bright scarlet, palms down, slowly pushing lower towards her hips as she channeled the Force hard. The heavy strain and pressure of what she was attempting caused the veins on her face to start pressing against her skin. The effect she was achieving was almost akin to a VTOL effect, her hands acting as the thrusters with the Force as the propellant to slow her earthbound approach.

To the right of Bomoor, Mentis expertly spread out his arms, his jacket catching as much wind resistance as possible as he rehearsed his landing form and his delicate slowing to that familiar state of Force inertia. He looked inwards, unaware of his travelling companions as he fell.

Focussing only on what was below, Bomoor caught a glistening dewdrop on a blade of grass and knew that touchdown was imminent. Visualising himself as one of the boulders on Irrikut that he had lifted so many times in the past, he caught himself and his Jawa passenger in his invisible grasp and eased them slowly upwards, lifting them against the gravitational velocity until their speed was not so likely to break his already-strong bones.

The ground still impacted upon his tree stump-like legs with an uncomfortable Force and he caved to his knees, trying further to soften the impact, which caused Reave to topple forwards and roll a few paces forwards along the hillside, with his hat still firmly atop his head and weapon firmly in hand.

Beside him, Mentis seemed to hover awkwardly for a moment before thrusting down in an almost jagged motion that seemed, as well, to leave the man quite winded at the exertion, but still able to hold himself upright.

A short distance away, they could see Amare was prostrate with hands and head down, but with just one knee on the ground. Her rear was hunched up high, as if she was preparing her body to pounce. After a silent unmoving moment, her head snapped up like a snake about to strike, breathing her relief with several quick rapid breaths that slowed steadily as she gingerly and steadily rose to her feet. She found herself astonished that she really didn't know what she did to survive, or how she did it, only that she felt an obsessive need to yet again prove herself to Bomoor that he was wrong to underestimate her powers.

"Ow..." she softly groaned feeling pain in her ankles and wrists. "Let's...let's not do that again. Ever," she said as she flexed her fingers and took a look around the environs.

Reave picked himself up, brushing off the dust that clung to his armoured tatty robes like a second skin. His gleaming eyes narrowed as he turned to Bomoor, who had already started to march down the hill towards the distant structures that were their destination. He screeched at him over the still howling wind, his tinny voice a mix of pain and irritation. It was hard to decipher his exact words and expletives, but they could, at least, discern some insult about Tusken Raiders offering greater hospitality.

The sound of laserfire brought them back into the moment and Bomoor straightened up to see the smoke emerging from the treetops ahead of them where the Elenca settlement lay nestled within the woodland ahead. Amplified in the Force, the strained sound of people crying out in fear and pain could be made out and the thought of the suffering ahead sat uncomfortably with the Ithorian. He had faced many a battle before, but few so personal.

In the sky ahead, the Raptor zoomed onwards, circling about the plumes of smoke and let of the first few bouts of laser fire from the lower canon before some weaker returning fire caused them to pivot and divert course, returning swiftly for another barrage of fire. Bomoor trusted Thane to be precise with his gunfire in the civilian settlement but also not hold back when he found his target.

"There's our distraction," Bomoor nodded upwards, "Let us press on before they realise we are on the ground."

With haste, the group slid down the small hillside and were swiftly into the treeline. The smell of burning got stronger, with an unpleasant acidity that told of more than just woodland being put to the torch. Before long, they spied a unit of heavy battle droids sporting modified flamethrower attachments marching purposely through the trees, igniting the greenery with emotionless efficiency. Behind them, a sea of bright flames stretching backwards along their path. Either blinded by the heat and light energy on their sensors or consumed by their destructive task, the droids did not spot the group, who diverted their course to cut around the battle droids' flaming path. Saving the trees was secondary to saving the people and any time lost could be deadly.

They eventually began to see the outlines of the buildings, silhouetted by the embers against the darkening sky as evening set in. The grass here was thinner and trampled, leading directly towards the Elenca settlement and a short distance ahead was a speeder that was run into the trees and smouldering with laser burns all along the side. As they drew closer, they saw the corpses of the passengers hunched over in the seats, dotted with just as many laser burns.

"Looks like a family trying to escape the slaughter," Mentis was the first to speak, his voice plain and rational with the tone of someone who had seen such sights before, "Their speeder is too big a target for droid accuracy; should've just run into the trees."

"It shouldn't have happened at all," Bomoor swallowed the bubbling emotions as his eyes passed over the family's valued possessions now strewn around the scene. Soon to be consumed by the flames of the forest.

As if the souls of the victims themselves had ambushed her, their deaths were replayed in Amare's mind, the screams and blaster fire and subsequent explosion rattled her to her core without warning. The sudden psychometric burst of horror bombarded her, causing her to fall to one knee. She groaned in sharp agony, putting a hand up to her forehead, wincing, and then a gasp, her face rose up looking skyward, eyes wide and glowing scarlet.

"A little one...cleaved to his mother...last thing he heard was...it was going to be alright," Amare said with a pained voice, as if something unworldly and unseen had compelled her against her will to report the Force echo that involuntarily struck her. And then, as quickly as it began, her eyes returned to their normal black and her face fell back down.

She hyperventilated for a moment struggling to catch her breath as her body suffered for a vision of torment she never asked for. She felt brief muscle spasms all along her spine and familiar surges where her nerves connected to her brain. She held her hands up in front of her and saw them trembling. She was aware she had the gift of psychometry, but never before had she experienced a re-enacted vision of recent events so sudden, so emotional, and so extremely violent until now.

Mentis knelt beside Amare's bent figure, his face etched with confusion. "This isn't the time to grow a conscience, Amare. It's hard to witness, but such is the galaxy's harshness, and droids don't pause to mourn their fallen."

Bomoor, somewhat frustrated, explained, "Controlling strong psychometry is challenging, Mentis, especially when faced with intense Force echoes. Even the most powerful Jedi Masters have found it tough to stay grounded in the present amidst a storm of visions from the future and the past. Just help her up, so we can continue."

Brushing aside his previous demeanour, Mentis extended a hand to Amare, only for it to be swatted away as she forcefully pulled herself up from the parched earth.

"Save your pity!" Amare snapped at Mentis. "The dead need it more than...I..." Her words faltered and faded as something hovering skyward some distance away caught her eyes. "Wait...is that...?" She squinted her eyes and recognized its segmented polygonal saucer shape and attached scanner module. "Oh, just great. Look up there. I think it's a model CI-85; a CIPHER surveillance droid, and not the cheap kind. Either someone knows we're here, or they're about to."

The other trio watched as the droid hovered and darted among the treetops, its lights blinking erratically as it scanned the area for signs of life or trouble, which they were about to provide in abundance. Reave's hand moved to one of his sidearms, the cool metal seeming a comforting presence at his side. He jabbered in his native tongue, clearly urging them to take it out before it reports back. His piercing gaze stated, more plainly than any words the Jawa could must, We can't have GalactaWerks aware of our presence!

The droid's movements grew more erratic as it approached them, its scanners sweeping the area with increased fervour. Its mechanical brain was likely sifting through a barrage of data, trying to identify the organic forms that had so abruptly disrupted the quiet chaos of the burning forest.

A hearty crack of splitting wood erupted from somewhere further back along the path, followed by chorus of snapping branches as half of an old, dry tree came toppling down to the ground, eventually striking the forest floor. The group turned to see that Bomoor was stretching his arm out in the same direction.

The droid fluttered in the air and spun to the sound, momentarily distracted by a new sound source.

"Come," Bomoor hissed a quiet order, "I presume these droids are not fooled for long and we are so close to the settlement."

They hurried towards the buildings, the acrid stench of burning and the flickering flames assaulting their senses. Amidst the surrounding destruction, the sounds of voices emerged; both the terrified cries of civilians and the mechanical commands of droids directed at each other and their victims. The settlement lacked an outer wall, but as the group reached the edge of Elenca village, they leapt over a small wooden fence into an herb garden. A familiar aroma of Ithorian seasonings wafted towards Bomoor's glands as their footsteps disturbed the dried plants.

They paused briefly as they reached the first building: a small cottage made of basic clay and reinforced by wood from the forest around them. As they surveyed the area, they observed several heavy droids herding a group of predominantly Ithorians down the main street towards the central grove. Along the same street and peppered around the buildings were the lighter-framed variants of the battle droids, like an army of skeletons marching on the living.

They were suddenly interrupted by a disturbance in the Force and a high-pitched trill from behind them; the surveillance droid had returned and was racing towards them. With the reflexive speed, faster than any droid, Mentis had his lightsaber drawn and ignited, flinging it into the sky, spinning like a disk of crimson light and melting through the casing of the robotic scout before arching back towards his arm. He caught it deftly and kept it ignited a moment longer, while he peered back into the blurry forest.

Looking to Mentis and nodding, Bomoor observed, "I suppose it makes little difference now whether they spot us now," he gestured upwards, "Shall we avoid the droids on the streets and take the rooftop approach? I don't want any more people to die while we have to cut through all those machines."

The former cultist put his saber back on his belt, "That works to my strengths. I should also mention that I sense him here. Voq, I mean. If this destruction did not betray him already, I would recognise his supernova-sized ego anywhere. Almost as vile as Trey's."

"Then I don't want to give him any more time to prepare," Bomoor replied, looking now to Amare and Reave as well, "Shall we?"

Amare took the idea to heart and went over to the nearest door and, without trying to open it manually, simply ignited her amber-bladed lightsaber and tore a bisecting vertical burned line right down the middle.

"We shall," Amare said with a smirk and a guiding gesture to the breached door. She powered off her weapon and stepped aside to allow either Bomoor or Mentis to blast aside the door with their powers. "After you."

Under the present circumstances, Amare's mischievous reaction did not faze Bomoor and he happily obliged in thrusting the door in. The inhabitants of the residence likely had more troubling concerns presently than a broken door. He stepped through into the property and skipped the stairs, instead leaping up to the small mezzanine bedroom overlooking the main room where a set of double doors led out onto a balcony, from which they could get onto the rooftop.

In short time, the group found themselves assembled atop the building looking out across the rough but well-maintained streets of the settlement. While they had made good time through the forest, the light was now starting to wane and the setting sun mixed with the glow of the forest fire behind them to cast them in a flurry of dancing orange light and shadow, which helped to obscure their various forms as they looked down. In the sky, the Raptor made another pass and Thane fired down another volley of laser bolts, precisely along the main street, throwing chunks of dirt and droid into the air. However, GalactaWerks had some of their own droid fighters now in the air, alongside some ground-based cannon fire coming from the central grove they were heading too.

All the more reason to get there and take out their defences thought Bomoor as he gestured to the next rooftop before making an incredible leap, now with Reave once again on his back. From here, the group zipped across he rooftops. The buildings were not uniform and some jumps were mere hops, while others required greater leaps. But the three powerful Force users made quick time and seemingly were undetected by those on the ground.

Eventually, they found themselves looking down upon the centre of town: the central grove was a grassy square with a great ancient tree at its centre. It was an Elenca custom for the children of the Herd to decorate the tree with glowing lights, symbolising a hope or prayer to the Mother Jungle or whomever they believed in. While the tree still stood, the grassy square had been torn up by several GalactaWerks tanks and other equipment, seemingly having become their makeshift base camp for their invasion. Towards the centre of the square was the laser cannon that had been firing into the sky, seemingly unmanned but likely driven by a sophisticated droid AI. Many other droids were assembled there, particularly towards the far end where they spied a number of people being herded into a nearby building by the machines. However, over by the old tree was the unmistakable form of a large Devaronian, standing aside a tactical droid at a portable command post. A short distance behind him, guarded by two destroyer droids, was an older Ithorian woman.

Bomoor immediately knew he was looking towards his mother and gulped down a pang of emotions, barely recalling his Jedi training to centre himself. With a deep breath he looked back at his small group.

"She is there; the herd leader Mumin and my mother," he declared, his long fingers clenching up slightly, "We will need to fight now. There are a lot of droids, but we must prioritise Voq and that cannon so be swift and precise. We have the drop on them so that will buy us a slight advantage."

Crouched and peering through a small telescopic electromonocular that she "requisitioned" from Bastion military supplies, Amare surveyed the way towards one of Bomoor's objectives.

"I see a generator, a control unit, and cables connecting it to the cannon," she reported to the group. She warily scanned about further for signs of Nala, eager for revenge, but couldn't see her anywhere. "I can quietly make my way over there and sabotage it, but there's too many droid patrols that could spot me along the way." She switched her high-tech spyglass off, collapsed it to a smaller compact stowable size and pocketed it, and stood up to turn and gaze upon Reave with a wry grin, pointing right at the eager Jawa gunslinger. "I volunteer our little walking arsenal of doom to provide our diversion."

Reave readied his weapon as Mentis stepped forward to face Bomoor, "Then I will stand with you against Voq. I know him better than all of you and, if nothing else, will be a distraction to him. You can then focus on your mother."

But before Bomoor could respond and confirm their plans, he felt a disturbance in the Force across the grove. Amare and Mentis responded too and their gaze looked shot down, just in time to watch an explosive blast tear down a barrier erected at another road away from the settlement centre. Several surprised droids turned and were immediately subjected to a shock, falling to the ground as a twitching mess of circuitry. A series of figures, some more humanoid than others, shot through the gap in the defences and began launching covering fire towards the GalactaWerks forces, as well as casting out more of the devices that had caused the other droids to short out.

"The rebels!" Bomoor's eyes grew wide, realising what was happening, "Time's up. Let's get down and join them!"

With that, Bomoor leapt off the building, igniting his viridian blade against the murky amber sky and landing a powerful Ithorian foot down upon an unaware battle droid, warping it as easily as bending a hanger, before charging onwards into the fray.

TBC

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