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Republic Reckoning 4.15.87

The four Jedi clustered in the shade of a huge tree growing in the courtyard of the Temple.

"We have to do something. We don't have much time." Altair was getting desperate. He was the senior Jedi here and they needed to find the Heart of Darkness before the Sith General Belissarius arrived and became too powerful to defeat. Jedi Master Kast claimed to have found it, but had so far only given cryptic hints and refused to turn it over.

"She is clearly not open to negotiation, but I don't think we can take it from her," said Elbram.

"I have no suggestions. All paths lead to darkness as far as I can see." Quindo said with an air of resignation. "We just need to find the one that does the least harm to the least people."

A shout from the boat where Col. Dormamu, Rel Nor, Dabai, and Ovanel had gone to gather arms for their assault on Kast drew the attention of the group. Rel Nor was pointing skyward with a rifle. All eyes looked up and stared into the blindingly bright sky. A small black dot, ringed in white was visible. No, *six* black dots were visible. And getting larger. "Those have to be battle droids. We have to act now," said Altair.

"But what do we do?" said a frustrated Bro'jen. "There are no good options. Dormamu will kill all the locals when they resist his attack on Kast. The battle droids will kill anyone left." Elbram spoke up first. "The people here aren't about to withstand battle droids, so we better deal with them. They will have to deal with Dormamu on their own."

"Agreed. I'll go with him," said Quindo.

"Bro'jen, we will try one last time to convince Master Kast that she needs to hand over the Heart of Darkness."

  • * *

Quindo and Elbram watch the dots spread so they will surround the perimeter of the temple. They rush past people as Dormamu and one of the locals begins arguing about moving into the temple with guns. Dabai tries to set up Ovanel (Rel Nor's 1st officer) with a machine gun and as a loader for a light recoiless rifle for anti-droid activities. Bro'jen and Altair head into Kast's quarters.

Dabai's preparations are cut short as a pod crashes down into the harbor area. He dives into the ship and begins prepping the rifle. Elbram and Quindo hear several crashes in the jungle just beyond the encampment, but the undergrowth is so thick they are forced to wait. And in the courtyard, the argument hits its peak. The local begins to wave his gun around, and Dormamu shoots him. This sparks a general shootout in a crowded area as locals are fleeing or shooting back depending on if they have a weapon. Rel Nor is cut down as he can't move to cover fast enough, but Dormamu makes it just fine. The locals are now running *towards* the jungle.

Elbram tries to slow their run, but they just go around him. Dabai watches from cover as the first battle droid crawls out of its drop pod and quickly fires off bursts at locals who are shooting at it inneffectually. It obviously has a flamethrower for a tail mount. Elbram is trying vainly to stop the locals from running by him when he hears a 'frooooooosh' of a flamethrower in the jungle, and the screams and crackling of burning people and plants. The one on the pod in the water *jumps* using some sort of jumpjets to land on the dock, where Ovanel is trying to turn the machine gun around.

Dabai quickly places the recoiless rifle on the deck and fires, but it is only a glancing blow. The droid kills Ovanel with a quick burst, then turns around, but Dabai is quicker, getting himself and the gun back inside the cabin of the boat. He is hurridly reloading as he feels the droid step onto the boat...

Elbram readies himself as the locals find other directions to run and hears the whoosh of the jumping droid and cracking of branches. It crashes out of the jungle and perches on the eves of a house right behind him. But he's ready. He runs towards it, getting inside it's gunreach before it fires, and slices it in two. He nearly gets out of the way of it falling to the ground, and escapes with only a small laceration on his shoulder and a tear in his robes (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!).

Dabai gets the rifle reloaded, but not before the droid pokes its head in the room. Luckily it doesn't immediately see him and Dabai yanks the rifle up so the barrel is touching the body and pulls the trigger. The explosion destroys the robot, the rifle, and the cabin, as the droid collapses on the door, trapping Dabai inside.

Meanwhile Altair and Bro'jen have been negotiating with Kast, who is still refusing to hand over the Heart of Darkness. They try asking. They try pleading. They try demanding. Altair finally pulls back and says to Bro'jen "We don't have any other option. We're going to have to use force." And he begins threatening, saying "is this it?" and throwing around items in the room, breaking pottery, strewing the contents of drawers around, etc. Bro'jen is beginning to get the idea that maybe the Heart of Darkness isn't a physical thing that can be carried so much as a location, or maybe even more abstract. He also worrisomely points out that Altair is acting like he is beginning to fall to the Dark Side. His arguments are somewhat ignored, but Kast says "Shut up, padawan" and flicks him across the room using the Force.

Cutting back to Elbram, he is looking around to see if more people are around and now that the jungle is relatively safe in this direction, lead them out. He finds these people hiding in the building he's next to, so he circles around front and finds them inside. He asks them to come out. They don't want to come out. He tells them to come out. They still don't want to come out. He tells them sternly to come out because they're in danger here. They say what must have been (though he can't be sure because he doesn't speak their language) "hell no, it's more dangerous out there." They really don't want to come out. Looking around outside, he sees Dormamu enter Kast's chambers and a battle droid on its roof. He realizes that it's near a skylight over there and may try to "drop in" on the people there. So he runs out and around to distract it, and gets around the corner before it can lock on to him. But he gets its attention. It jumps onto the roof of his building, that he's now behind again, and it knows that he's under the eves and he knows that it's on the roof.

Unfortunately, it has better hearing than he does, and gets the drop on him. Fortunately, not enough of a drop to keep him from getting out of the way of the MG burst at point blank range and he goes back around the corner again. The droid charges after him, but not fast enough. He cuts off the MG arm, then finishes off the droid before it can flee.

Meanwhile, Dabai has found the radio on the boat. Turning up the volume (his ears are ringing from the close-range blast earlier), he finds a Zabrak frequency mentioning that "they're positioning for another drop or orbital strike. They'll be vulnerable for a moment then, we'll counterattack at that point." With this news of a second wave, he mentally pings Elbram, who agrees to come get him off the boat. Before Elbram gets there, he hears over the radio "Uh-oh, they dropped some pebbles on the harbor." Pebbles...pebbles...sounds familliar... oh yeah!

Kinetic kill strike from orbit! He finds a window and dives out right as Elbram arrives. "You're in a hurry to leave, I thought you needed--" "Run." With moments to spare, they get off the boat before the strikes go through the boat, through the water, and impact on the dirt beneath, creating a mini-tidal wave that sweeps them well up into the temple. Bruised and battered, but still relatively unhurt, they realize that the only way out is in Kasts quarters. And so they head that way.

Back with Bro'jen and Altair, Kast is busy pasting Altair with a relentless series of lightsaber attacks. He gets knocked over and is defenseless before Kast, but Bro'jen leaps in front and parries the blow. Then has the full fury of Kast upon him. He holds off most of one round of attacks before one slips through and he is incapacitated. Altair steps to his defense this time, but a little Remain Conscious and Control Pain quickly allows Bro'jen to stagger to his feet just in time to see Kast disarm Altair, then savagely slice him diagonally across the torso. While managing to step out of most of the blow, it is still quite serious.

Before she can deliver the coup de grace, Dormamu makes his entrance known with a hail of machine gun fire. Driving her back into her inner room, he asks "is everyone okay here?" "Sort-of. But don't go after her, it's--" "I'll deal with her." And off he goes with handguns this time...

Bro'jen crawls over to Altair, who is dying of his wounds. Calling upon the last of his strength, he tries to transfer enough life energy to Altair so he won't die. But just using the power has sapped his last bit of energy. Filled with desperation and rage at failing, he reaches out and finds a source of energy to tap to fuel this effort. It succeeds, but now spent, he passes out. (GM note: This has got to be the first time someone has called on the Dark Side to do a heroic act at a dramatically appropriate moment...)

Dabai and Elbram arrive to hear the gunfire end. They see Kast with her saber off and by her side and Dormamu pointing a gun to her head. "Where is it!" yells Dormamu, but she just smiles and remains resolute. "There are more droids coming, we have to get out of here," points out Elbram. "As soon as she gives us the Heart of Darkness. Kast, if you don't give it to me, then I will shoot you." "Go ahead." And he does. She collapses, and Dabai telekinetically calls her lightsaber to him. It doesn't work -- he must have been using cortosis bullets!

Elbram looks to Bro'jen, Altair, and Kast, noting that none are dead, but all unconcious. Dormamu and Dabai begin looking around the room, trying to find the Heart of Darkness. Nothing. Dormamu suggests Dabai go to the temple area and look there, so he does. But a droid appears and Dabai only has an assault rifle, not enough to damage one of the droids. The droid doesn't see him, but takes up a guard position. Dabai isn't going anywhere, but he does have a clear view of another dot coming down. Larger and slower. He communicates this with Elbram, who communicates this with Dormamu. "We'll just have to take her with us," says Dormamu. "Grab her shoulders, I'll take her feet." And as Elbram pulls up her shoulders, she jumps up, and punches into Dormamu's chest to rip out his heart. As he dies, she turns to Elbram. "So you're going to take it from me?"

Dabai sees the dot grow into an assault shuttle, actually two or three, but the lead one hovers over the temple courtyard, its jets turning the air into a maelstrom of debris. The ramp extends and down it walks a huge armored man, trailing a purple cape. Belissarius.

"Me? I don't want to take it from you. Here, read my mind!" says Elbram. And so she does. And he doesn't. "How naive" she says and takes control of his body. Then releases it, saying "But there's nothing to be gained in that." And so she sits down. Elbram is trying to plead with her to leave now with him, but she says they must welcome their other guest.

Belissarius enters. "So, do you have it?" "I believe I do." And they enter a contest of Force powers. Belissarius attacking her mind, and Kast trying to keep him out of it. She holds him off for a minute, but he overwhelms her and she begins to flail out with the Dark Side. She calls a strong Force Wind, and Elbram is forced to take cover under a desk and hang on to it to keep it from blowing away. She lances out with Force Lightning, but Belissarius remains untouched, deflecting it away with the Force. Finally, she is spent, all the horror of the galaxy experienced at once, her face is frozen in a scream.

"So, mine was the stronger," says Belissarius, and turns towards Elbram. "Come out, young Jedi." Elbram dutifully does. "Consider this my declaration of war against the Republic and the Jedi Order on behalf of the Sith Empire." And he turns and begins to leave. Dabai has remained in contact with Elbram who has been relaying events to some degree and asks "What about the Heart of Darkness???"

So Elbram steels himself and asks "Belissarius?" "Yes?" "Have you found the Heart of Darkness?" "No. But they have." And he points towards Bro'jen and Altair, then continues on his way.