TSO Training Mission: The Setting Sun

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai was dropped off at the destination point, and immediatly he looked around. He was scanning the area, looking for any traces of the others or the supposed Jedi encampment. They were there to gather any relics within the encampment, any traces of records or force usage, and bring them back to the Order.

He leapt up to the branch of a tree, the force propelling him to it. He landed softly and took a look around from a higher vantage point. There wasn't much, just a few fires and tents, there had indeed been people here, but there were none now. Baralai leapt back down and stepped slowly into the area.

He knew Tarsis was behind him, and he extended a hand, lifting a finger and twirling it around in a circle. He was instructing Tarsis to scan the perimeter, make sure there wasn't anyone hiding out. Baralai stepped into the encampment and slowly took each step forward. He knew better than to rush into anything, and he scanned the area once again, looking for any signs of life.

There was nothing, and so slowly he stepped into one of the tents. It was empty for the most part, minus a cooking pot and some bedding areas. He didn't see much else, nothing that really caught his eye. He began to search under the bedding, knocking on the floor for any hollow spots, trying to find something that the jedi would need to hide.

He shook his head, letting out a sigh. Something in the back of his head kept prodding at him, telling him that not everything was as it seemed.

[Tarsis]

Tarsis couldn't believe he got stuck on trash detail. What did he care about relics? Tarsis wasn't a person to be used to hunt for items, Tarsis was a person to be used to fight! He was built for it! If he wanted to look for relics, he would have become a frackin Treasure Hunter. But still, a mission was a mission and if Tarsis wanted to progress through the ranks of the Sith, then he would have to play along for now.

Before Baralai could finish playing "Swiss Robinson" in the trees, Tarsis had already began searching the perimeter. It wasn't until Baralai actually said something or motioned something in his case, that Tarsis had found anything. Kneeling down and placing his hand on the soil, his power suit acknowledging his movements, Tarsis traced over a foot print left in the mud that followed several others down a concealed path. Making sure it wasn't Baralai's, Tarsis took note and continued searching the perimeter. Once he finished, he went to report to Baralai his findings.

" Looks like we just missed them.” He said looking over in the direction of the trail. “If my tracking skills aren’t as rusty as I imagine them to be, I’d say we’ve got about 4 or so people that headed off in that direction.” Once again, his father’s teachings had paid off and the only thing Tarsis could do about it was just shake his head. “In any case, thought you’d like to know.” With that said, Tarsis entered the tent next to the one Baralai was in and began searching through it’s contents.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai found nothing in the tent of any value. Just a few books that held no specific information about the sects that had met here. He stepped into the tent that Tarsis was searching and tapped him on the shoulder. He pointed his fingers forward, saying that they should move on.

Baralai headed out, there was really nothing there in the camp, but they could follow the tracks. Baralai looked down and began to follow the tracks, making sure not to lose them. He was doing his best to stay with them. If they could find the sect that was traveling, then they could get the artifacts directly from them. It was no doubt they would take them with them.

[Tarsis]

Why Baralai took the lead was beyond Tarsis. He apparently had no idea how to follow tracks and if he was to come across any of these Jedi venerates, how did he plan on telling Tarsis? By flailing his arms in the air? Shaking his head as he passed by Baralai, Tarsis said in the low voice, "I'll lead. Stay close and be ready for anything. These tracks are pretty fresh. Maybe a couple hours old, so I'm betting that we're not that far away." And with that said, Tarsis continued down the trail.

The trail itself broke off at several intersection, but only the one they were on now was the most recent traversed path. The tracks, went on for what seemed like miles, twisting in and out of the brush of the jungle. Other then keeping his eyes on the trail, Tarsis also watched out for the dangerous plants Jorshal had warned them all about. The good thing was that they had seen very few and that all of them they had seen now lay on the jungle floor, soon to decompose and be born again as new life.

The trail went on for another thirty or so minutes and then opened up into a small clearing. Not much, but enough for a group of people to set up camp. Of course the area was clear of any tents or signs that anyone had been there, but in the center of the clearing, Tarsis noticed that the soil had been disturbed. Walking over and kneeling next down, Tarsis dug his hand into the soft earth and pulled up a handful of dirt and repeated the process until he discovered the remnants of chard wood. A campfire. They were getting close. Standing up, Tarsis through the black pieces of wood at Baralai’s feet. “They were here.” If it wasn’t obvious, but still, it needed to be said. “I believe…” Tarsis paused for a moment. He had thought there to be only one trail, but now he noticed that there were two. Walking over, Tarsis inspected the new trail. The tracks were somewhat new just as the others were. This one, two sets of tracks could be found and the other, thee. “It looks like whoever it was we were following, has split into two groups. Two here and three there. We have one trail here and…” Tarsis pointed to the other one he had found. “ the other there. Both sets of tracks are about the same, fairly new. Either path we follow, I’m sure we’ll find someone, but what one we go down is up to you.”

Tarsis had a bad feeling about all this though. Call it a disturbance in the force or just an hunch, but whatever it was, it was pounding away at his mind like a blacksmith pounding away on a piece of metal, and he could only think of one thing, Be ready, something's getting ready to go down...

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai smirked when the apprentice pushed him out of the way. He was ambitious, this was good. He was smart as well, a good hunter. Baralai saw much promise in this one, and he knew that he was much more than able to get himself out of a tricky situation. That power suit gave him a nice little advantage, and Baralai knew his strength was great, but what about his force abilities? Baralai hadn't seen much of those, but he was terribly interested to see more.

As they passed through the jungle paths, seeing the many different plants that rested in their way, Baralai got curious. Why had these plants died? He stopped for a moment and got close to one of the dead ones, and looking at it, he saw a clean cut through its branch. Someone had cut it down, they had definetly come through here earlier, and they had some kind of weaponry. Baralai's continued to follow Tarsis slowly, but also, he kept his guard up. The sects of Jedi could've been hiding out, waiting for any intruders, and Baralai and Tarsis weren't exactly friendly to begin with.

The campsite was empty, there were no tents, but something didn't seem right about the place. When Tarsis threw the black wood at his feet, he simply kicked it over, he was right. They had been here not too long ago, but why had they left in such a hurry?

Baralai's thoughts changed when Tarsis told him about the second path. Something was odd about this place, why had the sect been moving so fast? Why had they split into groups? The only reason a team splits up is to have a higher likelihood of one group surviving. They were running. . .but from what?

Baralai acknowledged Tarsis when he told him the information and pulled out a piece of paper. He quickly scribbled on it and handed it over to Tarsis. Since he had begun communicating in note form, he had developed very speedy handwriting. Sometimes a little illegible in places, but the point always got across.

Tarsis, do you have any idea as to why they would split up? Don't you find it odd their moving so quickly? They're running from something. I say we take the left path. More people means we have a better chance of getting information from one of them.

Baralai got a bad feeling from all of this, and he thought they were only getting themselves in deeper and deeper. But, it was for the Order, and what was needed for the Order had to be done. Still, Baralai felt highly uncomfortable.

[Tarsis]

Crumpling the note from Baralai and tossing into the small pit he had dug to unearth the old camp fire, Tarsis turned and replied, "There are a number of reasons why they would have split up: to throw us off their trail, going to two different places, hunting, being hunted. I could go on all day on why they would split up, but the question I think you should be asking yourself is why did they so carelessly covered their tracks?" Tarsis was annoyed to say the least. He didn't like playing games and that is exactly what this was. A game. "You would think that a party of Jedi, during these times, would be more careful."

After a few moments of thinking to himself, Tarsis went on. "We'll go down the left path, as you said, but be on your guard. I feel it won't be much longer until we come across these 'Jedi' venerates." Tarsis' bad feeling had grown more ominous now then before and needless to say, Tarsis didn't like it.

Tarsis, having already started down the path, was on the look out for anything out of the ordinary. Whether it be a broken tree limb suggesting that the group had went another direction or finding the group, it didn’t matter. Tarsis had a hunch that his was all a set up and that just made him more on edge then usual. There was just something about this whole set up that he didn’t like. The trail that they were following, for one, was just too easily noticeable. It was like the venerates wanted to be followed.

After following the trail for a good thirty minutes, Tarsis came to a dead stop. Looking around for a moment then kneeling down, Tarsis wrapped his hands around the hilt of a lightsaber. Glancing towards Baralai, Tarsis, in a low voice, said, “ I highly doubt these are ‘real’ Jedi we’re following. The lightsaber is a Jedi‘s life, correct? Why would they be so careless as to drop or leave behind something of such great value to their way of life?”

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai watched Tarsis throw the piece of paper into the pit and speak on his idea of leaving evidence they were here. Baralai just smirked and stepped over to the pit, pulling out his cigarette lighter and lighting the small piece of paper on fire. It burned away to ashes and he smirked.

He smirked and thought to himself on what Tarsis had said, but yet how he had entended to leave the note. He wasn't being smart and they weren't even being chased. He wasn't thinking about the Inquisitoriate, but that was understandable. Baralai knew what they could do, and he had no intention of going back there.

He walked behind Tarsis, following his path, seeing as how he was the hunter of the group. He just followed, hoping he knew where he was going. But as they got further and further in, Baralai began to feel odd. Even though he was no hunter or tracker, he was a smart man, and something about this beaten path didn't seem right.

It seemed as though it was all a set up.

Baralai watched as Tarsis picked up the lightsaber hilt and took it from him. He held it in his hands and ran his fingers over it. It was an authentic lightsaber alright, but why was it here? No Jedi, or Sith for that matter, would leave such a tool behind. Especially one that was small and needed such objects as this. They had lost their weapon of defense, but now Baralai knew what had cut a path through the forest.

He knew something was wrong now, they wouldn't have dropped their saber unless they were. . .attacked. Baralai looked up into the trees, looking for signs of anything hiding there. He couldn't hear anything but the wild calls of the animals. He tapped Tarsis on the shoulder and pointed up, signaling that something may have been in the treetops. The shubery was too thick to see through to the sunlight, but it rained through in tiny spurts within the canvas.

He slowly began to walk backwards, placing a hand onto his lightwhip. He clipped the saber to his belt and kept one hand free. Something told him things were about to go from bad to worse.

[Nyloh Heat]

Seeker Delta was completely stationary. Nothing moved, he had even regulated his partially mechanical heart to near dead beats. He blended perfectly in the shadows on the ground level, crouched in a position where his body's tension was building like a spring. The two prey were completely unaware of him or Echo on the other side of them. The large one was staring at the sky and the frail Prisoner A-83417... the Seeker actually had a personal preference of insuring that they finished the job that Project Nightmare didn't.

So far from Mother, the Seeker's were a bit limited in their extent of knowledge but outside of the busy traffic of Coruscant, they could easily communicate with each other. Echo sent a message that his point was confirmed, the two Seekers had an optimum perimeter about the two force adepts. The mission advance was a green. Their vision was in a red scale through their visors, the darkness easily pierced by their advanced technology. Each Seeker was unique to some extent, their preference of weapons and often their more extensive bionics were all reminiscent of their past lives. But their weapons remained sheathed. No point in ruining it yet.

A signal beeped in Echo's visor and he lunged into the air, his servos and increased muscle capabilities sending him to a tree limb nearly 15 feet above the adepts. Delta reached into a compartment within his armor and withdrew a small sphere, hurling at the ground beneath their feet. An ion grenade would neutralize any electronic equipment they carried, including the power cell transformers in their weapons. The residue of the ion blast would leave the Seekers out of contact for a small time though. Not that they expected any problems.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai watched as the two mechanical creations flew into the sky, one of them pulling out an ion grenade and hurling it at the ground. Baralai watched as the sphere hurled slowly down to the ground, and in a quick movement he sped forward, picking his speed up with the force. The sphere tumbled slowly through the sky.

Baralai knew that he couldn't pick up Tarsis, he would have to find his own way out. He leapt into the limbs of the trees, dodging the ion blast on the ground. He couldn't do much for Tarsis. Baralai didn't have the physical strength to lift him, and his power in the force wasn't strong enough to lift him either. Tarsis would have to find his own way out. Meanwhile, Baralai focused on how he was gonna take down the two units who had just attacked them, reaching in for his whip and pulling it out.

He reached out with the force and pushed the Seeker closest to him, and struck out with his whip, the chain glancing at his chest.

[Tarsis]

Everything was happening so quickly that if Tarsis hadn't been demanding assistance form the Force, he wouldn't have caught it all. Two venerates, or possibly the Inquisitorate, Tarsis hadn't a clue. All he knew was that there were two of them and they were now flying in the air above him.

Quickly unsheathing his two-handed vibrosword, Tarsis' vision locked on the man who had thrown a small sphere towards Tarsis. It was a grenade. What kind of grenade, Tarsis hadn't a clue, but he was sure a frell not going to stick around to find out. Quickly calling upon for the Force, demanding that it yield it's power to him, Tarsis force it all into his legs, amplifying his leg muscles as he began his Force run away from the falling grenade.

As the sphere landed where he had previously been standing, it detonated, showering the air with waves of electro magnetic pulses, scrambling any and all electronic equipment. Tarsis had of course realized this when he tried to contact Jorshal over the comm. and all he got was static. An ion grenade. Perfect!

Pace yourself Tarsis, you don’t want to overdue it so soon. Tarsis thought to himself as he stopped his Force run and activated his vibrosword. Tarsis could feel the adrenalin course through his veins as the battle began. The surge of emotion, the perfect mixture between fear and excitement, taking control. Tarsis, locking his sights on the second Seeker, calmed himself down as he recalled his teachings. Finally, after only a few seconds, Tarsis moved in, charging towards his target.

Feeling his power suit coming alive as he charged the Seeker, it’s servos and actuators adding to his speed and muscle capabilities just as the Seeker’s suit did for them, the gears turning as Tarsis grasped the hilt of his sword, readying it for battle. And a battle it would have as Tarsis neared his target, bringing his sword to his side as he got closer and closer. Just as he was close enough to strike the Seeker, Tarsis swung his sword in a wide arch, towards the midsection of the Seeker.

Dren!! A miss! Tarsis’ attack had been easily evaded by the much more, combat efficient Seeker as it jumped back, missing the blade by a solid foot. Tarsis would have to take the Seekers speed into consideration for his next attack, but for now, Tarsis went on the defensive, readying himself for whatever the Seeker might throw at him. The battle had begun, but it was far from over…

[Nyloh Heat]

Seeker Echo, known by his brethren as 2-Tyrant-0 easily dodged the attack. Given the powersuit of the adept, the strength and momentum behind the attack was expected. The speed in which the adept had dodged the ion grenade was not expected however. The seeker was already adding the given speed into the battle formula, transmitting the same suggestion to Seeker Delta.

He turned on his heel, tension building on his back foot as his hand turned, katar like blades splitting out from his fore arm. His other hand drew a long, slender blade from a sheath effectively hidden on his back. In seconds, the unarmed figure had become a blade wielding shadow. The ground level that they were at was known as the shadowlands and for obvious reasons, the sunlight above barely reached this level due to the thick foilage and a dense layer of mist. Trying to exactly point out the silhouette of the seekers was no easy accomplishment.

Seeker Echo launched forward, dirt and debris flew in the air from the explosion of movement. The katar was held to the side, ready to catch Tarsis' weapon and Echo's slender sword gleamed in light filtered through the mist as it split the air toward's Tarsis' face.

Baralai's whip struck short but the force push launched the Seeker backwards. Such tricks were expected of force adepts by now. The Seekers were human for this very reason, improvising to factors that wouldn't have made sense for their robotic counterparts. The Seekers were the perfect combination of man and machine to serve the Inquisitoriate's purposes.

Seeker Delta caught himself against a tree, spinning his body with ease to land against the tree like a spider. He was only there for a moment before he launched himself to another tree. He used the massive width of the tree as cover, completely concealing himself from view as he scaled the tree upwards. The adept had too much range with the whip and Delta would adapt as needed. As he scaled the tree, the shoulder of his long jacket shuddered and then ripped as a small rifle mounted on a stem protruded from Delta's shoulder. A red orb was also attached to the stem, dimly glowing.

Delta pushed off, backwards and away from the kill zone before landing on another branch. The shoulder mounted rifle twisted as Delta locked on the adept from his higher vantage point. Red streaks of laser fire hailed down from above on Baralai.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai watched as the Seeker fired his weapons at him. In a quick switch of his thumb, the blade of his whip coursed down the chain. The laser fire hailed down on him, and Baralai struck at it with his whip, sending some of it back to it's source.

He landed on the ground and pushed the force through his body, speeding him up, and dashing away from the fire, he swung his whip, still reppeling some of the laser fire. Baralai leapt into the air toward the Seeker that was firing at him, launching back his laser fire. One of the bolts scaled past him and over his shoulder, scorching his skin.

He felt the pain from the blast, but did his best to focus on what was in front of him. He threw his whip out, being close enough to the Seeker, in an diagonal slash, aiming for the rifle. If he could cut that out, maybe he could make this a more fair fight. Less interesting, but fair.

[Tarsis]

One thing hadn’t changed sense this fight had started and that was Tarsis’ hold on the Force. He was bending it’s will to suit him and he intended to do so until the end. It was the only thing that was allowing him to “see” the Seeker before him given the conditions that were the Shadowlands. Although Tarsis could not see the Seeker, he could feel him or at least parts of him; the ones that were still human. One thing was for sure though, these were no Jedi.

Staring down the tyrant Seeker as he turned on his heel, unleashing his arsenal of weaponry from their hidden sheaths, Tarsis took a deep breath as he realized what he was up against. This was his first ‘real’ fight. His father and siblings was nothing compared to what this was going to be and Tarsis, now seeing this, wasn’t’ sure how it made him feel. He wasn’t scared, that’s for sure. It was a warrior’s wish to die in battle. It was seen as an honorable way to die, but Tarsis wouldn’t be the one dying today as his confidence in his training stepped in.

There! Tarsis, quickly bringing his vibrosword up to deflect the blade aimed at his face was suddenly caught of guard by the Katar of the enemy. Frack!! was the only thing Tarsis could think about. He had completely forgotten about his other weapon and if he didn’t so something soon, he wouldn’t be alive much longer to learn from his mistake. Tarsis had only moments to think, but that‘s all he needed. Letting go of his vibrosword with one hand and dropping to one knee, Tarsis quickly brought his hand up to the level of his eyes and deflected the deadly blade with his armored forearm. Sparks lit the area as the Seeker’s blade and Tarsis’ powersuit met, metal to metal.

Tarsis had got lucky to say the least, or had he? It was then that Tarsis could feel the warm, liquid substance that gave him life and coursed within his body, sliding down his right cheek. Tarsis didn’t have to wipe his cheek to know that he had been hit and you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Tarsis was madder then frell!

Making sure his sword and the Seeker’s Katar were held together tightly and that he had a firm grip on the Seeker’s right hand, Tarsis rose up to his full height, connecting his forehead with the face of the Seeker as he caught him off guard with a head butt. Then, as he pulled his sword free, Tarsis extended his hand towards the Seeker and drove a Psychic Scream into the depths of his mind. Demanding the Force to deliver blow after painful blow, Tarsis smiled as he watched the Seeker writhe in pain. But this was only a diversion, a diversion not meant to completely take down the Seeker, but to allow Tarsis a moment to ready himself for whatever was next. No, the Force would not be the one to take this one down, that was meant for Tarsis and Tarsis alone. The Force would just have to deal with it.

[Nyloh Heat]

The bionic implants in Echo's neural system slowly kicked in. It had been quite some time since the Seekers had fought aggressive adepts, trained with such techniques as this barbarian employed. The pain was being dulled out by a substitution code that gave a euphoric sense to the Seeker's organic sensations. This readily dulled the pain but also left Echo in a moment of pause in which its regulated nervous system had to recoil and regroup to a more stabalized position. The adept held him in his position for only bare seconds before the Seeker's subtle strength rose to match that of the powersuit's.

The katar began to overpower Tarsis' blade in moments, his grip being slowly twisted away. The arm that was being held moved oddly, as if contorting itself, the limb making a loud popping noise. It suddenly spun around quickly and surprisingly broke Tarsis' steel grip. In a fluid motion, Echo actually ran up Tarsis, using his legs like stepping stones, pushing the great blade down at the same time. A metal boot was brought up, determined to use Tarsis' face as the next point of leverage.

Delta tried to leap backwards but the whip caught the front of the shoulder mounted rifle with a sizzling crack. The barrel was gone, already hardening, metallic goo was left in its place. Delta dove to the side, recovering as he tore the useless weapon from his shoulder.

Delta assessed the situation quickly enough. The adepts greatly lacked in range profficiency. In an overwhelming case of such a circumstance, both adepts could be removed easily. Determining a much better strategy in the seconds it had to react, the Seeker leaped backwards once more, making yet more distance between the two. The Seekers could obviously match in close quarters, analyzing the fight between Echo and armored adept. The range though, the adepts were required to close the range to even gain a chance. This concept was forwarded to Echo for further analyzation.

Delta spun as he leaped back again, breaking into a blurring sprint. Its boots produced grappling spikes as it ran up the thick tree before it and it leaped back and well over and out of the range of the adept's whip. Landing on a branch with perfect grace, a blaster pistol appeared in the Seeker's hand, blue lances of energy flying at the adept with deadly accuracy.

[Baralai Lotus]

Barlai felt the coursing stings of several blaster bolts scratch his legs. The two seekers ran off and Baralai began throwing his whip up, deflecting the blaster bolts, sending them in several different directions, all of which were carefully aimed.

He watched as the blaster bolts coursed into the tree sliced through it easily, battering it and cutting it. He commanded the force into his legs and sped off, his muscles still on fire from the blaster bolts. He ran underneath the branch of the tree he had been slicing and deactivated his whip, throwing it up and using the force to pull up his body in a quick arch, sending the blaster bolt behind him.

The branch cracked under the sudden weight, and when Baralai touched down on the ground, he pulled hard with the whip, cracking the large branch even more. In a quick move, he retracted the whip and reached out with the force, detaching the limb and hurling it at the seeker that was firing at him. The branch hurled at him like a train, only picking up in momentum.

[Tarsis]

One, two, three and Tarsis was down. The last thing he had seen was the Seeker's rather large boot and then came the tree tops. Swearing through clenched teeth as he rolled over, his powersuit clanking into gear and the servos reacting to his body's movements, Tarsis quickly got back up and reestablished his guard. That was unexpected to say in the least. The Seeker’s were either immune to the effects of the Force, seeing how he just shook of that Psychic Scream like it was nothing or the cyborg was more advanced then Tarsis was giving it credit for. Whatever the answer was, Tarsis didn’t care. The only thing on his mind was how he was going to take this weapon down.

Now with adrenalin following freely, blood and sweat mixing as they beaded on his face and rolled off, dripping onto his power suit, Tarsis gave chase as the Seeker he was fighting ran off. Concentrating and willing the Force into his legs, Tarsis sped up after the Seeker with a small Force boost as he noticed his power suit’s assistance wasn’t’ doing the job. Tarsis was a little exhausted to be honest. Being only an Acolyte, using the Force this much grew tiring rather quickly, but Tarsis would never let any of that show. A strong fighter never lets his opponent know he’s beat… Tarsis could hear his father saying as he lectured him and his siblings on “proper” fighting ethics. That man knew proper fighting ethics, like Tarsis knew he was a Master of the Force. It just wasn’t true. His idea of “proper” fighting ethics was to “kick em’ in the balls, then shoot them in the head. Plain and simple.”

Slipping off of memory lane as reality set back in, Tarsis noticed that he was finally close enough to the Seeker to stop him dead in his tracks. Running up a small tree that had fallen over, Tarsis leapt into the air and collided with the back of the Seeker as they both hit the ground with a loud thud and skidded few feet afterwards. That wasn’t the smartest tactic to employ, but it got the job done and as soon as Tarsis hit the ground, he was back up, vibrosword raised to the sky and quickly making it’s decent towards the neck of the Seeker…

[Nyloh Heat]

It would've appeared as some instinctive movements but the calculated path of the blaster bolts flew by Delta as he dodged them with only centimeters to spare. Physics assisted Delta as the case was. Several well placed blaster bolts deflected the branch away from its collision course with the seeker and with that counterattack out of the way, his firing continued. He kept moving, as to keep the distance between the two. The adept with the whip still wouldn't be able to close the distance until he learned how to climb up trees and nearly 30 feet at that. Nonetheless, Delta still wanted as much distance as was possible.

He fired off another round as he moved to another branch. This time, he didn't keep track of the bolt, expecting the blaster fire to be deflected back to his previous position. But the blue lance of energy returned, scorching a mark in his armor plated shoulder. He fell but caught himself just the same on the branch he had been standing on. Not wasting anytime to assess the damage, the seeker dropped from that branch and landed on another, slowly making his way back up into the higher levels of the tree line.

Echo rolled and the massive vibroblade caught him in the front, slicing into his shoulder. The impact wasn't as bad as the adept hadn't had the time to gather as much momentum to make a strike like this count. The fact that it was a vibroblade made the difference. The blade cut through the armor plating on Echo's shoulder and sliced into pale flesh. Black blood splattered the air for a moment.

The pain, again was removed from Echo's system as it's leg came up in response, the cyborg's enhanced muscle system capable of stronger strikes in a shorter space than the adept's powersuit, and hit the inside of the adept's sword arm. The boot hit, used the rebound of the kick to come back and hit the adept in the thigh. The sword was removed from it's place in Echo's shoulder and Echo was moving. The damaged arm was responding but only at 50 percent efficiency, Echo might as well have ignored it, the probability of error was too great. His other arm instead, deadly katar attached, launched a series of attacks in response.

[Tarsis]

arsis smiled as he watched the black blood of the Seeker fly into the air and decorate his suit. This fight was proving to be worth the hours spent hiking in the forest of Kashyyyk. Its humid air, the stagnant smell of decay on the forest floor, and the insects, especially the insects, all of it was now paid for in full. The thrill of it all, the adrenalin rush that it provided, a feeling that nothing else could give him, but it was all short lived as his sword arm was stuck and then his thigh, sending the big man tumbling back and slamming into one of the areas Wroshyr tree and down to a knee. The hits were strong and precise. Each well aimed for strategically taking Tarsis out of the picture for a moment and allowing the Seeker to regain control of the situation... which it did.

Before Tarsis could even stand back up, the Seeker was at it again; its deadly katar swinging and stabbing towards Tarsis with alarming speed and accuracy. Dodging to the left, missing the Seeker’s katar by only millimeters, Tarsis quickly jumped up to his feet and brought his guard up at the same time, blocking another strike aimed for his throat. The Seeker’s assault seemed unending as blow after blow whizzed past Tarsis, who was literally, blocking and dodging for his life at the moment. Every attack blocked by Tarsis, drained the big man of precious energy he could have used to attack back, but the Seeker showed no signs of stopping.

Tarsis had to do something and do it fast. He was growing more tired as every second passed. It was now or never… Letting go of all his anger, Tarsis demanded the Force to do his will once again. Feeling his forearms and bicep bulge with renewed energy, Tarsis started his offensive as he stepped into the Seekers attack and as its katar dug itself deep into Tarsis shoulder, he raised his vibrosword with his off hand and sliced the Seeker’s hand clean off. The Seeker staggered back, its expression unchanging as it examined the stub where its hand used to be, apparently calculating its chances of winning, even continuing the fight, but Tarsis didn’t give it the time it needed to improvise. With the katar still sticking out of his shoulder, Tarsis gripped his sword with both hands and swung it across the shoulders of the Seeker, cleaving its head right off. With a final wheeze of it trachea, as the airway filled with the same black blood that now covered Tarsis’ face, its knees buckled and it’s lifeless corpse fell to the forest floor.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai watched as Tarsis knocked his opponent to the ground, and he smirked. He had done well, and as Baralai watched him, a blaster bolt shot down and struck his other shoulder. He winced from the pain, but pushed the force over to attempt and null it. Baralai activated his whip again and stood, bringing his whip to hang freely. He stood still, looking up at the seeker in the trees.

He was waiting. Waiting for him to make his move. The Seeker locked onto Baralai and fired five blaster bolts down at him. He swung his whip accurately at the first four, sending them back to its source. The last shot he sent toward the tree. The tree was scorched with the blaster bolt, and Baralai swung his whip out at it, slicing through the tree.

As the whip coursed through the tree and fell forward, the Seeker slowly fell forward with its branches. The four blaster bolts flying at him, and each found a place in its home. One in each shoulder, and one in each kneecap. Disabling its ability to move long enough for Baralai to come up from the ground.

Pushing the force into his legs, Baralai leapt up, and deactivated his whip, throwing the chain out and wrapping it around the neck of the seeker. As the machine was still gaining its ability to move its joints again Baralai struck up his whip, and it cleanly sliced through its neck. Reaching out with the force, Baralai pushed the body away from him, and threw out his whip again, slicing the large tree in half.

Baralai came to the ground breathing heavily. He had been pushing himself to hard for this fight. And all at once, the pain of the two blaster bolts came flowing back. He fell to one knee and caught his breath. The whip deactivated it and Baralai looked over at Tarsis. He was in pain, and he reached into his jacket for some sort of medical remedy. He had nothing, he would just have to wince through it. He wrapped up his whip and stored it away walking up to Tarsis, still breathing heavily.

[Tarsis]

Tarsis had lost a lot of blood from his wound, but he was stable. Taking a knee only for a moment to catch his breath was all he needed. But it was when he did this that his vision came across something shinning from the waste of the Seeker. Shuffling over next to its fallen corpse, Tarsis grabbed a small bag from its belt and open it. Inside were seven tiny crystals: 3 green, 2 blue, and 2 red. Lightsabre crystals! Tarsis thought as Baralai stepped up next to him, breathing heavily from his encounter with the Seeker.

“Well, I guess…all…this…was really worth it, huh?” Tarsis said as he winced from the pain and looked up at Baralai, holding out the open bag of crystals in his hand. “These are no artifacts, but I think the Order can put them to good use. Don’t you?” He asked rhetorically as he closed the bag. Placing them in a hidden pocket of his bloody cloak, Tarsis stood up. But quickly fell down to a knee again as he was overcome by dizziness. He apparently had lost more blood then what he had originally thought. “We need to hurry back to the transport so I can get some…Bacta on this.” He said as he ripped the katar out of his shoulder and held back a scream of pain. “And fast. I don’t feel like dying out here from loss of blood.”

Making his way back up to his feet, Tarsis and Baralai started there way back to the area where they were first dropped off. Things hadn’t gone according to plan, but everything worked out in the end. The Jedi venerates had been taken down by the Seekers, the Seekers were taken down by Tarsis and Baralai, and the two Sith got to walk away. Not so much unscathed, but with what they had come here for.

About thirty or so minutes after Baralai had called the ship back, it landed and picked up its two passengers. Taking off, the ship made its way back towards the Sith stronghold located on Korriban. And Tarsis, now in possession of Lightsabre crystals, began to contemplate the idea of creating his own Lightsabre…