Snowblind

[Elric Draay]

The Outer Rim Territories - Rhen Var

Gunnar threw himself down into the snow drift that rose against the AT-AR's broken leg. A quick glance to the side told him that the walker's driver and commander were dead, their faces squashed against fractured glass like bugs. His breath misting heavily in the chilled air, he fumbled at the buttons on his hand-held comm, thick gloves making frustrating work of an ordinarily simple task. His voice came hoarse, lips thin and cracked with the cold.

“Third team, do you copy?!”

There was no reply. The sound of the ice-storm and the static-buzz of the communicator merged as one, and Vox gave the machine a frustrated shake before casting it off into the snow. As the storm had intensified, technology had become useless. The only thing which he could still rely on, which had would never fail him, was clutched in his other hand: an E-11 blaster rifle.

Tugging the faceplate of his helmet back into place, Vox all but vanished into the snow. Only the dark hollows of his eyes and the muzzle of his blaster betrayed his location. That the snowtrooper armor allowed him to blend seamlessly with his surroundings was not enough, however, as the men and women who pursued him had latched onto his trail with all the tenacity of kath hounds and just wouldn't be shaken loose.

The snow-swoops surged into view from behind the fallen AT-AR. With their forward mounted laser cannons, the drivers would be forced to execute sliding turns to bring their guns to bear on Gunnar. As their headlights flashed across his vision, signaling that he was now within firing range, Vox dropped into a roll and fell beneath the volley of blaster fire. The shots struck the downed walker inside, one further cracking its viewscreen and burning an eye-socket sized hole in the centre of the drivers head.

Rising to his feet, the cape of his armor whipping tight against his body, Gunnar swore. The monsters had no respect for the dead – and even less control of their vehicles, as within seconds one of the drivers had shunted the rear end of his swoop into the AT-AR as he tried to spin a one-eighty. A moment of clarity and cunning came to Vox and without hesitation he fired on the walker, vengeance overriding all over emotions as his shot struck home and triggered an explosion within the frozen carriers engines. The second snow-bike had looped behind the wreckage, ready to make another pass, and was dead-level with the heap of misshapen metal when everything went boom!

A cloud of fire billowed outwards from the walker, spitting shards of metal and glass some thirty feet into the air. Somewhere within the noise there was screams, and Gunnar's own yell as he was thrown skidding through the snow.

As he struggled onto hands and knees, thankful that his plastoid armor had taken the brunt of the impact with the rock and ice beneath the surface snow, Vox caught a glimpse of the Rebel Alliance insignia wreathed in flames. Hatred swelled in him as he turned his steely gaze back to the unforgiving mountains of Rhen Var, but there was something else he felt as he looked towards the eyrie that surely contained the Rebel outpost. Pride – pride that he had put the Rebel bastards in their graves and made certain that his comrades' deaths had been avenged.

Now, he thought, raising his blaster as if salute, it's time to put an end to this...

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

"Did you guys hear that? I think it was an explosion..."

Suspended upside down from a neatly secured set of rigging, the statuesque blonde pulled the goggles off of her head and looked down. Where there were four people only a few minutes ago as she'd started repelling into the massive cave, waiting to help her, there was now no-one. Sighing, she flipped herself upright and resumed her descent, covering the remaining hundred some-odd meters in a matter of seconds.

After all...if they'd started exploring without her, then they couldn't chastise her for letting her adrenaline kick up its heels a bit. Her lyrical laughter echoed in the cavern as she landed and promptly fell on her ass, feet slipping on the base of the iced-over ropes. Another deep, echoing boom was heralded by dust and debris shaking loose from the ceiling and glittering as it filtered down through the light.

The data she'd looked at before she'd agreed to the trip hadn't mentioned anything about seismic activity in the region...but then again, it wouldn't be the first time her 'friends' had fed her false data just to get her to come along. Hastily getting out of her harness and stuffing it into her pack, she left the ropes where they were in case it was her only method of exit.

Kala shimmied into her thick jacket and zipped it up before shrugging into her backpack. There was only one path out of the cavern, so with a lightstick in hand, she went exploring.

[Elric Draay]

As he struggled upwards, fighting through two feet of snow, Gunnar Vox was driven on ward by one thing and one thing alone – the knowledge that a single act of courage on his part could be the undoing of that damned Rebellion!

The howling wind grew stronger and a sudden gust caught Vox, throw himself backwards into the tracks he had just carved into the snow. He lay still for a moment, listening to the sound of his own breathing and the beating of his heart pounding within his helmet.

“I have to go on,” he said, to no one. “I have to. For the Empire!”

But someone heard him. Tens of someones in fact, who heard through the vocoder in his helmet, and the microphone that was equipped to the two probe droids hovering above him. Were it not for their constant orbit, one might have believed that Gunnar Vox was indeed a lone man against the world, against the Rebellion, but the truth was quite a different matter.

“Up, Elric,” a voice said into Gunnar's helmet, and right on cue Elric Draay began to pull himself to his feet. Through the probe droids lens, his rise from the frozen earth was staggering yet, ultimately, triumphant. It was only fortunate that they could not see the expression on his face.

“The thing's I do for the good of the Empire,” he muttered.

“No chatter,” the voice hissed, and 'Gunnar' righted himself, forging onward up the hill. There was only a handful of scenes to go before the latest of Elric Draay's propaganda holo-films was complete, but as always, the grand finale would be anything but easy. A grueling climb into the mountains, a perilous journey into the ice caverns and a near fatal fight with a traitorous Jedi, would bring the picture to a close, and ensure Draay's continued success as another of Imperial action hero.

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

Over an hour later, there was no trace of her friends, and the whole exploring in peace and quiet angle was completely grating on her nerves. Kala was beginning to worry a bit, if she were going to be honest with herself - either something terrible had happened to them and she was going to find chunks of them soon, or, worse, they'd hightailed it back to their ship and taken off without her.

Wouldn't be the first time. Nor the last, the young woman would wager.

A sigh escaped her lips and lingered in a half-frozen cloud, pausing as she did in the middle of an intersection of pathways. Gloved fingers toyed with a loose blonde curl while Kala thought, before tucking it behind her ear and picking the pathway on the left. There was no rhyme or reason as she marked her way with a bit of chalk, there was just that strange inner prompting that had never steered her wrong.

Even if it did steer her into trouble more often than not, the end result was always positive.

It was when she ignored the prompting and followed her heart that she got into trouble. Like today, apparently. If she -ever- followed a guy anywhere again she made a mental note to shoot herself. The young woman muttered as she walked, finding that the winding path eventually led her back to the cavern she'd started in - complete with cut ropes.

Cut?!

Kala raced to the center of the room where she saw the bottoms of the ropes had been hacked out of the ice and the anchors in the ceiling were all that remained. Miserable bastards really had left her here this time.

"Shit. Now I'm in trouble."

[Elric Draay]

A jagged toothed maw of ice awaited Elric as he crested the last of the snow-dunes he was set to climb. Though a blizzard swept across the landscape, plunging Rhen Var to painfully cold temperatures, Draay was sweating. The air inside his helmet was clammy, strands of dark hair clinging irritably to his temples.

“This is the place?” he asked in a murmured voice, turning his helmet back and forth to give the camera-droid a good shot of him staring up in wonder at the caves entrance.

“This is it. In you go, Elric,” the voice confirmed.

“And Thesin is inside?”

“That's where we've sent her, yes. The ice seems to be jamming our communciations with her, but she knows the part she has to play.”

Draay nodded to himself. Both he and his co-star had rehearsed their roles well, though never in such challenging conditions. The cape of his Snowtrooper armour flagging behind him, he edged his way into the cave and made a show of turning here and there, the sights of his blaster sweeping the area.

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

Shoving her ponytail back over her shoulder, her lavender gaze narrowed as she peered down into her pack. Kala bit her lip and rummaged through what few supplies she had. Ration bars would hold for a few days, a few dry layers of clothing would be a boon, and the blankets and bedroll ought to be enough so long as she had a sheltered spot to set up in.

A tendril of fear nestled into the pit of her stomach, curled up comfortably as if it were planning on staying a while. The bastards had left her food and blankets, but had taken the comm device that had been buried in her things. Not only did she have no way of comming them now, but she had no way of contacting anyone. At all.

"Stupid, frelling idiot...you're going to die on a frozen ice ball. Alone. Because of some imaginary feelings that were, I might add, very obviously rejected. No better way of saying 'Sorry, I don't feel the same way' than leaving a girl on a planet with no means of escape." Kala rubbed angrily at her eyes and repacked her bag, making sure to attach her climbing gear and small pick-axe to the outside where she could reach it easily.

She shrugged into it, pulling the hood of her parka free before tightening the straps around her shoulders and clasping the support around her waist. A quick glance down ensured that her boots were laced tightly and the two silver cylinders were still strapped securely to each calf.

The lightstick gave her a few feet of visibility as she moved deeper into the cave, toward the faint noises she could now hear. Unsure if it was sentient or not, her inner prompting urged her forward, and Kala moved as quietly and cautiously as she could.

[Elric Draay]

Every crunch of his snow-boots against the brittle ice seemed to echo like thunder against the caverns walls. In the narrative of the holo, even the sound of Draay's breathing inside his helmet became a give-away that would alert the Jedi he was tracking. In actuality, Elric felt – if not calm – then at least in control. There was a certain amount of unavoidable danger that came with working in such an environment, with every huge stalactite that hung above him like some perilously balanced blade weighting to plummet to the ground.

As the light in the tunnel faded, Elric fumbled into his utility belt for a glow-rod. As he snapped it at the middle, sickly green light flooded in a circle around him, pooling at his feet like toxic ooze. Whilst his other hand kept his blaster pistol trained on the darkness ahead, he swept the light methodical back and forth passes. Thesin - his Jedi adversary - was somewhere ahead...

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

Another dead end.

Kala frowned, at first, then nibbled on her lower lip as she half closed her eyes. She reviewed the paths she'd taken in her head, counting the turns, the lefts, the rights, the footsteps-

-footsteps?!

Lavender eyes opened wide as she killed the glowstick in her hand, plunging the small chamber into complete darkness. Her eyes adjusted faster than a normal human's would have, and though she could not see well, it was a definite step up from blind. She quietly unshouldered her pack as the footsteps came closer, stuffing it into a small crevasse so she wouldn't have to worry about tripping over it if there was a scuffle.

With a careful touch, she unclasped one of the silver cylinders, its long-familiar weight a bit comforting. As an afterthought, Kala shrugged out of her parka as her movement would be too restricted with it on.

What in the hell are you doing? You can't fight with the damn thing...you're barely capable of keeping your own limbs.

Maybe I won't have to? Besides...dad taught me a little before he died. I'm only mostly useless with it.

Kala.

Honestly, Rin, just shut up if you have nothing constructive to add...I can panic enough for both of us.

Her twin's voice faded to the back of her mind and elicited a sigh. She'd lost the other half of herself the day Nic had died, and wandered lost for the better part of a year. Until a spark of his presence had come back to her as if he'd never left.

[Elric Draay]

In his mind, Elric heard the score that would accompany this scene – the rising strings, verging upon frantic as Gunnar Vox drew ever closer to the confrontation that might be the death of him. As he edged his way into what his helmet – a fully-functional prop – told him was a dom-shaped cavern, Draay tossed the glow-rod into the darkness and watched it rolled across the frozen floor. It skidded across the ice and when it came to a halt, its light casted the faintest illumination on what seemed to be a pair of legs. The glow didn't reach her face, but Elric thought he might have seen a smile on Thesin's face at how very well that little introduction had worked.

His voice filtering through his Snowtrooper helmet, 'Gunnar' called out: “Who goes there?”

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

What is this, a holo-vid? Who goes there? I mean really...who in the 'verse talks like that anymore?

Am I supposed to answer that, Miss-Imma-Jedi?

If you've got an answer and not more snark, Rin, then sure.

Uttering a bored-sounding sigh, Kala took a step forward when Rin stayed silent. Just enough movement to know that the sickly green light would now illuminate her entire 5' 10" frame. The soft white of her fitted sweater and comfortable cargo pants glowed, while the white leather of her climbing boots shone dully. The silver streaks in her platinum curls sparkled as she shifted, her free hand toying with the end of her long ponytail.

"Oh, its just little ole me...fancy meeting you in a place like this, trooper-boy." Kala replied with far more bravado than she actually felt. A half-smile curled one side of her mouth as she steadied the green glowstick with one booted foot, while flipping the silver hilt end over end in her right hand.

[Elric Draay]

With a gasp of air, Elric tore off his helmet. The pallid aura of the glow-rod threw light across his features. In spite of the cold, sweat-damp hair clung to his temples and his cheeks were red with the effort of traversing the harsh terrain of Rhen Var. With the helmet in one gauntleted hand, he thrust the other out towards the woman who he assumed with Thesin – in her own rather elaborate disguise – and aimed the barrel of his trusty blaster at the centre of her chest. His eyes were alight with the righteous anger of a man who had cornered a traitor to his cause, though there was a gleam of panic there too. Either Elric Draay was a fantastic actor, or he genuinely shared his characters fears.

“In the name of the Empire, identify yourself!”

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

KALATHATSAREALBLASTER-

Rin, I know that. Bear with me, while I try to not get myself killed, and stop being a pest.

A delicate brow lofted as she winked, stepping down on the glowstick to deactivate it. The cavern was plunged briefly into darkness until the familiar snap-hiss of a lightsaber echoed and everything became illuminated in a pale green light.

"Do I really need to waste words? This ought to speak volumes on my behalf." she purred, rather steadily so. She had no idea where this font of courage was coming from, but she wasn't going to argue. Kala lifted the saber and offered a formal duelist's salute.

[Elric Draay]

The roar of the lightsaber's blade springing to life filled the cavern. Clearly, no expense had been spared on replicating the mythical weapon of the Jedi. In the face of such adversity, 'Gunnar Vox' steeled himself, swallowing down hard on the lump of fear forming in his throat. Letting his helmet fall to the ground at his feet, Elric wrapped both hands around the grip of his blaster and gave the woman stood before him a hard stare.

“By decree of Emperor Palpatine, all members of the Jedi Order are commanded to surrender themselves into the custody of the Galactic Empire. Lay down your weapon.”

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

"Surrender ourselves into custody? Does anyone ever believe the drivel you're spewing?"

Kala snorted delicately, her lips curling into a delicate moue of distaste. She'd heard the stories from her father about what he called the Great War and terrible order that decimated the Jedi nearly to extinction. He'd lost friends and his mentor, and even his brother. To...to this.

This evil perversion that had permeated the very fabric of the galaxy.

"How about...no." she said after several moments, lifting her hand and holding it out, palm facing up. As if she were wordlessly asking for him to close the distance between them and hand over the blaster. When in reality, she took a chance and tried to muster her meager abilities to pull it out of his grasp.

[Elric Draay]

Elric – tensely coiled and ready to spring into the action that was sure to come – felt himself jerked forward, as if someone had seized hold of his wrist and yanked him towards the Jedi. His eyes widened slightly. From the beginning, he'd thought how unlike Alandra Thesin his co-star seemed, and now – a cold sense of dread beginning to fill his stomach – Draay thought he was beginning to understand why. Gripped by sudden panic, he squeezed the blaster pistols trigger and let loose a spluttering of energy bolts.

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

Oh...

Kala blinked, standing perfectly still and not even breathing as she realized what she'd managed to do.

It didn't last long, however, as a smattering of energy bolts streaked towards her. She Pushed at his hand out of pure, panicked reflex as she dove out of the way, the bolts sizzling through her ponytail. Instead of her head, a fact for which she'd be grateful for when she had the luxury of time.

By some miracle of the Force, Kala tumbled and came up on her knees, amidst a group of stalagmites. A quick twist of the wrist and several of the sharp tips tumbled down to her feet, one of which she picked up and hurled at the man.

KALA! He's shooting at you!

Thank you, Captain Obvious...is THAT what those pretty lights are?

[Elric Draay]

Even without the warning of the productions crew – whose voices buzzed like flies out of his discarded helmet – Elric knew something had gone wrong. Fatally wrong, perhaps. The stalactite was hurtling his way like a spear, and Draay only just managed to flatten himself the wall to his left. Quickly side stepping, he tried to find something in the gloom of that cavern that he could put between himself and the Jedi. There was a shin-high boulder not too far away, and whilst the two of them recovered from the shock of the sudden encounter, Elric threw himself to the ground beside the rock, taking cover whilst he struggled desperately to come up with a plan that didn't involve him getting a lightsaber blade buried between his shoulderbladers as he ran from the cave.