The Gossam Caravan

[Kazahan]

"Kazahan will be most careful with this."

The Jedi Knight in charge of the training and community lightsabers (of which there were few) gave him a stern look, but finally relented.

"You had better. But do not be too careful," he said, surprising the Trianii learner. He must have felt Kazahan's shock, because he smiled, if a bit severely. "We can replace that much more easily than we can replace you."

Kazahan hooked the elegant weapon on his belt and fixed his heavy jacket (which had plastoid plates taken from stormtrooper armour affixed within it) so his bowcaster hung more comfortably from his shoulders, and left the Knight to his business, exiting onto the beaten avenue that ran straight through the Jedi encampment.

It was mid morning, and dry. The sun hadn't yet begun to beat down with its full strength, but he could tell today would be quite uncomfortable if there weren't a breeze. The thoroughfare was busy, but not crowded; the most recent arrivals from the Gossam convoys were, along with him, making their way to the caravan's staging point. Jedi, Alliance, and Cizerack all mingled and made Kazahan think of home, though there were almost no non Trianii on Trian.

Finally, he could see the large convoy speeders that were being loaded with fabrics, large bars of durasteel, containers of paint, machinery, and miles of rope off the side of the avenue. After a moment he could see the beast-drawn carts and carriages also laden down with people and building supplies; he could see containers of food, spices, and salt especially, along with many bags of grain that the Trianii assumed was feed for the animals that pulled the carts. They were large, as tall as he, with humped backs and long muzzles that led up to shaggy heads with large, heavily lashed eyes that were surprisingly expressive. The Gossam called them huoyen, or something similar. He'd never seen their like.

Armed Gossam were preparing armoured speeders to flank the trade caravan, settling large heavy blasters on stands in the backs of some, while others checked the speeders themselves.

One Gossam noticed him and stalked forward, croaking something at him.

"This one is among the Jedi that will be accompanying you," Kazahan said slowly. Though it couldn't speak Basic, it seemed it could understand it, and it looked at him unreadably before bobbing its head and going back towards directing the influx of people to their proper places. Kazahan glanced around and wondered idly where the other Jedi guards for the caravan were.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The second Jedi caravan guard appeared out of thin air, standing next to the Trianii. Draiya Naaianeeya had dressed the part of the journey, augmenting her padawan's tunic with a hand-knit poncho one of the merchants had said came from the hard-working Sand People of Tatooine. Bordering even more on the absurd was the very fine hat she wore. Well at least the Toydarian merchant had said it was very fine, and she had a few credits left over for the item that was on sale. It was lightly beaten, fairly used, and had a few bird quills and used tibanna cartridges wedged into the band at the top. It was pretty kuu'ai if she said so herself.

With a smirk, the Syragori padawan tipped her brim as she looked up to the towering felinoid.

"And that makes two."

The poncho gave added warmth, but it also allowed her to keep her loaned lightsaber well out of sight. No sense in rousing any undue attention, after all.

[Kazahan]

"Ah," Kazahan said, his fur settling back down after being surprised by the little human illusionist. He made to say her name, but drew a blank, and frowned slightly. He'd have to wing it and hope it came up in conversation somehow.

"Kazahan is envious. Your hat is a delight to behold," he said seriously, looking down at the top of the girl's head. He'd have to see if he could find a similar one. She looked up and grinned mischievously.

A Gossam chirped and waved at the caravan; the last few stragglers were making their way onto the speeders and carts, and Kazahan didn't want to think of what would happen if the caravan began to leave without them. Loki would be furious.

"Have you seen any others?" he asked.

[Akasha Khan]

"Nope, no others."

The voice floated down from the top of a cart piled high with sacks of grain and bundles of fabric, followed by a yawn and a pair of paws strrrreeeeetching toward the sky. Then Akasha rolled into view on the edge of the piled goods, blinking owlishly down at Kazahan and Draiya.

"Mm. Sorry, got here after my morning hunt, thought I'd have a quick lie-down while I waited. Nice... hat."

The Orryxian frowned at Draiya's choice in haberdashery as if it were a particularly vexing puzzle to be solved, then gave up and hopped nimbly to the ground. She had dressed for the occasion more or less how she always dressed, with a sleeveless tunic and trousers bound at her ankles, and a light harness over her shoulders that held a small knapsack for odds and ends and her lightstaff clipped securely across the small of her back.

"So... it looks like I'm the senior Jedi on duty here. That'll be nice for a change."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya took the compliments of her hat - both Kazahan's genuine one and Akasha's false one - with the same cat-eating-canary smile beneath the brim.

"Yep." she placed her hands on her hips, striking a confident pose. Akasha's observation of the power hierarchy of their group splashed a little cold water over her self-satisfaction, however, and she gave the Orryxian a skeptical look.

"If yourr head gets any biggerr we'll need to add anotherr carrt to the carravan to carrry it along with us, you know."

Passing the time by practicing quick-drawing her saber from beneath her poncho, Draiya elbowed the much taller of the two felinoids. His name was Kazahan, which you'd learn whether you wanted to or not since he always referred to himself in the third person. Probably due to head trauma.

"Have you met ourr fearrless leaderr, Kazahan? This is Akasha Khan."

Draiya jerked her thumb back at the black cat, hoping that the felinoids didn't handle matters of social introductions with mutual grooming.

[Kazahan]

Kazahan eyed the lounging Orryxian blandly for a moment.

"Kazahan would like to point out that we are not in charge of guarding this caravan, so seniority doesn't matter so much. Gossam run Gossam caravans, no? We will likely be doing what we are told. If we can understand the orders. Kazahan cannot make heads or tails of their chirps and whistles."

Kazahan shifted the weight of his bowcaster, and rearranged the jacket. He was shirtless underneath, as he could only wear so much clothing before feeling uncomfortably stifled.

"Kazahan has escorted many caravans in the past, on Trian, in any case, so if you need advice, I will be happy to provide."

Kazahan's tail flicked and his left ear twitched slightly.

"Fearless leader."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha matched him flick for twitch. Feline body language didn't escape her, and she doubted it got past Draiya either.

"Well, I'm glad to hear we're all agreed," she said. "Really, we're just babysitting a bunch of Gossam, what, four kilometers? I went farther than that tracking a traladon this morning."

Something bubbled in her stomach, and she used the back of one broad paw to cover up a rather unladylike belch.

"It was delicious, by the way. Anyway, this should be cake."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya shrugged as she considered socking that lazy loafer in her pot belly. She was almost certainly going to have a case of the itis during the caravan ride and likely just sleep the whole way there and back, then come back to camp and take credit for leading them anyway. Sometimes Akasha just irritated her. There was a chance she just wasn't a cat person, but living on Syragor gave her that right.

"It might be a blue milk rrun, but if therre's trrouble with prredatorrs or the Y'sanna then we'rre betterr safe than sorrry. I mean, the Gossam are tiny."

One of the Gossam gave Draiya what she perceived to be a stink-eye before moving along.

"No offense." she shrugged.

[Kazahan]

Kazahan had been about to say something when a small croaking voice piped up behind them:

"None taken."

A short, even for his species, Gossam stalked up to them. He looked young, to Kazahan.

"Our guards are ready. There have been several raids on the caravans for the past month. An easy trip, as you say, but there'll be some shooting most likely."

The little Gossam bowed.

"I am Wen. I am honored to meet you. Please, follow me."

He stalked off, and Kazahan shared a bemused glance with Akasha and Draiya, but the group followed him into a well armored speeder, complete with a heavy repeating blaster on a swivel attached to the back. The Gossam manning the gun looked down at them through a pair of dirty goggles before looking and scanning the distance. The caravan began to move, slowly lumbering forward.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha enjoyed motorized transportation as much as the next sentient, but the problem with speeders was that their seats were ordinarily engineered for species without tails. She always had to sit a little forward of the back rest and curl her tail awkwardly into her lap. Of course, the present vehicle, which wasn't exactly a SoroSuub luxury model, had sacrificed space in the rear seat for a few extra centimeters of armored door panels, which meant Akasha's tail was curled awkwardly across her lap and into Draiya's.

"So, the Ysanna," she said conversationally. "I've heard they use slugthrowers at long range, and guide their bullets with telekinesis."

Her tailtip bobbed idly back and forth like an apoplectic snakehead.

"Do lightsabers stop bullets?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya swatted away at the personal space invader, only to have Akasha's tail inevitably return. She does this on purpose, I swear, the Syragori fumed. Taking great pains to appear aloof at the intrusion, Draiya busied herself with idly flaking a bit of chipped paint off the veneer of her arm rest as she watched the landscape trundle slowly and arduously past.

"One way to find out."

Gallows humor was probably not warranted, however this was one of the first missions they were tending to that merited possible danger to life and limb. Couldn't help not thinking about it a little.

"I don't get it." Draiya shrugged, again deflecting errant tail. "Werren't the Y'sanna once Jedi? Why would they attack us?"

[Kazahan]

“This one is unsure," Kazahan said, watching the rear of the caravan start moving. They were somewhere near the middle of it, on the fringe, beside a large flat-bed speeder carrying huge pillars of durasteel. “Maybe they have forgotten that they were once Jedi. On Trian, there are still battles between the peoples and clans who know each other well. It is the way of people to conflict with one another, yes?"

“My father tells me that the Ysanna are many times removed from their Jedi origins," Wen volunteered from his seat in the front of their speeder. “Enough to have forgotten it nearly completely."

[Akasha Khan]

"It makes sense," Akasha said, indulging in a rare moment of empathy. "I mean, even if they did remember, what have the Jedi done for them recently? They probably see us as competition."

She rather decided not to mention that she was likely more direct competition for food resources than any of the other Jedi, considering the daily carnage of her morning hunts. But then, she'd never seen hide nor hair of the Ysanna as she hunted, and only occasionally heard the distant cracks of their rifles or smelled their trails. She made a point of avoiding the deep valleys where the gunshots came from.

"We ought to be able to turn that to our advantage, though," she said. "Find one of the local tribes who aren't too hostile toward us. Give them some manufactured goods in return for protection from the other tribes. We could even set them to guarding convoys like this one."

[Morgan Evanar]

There was a distant, high-pitched whine, not entirely unlike a pair of overwrought speeder bikes glued together, not entirely unlike an overdriven T-47 snowspeeder. There was a brief interruption in high-pitched wail, and a glimmer in the distance behind the caravan. Something reflective, and something matte that disappeared back behind a rock outcropping. The sound varied in pitch with the topography.

Something repulsor-powered rounded the last Canyon's corner, and resumed the distant, high-pitched scream. It was not high off the ground. The windscreen became visible first, the noon sun shining off of it, and then, in a flash, 30 meters above, it was upon them in a soprano wail coming towards them and then an alto growl going away. The small craft's engine dropped pitch. It slowed, and those with keen vision were able to see the surface of the craft articulate when the airspeeder came about in a lazy banked turn. It looped above the Jedi and then settled next to the caravan.

The pilot slid the door forward and brought the craft to a slow crawl next to the caravan.

"Is this the convoy?" The human-looking pilot asked with a soft smile.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Uh huh." Draiya replied uncouthly, tipping back the brim of her hat slightly to regard the stranger as her other hand gave another flick to Akasha's tail. It was a dumb question, wasn't it? Bunch of sleds and carts all lined up in a row. Maybe he was lost? Real lost. All kinds of people were making their way to Ossus these days, so maybe he was still shiny.

"Who's askin'?"

Her eyes narrowed a little as she glanced sidelong at her feline companions.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan unfolded himself from the small speeder and stood his full height of two meters. He was long, lean and athletic. He looked like a bit of spacer and a bit of adventurer. The lightsaber clipped onto his belt said more.

He pulled a wide brimmed hat onto his head. A loose, lightweight tan jacket adorned his shoulders. He looked prepared for the weather.

"I heard that you guys could use a scout. I'm Morgan."

[Kazahan]

"We could always use more scouts," Kazahan offered. The young Gossam Wen nodded, the caravan plodding along beside them slowly, dust and dirt billowing slowly out and behind them. Kazahan found himself wishing he had brought goggles.

"Another scout, a Jedi no less, would be appreciated," he croaked. "We do not expect much trouble, but there have been some raids on the road by Ysanna bands."

"This one is called Kazahan," the Trianii said. "Kazahan's compatriots are Draiya, and Akasha."

[Akasha Khan]

"Oh, yeah, Morgan. I was there for your knighting ceremony." Akasha rolled her ears back, mildly annoyed that she was no longer the senior Jedi on duty. But that was just as well - she seriously doubted either Kazahan or Draiya would have listened to her anyway. She glanced over the metal monstrosity the towering knight rode in on, which appeared to treat laws of inertia and occupational safety with equal measures of scorn. Seemed like overkill, but then so did sending four Jedi on a blue milk run.

Despite Morgan's chop-shop speeder, the pace of the convoy was limited by the plodding gait of the huoyen-drawn carts, which meant the kilometers rolled by with agonizing slowness. The road dipped into a forested valley that lay between the Jedi camp and the heights of Miwù Shanmà, and though they were nearly halfway there, most of the remaining distance ran along hairpin switchbacks that climbed up into the plateaus, which meant progress would be even slower. Akasha slumped into her seat and inspected her claws, idly planning out how she'd spend the balance of her day, when she felt the fur on the back of her neck start to rise.

The Orryxian lifted herself on the back of the seat in front of her so she could see over the open top of the armored speeder. The forest around them was still. Much too still.

Akasha dropped her head out of view and landed with a wumph back into her seat. "We're being watched," she hissed at her companions.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"I don't sense anything." Draiya replied, voice wavering unsure as her senses of the environment and flashpoints were grudgingly less-refined than the Orryxian's. She stilled her mind, closing her eyes to remove unwanted stimuli as she sought out what should be plainer to see - the bright energies of an intent mind. Through the din of the living force all around them, she could suddenly sense the focus of six minds, all drawn to a singular thought.

"I feel them!" Her heart thudded in her chest, and Draiya too sunk back in her seat. Their surroundings were terribly exposed on this leg of the trail. If it was the intent of their unseen visitors to attack the caravan, this was a nearly ideal place to do so. Draiya flicked a hand. A gentle breeze appeared to pick up, drawing more dust on the trail to create a thick obfuscation that would hopefully confound any such evil plans.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan shrugged. On the trip between Nar Shadda and Ossus, he'd installed a simple droid navigation brain that would allow the speeder to home in on his call beacon. It's speed was highly limited and had relatively simple pathfinding skills, but the speeder was perfectly happy to idle-hover and putt along beside them. Occasionally he'd jog ahead of the slow moving procession, and jog back. It had been quiet until Akasha sensed something.

"They're up there, sizing us up." Morgan confirmed. He could sense the physical displacement of 10 humanoids, at least for the initial party. Morgan took a deep breath, and swept his focus. There were more. They were organized in groups of 5 to 15. There were 8 groups, and 84 people in total.

"They're about 80 strong. What would they want from us?"

[Kazahan]

“Eighty?" Wen asked, quickly looking out over the silent forest that flanked them on either side. “There's not been a raid like this yet. Normally there are twenty or so, simply shooting at us."

The young Gossam trumpeted something in his own language and the gunner on their speeder turned the heavy repeater towards the forest and primed it.

Kazahan, for his part, readied his bow caster and settled the butt of the weapon loosely against his shoulder, but said nothing.

The first bullet hit the speeder before they heard the crack of its rifle. Suddenly, the air around them was full of whizzing bullets and the cries of attacking Ysanna further toward the front of the caravan. The gunner managed to hunker down behind his weapon and fire a couple dozen rounds before dying from a shot to the head.

Kazahan merely laid low and fired at the tree line.

“Someone must get up front to protect the refugees!" He shouted above the din.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha flinched as their roof gunner tumbled from his perch into the dusty road. "How?" she exclaimed. "We're all snackfish in a barrel out here!"

Every time she lifted her head to even contemplate diving from the speeder to mount an attack, her senses were bombarded by signals of ill intent from all sides, more than she'd ever felt at once. Kazahan had his bowcaster, and Draiya could project illusions as far as she could see, but Akasha had no way of contending with a foe at long range, let alone eighty snipers.

"Even without a gunner, we're still the most heavily armed vehicle in this convoy," she said. "Driver, get us closer to the front!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya shrieked, her head instinctively ducking low as she could hear the whirr of near-misses sailing overhead. It was well and good to understand fear as an obstacle to overcome in training and in guided meditations. But the fear was in the here and now. It was visceral and in all of her senses. She could still see a fresh splash of blood from the poor gunner who had been shot from his perch. Taking rapid, shallow breaths as her fight or flight response rattled in its cage, Draiya shared half a moment of a frightened glance with Akasha, and turned her eyes away. Her cheeks flushed momentarily as she hunched forward in her meager cover.

Control. Control.

"We can't stay herre!"

One.

Two.

Three.

A half beat before Draiya vaulted from the speeder, another figure could be seen leaping above them, charging ahead. A green lightsaber was lit as the phantom Jedi formed the vanguard, drawing the attention of their attackers as they made for the treeline. Draiya followed her illusion at a staggered pace, her heart throttling in her chest as she strained to keep up the feasibility of her deception and also to tease out of the force the greatest source of threat, which was...

"Aiha!"

...Draiya pitched to the right, feeling the air beyond her left cheek buzz with the displaced warning of a near-hit. No time to dwell no time to dwell no time to dwell get to cover get to cover...

[Akasha Khan]

Naturally, the safest place to be in the middle of a pitched firefight with enemies in every direction was hunkered down in an armored speeder with blast-resistant windows. So naturally Draiya had just dove out of the speeder and into the line of fire.

"Draiya!" Akasha shouted angrily, and without another thought she'd vaulted out of the speeder cabin herself and went skittering after the Syragori padawan on four paws.

[Morgan Evanar]

Akasha found herself bounding after nothing. She saw a brief flash of Morgan yanking the smaller Draiya off of her feet with one arm and then the pair disappeared with a soft pop of air rushing to fill the now empty space. He pulled her down behind of of the armored speeders the Alliance had provided.

"I need you to run interference and give them false targets." He said over the din of thrower-fire.

"Okay?" The panicked girl gave him an emphatic nod.

Morgan went after the largest group of attackers. From behind a large downed tree the Ysanna were providing the volume of fire that was pelting the caravan. He appeared behind the group of 15, and disarmed the nearest individual by slicing the slugthrower into pieces. The group paused to figure out what the sudden commotion and strange noises were, when Morgan threw the disarmed Ysanna like a toy into three of her compatriots. She yelled as she flew. When the others turned to shoot the large Jedi, they found him behind them. Two heads were pushed together by a pair of oversized hands. He grabbed the nearest rifles and proceeded to use them as a bludgeons. Morgan was aiming for knockouts, not caving skulls in. Four more were dispatched with quick blows, either to hands or heads. The remaining five ran in panic.

Fifteen down.

[Kazahan]

Within a few moments, Kazahan was alone in the speeder with Wen and the driver. The driver was attempting to get to the front of the caravan without hitting anything, and Wen was sensibly keeping his head down.

"How many guards are there?" Kazahan asked, the mouth of the bowcaster smoking. Wen glanced back at him.

"Thirty, before the attack began," he said. Kazahan frowned. They were outnumbered twice over and then some.

Blaster fire and shouts carried over the sides of the speeder, and Kazahan glanced up. The Ysanna were rampaging through the foremost elements of the caravan, pulling Gossam from carts and killing them, and looting blasters, power packs, spices, and other easily grabbed items.

One shouted, and Kazahan growled as their eyes met. He was flanked by four murderous looking warriors using spears and wicked short swords; he was holding his, and blood dripped from it. Wen and the driver glanced back at him, and he knew they'd be of little help. Gunfire still filled the air, background noise to the voices crying out in pain, anger, fear, and death. Blaster fire wasn't as prevalent, but the core of the guard was formed by commandos put together in the Corporate Sector Authority, and those were putting up a much stiffer resistance than the Ysanna had counted on.

The Ysanna and his guards rushed the speeder, and Kazahan killed one with his bowcaster before they came too close.

"Stay down!" he growled at Wen and the driver, and leaped out of the speeder, landing on his feet and grabbing one warrior by his throat and throwing him into the others. The leader dodged effortlessly, and charged him, his sword raised high. Kazahan's claws made a swipe for the man's throat, but the warrior was canny and blooded and Force Sensitive also. Kazahan barely managed to block his retaliatory sword strike with his bowcaster, rendering it useless.

The Ysanna he'd pitched into the other bodyguards had picked himself up and flanked the Jedi padawan with another on Kazahan's other side, leaving him facing three warriors. He contemplated using his lightsaber, but dismissed it; there wasn't time. He backed up against the speeder and snarled at the Ysanna leader and his warriors. The three of them, and a fourth watching from further back, approached him slowly. Kazahan readied himself, but just before the attack from the three in front of them came, Kazahan suddenly felt dizzy and his vision swam. His claws swept out, instinctively, found resistance, and he squeezed and twisted. There was a gurgling, choking sound, and then Kazahan knew no more.

Wen saw the Jedi fall with a sense of horrified dismay. The warrior that had held back from the three approaching Kazahan threw a rock perfectly arced to hit the large felinoid in the head. The three charged, and Kazahan's long powerful arm swept out. He grabbed one by the neck, squeezed, and twisted, breaking the man's neck, but the leader swung his sword, and hit Kazahan's leg, and then his head, with the flat of his sword. The Ysanna shook his head when the remaining two warriors made to kill the Jedi, saying something he couldn't understand, but pointed at him and the driver. He and the other Gossam were pulled from the speeder and towards the forest along with a number of other prisoners and looted treasure from the caravan, protected by twelve older warriors, all of whom were armed now with blasters.

Wen looked back; the last he saw of his protectors was the Ysanna leader crouching and pulling the lightsaber from Kazahan's belt, and Kazahan, unconscious, with dead bodies around him. He was pulled into the forest and the caravan disappeared from sight.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

It took Draiya a few moments for the vertigo to pass. If she dwelled on what just happened, she'd be useless to everyone. Instead, she took Morgan's words to heart, making sure that she was focused on the moment at hand. An illusory Gossam sprang to life at the flank of a nearby speeder, setting up an E-Web heavy blaster on its tripod, lacing the forest with a murderous volume of fake weapons fire. Hopefully it would keep heads down that might otherwise be spoiling for a fight. The Syragori ignited her own saber, dropping into a rudimentary use of Soresu to hold the line and protect the remaining Gossam who were now forming up behind cover to bolster a stiff resistance. She felt draw of intent minds focused on her lightsaber blade's careful defensive motions. Against every bit of judgment, Draiya held her ground, sending back blaster bolts as they sizzled her way. Soresu was still an alien thing to her, and while she could deflect shots coming her way, it was without any worth as a means of counterattack. The shots caromed wildly away. Between her defense and her illusion, she was more than occupied, and Kazahan's bushwhacking escaped her notice as she intently defended her gossam comrades.

[Akasha Khan]

When Morgan appeared in front of her and disappeared again with Draiya in tow, Akasha only wasted a split second gawping before she decided they had things well in hand on their own. The Orryxian charged underneath the body of one of the carts and between the stamping hooves of a pair of panicking huoyen to see Gossam refugees pouring out of the carts ahead of her as masked warriors charged toward them. "Under the cart!" she snarled. "Get under cover!"

Once the reptilians had huddled underneath the massive bulk of the cart, Akasha wheeled about and sent a hissing bolt of Destruction through the elastic cords that battened down the load. The cords snapped and slithered free, and bundles of cloth and ironware came down in an avalanche around the cart to conceal the Gossam from view.

No sooner was the job done than she heard a chorus of bone-chilling shrieks and ululations from behind her - the Ysanna had breached the first line of the convoy and were pouring around it like a swarm of ants, all of them bearing spears or swords or slugthrowers fixed with bayonets. Akasha whirled about with a feral scream, and her lightstaff came alive in her paw, sprouting twin blades of crimson retribution. Her first stroke cleaved a rifle barrel in two and continued on through the rifleman's torso, sending him to the ground with a spume of bloody vapor. Then she planted a toeclaw in the ground and went spinning into the air, cleaving another man's head down the middle, plunging her blade straight down the curve of a woman's spine, bearing another warrior down to the dusty road as she landed and crushing his windpipe beneath her feet.

Another man leaped back and leveled his slugthrower at her. She swiped the air between them with outstretched claws, and a bloody line opened across his belly. Then she pulled, and he lay disemboweled on the ground.

By now the warriors began to give her a wider berth. But that only meant leaving her to the riflemen. Her senses erupted with signals of bloody danger all around, and she danced backward as lead slugs hissed all around her. Desperately, she turned her lighstaff to intercept one that was arcing for her head. She felt something sting her ear, and then heard a dull thud behind her. She'd intercepted it all right - and it had carried on through her blade, through her ear, and into the cart all the Gossam were hiding under.

And the now-molten slug had caught the supplies on fire.

[Morgan Evanar]

With the cover fire gone, the Ysanna fell upon the caravan in a frenzy. The situation was desperate and Morgan no longer had time to pull his punches. Limbs were severed, throats were crushed. His mood darkened. This was needlessly savage. There had been no parlay, just an attack against a theoretically outgunned opponent. He dodged a spear destined for his back. He hoisted the weapon into the air one handed. The owner went up with it, the ancient mask ended up being no protection when it was brought back down, handle first. The sad, wet crunch meant that the user was likely dead. Morgan lacked the luxury to dwell on it. He did not have time for emotion, because the caravan was still being attacked.

Slugfire punctured his loose jacket as he sprinted for the flaming cart. He appeared behind them, and Morgan's next thunderous step was nearly 140 kilos of Jedi hitting the pair of them at 70 klicks. He ran back toward the caravan, only deviating to either bowl over a foe, or cut them in half with his lightsaber. The fire grew as more supplies ignited.

"Well, shit." He said after Akasha dispatched her last foe in the immediate vicinity. His brain clicked. He'd slaved his airpseeder to a cart on the caravan. Now that everything was stopped, it simply hummed quietly, ignored. It wasn't too far from their position, and he knew exactly where the fire extinguishers were, but with them so tightly in friction with the tiedowns, it made moving them much more difficult. He sprinted to the speeder, reached inside, and ripped the extinguisher free of it's metal straps. He took another glance back at the fire, and ripped the trunk open. There was another extinguisher, designed to smother the fuel tank in the event of a fire. He ripped that one free, too, closed his eyes, and appeared next to Akasha.

"Here." He offered the felinoid the extinguisher.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

One of the Gossam keeping up the fire line fell to a shot Draiya was too slow to anticipate, and as she moved to shore up the defense as another guard took to a firing position, she saw motion to her left that she shouldn't see. Three of the masked attackers were bearing down, flanking the speeder she stood behind. It forced her to withdraw her defense, and shore up a more up-close and personal defensive line. No sooner did Draiya's shoulders square to the threat than she vanished leaving the befuddled Ysanna on point to settle on a flanked Gossam for a target instead. No sooner did his rifle line up for a kill than a green blade burned out of nothingness, cleaving the rifle in half before spinning overhead. The Ysanna followed the motion...until his head was wrenched to the side violently by an invisible kick across his jaw that put his lights out. His two companions were already following the green light, which jerked unexpectedly as it fell the the ground, hooking low to sever an attacker's leg at the thigh before the third man's gun was kicked from his grasp...and then kicked square into his face.

Draiya appeared from the ether as her lightsaber extinguished, dropping a heel of an axe kick down on the forehead of the one-legged Ysanna as he pawed groggily for his weapon.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha startled when Morgan appeared right in front of her - she'd heard of his strange abilities, but this was the first time she'd seen them in action. She had to tamp down on a silly consternation that maybe the metal shell of the extinguisher would vanish and leave her with a pawful of exploding foam. Taking the device firmly in paw, she bounded up into the cart, pulled the pin, and aimed the nozzle at the base of the flames. Between the two of them, the fire was contained in the space of a few seconds.

Conscious that she was a tempting target standing high on the pile of scorched supplies, Akasha glanced up and down the road at what remained of the convoy. Bodies littered the roadway, both Gossam and Ysanna, along with spilled supplies that had been dropped or discarded by the thieving savages. Most of the attackers appeared to be in retreat, save for a few wild-eyed berserkers still looking for blood and glory, but these stragglers were quickly surrounded by what was left of the Gossam security force and went down to a man in a hail of blaster fire. Then her eyes fell on the listing speeder she and her Jedi comrades had been riding in, and on the sad-looking mass of leather and matted fur lying crumpled on the ground at the feet of a Ysanna chieftain. Kazahan.

Akasha took a running leap from the top of the cart with her saberstaff raised like a fishing spear, intending to rend the Ysanna chief down the middle. But the chieftain slid away from her attack and ignited the lightsaber he'd pilfered from the fallen Trianii. Snarling, Akasha pressed her attack, hoping to overwhelm a novice with Ataru, but he was far wilier than she'd expected, melting away like smoke from every strike she offered, and when she'd expended her initial burst of energy, he counterattacked with such strength and ferocity that she found herself backpedaling.

[Kazahan]

The warrior pressed his advantage, swinging the lightsaber he now wielded with a speed and accuracy that was uncanny for someone with no training with the weapon. An over head chop was followed almost too quickly by a lateral slash, followed by a punishing series of thrusts and feints designed to break down Akasha's guard through sheer force and power.

After a few moments of this, however, he stopped, allowing the retreating Orryxian to gain some distance. He was smiling ferally, and raising the lightsaber, he shouted something, bringing the few stragglers who still lived back to their senses and gathering them to him. A wind picked up, blowing dust and smoke from the fires across the field, and by the time it cleared, the chieftain and his warriors were gone, like the smoke that had covered their retreat.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The momentum of the fight shifted away from a close and aggressive engagement into a well-organized retreat back into the concealing embrace of the smoke and wilderness. Now removed from the immediacy of combat, Draiya's mind found what had previously been scarce time to dwell on exactly what happened. She looked wide-eyed at the Ysanna warriors arrayed around her, and at the smoking terminus of one fighter's cauterized stump of a leg.

First blood. A funny term, as there was not a drop of it on the ground. Just the stink of char and ozone and things far worse beyond. Eyes wide as saucers, the Syragori Padawan looked from the figures immediately around her to the ransacked and burned caravan. Screams filled the air as more than a few Gossam writhed on the ground, being tended to by the frantic few who could lend aid. Still a bit shocked, Draiya walked past the carnage a bit aimlessly, gawking in the face of it all as she spotted Akasha.

[Morgan Evanar]

It may have been a poor estimation on Morgan's part, but he let Akasha handle the chieftain. As soon as the metaphorical smoke cleared, he was tending to Kazahan. The felinoid was obviously out cold, but Morgan wanted to make sure there were no other external blows. A careful examination of his upper spine proved fruitful: everything was in it's expected place. He'd probably be ok in time, given his autonomic nervous functions were in good function. Satisfied he wasn't going to have a padawn die on his watch, he set about to tend to other matters.

As soon as he happened across Draiya, he instructed her to get an inventory of personnel. Morgan started to put crates and physical pieces of the caravan back into order when the magnitude of death hit him. He took a deep breath and kept in motion. He pushed the emotion aside. He'd deal with it later. The caravan needed to be put back in working order, and quickly.