Sanis Prent and the Urns of Korriban

[Daanarri Meorrrei]

As they got closer to the ground, Daani turned a one-eighty in the targeting bubble to keep an eye on Lok. She couldn't shoot at the guy trying to beat her up, because she'd shoot Lok too, but she wanted to be ready.

[Callomas Savoc]

Felled to his knees by the blow, Callomas still had the awareness to clap a hand over s'Il's own, painfully locking the wrist back, and pulling her to the ground, where he could clasp both legs around her ribcage in a scissor hold. Reaching past her, he stretched a hand for his right ankle, trying to pull free yet another blaster.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The Lupine went down atop him, doggedly straining against his hold on her wrist. The angle he held it at was painful, and throwing her elbow out to the side, twisted her wrist inwards toward his thumb to try and loosen his grip.

Bringing her face within inches of his, she bared her teeth at him. In a slight, controlled change then, the normal blue of her eye glossed over, swirling into a tawny yellow as the lines in her face became more severe. The tendons in her neck seemed to stand out even more as she pressed her body down on his, curling her lips back to reveal a disturbingly different set of teeth.

[Callomas Savoc]

As Callomas started to lose ground against the metamorph, a blue wash of energy hit them both. For Callomas, it made him go limp and nearly black out. For s'Ilancy, it would likely have a similar effect, at least enough to put a halt to the change.

Both fighters rolled away in a daze, taking seconds to come to their senses. The urn rolled out of s'Il's grasp, as an explosion split the air about 50 meters away.

[Sanis Prent]

"You did it!"

I heard the thunderclap as the quad gun nest's tibanna reservoir bit it. Daani scored a kill.

"Hang on guys!"

About that time, I lost the stick, and the ship shuddered, beginning a stall.

"Cirr, cut the engines until I call for a burn! We gotta ease this flying brick down."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Pulling in a labored lung-full of air, s'Il strained to crawl away from Savoc and towards where the urn had rolled to. The stun blast had been enough to stop her change and disorient her enough so that only one thought remained; to get the urn. She could feel it calling her, pulling her to it almost, and the Lupine obliged the best she could.

Hands hooked like claws, she pulled herself along while struggling to regain her senses.

[Callomas Savoc]

Callomas coughed, and weakly adjusted his specacles. He'd wound up on his back, and was fortunate that the stun blast had only clipped him. Groggily, he took note of his surroundings. He could still hear weapon fire in the distance, but the familiar sound of the quad cannon nest was silent.

He blinked, and noticed his hold-out, a short distance from where it had fallen out of his ankle rig. Sliding on the ground, he reached for it.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her legs were slow to recover, but by now the Lupine was using all of her remaining energy to help propel her forward. A hand slapped over the urn then, pulling it in close to her body while in the same motion struggling to at least get to her hands and knees. Propped up on one elbow, her legs scrabbled along the dirt ground, trying to gain enough purchase so that she could rise.

Her eye caught sight of Savoc - reaching for his blaster - and rolling to her side, her free hand reaching around in a smooth motion to pull her sabre from its' carry-pack.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

The next few seconds were upsetting on the stomach to say the least. Cirr felt the effects of steep descent, and grabbed onto the closest sturdy object he could find. A few minor things started jostling about the engine room, as he slapped the emergency choke on the ion drive.

"jI'm lowerrjing the drrag flaps to put us jinto a gljide. jIt's gonna get shakey!"

With effort, the Cizerack mechanic slammed down a lever to the pneumatic flaps, and instantly the ship bucked, violently rumbling through turbulance as it caught air resistance.

With a steady hand, Cirr watched the pneumatic pressure. Too much, and he'd blow the system and the flaps would freeze. It was a quarrel between the pneumatics, and the atmospheric conditions. The moment the pressure abated...

"Now!"

Retracting the flaps, Cirr spun around and opened the ion drive back up. They had enough lift and thrust to pitch out of the stall. And just in time, he was getting queasy!

[Callomas Savoc]

Callomas redoubled his efforts for his blaster, but fell back again. His muscles were weary from the stun, and were too slow and unsteady to respond

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Sabre in one hand and the urn in the other, s'Il stumbled up to her feet. Staggering forward a few paces, the Lupine drove onward doggedly away from Savoc. In her eye was a grim determination, and she looked upward at the rapidly descending Layla.

Her stomach dropped at the sight.

[Callomas Savoc]

A third try, and he made it. Callomas curled a gloved hand around the blaster's grip, and hoisted it carefully. He drew a careful bead at the dead center of her back, and hesitated.

Not like this, he chastized himself, grunting as he made the effort to sit upright. He had a hundred ways to kill her, and he wasn't going to cheapen his victory.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was slow, but the cobwebs from the stun blast were starting to lift at a faster rate, and s'Il kept on. She could feel the urn in her grasp; it seemed to throb in her hand as if given some sort of new, perverse life. She gripped it harder, forcing herself to ignore the feeling of dark tendrils trying to engulf her.

Turn around...

It was somewhat instinct on her part, but the feeling itself was from the urn; that much she knew.

The Lupine slowed her already unsteady gait, turning backwards to look at Savoc.

And perhaps it was the effects of the stun blast still slowing her reflexes or that of the urn invading her mind, but no matter what the cause, s'Il could only stare into his eyes.

[Callomas Savoc]

His eyes met hers, and he smiled.

"Bang bang."

Now was his chance. He fired.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The Lupine staggered back a step, a smoldering, blackened blossom blooming from the center of her chest. Another feeble step backward, and another shot lanced through her body; this one lower and to the right.

Legs suddenly unable to hold her weight, s'Il fell to her knees in silence, the sabre dropping from her hand to hit the ground with a dull thunk.

And still she stared at him, at the smoking barrel of his gun. If she was supposed to feel pain, it had not yet arrived. She watched his finger tighten once more on the trigger.

She felt her head thrown to the side; could feel the heat of the blast along her cheekbone. Spun around by the force of the shot, s'Il landed roughly on her side in the dust.

[Callomas Savoc]

He'd done it!

With a sigh, Callomas weakly rose to his feet, taking a moment to steady himself. The academian behind him, Karrnage, was shrieking something in his ear distantly. He paid it no mind.

Approaching his adversary, he paused only to pick up her lightsaber. It was an elegantly designed weapon, and Callomas' keen eye worked over it briefly, before turning his attention to s'Ilancy again.

"I was expecting a longer fight." It was not meant as an insult, it was genuine longing.

He rolled her onto her back with his boot, nudging at her shoulder. She seemed teetering on the edge, and he hoped she could hear him.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Every breath a labored, wheezing, excruciatingly painful task, the Lupine felt her body begin its' healing already. It was overcompensating though, and adrenaline raged through her like a wildfire. Her back arched, and she stared upwards at the smoke-fill sky.

With one hand lashing outward, she caught the Imperial at the ankle in a grip of steel. Her other hand came out then, the curved Cathar blade flashing in the sunlight briefly before whipping around.

And in silence, s'Il ran its' keen edge upwards as far as she could along the inside of his leg.

[Callomas Savoc]

"Aaaagh!"

He'd let his guard down. There wasn't time to berate himself over it. He smashed her across the side of her face with a bootheel, and stumbled away for two and a half steps before falling over. Blood spurted in heavy flows from the wound, which by his calculation would be fatal if not seen to quickly.

Then he remembered the lightsaber.

He raised a trembling hand to his mouth, biting at the glove to remove it. He was losing blood quickly and turing pale. He had to work fast. Sucking on his lower lip, he reached his fingers into the deep laceration, searching for the fleshy artery that was nicked. He felt it pulse, and snared it with two fingers, drawing it as close to him as the pain would allow. With cold sweat beading on his brow, he thumbed down the emitter on the saber, and ignited it, edging the blade precariously close to the artery. With a slight flick of the wrist, he cauterized the end of the blood vessel, preventing his own death.

He looked back at s'Ilancy, breathing heavily, and smashed her lightsaber upon a nearby rock.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her body could only follow the direction of her head as he'd kicked it, and s'Il used the momentum to partially lever herself up on one elbow. It took a few moments, but she managed to place both hands upon the ground and pull her legs beneath her. A sidelong look, almost frantic even, was turned in Savoc's direction in time to watch the destruction of her sabre.

In silence she lifted a hand to the blaster wound on her chest, and faltered at the shift in balance. Her feet scrabbled for any sort of purchase as she began the painful crawl towards him.

Murderous intent was now clearly seen in a yellow, bloodshot eye, and the grip on her dagger tightened.

[Callomas Savoc]

Callomas weakly palmed his blaster again as she crawled forward, and hefted it up in her direction. She had such foolish stubbornness, and the Caridan admired her tenacity.

"It has been a pleasure, s'Ilancy. Have a good death."