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| - "On the upside," Tariun Sakaros called pleasantly, twisting out of the way of a scorching blast of plasma that sizzled through the air where his face had just been, "you couldn't ask for better weather." Half-surrounded by towering Massassi warriors firing blaster rifles nearly as tall as the Sith Lord himself, Tariun diverted his attention to whirl his paired red-bladed lightsabers in concert, deflecting the hail of blaster fire that followed the first shot. Seeming encased in a globe of fire, he pressed back against the withering attack, turning most shots harmlessly into the dirt or the sky, but reflecting a few back at their source. With the enemy's attention focused on Tariun, the Massassi charged to what passed for cover amidst the wreckage of tanks and artillery stations and returned fire, cutting down the foes who had exposed themselves for a better shot at their quarry. In the hesitant, stuttering break in fire that followed, Tariun raised one gloved hand, still clenching the lightsaber in it. The remains of a tank's dome levitated into the air, then hurtled toward a gunner's nest. Only a pair of Tetrarchy soldiers managed to leap free before the metal impacted and the entire thing went up in a roar of flame. His blade a blazing green shield before his sweat-streaked face, Keltrayu yelled back, "Getting hot, though." The high noon sun glinted on Keltrayu's flesh. The Dathomiri had started the battle wearing his long coat of lizard hide, but now he was down to a black combat vest, the fabric clinging to his damp chest and the thick muscle in his arms visible as he worked his lightsaber against the current of blaster fire streaking his way. Taking a running start, Tariun leapt up onto the ridge beside his comrade, landing with catlike grace and spinning neatly into a deflection of his own. With their three blades working against the enemy fire and the Massassi pressing their attack below, the enemy onslaught faltered, then died enough for the two warriors to duck down behind a rocky outcropping. "Well, I think we got their attention," Tariun said brightly, his red flesh a bit darker than usual from strain. His bright white teeth gleamed as he grinned, deactivating and reholstering his paired lightsabers before inspecting a gash in his left forearm. Sighing, he tore a strip of cloth off his black tunic to bandage it. Most of both sleeves similarly hung in shreds; he had run out of bandages long before running out of wounds. "Brilliantly executed, Thrawn," Keltrayu said dryly, patting his belt with his free hand in the empty spot where his grenades had been. Frowning momentarily as he came up empty, he dug around along his belt until he came up with a holoprojector instead. Using his teeth to tighten the makeshift bandage, Tariun asked, "Howsh ih look?" "We're getting a lot of interference," Keltrayu replied, sea green eyes narrowed hawkishly. He pointed to a spot on the miniature battle map. "I think they shot down the recon droid here, so this whole area's behind by half an hour." Tariun studied the projection for a long moment, then nodded firmly. "Look, they're shifting their forces this way. Looks like they're calling up their reserves, too. We'll hold them here for a while. That should give Rin enough time to cut through the middle." Battle had raged all of the previous day and through the night, and the normal shadow of stubble along Keltrayu's jaw was starting toward the fuzz of an actual beard. It heightened the tension in his face as he said, "I think we should head back." Scraping some carbon scoring off one lightsaber with the butt end of the other, Tariun looked up, eyes narrowing. "What?" "They're shifting their focus here, that was the whole point of this diversion," Keltrayu insisted, wiping his forehead with one arm; the movement did little more than smear more grime over his tan face. "The Massassi can carry it from here, and Colonel Savid should have the artillery ranges by now." On the surface, the logic of it was sound, if not airtight. Nothing would draw fire like the distinct red and green blades of the hated enemy generals, but the shock troops of the Golden Empire probably could carry the fight from here, now that Tariun and Keltrayu had gotten them somebody to fight. But the Sith Lord frowned, looking at Keltrayu carefully and examining the distant look in his friend's eyes. He gave a sigh that was half-growl. "She's fine, Keltrayu." The Human grimaced briefly, then shook his head. "We should be there, Tariun. Yes, fine, we got our diversion, but now we should go back. This isn't a battle to take chances." Tariun's sarcastic reply was swallowed by a deafening shriek of splintering rock as several blaster bolts found the other side of their makeshift shelter. "COVER!" Tariun snapped, and Keltrayu vaulted over the boulder, blade already back out and hammering at the fire coming his way. Getting to his feet, Tariun thrust both palms out, and the rock levitated over Keltrayu's head. A flick of his will send it down the hill, rolling and picking up momentum as the Force pushed it along. It plowed down three gunmen before the rest of the enemy squad caught on and broke formation. "You were—" Keltrayu started, but then ducked as Tariun turned suddenly, igniting one blade and slashing where his friend's head had just been. The blaster shot ricocheted off his crimson blade and away into the sky. Tariun leapfrogged over Keltrayu, who came up behind him in time to turn aside another blaster bolt a meter from his back. Deflecting fire with one blade, Tariun ripped the other out of its holster and threw it across the battlefield. Ten meters away, the Force caught it, and the crimson blade snap-hissed to life in time to turn the spiraling hilt into a lethal disc of fire. Rotating like a fan's blade in the Sith Lord's telekinetic grip, it cleaved through six Tetrarchy soldiers, slicing four of them in half and amputating the heads of the other two. Desperately, the squad tried to concentrate fire on Tariun as he pulled the weapon back to his hand, but Keltrayu spun and added his blade to the mix, and their impregnable defense stood equal to the task. The next second, a Massassi's rocket-propelled grenade exploded in the midst of the enemy company, and the formation broke entirely. As the hulking warriors gave deep, blood-curdling war yells and charged forward with guns blazing, Keltrayu skipped back out of the line of fire and said again, "You were saying?" Tariun retreated too, emerald eyes tracking the battlefield like a flying predator searching for its prey in the fields below. The Force crackled around him, the icy power of the dark side coursing through him and refreshing his strength. "I can feel her, Keltrayu," he snapped, voice harsh. "She's alive." "For now," Keltrayu said back coolly. "I can feel her too, Tariun. And not just that she's alive." There was annoyance, even anger, in the Human's tone. But Tariun sensed something deeper too, a nagging disquietude that was very nearly fear. That alone was enough to catch the Sith's attention, and he looked at Keltrayu searchingly for a long moment before dropping to a crouch in the dusty steppe and closing his eyes. She was impossible to miss. Even amidst the calamity of war, the mental shrieks of the wounded and agony of the dying, the vicious triumph of the briefly victorious and the anguish of the newly bereaved…even past the dozens of Force-sensitive minds that made up the Novitiate of the Order of the Golden Empire, Rin Sakaros stood alone. Her Force signature radiated power, her potential nearly limitless. To be near her was to stand next to a nuclear reactor of the Force; even when not subject to its effects, it was impossible to be unaware of that awesome energy nearby. It hummed in the bones and tingled on the flesh, and even half a kilometer away, Tariun could not have been unaware of her power if he tried. She was not the sort of person one blocked out. And it helped that she was his baby sister. But Keltrayu was obviously concerned, and so Tariun focused harder, narrowing his perceptions in until he was focused on Rin herself. The difference between Rin and the Novices near her – even between Rin and Aquila Corcer, some distance away from her on the opposite flank from Tariun and Keltrayu – was clear. But the difference between Rin now and Rin the day before was startling, and as soon as Tariun thought of it, he couldn't think of anything else. Opening his eyes with a suddenly wary look, he turned them up to Keltrayu and started, "She's…" "Weakening." Keltrayu's face was set with stoic resolve, but in his eyes was genuine trepidation. And Tariun couldn't disagree. Fighting for a day nonstop had worn both him and Keltrayu down physically, but they could call on the Force to sustain themselves, to take the extra step, swing the extra stroke, slay the extra enemy. Rin, by contrast, had been buried in her Force powers that same time; not incidental, not to keep herself going, but as her primary means of combat. And for all her aura of invincibility and inevitable success, even Rin had her limits. And she was reaching them. "Maybe we should go," Tariun said slowly, and the anxiety was in his voice now too. Nodding grimly, Keltrayu rose from his kneeling position at Tariun's side into a half-crouch, looked over the battlefield, then took off at a run. Getting to his feet with a grumble, feeling the aches of a century in his weary body, the Sith Lord followed, keeping his blades deactivated as Keltrayu was. The smoke and fog and general chaos of battle could shroud two men, but even the most preoccupied solders wouldn't miss those distinctive blades. Picking up pace to run at Keltrayu's side, restricting himself to what his body was capable of so he could save his Force power for when it was truly necessary, Tariun looked out over the steppe of Tizgo V as he ran. Little of the world's famous navy blue, curly grass remained to be seen, trampled into the dust by the advance and retreat of Tetrarchy and Empire forces. Instead, the ground seemed to give way to an ocean of bodies, the red-armored Tetrarchy soldiers and the mixed-and-matched Royal forces mingled together in death. As Tariun watched, a towering Tetrarchy missile droid fired a salvo into a platoon of Iscali soldiers, the shrapnel ripping most of them apart and sending the rest flying. It took three lumbering steps before a responding packet of condensed plasma, fired from a long-range cannon kilometers away, shredded the droid's torso in a flash of fire and durasteel. It collapsed amidst its own ranks. Everywhere Tariun could feel weariness dragging at his men. The disciplined Massassi would charge relentlessly until sheer exhaustion killed them, but more and more that time did not seem far off. The other species that made up the Armada weren't faring nearly as well, and more than once the fire Tariun rolled, leapt, or somersaulted away from came from his own side. "They're under fire," Keltrayu called over the din, voice level but tight. Ahead, Tariun could see that same thing for himself. Though it looked like a tank, Rin's command vessel was little more than a heavily-armored personnel carrier. Sacrificing weapons and speed for its multiple layers of armor, it provided the Queen a relatively secure mobile bunker to work her magic on the battlefield. As he drew closer, Tariun could feel the effects of her Battle Meditation getting stronger. His weariness lightened, and worry for Rin's safety or their overall victory seemed suddenly needless. A company of Massassi shock troops ringed the carrier, firing a constant barrage at any enemies who aimed in their direction. Standing atop the carrier itself, the Iscali Vessyk and the Vuul Eskol Kaartinen were deflecting whatever fire the enemy managed to get off in their direction. Vessyk's orange blade was constantly chopping forward, and the horned Novice was leaning that way too, as if he was just barely restraining himself from diving into the fight. Kaartinen, by contrast, had his indigo blade so close to his body he barely seemed to move it, elbows tucked tight to his ribs. His jaw clenched, all four eyes focused forward. The remaining Novices had clustered around Rin herself, visible through a transparisteel globe which allowed her to view the battle before her. As he closed on them, Tariun could see his sister's expression remained cool and serene, her emerald-and-silver eyes haughty. But her fingers were digging into the armrests of her miniature throne, and though her lips were set, the taut muscles in her neck and jaw showed her teeth were gritted. The Massassi parted for their two generals. Keltrayu moved immediately to Rin's side within the bunker, but Tariun flagged down the Massassi captain, who clapped one enormous fist to his breastplate and said, "Lord." "How bad?" the Sith asked without preamble, and even the savage face of the Massassi looked unusually grim. "They're concentrating fire. We've repulsed the first three waves, aided by Queen Rin and your servants." The Massassi had never quite gotten used to calling the Novices by their title, and Tariun had stopped trying to teach them. "But our ranks continue to thin. We can not leave the goddess to press the attack, but we can not do real damage if we remain on the defense." In Hragragh's voice and the feel of his mind, Tariun could feel the quiet, contained despair of a commander who knows he is sending his men to their deaths and is powerless to avert it. Nodding grimly, the Sith Lord offered, "Maybe Legate Keltrayu and I can do something about that." "You are a Sith Lord. You can do anything." "Hold the line, Captain, so we have that chance." "I obey, Lord." Ducking through their ranks to the speeder, Tariun passed through the Novices congregated in the open back door. Spritely-looking Te`net Organi was telling a joke to a young non-humanoid, but had to keep repeating himself to be heard over the cacophony surrounding them. Vessyk's fellow Iscali Melnanooin was nursing a burn on her forearm that looked like a glancing blaster shot. Nodding encouragingly to the dispirited trainees, clapping one on a shoulder here and ruffling another's hair there, he ducked into the control chamber where Keltrayu was at Rin's side. "—already has worked," he was saying tightly. Eyes shifting up to Tariun, the Human gave him a strained look. "Hasn't it?" "Hasn't what?" Tariun asked, frowning, trying to catch the last few seconds of their conversation from their emotions. But even his camaraderie with Keltrayu and his deep-seated intuitive connection to Rin weren't faster than her impatient reply. "Keltrayu was trying to justify abandoning the front you two suggested yourselves," she said crisply. Her tone was mostly annoyed, but beneath it Tariun could hear the strain she was keeping from them. Keltrayu glanced up, barely a flicker of his eyes, but Tariun caught the look and nodded grimly. But even that didn't escape Rin. "I'm fine. My people are dying all around us and you're wasting your time worrying about me," she accused them. "Go! Fight!" Wincing at being caught, Keltrayu still shook his head. "You're what's keeping the army going, our place is here, to keep you going." "Corcer's got the flank," Tariun added. Unable to squeeze into the already cramped space around Rin's quasi-throne, he knelt at his sister's back instead and laid a hand on her shoulder. Worried by the tension he felt there, Tariun forced himself to add, "We have to drive down the center before they can regroup to repulse us, and you'll need us both here for that anyway." "And you think the seven cohorts with me aren't quite up to the task?" Rin asked scathingly, turning her attention away from the viewport long enough to give her brother a pointed look. Keltrayu knelt down in front of Rin, managing to wedge himself into the small pace between her chair and the transparisteel. "Why take the risk, Master?" Even Tariun looked back at him on reflex; Keltrayu almost never called her that anymore except when he wanted to get her attention, and his soft, almost gentle tone worked its magic on Rin. Even without seeing her face, Tariun could feel her emotions softening slightly. "You're more important than any of us alone, even all of us together. You're the heart of the Empire in the middle of the battle." "Motivationally and tactically," Tariun inserted quickly, sensing Rin about to argue that her fighting was essential to leading. "This whole planet's a fortress, Rin, we can't win without your Battle Meditation." The witch queen grimaced, but finally turned to look at them both. "Fine," she said shortly, lips pressed together between words. "One of you may stay." "I will," Keltrayu volunteered immediately. "You're the better tactician, Tariun, you should be out there." It was as transparent a line as Tariun could've imagined; Keltrayu was every bit as dangerous a warrior, just as inspiring a leader, and by now probably as good a tactician too. But the Sith Lord let it go; he could see in Keltrayu's eyes that the Human wouldn't trust protecting Rin under such immensely dangerous circumstances to anyone but himself. Trying not to take offense at that, Tariun nodded. "Keep it up, little sister. Keep them off balance and we'll keep up the pressure. When we off-balance them enough, they'll break." Jaw tightening again, Rin simply nodded. "Go." "Come on, Keltrayu, relieve Vessyk before he makes a charge by himself," Tariun grumbled, getting to his feet with a wince. His joints ached, and the momentary lapse in action and the corresponding adrenaline dropoff made the numb sting in his burns and cuts a sharper pain. Stepping through the crowd of Novices, he took a moment to call on the Force. He could feel the anger and fruitless rage of his men, watching their comrades die; the fear of the dying as they saw their own horrific wounds; the apprehension and unease surrounding Rin's own transport… Their emotions empowered him, stirred a vicious desire to wreak retribution on the enemies of his people and his baby sister, and the dark side lifted his exhaustion away. Keltrayu stepped out beside Tariun, taking his lightsaber from his belt and a deep breath through his lips. "If it's all the same to you, I'll keep Vessyk where he is. Three blades are better—" "I don't care what you do with Vessyk," Tariun replied in a low voice, giving the Human a pointed look. "Let him charge, if you want to. But you make sure you protect Rin. I wasn't just wheedling her when I said we can't win without her powers, and she's drained as it is." "I won't let anything hurt her, Tariun," Keltrayu replied, and the gravity in his tone was such that the Sith Lord found it impossible to doubt. "I know you won't," he said, and clapped Keltrayu on the shoulder. "Happy blocking, brother. I'll bring you back some heads." Turning to the clustered Massassi and other species making up the tight-packed, slowly advancing front, Tariun couldn't help but notice their apprehension was spreading. Too much stagnation, perhaps. He extended his hands to the sides, and his lightsaber hilts flipped out of their holsters into his grip. Rolling his eyes, he added over his shoulder, "Hop up there, your troops need some inspiration." He started off into the crowd, shouldering his way through the Massassi. If he made it to Aquila Corcer's flank, they would be able to divert the enemy that way too. And with his red blades disappearing from one front only to reappear on another, they would have the advantage of fear. "Tariun." He glanced back. Keltrayu had his free hand on the side of the traveling bunker to hoist himself up, and he was smiling his easygoing smile. "Peace and Strength." Tariun grunted; he might never get used to the motto Rin had picked. "And you, brother." He started back in Corcer's direction. "Tariun!" "You know, Keltrayu, I'd like to get to the front one of these—" he started impatiently, but cut off when he turned around. Keltrayu was not looking at him now. Standing atop the dome that protected Rin – probably right over her – he was gazing into the distance with a look of grim dread. At once Tariun could feel that this was the same emotion that had afflicted the front lines, even the Massassi; that had slowed the march of the invincible to the tentative advance of the wary. A Force-powered leap took him over the heads of his soldiers and to Keltrayu's side. Looking out over the battlefield, Tariun's eyes narrowed as he tried to make sense of the flashes of light and smoke, the pillars of dust from collapsed droids and cannonade impacts. The Tetrarchy forces were still flooding to relieve the beleaguered right flank they had just deserted; to the left, Tariun imagined he could see Aquila Corcer's flashing blade, though the Force might have just been filling in the gaps for his eyes. Ahead, the enemy had split almost down the middle. For a moment the Sith Lord thought they were just abandoning the center altogether and dividing to outflank Rin's army. And then he saw what was coming up the middle to take their place. Saw the hated, ten-meter tall frame. The point-defense laser cannons, just waiting for ground troops to draw close. And the neon ring around its center, glowing faintly now but brightening with every passing second as it flooded its discharge plates with power in preparation for the coming slaughter. A shock tank.
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