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<blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2234402" data-attributes="member: 10079"><p><strong>Chapter 214: We Fight Alone</strong></p><p></p><p>It was stupid. Stupid and insane. Crazy even. So much so that it was even crazy by Jyren’s standards. He should be going the other way. He should have been running with the other Alraxian male to find the last Kanyak and leave before the chaos got more chaotic. But no. Jyren was going the other direction, back to a room that, by the sound of some of the explosions, might not have even been there anymore. And he still had no idea exactly what was happening.</p><p> </p><p>Yes, Ket’s droids were there. And yes, the bombardment was continuing, but that was it. What was bombarding, and how many droids there were was completely beyond anything he knew. But, from the sound of things, a very large amount of ships had already left. How that had happened, he didn’t know...but not knowing things was strangely comforting.</p><p> </p><p>The more he knew, the more insanely stupid running back for a tiny little item became. Slowly, the shakes and echoing sounds of the explosions began to die down...but that was more worrying than comforting. From Jyren’s knowledge of tactics, a bombardment would usually last until the majority of ground troops were down. But this was another part of the galaxy, and the troops were droids. So whether he was correct or not, Jyren couldn’t know, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still worrying.</p><p> </p><p>And then, just as he reached the door to the room, there was a deafening explosion that couldn’t have been far off at all. The building shook enough that Jyren was thrown to the wall and nearly onto his face. Standing there for a moment, claws slightly dug into the wall, he looked ahead to see half of the hallway had collapsed inwards and sunlight was creeping in. There was, thankfully, no sign of any droids. But outside, distantly, he could hear a sound very similar to blaster fire.</p><p> </p><p>Telling himself there was nothing he could do about that, and knowing that time was definitely a factor in this, Jyren forced himself to ignore the other things and get the door to the room open. It took using a lightsaber to cut a hole in the door to get in...and Jyren couldn’t help but notice that the sense of life he usually felt in the building was gone. Normally, that would hint that there were little people within...but since most Alraxian ‘technology’ was simply living things, he knew it was much more likely that the building was simply dead.</p><p> </p><p>It was odd to step into the room and find it pretty much exactly as it had been left. Quickly, he ran over to the jacket from the night before which was tossed on the floor near the foot of the bed. Kneeling down, Jyren picked it up and scrambled through the two pockets.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing?!</p><p> </p><p>That wasn’t right...there should be something! Something. Something...where was that damned thing?! As quickly as he could without losing track of his thoughts, Jyren ran through the events of the night before. The Jendari gave him the small cube. He thanked them and pocketed it...pocketed it. Didn’t his trousers have pockets?</p><p> </p><p>His eyes scanned the room for them. Where in the name of the Force did they end up?! He found them a moment later half under the bed. How they got there, he didn’t know, and probably didn’t want to know, but that’s where they were. Again, he searched pockets. All of them.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing again?! He hadn’t been drunk, he should be remembering! He did remember! Well, everything except where the damn cube was. How could he possible forget the night before?! Alright. Not in the jacket. Not in trousers. Where else could it be?! Again, his eyes scanned the room. Where would it have gone?! He didn’t have time for this!</p><p> </p><p>Getting to his feet, Jyren ran over to the large, half open wardrobe and opened the other half. Scouring through it, he found a fairly good sized pack. Not having time to search things, he got the pack open and went across the room just piling things in it. From his clothes from the night before, to Shadow’s nicely folded dress on the bed(which ended up unfolded by the time it was in the pack), to everything that had gotten scattered around the room in the night. And then, finally he found the small, slightly transparent cube.</p><p> </p><p>It had taken taking all of the sheets off the bed and to find it...buried under one of the pillows. Again, he decided it was best not to figure out how or why it had ended up there. Quickly, he stuffed the thing into the top of the pack, closed it, and through the thing on his back.</p><p> </p><p>In another second, he was back out in the hallway and running as fast as he could, even using the Force to push his body faster. Retracing his steps and then following the direction where he had been told the ship was took less than a minute at that speed. But when he reached the exit of the hallway to the outside and the awaiting Kanyak, he froze.</p><p> </p><p>The sky was black and brown with ships of various makes and designs. The pearly white of the city was now an ashy grey, with smoke pocketing many sections and the bright sheen of metal droids almost everywhere. Many of the ships were still setting down, and just as they did, droids disembarked and charged out in various parts of the city. Some didn’t even land, with droids simply dropping from ten or fifteen meters up and landing in a run as the city was taken. There was blaster fire everywhere, and Jyren quickly noticed it was coming from the droids. It was nearly impossible to find any Alraxians or anything living that was being shot at</p><p> </p><p>But they Kanyak on the platform dead ahead of him was still there, a ramp down and four Alraxian guards looking a mix of panicked and ready looking in all directions for any droids that would be nearby. When they saw Jyren, they frantically waved him over, and instinct took his body over so he simply ran at them without thinking about it. But he made it halfway across the platform before stopping again.</p><p> </p><p>The link distracted him. Through it, he could feel Shadow’s calm demeanor suddenly change to one of worry. Immediately, he looked down a level below to see her standing with at least fifty other Alraxians. He could even see the emerald hair that indicated Kyren next to her. They were standing waiting on something, and Jyren could hear the same sound they could...metal footsteps pounding louder and louder.</p><p> </p><p>But Shadow wasn’t looking forward. She had turned up and was staring straight at him. In that moment, he didn’t care about what had to be done. He didn’t care about protecting the Empress or Cole or Toby...he just wanted to be down there fighting with her like he should have been. And he nearly jumped the twenty meters down to do it. Nearly.</p><p> </p><p>[Please go.]</p><p> </p><p>It was the most forced and pain he’d ever heard in Shadow’s voice...mentally or out loud. She was begging him. Pleading him to leave the chaos. Jyren managed to take one step forward, but was still staring down at her despite the insanity around them. Despite the yelling of the guards, two of which were charging over to drag him in. Despite everything.</p><p> </p><p>[Promise me you’ll come back.] was all he could think to respond with.</p><p> </p><p>Even from the distance they were at, Jyren could see the pain in her eyes when she didn’t respond. Ignoring that he was about to be literally carried off, he pressed harder. [Promise me!]</p><p> </p><p>Her ‘voice’ came back so quiet that even in his mind, he almost missed it. [...I can’t promise you that...]</p><p> </p><p>And then the two guards reached him, screaming and yelling in Alraxian. They grabbed Jyren by the arms and dragged him to the ship. Just before Shadow disappeared behind the platform below his feet, Jyren said simply. [I love you.]</p><p> </p><p>But she didn’t respond. She didn’t have a chance. Just as he finished the last word, a swarm of droids rounded the corner and the chaos broke out. Jyren could only hear blaster fire and screams as he was pulled into the Kanyak and the ship left the planet.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ankh-Morpork Guard, post: 2234402, member: 10079"] [b]Chapter 214: We Fight Alone[/b] It was stupid. Stupid and insane. Crazy even. So much so that it was even crazy by Jyren’s standards. He should be going the other way. He should have been running with the other Alraxian male to find the last Kanyak and leave before the chaos got more chaotic. But no. Jyren was going the other direction, back to a room that, by the sound of some of the explosions, might not have even been there anymore. And he still had no idea exactly what was happening. Yes, Ket’s droids were there. And yes, the bombardment was continuing, but that was it. What was bombarding, and how many droids there were was completely beyond anything he knew. But, from the sound of things, a very large amount of ships had already left. How that had happened, he didn’t know...but not knowing things was strangely comforting. The more he knew, the more insanely stupid running back for a tiny little item became. Slowly, the shakes and echoing sounds of the explosions began to die down...but that was more worrying than comforting. From Jyren’s knowledge of tactics, a bombardment would usually last until the majority of ground troops were down. But this was another part of the galaxy, and the troops were droids. So whether he was correct or not, Jyren couldn’t know, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still worrying. And then, just as he reached the door to the room, there was a deafening explosion that couldn’t have been far off at all. The building shook enough that Jyren was thrown to the wall and nearly onto his face. Standing there for a moment, claws slightly dug into the wall, he looked ahead to see half of the hallway had collapsed inwards and sunlight was creeping in. There was, thankfully, no sign of any droids. But outside, distantly, he could hear a sound very similar to blaster fire. Telling himself there was nothing he could do about that, and knowing that time was definitely a factor in this, Jyren forced himself to ignore the other things and get the door to the room open. It took using a lightsaber to cut a hole in the door to get in...and Jyren couldn’t help but notice that the sense of life he usually felt in the building was gone. Normally, that would hint that there were little people within...but since most Alraxian ‘technology’ was simply living things, he knew it was much more likely that the building was simply dead. It was odd to step into the room and find it pretty much exactly as it had been left. Quickly, he ran over to the jacket from the night before which was tossed on the floor near the foot of the bed. Kneeling down, Jyren picked it up and scrambled through the two pockets. Nothing. Nothing?! That wasn’t right...there should be something! Something. Something...where was that damned thing?! As quickly as he could without losing track of his thoughts, Jyren ran through the events of the night before. The Jendari gave him the small cube. He thanked them and pocketed it...pocketed it. Didn’t his trousers have pockets? His eyes scanned the room for them. Where in the name of the Force did they end up?! He found them a moment later half under the bed. How they got there, he didn’t know, and probably didn’t want to know, but that’s where they were. Again, he searched pockets. All of them. Nothing. Nothing again?! He hadn’t been drunk, he should be remembering! He did remember! Well, everything except where the damn cube was. How could he possible forget the night before?! Alright. Not in the jacket. Not in trousers. Where else could it be?! Again, his eyes scanned the room. Where would it have gone?! He didn’t have time for this! Getting to his feet, Jyren ran over to the large, half open wardrobe and opened the other half. Scouring through it, he found a fairly good sized pack. Not having time to search things, he got the pack open and went across the room just piling things in it. From his clothes from the night before, to Shadow’s nicely folded dress on the bed(which ended up unfolded by the time it was in the pack), to everything that had gotten scattered around the room in the night. And then, finally he found the small, slightly transparent cube. It had taken taking all of the sheets off the bed and to find it...buried under one of the pillows. Again, he decided it was best not to figure out how or why it had ended up there. Quickly, he stuffed the thing into the top of the pack, closed it, and through the thing on his back. In another second, he was back out in the hallway and running as fast as he could, even using the Force to push his body faster. Retracing his steps and then following the direction where he had been told the ship was took less than a minute at that speed. But when he reached the exit of the hallway to the outside and the awaiting Kanyak, he froze. The sky was black and brown with ships of various makes and designs. The pearly white of the city was now an ashy grey, with smoke pocketing many sections and the bright sheen of metal droids almost everywhere. Many of the ships were still setting down, and just as they did, droids disembarked and charged out in various parts of the city. Some didn’t even land, with droids simply dropping from ten or fifteen meters up and landing in a run as the city was taken. There was blaster fire everywhere, and Jyren quickly noticed it was coming from the droids. It was nearly impossible to find any Alraxians or anything living that was being shot at But they Kanyak on the platform dead ahead of him was still there, a ramp down and four Alraxian guards looking a mix of panicked and ready looking in all directions for any droids that would be nearby. When they saw Jyren, they frantically waved him over, and instinct took his body over so he simply ran at them without thinking about it. But he made it halfway across the platform before stopping again. The link distracted him. Through it, he could feel Shadow’s calm demeanor suddenly change to one of worry. Immediately, he looked down a level below to see her standing with at least fifty other Alraxians. He could even see the emerald hair that indicated Kyren next to her. They were standing waiting on something, and Jyren could hear the same sound they could...metal footsteps pounding louder and louder. But Shadow wasn’t looking forward. She had turned up and was staring straight at him. In that moment, he didn’t care about what had to be done. He didn’t care about protecting the Empress or Cole or Toby...he just wanted to be down there fighting with her like he should have been. And he nearly jumped the twenty meters down to do it. Nearly. [Please go.] It was the most forced and pain he’d ever heard in Shadow’s voice...mentally or out loud. She was begging him. Pleading him to leave the chaos. Jyren managed to take one step forward, but was still staring down at her despite the insanity around them. Despite the yelling of the guards, two of which were charging over to drag him in. Despite everything. [Promise me you’ll come back.] was all he could think to respond with. Even from the distance they were at, Jyren could see the pain in her eyes when she didn’t respond. Ignoring that he was about to be literally carried off, he pressed harder. [Promise me!] Her ‘voice’ came back so quiet that even in his mind, he almost missed it. [...I can’t promise you that...] And then the two guards reached him, screaming and yelling in Alraxian. They grabbed Jyren by the arms and dragged him to the ship. Just before Shadow disappeared behind the platform below his feet, Jyren said simply. [I love you.] But she didn’t respond. She didn’t have a chance. Just as he finished the last word, a swarm of droids rounded the corner and the chaos broke out. Jyren could only hear blaster fire and screams as he was pulled into the Kanyak and the ship left the planet. [/QUOTE]
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