Log:Battle of Carida: Above the Ridgeline

Battle of Carida: Above the Ridgeline

OOC Date: July 14, 2020
Location: Carida
Participants: Jedi Order: Rey Skywalker, Aryn Cole, Yuun, Finn, and Elrych Cometburn with Ben Solo; New Republic: Merek and Jax Greystorm; Knights of Ren: Malik Ren, Imani, Syrus, and Sebek; Reliquary: Kuolo

The Battle for Carida had been raging for what seemed like days. Somewhere, tactical computers had recorded the actual amount of time that had passed since the initial strike over Valor Station, but for those embroiled in the fighting, the hours stretched out and time seemed to alternately fly and drag. A short lifetime had passed since the New Republic team had landed on the Station and felled the dangerous Dreadnoughts, clearing the way for a full ground invasion.

Transports descended on the planet by the dozens from both sides, dropping out of the capital ships in orbit above as they continued to slug it out with turbolasers and plasma cannons. Now here in the mountainous terrain, a different sort of battle was being waged, with individual soldiers.

A line of First Order troops, quickly formed up outside their JAS landers, comes swarming down over the hill from the high ground, while the Republic fighters face an uphill battle against greater numbers. With the soul of the planet at stake, blaster fire begins to scorch the earth.

At the base of the hill during the start of this skirmish, Aryn had a surreal feeling of vertigo that gave her pause. A loss of step that saw the front rank move ahead of her as she seemingly held back and watched in a slower perception of time as troopers ran into the onslaught of blaster fire.

Such rare moments of stunning clarity came to Aryn when she felt emotionally overwhelmed by everything that was happening around her. The sounds blended together, the explosions loud and painful. Sand, dirt, dust all flew in specs, powdering her hair and armor, and leaving the Jedi encompassed in the swarming smoke, dust, and fog of war.

She takes one step forward, then another. Influencing a bit more courage with each step and finding her nerve once more. Dread lingered upon her conscious all the same. She must trust in the Force!

Merek of course put a lot of work into the cybernetics looking like himself, which is synthetic beneath the synthskin. Well, lightsabers would make fast work of that. His usual team would not be with him, he actually takes the time to look to who is, while he nods a bit, his F-11 placed in hand while his beltcape shifts a bit, wearing the white-black. The helmet placed upon him, while his face can be seen through the shield. "Alright soldiers, this is the final battle, and for some of you, neither your first final for the taking new ground."

With a click he begins to load up that rifle, "We are soldiers, we fight. The mission is to take on the enemy team. The Jedi will fight the Knights. Unless they need support, keep to mission. Every cog in the machine needs to work together. Are you ready? Now, we get to say it guys, something we haven't said in a while, that means a lot to what we call ourselves."

"FOR THE REPUBLIC!" And he begins to unload with the troopers from the transport, weapon lifted up. <"This is Sergeant Black, we'll cover you from the units while you take the fight to the enemy."

Marching down the ramp of one of the landers is Syrus, erstwhile Jedi, and still an all-around pretty swell guy. His eyes scan the site of the place that is soon to become a battlefield and he frowns, awash with painful memories of battles he'd fought before on the other side of the line. A breath is taken to steel his nerves and he runs his black gloved hand down the trim of his tabard, his other hand reaching for the saber on his belt. "There's a sickness in the air here," he says softly, basically to himself.

Elrych had shed his cloak, exposing the white undertunic of his Corellian Jedi Robes and the green Tabard under that. The coat tails of the well tailored cloth flowed as he moved, lightsaber already in hand, aner Aryn. His own influence over the force swelling inside him like a bright light of resolve and determination. Blue eys, steeled and cold, scanned the uphill horizon. "I don't like the disadvantage..." He mentions. He was no tactitions, but he knew that advancing on an entrenched hill was usually a costly event. Force powers or airsuperiority not withstanding.

The First Order has spared nothing in this assault, and as such, all of its strange, unholy allies are here. Among them, the Knights of Ren. Malik Ren, known to many among both friend and foe, is obvious among the ranks of the First Order combatants -- marked by the distinctive snap-hiss of his red blade igniting, and by a helmet that looks similar to the one Kylo Ren used to wear, but not quite the same. Perhaps both masks have a similar point of origin.

He is stalking forward despite noxious smoke clouds from debris on the ground, fires burning from blaster-burned scraps of much that was once whole and sound. "There is a sickness in the galaxy at large," Malik's vocoded voice replies to Syrus, "We'll burn out the rot, or we'll die trying. If this is the end, so be it."

The march of red-clad stormtroopers had become a death march, cutting down whatever unlucky sorts had crossed their paths in the time since the Sith Eternal had landed. They went where the transports landed; they chased the invaders with a particular fervor and were clearly getting some things out of their system. Behind their backs, thick black smoke rose into the air, marking the battlefields they traversed.

The pack of red troopers, spilling through the small force of First Order stormtroopers freely like an open wound clashing against white, reinforced the groupings of troopers. At their rear, walking more slowly than the rest, was the white-robed Kuolo. The crimson blade of Anuesana's lightsaber rest, lowered, but active. His robes were darkened at the feet, spoiled by dirt and debris. Robes that, along with the particular porcelain mask he wore, were stained in places by blackened, dried blood; none of his own, a careful eye might deduce from the otherwise unpenetrated and untorn robes.

Jax had been part of the space battle serving as a member of Rogue Squadron. His work done, he had left the system but the force had drawn him back to the planet and the surface. He moves up to join the current jedi. "There's much I don't like here. Elrych. Aryn. I much preferred our last meeting. Perhaps that is why the force has brought us here." He closes his eyes for a moment trying to summon the force around him as a shield.

Meanwhile there was nothing swell about the man behind He Who Learns. Why, the snarling face embedded in the helmet of Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts could tell you that. In his hand was a long weapon, shaped like a baton with a flanged pommel, but with the distinctive emitter of a lightsaber. "Speak not of sickness, He Who Learns," was the velvety, heavily accented voice that oozed through the voice filters of the mask, "for once again you mistake glorious battle with your insufficient luncheon." The wind caught his topknot, sticking out the top of the flared helmet and sent it swishing, along with the hip-cloak like lower half of his battle cassock.

Snap-hiss. Red joined red as He Who Hunts joined He Who Leads. There was the sound of sniffing from the mask, and then the low hiss of, "Jeedai. I smell their stink. I smell their fat. Today we do what was forbidden prior. Today we bathe in slaughter."

Imani strides behind Malik, her long step keeping pace easily. She has a weapon in her hand already, helmet on and dark armor lending her more of a menacing air than she would normally have. "If this is the end, then we'll die knowing that we did everything we could to try and make this galaxy right, and can only hope that others will pick up the cause when we fall down."

From the sky, the Millennium Falcon swoopes in and sweeps around to, extending it's landing legs to settle them on ot the earth behind the lines of the Republic soldiers. The ship's exhaust ports spout out gusts of smoky steam as the ship settles into place, with the gangplank lowering down seconds later.

From within the ship, Rey runs out, bounding down the ramp toward the soldiers who meet her. TWo of them, holding their rifles up to the sides.

"Where's Finn?" Rey asks of the soldiers. They look nervous "I don't know!" One replies, causing Rey's eyes to go over to the other.

"Where's Ben?!" She asks of the second Republic soldier.

"I don't know, ma'am!" The soldier also replies.

This garners a momentary expression of annoyance, frustration and confusion from the young Jedi as she sweeps over to the side to watch the battle starting to take form. She keeps her eyes on the fight to come, as the troopers form up behind her.

"Get ready, get to your posts." She looks back to them both, and tries to comfort them with a soft smile as strands of her loose hair whip across her face. "And May the Force be with you." As the soldiers nod in return to her, and rush off to the fight...

Rey reaches for her saber's hilt, calling it to her right hand, and she too moves forward to prepare for battle.

Having rode down in the Falcon, he exits out of the ship behind Rey. The fight on the space station was pretty intense and the young Initiate looks around as he moves along with Rey. He had been quiet on the way down and with all that's happend, it doesn't look like he's paying much attention at the moment.

When Rey ask about Finn and Ben, he doesn't say anything he didn't see them and he does look around though upon seeing Aryn, Elrych and Jax he nods to them, "Hey guys, did you see Ben or Finn around?" he asks as he tries to scan the area.

The battle is joined, and blaster-fire is already raising the ambient temperature by several degrees from the sheer amount of plasma flying through the air. The Republic's transports, a hodge-podge of anything suitable for the role including U-wings, open up from the door-mounted weapons to cover the fighters' uphill advance. Meanwhile the white-armored stormtroopers are joined by their cousins in the gammaplast red, bolstering their ranks against the invading Republic.

Where is Ben Solo? A good question, for another time.

The objective is clear: repel the enemy.

Rey rushes up to the frontline troops, her saber at her side, and her thumb swiping over it to cause the yellow beam to extend from within the hilt. She looks to the soldiers around her, some of whom are faces she recoganizes beneath their helmets, friends from the Resistance days. She nods to those soldiers, but proceeds onward alongside them, raising her saber up for any incoming blaster fire, in hopes of deflecting it and helping to keep the soldiers around her safe.

For now.

Kuolo slipped through the troopers quietly, without much regard for the fact the battlefield had been joined by so many heroic individuals. It was the sky that truly caught Kuolo's attention, as the now landed trashbird YT-1300 he couldn't definitely say was the Millenium Falcon and the definitely-his-damn-ship Libertine settle. He seethed. Around him, the temperature drops just over twenty degrees nearly immediately. It was a dire, darkening sort of cold wind that stuck around him. A black glove points.

"Choice duty for the Soldier that kills the pilot of that bird," he declares. It was something he could make happen. Choice duty? There were plenty of beaches that had garrisons needing a new Colonel.

His eyes turned down the hill, then, to the approaching line of fighters. That's when he saw the Girl, shoring up their offensive with a rallying call. Kuolo braces for their arrival by raising Anuesana's lightsaber.

"Kill them," the digital vocoder adds, as the mask eyelets settle.

Elrych slipped through the mass of Republic soldiers, the tails of his Tabard flowing with his movements. His blue eyes caught sight of Rey, their Paragon, raising her golden saber to block incomming bolts aimed against those who would drive their way up the hill. His blue blade crackled to life, squeeling intensly, hungrily before calming into a high pictched hum. Sweet, yet vicious and deadly. He raised the blade and a bit aways from her decided to do much the same she was doing, to preserve as many men as possible while they fought against the First Order and Sith hords. The sight of a red blade catches his eye, "Rey... did you see it?" He asks as he continues to deflect bolts.

Jax looks at Yuun with a confused look on his face, "Ban? I haven't seen him." Jax doesn't know Ben Solo is alive. No one has given him a memo. Jax watches Rey go running past and Elrych following her. Jax turns and follows into combat. As they go crashing into the battle. Jax breaks off moving to intercept a Stormtrooper Captain and his troops as they go to cut down a squad of New Republic soldiers. His saber flashing blue as the humm turns into the roar of a saber slicing the Storm Trooper Captain and his second. "Keep going. We're not dying here, not today. For the Republic."

"MEDIIIC!" Someone yells along the line and it gives Aryn pause. Adjusting her angle from the hill, the small blonde moves toward the downed soldiers, sliding behind their cover for the moment to help them tend a winged soldier whose armor is singed with the carbon scoring of a bolt. "Hold still.. inject the kolto numbing agent... yes, that one.." Aryn directs, pointing. "No, don't move the armor. Right on the exposed wound. It numbs it. Pick your weapon up, trooper. Wait.. helmet on." Aryn smiles and endearingly slaps the side of their donned helmet. "Good man! Let's go!"

First in, best dressed. Sebek believed wholeheartedly in this philosophy. This is why he wore cassocks. The funny thing about having a Knight helmet adorned with the face of a snarling beast is that it fully matched the individual underneath it. "Yes! YES! Behold your end!" There was a horrible VWROOM noise followed by a terrible sizzling squelching as Sergreant Lyle Pritchard, presumably two days from retirement, found his legs charging in one direction while his torso went another. "Die, Those Who Die!" VWROOM sizzle-squelch! That was Sgt Fereva Nevran, possibly leaving behind her sister Cyriana, as well as an arm, shoulder, and half of her head. "I will feast on your corpses!" C R U N C H! That was a bit different. Sebek was not making any friends here, especially not Vuul Stiggumz, who'd just had his skull caved in by the heavy mace-like pommel on the end of the Falleen's lightsaber. Obviously he couldn't go on living like that.

Malik's march toward the brave Republic soldiers holding the line is a determined but not hurried pace, leaning out of blaster fire just-so in order to avoid being shot by the troops Aryn is patching back together. Hope flares bright for a moment as one of the soldiers manages to duck the saber blade heading his way, but it isn't hope that lasts long -- he is cut down on the back swing, a neighboring lieutenant next to fall, and the forward march continues, patient, consistent, determined.

Finn's eyes flick from lightsaber to lightsaber. Deadly, ancient weapons casting a multi-hued glow amidst the soldiers. His eyes flick to his own, unignited and dangling from his hip. He considers it for a moment before turning to Rey, listening to her words and nodding his head sternly. Rather than reach for the blade, he unslings his carbine and readies it against his shoulder. His eyes narrow, staring stonily down the sights at the enemy force.

"Good luck, everybody," he calls out, not looking up from the sights as he depresses the trigger and sends a pair of crimson bolts surging towards one of the troopers and knocking him back and into an unmoving heap.

Yuun is out of it a little bit something else on his mind and as the attack starts, he unclips his lightsaber as he tries to take a steadying breath, he tries to envelop himself within the force but it's not as honed as it normally is. 'Come on!' he snaps at himself mentally.

Yuun moves in towards the group of Stormtroopers, his movements isn't as smooth as he normally is and as he swings he swings with more power then grace and agility that he normally do. His blue blade flashes as he attacks a group of stormtroopers he's near, missing them all. His eyes look to the troopers and he steps back a step seeing how he's missed his intended targets. A look of, 'What the hell am I doing!' shows in his features as he looks to the startled troopers who's lives weren't extinguished just now, "Leave!" he shouts at them.

Beginning his slow march, Sy's saber is lazily whipped around in front of him, the blade searing a couple of glowing ruts into the dirt around him. Syrus doesn't like seeing his old companions on the field of battle. It's a wake-up call every time; his eyes opening a little bit more with each iteration to how much he's strayed. Or ascended. In any case, a shiver makes its down his spine.

Sy's gait straightens as he approaches a filthy rebel, his hilt clutched tightly and held high, the growling blade hungry for Order. It's first target is a member of the brass, likely someone he's had tea and overlong theological discussions with, though that's probably just about everybody on this battlefield. Except for Sebek. Sebek's not a high-concept kinda guy. Captain Chikki holds up against a swing, but is dispatched with the next, Sy's attention then turning to the other Captain within reach. Zaq is luckier.

Imani charges into the fray with a unflinching fury of someone who is wholly unafraid to die for the cause. She's not a particular soul, and as such simply charges for the first soldier that doesn't have a number for a name, the edge of her weapon leaving behind a long gash before she pulls back, then plunges the top of her blade into Zim. He drops and she yanks back on the weapon, giving it one firm shake that sends a spray of blood to the ground.

Merek begins to walk forward along with the team, while he lifts up his rifle, taking a moment to fire onto the stormtroopers while they begin to advance at the time, then he points forward, "Flank them!" He fights amidst the battlefield with his scarf gently waving about, the crimson bolt managing to find purchase in one of the stormtrooper's buttocks. "Kick that posterior boys! Literally!"

The rank and file from the other transports had had more time to spread out, to get into each other's ranks, taking cover behind rocks and ridges wherever the pitch of the ground allows it. Scrub trees here past the ridgeline are fewer and further between than anyone would like, but what few there are are made use of as props for backs, leaned out around to return fire.

Everywhere, the sounds of death and battle ring out, as troopers fall shot, stabbed, or sliced. Here a pair go under a blue blade, there a trio fall under the red.

"LYLE! NO!" "STIGGUMZ, GET BACK!" "VN-3395, do you copy?!" "Captain! Captain, get up!" "08, I'm rushing, get on my back. 08? 08?" "GWAKKA HAK ZIM DU QUOIS?"

Rey rushes into battle, with the tabards of her clothing sweeping around her legs as they move at quickened speeds, from cover to cover. As the shooting starts, her saber's blade sweeps up, when she emerges from around cover and finds soldiers armored in White or Red she starts to unleash her training upon them!

Swings to their bodies come, she springs out from behind cover and cuts one trooper from waist to neck, before darting around behind another outcropping, only to emerge on the other side, in mid-flip over another soldier who receives a similar cut from shoulder to hip.

finally as she turns, her saber is brought chest-first into the armor of a Stormtrooper who had tried to engage her with a melee weapon, only not soon enough!

With a twirl of her blade at her side, she runs off, continuing onward into the frey...

Reports had flooded in from the crimson stormtroopers, relaying what information they could in quick, practiced spurts of information. He had tracked the pilot from the Libertine, and they happened to be chasing after Rey. Rey had another cohort as well, of course, but he expected she had many fools to follow her.

Of course, the wayward Stormtrooper's face had been burned into his mind by wanted missives and declarations. The truth, however, was that Kuolo couldn't be bothered to remember Finn. It wasn't worthy of memory. Despite that, Kuolo is surprised that Finn is able to keep to his feet. As Rey begins to move off, he isn't able to overcome Finn. The crimson blade swirls about them, with Finn managing, somehow, to avoid his attacks.

Elrych moved, as swiftly as he could, which was far more agile than mose humans. Supernatural once might describe it as. THe Force was indeed a powerful ally. As the Melee became more erratic and spread out, the Corellian caught sight of that Red saber again. That feeling, that seething hatred. It became clearer to him when it was being swung at Finn. "I found Finn!" He offers, making his way over and lunging with a Jab towards the end of Kuolo's attacks. Their sabers lock, crackling and flashing brilliantly. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size." Blue eys scanned over the mask before he struck out again, his sweeping motions powerful and seemingly from out of nowhere. If anyone were to look upon the scene, they'd see Elrych /stumbling/ forward yet never once loosing balance. At the end of his pressing attacks, he brings the blade up, edge pointed down, the tell-tale sign of Vapaad.

Jax's protection and leading of New Republic troops forward takes him in the direct path of Malik Ren's ponderous pace. Jax goes crashing into Malik his saber striking out at the leader of the Knights of Ren. "Malik. It seems you were right." He says dancing in for another quick strike and then with a lung going for the man's torso. "I'm not asking you to turn your back on the dark side. "

Jax Greystorm did not engage the Master of the Knights of Ren alone. Managing to arrive at his side in time for his attack, she pivots in, masterfully swinging and missing! Malik is quick! QUICK! Her flurry, a quick velocity of three swings, hum by the dark Knight, but she takes her position beside the Greystorm, holding her weapon in the fashion of a duelist, cape cast back.

She had no words for Malik. Still, she seemed overwhelmed by the battle, and combat, and all the noises of those suffering around them. A subtle glance paid to Jax, and Aryn nods.

Merciless, bloody slaughter! This was Sebek's second-favourite activity, after eating. He'd swung thrice and killed thrice and then the battle was joined! Red mixed with blue and yellow and Sebek was hunting for Jeedai. Who was first? Who would be the first t-

Him.

"YOU!" erupted Sebek with a deafening bellow, swelling (metaphorically) with rage and levelling his finger at one of the blue glowstick swingers. Who was he pointing at? It was Yuun. Yuun! Twitch. Ohhhhh, Sebek never forgot a face, nor did he forget those who left him lying face-down in the snow. "You are OWED DEFEAT!" Twitch. "And this day, you shall be GRANTED it!"

The great thing about Desert Wind is that, far from being a body emination, was that in wide open spaces with room to breathe it took up all of it. The screaming howling assault was uncoordinated and wild, the first two swings going wide and the third finding purchase against He Who Dances' lightsaber. "FIGHT ME, INSECT!" he screamed, slipping further and further into that overriding need to level the score.

The battle grows a lot more deadly after breaking through the lines, when not only one but two Jedi step forward to make Malik's day a little busier! Jax's first swing nearly takes his head off, grazing sparks off his helmet. While he dodges the next blow, he's off balance, just a little slower where he needed to be fast, and the deadly blue blade catches him across the torso, an ugly wound.

The hiss of indrawn breath can be heard through the vocoder of the helmet as he steps out of Jax's saber range... and as it happens, right into Aryn's! But this time, he is ready, and white sparks fly as blue meets crimson, and he blocks her attacks. He has no particular classic style. His style is Kylo Ren's style, which was 'furiously hit things', adapted for speed where he lacks impressive physical strength.

"'Sides'," Malik chides as Jax assures he won't try to get him to turn from the dark side. "Really. Do you all imagine that the infinite complexity of the Force can be reduced to 'sides'? Wake up. You know better."

Having stepped away from Jax and into Aryn, it is the quiet, kind healer who is closer now, and it's against her flurry of blades that he presses an attack -- a close call slips free to something much worse.

Some moments seem to hang in time, slower, called out by a consciousness that scarcely seems one's own. This is one of those moments, as an evil red weapon does terrible injury to someone who attacked him, yes, but also once helped him. Another time. Another name. Another life. Does he remember? Malik Ren's mask makes it hard to tell if he does remember, harder still to tell if what he remembers calls to any good left in him. No one's ever supposed that there is any.

But there is a pause there as she falls, stillness sure and distinct, which has not been afforded to others.

As the lightsaber hums towards Finn's head, he ducks immediately. A third slash through the air drives him into a sideways roll, and then the last misses his prone form as he scrambles to his feet. His blaster lays on the ground several feet away, and he turns his attention to it with a wide-eyed stare. His gaze then turns back to Kuolo, and with a somewhat clumsy motion he draws the lightsaber from his belt and the green blade ignites.

"You found me," he calls to Elrych as the Jedi Knight intercedes, "But I'm not helpless! I was wielding a lightsaber in combat before Rey was!" Hey, if nobody knows the context of that then it can still be used as a brag, right? The scar on his back aches in response.

He's a novice with the weapon. It doesn't feel like the extension of his eye that his blaster does. But something tells him to use it, and so he does. The blade is swung, though his form is halting and uncertain. He definitely doesn't feel at home with the weapon, and it shows with how widely it misses its mark when he sends it hissing through the air.

The battle is in a full frenzy and blaster bolts are being fired, Yuun is caught up in the fighting. He is trying to focus when he is attacked by Sebek, his blade comes up blocking the attack and feeling a slight graze along his arm. He hadn't see Sebek come after him which is disturbing. He grunts and dances away, he sees that the blade didn't cut him, but just the clothing along his arm. He grimaces a little bit as Aryn is fighting Malek why are they all fighting so damn hard and not pushing the enemy back.

Yuun sees Elrych and Finn going after Kuolo and their attacks miss. Grunting, "I don't have time for you!" he shouts and he jumps away from Sebek to engage Kuolo and he pushes through, "There is another behind me." he calls to Finn and Elrych. The Iniitate's blade is reckless, his attacks going wide as if he's trying to fight more then his opponent, and he shakes his head a little as he tries to regain his composure a bit.

Things are popping off and Syrus is moving to join Malik in battle. It's his job, right? To protect the Ren so that the Ren may change the Galaxy for the better? That's what plays through the speakers on Spearhead 24/7, at least.

Looks like he doesn't get there in time, though, as Malik is struck a nasty blow by Jax's weapon. In an attempt to draw some pressure away from his Fearless Leader, Sy steps in between Jax and Malik, clashing thrice with the Greystorm's saber while Malik chops up the nice field medic who used to tend to Sy's wounds. This is all a deeply confusing and concerning time for the Kiffar, it must be said.

Imani hasn't any thoughts on the force, on the opinions about sides, about any of that. What she does know is how to fight, and by her aggressive style, some part of her relishes the experience. After taking down one man, she spins around to pick out another target, spotting Merek nearby. Another brief charge brings her within range of the man she doesn't know, all she knows is that he stands on the opposite side of this conflict from her. There's an audible growl heard from within this nearly featureless helmet as she swings her blade at Merek, striking the man not once, but twice. "Know you fell to a worthy cause," she says over the exterior comms, and then starts to turn away to pick out her next target.

Merek spins around to notice Imani, then he looks to the woman, while he takes a stance. He tries his best to maneuver along through the electrowhip's dance, then he shouts while he begins to charge. She's skilled, it's a war, you aren't always victorious. The man takes a strike from the whip, electricity shimmering through his body, while he's knocked backward a bit.

The Sergeant stands up while his armor begins to glimmer with electricity, the orange glow while he pulls away his helmet, "I might fall here, but the Republic still stands. You fight for murderers, people that killed all those I loved." With that he lifts up his weapon, not willing to be downed without trying, managing to shoot off into the crowd of the enemy. The man takes another strike of the whip, then he growls while he's brought to his knees. A hand begins to lift up towards the woman, then from knees, he meets ground.

Rey bounds up over a ledge and spies the saber blades sweeping through the air. Her golden blade sways at her side as she rushes up and leaps over a fallen body. As she draws closer to where the fight is, she calls out to the others. "Watch yourselves! Mind your surroundings!"

Rey sweeps right in toward the masked Kuolo and doesn't hesitate to try to get in between him and Finn. She does this by fast, strong, swings toward the dark robed figure!

As Finn retreats from Kuolo's attacks, Elrych's blade binds his own and the young pup offers his words. The black eyelets of the porcelain mask seem to regard him for a long second, before Kuolo suddenly shifts and plants his feet in a mock kick, buying him enough time to sidestep and raise the crimson blade to parry Finn's follow-up. Finn's green blade is slipped away in a fluid parry that avoids a contact bind. Kuolo draws his saber-arm inward and he steps behind Finn.

Yuun's first attack is parried with a strong defensive strike, and the second strike is stepped out of altogether. Just when it seemed as though Yuun had the upper hand, Kuolo's free hand coils around his own lightsaber hilt, which comes alive in time enough to stop Yuun's attack. The bind lasts for a second before Kuolo steps forward and draws the weapons together to form an 'x' in front of him. His primary hand bears Anuesana's lightsaber; it gives off a rimed aura of frozen metal. The second, held underhand and used as a guard, was Kuolo's own lightsaber. The field of battle is drawn in a moment of quiet, with those black eyelets regarding Elrych, Yuun and Finn. It was -cold- to stand near him. Twenty-six degrees colder, in fact, is how cold it was to stand by Kuolo.

He almost missed Finn's savior, Rey. Kuolo had assumed she would continue to acrobatics her way off, but she wasn't having it. Did Finn even YELL Rey? Maybe their bond was stronger than that, now.

As the last of the attackers, Rey was primed as the individual to attack, and so Kuolo responds with a series of attacks--He attempts to maneuver so that they would be crawling all over each other to reach him.

Jax's saber flares out to block Syrus's attack and return in kind though Syrus had all the answer form Jax's return attack, " Hello Syrus. I never expected you to not be a jedi. You should be standing here fighting with the jedi. " He shakes his his head, "Infinite points but they all should be balanced. This is not the way." He says standing defensively between the two men and Aryn. He's not going to let them to her and he didn't want to see what had happened to her. "Stay with us, Princess."

One moment, there is solidarity. A confidence that manifests from standing beside someone strong who feels the same. Then it's robbed when Aryn is unable to keep up with Malik's approach. Normally a duelist might rise to the occasion, but Aryn does not. She hesitates, either because of shock or.. It doesn't matter. The red cuts through her in a single, efficient pass.

Aryn laughs before coughing up blood, and despite willing her strength to remain, it fails her. "Sorry.." She apologized for attacking; it had never been her nature anyway, as she was often reminded! This was all she managed to say before her face took a peaceful look and she fell backward, limply. Her cape favors the shape of her body as the momentum and gravity take her. She lands upon the ground and begins to roll back down the hill she had climbed, to join with the rest of the corpses.

Did he just...?

Sebek twitched once, violently. He could never stand insults to his pride, and nothing was more insulting than 'you're not worth my time'. If He Who Dances' continued survival wasn't already personal for Sebek, it was now. "For that, you shall die in disgrace." Readying his saber, he charged, and suddenly what was a duel became a melee fit for action holos. Sebek dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and dodged through the swinging flashes of light, his saber rising to deflect attacks from the as-yet-unnamed child. "Behold, you have achieved your goal of youth, now join your kin in small coffins," he growled out towards the kid, and yet his mask remained permanently focused on Yuun. He would not be denied.

There was prioritization and there was bloodlust and the Falleen was definitely in the latter bucket. The Falleen was a brute in the truest sense of the word and wasn't clever enough to realise he'd just dismissed the kid in the same way Yuun had dismissed him. He disengaged sabers and joined in battle with He Who Dances, unable to break through the sick moves and styling beats to get a strike in.

He would have his victory. One way or another.

"None of them deserve you!" Malik returns at Aryn's 'sorry'. It's an odd thing to say, perhaps... again, an echo from another reality, a brief point at which their lives converged. Breathing hard with the pain of the saber wound, he watches her fall... away, away, with the others, another good thing broken in the war.

"Of course, none of the rest of us do, either," the Ren says to her, or to himself, and then all those moments of humanity and care and concern are gone. He raises his free hand to punch himself once in the side, into the wound, to feel the pain... KYLOSTYLE... and then slashes ferociously at Yuun!

Finn's gotten good at knowing when he's bitten off more than he can chew, and he can see it in the masked man and his red lightsaber. As Elrych, Yuun, and then Rey all manuever themselves between him and Kuolo, the Jedi learner takes the hint and dips back and out of the way. The lightsaber is held before him defensively, and his eyes scan this way and that before they come upon the flashing of the electric whip bringing a familiar face - Merek - to the ground.

"Hey!" he shouts angrily, darting across the churned earth with the emerald blade held out at one side, "Stop!"

The swing is an angry one, and it hisses through the air without striking home. The distance misjudged, hissing through the air harmlessly.

Yuun was abaout to attack Kuolo again but as he is, Rey moves in to engage his target. He heard her tell them to be careful, as he turns around both Finn and Elrych both moved on fight other enemeis. "What's going on!" he growls at himself, he couldn't focus, he shakes his head again and backs away from the fight trying to find his center, that confidence he's known to have in a fight. Something is off, and right now it choose now to become a problem for the young Initiate.

Trying to draw in on the force, Yuun begins looking for an enemy and he found one. Malik came at him, and Yuun easily dodges his first swing and in a twirling fashion that belongs all to Yuun his blade intercepts the second strike, but that focus, clarity leaves him and he tries to push Malik off balance and he oversteps. As he oversteps, Yuun tries to spin around but that is when Malik strikes and slashes along his back! Red mist pffts into the air, Yuun's eyes go wide as he is hit. Pain, anger, failure and disappointment shows on his features all at one time and he drops to his knees, then falls face forward onto the ground.

"If the Jedi had the will to do what needs to be done, I would be," Syrus answers back to Jax, blade rising and growling into the air as he brings it back down towards Jax. There's a hard clash as Sy breaks through the Corellian's defense, following it up with a quick jab as he feignts back, driving the tip of his blade into Jax's shoulder. A third, wilder swing goes wide, but Syrus lifts his blade back into a defensive stance.

"The only way to achieve balance is by ridding the Galaxy of...all of /this/," Syrus says, breathing heavily and gesturing for Jax to take a look around.

"If the Jedi had the will to do what needs to be done, I would be," Syrus answers back to Jax, blade rising and growling into the air as he brings it back down towards Jax. There's a hard clash as Sy breaks through the Corellian's defense, following it up with a quick jab as he feignts back, driving the tip of his blade into Jax's shoulder. A third, wilder swing goes wide, but Syrus lifts his blade back into a defensive stance.

"The only way to achieve balance is by ridding the Galaxy of...all of /this/," Syrus says, breathing heavily and gesturing for Jax to take a look around.

"Then they were also on the wrong side," Imani says as she steps back from Merek, then turns away from him to find herself confronted by Finn. She's slender, and fast, faster than the glowing green weapon that cuts through the air near her. She spins around quickly and levels a quick slash at Finn, connecting once, and then following it up with a second. "You first," she replies to the stop, and again retreats from him.

Merek looks up to the battlefield while he can't even do a lot except reflect upon the fight. He does notice that Finn is taken to the ground with him next. The man tries his best, but all he can do is just look to him. He inhales, then focuses upon all his teachings for war. He must look like another body, which isn't difficult when you just about are. All the same, he feels that the battle is not to be won.

Where is Ben Solo?

The Millennium Falcon abruptly rumbles up from the ground, the landing gear still deployed and the landing ramp still lowered. The ship doesn't rocket up into the sky: instead it comes roaring along the ground, barely clearing the rocky soil beneath it, repulsors kicking up a storm of dust. The YT-1300 drifts in sideways, with a Wookiee wielding a bowcaster sat on the edge of the landing ramp blasting stormtroopers like womprats in Beggar's Canyon.

With the rear of the ship facing the Knights and the First Order, that long sublight drive exhaust turns on full-blast, pushing anyone not rooted as firmly as a tree off their feet before kicking off as the ship settles on the side two landing gear only, the ramp dragging in the dirt. "CHEWIE!" a voice yells from the cockpit. "GET THEM ON, WE NEED TO GO!"

"RROOWWLL," Chewie agrees with a roar. Or maybe he's just roaring. It's possible the Wookiee can't hear anything coming from the cockpit at all.

As the Falcon sweeps in over the battle field and angles itself around to recover the fallen. Rey steps off to the side and holds her saber horizontally in front of her. She sweeps her stare across the field and calls upon the Force to shield her allies. "Help them up! Get on the ship!" Rey calls out. "Troopers, lets go!" She calls out to the Republic soldiers on the field still standing.

Her eyes are upon the Knights of Ren, however, with the Falcon to her back, Chewbacca rushing out to gather up wounded as quickly as his lumbering furry body can. He moves first to Aryn, to try and pick up the fallen doctor to get her aboard, apparently having some priorities.

Rey side steps toward Finn and keeps her saber up, with the power of the Force bubbling out around them to warn those that come near, that their attacks would be futile in the moment.

The pair of sabers rise in their form, as Kuolo forms a shield in front of him, compressing what already existed there. It doesn't dissipate the blast, it merely pushes it around to his sides. The mask remains fixed on Rey.

"Every failure draws them nearer to me," he declares, with an icy, wrathful voice. "They're already on the currents of darkness," he calls, louder, as he focuses on not being blown away. It was all he could do. Sweat forms inside the mask, beading on his forehead as he exerts himself, "They'll drown before you carry them upstream."

Elrych steps back as Malik strikes down Yuun. His jaw sets, a stern look from the youthful soul. Anger doesn't seem present, but the frustration is there. Malik and Sebek are in front of him. He lets his saber rest in one hand, stretching out both the free hand and one arm as if ready to take them both on... and ready to pass into the Force is necessary. He reaches out to Vhe, however far away she might be, however difficult it is to send those thoughts. "Jax, you still there buddy?" He offers, placing both his hands on his saber now, taking a more defensive form.

Suddenly the falcon appears and he raises his hand, feet planing firmly as the jet wash comes. Rey shouts, and then there's ben. "Jax, Get Yuun!" He takes off then, doing the one thing he's been doing sience he was a little drek on Corellia... running. Over bodies, to find Aryn. He locates her and starts to drag, carry, push... what ever it takes, he slight form towards the Falcon. He keeps his saber in one hand, ready just incase. "Rey!" He pleads, looking for help.

Jax shakes his head, "I think you know that's a lie. It takes two to dance, Syrus. You're side is causing this as much as the Republic is by trying to spread freedom." As Ben flys in on the Falcon with CHewie proving he knows some manuvers like his Dad, Jax steps back turning off his saber. He turns to see Elrych and Chewie helping Aryn. He turns to run across the battle field to help Yunn. "Alright, buddy. I got you." He goes to fireman carry the jedi across the battlefield and the Falcon. As he climbs aboard, "Please don't let the General be down there."

As He Who Dances fell, Sebek's head traversed to He Who Leads. His victory had been taken from him, but by an ally, and especially He Who Leads, well... he was in no position to complain. "Next time," he said to the gashed-open form of He Who Dances, then turned to the whelp, the unnamed.

However, this new duel was destined to be spoiled. Sebek could best a single combatant. He could best an army. He could best slaves and warriors alike. But confronted with a very angry YT-1300 freighter he didn't exactly have a grab-bag full of options. He held up his arm, summoning forth the screaming power of darkness and hatred and pride to fend off the impending shockwave, but it didn't take. What did take, however, was the metaphorical battering ram lifting Sebek from his feet, launching him back up the hill, and off into the sky, with a mighty-yet-fading cry of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo...".

Team Sebek's blasting off agaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnnn!

Malik manages to deactivate his saber a half second before the engine wash hits them, and it's probably a good thing he did, or he might have finished what Jax started with a self-inflicted saber wound while flailing. He reaches out with the Force to grab at what remains of surrounding infrastructure in this part of Carida, but the effort is insufficient against the intensity of the blast. He's knocked clear off his boots, tumbling backwards an undignified number of meters backward until he slams hard into a large transformer box that uncomfortably halts his travel.

The landing is hard, the field is now in chaos, but Elrych, Jax, even Rey are forgotten as the Falcon swoops in. Is HE in there, flying it?

Him, him, him.

The last Ren, the one who gave it all up. The one upon whom he has placed so much anger and blame. So close...

But too far. Much too far away to act. All Malik can do now is angrily watch, and think about the strange sort of pain that makes a man take up the mantle of Ren, and the sort that makes him let it go.

The whip catching Finn startles him for a moment, but then as the electricity courses through his body he lets out a pained cry and falls to the ground. The second strike knocks him off his feet completely and he lays there still. A network of vine-like burns run up and down his arm, to his neck and even creeping onto the lower half of his jaw. He's unmoving as the Falcon arrives, though saved by Rey's timely intervention from being blow off by the exhaust blast. He can do nothing more than bleed, his clothes and Poe's jacket shredded and burnt.

The Falcon's engines turn on them! Curses! Syrus, still very much in the mindset to kill Jax focuses hard, feet trudging forward slowly against the weight of the sublight drive, a hand outstretched towards the ship as a crackling corona of light begins to flicker and shift around him, as if he were a ship re-entering the atmosphere.

The Kiffar's will is insurmountable! At least, that's what he'd like to think. Seeing the Falcon, and a cadre of his old friends has too great of an affect on the man. Beaten and poor as he was, Leia extended kindness to him, took him onto that ship, and nurtured his abilities. Rey, now wrapped in the Force in an effort to protect a dear friend no doubt would have done the very same for him at one time. Even Jax, the very man he's intent on snuffing out at the moment, was there at the very beginning, helping him rebuild the Jedi Order.

These peaceful, happy thoughts and memories are too much for Syrus to bear, as he lets out a booming scream that's drowned out in its entirety by the wail of the engines. Syrus's outright absorbtion of the energy fails before it really even began and the Knight of Ren goes sailing back through the air, landing harshly and sliding painfully across the ground, coming to a stop some several yards back.

Imani finds herself in a similar situation to Malik, in that where once she was on her feet, the force of the blast from those engines is enough to send her flying back. Her she manages to roll through some of it well enough, but the landing hard enough that at the very least she's going to be left with some painful bruises as a memento of this fight. The weapon that she was clutching goes clattering to the ground a handful of feet away, but it's left there for the moment as she tries to catch the breath that was knocked out of her.

Merek of course would be found, picked up, brought onto the Falcon by one of the troopers that serve in the man's unit. There's a sigh while he feels them begin to wrap him up, enough that he will be able to receive medical assistance. When he's packed up, patches are placed upon him, the bacta on the burns.

Yuun is out cold, his back a blistering mess, when he is picked up, his lightsaber is barely hanging in his hand as he is taken up by Jax and carried to the falcon.

With everyone on board, verified by a GROARL from Chewie, the Falcon that never fully landed in the first place kicks forward with a shudder and a start, the whole ship threatening to belly down in the dirt for a moment before something grinds and whirs and the sublight comes to life again, boosting the ship up and out towards space.

Merek and the others would be served by expert medical crew if the Falcon had any. They don't. There's Chewie, though, and he WOORL, UURRRGs reassuringly to the wounded while a shout and the crashing of metal objects echoes vaguely from the cockpit.

This battlefield represents just one of many across the planet's surface, where the First Order and Republic are clashing for control. Some more successful than others, for both sides, and while the Jedi fall back to recover, the battle for the planet continues. Carida had been a warzone many times before, due to its tactical importance. Even the locals are sharply split in their loyalties. Perhaps it was just the will of the Force.