Post by Charlotte on Mar 21, 2019 14:57:25 GMT -5
North of what had once been the Imbra grasslands, Mandalore was pitch dark.
There was no grass to entangle boots, or to be pressed down by the repulsors of a speeder. Any passage stirred layers of ash or dust or whatever it was blowing around in the air like powdered blood.
The temperature gradually dropped as they went, going from a stifling close heat to a pleasant chill. Any shreds of a sense of buoyancy within the Red also vanished over time, replaced by a heavier sensation, as if their limbs were turning to stone. The roar in their ears only worsened, finally leaving them largely deaf to each other, with only a ringing in their own ears offering a sense of sound beyond the steady roar and rush of their own pulse.
After a solid day and night of this, in what any working chrono would suggest was the next morning, the darkness began to brighten. Imperceptible, any change from minute to minute, but undeniable after a hour or two. Looking up, the sky took on a sickly orange, blown across at times by the dense Red they'd gotten used to, and at other times paling almost to yellow!
Shadows were still diffuse, but there it was: light. If they could believe it. Their own senses of themselves, and the world around them, had begun warping hours and hours and hours before, until they might experience anything from dreamlike half-hallucinations to a sense of being disconnected from their own fingertips, their own feet.
The speeder's windshield began clattering into gravel. Yes, even as slowly as it was going. Little wind. The newly resurgent light showed them: the way before them was flat. Flat as could be. True, visibility was not good; it barely showed them an eighth of a mile, but obstructions so far? None. But then this gravel: Tiny pellets, heat-rounded, suspended in mid-air. Everywhere. Part of the smokey effect ruining their ability to see very far. With little wind, it was gravel and dust, held in place, their their speeder gently pushed aside until in places the grit began building up all over the top and forward end of the enclosed craft.
Eventually ahead: a larger shadow, five feet above the ground. Upon approach: a boulder. A real one, also heat-forged, spun out like it had been frozen in place while hurtling at high speed away from what could only be Um-Shara, and the desert north of it.
More of those became visible. They formed walls to what the travelers could see, but always it took no force to brush them aside. They floated through the air to the sides in slow motion when the speeder touched one, drifting to the ground, sometimes buoyant as if they weighed nothing, bouncing slowly, clattering noiselessly together. They seemed buoyant as the travelers no longer did.
Among the misshapen stones and heat-rounded ones was a stranger shadow.
This shadow was on the underside of another floating thing, but this floating thing seemed to have two arms and two legs, limp but held on the air.
The changing sky hadn't been taken note of until it was different than what he had recalled it to be. When had it gotten lighter? It wasn't complete rejuvenation, but it was enough to rouse him from the heaviness that had seeped into his bones, it erased the weariness that seemed to hold onto his eyes. All he had wanted to do moments before taking note of the change in things was sleep. There was also the ringing in his head which was, at times, so loud that he worried his ear drums might have burst somewhere along the way. The world around him was calling him away from being that aware of himself, and how utterly unaware of his physical state he had begun to feel. Things were taking shape, and in that shape was a world to see. How strange it had all become. The floating rocks. He contemplated them until something else took his attention. A quick lean forward from the back of the speeder had him laying a hand on the shoulder of whichever of his companions was driving the speeder, and with that, then, was a quick point toward the floating form that seemed to be being-like in nature. It looked to have arms, and legs, and was as far from looking like a rock as he was. Even heavy handed, and stone legged, the reason for being there was unchanged.
"What is that?" The words were spoken - more like mouthed because it was impossible to tell anymore with the constant ringing. One day ago, by Ava's count, that ringing stopped all verbal communication.
It seemed, much like the equipment they had brought with them, that they too were starting to wind down within the Red.
Her head had been leaned against the side of the speeder. Ava's eyes begging to close for just one second. It was a burning need that made each blink last just a little longer than the next. If she could have heard her breathing, it would have begun to level out into a smooth pace. It was like her bones were weighted, held down by an invisible force that made her movements much harder and much slower.
Those brown eyes were closed when the light first appeared. The dull orange lightened a black world that drew enough force for her eyes to open.
The sky.
There was -color-! She released a tight, relieved, disbelieving breath.
And, she then saw, boulders that floated effortlessly as if they'd always belonged there. Ava looked around to her companions in the speeder to see if they saw what she was now seeing. And, when the image of a limp, floating body came in view, she began nudging both Jeryndi and Solomon while pointing towards it.
It had been his shift to pilot the landspeeder... And it had not been easy the last day or so. Whenever he was not piloting, it'd been hard to stay awake. Let alone aware of their surroundings. The deafness of the Red was getting worse and worse. The ringing in the ears was hard to describe-- it was bad in a way he'd never experienced before and had no words for.
In the backseat of the landspeeder, Medren had been sleeping on and off. Every once in a while, Jeryndi would come to a complete stop to make sure he was okay... He wasn't sure if the Red-- whatever it was here-- was effecting his son more than the rest of them. Because unlike them, his son seemed able to sleep in this mess... They'd taken turns to drive, taking turns to rest, and had traveled through the day and then the night and now morning.
Morning because there was light... He'd noticed the gradual change of light before they had-- probably because his attention had been solely focused on the path ahead of them. He'd been focused on the 'mark'. Since he didn't have a solid sense of direction-- only the 'not direction'-- he'd had to rely on Ava to make sure he was going the right way... At this point-- only hand signals because communication was practically null.
To Ava as she pointed, to Sol as he put a hand on his shoulder, he simply nodded... He'd noticed. He'd slowed down even more because of the gravel. Because of the floating boulder... And now-- he came to a stop when he saw the floating figure ahead of them.
-e-
The white heart of a bolt shot out of the ruddy fog ahead of them, source unseen, the bolt itself streaking just over the top of the speeder and to its left, cutting into the dark density behind them and disappearing.
The bolt was the only thing that had him pausing in his climb from the speeder. It was hard to miss. Sol's head turned sharply as the light went lancing, following where it had gone behind them. His movements were flashing back into gear in just the split second after it was gone. Jeryndi had stopped the speeder and that meant it was time to move. The floating pebbles were easily shunted aside, even with sloggy movements weighed down by fighting whatever it was affecting them. It -seemed- like a shift in gravity, but that was his best guess in the situation. His boots hit the dirt hard, and he was moving forward as quickly as he could toward that floating body. Alive, or dead. That was what he had promised himself. Alive or dead.
Ava ducked as the bolt zoomed over head. The move was reactive. And then the next thing she knew, Solomon was on the move. The Knight only had a quick second to give a worried look to Jeryndi before bolting out of the speeder and catching up with Solomon. Her eyes glanced attentively around them as they traveled - should another bolt decide to strike in their direction.
It didn't take a mathematical genius to know what... better yet... who was on Solomon's mind. The entire thing was foreboding enough without having... whoever this was. Ava swallowed thickly as she placed a singular hand on Solomon's shoulders once they began nearing the body. A brief bracing moment of comfort for whatever they were about to discover.
Jeryndi had already been prepping to move... He turned to look at his son, who was staring wide-eyed at their surroundings... He'd been solid asleep just moments before. Now he was wide awake. He gestured, a single, staccato motion that said get down and stay down... Even as Jeryndi was jumping out of the speeder, too. It was a swift and smooth action to pull the saber from its holster at his back, not activating it just yet. His limbs felt heavy, but his mind was acutely aware... He didn't follow after them just yet-- his eyes were scanning what he could see of the area around them... Watching, waiting, feeling-- to see if something or someone was out there and had ill intent.
Another bolt, then another, speared out from the fog, slicing across the orange, the first truly white thing seen by the travelers in days.
A third shot cut the same general path as the others, chasing, then overtaking, a black shape that materialized into visibility, lithe, bipedal, and racing fast through the pocked aetherscape of floating grit. The runner made to cut left, but aborted that in a split-second, doubling down aimed straight at Solomon, Ava, and--between them and the runner--the floating limp body.
The shots that came after the first, the ones that lanced out of the darkness and cutting across the orange scape around them, pushed Solomon's boots to go faster. His chest rocked with every breath, his legs shook from impacting hard against the scorched ground beneath him. He didn't reach for his weapon. He needed to be mobile and not juggling his blaster. He needed his hands. His trust went to Ava and Jeryndi for cover. The sight of the being racing toward him brought Sol to grit his teeth and double down, himself. Whatever that was, whoever it was, no matter how heavy he felt just then -- that limp body was the goal.
It was a good thing Ava wasn't relying on Solomon at that moment.
Ava should have known. He stepped off the speeder with blinders on and it appeared that wasn't about to let up anytime soon. Bolts shooting around them She should have known but forgot in her own mad dash to keep up with the hurtling Tekal.
There really wasn't anything for Ava to do at that moment besides to simply run. On the other side of the body was the biped runner - though it was hard to get a good luck even as they raced forward. Behind that were shots of hot white bolts.
All Ava could do, all she could think to do, was push harder to reach the floating body first. An athlete in her own right, the Jedi Knight worked hard to keep her body in peak condition. Even in her tired state, a new surge of adrenaline flooded her veins as feet pounded against the ground. She pushed harder and faster, pulling ahead from Solomon. Her breathing paced and even to prevent tiring out.
She veered off course just a little. A test to see what the runner was truly focused on.
Them.
Or the body.
The moment the next bolt came out of the orange to split across the air, his saber activated... the snap-hiss-hum was lost in the roar of the Red. Dust kicked up under his feet as he took off running towards Solomon and Ava. He pushed himself... As readily and easily as he could have used the Force to aid him, he didn't. He relied on peak physical prowess to move and the Force to try and feel out where these shots were coming from... Clearly, whoever it was was aiming for the runner. Who was unusually fast for the conditions here... Solomon was focused entirely on that free floating form in front of them... And was probably going to get himself shot.
Damn fool, he thought to himself. Not that he didn't care. Not that he didn't want to know who it was or why... But the potential and immediate danger should've outweighed his concern for that person, whoever it was... His saber was active-- a pretty and potentially violent purple that was a flash of color against the orange. The same saber Sadhric had once taken and eventually returned... He moved to get ahead of Solomon, ahead of the runner, readying to reflect any further bolts that came at them.
Three Jedi-trained individuals. One eleven year old with all the energy of an eleven year old.
They'd been in the Red for days.
Jolted into action, the sluggishness and heaviness still dragged at their efforts.
Sharpened with something to focus on, the strange curling of perception and dreamy quality did not simply bow aside for them.
Yet the runner moved sharp and quick, without the slightest hindrance, and more blaster shots struck floating debris all around him. In his wake, at the edge of vision, big misty-edged shadows moved, growing clearer and clearer--
The runner reached the body a half-second before Solomon did, and the runner's right arm flashed out to slingshot the body dead straight at Solomon's chest. Same second: the runner's left hand was suddenly gripping something.
Whatever this being was, it was not affected by their surroundings like the four companions were. It didn't seem affected at all by the way it moved within the dead world that surrounded them. He had been watching it as he ran toward the body, and would have wondered just what type of being it was if his mind hadn't been working hard to keep him in motion, pushing his physical self toward that body. And then they were there, meeting together in the middle. Just as he was reaching for the body, it was being shoved his way. The sudden weight of it caused him to stumbled back a step or two when he bumped into it.
The question was answered as the Runner kept focus on reaching the same objective as Solomon.
The body.
Which was then used liked a blunt object to swing towards Solomon's chest.
Ava had veered off course just enough to stay out of swinging range but close enough that she could see the Runner's left hand reaching to grab something.
"STOP!" She shouted, unsure if that shout would have any affect whatsoever on the situation.
Jeryndi was not close enough to intercept... Or, really, to do anything about it... He was moving as fast as he could, but he wasn't going to get there before whatever that was was drawn. He assumed it was weapon... In which case, he wouldn't get there before that weapon cleared its holster. He could tell the body that was shoved towards Solomon still had a certain gravity defiance-- otherwise it would've sent his cousin to the ground and with an inert body on top of him... He couldn't feel anything close by. Couldn't tell where the shots were coming from. But maybe he could do something about that runner... It was a sudden redirection of mental capacity-- switching his focus in the Force from one thing to another. He hadn't stopped running. But he reached out with the Force to try to knock the runner back a little ways. As far as telekinesis went, it was a little thing-- he just wanted that guy away from his cousin... He had no idea when he did it if it would work. But still. He had to try.
Except that the runner was already on Solomon--really on him, having leapt up fit to land with feet on Solomon's shoulders, faster than a blink, and with the attitude of a spider, inverting, hands down Sol's back, one vicelike in Sol's suit, the other clamping whatever it held against--
--Sol's blaster, which the runner-now-climber released from its magholster with swift, sure-handed certainty.
Jeryndi's push, then, would shove at both of them, and at the still-limp body as well.
Ava's shout--could even she hear it in her own ears? The world had them deaf, and if time seemed slowed then the only thing moving like it was fully awake was the dark-clad figure moving like a sticky-toed lizard over Solomon. This close, it was suited and helmeted, but the helmet was a plain-faced thing that seemed incapable of letting light into it.
--The hell? With reaction time cut due to the long hours of travel, forging their way through The Red, the weight of being where they were, and all the physical toll that could take on someone, his reaction was less than spot on. The figure in black was on his shoulders before Solomon could blink, and the tug that came to his suit when the being grabbed and released his blaster from its maglock was felt as an after thought. He was reaching up, moving to get his left hand on the back of the being's head when the buffer of Jeryndi's push washed over them. With Jeryndi pushing from behind, Solomon was knocked into the body again. It sent him off balance enough that he had to abort trying to get a grip on the agile creature that had climbed him, and instead he put his effort into not falling over the body that had been floating in the open nothingness they'd been traveling through.
Deaf to her own shout even as the runner crawled over and down Sol's back, Ava closed the yawning yard between them, already knowing that the world she occupied right then was too curled under and fog-edged for her lightsaber to be a safe option. She had the hilt in her hand, though, as she came in, hoping to see clearly enough to know how to use it. She had never had instincts to kill first and ask questions later, and needed to see one second longer to understand if Solomon was hurt, or just startled, because the two giant shadows from which his assailant ran were coalescing into a pair of slick quadrupeds trampling fast toward them, lumpy-backed, and another two blinding white lances of blasterfire arced through the grit toward her party, one striking a floating boulder, the other shooting on through and out past Jeryndi and the speeder, leaving ghostly twirls of sparks wherever it cut through clouds of dust in the air.
With every motion, every foot on the ground stirred up superfine Red.
Perpetual exposure to the Red had done more damage than he'd initially thought.... He'd known it'd slowed them down. Limbs had been heavy, fatigue had set in to the point of exhaustion. But adrenaline was flowing, now, being in danger-- he no longer felt the fatigue and heaviness of the limbs... But it wasn't until he saw the inert body, Solomon, and the runner all colliding together that he realized just how slow his reaction time was. It was a little mind boggling... Was the guy not exposed or hampered by the Red? Was it a different kind of exposure? Was the Red different here than it was elsewhere? Or maybe non-existent and they had only a strange kind of haze in the atmsosphere and in the air here with no ill side effects? He had no idea, but clearly-- this was something completely different than what he, himself, was experiencing...
He didn't stop running, though. These thoughts raced through his head as he ran, saber active, hand holding the saber pointed down and at his side as he did so... He was aiming to get between the incoming forces and his allies-- even slowed as he was. He might reach them in time, maybe before the runner got reoriented, but he didn't know... He could only push himself in the hopes he could get there and help.
The object in the runner's left hand, now clamped in it between armored glove and Solomon's own blaster, was a small blade, and in the last blink of a eye before Sol's back was released the short tip of the blade protruding past the edge of the blaster punched into Solomon's envirosuit. It ripped upward, shearing through every protective layer, not because the runner was dragging the blade, but because the runner was flipping off of Sol's back to deliver a double-kick to the face of Ava's helmet, and it was the motion of that, and the slinging of Solomon's weight, that caused it in what had to be no coincidence but a calculated tripling-up of purpose.
Two four-limbed, lizardlike creatures slithered through floating rocks, the serpentine slinging side to side of their big flat heads tossing the gravity-defying stones and grit aside in the air. The lumps on their backs were riders, one larger than the rest, and the beasts appeared to lashed together at the faces.
One of the smaller riders might have been shouting something--it was certainly gesturing with one hand while what appeared to be--yes--a rifle rested across its other arm, waiting to be aimed with two hands. But there was no hearing anything that might have been yelled. The riders were completely covered, their heads hidden behind hoods or helms or masks--mixes of all three.
The cut went up the side of his suit, just past where the line of his arm would be if it were resting as his side. He felt it when he turned, a difference in temperature between what had been internally kept by the suit, and the chilled air that was on the other side of it. He didn't hear the blade cut the fabric, and he didn't feel it beyond a giving of the suit. There was more slack across his back, and that reached up into his shoulders as he spun, pushing off of the innert body to catch the blurred sight of the being in black flipping through the air toward Ava. He had a plan, and an idea, but stumbled instead of launching himself into it. The smell of The Red heavy air was well within the hood of his suit, that mineral heavy scent coming to him in a rush as the outside world was quickly invading what had been relatively protective space within. His legs, he needed to get them to work. His arms felt just as equally like dead weight, and that was getting worse. But Ava. He fought it back, but the sluggishness of his entire being was pulling a slowness from him -- a body that was moving well past the point of exhaustion -- as he forced himself to move that way. He had wanted to be running, but whether he made it that far or not -- well, it felt like a miracle that his legs were underneath him at all.
Lightsaber--
Ava couldn't hear it, but the bright heart of the blade flared to its full length. She'd missed what had happened to Solomon's suit--the runner had been in the way and it had been a subtle edge of his less subtle maneuvering--but the blade came up--
Just as one of the bright bolts from the charging animals sheared across the form of her assailant--narrowly missing the figure--to punch into her own blade, causing an eruption of blinding light that flared out from the edge of her blade.
And now he was getting closer to the group-- Within a couple of seconds. Which seemed to stretch on forever with how sluggish everything was... Everything was happening fast. And normally, he took a small amount of pride on how fast he was, but right then, he was cursing himself for not being able to be up to his own par.... He understood why, of course. Not the science of the why, but that it was the Red. He knew that the speed with which the runner moved, using his own lightsaber was a bad idea in such close quarters to Ava and Sol. Somebody could lose a limb or a life. Just as quickly as he'd activated, he deactivated it-- the blade disappearing even as he pulled the blaster pistol from his holster and raised it to point at the runner. He'd seen the next shot towards the runner impact into Ava's lightsaber blade... And it made him smile as he reached her side, eyes focused solely on the runner. He'd seen the cut to sol's suit as he'd come up, but there was nothing he could do about it right that second-- not with so much danger all around.
In the blinding flare, Jeryndi and Ava would find their scattered focus scattered just that much further thanks to the flash and then the subsequent dance of bright green afterimages that blotted across their field of vision. Those afterimages only vaguely described the scene as it had been: the only obvious object among them was where Ava's lightsaber had been.
Ava herself had her arm kicked back at the forearm, and stumbled back into Jeryndi, because the runner was not where it had been either, but had brushed over her recoiling form to send her stumbling. The runner itself, in that second, hit the ground but was only on it long enough to roll back up to its feet at a run, the true goal revealed: the speeder.
It was at this point that the two huge creatures trampled Solomon, the body, Jeryndi and Ava.
--if they'd been aimed that way.
They went around them, parting so that one went to their left even if they were moving, reacting, and the other lashed to it but racing around on their right.
Any glance up would show one tall, vaguely humanoid figure at the head of one, and the other two more human shaped and sized, dressed in their hodgepodge coverage, aiming now at the back of the runner.
There were claws of washed out colors attaching themselves to the edges of what he could see, and a cloud settling in over the rest. He wasn't too far away at all, but felt like there was still yards left to cover. The flash of light was dazzling, but lacking in the sharp angry green that Ava and Jeryndi might have seen. And where was the runner? Sol had to stop. Had he even been moving in that moment? The whole world felt like it was passing beneath and around him, but in reality he had just turned his head and tried pointing but his arms were too heavy to move, and the large rider mounted beasts were passing around them, shaking the ground as they passed, and kicking up enough Red to draw the haze in heavy around them. He tried not to breathe it in, but the shaking in his legs that came up from the quaking ground landed him into the grit in a heavy flop. His next breath was drawn in a cough, and followed by another. By then, even getting his lungs to move in the manner they should felt like a burden.
Ava had stumbled into him... And he didn't go down, but it did make him backpedal a few step. But even as he had stumbled backwards, he'd seen the runner heading for the speeder. No... No. No, no, no, no, no!!!. And in that instant, it was simply a reaction. He'd already had the blaster up and at the ready, but now he turned and aimed with accuracy borne of practice. He squeezed the trigger as he aimed at the runner-- be damned if he takes that speeder...! It might've been like a jolt in the Force-- but it wasn't entirely conscious on his part... It was a warning-- meant for his son. Get out, get out, get out!
The runner swerved left to avoid the convergence of the two giant quadrupeds--and their spiked tusks. Jeryndi's shot caught the backward curve of one of those tusks at the last second, and then it was only the hides and the red dust that was visible from where he was, and the sweeping, bladelike crocodilian tails of the creatures as they swept together, blocking sight of the speeder.
But Medren could no doubt see. The air was dusty, the red all stirred up and blurring the outlines of everything, but for Medren the view all along had been that of the impossibly swift figure in black, the not-fight that amounted to the runner batting a body into Solomon, then landing high on him and crawling partially down his back before whipping its lower body over to smash at Ava and soar past her, while being pursued by a pair of beasts of unknown origin...
... who were now all bearing down on the speeder, and Medren within it.
In the wake, that rusty colored cloud that swirled about them in smokey density, swirls curled about in a carry upward from the heavy stomping of the beasts that were roaring off after the runner with their mounted riders bearing down on the speeder. Solomon didn't see that. He didn't see the bolt that flashed out from Jeryndi's blaster, or Ava who wasn't too far away either. What he saw was a figure standing in the midst of floating rocks and red air. He didn't shut his eyes for fear that he might not open them again, even though the urge was strong to do so. There was no suit on the person he saw standing in the haze. She seemed as comfortable standing there as the runner was in its movements. There was no motion coming from the being Solomon saw, but there was a beckoning. He felt it as a pull to get closer, and it was almost like a song. It would be alright if he listened to it, if he gave in to how tired he felt. All he had to do was shut his eyes and trust her. He wasn't done yet, though. He wasn't ready to rest. With duracrete filled limbs Sol pushed himself to his left, reaching for the inert body with with his right. His hands felt dumb, which wasn't anything new for his right hand, but his left -- the nimbleness he knew he could possess was gone. Tactile sensation was just as fuzzy as everything else around him. But he had to see. He pulled again, tugging with both hands to get a look at the face that belonged to the body, ignoring just how loud that song was getting, as well as how hard it was to do just about anything. If this were his last moment awake, he'd spend every ounce of effort on it to know who they'd found.
Ava was there. Her first goal had been supporting Sol--that's what she did now. Dazed as she herself was, her lightsaber unlit now, she moved fast when she saw Sol miss a step and barely catch himself. She bent to it, snatching for his nearer arm, so that she could drag it across her shoulders and get him--them both--turned around. Because the speeder might not be safety, but Medren was in it, and someone needed to keep them together so that they could help him.
That feeling, that warning of get out was still there in the Force... Echoing in a way. Though he couldn't see the speeder anymore, there was still movement within that speeder... The runner would see it-- and possibly the mounted pursuers of said runner... Medren had heard that urgency. Or felt it. Whatever you wanted to call it. It had been there. He had recieved the message... He was scrambling to get out of the speeder. Even with the lack of efficiency that he might've had otherwise, he was still moving decently fast as he got out... He had a pack already slung across his shoulders and back and pushed another out onto the ground before he jumped out. The second pack was left in the red dust, even as he took off running away from the speeder and away from the mounted things that seemed positively determined to smash the speeder.
Fast as the runner was, the beasts were faster, closing quick, and now there were no more people or bodies or boulders between the blaster-rifles and the runner.
The runner shot back in his own wake--using Solomon's blaster--and as Medren shot out from the enclosed speeder (showing the runner exactly where and how to access it), the swift humanoid made as if he would just duck right inside.
A shock-white bolt slamming into the side of the speeder dissuaded the runner, and with the cascade of sparks already dying from that there was a leap and then a quick stride across the roof of the thing. Another shot missed and the runner was down on the ground, the bulk of the speeder between the creatures (who were splitting again to go around the thing) and the runner, who leaned into a sprint for the dusty density beyond.
He was feeling lighter. The song continued in his head, and the figure he saw in the dirty mist was then standing next to him -- no. They were moving. Flying? He felt like he was flying. There wasn't much of the world he could see anymore, it was all darkening. The claws of washed out color became a blanket of wavy lines and barely formed images. Struggling to see past it only made him feel all that much more lighter, that much more dizzy.
Ava felt Sol sag further, and only upon gripping the back of his suit had she realized the envirosuit gaped open on one side. Through her own suit, she couldn't tell whether Solomon himself was injured, flayed open like the dense protective layers, and couldn't hear anything he might be saying. She tried to comm Jeryndi, couldn't make out much of anything beyond the vibration of her shout in her own throat, and in a second of fleeting clarity when slapping Sol across the face was obviously made impossible by his facemask, she shook him bodily with all the strength in her petite frame, quick and sharp, and then focused on him. For just a heartbeat that focus defied the sluggish drag of the Red around them and her own tiredness and altered perceptions. Her sense of herself as a physical being in a physical universe zoomed in quick, and she was rooted and solid. Her focus on Sol zoomed in with crystal-edged mercilessness, and she spoke Solomon's name in a way that ignored her own deafness and might ignore his, to snap his attention to her if that was possible.
For a couple of seconds, Medren had frozen-- uncertain of what to do... The runner had tried to duck into the speeder, only to be shot at by the people mounted... He, himself, had never been trained in this sort of circumstances! What were you supposed to do in this situation? Run? Be trampled? Take a gamble and jump on top of the speeder and pray those giant mounts didn't obliterate you? What if the runner tried to shoot at him next? ....Psht... The creatures were rounding around to his side of the speeder-- even as the runner was preparing to take off into the mist... So he did what he thought best-- he jumped up onto the hood of the speeder and vaulted over it, taking off for the run towards the rest of the group. Still carrying the pack... He was sluggish, he felt sluggish, but that was not something he could think about just then... Run. Get to his father. Get to his Uncle. Get to Ava. Run.
Jeryndi took a few steps back... Even as Ava had caught Sol. He felt that sharp and sudden focus... And only briefly glanced at her. It was only then he saw the real damage to Sol's suit. Shit, he thought... He still couldn't see Medren, but he knew, at least, that his son was out of the speeder... He took two more steps back to kneel beside Sol and Ava, offering a hand to the Jedi. A hand, energy, focus-- whatever she needed, he offered it to her to help save Sol. Though his eyes were focused in the direction of his son, that aid was solid.
He wasn't flying anymore. There was a storm that was shaking him, winds that hit his body and pushed it so hard that he felt he might fall over with how light he felt. The person from the mist was so close now, he could touch her if he reached out his hand that was if he could even get his hands to move. He looked but saw no face, or anything for that matter beyond the cloud that covered his vision. But the song continued, almost heard and recognized as something he knew from long long ago. All he had to do was close his eyes and he'd hear it the way it was meant to be heard. All he needed to do was give in -- he blinked and it was slow. His eyes fell shut quickly enough, but making them open was like fighting as if the weight of the galaxy rested on them. Maybe if he just gave in for a moment -- just one, things would be easier.
With Jeryndi's help, Ava was able to get Sol moving. That seemed more important than trying to grab his dazed attention a second time. Her dazzling focus already fraying, the clear thought that remained fixed in space before her was that if Solomon was injured they needed to get him into the speeder where they stood a chance of helping him.
Ahead, the lashed-together creatures shrank in the distance beyond the speeder, still firing. But soon the creatures wheeled around. The left one circled to the outside of the right one, and the right one came around on the inside of that curve. Places switched, they were coming back.
Just past the speeder, on approach to the travelers in Medren's wake, one of the riders slid down and dashed ahead of the slowing animals.
Medren didn't turn around to look... But now Jeryndi gently pulled his hand away from Ava's as Medren came running towards them. He could see his son, now, and let out abreath he didn't know he'd been holding... He walked away, which soon turned into a run, to meet his son on his path back to the group... Medren hadn't turned to look at whoever was behind him. He kept up a steady pace, albeit a little slow... And Jeryndi had every intention of intercepting the man following behind his son before he made it to the group.
As the figure came closer, the blaster carbine remained aimed low and to the side, but when Jeryndi raced right past his son, the barrel came up.
But so did a splayed hand. Warning in one hand; calming in the other.
Jeryndi understood that... Medren had come to a stop just past his father... There were looks exchanged... And his son went on to continue to get to Solomon and Ava. Jeryndi lowered his own blaster and holstered it, but kept the saber in his other hand. It was non-threatening, hand at his side.
The storm was gone, and he was flying once more. Physically, his feet were dragging. His steps were more intuition than from any actual physical effort on his part. They moved because he was being moved, but they dragged against the barren earth beneath them. One step felt like an eternity, and the one that followed after was equally just as slow and long in being taken. He was mentally unaware of it, though. All he knew in his head was the song, all he could see was the cloud that had begun taking on a red tinge. It was as if the dusty world around him were seeping into his eyes, becoming more than atmosphere and more an actual part of him.
A second figure slid from the back of the second beast, and came forward at a lope, also armed. Only the third, larger, more angular figure remained mounted alone atop the larger creature, twisted around in the saddle, keeping an eye on the limited sight distance behind them. The smaller creature turned as if to keep watch also.
The man nearest Jeryndi was armored, wrapped, helmeted, gloved, booted, and generally sealed up, but without a single coherent envirosuit such as the travelers wore. The second figure was in much the same situation, bundled up with odds and ends of clothing, almost, layered maybe. There might even been emergency repair tape peeking out from wrapped fabric here and there, but it was difficult to make out textures with any accuracy when everything was caked with dust and stained the same color.
Gesturing began--slow and careful.
The man with the carbine reached out the open hand toward Jeryndi, then widened it so that its sweep encompassed Medren beyond him, and further out Ava and Solomon as well. He beckoned them all in, moved aside a step, and swept obviously toward their speeder. He repeated that, ignoring the creatures and third rider who stood making a corridor to the speeder down which the travelers would have to pass.
The other figure on the ground was backing off wide, to give Jeryndi a fair berth, starting to circle up where much of the action with the runner had taken place.
There was still the body floating there, after all, though now it hung buoyant in the air upside down, the head nearly brushing the ground.
Jeryndi... Stayed where he was... He was watching the one in front of him, still. He'd glanced around at the others, taking notice of their positions. How far away they were. How and what they were armed with... It was an assessment. He gave the man in front of them a puzzled look as if to say-- Say what now?... That was happening just as Medren was reaching Ava and Solomon.
Upon seeing the gaping side in Solomon's suit, Medren dropped the pack and opened it-- pulling out a rebreather and another envirosuit. Every pack they'd made had at least one per pack, in case of emergencies-- and clearly, Solomon needed it... Medren had pulled on his pack the moment he felt the danger cominbg. Had even seen them coming. Jeryndi had told him to get down and stay down, but curiosity had won out in that particular moment... Medren was offering to help shoulder some of the weight that was Solomon, even as he nodded towards the body. Gesturing with one hand-- two fingers at the eyes, then pointed to the body. As if to say-- Go look.
He gave the man in front of them a puzzled look as if to say-- Say what now?... The gesture that followed was two fingers pointed towards himself, then flipped upwards as if to sign-- ?
The man raised his arm higher, pointing and moved the arm so that the pointing encircled them... maybe. Possibly. Then he gestured at the speeder again. He repeated all of that twice.
The other figure loped faster, moving in on the body, reaching out to take it by the arm and pull it upright.
Ava could get at her lightsaber hilt fast if she had to, but she'd clipped it back to her suit, the better to keep Solomon from faceplanting in the red dust stirred up at their feet.
There were moments like this... When he wishes telepathy was a thing he could do... Plenty of Force Users could do it, but it was not among his particular talents... How easy this would be if he could just put a thought into someone's head. Or hell, even Ava's. But no... The gestures continued. It was hard to read body language under so much bundled clothing... But he kept an 'eye' on the men in the Force-- gauging their intentions. But intentions could only go so far in deciphering meaning of gestures... He still didn't understand if the man wanted them to leave or were welcome to stay or what... But Solomon was without a suit. He saw no buildings nearby-- but that didn't mean there weren't-- and the closest thing to shelter was the speeder itself... so the next round of gestures began. Jeryndi pointed to Solomon, then to the speeder, then a small gesture and a bow as if to say-- May I?
The figure backed off further, waving them on repeatedly. Hard to tell when any of them who had envirosuits were nodding; not so with this man. He encouraged them through, and his companion was returning with the limp body. It was less floaty now; the toes of boots dug smoky trenches in the dust behind it.
He turned to go towards the speeder... He headed that way. He had the intention of getting into the speeder and piloting it towards Ava and Solomon, so they could put him into the vehicle with more ease. Instead of carrying him the distance... Back there, with Ava and Solomon, Medren was working with one arm to unfold the envirosuit.
The big quadrupeds were interested in them as they passed, but soon swung their big heads--both bigger and wider than Solomon and Jeryndi combined--away. The way to the speeder was clear, and they'd get there whole.
But once they were there, getting Sol into the back, the two figures joined them, clearly intending to put the limp body into the speeder with them. Lots of gesturing followed once more: pointing from the body to the speeder repeatedly. Then encompassing circles followed by pointing back the way the creatures and riders had come.
He had stopped the speeder after reaching Ava and Solomon... Medren climbed into the back with the other body, even as Jeryndi climbed into the back with solomon... Even though Solomon was still out of it-- conscious, but somewhat unresponsive-- Jeryndi had completely sealed the landspeeder shut to get the air filters going... There, he'd use Ava's help to get Solomon into a new envirosuit. Where Medren was checking the other body for signs of life.
There was no moving that speeder just yet until they got Solomon secured.
That caused a flurry of activity. Knocking hard on the outside. More hurried and insistent gesturing--visible out the front, where one of the figures had recounted and was beckoning with increasing impatience.
The other one was atop the speeder itself.
Jeryndi reached back and tapped Medren on the shoulder and gestured for him to go to the pilot's chair... Medren proceeded to climb through the seats to get there-- starting up the speeder. If they were going to lead the way, now they could follow.
And that was just what happened.
Once the speeder powered up, the paired animals took off at a good clip. It wasn't the pursuit sprint that had first had them bearing down on the travelers, but a steady, serpentine run.
The speeder would follow after-- with Medren at the helm! ... Who knew what Ava thought of that? But Jeryndi trusted his son, for what it was worth... He trusted his son to pilot his actual ship, so what harm was a landspeeder? In the days they'd traveled before combining their gear and transport, Medren had piloted short periods of time... It wasn't as if he wasn't familiar with the vehicle... Before leaving, the boy glanced back at everyone else to make sure they were okay before taking off... In the back, Jeryndi's hands were moving with a steady pace, taking off gear, taking off the suit, and slowly maneuvering the new one on... Only when that was done did he climb further back into the last seat and check on the person in the back.
Ava did not assume that Sol just needed a wardrobe change. Fortunately, while there was indeed a bloody line of varying depths marking the knife's travel up the suit, no length of it looked serious. Unfortunately, there was dust inside Sol's suit, and clotting the cut too, and they did not know whether that substance was toxic or not. Best they could do right then was try for a basic cleaning from a medkit, even knowing that it would be impossible to guarantee they'd manage a thorough job with every surface contaminated. Then: suit Sol back up and keep an eye on him while the riders led them to wherever they intended to go.
The body in the back breathed. Through the visor of the makeshift helmet (it looked to be slapped together from goggles and padding normally worn under armor), enough scruff was visible to confirm without checking the crotch that this was male, and probably human.
There was no grass to entangle boots, or to be pressed down by the repulsors of a speeder. Any passage stirred layers of ash or dust or whatever it was blowing around in the air like powdered blood.
The temperature gradually dropped as they went, going from a stifling close heat to a pleasant chill. Any shreds of a sense of buoyancy within the Red also vanished over time, replaced by a heavier sensation, as if their limbs were turning to stone. The roar in their ears only worsened, finally leaving them largely deaf to each other, with only a ringing in their own ears offering a sense of sound beyond the steady roar and rush of their own pulse.
After a solid day and night of this, in what any working chrono would suggest was the next morning, the darkness began to brighten. Imperceptible, any change from minute to minute, but undeniable after a hour or two. Looking up, the sky took on a sickly orange, blown across at times by the dense Red they'd gotten used to, and at other times paling almost to yellow!
Shadows were still diffuse, but there it was: light. If they could believe it. Their own senses of themselves, and the world around them, had begun warping hours and hours and hours before, until they might experience anything from dreamlike half-hallucinations to a sense of being disconnected from their own fingertips, their own feet.
The speeder's windshield began clattering into gravel. Yes, even as slowly as it was going. Little wind. The newly resurgent light showed them: the way before them was flat. Flat as could be. True, visibility was not good; it barely showed them an eighth of a mile, but obstructions so far? None. But then this gravel: Tiny pellets, heat-rounded, suspended in mid-air. Everywhere. Part of the smokey effect ruining their ability to see very far. With little wind, it was gravel and dust, held in place, their their speeder gently pushed aside until in places the grit began building up all over the top and forward end of the enclosed craft.
Eventually ahead: a larger shadow, five feet above the ground. Upon approach: a boulder. A real one, also heat-forged, spun out like it had been frozen in place while hurtling at high speed away from what could only be Um-Shara, and the desert north of it.
More of those became visible. They formed walls to what the travelers could see, but always it took no force to brush them aside. They floated through the air to the sides in slow motion when the speeder touched one, drifting to the ground, sometimes buoyant as if they weighed nothing, bouncing slowly, clattering noiselessly together. They seemed buoyant as the travelers no longer did.
Among the misshapen stones and heat-rounded ones was a stranger shadow.
This shadow was on the underside of another floating thing, but this floating thing seemed to have two arms and two legs, limp but held on the air.
The changing sky hadn't been taken note of until it was different than what he had recalled it to be. When had it gotten lighter? It wasn't complete rejuvenation, but it was enough to rouse him from the heaviness that had seeped into his bones, it erased the weariness that seemed to hold onto his eyes. All he had wanted to do moments before taking note of the change in things was sleep. There was also the ringing in his head which was, at times, so loud that he worried his ear drums might have burst somewhere along the way. The world around him was calling him away from being that aware of himself, and how utterly unaware of his physical state he had begun to feel. Things were taking shape, and in that shape was a world to see. How strange it had all become. The floating rocks. He contemplated them until something else took his attention. A quick lean forward from the back of the speeder had him laying a hand on the shoulder of whichever of his companions was driving the speeder, and with that, then, was a quick point toward the floating form that seemed to be being-like in nature. It looked to have arms, and legs, and was as far from looking like a rock as he was. Even heavy handed, and stone legged, the reason for being there was unchanged.
"What is that?" The words were spoken - more like mouthed because it was impossible to tell anymore with the constant ringing. One day ago, by Ava's count, that ringing stopped all verbal communication.
It seemed, much like the equipment they had brought with them, that they too were starting to wind down within the Red.
Her head had been leaned against the side of the speeder. Ava's eyes begging to close for just one second. It was a burning need that made each blink last just a little longer than the next. If she could have heard her breathing, it would have begun to level out into a smooth pace. It was like her bones were weighted, held down by an invisible force that made her movements much harder and much slower.
Those brown eyes were closed when the light first appeared. The dull orange lightened a black world that drew enough force for her eyes to open.
The sky.
There was -color-! She released a tight, relieved, disbelieving breath.
And, she then saw, boulders that floated effortlessly as if they'd always belonged there. Ava looked around to her companions in the speeder to see if they saw what she was now seeing. And, when the image of a limp, floating body came in view, she began nudging both Jeryndi and Solomon while pointing towards it.
It had been his shift to pilot the landspeeder... And it had not been easy the last day or so. Whenever he was not piloting, it'd been hard to stay awake. Let alone aware of their surroundings. The deafness of the Red was getting worse and worse. The ringing in the ears was hard to describe-- it was bad in a way he'd never experienced before and had no words for.
In the backseat of the landspeeder, Medren had been sleeping on and off. Every once in a while, Jeryndi would come to a complete stop to make sure he was okay... He wasn't sure if the Red-- whatever it was here-- was effecting his son more than the rest of them. Because unlike them, his son seemed able to sleep in this mess... They'd taken turns to drive, taking turns to rest, and had traveled through the day and then the night and now morning.
Morning because there was light... He'd noticed the gradual change of light before they had-- probably because his attention had been solely focused on the path ahead of them. He'd been focused on the 'mark'. Since he didn't have a solid sense of direction-- only the 'not direction'-- he'd had to rely on Ava to make sure he was going the right way... At this point-- only hand signals because communication was practically null.
To Ava as she pointed, to Sol as he put a hand on his shoulder, he simply nodded... He'd noticed. He'd slowed down even more because of the gravel. Because of the floating boulder... And now-- he came to a stop when he saw the floating figure ahead of them.
-e-
The white heart of a bolt shot out of the ruddy fog ahead of them, source unseen, the bolt itself streaking just over the top of the speeder and to its left, cutting into the dark density behind them and disappearing.
The bolt was the only thing that had him pausing in his climb from the speeder. It was hard to miss. Sol's head turned sharply as the light went lancing, following where it had gone behind them. His movements were flashing back into gear in just the split second after it was gone. Jeryndi had stopped the speeder and that meant it was time to move. The floating pebbles were easily shunted aside, even with sloggy movements weighed down by fighting whatever it was affecting them. It -seemed- like a shift in gravity, but that was his best guess in the situation. His boots hit the dirt hard, and he was moving forward as quickly as he could toward that floating body. Alive, or dead. That was what he had promised himself. Alive or dead.
Ava ducked as the bolt zoomed over head. The move was reactive. And then the next thing she knew, Solomon was on the move. The Knight only had a quick second to give a worried look to Jeryndi before bolting out of the speeder and catching up with Solomon. Her eyes glanced attentively around them as they traveled - should another bolt decide to strike in their direction.
It didn't take a mathematical genius to know what... better yet... who was on Solomon's mind. The entire thing was foreboding enough without having... whoever this was. Ava swallowed thickly as she placed a singular hand on Solomon's shoulders once they began nearing the body. A brief bracing moment of comfort for whatever they were about to discover.
Jeryndi had already been prepping to move... He turned to look at his son, who was staring wide-eyed at their surroundings... He'd been solid asleep just moments before. Now he was wide awake. He gestured, a single, staccato motion that said get down and stay down... Even as Jeryndi was jumping out of the speeder, too. It was a swift and smooth action to pull the saber from its holster at his back, not activating it just yet. His limbs felt heavy, but his mind was acutely aware... He didn't follow after them just yet-- his eyes were scanning what he could see of the area around them... Watching, waiting, feeling-- to see if something or someone was out there and had ill intent.
Another bolt, then another, speared out from the fog, slicing across the orange, the first truly white thing seen by the travelers in days.
A third shot cut the same general path as the others, chasing, then overtaking, a black shape that materialized into visibility, lithe, bipedal, and racing fast through the pocked aetherscape of floating grit. The runner made to cut left, but aborted that in a split-second, doubling down aimed straight at Solomon, Ava, and--between them and the runner--the floating limp body.
The shots that came after the first, the ones that lanced out of the darkness and cutting across the orange scape around them, pushed Solomon's boots to go faster. His chest rocked with every breath, his legs shook from impacting hard against the scorched ground beneath him. He didn't reach for his weapon. He needed to be mobile and not juggling his blaster. He needed his hands. His trust went to Ava and Jeryndi for cover. The sight of the being racing toward him brought Sol to grit his teeth and double down, himself. Whatever that was, whoever it was, no matter how heavy he felt just then -- that limp body was the goal.
It was a good thing Ava wasn't relying on Solomon at that moment.
Ava should have known. He stepped off the speeder with blinders on and it appeared that wasn't about to let up anytime soon. Bolts shooting around them She should have known but forgot in her own mad dash to keep up with the hurtling Tekal.
There really wasn't anything for Ava to do at that moment besides to simply run. On the other side of the body was the biped runner - though it was hard to get a good luck even as they raced forward. Behind that were shots of hot white bolts.
All Ava could do, all she could think to do, was push harder to reach the floating body first. An athlete in her own right, the Jedi Knight worked hard to keep her body in peak condition. Even in her tired state, a new surge of adrenaline flooded her veins as feet pounded against the ground. She pushed harder and faster, pulling ahead from Solomon. Her breathing paced and even to prevent tiring out.
She veered off course just a little. A test to see what the runner was truly focused on.
Them.
Or the body.
The moment the next bolt came out of the orange to split across the air, his saber activated... the snap-hiss-hum was lost in the roar of the Red. Dust kicked up under his feet as he took off running towards Solomon and Ava. He pushed himself... As readily and easily as he could have used the Force to aid him, he didn't. He relied on peak physical prowess to move and the Force to try and feel out where these shots were coming from... Clearly, whoever it was was aiming for the runner. Who was unusually fast for the conditions here... Solomon was focused entirely on that free floating form in front of them... And was probably going to get himself shot.
Damn fool, he thought to himself. Not that he didn't care. Not that he didn't want to know who it was or why... But the potential and immediate danger should've outweighed his concern for that person, whoever it was... His saber was active-- a pretty and potentially violent purple that was a flash of color against the orange. The same saber Sadhric had once taken and eventually returned... He moved to get ahead of Solomon, ahead of the runner, readying to reflect any further bolts that came at them.
Three Jedi-trained individuals. One eleven year old with all the energy of an eleven year old.
They'd been in the Red for days.
Jolted into action, the sluggishness and heaviness still dragged at their efforts.
Sharpened with something to focus on, the strange curling of perception and dreamy quality did not simply bow aside for them.
Yet the runner moved sharp and quick, without the slightest hindrance, and more blaster shots struck floating debris all around him. In his wake, at the edge of vision, big misty-edged shadows moved, growing clearer and clearer--
The runner reached the body a half-second before Solomon did, and the runner's right arm flashed out to slingshot the body dead straight at Solomon's chest. Same second: the runner's left hand was suddenly gripping something.
Whatever this being was, it was not affected by their surroundings like the four companions were. It didn't seem affected at all by the way it moved within the dead world that surrounded them. He had been watching it as he ran toward the body, and would have wondered just what type of being it was if his mind hadn't been working hard to keep him in motion, pushing his physical self toward that body. And then they were there, meeting together in the middle. Just as he was reaching for the body, it was being shoved his way. The sudden weight of it caused him to stumbled back a step or two when he bumped into it.
The question was answered as the Runner kept focus on reaching the same objective as Solomon.
The body.
Which was then used liked a blunt object to swing towards Solomon's chest.
Ava had veered off course just enough to stay out of swinging range but close enough that she could see the Runner's left hand reaching to grab something.
"STOP!" She shouted, unsure if that shout would have any affect whatsoever on the situation.
Jeryndi was not close enough to intercept... Or, really, to do anything about it... He was moving as fast as he could, but he wasn't going to get there before whatever that was was drawn. He assumed it was weapon... In which case, he wouldn't get there before that weapon cleared its holster. He could tell the body that was shoved towards Solomon still had a certain gravity defiance-- otherwise it would've sent his cousin to the ground and with an inert body on top of him... He couldn't feel anything close by. Couldn't tell where the shots were coming from. But maybe he could do something about that runner... It was a sudden redirection of mental capacity-- switching his focus in the Force from one thing to another. He hadn't stopped running. But he reached out with the Force to try to knock the runner back a little ways. As far as telekinesis went, it was a little thing-- he just wanted that guy away from his cousin... He had no idea when he did it if it would work. But still. He had to try.
Except that the runner was already on Solomon--really on him, having leapt up fit to land with feet on Solomon's shoulders, faster than a blink, and with the attitude of a spider, inverting, hands down Sol's back, one vicelike in Sol's suit, the other clamping whatever it held against--
--Sol's blaster, which the runner-now-climber released from its magholster with swift, sure-handed certainty.
Jeryndi's push, then, would shove at both of them, and at the still-limp body as well.
Ava's shout--could even she hear it in her own ears? The world had them deaf, and if time seemed slowed then the only thing moving like it was fully awake was the dark-clad figure moving like a sticky-toed lizard over Solomon. This close, it was suited and helmeted, but the helmet was a plain-faced thing that seemed incapable of letting light into it.
--The hell? With reaction time cut due to the long hours of travel, forging their way through The Red, the weight of being where they were, and all the physical toll that could take on someone, his reaction was less than spot on. The figure in black was on his shoulders before Solomon could blink, and the tug that came to his suit when the being grabbed and released his blaster from its maglock was felt as an after thought. He was reaching up, moving to get his left hand on the back of the being's head when the buffer of Jeryndi's push washed over them. With Jeryndi pushing from behind, Solomon was knocked into the body again. It sent him off balance enough that he had to abort trying to get a grip on the agile creature that had climbed him, and instead he put his effort into not falling over the body that had been floating in the open nothingness they'd been traveling through.
Deaf to her own shout even as the runner crawled over and down Sol's back, Ava closed the yawning yard between them, already knowing that the world she occupied right then was too curled under and fog-edged for her lightsaber to be a safe option. She had the hilt in her hand, though, as she came in, hoping to see clearly enough to know how to use it. She had never had instincts to kill first and ask questions later, and needed to see one second longer to understand if Solomon was hurt, or just startled, because the two giant shadows from which his assailant ran were coalescing into a pair of slick quadrupeds trampling fast toward them, lumpy-backed, and another two blinding white lances of blasterfire arced through the grit toward her party, one striking a floating boulder, the other shooting on through and out past Jeryndi and the speeder, leaving ghostly twirls of sparks wherever it cut through clouds of dust in the air.
With every motion, every foot on the ground stirred up superfine Red.
Perpetual exposure to the Red had done more damage than he'd initially thought.... He'd known it'd slowed them down. Limbs had been heavy, fatigue had set in to the point of exhaustion. But adrenaline was flowing, now, being in danger-- he no longer felt the fatigue and heaviness of the limbs... But it wasn't until he saw the inert body, Solomon, and the runner all colliding together that he realized just how slow his reaction time was. It was a little mind boggling... Was the guy not exposed or hampered by the Red? Was it a different kind of exposure? Was the Red different here than it was elsewhere? Or maybe non-existent and they had only a strange kind of haze in the atmsosphere and in the air here with no ill side effects? He had no idea, but clearly-- this was something completely different than what he, himself, was experiencing...
He didn't stop running, though. These thoughts raced through his head as he ran, saber active, hand holding the saber pointed down and at his side as he did so... He was aiming to get between the incoming forces and his allies-- even slowed as he was. He might reach them in time, maybe before the runner got reoriented, but he didn't know... He could only push himself in the hopes he could get there and help.
The object in the runner's left hand, now clamped in it between armored glove and Solomon's own blaster, was a small blade, and in the last blink of a eye before Sol's back was released the short tip of the blade protruding past the edge of the blaster punched into Solomon's envirosuit. It ripped upward, shearing through every protective layer, not because the runner was dragging the blade, but because the runner was flipping off of Sol's back to deliver a double-kick to the face of Ava's helmet, and it was the motion of that, and the slinging of Solomon's weight, that caused it in what had to be no coincidence but a calculated tripling-up of purpose.
Two four-limbed, lizardlike creatures slithered through floating rocks, the serpentine slinging side to side of their big flat heads tossing the gravity-defying stones and grit aside in the air. The lumps on their backs were riders, one larger than the rest, and the beasts appeared to lashed together at the faces.
One of the smaller riders might have been shouting something--it was certainly gesturing with one hand while what appeared to be--yes--a rifle rested across its other arm, waiting to be aimed with two hands. But there was no hearing anything that might have been yelled. The riders were completely covered, their heads hidden behind hoods or helms or masks--mixes of all three.
The cut went up the side of his suit, just past where the line of his arm would be if it were resting as his side. He felt it when he turned, a difference in temperature between what had been internally kept by the suit, and the chilled air that was on the other side of it. He didn't hear the blade cut the fabric, and he didn't feel it beyond a giving of the suit. There was more slack across his back, and that reached up into his shoulders as he spun, pushing off of the innert body to catch the blurred sight of the being in black flipping through the air toward Ava. He had a plan, and an idea, but stumbled instead of launching himself into it. The smell of The Red heavy air was well within the hood of his suit, that mineral heavy scent coming to him in a rush as the outside world was quickly invading what had been relatively protective space within. His legs, he needed to get them to work. His arms felt just as equally like dead weight, and that was getting worse. But Ava. He fought it back, but the sluggishness of his entire being was pulling a slowness from him -- a body that was moving well past the point of exhaustion -- as he forced himself to move that way. He had wanted to be running, but whether he made it that far or not -- well, it felt like a miracle that his legs were underneath him at all.
Lightsaber--
Ava couldn't hear it, but the bright heart of the blade flared to its full length. She'd missed what had happened to Solomon's suit--the runner had been in the way and it had been a subtle edge of his less subtle maneuvering--but the blade came up--
Just as one of the bright bolts from the charging animals sheared across the form of her assailant--narrowly missing the figure--to punch into her own blade, causing an eruption of blinding light that flared out from the edge of her blade.
And now he was getting closer to the group-- Within a couple of seconds. Which seemed to stretch on forever with how sluggish everything was... Everything was happening fast. And normally, he took a small amount of pride on how fast he was, but right then, he was cursing himself for not being able to be up to his own par.... He understood why, of course. Not the science of the why, but that it was the Red. He knew that the speed with which the runner moved, using his own lightsaber was a bad idea in such close quarters to Ava and Sol. Somebody could lose a limb or a life. Just as quickly as he'd activated, he deactivated it-- the blade disappearing even as he pulled the blaster pistol from his holster and raised it to point at the runner. He'd seen the next shot towards the runner impact into Ava's lightsaber blade... And it made him smile as he reached her side, eyes focused solely on the runner. He'd seen the cut to sol's suit as he'd come up, but there was nothing he could do about it right that second-- not with so much danger all around.
In the blinding flare, Jeryndi and Ava would find their scattered focus scattered just that much further thanks to the flash and then the subsequent dance of bright green afterimages that blotted across their field of vision. Those afterimages only vaguely described the scene as it had been: the only obvious object among them was where Ava's lightsaber had been.
Ava herself had her arm kicked back at the forearm, and stumbled back into Jeryndi, because the runner was not where it had been either, but had brushed over her recoiling form to send her stumbling. The runner itself, in that second, hit the ground but was only on it long enough to roll back up to its feet at a run, the true goal revealed: the speeder.
It was at this point that the two huge creatures trampled Solomon, the body, Jeryndi and Ava.
--if they'd been aimed that way.
They went around them, parting so that one went to their left even if they were moving, reacting, and the other lashed to it but racing around on their right.
Any glance up would show one tall, vaguely humanoid figure at the head of one, and the other two more human shaped and sized, dressed in their hodgepodge coverage, aiming now at the back of the runner.
There were claws of washed out colors attaching themselves to the edges of what he could see, and a cloud settling in over the rest. He wasn't too far away at all, but felt like there was still yards left to cover. The flash of light was dazzling, but lacking in the sharp angry green that Ava and Jeryndi might have seen. And where was the runner? Sol had to stop. Had he even been moving in that moment? The whole world felt like it was passing beneath and around him, but in reality he had just turned his head and tried pointing but his arms were too heavy to move, and the large rider mounted beasts were passing around them, shaking the ground as they passed, and kicking up enough Red to draw the haze in heavy around them. He tried not to breathe it in, but the shaking in his legs that came up from the quaking ground landed him into the grit in a heavy flop. His next breath was drawn in a cough, and followed by another. By then, even getting his lungs to move in the manner they should felt like a burden.
Ava had stumbled into him... And he didn't go down, but it did make him backpedal a few step. But even as he had stumbled backwards, he'd seen the runner heading for the speeder. No... No. No, no, no, no, no!!!. And in that instant, it was simply a reaction. He'd already had the blaster up and at the ready, but now he turned and aimed with accuracy borne of practice. He squeezed the trigger as he aimed at the runner-- be damned if he takes that speeder...! It might've been like a jolt in the Force-- but it wasn't entirely conscious on his part... It was a warning-- meant for his son. Get out, get out, get out!
The runner swerved left to avoid the convergence of the two giant quadrupeds--and their spiked tusks. Jeryndi's shot caught the backward curve of one of those tusks at the last second, and then it was only the hides and the red dust that was visible from where he was, and the sweeping, bladelike crocodilian tails of the creatures as they swept together, blocking sight of the speeder.
But Medren could no doubt see. The air was dusty, the red all stirred up and blurring the outlines of everything, but for Medren the view all along had been that of the impossibly swift figure in black, the not-fight that amounted to the runner batting a body into Solomon, then landing high on him and crawling partially down his back before whipping its lower body over to smash at Ava and soar past her, while being pursued by a pair of beasts of unknown origin...
... who were now all bearing down on the speeder, and Medren within it.
In the wake, that rusty colored cloud that swirled about them in smokey density, swirls curled about in a carry upward from the heavy stomping of the beasts that were roaring off after the runner with their mounted riders bearing down on the speeder. Solomon didn't see that. He didn't see the bolt that flashed out from Jeryndi's blaster, or Ava who wasn't too far away either. What he saw was a figure standing in the midst of floating rocks and red air. He didn't shut his eyes for fear that he might not open them again, even though the urge was strong to do so. There was no suit on the person he saw standing in the haze. She seemed as comfortable standing there as the runner was in its movements. There was no motion coming from the being Solomon saw, but there was a beckoning. He felt it as a pull to get closer, and it was almost like a song. It would be alright if he listened to it, if he gave in to how tired he felt. All he had to do was shut his eyes and trust her. He wasn't done yet, though. He wasn't ready to rest. With duracrete filled limbs Sol pushed himself to his left, reaching for the inert body with with his right. His hands felt dumb, which wasn't anything new for his right hand, but his left -- the nimbleness he knew he could possess was gone. Tactile sensation was just as fuzzy as everything else around him. But he had to see. He pulled again, tugging with both hands to get a look at the face that belonged to the body, ignoring just how loud that song was getting, as well as how hard it was to do just about anything. If this were his last moment awake, he'd spend every ounce of effort on it to know who they'd found.
Ava was there. Her first goal had been supporting Sol--that's what she did now. Dazed as she herself was, her lightsaber unlit now, she moved fast when she saw Sol miss a step and barely catch himself. She bent to it, snatching for his nearer arm, so that she could drag it across her shoulders and get him--them both--turned around. Because the speeder might not be safety, but Medren was in it, and someone needed to keep them together so that they could help him.
That feeling, that warning of get out was still there in the Force... Echoing in a way. Though he couldn't see the speeder anymore, there was still movement within that speeder... The runner would see it-- and possibly the mounted pursuers of said runner... Medren had heard that urgency. Or felt it. Whatever you wanted to call it. It had been there. He had recieved the message... He was scrambling to get out of the speeder. Even with the lack of efficiency that he might've had otherwise, he was still moving decently fast as he got out... He had a pack already slung across his shoulders and back and pushed another out onto the ground before he jumped out. The second pack was left in the red dust, even as he took off running away from the speeder and away from the mounted things that seemed positively determined to smash the speeder.
Fast as the runner was, the beasts were faster, closing quick, and now there were no more people or bodies or boulders between the blaster-rifles and the runner.
The runner shot back in his own wake--using Solomon's blaster--and as Medren shot out from the enclosed speeder (showing the runner exactly where and how to access it), the swift humanoid made as if he would just duck right inside.
A shock-white bolt slamming into the side of the speeder dissuaded the runner, and with the cascade of sparks already dying from that there was a leap and then a quick stride across the roof of the thing. Another shot missed and the runner was down on the ground, the bulk of the speeder between the creatures (who were splitting again to go around the thing) and the runner, who leaned into a sprint for the dusty density beyond.
He was feeling lighter. The song continued in his head, and the figure he saw in the dirty mist was then standing next to him -- no. They were moving. Flying? He felt like he was flying. There wasn't much of the world he could see anymore, it was all darkening. The claws of washed out color became a blanket of wavy lines and barely formed images. Struggling to see past it only made him feel all that much more lighter, that much more dizzy.
Ava felt Sol sag further, and only upon gripping the back of his suit had she realized the envirosuit gaped open on one side. Through her own suit, she couldn't tell whether Solomon himself was injured, flayed open like the dense protective layers, and couldn't hear anything he might be saying. She tried to comm Jeryndi, couldn't make out much of anything beyond the vibration of her shout in her own throat, and in a second of fleeting clarity when slapping Sol across the face was obviously made impossible by his facemask, she shook him bodily with all the strength in her petite frame, quick and sharp, and then focused on him. For just a heartbeat that focus defied the sluggish drag of the Red around them and her own tiredness and altered perceptions. Her sense of herself as a physical being in a physical universe zoomed in quick, and she was rooted and solid. Her focus on Sol zoomed in with crystal-edged mercilessness, and she spoke Solomon's name in a way that ignored her own deafness and might ignore his, to snap his attention to her if that was possible.
For a couple of seconds, Medren had frozen-- uncertain of what to do... The runner had tried to duck into the speeder, only to be shot at by the people mounted... He, himself, had never been trained in this sort of circumstances! What were you supposed to do in this situation? Run? Be trampled? Take a gamble and jump on top of the speeder and pray those giant mounts didn't obliterate you? What if the runner tried to shoot at him next? ....Psht... The creatures were rounding around to his side of the speeder-- even as the runner was preparing to take off into the mist... So he did what he thought best-- he jumped up onto the hood of the speeder and vaulted over it, taking off for the run towards the rest of the group. Still carrying the pack... He was sluggish, he felt sluggish, but that was not something he could think about just then... Run. Get to his father. Get to his Uncle. Get to Ava. Run.
Jeryndi took a few steps back... Even as Ava had caught Sol. He felt that sharp and sudden focus... And only briefly glanced at her. It was only then he saw the real damage to Sol's suit. Shit, he thought... He still couldn't see Medren, but he knew, at least, that his son was out of the speeder... He took two more steps back to kneel beside Sol and Ava, offering a hand to the Jedi. A hand, energy, focus-- whatever she needed, he offered it to her to help save Sol. Though his eyes were focused in the direction of his son, that aid was solid.
He wasn't flying anymore. There was a storm that was shaking him, winds that hit his body and pushed it so hard that he felt he might fall over with how light he felt. The person from the mist was so close now, he could touch her if he reached out his hand that was if he could even get his hands to move. He looked but saw no face, or anything for that matter beyond the cloud that covered his vision. But the song continued, almost heard and recognized as something he knew from long long ago. All he had to do was close his eyes and he'd hear it the way it was meant to be heard. All he needed to do was give in -- he blinked and it was slow. His eyes fell shut quickly enough, but making them open was like fighting as if the weight of the galaxy rested on them. Maybe if he just gave in for a moment -- just one, things would be easier.
With Jeryndi's help, Ava was able to get Sol moving. That seemed more important than trying to grab his dazed attention a second time. Her dazzling focus already fraying, the clear thought that remained fixed in space before her was that if Solomon was injured they needed to get him into the speeder where they stood a chance of helping him.
Ahead, the lashed-together creatures shrank in the distance beyond the speeder, still firing. But soon the creatures wheeled around. The left one circled to the outside of the right one, and the right one came around on the inside of that curve. Places switched, they were coming back.
Just past the speeder, on approach to the travelers in Medren's wake, one of the riders slid down and dashed ahead of the slowing animals.
Medren didn't turn around to look... But now Jeryndi gently pulled his hand away from Ava's as Medren came running towards them. He could see his son, now, and let out abreath he didn't know he'd been holding... He walked away, which soon turned into a run, to meet his son on his path back to the group... Medren hadn't turned to look at whoever was behind him. He kept up a steady pace, albeit a little slow... And Jeryndi had every intention of intercepting the man following behind his son before he made it to the group.
As the figure came closer, the blaster carbine remained aimed low and to the side, but when Jeryndi raced right past his son, the barrel came up.
But so did a splayed hand. Warning in one hand; calming in the other.
Jeryndi understood that... Medren had come to a stop just past his father... There were looks exchanged... And his son went on to continue to get to Solomon and Ava. Jeryndi lowered his own blaster and holstered it, but kept the saber in his other hand. It was non-threatening, hand at his side.
The storm was gone, and he was flying once more. Physically, his feet were dragging. His steps were more intuition than from any actual physical effort on his part. They moved because he was being moved, but they dragged against the barren earth beneath them. One step felt like an eternity, and the one that followed after was equally just as slow and long in being taken. He was mentally unaware of it, though. All he knew in his head was the song, all he could see was the cloud that had begun taking on a red tinge. It was as if the dusty world around him were seeping into his eyes, becoming more than atmosphere and more an actual part of him.
A second figure slid from the back of the second beast, and came forward at a lope, also armed. Only the third, larger, more angular figure remained mounted alone atop the larger creature, twisted around in the saddle, keeping an eye on the limited sight distance behind them. The smaller creature turned as if to keep watch also.
The man nearest Jeryndi was armored, wrapped, helmeted, gloved, booted, and generally sealed up, but without a single coherent envirosuit such as the travelers wore. The second figure was in much the same situation, bundled up with odds and ends of clothing, almost, layered maybe. There might even been emergency repair tape peeking out from wrapped fabric here and there, but it was difficult to make out textures with any accuracy when everything was caked with dust and stained the same color.
Gesturing began--slow and careful.
The man with the carbine reached out the open hand toward Jeryndi, then widened it so that its sweep encompassed Medren beyond him, and further out Ava and Solomon as well. He beckoned them all in, moved aside a step, and swept obviously toward their speeder. He repeated that, ignoring the creatures and third rider who stood making a corridor to the speeder down which the travelers would have to pass.
The other figure on the ground was backing off wide, to give Jeryndi a fair berth, starting to circle up where much of the action with the runner had taken place.
There was still the body floating there, after all, though now it hung buoyant in the air upside down, the head nearly brushing the ground.
Jeryndi... Stayed where he was... He was watching the one in front of him, still. He'd glanced around at the others, taking notice of their positions. How far away they were. How and what they were armed with... It was an assessment. He gave the man in front of them a puzzled look as if to say-- Say what now?... That was happening just as Medren was reaching Ava and Solomon.
Upon seeing the gaping side in Solomon's suit, Medren dropped the pack and opened it-- pulling out a rebreather and another envirosuit. Every pack they'd made had at least one per pack, in case of emergencies-- and clearly, Solomon needed it... Medren had pulled on his pack the moment he felt the danger cominbg. Had even seen them coming. Jeryndi had told him to get down and stay down, but curiosity had won out in that particular moment... Medren was offering to help shoulder some of the weight that was Solomon, even as he nodded towards the body. Gesturing with one hand-- two fingers at the eyes, then pointed to the body. As if to say-- Go look.
He gave the man in front of them a puzzled look as if to say-- Say what now?... The gesture that followed was two fingers pointed towards himself, then flipped upwards as if to sign-- ?
The man raised his arm higher, pointing and moved the arm so that the pointing encircled them... maybe. Possibly. Then he gestured at the speeder again. He repeated all of that twice.
The other figure loped faster, moving in on the body, reaching out to take it by the arm and pull it upright.
Ava could get at her lightsaber hilt fast if she had to, but she'd clipped it back to her suit, the better to keep Solomon from faceplanting in the red dust stirred up at their feet.
There were moments like this... When he wishes telepathy was a thing he could do... Plenty of Force Users could do it, but it was not among his particular talents... How easy this would be if he could just put a thought into someone's head. Or hell, even Ava's. But no... The gestures continued. It was hard to read body language under so much bundled clothing... But he kept an 'eye' on the men in the Force-- gauging their intentions. But intentions could only go so far in deciphering meaning of gestures... He still didn't understand if the man wanted them to leave or were welcome to stay or what... But Solomon was without a suit. He saw no buildings nearby-- but that didn't mean there weren't-- and the closest thing to shelter was the speeder itself... so the next round of gestures began. Jeryndi pointed to Solomon, then to the speeder, then a small gesture and a bow as if to say-- May I?
The figure backed off further, waving them on repeatedly. Hard to tell when any of them who had envirosuits were nodding; not so with this man. He encouraged them through, and his companion was returning with the limp body. It was less floaty now; the toes of boots dug smoky trenches in the dust behind it.
He turned to go towards the speeder... He headed that way. He had the intention of getting into the speeder and piloting it towards Ava and Solomon, so they could put him into the vehicle with more ease. Instead of carrying him the distance... Back there, with Ava and Solomon, Medren was working with one arm to unfold the envirosuit.
The big quadrupeds were interested in them as they passed, but soon swung their big heads--both bigger and wider than Solomon and Jeryndi combined--away. The way to the speeder was clear, and they'd get there whole.
But once they were there, getting Sol into the back, the two figures joined them, clearly intending to put the limp body into the speeder with them. Lots of gesturing followed once more: pointing from the body to the speeder repeatedly. Then encompassing circles followed by pointing back the way the creatures and riders had come.
He had stopped the speeder after reaching Ava and Solomon... Medren climbed into the back with the other body, even as Jeryndi climbed into the back with solomon... Even though Solomon was still out of it-- conscious, but somewhat unresponsive-- Jeryndi had completely sealed the landspeeder shut to get the air filters going... There, he'd use Ava's help to get Solomon into a new envirosuit. Where Medren was checking the other body for signs of life.
There was no moving that speeder just yet until they got Solomon secured.
That caused a flurry of activity. Knocking hard on the outside. More hurried and insistent gesturing--visible out the front, where one of the figures had recounted and was beckoning with increasing impatience.
The other one was atop the speeder itself.
Jeryndi reached back and tapped Medren on the shoulder and gestured for him to go to the pilot's chair... Medren proceeded to climb through the seats to get there-- starting up the speeder. If they were going to lead the way, now they could follow.
And that was just what happened.
Once the speeder powered up, the paired animals took off at a good clip. It wasn't the pursuit sprint that had first had them bearing down on the travelers, but a steady, serpentine run.
The speeder would follow after-- with Medren at the helm! ... Who knew what Ava thought of that? But Jeryndi trusted his son, for what it was worth... He trusted his son to pilot his actual ship, so what harm was a landspeeder? In the days they'd traveled before combining their gear and transport, Medren had piloted short periods of time... It wasn't as if he wasn't familiar with the vehicle... Before leaving, the boy glanced back at everyone else to make sure they were okay before taking off... In the back, Jeryndi's hands were moving with a steady pace, taking off gear, taking off the suit, and slowly maneuvering the new one on... Only when that was done did he climb further back into the last seat and check on the person in the back.
Ava did not assume that Sol just needed a wardrobe change. Fortunately, while there was indeed a bloody line of varying depths marking the knife's travel up the suit, no length of it looked serious. Unfortunately, there was dust inside Sol's suit, and clotting the cut too, and they did not know whether that substance was toxic or not. Best they could do right then was try for a basic cleaning from a medkit, even knowing that it would be impossible to guarantee they'd manage a thorough job with every surface contaminated. Then: suit Sol back up and keep an eye on him while the riders led them to wherever they intended to go.
The body in the back breathed. Through the visor of the makeshift helmet (it looked to be slapped together from goggles and padding normally worn under armor), enough scruff was visible to confirm without checking the crotch that this was male, and probably human.