Oricon, the base of the ancient Dread Masters and nearly lost to time is steeped in the Dark Side, echoing the influences of both the Dread Masters and Darth Vitus before them. The landscape is an unforgiving nightmarescape of lava flows and volcanic rock dotted with strange plants and starship wrecks from a battle thousands of years ago. The smoky, sulfuric air of the surface nearly chokes most humanoids as it forces their eyes to adjust to the foggy haze illuminated by the soft glow of the lava flows. Tall, luminous blood ferns adorn the landscape, surrounded by vicious predators hardy enough to survive the intense conditions. Trenches and outcroppings formed from flowing lava serve to make footing uneven, adding yet another treacherous element to this already dangerous world. In the distance, the ruins of an ancient tower call out to those that can sense its terror—the fabled fortress of the Dread Masters. Remnants of ancient cults can be seen here and there, from wrecked huts to blood-stained altars and crumbling oubliettes.

Oricon was a thoroughly unpleasant world, and this so-called “Graveyard” was about the most unpleasant part of it. Ancient ship debris littered the landscape, an ashen and lava hellhole that no being in their right mind would have willingly come to. But Sabe wasn’t here willingly.

Command had sent her here on a recon operation, tracking the remnants of the privately hired forces that had been driven out of Naga Sadow space by Darth Ashen and his forces retaking Ragnos Cathedral. The higher ups needed to know if they intended to come back or if they were fleeing for good, and Sabe had proverbially drawn the equally proverbial short straw.

She lay perched on an outcropping, her A280 CFE assembled into a sniper rifle, as she watched the enemy down below, having made their camp inside a circle of ship husks. Sentries patrolled on the top of the ship with blaster rifles, though Sabe figured they had poor lines of sight even from there, given how many ships littered the area.

Her finger slipped into the trigger guard when she saw a cloaked figure approaching the camp. Shifting her sights to watch who was approaching, her finger slid back out and rested against the rifle’s receiver. Whoever it was, the inhabitants of the encampment knew to expect them, and the cloaked figure stepped through, approaching a pair of the enemy soldiers at a table. Sabe shifted her rifle’s optics back onto the sentries, and quickly set to work picking them off. Crimson bolts silently lanced out for their marks, one after another. Though the inhabitants of the camp couldn’t hear the shots coming, and the bolts themselves did not stand out against the environment, they did hear the final grunts and dropping bodies of the sentries.

That got their attention, and everyone except the cloaked figure and the two by the table started rushing to take up cover. They were also cut down from afar, but what caught Sabe off guard was the cloaked figure activated a light blue lightsaber and cut down their hosts. Whoever this was, it warranted further investigation, so Sabe crawled back from her perch and made her way down to the encampment. On the way down, she removed the scope, foregrip and stock from her A280, tucking them into her pack.

Stepping up to the encampment, the cloaked figure turned to face her, flipping the cowl of his hood down with his off-hand, still holding a lightsaber. Sabe kept her A280 pistol at the ready as she approached, but she recognized the face looking at her, Mactire.

“Do you wish to explain why you blew my operation, soldier?” Mactire asked with a scowl.

“Was it Operation Get Chummy With The Bad Guys? Because if it was, you have a lot to explain. And not to me,” Sabe replied, not approaching any closer.

“Walk away, call in the mission as complete. My presence here is none of your concern,” Mactire turned away, walking up to the table.

“No no no, it very much so is a concern. So either answer my kriffing question, or you can join the body count,” Sabe brought up her pistol, leveling the sights on Mactire’s back.

“You’re bluffing. And you’re nowhere near able to take out someone of my power,” Mactire scoffed.

“...poor choice of words,” Sabe pulled the trigger twice, the whine of the blaster echoing in the valley and ring of wrecks. Mactire spun around effortlessly and the two bolts smacked into the hull of the ship behind him, adding more scorches to the battle worn hull. He reached out with the Force, his off hand guiding the way, and hurled a small container towards Sabe. The commando quickly swung around the corner of the hull next to her, getting behind cover as the container flew past her.

“Just remember that you brought this on yourself,” Mactire called out.

“Yeah, whatever helps ya sleep at night, ya kriffer,” Sabe replied, a slow drawl slipping into her speech.

Mactire growled having missed Sabe with the container. As looked around two more quick shots were taken at him. As the blaster bolts came towards him, the Shadow leapt into the air spinning avoiding them with grace.

“Come on soldier you can do better than that.” Mactire said mockingly.

“Oh? Still teasing me? You will answer for what you’re doing here.” Sabe stated with confidence resonating in her voice.

A rapid fire of blaster bolts descended on the Mystic from where Sabe was hiding. As each bolt came closer and closer to hitting him, Mactire deflected the bolts with his lightsaber, trying for an off chance that one might end up back at the point of origin.

The soldier had ruined his operation on trying to get information on some ancient relics that were taken from the area. Now he was in a fight for his life. This always seemed to happen to him.

A stray bolt hit him in his right shoulder, knocking him down. As he hit the ground he looked towards where Sabe was. She stood up smirking.

“Got you now, you traitor.” There was a trace of acid in her voice as she leveled her rifle at him.

As she slowly squeezed the trigger, Mactire rolled backwards towards a table that was knocked over for cover.

As blaster fire surrounded him Mactire stood up slowly breathing, focusing on everything, erected a barrier around him with the aid of the Force. As long as he kept his mind clear and focused he could hold out a little while longer. But that was proving difficult.

His shoulder was aching and Sabe was being relentless in her attack. When Mactire looked at her she was grinning in satisfaction.

“Oh is the big bad Jedi afraid of a little blaster fire? Don’t ever underestimate a soldier you kriffen nerf herder.” There was malice in her voice as she kept pulling the trigger in rapid succession.

As Mactire’s concentration slowly started to wane, so did parts of his barrier. Now was his time to strike.

Pushing himself to walk forward he made his way towards Sabe. The look of shock across her face was apparent as she tried to fire more shots faster towards him. Though to no avail, the shots kept being absorbed by the barrier. Mactire knew that his next trick would have to be quick if it was to pull off any chance of keeping him alive a little while longer.

“Come on now! Just die!” Sabe shouted at the top of her lungs as Mactire got a few feet closer.

As she growled in frustration at Mactire, he smirked lightly. “Welcome to the Rancor nest you little brat.” Mactire muttered with amusement.

Sabe looked at him slightly cocking her right eyebrow to the side, as he dropped the Barrier, and also dropped towards the ground sending both of his palms to the ground. With a loud yell he focused on the Force again, though he was drained he needed one last push. One last attack to hopefully turn the battle.

With all his energy he focused on a telekinetic wave that knocked Sabe a few yards backwards and onto her back.

Taking this opportunity Mactire charged, closing the distance. Keeping the fight in close range. He struck with a hard side kick to her upper right ribs, as she tried to stand up, knocking the wind out of her. Causing her to choke and gasp for air.

“Never underestimate a Jedi. And never ever underestimate me.” Mactire growled looking intently at Sabe.

Mactire stepped in, swaying from side to side before shifting his weight to execute another kick. Sabe brought up her arms in a cross guard to block the incoming kick, forcing her opponent to bring his foot back to regain his stance. Sabe took her chance then to strike, swinging her pistol wildly and catching Mactire across the face with the grip.

He stepped backwards, bringing a hand up to his face. Blood seeped down from a gash along where he was caught with the pistol’s grip, right along where his left eyebrow met with his temple. Sabe back pedaled, leveling her weapon on him as she put some distance between them.

“I’m going to give you one final chance to stand down and answer my question. Because even those above you are going to wonder why you were dealing with the people that looted Ragnos Cathedral,” Sabe said, her teeth half clenched as she tried to recover.

“I don’t answer to you, and I don’t need to explain my actions to you,” Mactire replied, igniting his lightsaber once more.

“You kriffing Sith. You’re all the same, treat us troops like we’re your cannon fodder while you go indulge in some stupid megalomaniacal plot. And when we do our jobs, you try to kill us off for calling you on your hypocrisy,” Sabe’s words held nothing but acid and hatred, and her gaze was giving turbolasers a run for their money in how badly they were boring into Mactire.

“I. Am. A. Jedi,” Mactire hissed out in reply.

“Keep tellin’ yourself that, ya karkin’ lunatic. Now drop the glowstick or you join the wrecks and corpses.”

Mactire let out a feral roar and charged at Sabe with speed that was inhuman, accelerated by the Force. His humming blue lightsaber arced up and then across Sabe’s torso, sending the commando reeling to the ashen ground under her in pain. Everything inside of her wanted to give up, everything but the spark within her that urged her to keep going. Clutching a pile of volcanic rock and ash in her right hand, she kept writhing in pain on the ground until Mactire got closer, raising his blade to execute a killing blow. Sabe hurled the contents within her hand into his face, causing him to step back once more.

She then drew her WESTAR-35, firing a single bolt into his left knee. The Mystic pitched backwards onto his back from the sudden loss of his left leg, dropping his lightsaber. Both of them lay on the ground, trying to cope with their respective pain. Sabe raised her right hand to her helmet.

“Blaze Actual to Command. Requesting emergency evac on my position. Repeat, Blaze Actual, requesting emergency evac on my position. How copy?” Sabe said into her helmet mounted commlink.

“Affirmative, Blaze. Inbound now. Interrogative; have you seen one of the Clan’s Force Users? Comms just got to us of an op being run by one of them here, requested if we’d extract him with you,” Her commander said on the other end. Sabe looked at her opponent.

“Confirmed. He’s right here. I’ll let him know of that, over,” Sabe replied.

“Hey. Lunatic. Your bosses want you to extract with me. And was it really so hard to say you were running a separate op? Idiot,” Sabe rolled her eyes.

“You should have just walked away. Would have saved us a lot of trouble,” Mactire replied.

“Keep trying to pin your poor decisions on me, and I will roll this concussion grenade over to your head. A failure on your part did not constitute poor judgement on mine. Take the time to take in this wonderful environment and contemplate not treating us Warhost troops like you’re better than us,” Sabe groaned as she slid flat on her back.

Within moments, a shuttle landed and Warhost troops were loading both of them on stretchers.

The glare of fire and rage coming from Sabe’s eyes was enough to make Mactire feel a little worried.

Growling low and deeply she leapt towards Mactire. “I’m gonna kill you, and bring your head to the counsell!”. Her voice rang out.

Her right fist connected with the Mystics jaw, forcing him to slightly stagger back at the surprise of the attack.

The soldier kept both her fists up slightly ready to strike again. This time as her left fist came flying towards him, Mactire blocked it with his foot, pushing it to the side. Then taking his left palm, striking her across the face. He smirked lightly as she staggered at the force he put behind it.

The Soldier spit slightly as blood slowly dripped from her mouth. “Oh now you’re dead.” she slowly put her hands behind her back, pulling out two blaster pistols.

“Shit.” the Mystic breathed slowly quickly running to the right side of the area heading for cover as fast as possible.

“Not this time!” Sabe bellowed as she fired both pistols in perfect harmony. One smoothly after the other. Each round was at best a few millimeters apart from each other.

Mactire grabbed one of the fallen bodies and tossed it in the way of the blaster bolts. As the body cover him for that instance he quickly started running towards the open door of the ancient crashed ship.

The Mystic barely made it in the doorway and behind cover before the next volley of rounds came his way, as Sabe laughed maniacally. “Oh what’s the matter? Is the poor little Jedi scared of a me?” She questioned mockingly.

Mactires breathing was heavy as he leaned against the bulkhead. Many thoughts were running through his head. He gripped his lightsaber tightly.

The Mystic slowly stepped out of the doorway and smirked lightly. “Nope, just trying to get some breathing room. You're more troublesome than Krath hound with a bone.” Mactire mocked, while bringing his lightsaber to life.

“Krath hound jokes really? No imagination.” Sabe mumbles sarcastically while aiming down the barrels of her pistols.

Mactire ignited his saber as another volley of blaster bolts, thundered towards him. This time he was late to ignite his saber. A random bolt hit it at the focusing lense and caused it to shot out, and lose power.

“Shit.” Mactire mumbled then looked towards Sabe as she was laughing.

Giving into his rage slightly, the Mystic threw the now dead lightsaber with full force towards Sabe. She shot it out of the air, but failed to see Mactire quickly move to the left flank and come charging towards her.

As she tried to turn towards the Mystic, Mactire rolled on the ground. Placing his right hand firmly on the ground as he got a good length close to Sabe. He rose up quickly and landed a solid kick into her chin, knocking her back and stunning her.

As she stumbled back, Mactire stood up, and kicked several times with his left leg into her stomach with quick succession.

The Mystic growled deeply, and stopped when the Soldier collapsed to the ground gasping for breath holding her chest.

“Serves you right.” Macitre said, while turning away slowly.

As the Mystic started to leave he stopped. Looking at Sabe as her breaths became shorter he sighed heavily. He walked over to her and placed his left hand lightly on her right shoulder.

“Hold still and relax. This will hurt but you’ll live. I’m not going to let you die here. But you owe me Sabe.” Mactire grumbled as he slowly placed his right hand on her chest.

She looked at him in horror, while he closed his eyes slowly calling upon the Force. He was tired, sore, and he just wanted to rest, but refused to. While her breathing slowly started to become normal and more stable, he started to focus on healing her internal injuries first, the most severe ones. The minor ones he would leave for her to deal with. Healing always took a lot out of him. But he had to keep every member of the Clan alive no matter what the price. He just had to.