Prompt #3
En Route to the *Hyperion*
Deception
Chaos is a meaningless word when the emergency klaxons begin to blare. With smoke billowing through the corridors visibility drops to zero, and yet all is calm throughout the ship as emergency training kicks in. No shouting or panic pollutes the air; the crews speak softly to themselves as they ready escape pods and begin loading the important passengers to safety.
This is the view presented to Syntari Bastiayn, Knight of Clan Naga Sadow's House Marka Ragnos, as she stood at the viewport of a shuttle preparing to board Clan ship she didn't care to catch the name of. Though she had no true idea of the carnage aboard the Clan vessel she could feel the suffering of those aboard, and quietly relished the panic of the crew members clinging tightly to emergency protocol. She had her orders: intercept and rescue were the words from on high, and yet something nagged at her. Flashing back to her conversation with Sanguinius Entar she recalled his words, mulling over his instructions like a feline toying with its pray the way she had seen many a Dark Jedi play with their enemies.
*"This is just a rescue mission," Sanguinius had said. "Simple. In and out, rescue as many people as you can. It's unlikely they'll have many, seeing as the distress beacon has been active for so many days, but..." He shrugged, hands spread in a gesture begging for understanding.
"It would be foolish of you to expect much," Syntari said.
"I know. Nonetheless, the war has stretched us thin and--"
"Say no more." She rose to her feet, fluid in her grace. "It will be done.*
"Ma'am?"
Her moonstone eyes slid to the petty officer hovering at her shoulder. She had almost forgotten the man who had welcomed her aboard and who had since refused to leave her alone. What was his name?
"Yes?"
His tongue wet his cracked lips in a gesture her stomach revolted against. From one foot to the other he shifted as she stared him down.
"W-we...that is...we're..."
His fear quickened her heartbeat, arousing her sensing as it oozed against her skin. Her velvet purr of a voice when she answered him sent shivers down his spine that Syntari relished.
"Yes?"
Shame leadened his tongue. "We're, ah, approaching the docking bay," her escort said. From the depths of her drawn hood he saw the Umbaran's eyes spark gold; had he known the Force's embrace he would have felt its cry of her pleasure. This Sadowan was beyond fear, beyond terror. His dislike of her was instinctual. He looked away from the black-robed Knight who stared at the Sadowan vessel with predatory vigilance.
"You are dismissed," she said the moment the shuttle doors opened into the docking bay. With Nexu-like grace she vanished from the shuttle; her escort caught a vague outline of her through the smoke before she disappeared altogether.
--
Silence on a starship is a word that does not exist. It cannot. Noise permeats every corner of Brotherhood ships in particular, yet this ship rang with silence. The red light of activated klaxons would have blinded Syntari if not for her hood yet mysteriously no obnoxious blare destroyed her eardrums as she walked the corridors. The Force had whispered to her of danger here the moment she had brushed one long-fingered hand against pristine durasteel, noting the lack of blaster scoring in the bodiless hallways she roamed. The farther in she ventured the worse the weight in her stomach grew until hesitancy heavyed her limbs and she could go no farther. Guided by instinct she took her time pivoting, eyes and Force senses scanning the hallway. The smoke shifted around a vaguelly humanoid form she recognized only from reports; the sun shone on the dread coiling in her stomach, dragging it into the light of day as she faced the Technocratic Soldier she had heard so much about.
"At last the silence makes sense," she murmured. Of course the Collective would be here, on what was supposedly a Clan vessel, infiltrating the sanctity of a Naga Sadow rescue mission in order to trick her. No, no, that wasn't it. There was more to--
Blaster fire distracted her, a lucky miss affording her enough time to drsw her weapon. A quick nudge to the Force brought her lightsaber to her hand that she activated with a *snap hiss* and the smell of ozone. His featureless face startled her into movement she had not planned yet; spurned by the inherent disgust settling like ash in her mouth Syntari lunged. Her enemy's excitement soured any emotions she could have fed from as the Soldier ran at her with wild abandon, blaster bolts spraying down the hallway. Syntari's lightsaber flashed amethyst and a moment later a faceless head rolled to her feet.
*This was supposed to be a rescue mission. Simple. Flawlessly executed. There is a rat in Naga Sadow, it seems...*
The pounding of booted feet on durasteel caught her attention. Effortlessly the Knight batted several blaster bolts back at the Technocratic Soldiers who sought her death and three fell, more falling victim to reckless fire from their own Factionmates as the Soldiers rushed her with abandon. Lazily Syntari flicked a finger and used the Force to send the bodiless head into the feet of her enemies, tangling one into the other as mayhem erupted. It was nothing for her to blend into the shadows and smoke to make an escape down an abandoned hallway.
"Force be with me," she murmured. Ahead of her the sound of approaching Soldiers sent her instincts into overdrive. With screeches of delight, designed she knew to frighten her, the Soldiers threw grenades and fired with no regard to her or themselves. Some of her enemies died at the hands of her comrades; Syntari herself hissed as a bolt shot through her shoulder even as she felled two Soldiers with a whoosh of her lightsaber.
The Knight wondered how long she would be able to push forward, to keep fighting before her energy gave out. They came too quickly for her tricks of the mind to take effect and at only a Knight's skill level she was soon burning from blaster bolts that escaped her defenses. Soresu had not been her lightsaber form of choice; it like so many others had been forced upon her, and she suffered for it now. Despite the defensiveness of the form her stance lacked, and she found herself falling back into Vaapad's familiar steps only to be grazed by blaster fire for her trouble.
At last silence descended. Through chaos she had created peace, and at last she could plan her escape.
*Odd...those Soldiers don't just disappear...not when I'm still alive...*
"Self destruct in sixty seconds. Warning: self destruct activated," the ship announced.
"Karking hell," she muttered.
---
Sanguinius Entar studied the report on his desk with the look of a man who had seen the end and hoped for a clean death.
"I can't explain it, Sang. There was no one on that ship."
"Not a soul?"
"No one that needed rescuing, in any case."
"Just the Collective."
Sang lowered his head and massaged his temples with a world-weary sigh. "And the ship?"
"Destroyed."
Syntari detached herself from the corner where she had been standing and leaned down towards his ear. "Now ask me how the Collective got their hands on a ship that looked just like the *Hyperion* and faked a distress call," she murmured. Her low purr echoed in his mind long after the wraith of a Knight had vanished, leaving him to wonder precisely that.
*Perhaps...we bit off more than we could chew with this one..."
End