Star Wars Saga: The last, best Hope [AU] - IC

[Ascension]

Rissa emerges fully from the stairwell.

"We're here for Arbor," she reminds her friend, "Anyone else is irrelevant, unless they stand between us and her."

*Don't get too bloodthirsty,* she thinks, *I want revenge almost as much as you, but don't go too far.*

[Moral Wiz]

How many officers has this place got?

After the answer, Rathe sighs

Well, thinking about it, you'd better head out first. Leave your weapons where they are. You'll have to make a jump on the stairs, but bar that, you'll have a clean run out of this place.

And in case someone thinks it'd be a smart idea to try and hit us later... you are abandoning your officers and a civilian to us. I'd say that's something the garrison won't look favorably on, no?

[Liliedhe]

The troopers don't have to be told twice and make their way to the stairs and down there.

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe waits until the troopers are out of sight. Then starts breathing heavily, and clutches her hand to the wound that one, luckey trooper's shot made.

Well... that was close.

She looks over at Rissa, wounded, but... happy?.

Riss, what's our priority? The missiles or Arbor?

[Ascension]

"I said before the Light's shields can take the missiles if they have to. We can't afford to give Arbor any more time to escape. That bitch needs to get what's coming to her."

Rissa cracks her knuckles.

"Can we make her death nice and slow?"

[Moral Wiz]

I was hoping you'd say that

Rathe smiles a little, and wanders over to the command center door.

Give me a hand jamming this then. That way, we won't get a bunch of soldiers coming at us from behind.

Then we get Arbor. Gotta do these things in the right order, no?

[Ascension]

"Doing them in the wrong order never seemed to bother you before," Rissa replies, chuckling.

Still, she will work her voodoo magic on the door.

Mechanics: (1d20+16)[22] Check the OOC.
Use Computer: (1d20+11)[28]

[Liliedhe]

Rissa effectively disables the opening mechanism of the door, so it will take a long time or a lot of violence to open.

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe smiles as Rissa completes her work

Forget the Force Riss. You've got magic yourself.

Her eyes are bright, if only for that brief moment. Then she turns.

Come on. Time to meet Arbor

With that, she strides over to the opposite door.

Spoiler

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Is it a blast door? If not, Rathe'll open it with her saber, locked or no (2d8+5)[16] damage

[Liliedhe]

It isn't a blast door. Just a normal one and she cuts it open with ease.

Inside, she stands in a living room furnished in an efficient, if cold, style, lit brightly. A woman of undeterminable age, her grey hair pulled back from a classical face, sits calmly at a desk, writing on a datapad. She refuses to acknowledge your intrusion.

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe strides through the room, her lightsaber glowing blood red. Echoing her anger... She walks towards the gray haired scientist

Get up.

[Ascension]

"Are you Zenna Van Arbor? 'cause if you are, you're a sick, sick person and you're about to pay for your perversion."

Spoiler

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I messed up the name unintentionally, realized what I had done as soon as I finished typing it, then decided that leaving it misspelled would be amusing. Besides, Rissa's only heard her full name once.

[Liliedhe]

She turns and sizes you up contemptuously. "I refuse to discuss anything with rabble like you." Slowly she stands up, folding her arms over her chest. "Violence is the refuge of the feebleminded."

[Moral Wiz]

Feebleminded

Rathe feels it then. Anger, hate, pain...

The Dark Side

Her voice brims with it as she replies

And torture is the pursuit of the intelligent aristocracy?

She hasn't stopped advancing. And hasn't withdrawn her lightsaber...

[Liliedhe]

"Science can be unpleasant. But the ends justify the means, or we would still be living in caves. The squeamish will never advance."

She doesn't even flinch at the angry Jedi, eyeing her with cold disdain.

[Moral Wiz]

What advances?

Rathe closes her eyes for a moment, focusing. Her voice is icy calm

Spoiler

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(1d20+17)[31]UtF on move object. Either to levitate Arbor, A La force grip but without the crushing or damage, or if that doesn't work to lift her off her feet, then to drop her, comparatively gently, to the floor.

Rathe's lightsaber, with a single movement is at Arbor's throat

You don't seem to have managed a lot, for all your evil. This place is on the verge of closure, and it's goals were nothing that could benefit the galaxy at large. How do you regard this as advancement?

[Liliedhe]

She looks up from the floor at Rathe, still unshaken, though a few strands of hair have come loose and hang into her face now.

"Even this Empire is to pedestrian to understand what benefits and what doesn't. And with inadequate funding even I cannot work miracles."

[Moral Wiz]

Oh, I don't know. Miracles of cruelty, you seem adept at

Rathe's voice lets it's emotion through, as it comes to Arbor's crimes.

You took a friend of mine. Whie Malreaux. Left him worse than dead. I don't even want to imagine what you did to the others. And all for a project that you admit wasn't worth it, a project that couldn't succeed.

I should end you now.

Such a small, quiet statement...

[Liliedhe]

"Why don't you?"

The scientist looks at Rathe with cold eyes.

[Moral Wiz]

You don't seem to care...

Rathe sounds... calmer. At least slightly. Almost conversational.

[Liliedhe]

She calmly stands up and tucks the hair behind her ears. "Everything dies."

[Moral Wiz]

And becomes one with the Force...

Rathe lets Arbor get up. She doesn't withdraw her saber though

What about progress? Your legacy will be one of failure. It is projects such as this that you will be remembered for. Does that not worry you?

[Liliedhe]

"Legacy... Fame... Those are unimportant. Only discovery is. Knowledge. So, now make up your mind, either kill me or let me get on with my work."

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe's hand is shaking slightly now

You're loosing it. Your will, your focus, your anger...

The Dark Side. It's fading.

And the will to do justice goes with it.

... It's not justice to kill an unarmed old woman, a scientist, who's no threat to you. I don't have to...

So? You're being selfish. She's done incredably black things, even before now. All her victims call out for vengeance. Can you deny them?

But she's...

Evil! End this now. Strike. Think of what she has done, what she will do if she lives, and strike!

No!

Rathe's saber flies through the air, it's blood red glow cutting through the plain light of the scientist's room...

Spoiler

Show

If possible, spend a destiny point to make an attack that will simply leave a comparatively small scar, and not deal damage, due to Rathe re-asserting control over her darker impulses.

If that's impossible, then she'll stop just short of attacking.

[Liliedhe]

The scientist drops down, holding her hand to the smoking wound on her neck. She seems somewhat surprised she's still alive...

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe, with a motion, deactivates her saber. She gets down by the scientist's side, and touches Jenna's smoking neck, gently, and focusing through the Force. Her voice when she speaks is truly calm

I'm not a Jedi. But I won't kill you. No matter how tempting.

Spoiler

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(1d20+17)[37] Use the Force with transfer vitality to get the wound to heal up. It'll still leave a scar, it's mostly about relieving the pain for Arbor...

Rathe's got more to say, but this probably deserves a reaction.

[Liliedhe]

She looks somewhat confused as Rathe makes the wound heal. Then, the expression in her eyes changes, to ... professional interest? "If not, why are you here? You killed over ten people out there just to get me and now you let me go?"

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe smiled, if a little bitterly

Oh, you aren't going to get freedom out of this. Not after what you've done. But I'm not going to kill you, and I'm not going to let the Emperor's inspector do so. Which he will when he shows up. Palpatine does not like failure. You should know that.

You're going to come with us, back to the Alliance. And tell them everything about what you've been doing here. You had access to at least one genuine seer. If the Empire has gotten anything out of this, your knowledge could be helpful in combating it.

The Alliance can decide what to do with you. But it's not my decision.

[Liliedhe]

She stands up, collecting her datapad and putting it into a pocket of her white coat. "Ah yes. Always the same with you. All moral outrage, but very willing to get somebody else's hands dirty. Willing to profit from what I did, but condemning me all the same."

With that she walks towards the door... "Then let us go."

[Moral Wiz]

Rathe's lightsaber is out now, though it is not ignited, and she doesn't move to threaten Arbor

If we had the option, I'd love to just burn this place, and all that came from it. But the Emperor will use it's fruits, whatever they be. We have not the luxury of letting the secrets of this place die.

She looks Rissa in the eyes, her own face... sad? Conflicted? But still, she walks out, after Arbor.