Somewhere in the Jungle, Borleias, Monday Fandom Time
They'd taken a circuitous route to get the scant few hundred meters out from the kill zone, which under normal circumstances would annoy Tahiri, but as she trailed Luke and Mara she knew it was a tactic to shake off any Yuuzhan Vong who might be watching them. They'd reached the first of their target zones, though, and she watched Luke -- she'd never be able to look at him the same way now -- root around in his backpack and pull out a short-hafted heavy hammer.
"Behold," he told her, "the favorite weapon of the Jedi before the invention of the lightsaber."
Tahiri just stared at him, frowning a little. "You're kidding." Before Fandom, she'd have been a little more thrown off-balance by seeing flashes of humor in him, but having met a teenaged version of him those flashes were less of a surprise.
"Of course I'm kidding. C'mon. The Jedi sledgehammer?" He grinned and turned to Mara, who pulled a long metal stake, broad at the top, out of her own pack and set the point down on the ground.
"Go ahead," Mara said. "I've always thought that menial labor involving hitting heavy metal things with other heavy metal things was man's work."
Tahiri allowed herself a small smile at the banter; this was a side of her teacher and his wife that she'd never really had a chance to see as a student at the academy. "That's going to transmit gravitic fluctuations?" she asked dubiously once Luke had driven the stake flush with the ground and covered it with leaves.
"Uh huh." Luke stowed the hammer in his backpack and picked it up. "Ready?"
Mara just nodded, and Tahiri answered, "Ready." It was scripted, all of it; none of them let on that they noticed anything strange about the ground beneath where the pack had been, where it was stirred up rather than smooth. The stakes were a decoy: the real gravitic sensors were small burrowing droids that emerged from a slit at the bottom of Luke's pack and dug their way into the ground. She knew that, but right now it made her feel a little uneasy.
They were only a few paces away from the site when Luke whispered, "Well?"
"I think we were being watched," Tahiri whispered back. "I mean, it felt right. From the Yuuzhan Vong perspective. But I'm not sure."
"I'm sure. Couldn't you feel the insect life go quiet just east, ahead of us?" Luke asked.
Tahiri felt her cheeks burn, annoyed with herself. She'd been so busy searching her implanted memories for insight on Yuuzhan Vong strategies, she'd stopped reaching out to sense their surroundings in the Force. "I could have been able to if I'd thought about it. But I didn't," she said. Definitely annoyed with herself. Screwing up again. So typical.
"Don't feel bad. You were thinking Vong -- "
"Yuuzhan Vong." The correction was out of her mouth automatically, a quick surge of offense at the derogatory term damped down as soon as it flared up. The truth was, she hated having to think like a Yuuzhan Vong; the longer she did, the less she felt like Tahiri.
"-- Yuuzhan Vong instead of Jedi. I suspect it's not easy to think both ways at once. Is it?"
Tahiri shook her head, forcing her focus away from herself, still thinking like a Yuuzhan Vong. "They're ahead of us, then. That won't be the same group that was watching us, I expect. That group hasn't had time to get into position ahead of us."
"Good work," Mara said. "When do we expect it?"
"They'll wait until we can't hear what the first group is doing back at the site we just left," Tahiri said, hesitant at first but increasingly confident. "But they'll be impatient. It'll be pretty soon after that. Such as . . . now."
She had her lightsaber in her hand, thumb poised over the power stud, as she spoke, and the moment she stopped she ignited it. There was the familiar snap-hiss, followed immediately by the crackle and flare of the Yuuzhan Vong thud bug her blade had just intercepted. Time to think like a Jeedai -- Jedi again, Veila, she admonished herself.
Luke and Mara brought their own lightsabers up in a single motion, spinning away from Tahiri, all three of them standing back to back as five Yuuzhan Vong warriors spilled out of the jungle.
Tahiri was aware, through her peripheral vision, of Luke going into a backwards roll to avoid the first warrior, whose momentum carried him right past and face first into the blade of Mara's lightsaber. She was a little preoccupied by the one who came toward her, both hands wrapped around his amphistaff. The first couple of strikes were easy enough to parry, but when she kicked him in the vonduun crab-armored knee, her bare foot did nothing to trip him up, and she swore under her breath. Repeatedly batting away her opponent's amphistaff, she didn't see Mara's spectacular defense against the double-team of Yuuzhan Vong that had come after her now, or the last warrior coming at Luke, feinting a parry before he raised his own amphistaff to spit a stream of poison.
A stream of poison that Luke had ducked, but was headed straight toward her from the side, now. Her heart pounding, she let herself fall back a step, and the warrior she was fighting stepped forward to press the attack -- taking the poison right in the eyehole of his mask with a strangled cry. A few frenzied parries later the point of Tahiri's lightsaber found his other eye, and he went down.
Another warrior, the one Mara had sent flying, emerged from the fronds, but Tahiri was already in position to take him on -- really glad she'd been putting in hours in the salle with both the remotes and with Ben, now.
Luke and Mara had already finished off the rest of their attackers by the time Tahiri, scratched up and grass-stained, emerged from the shrubbery again holding a metal stake.
"Here," she said in response to Luke's call. "Look what mine was carrying."
"Is that the one we just planted?" he asked.
Tahiri shook her head. "No, a different one."
"Success," Mara said with a smile, and they headed further into the jungle.
[OOC: NFI, NFB, OOC okay, et cetera et cetera and so forth. Adapted from Rebel Dream by Aaron Allston, who is not as anviliciously femmeslashy as Sean Williams and Shane Dix but he writes better dialogue. Not that that has a thing to do with this post. I'm JUST SAYING, to get a crack in at Williams/Dix dialogue. Posted earlyish . . . just 'cause, dammit.]
"Behold," he told her, "the favorite weapon of the Jedi before the invention of the lightsaber."
Tahiri just stared at him, frowning a little. "You're kidding." Before Fandom, she'd have been a little more thrown off-balance by seeing flashes of humor in him, but having met a teenaged version of him those flashes were less of a surprise.
"Of course I'm kidding. C'mon. The Jedi sledgehammer?" He grinned and turned to Mara, who pulled a long metal stake, broad at the top, out of her own pack and set the point down on the ground.
"Go ahead," Mara said. "I've always thought that menial labor involving hitting heavy metal things with other heavy metal things was man's work."
Tahiri allowed herself a small smile at the banter; this was a side of her teacher and his wife that she'd never really had a chance to see as a student at the academy. "That's going to transmit gravitic fluctuations?" she asked dubiously once Luke had driven the stake flush with the ground and covered it with leaves.
"Uh huh." Luke stowed the hammer in his backpack and picked it up. "Ready?"
Mara just nodded, and Tahiri answered, "Ready." It was scripted, all of it; none of them let on that they noticed anything strange about the ground beneath where the pack had been, where it was stirred up rather than smooth. The stakes were a decoy: the real gravitic sensors were small burrowing droids that emerged from a slit at the bottom of Luke's pack and dug their way into the ground. She knew that, but right now it made her feel a little uneasy.
They were only a few paces away from the site when Luke whispered, "Well?"
"I think we were being watched," Tahiri whispered back. "I mean, it felt right. From the Yuuzhan Vong perspective. But I'm not sure."
"I'm sure. Couldn't you feel the insect life go quiet just east, ahead of us?" Luke asked.
Tahiri felt her cheeks burn, annoyed with herself. She'd been so busy searching her implanted memories for insight on Yuuzhan Vong strategies, she'd stopped reaching out to sense their surroundings in the Force. "I could have been able to if I'd thought about it. But I didn't," she said. Definitely annoyed with herself. Screwing up again. So typical.
"Don't feel bad. You were thinking Vong -- "
"Yuuzhan Vong." The correction was out of her mouth automatically, a quick surge of offense at the derogatory term damped down as soon as it flared up. The truth was, she hated having to think like a Yuuzhan Vong; the longer she did, the less she felt like Tahiri.
"-- Yuuzhan Vong instead of Jedi. I suspect it's not easy to think both ways at once. Is it?"
Tahiri shook her head, forcing her focus away from herself, still thinking like a Yuuzhan Vong. "They're ahead of us, then. That won't be the same group that was watching us, I expect. That group hasn't had time to get into position ahead of us."
"Good work," Mara said. "When do we expect it?"
"They'll wait until we can't hear what the first group is doing back at the site we just left," Tahiri said, hesitant at first but increasingly confident. "But they'll be impatient. It'll be pretty soon after that. Such as . . . now."
She had her lightsaber in her hand, thumb poised over the power stud, as she spoke, and the moment she stopped she ignited it. There was the familiar snap-hiss, followed immediately by the crackle and flare of the Yuuzhan Vong thud bug her blade had just intercepted. Time to think like a Jeedai -- Jedi again, Veila, she admonished herself.
Luke and Mara brought their own lightsabers up in a single motion, spinning away from Tahiri, all three of them standing back to back as five Yuuzhan Vong warriors spilled out of the jungle.
Tahiri was aware, through her peripheral vision, of Luke going into a backwards roll to avoid the first warrior, whose momentum carried him right past and face first into the blade of Mara's lightsaber. She was a little preoccupied by the one who came toward her, both hands wrapped around his amphistaff. The first couple of strikes were easy enough to parry, but when she kicked him in the vonduun crab-armored knee, her bare foot did nothing to trip him up, and she swore under her breath. Repeatedly batting away her opponent's amphistaff, she didn't see Mara's spectacular defense against the double-team of Yuuzhan Vong that had come after her now, or the last warrior coming at Luke, feinting a parry before he raised his own amphistaff to spit a stream of poison.
A stream of poison that Luke had ducked, but was headed straight toward her from the side, now. Her heart pounding, she let herself fall back a step, and the warrior she was fighting stepped forward to press the attack -- taking the poison right in the eyehole of his mask with a strangled cry. A few frenzied parries later the point of Tahiri's lightsaber found his other eye, and he went down.
Another warrior, the one Mara had sent flying, emerged from the fronds, but Tahiri was already in position to take him on -- really glad she'd been putting in hours in the salle with both the remotes and with Ben, now.
Luke and Mara had already finished off the rest of their attackers by the time Tahiri, scratched up and grass-stained, emerged from the shrubbery again holding a metal stake.
"Here," she said in response to Luke's call. "Look what mine was carrying."
"Is that the one we just planted?" he asked.
Tahiri shook her head. "No, a different one."
"Success," Mara said with a smile, and they headed further into the jungle.
[OOC: NFI, NFB, OOC okay, et cetera et cetera and so forth. Adapted from Rebel Dream by Aaron Allston, who is not as anviliciously femmeslashy as Sean Williams and Shane Dix but he writes better dialogue. Not that that has a thing to do with this post. I'm JUST SAYING, to get a crack in at Williams/Dix dialogue. Posted earlyish . . . just 'cause, dammit.]