Zonama Sekot, Currently Beside the Maw, GFFA
Tahiri found it unnerving to interact with Zonama Sekot at the best of times, and tended to keep that to a minimum; it was weird to talk to the manifestation of a living planet's consciousness. The past couple of days hadn't left her much choice, though; she'd been glued to the star maps on her datapad, watching as system after system blinked out of existence and telling the hyperdrive equipped planet where to go.
It was hard to stay one jump ahead when there wasn't a whole lot of galaxy left.
She was exhausted from trying to spearhead an evacuation effort that got a little harder every time someone who'd been helping faded out of existence, and just felt demoralizing now that she'd watched a void (not at all unlike the ones that the Yuuzhan Vong's coralskippers used, she couldn't help thinking) swirl up and swallow Tekli right in front of her. There were no suns in this tiny corner of space that was all that remained, and when she looked up into the night sky only a handful of stars twinkled faintly. Even those were disappearing faster than she could count the seconds.
Calmly, surprisingly so, Tahiri thumbed her comlink and set a message to record.
"Ben, Jaina, it's me. I think this is it. I've done my best to get everyone to safety, but, well, Sekot couldn't produce enough seed ships for everyone in time, and we haven't got enough pilots to fly them anyhow." On the recording, they'd see that she looked haggard and filthy, but she held herself upright and her expression was serene, no fear in her eyes. "And as it turns out, when the only place left to go is into the Maw, well . . ."
Large starships had a hard time navigating that sprawling cluster of black holes with a skilled pilot at the helm. Sending an entire planet into it wasn't much less risky than waiting for the inevitable.
She smiled crookedly. "My portal was supposed to be on Thyferra, so I won't be making it. But I did it. I did everything I could. I think, I hope, you'll be proud of me."
Something out of frame caught her attention, from the way her eyes darted to the side before she turned back to the comlink and started to speak again, even more rapidly than usual; she was stubbornly determined to at least give them the chance at goodbye, of a sort, for once.
"I hate doing this to you when you've both lost so much already. Tell Zayne and your grandfather and my friends goodbye for me, and may the Force be with you, okay? You're the only family I've ever really known, but I don't think I could've asked--"
The transmission ended there, not because the Nothing had quite reached Tahiri yet, but simply because she had to send it then, while she still could.
The stars were completely gone now; where Tahiri's consciousness had always buzzed with the awareness of life sensed through the Force there was only a vast echoing silence. The horizon, too, was dwindling as the swirling, inky mass rolled toward her. Tahiri had faced insurmountable odds before, but this time there was no Jaina to be her usual formidable self, no Ben to believe in her, no Anakin with whom she could seamlessly mesh her Force abilities and achieve the impossible.
Just her, and the oncoming blackness.
"Krel os'a hmi va ta!" The Yuuzhan Vong cry of defiance, followed by a guttural Tusken bark that translated to about the same thing.
It was meters away from her now, and rather than resort to any more words Tahiri unhooked her lightsaber from her belt, thumbed it on, and held it up in the very first high guard position she'd ever learned at the Academy. For the space of a breath it burned brilliantly, a golden beacon against the impenetrable dark. For the space of a breath she had time to think that at least she'd gone out as a Jedi.
Then, finally, as that thought made her smile, there wasn't even that any more.
[OOC: I'm really just a terrible person. NFB/NFI/OOC okay, posted this early in the day because solo_sword told me to. Go frown at her.]
It was hard to stay one jump ahead when there wasn't a whole lot of galaxy left.
She was exhausted from trying to spearhead an evacuation effort that got a little harder every time someone who'd been helping faded out of existence, and just felt demoralizing now that she'd watched a void (not at all unlike the ones that the Yuuzhan Vong's coralskippers used, she couldn't help thinking) swirl up and swallow Tekli right in front of her. There were no suns in this tiny corner of space that was all that remained, and when she looked up into the night sky only a handful of stars twinkled faintly. Even those were disappearing faster than she could count the seconds.
Calmly, surprisingly so, Tahiri thumbed her comlink and set a message to record.
"Ben, Jaina, it's me. I think this is it. I've done my best to get everyone to safety, but, well, Sekot couldn't produce enough seed ships for everyone in time, and we haven't got enough pilots to fly them anyhow." On the recording, they'd see that she looked haggard and filthy, but she held herself upright and her expression was serene, no fear in her eyes. "And as it turns out, when the only place left to go is into the Maw, well . . ."
Large starships had a hard time navigating that sprawling cluster of black holes with a skilled pilot at the helm. Sending an entire planet into it wasn't much less risky than waiting for the inevitable.
She smiled crookedly. "My portal was supposed to be on Thyferra, so I won't be making it. But I did it. I did everything I could. I think, I hope, you'll be proud of me."
Something out of frame caught her attention, from the way her eyes darted to the side before she turned back to the comlink and started to speak again, even more rapidly than usual; she was stubbornly determined to at least give them the chance at goodbye, of a sort, for once.
"I hate doing this to you when you've both lost so much already. Tell Zayne and your grandfather and my friends goodbye for me, and may the Force be with you, okay? You're the only family I've ever really known, but I don't think I could've asked--"
The transmission ended there, not because the Nothing had quite reached Tahiri yet, but simply because she had to send it then, while she still could.
The stars were completely gone now; where Tahiri's consciousness had always buzzed with the awareness of life sensed through the Force there was only a vast echoing silence. The horizon, too, was dwindling as the swirling, inky mass rolled toward her. Tahiri had faced insurmountable odds before, but this time there was no Jaina to be her usual formidable self, no Ben to believe in her, no Anakin with whom she could seamlessly mesh her Force abilities and achieve the impossible.
Just her, and the oncoming blackness.
"Krel os'a hmi va ta!" The Yuuzhan Vong cry of defiance, followed by a guttural Tusken bark that translated to about the same thing.
It was meters away from her now, and rather than resort to any more words Tahiri unhooked her lightsaber from her belt, thumbed it on, and held it up in the very first high guard position she'd ever learned at the Academy. For the space of a breath it burned brilliantly, a golden beacon against the impenetrable dark. For the space of a breath she had time to think that at least she'd gone out as a Jedi.
Then, finally, as that thought made her smile, there wasn't even that any more.
[OOC: I'm really just a terrible person. NFB/NFI/OOC okay, posted this early in the day because solo_sword told me to. Go frown at her.]