RPlog:Retribution - Jedi and Sith Duel

Sometime earlier in the day, one of Coruscant's weather net emitters failed. It might have been hit by artillery, or it could have been overloaded by accident. What matters is that the nearly acidic storm clouds that are tempered by the planet-wide weather net are now free to roam. Dark, sickly pale clouds with a hint of a dark brown hue crawl across the afternoon sky. Day is slowly turning into night, and the shrouded figure of Jedi Master Skywalker is dimly visible in the wreckage of the Senate Building. He's perched, almost like a forgotten shadow, on the top of a tall pillar, one of the few which haven't fallen. Hood drawn, his eyes are closed, and he rests in a deep trance, almost dead to the world around him.

A squad of stormtroopers fan out along the courtyard leading up towards the ruined Senate building. Each stormtrooper in this unit is wearing a blood red shoulder pauldron, the 65th legion's throwback to their origins as Republic 'Shocktroopers'. Following the squad is a figure clad in a flowing black cloak. The blood red greaves of his armor can be seen as he walks. The grisly white bone mask he is wearing reflects the failing light as his eyes seek out something that the rest of his being tells him that is there, the man who killed his master, Luke Skywalker.

The chill draws Skywalker slowly from his trance, and he tilts his head up to peer from beneath the cowl of his cloak. It is tattered and torn, riddled with dust and debris... he must have dug it out of the ruins behind him, where it had been buried. From such a height, he can see clearly what approaches, and as he begins drawing the living Force into him, his eyes seem filled with vigor. He watches patiently from the top of the pillar, waiting for Korolov to spot him.

Korolov The imposing man before you stands tall, exactly 1.83 meters, with an average build, powerful, maybe 82 kilos. His face is hidden by a mask-like helmet appears to have been crafted from the bone remnants of a humanoid skull, though its incisors are quite long and fang-like, and a pair of huge, curving and segmented black horns jut out from a bony ridge on the thing's forehead. A dark cloth and straps attach this odd helm to its wearer's face. A pair of finely faceted obsidian eyes has been pressed into the skull's eye sockets, adding to its already nightmarish visage. He is currently clad in layers of armor and robes. Crimson anodized Impervium armor shrouds his body from the neck down, each plate and piece fitted specifically for the user, over a black ballistic body suit. Over the armor, a black tabard drapes to his knees, ending at the tops of armored boots. Around his waist a black obi is wrapped, concealing the holstered blaster on his hip. On top of this all, a black hooded cloak is tied at his shoulders, fastened below his throat with a simple clasp, embossed with the Imperial Starburst in a deep crimson red. Often the cowl of the cloak is kept up, obscuring the High Lords face in dark shadows. => Lightsaber => Comlink => Bone Mask  => Royal Guard Armor 

The Sithlord's lips curl into a satisfied grin. He shouts out, his deep voice enhanced by the force, "Skywalker! I have come for you." He pushes his cloak back, revealing the lightsaber on his hip. He raises his right hand, pointing up towards the spire, before speaking again. "Give him ten seconds, if he doesn't come down. Slag the spire." His ebon-eyed gaze shifts back to the spire, “You cannot win, Skywalker. Your Republic is doomed, my Stormtroopers will crush your pathetic army, my battle fleets will break the back of the Republic Navy and I will have my world back. " He plucks the saber from his belt, "Now come down here, so I can finish off the Jedi Order and complete the Vengeance that my lord Palpatine put in place years ago!"

As the Force draws into him and moves through him, the rubble from way down deep inside the ruins of the Senate Building begins to shift and vibrate. The sound of rock scraping against itself starts to build into a rumbling sound, replacing the echo of Korolov's booming voice. Luke rises to his feet, perched in perfect balance, then extends his hands forward. Suddenly, pieces of rock and debris from the ruins begin rising from their places, and come soaring at a rapid pace toward Korlov and his Stormtrooper escort. Once the wave of rocks has passed, Luke leaps into the air and does a back flip, placing the pillar between himself and the Sith Lord as he plummets toward the ground.

Warlord Korolov raises an armored hand and stops several of the larger pieces of debris from himself and the troops closest to him, two of the Stormtroopers aren't so lucky, one being crushed under a large piece of debris, another losing an arm and collapsing from the impact. As the Jedi descends, the Warlord motions to the remaining guards, "Don't let him escape, but don't interfere either." He begins to stride towards the column, reaching up with a hand to unclasp his cloak. He lets the black shroud fall to the ground behind him, as the red of his armor becomes fully visible, flicking the activation switch on his lightsaber and extending the dark red blade.

Luke's own cloak comes off with a whisk of his hand, and the Force buffers his landing. The cloak falls behind him, tattered and broken, and his own lightsaber comes to life with a snap and a slightly higher modulation than that of his opponents. Striding from behind the pillar, he raises it into a perfect picture of the Soresu defense. "You should look further into the Force, Korolov, and see that Palpatine's legacy is about to be undone." Luke's voice is firm, lacking anger, carrying the suggestion of insight.

"Palpatine's legacy was the destruction of the Jedi." The Sith laughs as he continues to speak, "What is coming is a new era Skywalker. Beyond Palpatine, Beyond Valak. The choice for you and your pathetic order are to serve or be crushed under his magnificence." Korolov reaches out with the force, grabbing a piece of rubble and flinging it at the Jedi, his senses tingle as the rush of fear and hatred begin to consume him. His eyes, were they visible would be almost glowing as he gives into the power of the Dark Side of the Force.

With a quick motion from Luke's left hand, the piece of debris angles in a new direction, headed for one of the Korolov's other troopers. Then, Skywalker's saber comes up, and he makes the first strike, bringing it into the path of Korolov's neck in an effort to take the Sith Lord off guard, before ducking into his Soresu defenses in response to the expected retaliation. Quick, short, precise movements are the nature of Soresu, parrying with the middle to deep section of the blade. "I sense your fear," comments Luke, his words paced between each saber strike as if part of a rhythmically driven piece of music. "It saps you when you feel strengthened."

Another martyr for the cause, the trooper is crushed rather gruesomely by the vengeful Jedi master. The Sith's attention shifts to the seductive call of Combat. He shifts to a Makashi stance, making use of his natural grace to deflect the Jedi's saber blade with a swift flick of his wrist, allowing him to launch a particularly vicious kick at Skywalker's knee. "Save your sermons for the feebleminded students that revere you Skywalker."

Not expecting the kick, Luke is thrown off balance for a moment, but the Force helps him regain his momentum as he falls, and the Jedi Master turns it into a handspring, the lightsaber grazing the ground just before it comes up again as his feet fall into a braced stance. "Fair enough." He lets Korolov make the next move then, and though his Soresu defenses make him virtually impervious to the Sith Lord's blade, he purposefully allows himself to be pushed back.

Rage, rage is what this requires. Korolov let's the anger build in him, dark energies coursing through him, strengthening him as he roars out and shifts to the offense, changing to Shien as he raises his lightsaber above his head, tip pointing at the Jedi as he surges forward, putting all of his strength into a savage arcing blow aimed at the base of the Jedi's saber.

Having foreseen this sort of a response, Skywalker bites back the grin from his face, and instead lunges backward so that his blade can take the brunt of the Force with a loud spark. Korolov's blade is deflected to the side, and Luke moves with the motion, spinning about on his toe at blinding speed and bringing the lightsaber up into the air, where he matches his opponent's Shien with Djem So, his instinctual fighting technique. The green blade comes down for a series of four quick, powerful strikes, so rapid that the green blade becomes a haze of energy, a blur of sound.

Korolov doesn't let the weakened defenses last for long. He had training that Skywalker didn't, the Echani were masters of hand to hand combat and the Royal Guard were the masters of the Echani fighting techniques. Luke's rapid attacks are parried with swift movement's causing each saber strike to be met with loud cracks as energy meets energy. The Imperial Warlord strikes forward again, almost mimicking Skywalker with a series of fast, savage blows. "You would have made a good Royal Guardsmen, Skywalker, a pity your moral weakness makes you more a soldier, and less a warrior."

Having not been raised in the Old Jedi Order, Luke's ability to switch between the various techniques he has learned has always been one of his greatest assets. Just before the last of Korolov's strikes, he leaps into the air, and the last two blade strokes are transformed into kinetic energy, helping the Jedi leap backwards and into a large piece of rubble. His legs bend, and almost like a spring, the Jedi goes soaring over Korolov's tall frame, the lightsaber marking a circle about him as he spins about like a bullet, before tucking into a ball and landing with a summersault on the ground. From his crouched position, he brings the saber to his side, and throws both hands forward, sending a massive shock of kinetic power through the Force, visible as a mild distortion in the air itself, meant not only to throw Korolov off his feet, but also a good distance backward, hopefully into that boulder Skywalker had just sprung from. He grunts with the effort.

On his homeworld, Vassily Korolov had spent his formative years in a military academy. He was a natural athlete and as Skywalker flies through the air, the Sith, lowers himself to the ground, saber clasped high. He is propelled with the on-rush of the force-enhanced shockwave. But does not completely lose control. His Zero-Gee combat training comes into effect and he shifts his body, letting his feet his the boulder first and compress, where he turns and releases the stored kinetic energy, leaping from the boulder and performing a nearly perfect summersault to land on his feet, facing the Jedi. He reaches out with the Dark side of the Force, focusing it on Skywalker and intent on crippling the Jedi with a surge of Force infused pain.

There's a momentary flinch as a bit of the pain seeps through, but the rest of it is both absorbed by the Jedi Master's control, or absorbed and brought back into balance with the Force. A low pitched roar of vibration passes through thin air as Luke brings out a hand and puts an end to Korolov's onslaught, as the battle between them goes invisible for a while. "Your moral fiber is that of killing civilians, glassing planets, upheaving governments. Is this truly the will of your Master? Because I sense something far more devious. Are you quite sure that when his time comes, he won't use you like a pawn to be destroyed by your own rage and malice?" He steps forward, one hand holding the lightsaber at his side, the other raised to deflect and absorb Korolov's invisible onslaught. He tips his head forward in drawing more power from the Force, and bands of an ethereal, shimmering, purple light begin to stretch between his hand and Korolov's body. "The power of the dark side is no match for a Jedi," he declares. "You can still choose to preserve yourself now, before it's too late."

The Jedi was just in the position he wanted him in. The growing power of the Dark Side builds in him. "I am quite sure that he seeks to destroy me when my power grows too great. When my power is great enough, I seek to destroy him. It is the nature of the Sith. The strong survive and the weak die." Suddenly he breaks the connection, spinning and launching another flurry of fast, powerful strikes aimed at the center of the Jedi's being.

The bands of light dissipate rapidly, and Skywalker brings his blade back up for a quick series of defenses around his midsection, this time backpedaling quickly to go with the flow of Korolov's quick attacks. With the Force as his ally, Luke is amazingly fast, his footwork precise and each movement coming a blink before it's necessary. One of the strikes tears his tunic open and sears the tip of his skin, to which it seems Luke seamlessly ignores. Instead, he brings his saber about with a wide arc, and catches Korolov's blade in a saber lock. The two lightsabers scream and squeal at each other, as if they themselves were living beings a part of their own battle. Centered in part on his own blade, Luke looks back toward Korolov's mask, as if he could see through it and into the Sith Lord's eyes. His eyes show... surprisingly... pity. "Vadim is too powerful for Palpatine's techniques, Korolov." The sabers squeal as Luke pushes in on his own, attempting to hold the saber lock with strength augmented by the Force. "He could consume you with a flick of his hand... I have seen this with my own two eyes. Your only hope for survival is to turn from his ways. To turn from the dark side." Relentless, in more ways than one.

Korolov laughs, his voice choked with the dark side as he strikes. The Saber lock giving him the perfect opportunity to try something out. He focuses his will on the mask shrouding his face. The eyes cloud over briefly as they charge and then project outwards, twin beams of pure energy peel out aimed directly at the Jedi Master's face. Laser beams in the eyes, pure genius in the art of dirty fighting.

The Force screams at him, and Luke's eyes widen for a moment as the Force draws him to act. His own eyes start to glow a bright blue as he prepares to absorb the energy, but he just isn't fast enough. Red meets blue and he lets out a sudden cry of pain as the energy sears at his eyes, but he maintains his focus and refrains from slamming them shut, instead pushing the full measure of his focus on absorbing the terrible energy. He won't be blinded, but his vision goes blurry and muddy--all he can see is glowing swaths of blue and red. With a hard shove, he pushes Korolov's lightsaber away and draws his face from the mask of the Sith before him, leaving trails of charred flesh across his forehead and into his hairline as he crouches down. Submersed in the Force, he won't need his vision, nor will he feel the pain that lashes into his head. Instead, he launches himself into the air, with such force that the ground cracks beneath him. His flight into the air becomes more of a blur, augmented by his green blade of energy, as the temporarily blinded Jedi Master follows his instincts. A buffering field of kinetic energy is drawn about him, aiding in what would seem almost like unnatural flight, toward the skeletal remains of a tall building nearby.

As he sees the success of his attack, the Imperial Warlord grins. He flicks his lightsaber off as the remains of his escort detail form up and turn their blasters towards the building to which Skywalker jumped. "Blast him," The Sith barks out angrily. The six troopers turn their weapons towards the building and start firing, unlikely to hit anything but they might as well keep the Jedi running, the seventh trooper is seeing to his wounded comrade as the dead troopers remain where they fell. Vassily turns away from the fight, switching his own comlink to the planetary battle net, "Have The 501st move over to full offense, the Jedi have been dealt with for now and should not impede our efforts anymore."

Instinctually, Luke's lightsaber swings about to deflect the bolts that come closest, though in his shock and awe, the deflected blasts soar off harmlessly, pelting into the building, a lamppost, and a parked speeder. He goes straight into a busted out window, and scampers to a landing, his hand coming up to touch his eyes in sheer instinct. "Aaaaugh," he grunts. In expending such energy, his ability to control the pain has weakened. The lightsaber switches off eventually, as the remainder of the blaster bolts pelt harmlessly into the building, and he staggers in deeper to get to a safe place, before falling to his knees and drawing on the Force once more, easing the pain.