Quejo reached out with the Force before all out-conflict started between the two groups, tapping into the minds of those much weaker than Kruk. The Warlord worked quickly to project fear into their minds and their souls to destabilize their resolve, a sinister grin accompanied by sharp teeth forming across his face.
The effect on the Collective forces in the vicinity was immediately noticeable, as a few blaster barrels wavered and several shifted.
“Cover fire!” bellowed an unaffected Kruk as he took three large strides towards his foes, sweeping the vibro-ax towards the three Force-users in another precise swing. Nihlus narrowly avoided the attack, curving his body backwards and to the left as the tip of the blade whipped past his viewplate. Biask similarly avoided the strike, the servos in his vicious reverse-articulated legs pushing him quickly out of harm’s way. The Pau’an Proconsul was the only one to stand his ground for Kruk’s swing, the Force erupting like a volcano into his arms as both ends of his combined lightsaber hilt activated with a destructive snap-hiss.
Quejo drove one end of his weapon into the vibro-ax, the blade of his weapon being parried again once again by Kruk’s vibro-ax. As the two weapons collided, the arms and hands holding them shuddering with the force that had been applied. Blaster fire ripped throughout the metallic corridor of the modified Dreadnaught-class cruiser from a few of the Liberation Front men as a few executed Kruk’s order to fire.
The remaining Taldryan combatants took up a defense against the oncoming volley of fire, with Vexrii’s orange blades and the Twilek’s ruby one dispatching the bolts of superheated plasma with coordinated precision. A couple of the bolts were redirected back towards the defending soldiers, striking two of Kruk’s entourage and evening the field slightly.
Both Quejo and Kruk disengaged the stiff parry and backed off, readying for another strike. As the Warlord swept his custom weapon backwards in both hands, he twisted the right side of the hilt to separate the weapon into two halves. The Sith quickly launched another assault to catch the armored human off guard, bringing both blades to bear, but again Kruk’s reflexes defended the Jedi-killer well as he caught both blades on the end of his weapon.
The interior lights of the cruiser briefly went out as it suffered a serious strike from Brotherhood forces, leaving the only illumination in the room the glows from lightsaber blades and blaster fire.
Quejo snarled, his anger flaring twice-fold as the ruby energy blade of the Taldrya accompanying him pierced through the side of Kruk’s torso. As the man’s internals were shredded and cauterized by the pure energy, the formidable warrior’s life immediately ended. The ruby blade disengaged quickly as Vodo carried his momentum forward and raised a half-closed hand to the one of the lesser men - reaching out as as he gripped the man by the throat and ripped him into the air violently, neck snapping with a ripple of cracks.
The Pau’an immediately rejoined the conflict with pure rage filling his body, executing several blade disengagements with his two blades to rip through the enemy combatants defences and sever the life force from their bodies. The three Force-sensitives unleashed a slaughter on the remainder of the troops in the corridor, sparring none as the Akan occasionally shuddered.
With the small defense group dispatched, the Taldryan Equites carried on in the execution of Captain Kaye - making their way throughout the upper levels with less resistance as word of their ferocity spread through the cruiser and the protection around the bridge increasingly grew.
Once the three Dark Jedi had reached the command deck via turbolift, they turned their collective abilities and focus solely to the bridge. The cruiser shook violently; requiring each of them of steady themselves as the cruiser’s interior lighting system failed indefinitely and power to most of the ship was lost temporarily, plunging the limping Dreadnaught into darkness.
“Yeeesss,” hissed Quejo, the first to proceed from the turbolift area towards the next corridor where the defended bridge awaited their arrival. Soon the Brotherhood would have it’s sweet revenge. All five lightsabers were deactivated as they approached their target destination, helping to provide the oncoming attack some cover.
Around the corner a concentrated group of over two dozen soldiers with weapons drawn awaited their arrival in near darkness, dull illumination being provided by those who had an available glow-rod to toss down the corridor. The metallic clanking of Biask’s clawed feet slamming against the floor panels grew louder and louder, before stopping abruptly what sounded like a short distance away.
Anticipation and impatience grew among the men, as they awaited an onslaught of radiant energy blades upon them. None came. Another moment went by, before one of the men looked at his brother-in-arms beside him.
“Are they coming?” he whispered. It was at that moment that a dark silhouette came swiftly into view, unleashing several sharp metallic disks from the dark lanvaroks worn on his wrists as he reached behind to pull the Sith Sword from his back. Three of the four disks found their intended targets, managing to strike direct flesh and inflicting an inhibiting poison.
“Now you die,” the Savant cursed, rushing forward as a cloud of darkness crept around the corner and blocked out any remaining illumination. A flurry of strikes came moments later as Nihlus dragged his blade across the bodies of his enemies in a ruthless fashion, the light from blaster fire drowning in Quejo’s darkness. Both Warlords entered the battle moments later, their weapons activating with a snap-hiss and striking with immense proficiency as the group dispatched the contingent of soldiers defending the exterior blast door to the bridge.
Only the objective and his defenses remained.
