Rikki Barnes aka Nomad (nomaderwhat) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-09-08 18:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: darius vandreen, character: rikki barnes, date: [61.10], location: myrkr, location: shooting star |
Who: Rikki Barnes & Darius Vandreen
When: 61.10
Where: Myrkr
What: Rikki makes the last call of her mission
Rating: High
Status: COMPLETE.
Pain was something that Rikki Barnes was intimately familiar with. Born without powers in a world where powers helped make the hero, she fought for every bit of strength and endurance that she had. Failure meant picking herself up and trying again until she got it right. Growing up that had meant hours of dance until her feet bleed, till callouses built up to the point where the pain was a dull memory. Once she swapped the slippers for boots the mindset remained the same. Rikki threw herself into every situation with everything she had, feeling every shot of pain and accepting that as a lesson to be stronger next time. Even death hadn’t been able to keep her down. Death was just another painful mistake to learn from and to keep moving past until it all caught up with her again. Alema’s eyes stared at her, glassy with all the determination bled from them. It was somewhere between Rikki’s fingers as she had tried to close the gaping wound that split the woman’s stomach in front of her. Dark blood coated her hands, sticky and thick as hope was lost and all Rikki could do was move on. She didn’t have jedi powers and something as simple as a bacta patch wouldn’t have saved the jedi in front of her. Her sister had fallen almost an hour prior and really Rikki was surprised that Alema had made it this far after it had happened. Blind fury had been driving her forward, clearly the path so Rikki could set the explosives while Alema guarded. But fury gave way to recklessness and despite the blaster bolt that Rikki had put through the eye of a Vong that wasn’t going to bring Alema back. The luck that she had in dragging her to a relatively safe location to bleed out was quickly vaporizing right before her. At least Alema hadn’t died alone. She was out of power packs on her blaster though and Rikki didn’t need the force to know that reinforcements were on their way. With her leg twisted underneath her the possible solutions were running through her head, all possible ways that she could complete this while her hands gave up on the dead wound and instead worked to pull the detonator out. The charges were primed and all she needed to do was set the counter. “Shit” she breathed, reaching up despite the overwhelming scent of blood and tapping to the comm nestled in her ear. “Darius?” “Hear you boss.” Darius answered automatically as he went through the automatic routines of bringing the Shooting Star under his command. He wouldn’t admit it but there was a lightness in his chest at hearing her voice, knowing that she was alive still through this whole kriffed up mission that she had dragged him along on. “Wings and her boy are on board. On route to Red and Doc. Then off to you and the twins.” No, there wasn’t time. In theory she could trip the charges from the Shooting Star, but it was too much of a risk with the alarms they had set off. She only had a few minutes at most before this area was swarming with Yuuzahn Vong and if they came in to grab her than it would end up with a lot more people than just the twins dead before her. Those lives couldn’t be on her, there were already enough that were. “I’ll be right behind you, Darius.” She said as she pushed herself to her feet despite the near blinding pain in her right leg as she put weight on it. She had walked through worse. The comm was silent for a moment as Darius hesitated. His hands were still moving, inputting commands and steering the Star to pick up Doc and Red. He knew what that meant and the light feeling of hope quickly fell, replaced with the cold darkness of reality. Rikki wasn’t one to make a sacrifice call lightly and if the twins weren’t chiming in either they agreed or they weren’t around anymore to disagree. Damnit. “You sure, boss?” he asked, keeping his voice neutral as possible. “I’d have you in a sec. Could even carry you myself if you’re looking to be swept off your feet.” “Yeah, well, you’d have to.” Rikki gritted through her teeth as she reached down, taking the lightsaber from Alema’s limp grip. She hadn’t trained with one but she knew how they worked. And right now it was a better option than the blaster which was just about useless. “I’ll be right behind you. Starting countdown now.” Darius quickly ran through about half the swear words he knew and quite a few that he might not actually know the full translation of. If she was starting the countdown than he needed to get the last two of their group fast and get them off this forsaken planet. It also meant there was no reasoning with her, no bargaining. Even with as good a pilot he as he was that wasn’t enough time to be in two places at once. And she knew that he’d do what she needed, just like he always did with as few questions as possible. Without her guidance there was no way he would have made it this far. And she was going to take an entire base of Yuuzhan Vong and Peace Brigade with her. That was his girl. “Don’t let me down boss.” He offered, his heart on his tongue making it feel thicker than usual. “I won’t.” Rikki switched the countdown on, a sense of peace spreading over her. Darius would get them all out, he’d always kept his word to her and there was no reason for him to stop now. He would make the right call instead of the call of a Jedi, trying to save everyone when all it would do is cause more casualties. She had enough blood on her hands and she was going to make sure the Yuuzhan Vong paid for it. “Nomad out. Thank you.” “It’s been an honor, Rikki.” Darius left it at that, letting her switch of her comm and knowing that was it. Oh well, no bounty hunter worth his salt kept his heart anyway. Right now all he had left was to make sure that her last wish was carried through and that this place blew to all seven hells. The light saber flickered to life, hilt covered in its owners blood as Rikki forced herself to walk forward. She could hear someone coming and she was ready to make sure that as many of them went down with her. |