The Middle....
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Star Wars
Band of Blood Brothers
Era of Chaos

A figure stood on the bridge of the droid control ship, he stood tall and proud, yet he seemed heavy in heart, as if weighed down by a great burden. His eyes were hard and stern, yet full of wisdom and kindness, though there was great grieving hidden in the wells of his flurescent eyes. He emmanated an air of forlorning, it was a sad sight to see such a strong willed person stricken with such unknown pain and sorrow.

He stood, gazing out of the viewport, his stare was beyond the dusty red planet, and beyond the predatory ships lurking around it. His mind was elsewhere, thinking of all the past and current events.

It had been two long, arduous years of running, after the destruction of Halo. Two long years since the death of Shadow. Cyphon had kept isolated recently, for the last seven months he had kept as alone and away from his many companions, all for various reasons. He could feel the creeping darkness forever growing on his mind, the enemy fleet forever getting closer to avenge the destruction of their comrades.

In the forever growing apprehention, Cyphon felt disturbed, and the presence of the sith, Zeryl, and the ever darkening Jynn, with there constant hatred towards eachother, only put more stress on his mind.

With the battle between Cyphon and the two, before the events at Halo, aboard the deralict, Cyphon had only intended good to come of it. But with it there was only more strife; Zeryl had not learned anything from the fight. But as for poor Jynn, she became, corrupt, and misled, she had forsaken the teachings of her master, plunging into a slow embrace of darkness. It was a sad sight to see, as her hatred grew, Cyphon became more pained by his actions, they were only intentions of good, yet they brought about such unrest in his companions. He had only wanted peace for Jynn, and understanding for Zeryl, yet it only wrought a path of darkness.

With this growing darkness in his companions, Cyphon had eventually stayed away from them, the constant bickering between the two, the flow of anger and hatred towards Zeryl, and even others from Jynn, all they did was pain Cyphon. Cyphon couldn't be around either one of them alone either, with Zeryl it was just his presence. With Jynn, it was little squables that would brake out between them, and just the thought of her fall got to Cyphon, and though Jynn's heart was in the right place, her ethics were not.

Most would think, why should Cyphon care which path someone follows, he's a Gray Jedi. Cyphon however, knows that darkness is no path to follow, and hatred, no life to live. It had always pained Cyphon, in his long life, to see any person forsake any teachings, or life, someone held dear, for the path of pain and suffering. It pained Cyphon to see Zeryl like this as well, the man was blind, and he wondered in a land of torment, whether he knew it or not, and whether he accepted it or not.

But not to exclude Alex, the jedi was a good man, but his presence also caused great stress on Cyphon, any of his companions for that matter. It wasn't that Alex was following a path of darkness, it was the fact that the presence of any of his companions at this stressful point in time caused Cyphon much grief, for the once rare dreams of death, and loneliness, began to grow, and any person who Cyphon considered a companion and friend, only brought the thoughts of these dreams to mind.

How Cyphon missed his ever cheerful friend, Shadow. Cyphon wished Shadow could aid him in this time where his concentration faded by the day. Just the thought of the last time Cyphon saw Shadow caused Cyphon torment. To see someone torn so far from humanity, to be a freakish hybrid of two other beings, and to have those two evil beings quarrel over his mind and body like a piece of meat, it drove Cyphon to great fatigue thinking about it.

The figure turned from his thoughts, his mind and concentration slowly returning to the here and now. The figure sighed, staring down at the chrono reading on a nearby console. It had been nearly five weeks since Cyphon last saw any of his companions. He had kept to his flagship, and they had kept to their flagships', or 'High Charity'. But that self imposed exile would end tomorrow, there were several major events occuring that required him to be around his old friends for that day on the station-holy city, 'High Charity'.

Cyphon sighed again, pressing a comm button on the console. "Jhon, is the construct's corrupted data restored?" He asked with a sad, dry tone.

"Sir, it has been restored to the best of our ability. It's protocal makes it repair the rest on it's own, though that may take awhile, it's better than us trying to restore something we truly can't," came the reply over the comm from the old Elite, Jhon. He had been made a ship commander within the fleet when the events at Halo occured. His flagship was a Covenant Assault Carrier by the name of, 'Venerable Loyalty', repaired in to optimal efficiancy.

"Good, have a team meet me on the suface of the planet with it. I need it's knowledge of the area to figure out at least a general perspective of where we are. And if nothing else, then to help us locate a livable world to resupply on," Cyphon replied, his response tired, he sighed once more before saying over-and-out, then switching the comm off.

Cyphon turned sharply, though it wasn't done with the same vigor as he used to use. His stress was not just his own though, the entire fleet full of people seemed...distant, or just out-of-it. They saw the disposition of their leader, and commanders, and the fact they were running, yet the Rebel Confederacy was still catching up was a demoralising thing. The death of their most loved field commander, the feeling of an ever losing battle was on their minds, and being lost in strange unknown space was all very unsettling for the people in the fleet.

Cyphon left the bridge, his steps heavy with his burden, and posture, not quite as upright as it once was. He kept going, almost aimlessly, until he finally reached where he was going, the main hangar. There he approached the Nimbus-class starfighter that was already preped for his departure. He took his cloak off, revealing his black, leather-like armor underneath. With this, he put on a spacial combat suit, like the ones the clones and other space soldiers would wear when in low atmosphere, or no atmosphere combat. Stepping into the cockpit, he did a quick once-over, and lowering the hatch, he left the hangar with all the speed he could afford, the small craft descending upon the dusty, red planet below.

((Sorry it took so long to post this thread, my patient and faithful friends, but I was being!!! LAZY!!!!!! DUN DUN DDUUUUNNN!!!!))

Edit: - ((If you guys are having trouble figuring out what to post, then I'll give you a hint....socialise! Seriously, do anything you want to! Except follow me to the planet surface....Oh, and Rex, I don't want you coming back jjuuussttt yet, don't worry, it won't be long though :D ))

2 Years Earlier...

Join us! Your hunger is the same as our own now!

Reclaimer, do not do this! You will seriously weaken the ability to contain a flood outbreak should one occur on the other installations!

Pained that Shadow never thought possible wreaked through Shadows body as he absorbed blaster bolts, projectile weapons rounds, plasma bolts, Sentinel containment beams, and shrapnel. Despite all of this, he and his body simply refused to die, his now freakish body being strained to its limits in a battle that he had no chance of winning, nor did he want to win. Things weren't helped by the fact that the battlefield in his mind was in an even worse condition, under the bombardment of the two other permanent inhabitants.

He swung the mighty hammer he now wielded, its head crashing into the line of enemies and if not crushing them, knocking them over the edge. It was good that the pad was narrow, meaning he could catch his enemies in a crossfire, since they were fighting each other as well. It also limited the number he had to face at once. Well, actually the Sentinels could fly, so they were firing from the air, looking to neatly dissect him with their beams.

Shadow stood close to the Nova bomb, swatting away anything that got close with his hammer. He received a short burst transmission to his Sentinel parts, letting him know that the fleet was leaving. He silently mourned that he would not be able to even be able to say good-bye to his friends, his troops, and for failing to be able to help them, but his duty was clear now. He threw his last thermal detonator to make some breathing room, and then turned around to flip the switch when hit him strongly in the back and then exit his chest. He looked down, at his chest to see a large hole. He had failed. He had failed to flip a switch. As he fell forward, he thought, I failed. I failed them all. I got this far, and now I failed. I can't fail. They need me to do this. I need to do this. I. will. not. fail!, He threw his hand forward in a final surge of strength, the only strength he had left, and amazingly caught the switch, pulling it down with him as he went down.

NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, the two minds strangled screams came at full blast, but were of no use.

The blast from the Nova not only encompassed the ring, which was about the size of Coruscant, but also encompassed half of the gas giant is orbited, causing an explosion on a much large scale, leaving nothing behind but space dust. What was left of the Confederate Fleet was also disintegrated. Shadow Gravemind, a Jedi General and Master of the Republic Empire was now dead.

((I saw your note, so I'm not bringing him back yet))

The Nimbus-class vessel decended quickly upon the planet, landing swiftly on it's surface. Only a couple meters away stood two Ranger Elites (http://halo.wikia.com/images/0/00/Elite_ranger.jpg), behind them were two Banshee's (http://www.xgpgaming.com/xbox/images/Halo2_banshee.jpg) which they had come down to the planet on.

Cyphon opened the hatch of the fighter, leaping out, he approached the two. They quickly stood to attention, one stepping forward with something in his hands.

"Sir, the gauntlet that we used to contain it in," he stated, indicating the strange metal wrist device, similar to bracers, only with more switches and buttons, along with dozens of readouts.

Cyphon nodded, "good, now I'll be heading out, you stay here." He commanded the two, they nodded, and turned, walking back towards their Banshee's. Cyphon slipped the 'gauntlet' on, it beeped in confirmation, a small disc-shaped pad slid out over his palm. Cyphon turned, walking away towards the closest outcropping of hills, if they could be called hills.

After he was on the largest hill, Cyphon stared around, the Banshee's and their pilots seemed like toys in the distance, along with his fighter. Cyphon pressed a button on the gauntlet, "construct, tell me if you can pinpoint...'High Charity'," he asked it, though it was a test question, even Cyphon could pinpoint it, it was plain as day right above his head.

"Mark-115-80-0, high altitude, upwards," came the answer, the voice was slightly robotic, and very staticy, not to mention etchy and drauling. It showed Cyphon that it was repaired, but it was still having corruption issues, as he could tell from the voice.

"Good, now tell me....where the nearest livable world is," he asked it. It whirred, several readings spiked as it processed, trying to find the answer.

"Undeterminate...head to higher point for better system readout," it stated. Cyphon frowned, but comlplied, he understood that getting readings out here would be difficult. Cyphon looked around, he spotted a mountain in the vast distance, though it didn't seem too big, it was farther than he assumed.

After more than three hours of walking, Cyphon was finally at the base of the mountain. Cyphon stared up in shock and amazement, the mountain was...huge, enormous! Bigger than any mountain he'd seen in a long time. 'I have to climb...this!' He thought to himself. Cyphon just sighed, he crouched down, then with one bounding leap, and with the force gathered round him, he leapt through the air, soaring up several feet up the mountain side, reducing a small bit of distance to the top.

After many long, arduous minutes of leaping, crawling, and climbing, and falling twice nearly down the entire side of the mounain, he reached the top. He turned around, looking across the vast expanse of the flat, dusty, red planet, he could no longer see the two Elites and their Banshee's, nor his ship.

Cyphon turned slowly, studying the landscape, when his gaze fell on a huge basin, or crater in the middle of the mountain peek. As if an enormous meteor or asteroid had struck the top of the mountain creating a bowl on it's top.

Cyphon's brows arched in surprise, but he turned his attention back to the task at hand. Cyphon raised his wrist towards his face, speaking into the gauntlet, "construct, can you pinpoint a livable world now?" He asked curiously.

The gauntlet's readouts spiked even higher this time. "Scans insufficiant, cannot read beyond certain radious, even by relaying through space station's equipment. No livable worlds found within radious...sorry," the last part of the statement caught Cyphon by surprise, the construct was indeed repairing itself, it's voice had changed drastically since he last heard from it; it sounded more...femanine, and the static was dissapating, along with the deeper drauling lag. Not only that, but it was taking on a personality, and it was becoming independant, because it self imposed the choose to use 'High Charity's' sensor equipment.

"Er, it's alright...can you at least tell me the general layout of where we are?" He asked.

The contrust didn't take as long to process this question, "cannot identify planetary system. Having difficulty deciphering region. But," the construct paused in it's processing. "Turn," it told Cyphon, he arched a single eyebrow in question at the seeming command, but he complied, turning in the direction of the basin within the mountain top. "Landmass resembles memory that is corrupt...attempting to decontaminate memory of landmass....please wait.....keep waiting......data, cannot be restored in sufficient time, some was restored though," it told Cyphon, who listened on in surprise and amusement.

"Get me a better view," it told him, it's voice was now near perfect, almost sounding exactly like a normal human female. Cyphon raised his arm towards the basin, the processor began to spike drastically, then from a holo projector in the disc-like pad on his palm came a flash of a figure. Cyphon jumped slightly, the figure came and went so quick it was hard to make out, it was definately femanine, and it was shaded a bluish-violet color. But that's all he could tell; then from the gauntlet came a quick cracked laugh, Cyphon was certainly shocked and bemused.

The construct was certainly repairing and progressing well, it had fixed it's voice, it had taken on personality - probably one it had before - it had attempted to take on form, and now it was laughing at his little jump of surprise, it was even repairing it's laugh as it giggled at him, he could tell because the laugh's tone was switching from low to high, and inbetween as it went on.

"Memory uncertain, planet identification is unretrievable, landmass's name is contaminated, name is....Mons......Something Mons? Landmass not mountain...landmass is a dead volcano, assumptions indicate this is largest volcano in planetary system...need memory repair, and verification to prove this," came a serious response.

Cyphon stared at the basin, which he identified as a cauldera now, he got serious too, this was good, in time the contruct would have most of it's memory back, and if it could identify the volcano, then it could identify the planet, then the system, and with that it could lead the fleet to a livable world. "Um...thanks," Cyphon said turning back in the direction he came.

After several more hours of trecking down the volcano, and back over the ladscape, he came to his ship, the Elites stood loyaly, and patiently for him, when they saw him they waved in his direction, he waved back. Cyphon heard the construct grumble at the sight of them, Cyphon ignored it for the moment. Cyphon mounted his ship, closing the hatch, while the Elites entered their Banshee's.

The three vessels lifted off from the planet's surface, the two Banshee's escorting Cyphon back to his flagship, then heading off to Jhon's ship from which they came when he successfully landed. Cyphon got out of the Nimbus-class craft drowsily, he was tired, the planet was hotter than expected, and climbing a mountain didn't help.

Cyphon headed to his quarters, not even bothering to remove the spacial combat suit, he fell on his bed, falling asleep immediately.

Edit: - ((Bonus Hint/Question: Can you guys figure out what planet we're orbiting? I'm pretty certain you'll figure it out quickly D_L, so don't blurt it out! If you guys can figure it out, then PM me, and I'll confirm or denie your suspicion/answer.

@D_L - I just realised my RP has a name similar to yours, I'm sorry, I'll change it if you want me to.))

"...Zeryl had not learned anything from the fight, if anything he became more arrogant..."

"...and the cocky boasts of Zeryl, all they did was pain Cyphon. Cyphon couldn't be around either one of them alone either, with Zeryl it was just his presence, and his attitude..."

((You got it wrong, thats not how my character is... nothing like that. He isn't that kind of Sith))

((Okay pal, I changed it as best I could there, buddy, hope it fits the bill. :) ))

Cyphon opened his eyes slowly, groggily getting up.

"Well, good morning," came a female voice, almost out of nowhere.

"Ah!" Cyphon shouted, surprised, and still very tired. Not knowing where a mysterious female voice was coming from was unsettling too.

Cyphon looked around abit until he lifted his arm, noticing the gauntlet still on his wrist. "Oh, it's you," he said blatantly.

"Yeah, me," came the equaly unenthusiastic response.

Cyphon sat up, rubbing his eyes, he looked down, noticing he was still wearing his spacial combat suit. Cyphon got up, slipping the gauntlet off he began taking the suit off.

When that was said and done, he put the gauntlet back on and checked the chrono meter on his datapad, it was already the next day, and he had to get to that meeting on 'High Charity'.

Cyphon opened his door to leave, only to find his robes folded and waiting for him outside his door. Obviously he had left them in the hangar, and somebody had been considerate enough to clean and fold his robes at set them at his door. 'Note to self, send out shipwide memo for kudo's on cleaning my robes,' Cyphon thought to himself, bending down and picking up his robes, he put them on as he fled down the corridor.

Cyphon re-entered the Main Hangar, the Nimbus fighter he had used earlier was still there, only it had been refueled, and maintained as it should be. Cyphon opened the hatch, and jumped in, closing the hatch behind himself.

Cyphon did a quick diagnostics reading of the ships system vitals, and seeing that everything was green, he preped for launch.

[Not done, finish later.]

System failure
.
.
.
[Damage Report:]

Visual System are down
Right-arm is critically damaged
Basic laser weapons is damaged beyond repair.
Power source is extremely low, seek new engery sorce.

[Location]: Crashsite of escape pod.Unknown poistion.
.
.
.
.
[Warning] Power level are critcally low! Seek admedent rechar...
[Power : Depleated]

(Say one of your guys located D9-07 and activate him in your base or something)