Trychon ducked under Raezyr's aggressive forehand swing, and turned it into a roll. He got to his feet and spun around to face Raezyr as quickly as possible, not surprised in the least to find him already advancing. He put his right hand forward and pushed Raezyr back. Raezyr used his force defenses to deflect some of it, and what was left only halted his forward momentum momentarily.
They had sparred quite a bit on the return trip to Hoth, as the late Daxon Var had been less than impressed with Trychon's jokes about helping civilians for a half million credits, and had all but stopped speaking with them, at least about anything of interest. Boring lore was worse than no lore at all, Trychon had said after their last Holocron session a few days prior.
Finding himself on the retreat yet again, Trychon sidestepped an angled attack from Raezyr's practice blade, which hummed just as menacingly by his ear as the real one would have. Taking half a step back he gestured with his hand again, and concentrated on pushing at one of Raezyr's feet, as his defenses were strongest at his core.
Again, the attack was partially deflected naturally by Raezyr's defenses and what wasn't deflected had minimal affect as they'd agreed the previous day to 'training' powers during duels. The idea was similar to the practice blades, as they'd agreed to use roughly half of their normal abilities on all telekinetic attacks. Trychon complained that it was his only slight advantage, but Raezyr pointed out that he normally used two blades and not just one. Trychon maintained that Raezyr still had an edge, but they'd ultimately come to terms when a particularly well timed blast sent Raezyr into their table at the edge of the room, knocking their drinks over.
The new parameters had caused Trychon to adapt, and his latest attempts at specifically aimed Force shoves had proved mildly effective. The attack at Raezyr's feet was enough to nearly throw off the more advanced duelist's balance, and he was forced to take a moment to reset his footing. Trychon didn't hesitate, and used that moment to skip forward and aim a sidekick into Raezyr's shoulder. There was no holding the impact back and Raezyr stumbled to the side for a few steps before turning so his back could absorb the impact with the wall and he could rebound off of it.
Raezyr lunged forward and took a retaliatory swing at Trychon's left leg. Trychon didn't react quickly enough, or at all really. Raezyr's practice weapon burned slightly into Trychon's pants and thigh and pulled enough on him to cause his limbs to be swept from under him, and Raezyr watched him fall blankly to his back.
Knowing immediately that something wasn't quite right, Raezyr rushed forward to look down at his Sith Brother, whose eyes were staring blankly straight up at the ceiling and then at Raezyr. The blank stare was dominated by darkness, as Trychon's pupils had seemingly expanded to take over the majority of the open portion of his eyes. Unsure what else to do, Raezyr reached downward and slapped him across the cheek.
Trychon's head snapped to the side and then back to look at Raezyr with a number of blinks, and a normal set of eyes. Raezyr extended his hand again, this time as an offer of assistance, and Trychon took the help and stood.
"Something's not right..." Trychon started and then paused.
Raezyr began to walk off to the side to the table to have a seat and rest. "You mean with your defense?"
Trychon darted his a look over at his companion. Feel it, Raez.
Raezyr looked at him for any signs of a joke, and found none. He closed his eyes and extended his senses to Trychon, then began to sense outward as they'd been training on. He could see or sense nothing at first... but then began to feel a general sense of unease that nearly derailed his concentration. Assuming that had to be what caused Trychon's concern, he pressed on. For minutes, he could feel nothing more.
Suddenly, a vision flared into his mind's eye for a mere instant. He could see Hoth as it appeared when approaching for descent. Something was certainly not right though, as the planet appeared not in a numbing bright white... but in red. Blood red.
Raezyr opened his eyes and shot up from his chair, and ran straight for the cockpit. "Come on, Trych! I need your help!" He yelled as he exited the room. Trychon said nothing as he followed with the same speed.
They sat down and Raezyr began immediately tapping the controls. After a minute of frantic calculations, Raezyr spoke. "What did you see?"
Trychon shook his head. "Nothing. I just was overcame with a feeling of... danger. Not mine though. Just something inherently wrong."
"Well, I saw something. We have to change course and head towards Hoth. Our original course has us two days away, and we could have been there right now. Dammit!" Raezyr pounded the controls. "What can you do to coax more out of our hyperdrive?"
"Hoth? But... Dianna was headed off planet the same time we were. She made it sound as though she'd be gone a bit after we were... that's why we agreed to go meet this Darth Vikon and complete Master's mission right after we finished Corellia in the first place."
Raezyr glared at him. "Whatever's happened has something to do with Dianna and her crew. Can you speed us up or no?"
Trychon began tapping at his datapad. "I've removed a few of the normal parameter limits on the engine running. It'll cause a bit more wear and tear, but nothing drastic. Not sure how much more we'll get out of it."
"Trych, I need more power!" Raezyr raised his voice just short of yelling.
"I'm a slicer... not an engineer, Raez." Trychon continued to work on the computer. "Alright. It looks like Delki had a small upgrade nearly in place, but not set up to run because something must not be quite ready. I can activate it, but I can't make any promises. We'll speed up for at least a bit though." He merely looked up to see the determination in Raezyr's continued glare before hitting the necessary sequence to give them a temporary boost.
After nearly an hour of silently staring into the stretches of hyperspace, Trychon urged Raezyr to attempt to sense outward again. When Raezyr failed to feel anything at all, Trychon closed his eyes with him and they tried together to discern what could be so horrible on the remote pirate base.
Instead, a stern voice entered their head.
What do you think you are doing? Vikons voice echoed as though it was reverberating through the ship.
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