#they'll put themselves to rest to avoid his wrath

[purgatoryandme]

I wish you would write a fic where the baby cultivators see how scared low level corpses are of WWX. (Corpses being scared of WWX is a criminally not used thing in fics)

Imagine this...Shizui's first night hunt with just WN and WWX. It's meant to be a pretty easy jaunt; a disturbed graveyard packed with not intolerable numbers of low level corpses of angry farmers. It's beneath the difficulty of what Shizui has done on nighthunts that he's lead himself, but he can't complain because !! baby's first nighthunt with his family! No friends allowed, just the three of them! It's easy in the end. Comically so, because the corpses get within one li of them and just...crawl back into their graves ("Senior Wei, you didn't order them to bury themselves, did you?" "Ahhh, Shizui, did the bunnies stuff their tails in your ears? Since when did I whistle? Take out a dizi? I haven't even sung you a lullaby yet-"). Naturally, all three of them assume it's because Wen Ning is a superior corpse (Shizui thinks all three of them agree, at least, though Wen Ning looks a little shifty. As shifty as a corpse can look). As something of a consolation prize, WWX takes Shizui out again with Wen Ning. They run into Jin Ling who, lo and behold, is running a bunch of fairly old corpses out of town. Shizui comments that they can just show them Wen Ning and they'll all go away, which Jin Ling argues back about, and the bickering keeps up until their group passes by and the corpses start scrabbling away. Jin Ling pushes Wen Ning closer to them, cackling, and uses him to herd away the corpses. It's a little weird that they stay clearer of the side WWX is lounging on, but hey, it's infinitely more interesting to watch Wen Ning be used like a broom. Shizui tells Jingyi later, who decides that Wen Ning is now the broom of all the little Lan juniors going on their first night hunts! He can keep big groups of corpses from forming, and can hang back when the kids start hacking at one or two at a time. This method works, but they don't really run into that many corpses anyway, and none of them bury themselves or sprint into the distance... (LWJ side eyes WWX, who seems delighted by Jingyi's attempts to deduce the limits of Wen Ning's corpse repelling powers. Shizui worries about his friend's fraying sanity and tries telling him that he may have remembered wrong - maybe the corpses weren't that scared before - but Jingyi is basically like "You're perfect, Shizui, the world is wrong, not you.") Finally it all comes to a head when our main three disaster children fall into an old sinkhole that is on the verge of becoming a landborn abyss while on an entirely unrelated mission. They've been fighting for a day straight - nothing down there is all that strong (yet), but it's tight quarters and the corpses and ghosts never cease. Then, suddenly, there's a chill in the air. The dead stop moving entirely. There's no dizi music. There's not even any humming. Just the distinctive tread of WWX on a warpath.

[voidendron]

V'ehsz Legacy vs. The Star Fortresses

I'm ah

maybe kinda sorta working on a fic involving one of the Star Fortresses which is E X C I T E because I've been struggling to write anything lately 👀

ANYWAY

it got me thinking about how Terrin's Alliance would go about dealing with them, sooooo

(warnings for violence, major injuries, and minor character death)

-------------

The attack on Bothawui horrified millions. Terrin, the loud and boisterous Mandalorian Commander who always had something to say, was stricken speechless. Speechlessness turned into outrage, then sorrow, for all those thousands lost. Sorrow and anger turned into action. Within days of the destruction, she'd put together a plan with the help of her advisors.

"Inferno Squad, Master Tophrik, and Synnda's students are all goin' with the Voidhound and some of Aygo's forces to provide aid to Bothawui's survivors," she'd ordered. Her usually grinning face was twisted into a hard scowl, ponytail messy from being pulled up in a hurry, makeup smeared as if she'd slept with it on, armor still scarred from her last battle with Arcann's forces.

"So far, we've got seven known Fortresses - scouts have already taken a look through some of 'em to give us an idea what we're dealing with. The Fortress over Bothawui's already fired on the planet, and we don't know how long it's gonna be before the others decide they're gonna do the same - or, before that one fires again. Each team will have an Intelligence agent tasked to walk them through the halls, and warn them of any incoming danger that the scanners our scouts planted pick up on.

"Darth Nox and Master V'ehsz, I'm sendin' you two to Alderaan's." The Jedi inclined his head in acknowledgement, while the Sith only scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Synnda, try to use your Force-shroudin'...whatever it is, to get you both to the core unnoticed. Your contact is Domino."

"Agent Xaerez has insisted on going on his own to Voss. We'll have Oggurobb check over his stealth generator to ensure it's in good condition. Avoid Knights at all costs - they'll see right through it. Your Intelligence contact is Shara."

"Yes, sir."

"Lord Wrath and Max Tro: To Nar Shaddaa. You two are going in last. Create a scene, cause as much damage as possible, to distract the forces aboard the other Fortresses enough for the rest of the teams to get in, and get out. Make 'em second-guess themselves, make their Exarch scared that you're about to rip 'em apart, then do it. Give those casinos a nice fireworks show."

The Mandalorian was grinning from ear-to-ear at that; she certainly looked ready for the fight ahead. And the Sith, stoic as ever while on-the-job, only nodded - but there was a spark of something in the air around her: Excitement.

"Oh, this power-couple's got this in the bag, baby~" said Max.

The slightest smirk found the Commander's lip before falling away again. "Your contact is Agent Kothe."

Xaerez stiffened at the name, hands curling into fists where they'd been rested on the table. He said not a word, and quickly tucked them into his lap.

"Master Hess and Feymark Ehn, to Hoth's Fortress."

The Jedi's tail swished with trepidation, gaze drifting to the former Warstalker. Feymark, for his part, just tipped his head a little.

"Ehn, you're good at pulling attention to yourself. Do that, and Hess take the openings they cause to get to the core of the station."

"Ah...yes, sir."

"Brehl'aa is your contact."

Kidak visibly relaxed at the name, offering to Terrin a grateful glance that she answered with a thumbs-up.

"Lords Raphios and Beniko, I'm sendin' you to Tatooine. Azu'ma is your contact."

Both Sith glanced to each other from across the table, and nodded solemnly.

"Very well."

"Liakige Harren, with Master Alvihr to Belsavis."

The former Sith arched a brow, while the Jedi's studious gaze hardened coldly at the thought of tearing the station apart.

"Abbath's your contact.

"And I'm takin' Torian with me. We're destroying that kriffin' station--" she banged an armored fist on the table, "--over Bothawui before it takes any more lives. Theron, with us."

Her posture straightened, too-bright eyes scanning the crowd before her. "You should all be gettin' more detailed files on your assignments shortly. Dismissed."

-----------

Xaerez is the first to deal the final blow with his Fortress, sparking the domino affect of the rest of the teams following suit - they all go down within hours of one another, and Arcann is outraged that he suddenly loses contact with seven Fortresses practically all at once.

-Xaerez, for his part, makes it almost to the very end before the Exarch figures out something's amiss - this is only after the other Fortresses have begun reporting intruders, so the Voss Exarch practically turned the place upside down just knowing there would be someone.

Xaerez comes out of it with broken ribs and a fractured clavicle, but a moment of hesitation as Andur readies a powerful Force attack gives him the window he needs to draw his vibroknife and jam it into his jugular, allowing Xaerez to make it out alive before the station blew up.

-Raphios and Lana worked in perfect sync with each other. While they were forced to fight their way through since neither has stealth capabilities, they had a relatively easy time compared to the other teams, and were mere minutes behind Xaerez in destroying theirs.

They're both a little worse for ware after being confronted by Tarso, but make it out with no serious injuries - after beheading him.

-Kidak and Fey turn out to work better together than Kidak had expected. Fey's a little more...enthusiastic, about fighting than the Jedi, but does his job of "distraction" really well, giving Kidak the windows he needed to get into computers or through locked doors.

They fared the easiest with their Exarch. Fey came out of stealth behind Jom after he'd cornered Kidak at a computer, driving his weapon straight through the Exarch's chestpiece and killing him almost instantly.

-Terrin and Torian tear through their Fortress like the Mandos they are, fighting for every step forward. Due to the lack of Bothawui resistance support for obvious reasons, they're racing against the clock to first disable the shield, and then disarm and destroy their Fortress before it can have the chance to fire again.

They're stressed, they're exhausted, they're angry - their Exarch doesn't stand a chance, and finds himself burned alive in his armor.

-Alvihr and Liakige weren't the best pairing. They butt heads, Alvihr is too gung-ho about "punishing" those within the Fortress, while Liakige is actually trying to go through with their task. She's hostile toward the former Sith apprentice...

Until Liakige leaps in to save a group of the Condemned being herded off for experimentation. The two then follow through with their objective, and Alvihr is more than happy to execute Exarch Forta when her guard is down just a moment too long.

-Max and Azan do their job perfectly. Does it make their job harder as their efforts draw in literally every force on the station? Yes. But does it cause chaos in the other Fortresses as they scramble to prevent the same from happening to them? Also yes.

The pair tears through the Fortress, maiming or killing anyone foolish enough to get in their way; Azan rips Skytroopers apart with her bare hands, Max turns her flamethrower to them to force them into overheating and shutting down. Their fight with Exarch Lesin is brutal, both parties coming near-death - until Max takes a lightsaber to the gut, and Azan tears Lesin's throat out in a rage when he next turns to her. She carries Max out, and both barely survive their injuries.

-Then...there's Synnda and Qizulth/Nox... This is before they developed their queerplatonic relationship, but they're still working like a team. Things are going well, Synnda has them both shrouded with the Force, they've made it pretty far in without detection while the crew's running around like chickens with their heads cut off thanks to Max and Azan's efforts. ...until they encounter a Paladin. She detects them, they defeat her, and next thing they know, Exarch Zar Draya lunges off the elevator and they're both knocked out.

They're taken prisoner, it's been hours since Max and Azan finished off their Fortress, they're the only team left and everyone thought they were dead. Qizulth, a former slave, is panicking as he's caged with a collar on. Synnda breaks them out, and from there the two are racing the clock as Arcann closes in to take the prisoners.

Zar is more clever than her colleagues and refuses to underestimate the intruders like the others, their Intelligence contact is left floundering as they try to direct the team to the core, she sends her best Knights and Paladins after them, anything to stop them, or at least slow them down until Arcann arived.

When they finally reach her, Synnda steps in front of Qizulth. Key senses...something off about Synnda, and next thing anyone knows, the Jedi's hands are in front of him, the platform they're all standing on is crumpling like it's made of aluminum, and Zar charges. He blasts her back with the Force into a wall of the "arena," beams are creaking and screeching and glass is shattering as the platform collapses in on itself, Zar is coughing up blood as she's literally impaled from multiple directions.

Synnda backs up into Qizulth, and the two step off the platform

Then he drops it, and the still very much alive Zar, into the Fortress's core.

Qizulth never speaks of what he saw, and Synnda restrains from ever showing such displays of violence and power again.