Jedi Insurgency 243

AN: ROUND TWO, FIGHT:

https://youtu.be/HkcckaBAoKU?si=9wC1SSZd4WNsfyt4

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The battle for supremacy between Corvus & Vader erupted beyond the senate chamber.

What had begun inside the rotunda now consumed the entire Senate District. The colossal dome of the Galactic Senate building exploded outward in a storm of fire, lightning, and the raw untapped power of two heavyweights in the Force. 

Durasteel beams the size of frigates cartwheeled into the night sky. Transparisteel shattered for kilometers in every direction. Burning debris rained across the endless cityscape of Coruscant while millions fled in terror through overcrowded skylanes below.

At the center of the destruction, two figures collided like gods at war.

Corvus burst through the collapsing dome in a cyclone of black vapor and [Force Lightning], his [Shadow Wrath State] trailing behind him like living smoke. Vader pursued seconds later, erupting upward amidst a rotating storm of metal that screamed around him at hypersonic speed.

The night skyline became their battlefield as they scaled the tallest towers, reaching the highest peaks. Traffic scattered in every direction at their approach. Civilian hovercars veered violently between skyscrapers as warning sirens blared across the district.

Vader raised his hand, halting hundreds of vehicles, freezing them mid-flight.

Pilots screamed, honked their horns, and radioed in. Others desperately called their loved ones, knowing what was to come next. Entire lanes of traffic halted as the power of magnetism seized control of every metallic object within several miles. 

Corvus was standing atop an outcrop on a megastructure-much like Batman or Spiderman would be when looking down at the city-he narrowed his eyes behind his mask, understanding that a mass casualty event was about to take place. That there was nothing he could do to stop it…except to end this monster here and now! 

Vader clenched his fist, and an entire sector of the city ‘came to life’ in a way that perverted the natural order. Hovercars, transports, police speeders, construction platforms, anything and everything he could get his cold mechanical limbs upon ripped through the skyline toward Corvus in a colossal metallic avalanche.

Corvus needed to regen his FP bar. Although he had been sapping Vader, buying more time for his [Shadow Wrath State], he was conserving energy for the next all out attack. Seeing this oncoming wave of unrelenting metal, he came to a troubling realization. He'd have to evade it by meeting it head on! Thinking back to his meeting with Hunter about rescuing Omega, that that was the initial reason for coming here, he didn't regret it in the least. As he had said to the grizzled spec ops clone:

“So be it.” 

Full of determination, and an iron will, Corvus plunged off of his perch like a professional diver, going in head first. Jumping over a police cruiser-its lights still flashing he locked eyes with a terrified overweight cop, then twisted his body to evade a pair of sewer caps. Mid spin, he ignited his lightsaber, cutting a hoverbus in half. Dozens of people dropped out of it, screaming as they went. Jumping down after them, he somersaulted over another hovercar, and was about to reach them. Pulling some rope from his inventory to lasso the group, his efforts proved pointless, as the avalanche of twisted metal collided with the civilians, instantly piercing or bludgeoning them to death. Witnessing this scene, Corvus felt a small amount of dread in his heart as he witnessed a small, white, vapor-like substance leave their corpses, and fly into the Infinite Gear slapped on Vader’s chest. 

Due to those dozen deaths, the glowing, ticking gear regained a sliver of a percent! It didn't seem like much, but there were millions of sentients within this ‘small’ area known as the Senate District! 

For the first time since he began this fight, he began to doubt his act of striking Vader in the heart of such a well populated urban center! He never could have imagined that that little piece of the Infinite Engine-itself a tiny piece of the Star Forge-would have such an impact! 

Gritting his teeth, Corvus decided he would have to take a risk. Dodging another near fatal impact, a skyscraper he was running alongside exploded. Fire belched from its sides as its upper half folded sideways and collapsed into neighboring structures. Thousands of office windows burst simultaneously from the shockwave.

Corvus thrust out both hands, and worked his magic. Instead of trying to save the building, he focused on the lives inside. If [Heal] could be spread amongst an entire city block, then so too could other Lightside powers meant to buff others! 

[Force Barrier], [Energy Resistance]  & [Blunt Barrier] washed over every resident within a several mile radius. Perhaps not even a direct hit from a nuclear bomb could one-shot these individuals! 

Quick casting these three abilities indeed halted the Infinite Gear's awakening, however…his FP bar was dangerously low! [Shadow Wrath State] drained 10% of his total energy every minute! He'd been fighting for nearly half an hour now thanks to sponging off of Vader. And this shadowy buff had a 30 min cooldown, without it, he couldn't possibly hope to contest with the Dark Lord!!! He had to get closer! Without that draining ability against Darksiders, it would be over! 

Looking at all the metal coming at him, and observing the trajectory of all those people placed in harm's way, he knew what to do. Taking a deep breath, he scaled the next tallest building, and stared Vader down. The storm came at him from all sides, there was nowhere to run. The man in black was breathing heavily, his lens were locked on Revan's mask with the intent to kill. To close with Vader, he had one shot. Running at him like this was a dead end. Even if he went invisible, Corvus would be sensed when he made contact with the pieces of metal that Vader was actively manipulating. There would be no sneaking on this one. His only option was to go through the front door. 

This is it! 

Closing his palms together as if he were going to pray, Corvus had one thing he had been practicing on the sly ever since he fought that Plagueis creature. Now that everything was brought up to Master (high) and doubled by [Shadow Wrath State] it was time to unleash the raw power of the Force. It was time for: 

[FORCE REPULSE]. 

Jumping to his maximum height, Corvus released everything he had in one singular scream of pure, unadulterated resistance. With this defiant yell against the galaxy, he declared his unwillingness to accept fate! 

Seconds later, a visible distortion tore across the district like a heatwave or mirage in the distance. This brief flicker in the air lasted fractions of a second before the world itself trembled, and then an impossible well of gravity expanded. Three skyscrapers imploded instantly. The street levels below vanished beneath a rapidly expanding crater thousands of feet wide.

Duracrete vaporized, maglev rails twisted upward like a snapped shin bone. The ground physically sank beneath the sheer pressure, and shockwave after shockwave hurled dozens of incoming hovercars backward into the skyline, where the pilots-regaining control of their vehicles-were quick to flee from the scene. 

Each and every piece of metal that had been flying at Corvus was now atomized. Not even slag remained. 

Vader crossed his arms before him and endured the oncoming shockwave. 

The rotating vortex surrounding him absorbed much of the impact, though even he-despite all his power-was driven backward through two senate support towers before stabilizing himself in midair. White duracrete dust scattered across his bulky form, and several scratches formed across his armor. 

Then the Sith Lord was silent, eerily so. A simmering anger warred at the edges of his psyche due to his magnum opus being so easily batted aside. Like a child about to scream in a temper tantrum because his toys were seized, Vader was keen to retaliate, damn the cost! 

His mechanical hand opened slowly, focusing on a place unseen. Far above them, hidden among the clouds, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer emerged. Its titanic form blotted out entire sectors of the night sky.

Citizens across Coruscant stared upward in horror as the warship descended, pointing its dagger tip at the very heart of this Empire's government. It was not moving under the command of Naval personnel or officers, no, this technological terror was being manipulated under the auspices of Vader’s Mechu-Deru! 

The Star Destroyer groaned like a living beast as the Sith Lord extended his will into every circuit, every cannon, every targeting array.

Bridge officers screamed as controls moved on their own, and several crewmen stumbled forward, or tripped due to the inhuman maneuvering. 

Turbolasers rotated.

Target locks activated.

Every cannon aimed downward. 

“There is no escape.” Vader said coldly.

The first volley fired, and the night skies became a wash of green. 

Massive turbolaser bolts screamed downward from orbit with the force of natural disasters. Entire sections of the Senate District vanished beneath the bombardment.

Corvus disappeared into shadow milliseconds before impact. The avenue he had occupied ceased to exist. A crater nearly three miles wide punched through multiple city levels, exposing burning infrastructure descending endlessly into Coruscant’s depths. Several hundred thick white streams of vapor flowed up into the Infinite Gear. Despite Corvus's earlier efforts, some of the deeply penetrated attacks struck innocents who hadn't been buffed. 

Corvus-using his [Force Speed]-was conserving energy, and indeed ran at the Dark Lord. Playing a game of cat and mouse, he tried to avoid areas dense in population, and tried to find a suitable location to ambush the man. 

Meanwhile, turbolasers chased him across the skyline. Each miss annihilated chunks of the city. Skyscrapers collapsed one after another. Flaming wreckage tumbled through lower traffic lanes. The very atmosphere shook due to the continuous bombardment.

And through it all Vader advanced relentlessly, floating amidst his storm of death like the dark center of a galaxy-wide catastrophe.

Corvus leapt from collapsing tower to collapsing tower. Midair, he extended both hands downward. The skyscraper beneath him abruptly accelerated toward Vader like with the might of a god of thunder. 

Millions of tons of collapsing architecture hurtled across the district. Vader answered this transgression with magnetism.

The tower twisted apart mid-flight. Steel supports unraveled into gigantic metallic serpents that coiled around Vader’s vortex before whipping outward toward Corvus.

Closing the distance, he was close enough for a [Shadow Hop], and took this last risky gamble, hoping that his last few seconds on the FP bar could be salvaged. 

Appearing directly above Vader, twin sabers ignited downward, and he greedily sapped the Chosen One of his energy. 

Vader caught the strike with a lightsaber of his own, but Corvus unleashed a miniature, targeted, point-blank [Force Repulse]. 

The shockwave resembled a planetary impact, as Vader was hurled through six skyscrapers in a straight line. Entire buildings collapsed one after another. Firestorms erupted across the district, and before Vader could recover, Corvus descended like wrath incarnate.

[Force Lightning] exploded from his hands in continuous torrents, illuminating the clouds in a blue-white hue whilst rain began pouring across Coruscant in violent sheets of murky water. 

Vader roared, rising to his feet in an attempt to send this lightning into the sky, like he had before. The magnetic vortex around him expanded, and that Star Destroyer that had played such a pivotal role seconds ago came crashing down to the world. The Dark Lord casually waved his hand, expecting to manipulate the ship with his mastery of magnetism, as per usual. However, the interaction of [Force Lightning] interfered with his operation, and the Star Destroyer came crashing down right on top of his position! 

During this brief window, this infinitesimally small moment where Vader was at a loss, Corvus hit the Dark Lord with [Slow]. The Infinite Gear lit up, blocking 90% of the technique…but a small portion had pierced the bubble, and for precisely one second, Vader didn't have enough time to shrug this Force power off like he would at literally any other time. 

All this is to say…he could not evade the crashing Star Destroyer in time, he would have to meet it head on!

Corvus looked on with malefic satisfaction as the tip of the spaceship collided with Vader. Naturally, the blue orb he surrounded himself with helped mitigate some damage, and the Infinite Gear-which had been refilled 10 to 25% due to all the wanton slaughter-was blazing with all its might. But even so, with all these helpers, not even the most badass version of Vader from Legends could escape entirely unscathed from a Star Destroyer dropped on his head! 

Meeting his eyes 0.1 seconds before impact, Vader all but said: I hate you. 

“I know.” Corvus smiled back.

The resulting collision resembled an extinction event. Those hypermatter annihilation reactors within the SD went critical, and a potent pure white circular explosion rocked the Senate District as Corvus's [Force Lightning] affected those critical systems. Standing tall, Corvus met the bright light facing forward. His cloak billowed, and [Energy Resistance] roiled under the intense assault, yet he refused to look away even for an instant. 

As mighty a blow as this was, he would not disrespect Vader by assuming this was the end. No. It was far from close. The hatred they felt for one another was like the intense rivalry of twin suns orbiting a black hole. Only one planetary body was worthy of occupying the heavens! 

Emerging from the wreckage, various pieces of metal moved to coat Vader’s badly worn form. His cloak was gone, and several pieces of pale, burnt flesh were visible. Most importantly, the Infinite Gear was extremely dim, almost completely without focus. 

This was the end game. 

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AN: It only gets crazier from here. This week is nothing but straight bangers. All gas, no breaks.