"By the Divine …" Tescadji groaned as he righted himself, bruised, but unharmed, thanks to the reactiveness of his spells. "Is everyone alive?"
"I am," Skori said. He was followed shortly by coughs and groans as Krako, Alaema, Sedriil, Noroa, Garen, and Jenius stood up, with no more than bruises or a few minor cuts.
"That wasn't what I thought it was, was it?" Tescadji said, picking himself up roughly, but trying to stay low.
"I'm afraid it was," Skori said.
"My god, no!" Aldrec's grief-stricken voice rang out, causing im heads to turn in his direction. Jenius, who was the closest, crawled to his side to find him kneeling over Mericlou. Though a pile of now-ruined throw pillows had broken her fall, she was lying motionless upon the floor.
"She saved me …" Aldrec said. "It should have been me … Why?"
"By the Divine …!" Jenius shrank back, as the sight of what happened came fully into view.
The back of Mericlou's jacket and shirt had been completely burned away, but the skin of her back was unharmed. Her eyes were wide open, her face frozen in an expression of shock.
"Oh no …" Skori said hoarsely as he dragged himself to his sister's side. Sedriil, Noroa, Garen, and Alaema followed suit, and Noroa immediately burst into tears.
"It was what I thought," Skori said, kneeling down beside Mericlou's prostrate form.
"What was it?" Aldrec said, not understanding. "Is she …?"
"Dead? No," Skori said with a slow shake of his head. "But she might as well be. What knocked the wind out of us all was a military-issue crippler beam."
"They were supposed to have all been dismantled!" Tescadji ejected.
"They weren't all accounted for," Jenius informed him.
"I don't understand," Garen said, "What are you talking about? What's a crippler beam?"
"You're probably too young to remember," Skori said, as tears ran down the sides of his bruised and maimed face. "They were designed by the Republic army to disrupt the electronic systems of androids. If an android is injured, even severely, the CPU, which is the best protected part of our bodies, usually survives. If the current body is damaged beyond repair, then the CPU can be adapted for a new central nervous system. In plain common, the brain can be transferred into a new body. But a crippler is specifically designed to target the android's central nervous system, and deliver a lethal shock directly into their CPU. But even when this happens, death usually isn't immediate. Paralysis is the first symptom, then memory wipe, and then death."