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A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the Dark-Side. Anger...fear...aggression. The Dark-Side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.
-- Yoda, Jedi Master
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May 10th, 2003 04:14 AM |
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Networking
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chapter 1: The Museum Raid
It was quiet and peaceful in the Museum of Jedi Artifacts. The lulling pulse of the security sensors were making the security guards drowsy, and they were slumped back in their chairs, trying to get some shut eye. They figured it was alright, because if someone tripped the alarm, they would be awakened by an ear-piercing shriek. But who was going to try and steal Jedi artifacts? Master Windu had warned them that anything was possible, especially since they had just shipped an ancient Sith relic from Korriban, one which they had not yet translated and could be something valuable. Windu had told them that anyone - collectors, thieves looking to make a fortune, Dark Jedi - could try to come in for it.
But the security had been doubled. There was a Jedi guarding each doorway, and there were two or three dozen hunter-killer remotes sitting in wait for anyone foolish enough to wander into the security sensors. The security guards, now dozing lazily in the security center, had been armed with pistols and stun grenades. No one was going to try to steal from this museum.
There was a shout outside, and the sound of a lightsaber activating. A security guard bolted up, unholstering his pistol. There were no more sounds, so the guard went to sleep again, still holding his pistol.
“Foolsss...” muttered Suanmi Kuan-Ti to himself. He was now crawling on the ceiling, evading the security guards and the sensors. Cantor and Gathol had just killed the Jedi outside using stealth, and now he was going to kill the security guards and shut off the main sensors using stealth. He walked along the paneled ceiling until he was directly over the security center. Then he climbed down the wall, onto the floor, and into the open doorway. He was in. He twiddled his dexterous fingers, and then started typing at a computer terminal. Outside, the security sensors stopped humming, and shut off. Then he set a detonator pack on the computer terminal, and in the group of sleeping security guards. As he was sneaking out, he tripped over a loose wire. He rolled and landed on his feet, but the security guards were awakened.
“Hey you!” shouted the nearest guard. It was the guard that had heard the fighting outside, and was still holding his pistol. He fired, but Suanmi had swiftly drawn his lightsaber, and deflected the laser bolt towards the detonator pack on the computer terminal. It exploded once the beam struck, destroying the machinery and shattering the glass windows of the security center in the process. Then the pack Suanmi had set by the guards exploded, engulfing all of them in a ball of burning flame.
Suddenly, three other people dashed in, as well as the Jedi who had been guarding the back door. The door closed behind the Jedi, and the Jedi had his lightsaber activated. One of the three people fired a pistol at him, but the Jedi deflected the bolts. Another fired an odd shaped gun, and a shockwave explosion erupted around the Jedi. The Jedi was unharmed, but his lightsaber had been shut off. So had the door behind him. He was trapped.
The person who had fired the DEMP 2 was Gathol Brand, one of the more experienced Dark Jedi. He had black hair, spiked and bleached at the tips. He wore the outfit of a Jedi, but it had been died black. Gathol had once been a Jedi Knight. He fell to the Dark-side after freeing another Dark Jedi from the prisons in the Jedi Temple. His lightsaber flashed a magnificent blood red, the color of the thing Sith Lords shed: blood.
The one with the pistol was Arak Petrol. He was a new comer to the group of Dark Jedi, but was learning their ways fast. He wore a brown leather jacket, and a black shirt under that. His black pants were baggy, and had a Corellian bloodstripe running down both sides. He had been found by Hajid Thajkon, the leader of the group. His lightsaber was a golden yellow, the color of the thing that Sith Lords loved: gold and wealth.
Cantor had charged in with Arak and Gathol. He was robed entirely in black, and you could not see any trace of his skin. Even when you looked into his hood, all you saw was a vast blackness. His hands bore plated armor gauntlets, and his feet inside armor boots, with a spike on the tip of the toes. He was more experienced than Arak and about equal to Gathol. His lightsaber was orange, like the sun setting on the final days of the Sith Empire. He and Suanmi now bound the Jedi and put a grenade in his hand.
“If you release this button, you’ll die from the poisoned shrapnel inside,” hissed Cantor. He pressed the Jedi’s thumb on the activation button, then bound his hands tightly with metal wire that cut into the Jedi’s wrist.
“Yesss, poisssonousss,” dittoed Suanmi.
Suanmi Kuan-Ti was a lanky creature, and no one was quite sure what species he was or where he was from. He had slimy swamp green skin, with veins writhing underneath it. His amber brown eyes with specks of green had a peculiar glow to them, and lit up with a luminescent green in the darkness. His lightsaber was green, like his eyes.
The Jedi sat cowering on the ground, bound and gagged. There was no way he could escape, even with his powers. To make sure he didn’t have a weapon, Suanmi crept over and picked up the Jedi’s lightsaber. He tossed it up in the air a few times, then activated his lightsaber and diced it in half.
Then the four went around slicing open the glass cases that held ancient Sith relics that Thajkon had commanded them to retrieve. Nothing was of much worth, and most of it was Jedi artifacts. But they had come for one thing specifically.
“Where is the thing that Thajkon spoke of?” Arak asked to no one in particular as he grabbed a lightsaber from out of a case. It was damaged and wouldn’t activate, so he threw it against a wall, where it shattered into a few rust-covered pieces.
“It might be...” Cantor started, and walked over to a door that was obviously locked and of some importance. After a few minutes of slowly slicing through the door and carefully removing the now super-heated slabs of plasteel, Cantor stepped inside. “...here,” he finished his sentence, and picked up a medium-sized crate. He broke off the wooden lid of the crate and splintered it between his armored hands, and declared they had found what they were looking for.
“Thajkon described them as earthen slabs with Sith writings on them. It looks like some sort of map...” The ghostly Dark Jedi lifted one of the reddish-brown slabs of stone from the crate. Cantor had some knowledge of how to translate Sith texts, but could not make out these, which seemed complicated and encoded.
“Well, whatever those slabs are, we have them,” muttered Gathol. “And they fit Thajkon’s description, so let’s grab whatever we can fit in the hovercar and go.”
Cantor picked up the crates one by one and carried them to the hovercar outside. The red and black hovercar, which they had christened the Spitfire, was a bubbly, wide AeroTech Genesis vehicle, which they used for getting around the planet. It had gone through many scrapes with them, and had many blaster holes covering the hull. The left headlight had gone out after Gathol had dueled with a Jedi Master in one of the gang’s many old hangars on Coruscant, but that was a different story. The back had been expanded to fit a fairly large amount of cargo, whether it be stolen hardware and weapons, hostages, or slabs of stones. This is where Cantor began setting the large boxes, with five in all.
Before they left, Arak sloppily threw a few grenades around the room, which blew up and shattered the glass casings around the artifacts and toasted the artifacts themselves. Last he threw a thermal detonator with a timer attached, and set it for thirty standard minutes. Then he headed out to the Spitfire, which was already beginning to move because Gathol was impatient and was eager to show Thajkon their success. He leaped onto the top of the vehicle and crept down through the moon roof, and settled atop one of the crates as the vehicle sped off into the night.
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May 10th, 2003 04:26 AM |
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Networking
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chapter 2: The Briefing
Thirty minutes later, the thermal detonator went off and ripped apart the small museum. All the artifacts were blasted to pieces or burned in the fire.
“Two police troopship were attracted by the billowing smoke rising into the Coruscani atmosphere. It is evident that there has been some use of grenades and thermal detonators. The bodies of the Jedi guarding the museum were missing, and the armed men inside the security center were blown up. Only one Jedi was left on the scene, but he soon died from the smoke and took some law enforcement officers with him, since whoever has done this dreadful attack placed a grenade loaded with poisonous shrapnel...”
The hologram shut off with a buzz. Gathol and Arak had been watching the HoloNet broadcasting about the vicious attack they had just caused. No one knew what was stolen since everything was reduced to piles of ash and chunks of twisted metal. There were no witnesses because the Jedi had been tossed into the seemingly endless shafts between the gigantic buildings and the guards had been blown to pieces, and the last witness died of suffocation and poison shrapnel. It was untraceable, though the Jedi might find out sooner or later, but they had what they needed, even though only Thajkon and his two highest apprentices knew what the maps were for. Then Thajkon emerged from his research study in the large, raggedy building that the Dark Jedi had been living in for years.
Hajid Thajkon was their leader, their symbol of power, and their worst fear. For fear was how he kept them in line. It was rumored that he had killed two of his other apprentices for a terrible failure that forced him to go underground to avoid capture by the Republic. And his mastery of the Force was beyond any of theirs. If they dared speak against him, he could push them against the wall or choke them as a reminder of who was in charge. This is why they never spoke against him. Ever. Arak was the exception because he was new to the group, and still back-talked from time to time.
The Dark Jedi master had once been a Jedi Master, highly valued by the Jedi Order and sent on the dangerous missions that most Jedi couldn’t do. He had been valiant and cunning, but during one mission on the planet of Tejere, he was tempted by the Dark-side of the Force and fell to it. Another rumor than ran about through his followers was that he had even fought Master Windu and Master Yoda of the Jedi Council. Gathol had been his apprentice during the Tejere mission, and came to the Dark-side as well, though he left his master for another ten years until now.
Thajkon always wore his black robes around him. Underneath his billowing robes was ancient Jedi armor, which dated back to the time of the Sith Wars. He had painted them black to symbolize his dark alliance. He had brown hair and glowing blue eyes, being a humanoid. He also occasionally wore a plasteel, menacing mask to protect his face, which he was wearing now.
“Good work, gentlemen,” Thajkon said, congratulating them in his deep, raspy voice. “With these maps we’ll be able to find our target.”
“The target being...?” asked Arak, eager to know what new assignment Thajkon was giving them. Especially since they’d be using ancient Sith maps.
“The Temple of Galath, of course. Though I’m not sure you have heard of it.”
“Of course not, you never tell us anything!” Arak shouted. Suddenly his hands went to his neck for a brief second.
“You’re trying my patience, Arak,” Thajkon muttered, and then released him. Then he motioned for his other followers to come in and sit down at their table. It was a round, black obsidian table, with chairs for all of them. Thajkon’s was the comfiest and the biggest, and this was the one he sat in. Next to Thajkon sat two girls, the two which the rest envied because of their rank and power, though Gathol and Cantor could replace them were they to die. One was Vanth, a humanoid woman who had deathly pale skin and piercing blue eyes. Her hair was snow white. In contrast, she wore a dark blue jumpsuit. The other was Thajkon’s daughter, Trin Thajkon. She, like Thajkon, had brown hair and luminescent eyes. But, unlike her father, she had never been a Jedi. When Hajid fell to the Dark-side on Tejere, he sought out his daughter and began training her in the Dark-side of the Force, developing her skills.
After they all sat down, Thajkon began to speak.
“You are all wondering what those Sith maps are for, are you not? I’ll tell you then. We are looking for the temple of a great Sith lord, Darth Massacre. Darth Massacre was his title, for he led great raids and killed many, but the name he was born with was Galath. He was a powerful Sith, and ruled his army of Sith warriors with an iron fist, which might as well be literal since he lost his hand to a Jedi Master and had it replaced. Anyway, tales tell of how his warriors were commanded by him to build a temple in his honor. That temple has been lost for a thousand years, since the fall of the Sith Empire.
“After his battalion lost one final, vicious battle with the Republic, he executed every single one of his soldiers and fed them into a machine in the temple they had built. It harvested the energy of the Force from their corpses, and had a great amount of energy because the warriors were trained in the Force and were Sith. The machine was said to have the power to give the Force energy of those dead Sith to whomever had the mind of a Sith and could access the machine to make it run. This machine is what we seek. If we seek what all the other Sith sought, we need this power to dominate the universe.
“Before Galath could use the machine, he disappeared. Most likely killed in another attack from the Republic. All known routes to the planet and the exact coordinates of the planet were utterly forgotten. Another Republic screw up, for they did not want people visiting the planet due to its natives‘ nature and because of what Galath had built there. The name of the planet has come up a few times as ‘Telegarnia,’ though it is somewhat unlikely. Our goal is to find this planet and Galath’s temple.”
“But we have no idea where this planet is?” Arak asked.
“No, Arak, you numbskull,” Cantor hissed. “That is why we must find this place.”
“Not to worry though. Telegarnia shouldn’t be that hard to find. I have a friend - a very rich friend at that - that can translate this Sith map. The planet we seek should be on this map, for it was also supposedly a great location during the Sith War. It is not very easy to find my friend though. He is very secretive, and recently has moved to his hidden base, so no one knows his whereabouts. To find my friend we must turn to another friend of mine, whom you may know. Raloco the Ragged.”
“Raloco?” Gathol jumped out of his chair. “How do you know we can get the location of your other friend’s base if we have to ask that ungrateful slimeball? We broke him out of prison on Oovo IV and he disappeared on us. Then we tracked him to Malastare and he got us in that big fight with the Jedi and all those pirates. And then we hunted him down again and we went up against that Hutt on Nar Shadda. And then...”
“Well, I’ve tracked him down again, with some help from Suanmi. He’s on the planet Tatooine. It is a desert planet, and very dry. Too dry for my health, and too dusty. Therefore, I’m sending you with Vanth and Trin in the Dark Lightning. You aren’t going to be as...friendly as you have been in the past. Be as brutal as you want, but don’t kill him. Torture him, hold him at gunpoint, shoot him in the leg, use the Force, anything. No disintegrations...until you get the whereabouts of my friend, that is.”
“Yes Thajkon, we understand. You said that last time we had to talk with Raloco,” Gathol muttered.
“You also ended up cutting off his arm before he got away on Bandoon the Hutt’s transport, if you remember,” reminded Arak.
“Yes, but I will not be with you this time. I have business elsewhere. Also, he replaced that arm with a warehouse of tools and equipment that could help him fight us. Blasters, knives, hydrospanners, whatever. So be careful, he’s more dangerous than before,” explained Thajkon.
“Great...” Gathol moaned.
“Does more dangerous than before mean he’ll be harder to corner than last time?” Vanth asked, her dry tone getting everyone’s attention. She rarely talked, and when she did, her voice was a head-turner.
“I would think so,” Trin said, rolling her eyes.
“Ssstupid Raloco will feel the tip of my blade enter his leg if he resssists,” Suanmi snapped.
“You’re not allowed to do that, because we must interrogate him, not kill him,” Cantor ordered.
“Silence!” Thajkon roared above all the moaning and arguing. “I don’t want this to turn out like the argument we had when those bounty hunters dropped in. Remember that?” Everyone fell silent. That had been a brutal fight, as they all remembered. A bounty hunter had nearly killed Gathol, and Arak had almost decapitated Thajkon while trying to decapitate an assassin. It wasn’t one of their finer battles.
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May 10th, 2003 04:54 AM |
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
“Now, where was I. Oh yes, Raloco,” Thajkon said, putting the conversation back on topic. “He is in the city of Mos Talos. It is a city that is going downhill, and is in worse condition than Mos Eisley. Mos Talos is on the edge of the Jundland Wastes, so it occasionally is raided by Tusken Raiders, or Sand People as the locals call them...”
“Sand People?” Arak asked.
“They are tribes of vicious creatures that have a great hatred for the people that have begun to inhabit Tatooine, though I’m not entirely sure why. They are experts at surviving desert climates, especially because of their clothes. Robes and bandages that cover all of their skin, and breath masks that filter the air. You’ll probably see one while you’re there. Anyway, as I was saying. Mos Talos is full of lowlifes and shops. Raloco is bound to have many sources...”
“Like last time,” Cantor interrupted. “He spotted us before we even got close to his hideout.”
“Right. Keep a low profile. I want this to be a quick operation. Get on the planet, hunt him down, get the information, and get off the planet,” Thajkon told them. “Simple, no?”
“It’s simple alright. Are you sure it’s that simple, though?” asked Gathol.
“Not quite,” Thajkon said, crushing their hopes of an easy task. “It is possible that he has looked to the Hutts for help. Stop by Jabba the Hutt’s palace and ask his highness if he knows of Raloco’s whereabouts. You’ll probably have to use bribery. I’ll give you an extra 50,000 credits so that you may pay him.”
“Whoopee, we get to talk to a Hutt,” Trin sighed. She hated Hutts and didn’t get along with them very well. She had blown up Bandoon the Hutt shortly before they left his fortress on Malastare. Bandoon had supported Raloco, and now it seemed likely that Jabba the Hutt supported the ragged slimeball as well.
“Don’t kill the Hutt this time,” Vanth said sharply to Trin. “Jabba has more dignity than Bandoon. I’ve done business with him before.”
Thajkon smiled. “Yes, Vanth is right. I don’t want this small task to turn into a killing spree. Just find Raloco. You may set off for Tatooine in the morning. I am placing Gathol in charge of this.”
“Gathol? Why not me, Dad?” Trin gasped.
“You blew up Bandoon and got bounties placed on our heads. And Vanth is not the leading type. Gathol is a perfect choice.”
In Gathol’s mind this was all fine and dandy. He liked being the leader. The leader always got the credit. The leader always got to command. The leader was supreme. That is why Thajkon was such a renowned warrior and a powerful one. He was the leader. But for now, Gathol was the leader of this task. He would enjoy this as much as possible.
“And where will you be Thajkon?” Gathol questioned. It was unusual for Thajkon to be elsewhere during a mission, mostly because he did not trust them. Maybe he thought Gathol was more trustworthy than the others.
“I will be on Nar Shadda, checking another one of my sources. Just a fail-safe if Raloco doesn’t talk or you accidentally kill him, like another mission I remember...” Thajkon exclaimed.
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May 10th, 2003 04:55 AM |
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chaper 3: Arrival on Tatooine
The Dark Jedi boarded the Dark Lightning, a fast ship that Thajkon had gotten awhile back, when he was still a Jedi. It was a SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000, and Thajkon had received it from the Jedi Order as a gift for achieving the rank of Jedi Master. It was now covered with pockmarks and was painted a dark steel gray. Thajkon had also added four laser cannons to make it more deadly, as well as a proton torpedo launcher. He had appointed Gathol the bottom gunner, Trin the rear gunner, and Arak the pilot, and the rest would be the passengers. Gathol would get to sit in the quads, on the underside of the ship, if they were to get into a dogfight. It was actually quite effective when it came to aerial combat, though it was slower due to the fact that it was originally a yacht.
Gathol stepped inside last. “Good luck on Nar Shadda, Thajkon. You may need it,” Gathol called out to his Master.
“I won’t need it, but thanks.” Thajkon grinned back, though the smile was hidden by his mask.
Gathol then closed the hatch and went up to the cockpit. There was only seating for two, which would be where Vanth and Arak (who was a surprisingly good pilot) would sit, so until the quads and rear turret were needed, Gathol and Trin would sit with Cantor and Suanmi on the long, leather sofa in the passenger area. Their master had decorated the passenger area lavishly, with floral designs and even a chandelier. When he fell to the Dark-side, he sold all of it and now everything was the same steel gray as the hull. The floor had a glowing liquid underneath the glass though, and provided an eerie, blue light that illuminated the room.
“So, do you think Jabba knows anything about Raloco?” Trin asked Gathol.
“Maybe. He does seem to have a way to deal with Hutts. He probably steals big amounts of cash and pays the Hutt he is dealing with for protection. Hutts have a weak spot for money.” Gathol got up and stretched. The ship had just taken off, leaving their hangar in the industrial area, and through the viewport Gathol could see stars streaking by as they entered hyperspace. He hollered to Arak up front in the cockpit. “How long will it take us to reach Tatooine?”
“Not too long. Tatooine is in the Outer Rim,” Arak shouted back.
After only half of one standard hour they reached the planet. It wasn’t the greatest sight to see, in Arak’s opinion. It looks like a giant dust ball, Arak thought to himself.
The computer made a beeping noise to alert the pilot and co-pilot that they had reached their destination. Gathol had dosed off and now awoke to this sound.
“Are we there yet?” he asked.
“Yep, we’re here. It doesn’t look like we’ll be having too much trouble landing. In fact, I don’t see any traffic control at all,” Arak said as he surveyed the surface and checked the scanners. “All I have to do is pick a spot and land.”
Soon they landed near the location that Thajkon had indicated. This would put them very close to Jabba the Hutt’s palace, which is where they wanted to go. They all clambered out of the ship in their desert gear (except for Cantor who always wore his black robes and armor) and began to walk. After about an hour’s walk they arrived at the palace.
“Wow. Jabba hasn’t done too bad for himself,” Trin said as she gazed up at the large structure. It was a cylindrical dome-like structure, and the surface of it was a dirty bronze color. It had many windows and one or two towers nearby, probably sentry towers for sniping out unwanted guests.
“Jabba did not build this structure. He stole it from a group of monks that remove each other’s brains,” Cantor said, also looking up.
“Thanks for sharing,” Trin said, making a disgusted face.
Finally, after marching up a sandy “walkway,” they came to the large door that lead inside. Gathol pulled a stick out of the sand and banged it on the door. As if to answer, a robotic eye stuck out of a hole in the door to greet them. It spoke in a weird language, and Cantor had to translate.
“What do you want?” barked the robotic eye.
“We are here to see Jabba the Hutt,” Gathol said.
“Jabba is sleeping right now and wishes not to be disturbed,” the eye replied. It flipped its blaster into view. At this all of the Dark Jedi pushed themselves up against the door, so that the eye could not aim at them. The eye swiveled in place, trying to get a good view of the visitors, but could not and finally gave up.
“Very well, you may enter,” the eye snarled, but Cantor didn’t translate fast enough and did not catch what the eye had said. The eye then pulled itself back into the door.
“I guess we’ll have to get in the hard way,” said Gathol, preparing to bring out his lightsaber and cut his way through the door, but the door began to rumble and lift up. “...or not,” Gathol quickly added as a dark passage was revealed to them. Dust was falling from the now raised door and clouded their vision. And once they stepped inside they could barely see a thing as their eyes adapted to the darkness. The only one not having trouble with eyesight was Suanmi, who spotted the four Gamorrean guards immediately.
“We have company!” he shouted to the others. The Gamorreans surrounded them immediately. Suanmi could see that they held large vibro-axes. Very large vibro-axes.
“I have a bad feeling about thisss,” Suanmi moaned as he saw they were surrounded.
“Do not react to their presence. Just ward them away with the Force,” Vanth ordered. The other Dark Jedi tried, with Mind Trick especially, and the guards went away. Arak had used a less subtle approach and began using the Force to choke the life out of a guard. Vanth had to confuse the guard and put him to sleep to leave him alive, and then chastised Arak for his foolishness. “We do not wish to offend Jabba by killing his guards. It would only make our bargaining more difficult.”
They then entered the main chamber. If the great Jabba had been asleep like the eye had told them, he would have had a hard time doing so. A crowd of ghastly criminals and bounty hunters and smugglers hovered on the edges of the room, and were all laughing gaily at the dancer that the Hutt had just dropped into his rancor’s cage. The group screamed with delight as the remains of the dancer were slowly devoured by Jabba’s unusual pet. Gathol waited until the excitement had died down to announce his presence to the entire chamber.
“I wish to have an audience with the great Jabba the Hutt!” he shouted above the din, which instantly died down. All eyes were directed on him. Damn, I hate these situations, Gathol thought to himself.
The great slimy slug on the throne said something in Huttese, a language that Gathol did not understand. Jabba’s protocol droid translated for Gathol. “Jabba the Hutt says you have your audience, and wishes to know why you are here and who you are,” the droid said.
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May 30th, 2003 03:00 AM |
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
“I am Gathol Brand, and these are my accomplices,” Gathol announced, motioning to his allies near the back of the room. All of them were feeling uneasy now that all eyes were on them now, and kept their hands near their sabers, just in case this did not turn out as planned. “I wish to receive some information from Jabba about a certain someone he may be sheltering.” The droid began to translate with great accuracy, word for word, as Jabba began his conversation with the Dark Jedi who now stood before him.
“Welcome, Gathol, to my humble abode. I did not like your entrance into it though, trying to confuse and choke my guards,” the Hutt rambled. Gathol threw an angry glare back to Arak, who cowered behind Cantor. “But, it can possibly be ignored. Now, who is it that you seek information about. Who is this man I may be sheltering?”
“A humanoid known as Raloco the Ragged. He has evaded us many times by looking to the Hutts for aid. Our leader told us we should search here, just in case he has done something he has done before,” Gathol quickly said.
“This information will cost you...” Jabba said, grinning a big, slimy Hutt smile with his toothless mouth and mucus covered tongue sliding over his lips.
“What is your demanded price?” Gathol asked.
“75,000 credits. If you ask for any less I will say nothing, and my guards will show you out the rough way.”
“But we only have 50,000 credits.”
“Then I guess we have no deal, and you can leave now.”
“50,000 credits will be sufficient,” Gathol said, deciding to try a Jedi Mind Trick.
“No they will not. Your foolish mind tricks do not work on me. I am a Hutt! Now leave!”
“If you kick me out now I will show your guards the meaning of pain.”
“Not my problem...”
“Wait!” Vanth hollered from the back of the room and rushed to grab Gathol. But Jabba shouted a single order in Huttese.
“Boscka!” Soon Gathol and Vanth were falling, falling, and then sliding into a dirt-floored room. The room was dark and smelled of rotting flesh and saliva. Gathol reached to feel his surroundings, and grabbed another hand. He pulled on the hand and found the arm of Jabba’s last dancer. Gathol threw the arm away and told Vanth what he had found. But Vanth did not hear him over the metallic grinding of a heavy door, bigger than the door that had let them into this dreadful palace.
“Soon we will be faced with a rancor, Gathol. Be careful how you handle this thing,” Vanth warned. She drew her lightsabers with the Force from two pockets on her legs. She ignited them, their cold blue light piercing the darkness that filled the filthy cage they now sat in. Soon the door was fully raised, and they could see the glaring eyes of the mighty rancor. With a terrible roar, it strode forward towards the gleaming light of Vanth’s lightsabers. Gathol soon ignited his blade, its fiery glow also attracting unwanted attention from the rancor. The rancor edged closer to them, drooling with hunger. With one clawed hand, it swiped and scooped up Gathol. The Dark Jedi yelled angrily, and began trying to cut off the rancor’s bony fingers.
Vanth rolled her eyes. Gathol is always getting into trouble, she though to herself as she shifted her grip on one of her lightsabers. She held the handle like a spear and hurled it, blade-first, into the eye of the rancor. The creature howled and grab at its face, dropping Gathol. Gathol hit the ground and rolled off to the side, away from the rancor’s feet. Then, after calling his lightsaber to him, he edged his way behind the beast. He raised his saber to a stabbing position, and caught Vanth’s eye. She nodded, knowing what he was trying to do. She kept the rancor’s attention, and pulling her saber out of its eye with the Force kept his attention, then twirling them in a hypnotizing pattern, something that Thajkon had taught her. It continued howling and began to charge on her. But Gathol quickly ran up its back and sunk his blade into the monster’s spine. The rancor roared and its eye turned red with fury. Gathol moved up to the top of its head, but the rancor grabbed him before he could deliver the killing blow.
Up above, Jabba’s court watched with delight. They did not care whether the Dark Jedi were eaten or the rancor killed, just as long as it was a good show. Jabba was particularly pleased, though he did not like the fact that his pet was going to be killed. He chucked and shouted an order to his guards.
Down in the pit, a door opened on the far end of the room. A fat, sweaty man walked in with a heavy stun gun. He fired multiple times until both the rancor and Gathol were unconscious. Many of Jabba’s men brought Gathol out and to the medical droid. After a few minutes in Jabba’s large (and slimy) bacta container, he was as good as new. Once again they stood before the mighty Hutt.
“You have fought well, Dark Ones,” the Hutt rumbled in Huttese. “I will accept your money and give you the location of this...Raloco character.” Gathol forked over the credits, and then Jabba spoke up about Raloco.
“Raloco...he was one bad son of a *****...he is hiding out in downtown Mos Talos. His gang...”
“He has a gang now?” Arak interrupted. “Oh damn, that’s not good...”
“As I was saying,” the Hutt continued, giving Arak a glare, “He’s formed a gang. They’ve been raiding the citizens, giving me fifty percent of the profits. They’ve made an old marketplace into their headquarters. I’m sure you’ll find it.”
“Thank you Jabba,” Gathol replied. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
“I’m sure we will...” Jabba muttered as the Dark Jedi turned to leave. As soon as they left, he pulled Bib Fortuna to his side. “I want you to put higher bounties on their heads...”
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May 30th, 2003 03:00 AM |
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chapter 4: Skirmish in the Marketplace
Gathol, Cantor, and Suanmi walked into the abandoned marketplace on the newly renamed Raloco Avenue.
“I wonder why they named it that,” Cantor snorted. He ended up ripping down the post and using it to bash the guards down the street into a pulp.
The rest of the Dark Jedi remained behind in the docking bay that they had landed the Dark Lightning. In case of emergency, Gathol would contact them and that would be their escape route. So far it seemed like it would a synch. Raloco apparently did not know they were here, which was surprising because he was a Dark Jedi like themselves. The fact that he wasn’t a very powerful Dark Jedi removed their worry though. And the guards hadn’t been anything terribly hard. A snitch they had spoken with down the street had sold them some information, telling them that most of Raloco’s men were off fighting Tusken Raiders in the canyons not too far from Mos Talos. Raloco was apparently trying to better the city for the citizens, though they all knew they would never accept them as a leader or as anything else for that matter. He was a scruffy-looking nerfherder, in everyone’s highest opinion of the raider.
After hiding the remains of the guards that Cantor had mashed, dismantling the holocams and security droids, and taking a lift to the second floor, they stood in what seemed to be Raloco’s reception office. A female Twi’lekk sat at the desk, refusing their entrance. A simple mind trick was all it took, and they moved into the wanted man’s office. Standing at the sides of Raloco’s desk were his two henchmen, a Caantaani and an Abinyishi. Both were quick gunmen, but soon Suanmi and Cantor held their sabers to the two alien’s necks.
“Hello Raloco,” Gathol greeted, igniting his lightsaber and holding it in the rat’s direction.
“Nice to see you Gathol,” Raloco said, giving a nervous smile. “What brings you here?”
Raloco was shabbily clad in cobbled blast armor and torn cloth, apparently ready for any unexpected visits. His face was covered in the grime caused by the last sandstorm, and his wind-swept brown hair was likely filled with sand. His sharp blue eyes darted around the room, looking from side to side, but always returning to Gathol. His left arm was tan and sun burnt from exposure harsh twin suns that rose into the Tatooine sky, but his right arm was a different story. The tarnished gray metal of a mechanical replacement arm shown brightly. Many slots covered the forearm. The robotic hand that topped it off was decorated with a large circle on the palm, as well as many fiber-optic chords passing through the wrist and fingers.
“We need to talk about something,” Gathol replied. “My Master has been searching for this Sith Temple on the Outer Rim. So far, the searches have been futile. I’m sure you heard about our raid at the museum on Coruscant over the HoloNet, so I won’t need to tell you about that incident. But I do need you to find someone that we need to decipher our maps.”
Raloco shook his head and muttered. This wasn’t unusual, but this was more urgent than the last time to looked him up. He needed to find the person now so that they could read the maps soon.
“Look slimeball, we need the coordinates to that guy right now,” Gathol ordered. He began to tighten his grip in the Force and Raloco soon began to gag. But Raloco showed his defiance yet again and used his limited Force powers to shrug it off. Then, with one quick movement, the circle on his robotic hand’s palm opened and out shot a lightsaber. The lightsaber’s hilt looked slightly damaged and dented, and seemed as if it had just been repaired. Raloco activated it with a push of a button and swiped at Gathol. Gathol blocked easily of course, but then Raloco back flipped out the window behind him. Gathol cursed and order the other two Dark Jedi to kill the Caantaani and Abinyishi guards.
“I’m going after him,” Gathol called out as he leaped out the window after Raloco. Gathol landed in the sandy street nearly twenty feet below. Raloco had already alerted his security forces, and a crowd of soldiers was forming fast. The assortment of species, ranging from Abinyishi body guards to Zabrak gun-slingers, were already firing pistols and rifles at him. He deflected the shots and rushed for cover, crossing the street and ducking into a doorway. The startled snipers within were immediately cut down as he ran through the adobe hut to the back door. Then he snuck through the alleyways until he was behind the armed pirates. They had begun to enter the hut he had disappeared into, but from the shadows he began to choke an unsuspecting Rodian until he lay dead on the ground. He repeated the process three more times before a Trandoshan sniper discovered him in the alley. The sniper raised his gun, aimed for Gathol’s head, and was about to pull the trigger when he was stabbed in the back by Suanmi’s piercing green blade. Cantor did a similar thing on the next building, choking a guard and dropping him in the street below.
Gathol spotted them and moved from his cover as a bullet flew from a projectile rifle down the street, sending dust flying from the wall. Gathol rushed out and began disposing of several of the gun-slingers, who had been focusing on the two Dark Jedi above them, before they knew what was happening. Cantor and Suanmi leaped into the fray from above. Cantor’s weight sent many crashing to the ground, and then his blade put more guards on the ground. Suanmi did a flying jump kick and knocked a Trandoshan off his feet, then skewered him while he was down.
Raloco was still running down the street towards a large mesa of rock. Gathol spotted a swoop nearby, and hopped on. He almost ran their target down, but he jumped off and let the swoop collide with Raloco’s current bodyguard, a large bluish-black-skinned Herglic. Igniting his lightsaber, he leaped over Raloco and slashed down hard. An armored pad on the man’s arm protected him from losing his other arm, and then Raloco dodged another swing, and blocked the next. The cyan blade clashed with Gathol’s, flashing brilliantly. The lock ended quickly and they exchanged blows. Soon Raloco was backed up against a wall, his body guards too far away to help him. The snipers in a nearby tower spotted him. Gathol did not know it, but Raloco gave the signal for them to open fire. The shots flew and nearly ripped through Gathol, but he dodged in time. The shots, missing Gathol, went through Raloco’s legs and into the wall, shattering his kneecaps and his left femur. He crumpled to the ground, defeated. Gathol dragged the body into a nearby building, where he’d be interrogated later. As soon as Gathol walked back outside, the air was thick with sniper shots, the shots missing by mere inches. Two Herglic and a couple of other pirates had effectively sealed the way to the door of the sniper tower, and Gathol thought it would be impossible to scale the wall, where others could easily blast him down.
He looked over at Cantor and Suanmi. Cantor deflecting shots from mounted cannon on an old, beat-up, and apparently stolen Naboo flash speeder. The shot deflected hit the gunner, and while the driver scrambled to man it, Suanmi drove his saber into him. Manning the gun, Suanmi began to blow apart the pirates around them. Cantor drove his long blade through the engine of another speeder, shutting it off and making it and the mounted gun unusable. Soon there weren’t very many pirates left. But the snipers in the tower (Gathol estimated there were about ten of them) were still causing problems. Two of them began firing on Suanmi and the speeder he sat in. A stray shot struck the cannon as he aimed for the tower, and another shattered the windshield. The agile Dark Jedi leaped from the speeder as the shots began to hit too close to their mark. Cantor had another two firing at him, and he was quickly dodging and blocking. A shot whizzed through a part of his robes, burning multiple holes in the folds of his cloak. The rest of the snipers were shooting at Gathol. A disruptor beam flew past him and hit the wall, melting a deep, super-heated pockmark in the wall.
“Arak! Air cover, now!” he shouted into the comlink as he rolled away from another disruptor shot and a hoard of laser beams. But soon the Dark Lightning came into view, zooming through the air.
“How does a hot bomb sound?” Arak asked, indicating that he would use the incendiary bomb to turn the snipers to ashes. Gathol agreed, and what looked a fireball flew from the launch tubes on the underside of the ship. The fireball hit the tower, engulfing it in a deep red flame, and setting the snipers ablaze. The shots stopped immediately.
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Jun 17th, 2003 02:17 AM |
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Networking
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
“Nice work, Arak, now head for the nearest empty docking bay. We’ve got Raloco this time,” Gathol said. The quads of the Dark Lightning opened fire, spitting out powerful yet rapid bursts of laser beams, finishing off the now-fleeing mercenaries and raiders. Cantor rushed into the house where Raloco had been dragged, and flung the man over his shoulder. Raloco moaned in pain, but Gathol punched him so hard he was knocked out at once. Suanmi and Gathol then paved the way through the remaining men to the docking bay where Arak had landed. Gathol pushed down a moister vaporator, crushing a group of men beneath it. The precious water it held splashed onto the hot ground, almost instantly drying up. After clearing the way down the street and through a small maintenance area, they reached the docking bays. The ship in the first one belonged to Raloco, and, after removing treasures and weapons from its hold, they blew it up. The next one held their ship, and they stomped up the ramp. Gathol deflected the last few shots before the ramp lifted up and closed. Soon they were airborne, and Arak swiftly maneuvered around the anti-aircraft blasts, and dropped one last incendiary bomb down onto Raloco’s hideout.
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Jun 17th, 2003 02:17 AM |
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Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chapter 5: Being Discovered
When the Dark Lightning arrived on Coruscant, they all sensed something was amiss. As the abandoned apartment they had set up headquarters in pulled into view, they spotted a plume of smoke rising from the top floor, where they had last met about the mission.
“Something’s wrong,” Gathol said. He sensed something happening within the building. Fighting. Danger.
“Do ya think it’s a house fire?” Arak muttered hopefully.
“No...but I think someone has discovered where we’ve been hiding,” Gathol muttered.
Arak began to pull the ship into the garage.
“No, wait...” Gathol had a bad feeling. “Keep the Lightning flying. I’ll go in alone...”
“I’ll go with you!” Arak volunteered. “Vanth can fly the ship.”
After some debate, Arak and Gathol jumped from the ship and onto the top of their garage. Originally, their hideout had been an apartment building, with two towers. One of the towers had been burnt out and most of the floors were missing, but Thajkon had built a two story hangar on top of the condemned building. It had been abandon some time ago for unknown reasons, and the Republic rarely came over here. That is why Thajkon had seen it fitting as a place to set up headquarters. It was also very close to the industrial area, which was gloomy and seemed to hide everything. Thajkon was sure that the Jedi could not sense them there, though he could not quite think of why. Only the Sith could cloud the Jedi’s vision, but they had been extinct for a millennium.
Gathol and Arak slowly crept up to a shattered window and climbed in. They were now on the third level from the top, which they had made into a room for lounging around. Chairs were on fire, and things were smashed. The cooling unit was knocked over, its food and beverages mashed into the carpet. The computer in the corner had many holes in it, and the gaming system, which Gathol and Arak had stolen from Hologram Fun World on a previous mission, was still smoking.
“Great, the game’s been fried...” Arak complained, but Gathol covered his mouth. Then he grabbed Arak and jumped behind the sofa as a blue laser beam flew through the air and shattered a vase. Then another shot went through the couch, nearly hitting Arak in the leg. The next one to go through singed Gathol’s hair. The Dark Jedi leaped out from behind the couch, Arak deflecting bolts and Gathol locating their origin. A figure behind the cooling unit was firing a high powered rifle, and Gathol immediately began to choke the man. After the man flopped to the ground, Gathol got a closer look at him. It was a Senate guard, garbed in the traditional blue robes and a durable blue helmet.
“How did they...?” Gathol began, but Arak interrupted.
“I hear fighting on the next floor up,” Arak said, pausing to listen. “Also I hear repulsor lift engines...”
They both turned around to see a Republic troop ship hovering outside the window, turbolasers trained on them. The cannons began spitting out lasers faster than they could block, and they dashed towards the lift. Gathol used the Force to activate the lift, but it was already heading for the top floor.
“The fighting must have moved to the top. It sounds more distant...” Arak was listening again. He could hardly hear the clashing of lightsabers and guns firing above the din of the blaster cannons. The turbolasers were shredding the furniture in the room and blasting more windows out. As soon as the door opened, they jammed themselves inside. Gathol quickly hit the button and they went to the top floor. This took them to where they had been briefed about their mission only a few days before. The door opened up and they walked into the holovision room, where they had been watching the report on their attack at the Museum. The holovision was completely wrecked, Gathol’s chair was on fire, the sofa on this level had been riddled with shots, and the arm of Cantor’s chair had been diced off.
When they opened the door to Thajkon’s office, where they had talked about their current mission, they saw a spectacular sight. Their leader was fighting two Jedi while deflecting shots from a Senate guard or two. Arak twirled out his pistol and fried one of the guards, and Gathol choked the other. Gathol quickly snatched up the rifle and aimed carefully at the Padawan. Because the Jedi were focused on fighting Thajkon, the shot struck the Padawan in the back. As the young Jedi fell to his knees, another shot went through his skull. The other Jedi turned to see Gathol, but Thajkon jabbed his lightsaber through his leg, and then Gathol let loose another bolt that hit the Jedi in the chest. Thajkon then finished him off.
“Good work, my students,” Thajkon said. “Where are the others?” His question was answered as the Republic troop ship rose up and was blasted away by the Dark Lightning‘s cannons. The ramp lowered and Trin beckoned to them urgently. Cantor had a comlink.
“Master, their are more gunships behind you!” he shouted over the comlink.
“Oh no...” Gathol griped as he turned around. He spotted four gunships lowering their missile launchers into position. Thajkon and Gathol began to dash, but a hidden Senate guard blasted Arak in the leg. The others did not notice, and Arak was left behind, sprawled on the floor. He quickly dragged himself into a vent low to the ground as the ships waited for the Senate guard to get in. Then the first missiles flew. The blast smashed all of the windows and forced Thajkon and Gathol onto the ramp.
“What about Arak?” Trin asked as she helped her father up.
“He’s dead! We must get out of here!” Thajkon bellowed. As the ramp raised up and the Dark Jedi moved inside, a probe droid in the shadows fired a homing beacon. The small device attached itself to the hull of the ship just before the rockets roared and the Dark Lightning flew away. The men in the troop ships noticed them and soared after them, but the quads held them off. Soon the ship was off of the planet and in hyperspace.
On board one of the troop ships, a pilot reported their findings.
“We’ve discovered Thajkon and his gang, but they got away. We’ve decimated their headquarters though, and we might have killed two or three of them. We didn’t have enough time to put a tracking device on their ship because we couldn’t get close enough, but no matter. I’m sure they’ll turn up somewhere...”
“Glad to hear it Captain Qualsh,” came the voice of the Supreme Chancellor himself. “My informants were correct then. You can bring the ships home.”
A few hours after the fight, a bruised and burnt Arak crawled from his hiding place in the air vent. He had fallen asleep in the pipe, or had he passed out due to the pain in his leg? He didn’t care, and he was still tired. As he tried to walk, he limped and pain shot through his leg. As he examine his wound, he found that it was not terrible and he would live.
That’s when the mysterious figure enter the room.
“Who are you?” Arak inquired. But the person did not reply. As he stepped into the light, Arak could see that he was clothed in black and had a hood on. The person then pulled back his hood, revealing a head of horns and a face covered in red-and-black tattoos. His yellow eyes pierced through the darkness of the night and seemed to gaze strait through Arak. This made Arak feel afraid of the phantom-like being, and he stood up slowly, flipping out his lightsaber as he did so. The ‘phantom,’ which Arak had perceived to be a Zabrak, twirled a long lightsaber hilt above his head and brought it down in from of him, igniting one side and then the next. The red blades of the double-edged lightsaber then proceeded to hack away at Arak. Arak tried to block, but the Zabrak was fast and the blades cut through his legs and arms and upper body. Suddenly, with a decisive twirl, the skilled warrior dissected Arak‘s lightsaber, and the yellow light flicked out. The Dark Jedi stood backed against the remains of a wall, and repeated his question.
“Who are you?” he gasped out.
“A Sith, which you will never be,” the Zabrak growled, and quickly hacked up the defenseless Dark Jedi and pushed his remains over the side of the building.
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Jun 17th, 2003 02:23 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
Chapter 6: Finding an Old Friend
The Lightning pulled off of Coruscant, its crew afraid of being pursued by the Republic and the Jedi. They were sure that they had lost Arak in the fiery explosion of the troopships’ missiles, and now they had lost their base due to the fact that it had been blown apart and because the Republic knew where it was. Thajkon seemed troubled by this.
“How could this have happened? No body knows where we were hiding,” Gathol said.
“I have no answers as well. Couldn’t have been a tracking device, the ship’s sensors would have told us that by now,” Thajkon replied. He had removed his battle mask, revealing a wizened, scarred face, tipped with a graying goatee on his chin and topped with graying hair that had been pulled back into a short pony-tail. His luminous blue eyes looked even more menacing without the plasteel mask.
“Well, all is not lost. I see you succeeded in capturing our friend Raloco here.” Thajkon walked over to Raloco, who was tied to his seat to ensure he did not escape. They had treated his leg wounds with bacta, so he was in pretty good shape for having lost a battle with Gathol. But Cantor had shorn off his synthetic arm near the shoulder, which might have had a knife for cutting through his bindings or weaponry for shooting at the Dark Jedi. Thajkon sat down on a chair in front of him and gazed unblinking back at Raloco.
“So...are you willing to talk now? I need to know where Lark is so that we can find what we are looking for...” Thajkon said quietly. Gathol could sense that he was using the Force to emphasize what he was saying, like using a Jedi Mind Trick. It seemed to be working, for Raloco was squirming in his seat.
“Talk!” Thajkon rasped. Raloco began to choke as soon as Thajkon raised his hand and made a fist. Raloco nodded and Thajkon released him. “Well?”
“Lark and his gang are on Hoth,” Raloco gasped. “He’s made a base in one of the underground grottos. His comm frequency is 1214, and to open the door leading into the grotto, the code is THX-1138. He’ll tell you where the door is...”
Thajkon continued staring at him long and hard, probing Raloco’s mind to see if he was telling the truth or lying. Eventually he stopped and called to Cantor. “Throw him in a cell in the back.” Thajkon had installed two holding cells that not even a Jedi could escape from or hack into. Cantor nodded and untied Raloco, and carried him down the ramp and back into the holding cells on the first floor of the ship. Thajkon then spoke, but mostly to himself.
“Hoth...a wise place to hide. A wise place to hide...”
The tired Dark Jedi fell asleep in their chairs and on the couches, except for Thajkon and Gathol, who sat up front, piloting the ship.
“Your aid on Coruscant was appreciated, Gathol,” Thajkon said, leaning back as the ship guided itself through hyperspace. Thajkon had removed his plasteel mask and his luminous eyes were glancing around the room.
“I know,” Gathol replied, still looking out the at the stars streaking past. “I could sense that there was something wrong in the building, or I would have brought all of us in.”
“But you didn’t, and you are wise.” Thajkon sat in thought for a long time, thinking hard about something. When he spoke again, he asked “What are your thoughts on the Republic’s attack? How do you think they found us?”
“I do not know,” said Gathol. “No one knew about our hideout, and certainly no one betrayed us. My best bet was that Arak went to another club, an informant got to him, and paid for the drinks...”
“That is possible,” Thajkon said, eyes closed and still deep in thought. “But he is dead now. I am sure of it.”
Their conversation ended as the ship’s computer alerted them of their approach to Hoth.
“Wake up the crew, Gathol, and ask Cantor to get Raloco out of the holding cell. We need him to tell us where on that ice ball Lark is,” ordered Thajkon, which surprised Gathol because Thajkon had been very deep in thought. Gathol got out of his chair and went around shaking and hitting the others, waking them up. Well Gathol tried to hit Cantor, the ghoulish Dark Jedi grabbed his hand with extremely fast reflexes.
“I’m a light sleeper,” Cantor said to a surprised Gathol as he went to unlock Raloco from the cell.
Soon everyone was up, and Hoth was filling up their view ports. They felt cold just looking at the whitish-blue planet. The wrapping of clouds swirled about violently around the orb, making the planet seem to be a sea of swirling white. They had flown above the asteroid field and were past it, so nothing blocked their view. Three moons orbited the planet, just as white-blue as the planet itself.
“Prepare to land,” Thajkon commanded, indicating that they all sit down.
“Can’t you sssee that there isss a ssstorm?” ask Suanmi, pointing at the swirling clouds that they were zooming quickly towards.
“Yes, and that is why you need to sit down.” Thajkon used a powerful Force push and caused Suanmi to plop down in a chair. “Now strap in. This could be rough...”
The Dark Lightning plowed into the clouds, and was instantly rocked by the intense turbulence. The steering joystick was ripped from Gathol’s hands, and he scrambled to grab it as the Lightning began to spiral downwards. The snowy surface was zooming up to meet them. Suddenly the joystick stopped moving, and Gathol looked over to see Thajkon using the Force to steady the ship. He could tell he couldn’t hold it for long, so Gathol grabbed the joystick again and gripped it hard. Thajkon relaxed his grip on the joystick with the Force, and Gathol again was battling to keep his hold on the joystick.
The storm was too tumultuous to put the Lightning down in a safe landing. The ship hit the snow and skidded across the surface. Suddenly there was a metal-on-metal scraping noise, but it stopped almost as soon as it started. The Lightning then went off an ice-covered hill, which sent the ship skyward. Gathol activated repulsorlift and pulled the joystick to the right to bank around. He then put the ship down next to where the metal-on-metal scraping noise was heard. Just as soon as they had landed, the ship was covered in blown snow by the storm. The howling wind was silenced by the thick layer of snow and ice, and it was incredibly quiet in the ship.
“Well, that was fun,” Trin muttered, breaking the silence. She had hit here head on the wall when the ship went off the jump.
“Can we do it again?” Suanmi cheered, clapping his hands and jumping up and down. He had enjoyed the thrill ride.
“What do you think?” Cantor rasped.
Gathol ignored them as he sat back in his seat. The Lightning had nearly crashed into a thick wall of ice when it went off the icy hill, and had definitely obtained some damage from the little venture across the surface. The sensors weren’t functioning correctly due to the cold, so the readouts of the damage were inaccurate.
Cantor picked up Raloco from off the floor. “So, are we there?” he questioned as he mashed Raloco’s face up to a map of Hoth.
“Yep, were here...” Raloco said before being thrown back into a seat and tied.
“Suanmi, you’ll watch him when we leave,” Thajkon ordered. “If we leave that is...” Thajkon then walked over to the comm system and punched in the code that Raloco had given them. “This is Thajkon, do you read me?” Thajkon said quietly into the comm. After a few minutes, there was a reply.
“Thajkon? What are you doing here?” asked a high-pitched, squeaky voice on the other end.
“Ah, Gooloo, is Lark there? We need to speak with him...”
“Uh...err...” Gooloo was obviously afraid of Thajkon, and was stuttering at the end of the line. “Hold on a second...”
Soon a second voice was on the comm with Gooloo. “Lark here,” the second voice said. “How ya been old man?”
“Good, my old friend,” Thajkon replied with a grin. “It’s a little cold out here. Care to give us some shelter?”
“Definitely,” Lark said, though it sounded somewhat forced. Gathol could understand why. He wouldn’t deny Thajkon shelter either. “I’ll send up a crew to retrieve you from your ship.”
“I don’t trust your men. We can open the doors ourselves. The code is still THX-1138, am I correct?”
“How did you know?” Lark sounded surprised.
“Let’s just say I found another, ‘old friend’...” Thajkon replied, glancing at Raloco.
“Oh, goody...” Lark said. “I’ll be expecting to see you within the next half hour.” With that, Lark ended the transmission.
“Well, let’s go,” Thajkon said, and walked to the door of the Lightning. It was frozen shut, but that didn’t stop Thajkon. He cut down the door swiftly and pulled it down inwards.
“Vanth, Gathol, cut through the snow,” Thajkon commanded as he placed his plasteel mask on his face.
“We’re likely to freeze before we get into the grotto,” Vanth said. She wore thin leather clothes, and her arms were bare. Thajkon ignored her, so she turned back to the thick ice and snow and ignited her lightsabers. She began cutting through, Gathol following her example. It was definitely something Gathol would like to do more than once. His hands were numb with cold by the time they were down cutting through. Now Gathol got his first glance of the snowy wastelands of Hoth.
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Jul 25th, 2003 12:52 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
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Location: San Diego Moderator |
“Now go get your thermal suits on. I don’t want my followers freezing to death just outside salvation. That would be pathetic...” Thajkon told them. They obeyed and got on their gear, except for Cantor, who never changed his out of his black robes, and Thajkon, who was quite comfortable in his ancient armor. Then they walked out of the ship, one by one. The biting cold of the roaring winds did not pinch Gathol’s cheeks this time, but his feet were going numb as they plunge a foot under the snow. With Gathol leading and Cantor bringing up the back, the single-file line of Dark Jedi trudged through the snow. It was snowy mountains and hills as far as the eye could see, and the only difference the blinding white landscape were the few blackish-brown rocks that jutted from the hills and the large, circular metal door that the Lightning had skidded across when it had hit the surface.
Soon the line approached a small control panel, which was jutting out of the ground. The snow was deeper around the control panel, Gathol realized as he felt the snow reach his elbows. Thajkon used the Force to keep him from sinking further, and moved him closer to the control panel. Gathol punched in the access code, and the large door grinded open.
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Chapter 7: Journies on Hoth
As it grinded open, it revealed a vast hole that reached deep under the iced up surface of the planet. A stairway winded itself around the entire rim of the hole, leading down.
“How did he pull this off?” Trin asked, gaping at the huge hole.
“I reckon that this is a natural formation,” Thajkon stated. “There are many grottoes like this all over Hoth, but this is probably the only one with a metallic door and a stairway leading down.”
The group began their decent down the slippery stairs. Trin slipped and went sliding down the stairs a little ways thanks to the rubber lining the outside of her tight-fitting thermal suit. They reached her as they got closer and closer to the bottom of the pit. They got their first surprise when they saw that the bottom of the grotto was covered in a greenish-blue lichen, and their second surprise came when a large, fur-covered, lizard-like creature bounded past. Two horns curved out of the sides of their heads, and hard lumps on the top of their heads formed a natural helmet.
“Tauntauns,” Vanth noted. “They can be used as mounts when trained well.”
“Right you are,” said a tall man who was walking towards them briskly. “We’ve trained these smelly, uncooperative beasts here. We use these things when the speeders and ships aren’t working because of the cold.” The man offered his hand.
“Hello Lark,” Thajkon greeted, talking his hand. “It has been awhile.”
“Yeah, well...having bounties on your head makes you have a sudden urge to hide from the rest of the galaxy.”
“You won’t need to hide once you help us with something,” Thajkon tells him. “But only you may know about it. Also, if you could have your men dig our ship out of the snow, we’d be grateful.”
He’s talking about the map, Gathol thought to himself. Once we have power, our debt will be repaid to him in the form of protection.
“No problem. I’ll send a crew up right away.” Lark called a crew on his wrist comlink and they began scampering up the icy stairway.
“One more thing,” Thajkon said, halting the crew. “Retrieve five wooden crates from the back of the ship. We’ll be needing those later.” The crew nodded in response, and scrambled their way up the stairs, with much slipping and falling.
“They’ll have your ship out of the snow in no time. We’ll have our droids pilot it to our base,” Lark told them.
“I thought this was your base,” Trin said, confused.
“Nope. My base is an abandoned tower up in the mountains. I use a ton of gadgets to mask it, and an energy shield, with a complimentary of fifty quad cannons, to protect it from unwanted visitors.”
Lark lead them through the caverns of the base, pointing out things as he went.
“This is our radar monitoring facility. We spotted you on the radar...”
“This is our food storage here. Forget the cooling units, Hoth is a natural freezer...”
“Ah, ion control. Shoot down unwanted ships...”
After awhile they reached the hangar. The place was absolutely massive and cavernous, lit only by glowrods carried by the pilots and technicians and by the luminescent lichen on the ground. Most of the ships were airspeeder specifically designed for travel on the cold wastelands of Hoth. In the back of the hangar was a group of speeder bike riders, waiting for them. The leader signaled to Lark that they were ready to leave.
“Well, we need to go to the tower. I don’t suppose you’d mind riding in my hovering fortress, would you? We can talk about whatever it is you need help with.”
“Alright, we’ll come with you. But we must wait for the crates first...” Thajkon sighed, obviously bored because of Lark’s boring tour.
“If you insist.” They stood and waited for an least an hour. Thajkon called Suanmi on the comlink and told him to come down to them. Eventually Gathol needed to sit down, and pushed a speeder rider off of the bike and sat on it.
If Arak had done, some goofy thing would have happened, Gathol thought, remembering the dead trainee.
Eventually the crates came, and they could move on. They walked into the heat hovering fortress, which exited the hangar through large blast doors directly behind it. The hovering fortress hovered slowly but surely out of the hangar, engines roaring, cannons ready to blast at any threat, and speeder bikes zipping around it.
Gathol watched the bikes from his window, watched as they went flying off the icy hills for fun, raced each other. The journey took them across a wide, flat tundra. The storm had died down while they were waiting in the hangar, and the skies were almost cloudless, an endless blue. Wild tauntauns scampered across the surface, running from a rapidly gaining creature. It was tall and covered in a thick layer of grayish-white fur. It’s ears were pointed outwards, just behind a pair of curved horns, like the tauntauns, but the horns stayed closer to it’s face. It’s jagged teeth looked quite sharp and lethal, able to tear flesh from bones without difficulty.
“What are those?” Trin asked, also spotting the monster.
“A wampa ice creature,” Vanth answered. “They are the most fearsome predators on Hoth, vicious monsters bred for a cruel environment. They feed on the tauntauns, and leave their bones sitting in the wastelands. They usually live in caves. There is also a warmer climate species of wampa on the canyon-covered, smuggler planet of Gall. I had the pleasure of two wampas there.”
“How did you kill them?” Suanmi asked, always looked for something morbid and disgusting to talk about.
“I severed the arms on one and it went stumbling into a canyon. The other I stabbed and cut in half.” Vanth said it as if it were nothing. Trin started to feel sick.
Soon the fortress and the speeder bikes had left the wampas and tauntauns behind, and had entered the mountains. Instead of trying to take the heavy fortress up the slopes of the peaks, the pilot drove it into an frosty cavern. It had obviously been drilled. At this time, Lark came back to them, having left earlier to have lunch.
“So, let’s get cracking on whatever it is you needed help with, shall we?” Lark sat opposite of Thajkon and Gathol, next to Trin and Vanth. Cantor set one of the crates on the table between them. He lifted a slab from the crate and handed it to Lark.
“These slabs of stone put together make a large map of key Sith worlds. As we cannot read them, and you can, we would like you to translate it, and find Darth Massacre’s Temple.” Thajkon ended at that, waiting for Lark’s reaction.
“Ah, so you’re going after that old myth,” Lark cackled with a malicious grin. “It’ll cost ya.”
“Once we have the Temple in our hands, not only will we pay you, but we will help the people who put bounties on you change their minds. If they will not change their minds, we will kill them or protect you. I will not pay anything until I have visited the Temple myself.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Thajkon.” Lark sat in thought for a few moments. “Fine, I’ll translate it. It’d be nice to not have to hide on Hoth anymore, though it is rather fun to ice skate in those flash-frozen lakes...”
After that, there was no talking for a long, long time. They all sat in silence as Lark poured over the map, trying to make out signs and symbols. He went over each slab individually, then putting them together to see with certain Sith writings combined might equal what he was looking for. Eventually, he found it.
“I’ve found it! Darth Massacre’s Temple is on Varloudor!”
“Where’s that?” Trin asked him.
“It’s an jungle-covered planet in the Outer Rim. It’s got some nasty weather, worse than Hoth, and the inhabitants have one big bizarre religion. I’ve heard about the religion, but now I have no doubt that it is based upon the Sith. They have gods with Sith-like powers. A god of lightning, a god of telekinesis, etcetera, etcetera. The Temple is probably somewhere in those dense jungles.”
“But, father,” Trin turned to her father. “You said it was called Telegarnia.”
“That was it’s old name. I suppose it had been renamed some time or another,” Lark told her.
“Thank you, Lark.” Thajkon was grinning the largest grin Gathol had ever seen. Lark gave him the coordinates.
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“We’re here!” the pilot bellowed over the intercom. Gathol looked out the window to see a spectacular site. A large group of tall, steel-gray towers sat atop one of the peaks, which had been worn down by the winds and snow and Lark’s demolition crew. Suanmi asked Lark if there was a chance of it toppling off the peak because of the storms, but he declared that it was perfectly safe.
“Well, you can be get in your ship once we get up there, and...” Lark was cut off by the sudden blood-curdling scream of the pilot. It died as soon as it began, but the intercom was still on, and they could here a humming sound over it.
“A lightsaber,” Gathol gasped, jumping to his feet. “Do you think the Jedi found us again?”
“No, the Jedi wouldn’t kill in cold blood...” Thajkon was confused, they could tell, but soon they all felt an impending doom hovering over their heads. They activated their lightsabers and ran to the nearest exit, to escape from the hovering fortress. Thajkon gave one last command to Lark before running: “Destroy the slabs! All of them!”
He can’t be serious... Gathol thought. But he was. Lark had his demolition crew enter the room shortly after they left and they planted bombs in the crates and threw them out the window. I was raining chunks of stone slabs by the time they got outside.
“Why the hell did you do that?” Gathol shrieked at Thajkon. It had been a long time since he had questioned Thajkon’s orders.
“I don‘t want others to find out what we are planning to do.” Thajkon didn’t seem to care that Gathol had just questioned his orders. Maybe it was the hooded, black-robed man standing on top of the fortress with a lit lightsaber, staring at them with an evil grin on his tattooed face.
“Let’sss get out of here!” Suanmi hollered, panicking. The hooded figure had leaped off the fortress and was running at them, full-speed. It’s hood had flown off and revealed a head covered in sharp, yellowing horns, the main sign that he was a Zabrak. Despite their efforts to run, the Zabrak caught up with them, and was already slashing away at Suanmi, who was barely blocking the thrusts, swings, and slashes of the Zabrak’s humming blade. Thajkon, Vanth, and Trin ran to help him, but they weren’t fast enough. The Zabrak stabbed the end of his blade through Suanmi’s leg, and then, with lightning-fast reflexes, spun around and cut him in half. The creature fell in two pieces, the green light draining from his large eyes. Then Thajkon and Vanth tried to engage it, but he jumped over their heads and landed next to Gathol. He spun and locked blades with Gathol.
I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die, I can do this, I can survive... Gathol told himself, repeating it during the lock. The lock lasted only a few seconds, but it seemed like an hour. Then the Zabrak ignited the other side of his lightsaber, forming a lightstaff. Gathol unlocked and jumped upward as the newly ignited blade swung upward, aiming to cut Gathol in half from the crotch up. Gathol jumped high enough to miss it and then feinted a swing downwards. The Zabrak put his staff up to block, but instead Gathol landed with one foot on the handle, and jumped off of that as Vanth did a flying jump kick into the Zabrak’s back.
“Who are you?” Thajkon’s mask was on again, and held his lightsaber in Form VII, his red lightsaber humming behind his head and his hand stretched outwards, open, in front of him.
The Zabrak turned and looked at him as he rose. An evil grin displaying his rotting, greenish-yellow teeth was stuck on his face. “Darth Maul,” he said simply, as he tripped Trin who had been approaching. “Sith,” he said again as Vanth locked blades with him, her two pale blue blades sparking against his two red blades.
Gathol sensed Thajkon’s confusion drowning out his own, but Maul’s evil glee radiated out and drowned out both of their feelings. Thajkon then charged forwards with a loud war cry, and helped Trin and Vanth fight the Sith Lord. Maul tried to jab Trin in the stomach, then Vanth, but they both leapt away just in time. Thajkon feinted two slashes towards Maul’s head, but before he could perform his real strike, Maul forced him back with a blurring twirl of his lightstaff over his head and then downwards. Trin approached from behind, but Maul flipped over her head and she rolled to avoid being cut in half. Vanth then came in swinging, dancing quick and with agility over the snow. Maul shifted his grip and put one blade first and then the other, blocking each slash. After delivering a high kick to Vanth’s face, he went low and spun around, causing Thajkon and Trin to jump. He then leaped up and kicked Trin the stomach. Thajkon landed and would have lopped off Maul’s head, but the Zabrak Sith was too fast and blocked. Maul’s blade skimmed Thajkon right arm, and the Dark Jedi Master cried out as he jumped back.
Gathol knew even as a group they wouldn’t stand a chance against the Sith Lord, so he hung back. Suddenly, he got an idea.
“Thajkon, Trin, Vanth, get away from him!” he commanded as he brought his DEMP 2 gun from it’s holster. He charged up a shot and hit the unsuspecting Sith dead on. The electrical sparks and purple flashes startled the Sith, but he was uninjured. The Sith looked confused as he glared at Gathol.
“The DEMP 2 gun only injures droids and deactivates mechanical devices,” Gathol told him. “Now you are basically unarmed.”
Maul looked down at his lightsaber, which had shorted out and would need to be repaired. Maul gave Gathol a menacing frown that Gathol would never forget, and hopped onto a speeder bike that had just zipped up. It was shaped like a crescent moon, or half a donut.
“There can only be two: a Master, and an Apprentice,” Maul told them before zipping away. He left them to deal with four black Hunter-Killer droids, which hovered a few feet above the ground and opened fire with two cannons each. Gathol opened fire with the DEMP 2 again, taking out two of the droids, which plopped into the deep snow, fizzling. Thajkon cut another in half, and Vanth dismantled the last one which two quick jabs.
“We need to get off the planet,” Thajkon told them as he grabbed a speeder bike from one of Lark’s men. “Now!” They stole the other bikes and rode off after him, riding at insane speeds. They practically flew up the western slopes of the peak and stopped when they reached the hangar on the east side. They ran in as Lark’s men grabbed the speeder bikes to put them back in the bike racks. As they approached their ship, they were stopped by a frail man in a large thermal suit.
“Sir, we found a homing beacon on the back of your ship,” he said to Thajkon, holding it up. Thajkon took it and studied it.
“It’s not like the type of homing beacons the Jedi or Republic soldiers use...it must be Maul’s,” Thajkon concluded as he clambered into the ship. He hurled out Raloco with the Force. The fallen and incapacitated crime lord smashed into a pile of crates, which then fell on top of him, likely crushing him. Vanth powered up the ship and flew it out of the hangar as quickly as she could, knocking over a few boxes in the process. The ship had been repaired while they were fighting off Darth Maul, and they were flying at top speeds through the atmosphere and out of it, leaving the frozen planet behind them.
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Chapter 8: The Asteroid Field
“Vanth, fly into the asteroid field,” Thajkon instructed. “We’re being followed.”
“But the scanners haven’t picked up anything, and the ship’s computer says that possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!”
“Never tell me the odds!” Thajkon barked back. He then turned to Gathol. “Man the rear turret, Gathol, and open fire on the ship behind us immediately.”
“Yes, sir!” Gathol sprinted to the back of the ship even as the laser fire and smaller rocks began rocking their ship. When he reached the rear turret, he spotted the ship following them through the asteroid field. It was a star courier, sleek and gray. It had short, bent wings towards the back, sticking out of the sides of a circular cockpit. The nose of the ship was flat and long, obviously used for storage. Two cannons protruded from the sides of the nose, having emerged from concealment slots in the sides. Gathol had a feeling that the star courier belonged to Maul.
The cannons fired. The orange shots flew past the ship and blew up a smaller asteroid.
He wasn’t aiming for the ship, he’s trying to make us crash! Gathol realized. He sat in the chair and targeted the star courier and fired rapidly. His shots went wide as Vanth put the Lightning in a downward spiral, and then flying upwards again, avoiding the shattered asteroids. Frustrated, Gathol took aim again and put a steady flow of lasers in the star courier’s direction. But it simply flew behind the asteroids that Vanth had avoided, letting Gathol blow up the asteroids in it’s path. Gathol saw this and stopped firing, but it simply used it’s own cannons to blow up the space rocks. Then it suddenly fired a few shots at the Lightning, hitting it hard just above the rear balcony, above Gathol. Flak and sparks bounced off of the thick windows, scratching it. I told Thajkon that this would be a weakness in the ship, but no...
Gathol fell from his seat as the Lightning was pulled into a hairpin turn and nicked the side of an asteroid, sending it spinning. The star courier took the brief advantage and opened a hail of lasers onto the yacht, blowing off a few of the shielding plates and damaging the left wing. Two blasts hit the thick glass, sending shards of it flying into Gathol’s shoulder. Then the vacuum of space began sucking Gathol towards the holes. I’m not dying that way... Gathol began clawing his way to the door and wrenched it open. He had to cut through the emergency airlock to get into the ship, but it didn’t matter. Thajkon, always very cautious, had installed a second one that would slide in if someone controlled the door manually. Once Gathol was on the other side of the door, he did that, and then slumped against a wall as the vacuuming sensation stopped. He gave a sigh as he walked up to the cockpit.
He stumbled a few times as debris and lasers hit the outside of the ship. He hit the wall with his shoulder to keep from falling and cried out in pain. Blood from his cuts was now on the wall, and he had just shoved the glass in a little farther. Using the Force, he pulled the shards out of his flesh and dropped them into the trash slot. The pain was excruciating, but he’d handled worse things. When he finished, he put some bacta on the gashes and continued up to the cockpit.
“We’ve taken a critical hit to the rear. The emergency airlock had to seal itself and I had to cut through it. I closed the manual airlock though, so it’s safe to leave the cockpit,” Gathol reported when he reached his destination. “We can’t use the rear turret though.”
“Then arm the turret on the belly of the ship. Vanth, fly straight down to the large asteroid right there,” Thajkon ordered, pointing out the door, meaning for Gathol to leave the cockpit again, and pointing at the asteroid. Gathol obeyed and left quickly. To get to the turret, he entered a tube which, while it went through the first floor, it was only accessible from the second. Within the tube was a ladder that led down to the turret. Gathol slid down and plopped into this chair. At that point Vanth began flying straight down. Gathol saw how Thajkon’s plan worked and opened fire at the star courier, which he now had a clear shot at. It had to swerve to avoid Gathol fire, and nearly collided with an asteroid the size of the courier itself. But it was soon back on the Lightning’s trail again, firing constantly. Asteroids would occasionally wander into their crossfire and explode, sending a shower of space metals into both ships.
Looking behind him, Gathol saw the gargantuan asteroid racing up fast to meet them. Considering the speed of the ship and the angle it was going down at, Gathol wondered if they would be able to pull up in time. His attention was brought back to the space battle by the laser that hit too close for comfort, blinding him for a few seconds. He squinted through the bright hail of lasers and returned fire, letting the Force guide his shots. Two of the shots hit the right wing of the star courier, but it didn’t show any signs of stopping.
The Lightning was getting closer and closer to the asteroid. The pockmarked space rock would completely crush them if they hit, and Maul would achieve his obvious objective: destroy Thajkon and his followers. The ship was now 100 feet from the asteroid...now 50...10... Vanth pulled up at the last second, and the turret splintered as it skimmed with surface at such a speed. Gathol was thrown against the glass, which cracked a little, but would hold for now. The star courier had pulled up earlier to avoid Vanth’s trick. Now what? Gathol thought to himself. He couldn’t use the cannon anymore due to the fact that the barrels at been snapped off. On the other hand, he still had the rocket launcher. Gathol grabbed the launcher, which was built into a airtight hole in the glass and could maneuver freely, and loaded it up. Then, taking careful aim, he waited for the right moment. He waited as the ships tore across the surface of the asteroid, zipping between rock spires and flying through small caves. Waited as the star courier swerved back and forth behind them.
And waited.
And waited.
NOW! The Force was screaming in his ear to fire the rocket now!
His trigger finger fired the one rocket and it struck exactly where he had aimed. The cockpit. The star courier spun out as it nearly collided with a spire of rock. While it avoided that spire, the next one ripped off the right wing. That star courier could still fly, but it wouldn’t be able to chase them. Giving a victory whoop, Gathol clambered up the ladder to tell the others his good news.
“That star courier won’t be chasing us any more, I hit the cockpit with the rocket launcher.” Gathol plopped down in a seat beside Thajkon. The humanoid was stroking his goatee, deep in thought. “Thajkon?”
“Darth Maul...a Sith...” Thajkon was saying to himself. “The Sith must have been training in secret, using the Dark-Side to hide their existence. They must have extended it over a wide space, so that the Jedi would not get suspicious of anything.” Thajkon then looked Gathol in the eyes. “That is why the Jedi could not find us before. We were co-existing with the Sith, using their powers as a tool unknowingly. You know that saying that Darth Maul yelled at us? ‘There can only be two: a Master, and an Apprentice.’ It was a law set by a great Sith named Darth Bane. He set that law because the Sith had too many poorly trained and squabbling Lords. Either he or his Master are enforcing this law by trying to eliminate us. They know of our plans. I have a feeling that they alerted the Republic to our whereabouts. Until we reach Varloudor, we are not safe. Vanth, take us out of this asteroid field. Then set course for Varloudor.”
//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
Darth Maul watched angrily as the luxury yacht flew away. Despite the heavy spray of fire he put on it, it had held up well. He was impressed with the man who had used the turrets and hit the Infiltrator with a rocket. The same man who had outsmarted him in battle. He was the only one who impressed him.
Maul kneeled down before the large holoprojector in his ship. His Master, still on Coruscant, needed to be updated on the chase. He would be displeased if he did not know what was happening. Soon a hologram of the hooded man appeared. Maul could not see his face, as usual.
“What is it, Maul?” the Dark Lord asked.
“Master Sidious, the Dark Jedi have escaped my grasp,” Maul replied. “One of them hit the Infiltrator with a rocket launcher. And it seems that they found my tracking device, which they left on Hoth.”
“This is not pleasing news, Maul,” Sidious answered. “I am not amused.”
“I do have some news about them, Master. I discovered where they are headed. It is a planet in the Outer Rim known as Varloudor. It was once called Telegarnia.”
“Yes...Varloudor...I have heard of it. I will tell the Jedi Council immediately. I will make Thajkon and his lackeys their problem. I have more pressing matters to attend to. The Trade Federation is questioning my orders. I need to persuade them into blockading Naboo, but it could take a month at this rate. Return to Coruscant, my Apprentice. You have done as required.”
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//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
Senator Palpatine of Naboo rushed into the Council chambers with news important news.
“My highly esteemed Jedi, as requested, my informants have found more news on Thajkon and his followers,” Palpatine announced. He lead in an informant, a short man with thinning gray hair and liver spots on his forehead. Wrinkles cover his entire face and he had dark lines under his eyes.
“Well?” Mace Windu, a black human with a shaved head, second most powerful member of the Jedi Council, said impatiently.
“We’ve, uh, spotted Thajkon’s yacht headed for the Outer Rim, as we’ve tracked him, it seems he’s heading for the Varloudor system. It’s likely that he’s headed for Varloudor itself,” the informant told him.
“Varloudor? That planet has been important since the days of the Sith! What could he be doing there?” Ki-Adi-Mundi, a Cerean Council member, asked.
“The Sith have likely left some knowledge of their training there,” Mace proposed. “Knowing Thajkon, that is probably what he is hunting for.”
“Secrets of the Sith, there may be,” Yoda, the highest Council member and most powerful and wisest Jedi alive, said. “Not allowed to get them, Thajkon is.”
“It could bring about the renewal of the Sith,” Plo Koon, a Kel Dor Council member, added. This put the Jedi in an awkward position.
“We have to act,” Mace said. “It is the only way.” He then turned to Senator Palpatine. “Thank you for your information. If you can relay the information to Chancellor Valorum, it would be appreciated. We need ships, at least two or three.”
“I certainly can,” Palpatine said, nodding his head. As he and his informant left the Temple, a smile crossed his face, but only briefly.
//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
“We’re out of the asteroid field, Thajkon,” Vanth called out. It had been a long flight, especially with their damaged ship. They had been extremely careful about their flying, swerving to avoid every single asteroid. A few small ones hit them anyway, despite their careful flying.
“Good. Everyone strap in, where going to Varloudor,” Thajkon said happily. “Power awaits us!” With that, he pulled the lever down and the ship lurched into hyperspace.
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Chapter 9: Rallying the Troops
The Dark Lightning reached Varloudor without further intervention. It seemed that the Republic had lost their trail, and Maul was probably floating dead in the asteroid field. There couldn’t have been better circumstances for approaching the green jungle planet and landing. The Lightning landed in a clearing, but the landing wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. Due to the damage dealt by Darth Maul’s star courier, one of the landing legs would extend, and the Lightning fell flat on it’s nose.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun getting this hunk of junk in the air again,” Vanth noted, kicking the hull.
“No matter. It will be simple once we use the Temple’s power,” Thajkon told them. This got everyone excited. They grabbed some survival gear, consisting of food capsules, glowrods, power packs, and the like, and began their trek out into the vast jungles of Varloudor. The walking lasted some days, Thajkon leading them. The could not see the sky because of the thickness of the leaves on the trees. The sunlight, if there was any, was blotted out, and did not shine through the super-thick leaves.
“What kind of trees are these?” Trin asked Vanth. Vanth seemed to be the naturalist of the group, knowing lots about nature.
“I do not know,” Vanth replied. “Whatever they are, they are sure weird.” The trees dropped pod-like seeds that pelted them from time to time. They were heavy for seed pods, and eventually they decided to crack them open to see what was in side. An golden-amber colored sap came from the pods, as well as tiny seeds. A strong, sweet smell wafted from the sap, and suddenly Gathol had an urge to eat some. He stuck his finger in and lifted a big glob of the sap to his mouth. He licked it off, and thought he was eating a slice of pure happiness. It was gooey and sweet, but had a crunchy texture because of the seeds.
“It’s delicious!” he stated as he finished licking it off his finger. Vanth and Trin tried some and agreed with him. They stuffed their pockets full of them.
“Now let’s not be hasty,” Thajkon told them. “They could be poisonous.”
“Poisonous my ass, this stuff is great!” Gathol was having trouble controlling the volume of his voice, as was Trin and Vanth. Thajkon ordered them to shut up, all of them, until they found some civilization, or at least people. In the mean time, they ate the sap and seeds with everything. Whatever they put it on, it tasted great. They also did not tire of the long hike through the dense jungle. Soon they ate too much of the sap and were feeling sick.
“During our flight through the asteroid field I did some research on the Varloudor religion,” Cantor began. “The prime religion is called Sithan, which sounded suspiciously like it had something to do with the Sith. Upon further investigation, I found that it did. As Lark said, they have gods and goddesses with Sith powers. Karzac, the god of lightning, Mortis, the goddess of death, Lifter, the god of telekinesis, Scimitar, the god of war and battles, Mirage, the goddess of illusions and hallucinations, and so on and so forth. It seems that the simpletons that lived on Varloudor during the Sith Wars considered the Sith to be gods who had come to them to punish them, but the Sith used their ‘divine influence’ to convince them otherwise. They were disappointed when they discovered that the humanoids could not use the Force, but the Sith taught them how to use guns and swords for combat against other living beings. The worked in to them a hatred for the Republic and the Jedi Order. Telling someone they were born on Ossus is one of their highest insults.”
“Ossus?” Trin obviously hadn’t paid attention during Thajkon’s Jedi History lessons.
“Ossus is where the Jedi supposedly started their order,” Gathol told her. “Please continue Cantor.”
“Anyway, I found some other interesting things. Kun is their god of enslavement. As most of us know, Exar Kun, a mighty Sith Lord, enslaved the entire populace of Yavin IV, which consisted primarily of Massassi. Drona is their god of betrayal. Ulic Quel-Drona betrayed the Republic when he turned to the Dark-Side and killed his brother. He also betrayed Exar Kun. The one I found most interesting was that Galath was their god of execution and construction, which would make sense since you told us that Galath executed what was left of his army and had that Temple built.”
“That is very interesting. I think we could use our divine influence as well,” Thajkon chuckled. “Good work Cantor.”
Soon the trees were thinning, and there was more space for breathing and stepping. The air had been stifling hot in the jungle, and humid.
Soon they began to see a light up ahead, as well as hear the sound of rushing water. This made them move faster. They found the source of the light when they walked into large clearing. Many eyes stared at them with curiosity, peering from the darkened windows of square buildings and from around a blazing fire. Thajkon and the others would have liked to said the old “We come in peace” line, but the owners of the eyes reacted too quickly and all two hundred of them had them cornered with many pistols, rifles, and vibro-blades. One of them, dressed in black robes trimmed with gold, ignited a lightsaber.
Thajkon and Gathol were the first to act, igniting their lightsabers and using the Force to push down some of the locals. One swung a vibro-axe, but Gathol diced off the head of the axe and sent it flying into a tree. Thajkon moved in to strike down one armed with two blaster pistols, but the black robed warrior stood between the two and hollered in Basic, to everyone’s surprise. Thajkon and his followers were surprised by the fact that he spoke basic, and locals were surprised because he was standing up to the saber-wielding men.
“Stop! Who are we to fight against gods? Gods who have returned to us, to protect us from the Republic and the evil Jedi? We are nothing but humble servants. Bow to your gods!” the black-robed man hollered at the others, and knelt down on his knees, the way Sith Apprentices would kneel to their Masters in the golden days of the Sith Empire. Soon everyone followed his example, and all were bending down to honor them.
“Forgive us, my Lords,” said the black-robed man. “I am Teltok, high priest of Sithan. We did not know you were come to Varloudor.”
“Apology accepted, High Priest Teltok. Now rise.” Thajkon was enjoying himself, Gathol could tell. Teltok rose, and they could all see his face. His pale face was lined with black tattoos in vicious designs, mostly likely copied from the tattoos of ancient Sith. The lightsaber he held was still ignited, a red blade emanating from the rusted handle. “Where did you get that lightsaber? And can you use the Force?”
“It belonged to the last god to walk on this planet, Galath. He was killed by the Jedi a thousand years ago. And no, I cannot use the power of the gods.”
“Galath...ah, yes, I remember Galath. He built a Temple here on Varloudor, am I right?”
“Yes! It is a grand temple. There is a machine inside, but we cannot use it. Galath told our ancestors this when he built it and fed the lower gods into it. It would kill us, he said. Only other gods could use it.”
Thajkon started to lay on the lies. “We can use it. We are lower gods on a quest to become higher gods. I am Hajid Thajkon. The gods have been eliminated by the Jedi, your evil enemy...” Thajkon took a stairway up on top of one of the dull gray ancient buildings. “...for a millennia. Ruined their Empire. Destroyed their realms. Until our arrival, they have not existed. You have been worshipping gods who were ruined by their opponents. Sure, they were powerful gods, but we can be more powerful. We are destined to become the most powerful gods in the galaxy! But we need you to lead us to that Temple and show us the machine. We need you to fight for us, fight against those who wiped out your past gods so long ago. They are still strong, but once we have our power, we can wipe them out. All of them. Are you willing to help your gods?”
Every warrior in the area gave a cry, indicating that they would help.
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“Then lead us to the Temple of Galath!” Thajkon shouted, and jumped from the top of the building, lightsaber lit. With High Priest Teltok in the lead and Thajkon directly behind, everyone followed. The others ignited their lightsabers, cutting vines and trees that stood in their way. Gathol killed a snake or two on the way, and cut down one tree, sending a shower of the seed pods down on the warriors and Dark Jedi.
“What are these?” he asked one of the locals.
“They are koru pods, from the koru-koru tree. They bring you energy in the form of sap and seeds. But, if you eat too much, you will get sick,” the warrior told him. “Only the gods and warriors may eat them. They need the energy more than us.”
“You’re right, they do,” Gathol said defiantly as he ate one of the pod’s contents.
They cut through the trees and pushed away vines for about an hour when they reached a clearing. In the clearing was a squat, stone building, made of limestone and granite. It did not look like anything spectacular, but the Varloudor humanoids kneeled down like they did earlier.
“We have arrived at the Temple,” High Priest Teltok told them, still kneeling.
“Excellent.” Thajkon strode forward, leading the Varloudor humanoids. But suddenly he stopped. “There is someone in the Temple. Someone...against us.”
“We did see some other ships come down earlier, but we had assumed it was you after you came to us,” the high priest told them guiltily. “They were red and white...”
“The Republic is here,” Thajkon said curtly. “Ready the warriors. We’ll crush them.”
He gathered the other Dark Jedi and they formed a V-formation, Thajkon at the point of the V, Trin and Vanth beside him, and Cantor and Gathol forming the tips of the V. Behind, High Priest Teltok lead an unorganized ramble of two hundred Varloudor humanoid warriors, armed with blaster cannons, vibro-blades, sniper rifles, pistols, axes, whips, knives, hammers, and anything else they could get their hands on that could be used as weapons. They had primitive armor, made of koru-koru tree bark, but High Priest Teltok assured the Dark Jedi that it could withstand laser bolts. Some of the humanoids took positions in bushes and trees, lifting rusted sniper rifles to their shoulders and picking out a good place to target.
They approached the grand staircase that led down into Temple’s interior when they spotted their foe. One hundred Republic soldiers and Senate guards stood at attention, rifles focused on the Dark Jedi. At their head stood the members of the Jedi Council, lightsabers ignited. Master Yoda stood in the center, leaning on his gimer stick, looking out at the Dark Jedi with a frown-crinkled, wrinkled face and wizened green eyes. His lightsaber, if he had one, remained hidden. Beside him stood Mace Windu, a blue lightsaber ignited, and Ki-Adi-Mundi, his eyes glimmering in the light of his purple lightsaber. Other members of the Council, including Yarael Poof, Saesee Tiin, Plo Koon, Yaddle, Adi Gallia, and Eeth Koth, stood to the sides in a V-formation. In all, only nine out of thirteen members of the Jedi Council stood before them. But they were still formidable.
“Hajid Thajkon,” Mace Windu bellowed. “You cannot enter here, by order of the Jedi Order and the Republic. It is a Sith Temple that none may enter. We’ll have a ship here soon to proceed with an orbital bombing, to turn it into rubble. We do not want anyone injured, so kindly step away.”
“Don’t want anyone injured?” Thajkon said as he gave the signal for the snipers to begin shooting. The bullets and lasers when zipping past his head, and were either deflected by the Jedi Council or hit with thudding and fizzling noises into the Republic troops. “I think it is too late for that, Master Windu!”
This is not going to be fun, Gathol thought to himself as he and the other Dark Jedi signaled a charge. The Varloudor humanoid warriors poured forth, swirling past them like an angry wave in a sea of hatred. The Republic soldiers began firing high-powered rifles at the warriors, shattering the koru-koru tree bark armor and frying them. Then the Dark Jedi charged, sabers ignited and ready to cut down any foe. Thajkon leaped up onto an overhanging decoration, and Trin followed. Also following them was Mace Windu, leaping freely up. Trin locked blades and pushed as hard as she could to force Mace back, but the Jedi Master wasn’t going to give way so easily. He pushed back and sent Trin tumbling along the top of the decoration and towards the edge. Meanwhile, Thajkon was jumping off, ignoring Windu and Trin. Eeth Koth then followed him, but Thajkon kept running.
Not fighting a straight fight...good plan, Gathol thought as Master Yaddle approached him. He sprinted under her spinning jump and slash, and kept on sprinting. He jumped occasionally to avoid gun shots and people, including the other Council members. Soon he was getting close to the door that Thajkon had just passed through but...suddenly it started collapsing. He glimpsed Thajkon pulled down the ceiling inside the small passage before the broken stones cut off his view and his passageway. There were two other doors going off to the sides, and Gathol went to the left. A Republic troop fired a rocket launcher and effectively sealed that passage behind him.
I’m locked in a Sith Temple...so I guess I make my way towards the machine, wherever it is, Gathol thought. First he came into the treasure room, filled with hoarded gold and jewels stolen from other worlds. The Sith really did like wealth. Next he entered the sacrificial chambers, which convinced him on the bloodshed that either the Sith or the Varloudor humanoids enjoyed. He left that room quickly. He continued walking through the stone corridors, which echoed him with every breath he breathed or step he took, searching for the machine.
//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
In the middle of the swirling battle a circle had opened up where some of the Jedi and the Dark Jedi were fighting intensely, slashing hard and deflecting bolts at the same time. Vanth and Trin were making their way out of the circle and to the only remaining door, batting off laser bolts while running from Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Plo Koon. Yet Cantor was stuck in the battle, fighting Yarael Poof, who was using powerful mind tricks to project images into his mind. Cantor spun to strike at a Krayt dragon and behead three of the Varloudor warriors. But then the Krayt dragon was over there...Cantor cut another warrior in half, thinking he had cut off the dragon’s leg. No wait, underground now...Cantor stabbed down, killing a warrior who Eeth Koth had kicked down. Suddenly the Krayt dragon was replaced with a large assassin droid bristling with artillery and cannons. It started firing lasers at Cantor...shots fired by the Republic troops. The bolts were deflected at the humanoid warriors, each one going into their heads. Yarael Poof watched on with a grimace as he fooled the Dark Jedi again and again. Finally he let go of the ghastly creature’s mind and swung with his large lightsabers, cutting the creature in half. It gave a unearthly shriek as it fell in two pieces, and was silenced forever as Saesee Tiin drove his lightsaber into the torso.
//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
Vanth and Trin had been retreating from the Jedi Masters the whole time, following the passageways downwards under the ground, but now there was no place to go. The rooms had ended in another treasure-filled room...probably the sixth one in the temple. But this time there was a small amount of walkways that lead up to the jungle, for there was no roof on this room. That explained why there was a lot of water on the floor and the gold looked like it had rust on it. Vanth sprung up to the second story, followed closely by Plo Koon, a Kel Dor Jedi Master. Then they both attempted a jump up to the third story. Plo Koon planted a well-aimed kick, and she dropped back down the first floor, hitting a pile of gold coins hard, where Ki-Adi-Mundi was waiting. Plo Koon hopped down as Vanth blocked the Cerean Jedi Master’s one-handed lightning fast blows.
Trin was clambering up the slope of the largest pile of gold, the ‘peak’ of which reached the fourth floor. Mace was following without difficulty and made a few swings at her legs. She hopped over the blue blade once or twice before making her own attacks. She slashed downwards at an angle to cut Mace from his left shoulder to his right thigh, but he blocked with ease. She aimed another swing, meaning to lacerate Master Windu’s stomach. Another easy block and then a retaliation, and a small gash going from Trin’s rib cage to her left hip was made. Her utility belt dropped to the floor, along with her guns and other devices she used against the Jedi. Mace called the belt to him and threw it down to the bottom of the pile. Spurred on by her desperation and her fear of death, she began lifting up heavy golden vases and pots and hurling them at the man. One hit him the chest and sent him down the pile a bit, but he simply leaped back up and over the other pots and jars. He slashed through two of them and then locked blades with her. Then he aimed a Force pull at the golden coins under he feet, and she slipped, sliding down the pile feet first. She tried to slide between his legs, but Mace stabbed downwards and drove his lightsaber into her chest. She kept sliding, and Mace had to look away.
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Vanth was leaping around on the floor, dodging and executing almost perfect pirouettes around the Jedi. Suddenly she found herself against a wall, leaving no room for escape. She held her sabers out as both of the Jedi Masters swung hard, forceful blows, locking with her blades. The blades sparked for a moment before Vanth unlocked and spun up and around, blades held parallel with her waistline. Both blades connected with the Jedi’s ribcages, and then she spun higher, and kicked both of them in the face, sending them flying. Plo Koon’s head hit the wall and was knocked unconscious, dropping his still activated lightsaber in the water. It shorted out. Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber also shorted out as it plopped into the water. Vanth moved in to deliver a killing blow, but Ki-Adi-Mundi leapt to his feet and kicked Vanth in the head, cracking her skull against the same wall that Plo Koon had hit. As she slumped to the ground, her lightsabers spun into the air. Ki-Adi-Mundi grabbed both of them, but the security DNA cell recognizer installed in Vanth's lightsabers activated the shocker, and Ki-Adi-Mundi had to drop them. They landed in Vanth.
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Chapter 10: The Power of the Dark-Side
While Cantor, Trin, and Vanth were being cut down, Gathol had wandered into the last chamber in his path, having just come from a labyrinth-like room. It seemed to be a burial chamber of some sort, filled with belongings and furniture. In the center of the room was a large four-poster bed, covered in cobwebs. The blanket had once been black as night and embroidered with blood red designs, but it had faded and was covered in dust. Shattered skeletons were sprawled across the floor, their bony hands still clutching weapons or riches. Grave robbers aren’t welcome here, I guess... Gathol said to himself, and decided to watch his step. The only intact skeleton in the room was in the dust-covered bed. It was shrouded in once black robes, but they, like the bedspread, had faded and were covered in dust and cobwebs. The skeleton’s arms were above the blanket, one hand clenching a vibro-blade, the other still bent like it had been holding something cylindrical. The one that was empty was obviously a poor cybernetic replacement. Galath...Darth Massacre... Gathol bent down and bowed to the long dead Sith Lord.
Suddenly, all normal light seemed to blot out, even from Gathol’s lightsaber. The glowrod on his belt dimmed and then turned itself off, as did his lightsaber. Gathol looked up to see a ghostly specter hovering above the four-poster bed, looking at him with entirely black eyes and a scarred face. It’s torn robes were whipping around, revealing a thin, rotting body. It held a Sith vibro-blade, much like the one the skeleton in the bed was holding. The other hand, like the skeleton’s, was pretending to grip a lightsaber. It wore Orbalisk armor, dented and rusted. Then it spoke with a rattling, dry voice.
“Gathol, retrieve my lightsaber, and I will show you the way,” it said.
“Yes...Galath,” Gathol obeyed, rising. He sprinted out of the room, not exactly knowing what he was doing. His instincts were telling him to run to the first room he entered...the entrance to the Temple? No, it wasn’t a room, it was still outside. The treasure room? Yes, that must be it. The first treasure room he had encountered. He stepped in, searching the room. Then he spotted it. The lightsaber. Galath’s lightsaber was being used by Teltok still, as he cut down another Republic soldier. How had they gotten in here? The passageway had been sealed by a soldier. Gathol found out how when a Republic soldier’s arm flew through a wall. Trick walls made by Sith magic...Teltok must know this place inside and out.
“Give me the lightsaber,” Gathol said to the High Priest.
“No! Galath gave it to my ancestors to use in combat and to honor him!” Teltok shrieked.
“No, your ancestors stole it from his cold dead hands...” Why did I say that? Gathol thought. “All those skeletons in the burial room, they were working under your ancestors to retrieve the saber when the spirit of Galath struck them all down. You and your family thought it was some sort of key to the Sith’s powers. You want those powers. But you were not born in the glory of the Force, and can never have them...” Gathol started choking Teltok with the Force, lifting the helpless humanoid into the air. The High Priest of Sithan kicked his legs furiously, grabbing his neck and trying to get some air. But he could not, and Gathol released the limp form of Teltok, letting it hit the ground. He then grabbed Galath’s lightsaber and looked to the soldiers. They looked at each other with expressions of fear on their faces and ran through the invisible wall.
Gathol returned to the burial chamber, where the specter was still hovering. His hand was outstretched, and Gathol began to give the lightsaber to him. But, through the ghostly hand of Galath, he saw the skeleton also had it’s cybernetic replacement hand outstretched. The Dark Jedi moved to the skeleton’s side and placed the elegant weapon in the outstretched claw. The mechanical hand gripped the lightsaber, to Gathol’s surprise, and then crossed it’s arms.
“I will now show you the way,” the specter rambled. “Follow me.” A ghostly, translucent version of the lightsaber had appeared in the spirit’s hand. It activated it and moved to a wall quicker than Gathol could blink. It stuck the ethereal red blade into the wall and the fake wall disappeared. The apparition beckoned for Gathol to follow. Gathol nodded and followed at a running pace as the phantom zipped quickly through a labyrinth and cut through the fake walls, showing him shortcuts in the maze.
At the end of the labyrinth was a large wooden door, painted with red painted that had peeled from the millennia of sitting unused. The door led onward, but the specter stopped Gathol as he pressed his hand against the door.
“I leave you here,” it said, and then disappeared. Gathol looked around and then pushed the door inward into a large circular room. Humongous stone blocks that had been chiseled smooth formed the huge room, curving perfectly. Sith letters were inscribed on the blocks, as were pictographs of Sith standing with lightsabers activated. Some were posed as if they had been frozen while twirling and slashing with their lightsabers. Other Sith had their hands outstretched, casting forth lightning or invisible telekinetic waves. After glancing around the rest of the hieroglyphs, Gathol realized what it was all a pictographic depiction of a battle. In all, he counted a thousand Sith in the pictographs, cutting down men with guns and Jedi. Then Gathol turned his attention to the center of the room. Four colossal bronzium statues of Sith stood in a circle as if ordered to watch over the two white orbs sitting on stone plinths. The orbs seemed to have something happening inside of them, but Gathol could not see from so far away. Standing beside farthest orb was Thajkon.
“Finally, the power is mine...” the Dark Jedi muttered loudly as he reached out and gently positioned his hand on the orb. After a few seconds, Thajkon’s eyes shot open and he began to scream. What looked like lightning ran up his arm and through his body. The scream became distorted and eerie, and it seemed like his voice was running around the room. The lightning coursed through his body and ran down through his legs. It passed through his feet and boots into the ground, and the stone circle he had been standing on lit up. With a flash of light, Thajkon was engulfed by a pure white beam. It was blinding, so Gathol covered his eyes and turned his back on the machine. A rushing sound filled his ears, and a crackling noise. Angry shouts and miserable cries seemed to come at him from everywhere. The hums, whirs, cracks, and other noises of lightsabers followed. Thajkon’s blood-curdling scream began to drown it all out, and then...it stopped. The blinding light went away, as did all the noises. Gathol turned on the spot to see Thajkon, his hand still gently placed on the orb, which had dimmed now. Whatever had been moving around inside the orb had stopped. Thajkon’s face seemed peaceful, but then he opened his glowing blue eyes. A malicious grin formed on his face, and Gathol had a sudden feeling that he should not get in his Master’s sight.
“Thajkon, this is your last warning,” Mace Windu’s voice erupted from the doorway nearby. “Bow down or be destroyed, like the rest of your lackeys.” The other Council members stood next to him, sabers ignited. Plo Koon had an obvious lump on his head, and was using one of Vanth’s lightsabers, as was Ki-Adi-Mundi. Their own lightsabers were dangling from their belts, useless.
“I will not bow down to you, Mace,” Thajkon said. The malicious grin had not left his face yet. “Nor anyone else in the Council, nor anyone else in this system, or anyone in the entire universe. Instead, you shall bow down to me.” Thajkon extended both arms and spread his fingers apart. The crackling noise that Gathol had heard returned as bolts of lightning flew forth from Thajkon’s fingers. It struck the surprised Jedi hard, flinging some to the ground, writhing in pain. Eeth Koth had practiced Crucitorn in his days at the Temple, which caused him to endure the intense pain for a brief time, and did not fall with the other Jedi. He tried to approach, but Thajkon aimed a large amount of lightning in his direction, and he was pushed back.
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“As you can see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours. Now, bow down,” Thajkon bragged to the Jedi, who instead rose in defiance to Thajkon‘s orders. Thajkon sent the lightning flying at them again, but this time they blocked it with their lightsabers. The lightning hitting the blades caused a louder fizzling and crackling sound, which echoed creepily in the large stone chamber. Gathol decided that this was his chance to grab the second orb. He sprinted towards the thing, past the bronzium statues, and...he was flying, up into the air, and hit the ceiling. Hard. He then started to fall, but he stopped only an inch away from the ground. He looked over to see Thajkon, hand outstretched, grinning at him.
“I don’t think you should be meddling in affairs that you no longer understand,” Thajkon said, and hurled him against one of the bronzium statues. Gathol felt restricted, like he couldn’t move, but there was nothing binding him. It was only the Force that kept him stuck to this statue, the Force being used by Thajkon.
“Why are you doing this?” Gathol hollered at Thajkon.
“Because, I want all the power. You do not deserve it. I only trained all of you Dark Jedi so I could get here and not have to do everything myself. I would have had to go planet hopping, to from Coruscant to Tatooine, from there to Coruscant again, then to Hoth, and then to here, and then do all the killing and negotiations myself. But with a group of Dark Jedi doing it for me, I only had to sit back and watch, waiting for the Force to guide my pupils to the Temple of Galath, so that I could kill them and take the power. I have the power of 500 Sith Lords within me, and could crush you within an instant, any way I wanted. Electrocute you lightning, crush every bone in your body, tear your muscles and veins, expose you to a deadly disease and then speed up the killing process or cause your antibodies to forget about it, and so on. I am all powerful now, and after I deal with you and these foolish Jedi, I shall get the powers of the other 500 Sith Lords trapped in that orb! I am no longer a puny Dark Jedi such as you. Am I a Sith.”
Gathol had been picturing those deaths while Thajkon named them, and was feeling sick.
“Feeling sick? I could use the Force to redirect your stomach fluids and acids into your lungs. Not only could you not breathe, but your stomach acids would eat through your lungs and eat up the rest of your body.”
Gathol used the Force to calm himself, making the nausea go away. He began using the Force to mask his thoughts, so he could start his planning. He noticed the Jedi approaching, and would stall until they reached Thajkon. Then he would be free to grab the orb himself. And he would defeat Thajkon.
At that moment, all of the Jedi used a Force push on Thajkon. The push didn’t do much to affect Thajkon, but it knocked the orb he had used off of its plinth. It hit the ground but remained intact, but Thajkon shuddered violently for a second. Gathol had been released.
“NO!!!” shouted Thajkon as Gathol stepped into the circle and placed his hand on the remaining orb. Gathol now knew what was in the orb, from what Thajkon had been saying and from what he could see right now. Sith warriors were running around inside the orbs, swinging lightsabers and casting lightning and all of the things that had been depicted in the pictographs on the walls. Suddenly he started screaming, though not from pain or fright. In fact, nothing seemed to matter. Thajkon was swing his lightsaber at him like a man insane, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier around him. He was invincible. Suddenly what looked like electricity began coursing up his arm, as it been doing for Thajkon earlier. It apparently wasn’t, because it didn’t hurt nor did it give him burns. He felt it course through his body, through his very veins and arteries, and realized what it was. It was power. He heard one last thing before the white beam of light engulfed him: “Go for the orb, not for him!”
//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\
Thajkon had obviously already used the machine by the time the Jedi had gotten there. Mace could tell by the way he had cast lightning throughout the area, knocking down all of the Council members present. Then the boy had run from the side of the room, trying to get to the machine, but Thajkon hadn’t let him. He held the boy against a Sith bronzium statue with the Force and they yelled back and forth. After awhile the boy began to look kind of nauseous, but he used the Force to calm himself and block his mind, so they could not tell what he was thinking.
“This is our chance,” Mace said, “Push!” The Jedi Masters pushed hard, trying to make a telekinetic wave that could knock anything over. Obviously this did not effect Thajkon, who had absorbed the strength of half-a-thousand Sith Lords, but it did not over one of the strange orbs in the center of the room. It hit the floor but did not shatter, but Thajkon began shaking violently.
“Go for the orb, not for him!” Mace ordered as the Jedi charged. The boy had gotten to the machine, but, as they saw from Thajkon‘s raving and slashing at the invisible bubble around the boy, they would not be able to him. Suddenly a white beam of light shot up from the floor and through a hole in the ceiling.
“So, you want to play, Jedi?” Thajkon spun around, deactivating his lightsaber. “You want to try and destroy the orb?” Thajkon lifted it with the Force and pushed it up, up, and away from the Jedi, and placed it in the outstretched hand of one of the Sith statues, where it would be safe from harm. None of the Jedi could jump that high, nor focus long enough to pull it down. “Let’s test your powers against mine, shall we?” He waved his hand, and all of their lightsabers flew out of their hands and out the door. They turned to retrieve them, but lightning hit them all in the back. “Come now, Jedi being cowardly? Let’s test your special powers against mine, one by one.”
He looked to Yarael Poof first. “Yarael, let’s see if your illusions can fool me,” he taunted. Poof closed his eyes and extended both arms, hands opened wide. The vision he tried to plant in Thajkon’s mind was of an army of Jedi Masters around him, thousands upon thousands, but suddenly...the Sith! Thousands of them! Lightsabers all ignited, ready to kill! Yarael Poof called his lightsaber to him and ignited it. Swinging hard, he nearly took off Mace Windu’s and Adi Gallia’s head. With another swing, he almost cut Ki-Adi-Mundi in half. They all called their lightsabers to them and were blocking the powerful swings when Thajkon let go of the Quermian Jedi Master ’s mind.
“Pathetic,” Thajkon muttered, adding “Tsk-tsk.” He then turned to Eeth Koth. “Ah, Master Koth, a master of Crucitorn, impervious to most pain. Let’s see if you can stand this!” Thajkon let a volley of lightning strike Eeth Koth with incredible force. The Zabrak Jedi Master stood strong against it, and even took a few steps forwards, against the lightning hail. Soon he was very close to Thajkon. Instead of keeping up with the lightning, Thajkon stopped and dislocated Eeth Koth’s right shoulder with the Force, and then pulled on it. Koth’s face screwed up in anguish, and eventually he passed out.
“More pathetic. I’m not going to test the rest of you, because this isn’t any fun any more. You are all too weak to fight me,” Thajkon bragged.
“The Jedi are not weak,” Mace Windu said defiantly.
“Oh really? Show me!” Thajkon said, igniting his lightsaber. All of the Jedi charged on him, but he simply pushed them back. “Come on, don’t just stand there!”
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Last edited by REXXXX on Aug 4th, 2003 at 12:31 AM
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Aug 4th, 2003 12:25 AM |
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