STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Cold War

Started by Captain REX45 pages

The mention of your name evokes two reactions.

"It cannot be..." Gremon gasps.

"Kaliero?!" the Rebel Leader says, quite forgetting that he is trying to save Wraith's life.

Dak looks from one to the other before answering Gremon. "It can, because it is. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

Gremon has fallen absolutely silent, glaring at you with a fierce intensity.

"Is your name really Kaliero?" the Rebel Leader asks. "Or is this some kind of twisted bluff?"

Dak turns to the Rebel Leader. "Yes, I am Kaliero. No bluff."

At this point, the tentacles of the mythical sea monster have slithered their way up to the upper platform. The powerful tentacles, each thickly armored with scales and barbed with poisonous spikes, are tearing the platforms apart, having already dragged the pump into the subterranean ocean. The upper platforms start to buckle and the flooding waters have risen drastically.

"No time to explain!" the Rebel Leader shouts. He has stabilized Wraith and helps him to his feet, with Ker'Raos lending his assistance in carrying the unconscious Dark Jedi. "Move!"

Gremon silently awaits his fate, whatever it may be.

Dak thinks for a moment before roughly grabbing Gremon and pulling him up. "You may still be useful," he growls.

With that, Dak drags him toward the exit.

Gremon tries to struggle against your grip, but his wounds are too great and he cannot resist your efforts to drag him along, into the tunnels, just as the upper platforms start to be torn away one by one. Your platform is the last to go, just as you enter the tunnels. The tentacles writhe and slither about, searching for you with the sensory organs on the tips of the venomous barbs.

The Rebel Leader guides you to a junction where his remaining forty Rebel militiamen are waiting. They all level their blasters are you when you walk in, but the Rebel Leader waves them down.

"We should be grateful to these beings!" the Rebel Leader says, gesturing to yourself. "Without them, I don't think we could have survived that. It would have been a total disaster."

The militiamen nod in agreement.

"What else were we to do? We support your rebellion, after all," Dak explains, dropping Gremon to one side, against a wall.

"Now, a better explanation of what's going on would be nice. I haven't heard much."

"Our forces took Meja'Tsid with little resistance yesterday," the Rebel Leader explains. "He," he says, gesturing to Gremon, "decided to take it back, though this mining town is of low importance. A show of force, if nothing else."

Gremon says nothing.

"But really, what are you doing here? Are you mad?" he asks you, Dak.

"The Force guided me back to Arnia. A vision. It told me I would lead my people. Against the Royal Family." Dak looks at Gremon as he says this.

"Bonkers, all of it," the Rebel Leader says. "Even I don't flaunt that name about so lightly! Do you realize what your name means to the Arnian people, especially to the Royal family?"

"I've kind of been off-planet for a while," Dak answers flatly, giving the Rebel Leader a look.

The Rebel Leader sighs and extends a free hand.

"Well, first thing is first. Hello, my name is Pade Kaliero..."

You do not know much about your family tree as it was almost entirely wiped out, but the name Pade rings a bell. You think he was either exiled or ran away from Arnia for various reasons that you do not recall. If he is telling the truth, though, this makes him your only living relative. Not anyone close, mind you; all your close family was killed when those damnable Dark Jedi darkened your doorway...

"...Pade?"

Dak blinks a couple times before taking his hand and shaking it awkwardly.

"I... did not think there were any of us left."

"We are exceptions to the rule, you and I," Pade says. "I was off-world when those Dark Jedi struck, in self-imposed exile. You... are a different case entirely. You should be dead, but it seems Manette did not finish her job..."

"Don't," Gremon snarls, baring his fangs.

Dak narrows his eyes. "How do you know that name? And what do you mean, 'her job'?"

Pade sighs. "You really don't know anything, do you? Very well.

"It is common knowledge that the Royal Family are granted strange and epic powers granted to them by the heavenly bodies Tsa'Dis and So'Vis. The Queen-Mother is the monarch and priestess to Tsa'Dis, claiming to use the wise words of that godly form to decide courses of action in daily matters. Most Arnians believe this, but some do not. I'll come back to that. I know that it is not this Tsa'Dis, but the Force. I have been around the Galaxy, I've seen things.

"In any case, she received a prophetic vision one night. A terrible vision of Arnia being subjugated by one of its own, someone close to the throne but not worthy of it by birth. This someone was capable of calling upon the powers of Tsa'Dis just as the Queen-Mother herself could. Just as you can."

Dak thinks on this, before glancing at Wraith and Ker'Raos, remembering his own vision.

"I see... The Queen-Mother hired Manette and her crew to destroy our family, in self-preservation." He looks at Pade for confirmation.

Wraith is still borderlining unconsciousness, but Pade has saved him. But he will suffer from exposure if he is not taken somewhere warm, as his environmental suit has been breached by blaster fire and the knife.

Ker'Raos watches the exchange, curious.

"Not the Queen-Mother," Pade says. "The Royal Family follows the wise and golden path, not the path of evil. The Queen-Mother let it be known that this threat was possible. The only other family that possessed any such powers as the Queen-Mother had foretold was our family, the Kalieros, due to your mother's lineage and connection to the Royal Family. She did not intend to act upon it, but a certain Prince did..."

Pade gestures to Gremon, who has clenched his jaw tightly.

"He hired Manette and her minions to wipe out all Kalieros. But you're proof that she failed."

Dak stares at Gremon for a long moment, before erupting into rough, cold laughter.

He grabs the Prince by the front of his clothes, giving him a wicked grin. "Well, isn't that funny? I think it's funny. Your attempt to wipe us out - wipe me out? Gave me the opportunity and training to become exactly what you were trying to prevent."

He drops Gremon again. "I should behead you, right now. But in a way, I owe you for making me who I am. And I suppose that's worth a tiny amount of mercy."

What's Gremon's condition? Also, do we have anything like binders that we can use on him?

Dak gestures at Wraith. "Pade, he needs to go somewhere warm, or he'll die with his suit like that."