USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE V (DARK SIDE)- The Prisoner of Datura

You are taken a fair way- through streets, into a large, echoing building and a long way up an elevator before your blindfolds are removed- in the Court itself.

This is a huge and gloomy room. There are hundreds of people in here. It has the look of a gladiatorial arena, because the external edge of the room is a series of wide steps, upon which great crowds of people are cheering and clapping; others are throwing insults or bits of food at you. The top of the room is a large see-through dome, which must have a view of the city around it.

Nearer the middle, where you are now being brought through, is a series of glass cabinets containing treasures from all over the galaxy- rare objects, animal pelts, stolen artifacts and the like. This is Rivas' personal collection.

And all of this focusses attention upon the middle of the room itself- where Rivas sits upon his throne. This is the very throne from which he makes his pronouncements to the galaxy at large. He does not have much hair, and a scar has one eye virtually closed, but he is a large and impressive man. Dozens of armed guards stand all around. Closer in, a score of those pikemen, trained in the close combat arts that the empire values. But closer in than the pikemen are the Emperor's favourite- a cadre of guards armed with electrostaffs, each personally trained by the Emperor himself, a famous master with the weapon. He holds his staff at his side, like a trapping of office. His current facial expression is some combination of a grin and a sneer.

He hammers his staff on the ground for silence; some of the energy in it discharges into the floor, for effect.

"So!" he says. "Once more, the superiority of the Void is on show. The feeble Republic cringes in terror of these petty tricksters and conjurers. They are not men. WE are men!"

He holds his staff aloft, and there is another wave of cheering all around.

"Speak for yourselves, insignificant gel beetles. Beg for my forgiveness."

"You are not a man. You are nothing. Kill us already, you coward. You'll still die by our sabres" Con speaks at him calmly, trying to enrage him more also by mentioning the lightsabres and embarrassing him before his men., using presence to get become more noticeable

The crowd laughs.

"These sabres here?" he say, holding up the ones recovered from you. "No. You will never see them again. They will be added to my collection. And you will die- but slowly. And long before you die, you will abase yourselves for my mercy."

"I will never cower for an insect such as you"

"Those words may have sounded brave... were you not my defeated enemy," says Rivas. "Let their defeat sound forth across the galaxy! I am the superior being! You assembled here to watch, you can follow in my glory! No power can match us. Look at them. These feared criminals. Unstoppable, they called them. Defenceless and worthless. Should I kill them now? Do they deserve a quick death?"

"NO!" come the calls from the baying crowd.

Dak laughs coldly. "Then what do you propose to do with us, your highness?" he asks, raspy voice dripping with unimpressed sarcasm.

"Many are the ways for my enemies to suffer," says Rivas. But before he goes on, there is a certain amount of commotion.

The crowd is jostling amongst itself to get a good view, and it is not made up of the most savoury of people. There are scuffles and fights all around. But now, one alien spectator in particular is pushing his way all through the crowd to the front. He begins by just shoving his way through, with some protesting. Then, a few start to fight back. Some blows land on him, which he ignores. One person stands directly in his way. The alien cuffs him casually with a left handed blow, sending the man reeling back senseless into the crowd.

This does not impress the man's friends, one of whom draws a vibro knife. The crowd grows more silent as the hum of its blade powers up, but the alien just ignores him, walking on. Snarling, the man shoves the blade into the alien's side, eight inches deep.

xavier looks towards the crowd to see the Alien and what it looks like.

Rand observes all the trappings of power- the gathering hall, the collection of treasures, the staff, the lethal guards, the audience, the throne...

The throne, Rand thinks.

He meets Rivas' gaze evenly after Con and Dak share some words with the smug Emperor Rivas.

"You are only the superior being for now," Rand says, his words calm and measured, "but the Force is not with you, my good Emperor. You call us tricksters and conjurers, but our sorcerer's ways are more powerful than you realize."

Galder watches Rivas' arrogance, thinking that this man somehow bested Kuylen and got him onto Datura. His mouth almost salivates with asking the question of how it happened, but Galder does not want to steer the conversation that direction. Rivas may change his mind if he were to think that his greatest prize was receiving a cavalry rescue.

Instead, looks over at the alien coming their way to distract him. He is impressed by how it ignores the hits and casual smacks one man aside. When it gets stabbed, Galder feels as if it probably didn't even notice.

"Oh, we will have our weapons back, have no doubts on that," Rianna snaps. "And your petty threats are nothing to us, nothing but sheer arrogance."

"Oh really?" says Rivas. "That's a promise, is it?"

-

Gallador, Azarl, Haron- this is going wrong! Those psychotic idiots are going to get you killed!

"Shut up," Azarl says, looking at Rianna. He does not snap or glare. Azarl always appears very quiet and reserved. "I have no desire for a quick death. Nor do you. Don't prattle on like you want him to give you one."

Azarl looks to the Emperor.

"I have no begging to do," Azarl says. "Our actions were deliberate but obviously in error. Begging is reserved for those who think they have a chance."

Rand is aggravated more at his wise words with the Emperor being passed over for the blatant disrespect and threats that the others decide to throw than the fact that it may steer the Emperor toward a more swift execution.

I'm curious, what's happening with the shanked alien to the side?

"Ahh, now you see the truth of it..." says Rivas. At this point, though, the situation with the alien takes up more attention.

The alien simply glances round towards the man who stabbed him. His powerful hand closes around the man's hand grasping the hilt of the knife, and the man's snarl turns into a shriek of agony as the alien squeezes his hand with enough force to break the man's hand bones audibly.

With his hand still clenched around the man's hand, in turn forced to grasp the hilt, the alien slowly reverses the knife around, inch by inch. Everyone around him falls silent as he unhurriedly forces the knife into the man's midriff and, the man screaming all the way, disembowels him.

This brings a certain amount of amusement and clapping and no-one gets in his way now, although several of Rivas' guards take up a more aggressive posture as the alien nears the front. The alien extends his hands to his sides in a non-threatening gesture, though it is hard not to appear aggressive after that.

Rianna glares at Azarl as he looks at her, very much not being pleased at being told to shut up...but she'll take care of that later. She gets distracted by the giant killer alien pretty fast, though.

I don't recall saying giant- he's not actually that big.

...is there any chance Dak and/or Galder recognize the alien?

Galder cringes as the man is disemboweled in front of them.

This society is ****ed, Galder thinks to himself. I'd thrive as a citizen here.

(It's not Chion, right?)