Star Wars: The Stories of...

“We would if you played fair,” Plo Koon said, charging on Thajkon. This time Thajkon did not push, but as Plo Koon feinted a swing at Thajkon’s head, the newly self-proclaimed Sith Lord reached up with surprisingly fast reflexes and pulled off one of Plo Koon’s protective goggles. The Jedi Master fell back and took out a spare, and then shot a bolt of ice at Thajkon. The man simply stopped it in mid-air and hurled it back, hitting Koon in the chest and sending him backwards. Then the other Jedi charged. Mace performed an swing at Thajkon’s neck. Thajkon twirled his blade and not only blocked, but locked blades, twirled his blade again, and disarmed Mace, then struck him with a strong volley of lightning. Yarael Poof swung at Thajkon’s midsection. Thajkon leaped over it and performed a quintuple kick on Poof’s head, and then, in the same jump, kicked the Quermian in the chest. Being a Quermian, he had a second brain in his chest, and was knocked out. Ki-Adi-Mundi threw his lightsaber. Thajkon halted the blade and sent it chasing after Mundi. The Cerean caught it in time, but then Thajkon charge him down and stabbed his lightsaber through the Jedi‘s right side. Koon threw more ice bolts and electric bolts, which Thajkon turned around and sent back. The Kel Dor dodged the bolts and came in with a flying kick. Thajkon used the Force to stop Koon, letting him float in the air before throwing him against a bronzium statue.

Yaddle ran up and began spinning like a top, her orange blade trying to cut through Thajkon’s knees. A red blade came down to meet the orange blade, spinning just as fast and deflecting every blow, knocking the small Jedi Master back. Then Yaddle tried to perform Morichro, the forbidden Jedi art of slowing down bodily functions, aiming at Thajkon’s heart or lungs. Thajkon focused hard enough to make it impossible for her to inflict him with Morichro, and then performed it on her. Her legs and arms moved slow, too slow to block or cut down anything. Thajkon kicked her away and then suspended her in the air for a moment before bringing her higher and then dropping her. She was knocked out as soon as she hit the stone floor.

“Five down, three to go!” Thajkon cackled gleefully. “Windu, Gallia, and Tiin. What do you have in store for me?”

Saesee Tiin strode forth first. The Iktochi jumped high up and slashed down upon Thajkon, but Thajkon stepped back and held his blade out. Tiin nearly landed on the blade, but he managed to avoid it when he landed. It skimmed his leg, but Thajkon would have to do more than that to kill him. He sent his purple blade down on Thajkon’s head, but the Sith Lord blocked and the swung horizontally. The lightsaber went through the Iktochi’s hands, disabling his hands as well as his lightsaber, which fell in two pieces on the floor. Then Thajkon hit Saesee Tiin with Force lightning, sending him flying back against a wall.

Then it was Adi Gallia’s turn. She reactivated her lightsaber, which gave off a crimson glow. She held her lightsaber with the unorthodox backhand form of lightsaber combat.

“Still using the unorthodox backhand method?” Thajkon said, shifting the grip on his lightsaber so that he too was using the unorthodox backhand method. Adi frowned at this, but then she shrugged it off and spun around a few times, towards Thajkon, and then attempted to skewer him in the stomach. He ducked under the blade, lower than she’d seen anyone duck before, and then kicked her back of the bend in her leg. She toppled over with a cry but then rolled back up. But she was unprepared for Thajkon’s swing upwards, which cut through half of her arm, down to the bone. She was then thrown against the wall with the Force.

“Mace, do you want to call a retreat?” Thajkon asked the last man standing. “From the looks of it, you won’t do very well against me this time.” Mace looked around at his fallen friends and Thajkon could sense his mind being torn apart by the decision-making.

“A retreat is necessary for the time being. Not all battles can be won,” came a old, wise voice, making up Mace‘s mind for him. Yoda stepped into the chamber, leaning on his gimer stick. “Rescue the others we must, before the orbital bombing.” A group of soldiers came in, lifting up the wounded Jedi and pulling them from the room. One accidentally pulled on Eeth Koth’s dislocated arm. A Republic doctor was putting a few globs of bacta into Ki-Adi-Mundi’s wound. Yoda pulled Koon from behind him with the Force. Thajkon kicked the lifeless Kel Dor’s body as he went past.

“A wise decision, Master Yoda. I am glad to see that not all Jedi are as brash as the other Masters of the Council. Masters, such a horrid word to use on such weak Force-users,” Thajkon snorted. “You seem no more than Younglings in one of Master Yoda’s training clans.”

“We shall wait for the best time to apprehend you, Hajid. Being a Sith doesn’t mean we can’t kill you,” Mace shouted as he left the room.

“May the Force be with you,” Thajkon hollered sarcastically, then cracking himself up. Then he turned to the humming machine behind him.

//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\//><\\

Gathol hovered in the endless white for a moment, wondering when it would end. Suddenly, he heard shouting, war cries, explosions...lightsabers and Force lightning...and then he saw them. He had been transported to a battle field of some sort, but he was not sure which planet he was on. Tall buildings, walkways everywhere...Coruscant. He was at the Battle of Coruscant in which Darth Massacre lead an army of ten-thousand Sith onto the city planet, ending thousands of innocent lives and toppling buildings that had stood for centuries.

Currently he was standing between two battling warriors wielding lightsabers. The Sith extended his hand and lightning shot out.

“Oh damn!” Gathol shouted as the lightning flew at him. It reached him and...passed through him, doing no damage. In fact, Gathol didn’t feel a thing. The Jedi behind him obviously did, and fell with a thud! as he passed out from excruciating pain. Republic soldiers were firing rifles and pistols at the Sith, using whatever they could to destroy the Sith Lords. Rocket launchers were being loaded and fired, but the Sith could redirect the rockets at the Jedi or back to the firer. A lamp post was blow apart, and came toppling down on Gathol. It passed through him. “I must be invincible or something...” Gathol thought aloud. Suddenly a Jedi was standing in front of him, lightsaber ignited. It looked like she wanted to fight him by the way she was glaring. He ignited his lightsaber and tried to block the first blow. Her blade passed through his, and then down into his chest, parting his ribcage. It would have, but it wasn’t. Then Gathol swung at her head, aiming to take off the top of her head. She didn’t even try to block, and it passed through the top of her head...no effect. But suddenly a second red blade passed through Gathol’s neck and her neck. While Gathol was still alive and well, she fell dead. Gathol turned to see a Sith Lord spinning to meet another Jedi.

“This is too weird...” Gathol thought, but then he noticed something. After a quick count, there were only 500 Sith Lords in battle here. 500 was how many souls could be absorbed from the machine. 500 was how much was left. Also, the battle grounds didn’t extend very far. And now that he looked hard enough, the Sith were somewhat faint and translucent...

“Memories,” came a raspy voice. It was the specter of Galath that had helped him through the maze, into the machine’s chamber. “Memories of the 500 Sith that had their souls fed into the machine. Half of the survivors of the battle. Their power is now yours, should you choose to accept it.”

“I accept,” Gathol send, and suddenly he was floating in whiteness again. Endless white. The sounds of battle floated away, the crackling Force lightning, the lightsabers clashing, the large explosions, and the laser blasts. They faded and faded until they could no longer be heard. The rushing sound resumed, and Gathol was thrown forwards out of the endless white and into the machine’s chamber. He was still standing, hand placed on the orb.

“So, now we are equal in power. No matter, I can still destroy you,” Thajkon said from behind him. “Let’s see how skilled you are with your newfound power.”

Gathol only had a second to react to the volley of lightning that Thajkon had hurled at him, but that second seemed to go by slowly, and he turned to meet the lightning just in time. By instinct he stuck out his hands and tried to block the lightning. It reached his hands and rebounded off, striking the ground at Thajkon’s feet. The more lightning that Thajkon hurled at him, the harder it was to push it away, but it didn’t really seem to matter. Not with all this power flowing through him.

“You’re not bringing this Sith Lord down,” Gathol shouted to his ex-mentor.

“We’ll see.” Thajkon redirected his aim to the orb that Gathol had used. An energy ball began forming in his hand, the white ball giving off a orange glow. It soared towards the orb, but Gathol pulled the orb away. The plinth it had been sitting on exploded. Gathol raised up the orb and put it in the outstretched hand of the bronzium statue opposite of the one holding Thajkon’s.

“I’m not stupid enough to let you destroy my orb.” Gathol bound forward and wrapped Thajkon in a Dark Side web, constricting him, and then placing a solid punch in his jaw, and then another in his chest. “And I’m not stupid enough to let you destroy me.”

Thajkon powered up and used a powerful Force push that ripped the webbing off of him. The push hit Gathol hard and threw him across the room, against a wall. At insane speeds, Thajkon raced over to him, and proceeded at pummel him with a blur of fast punches. Gathol worked his hands out from under the webbing and used Force lightning on Thajkon’s legs. The electricity passed through Thajkon’s legs, momentarily showing the bones and causing Thajkon to stop the punching. After ripping off the remainder of the web, Gathol jumped and kicked his ex-mentor in the face. His opponent flew backwards, but recovered by rolling on the ground and getting up quickly. Then Gathol used the Force to snap the bones in Thajkon’s arms, making the man scream with agony. His ex-mentor focused hard while backing away to mend the broken bones with Force heal. Because the power of 500 Sith flowed through him, this didn’t take very long, and he was ready to block Gathol’s flying kick. The Sith Lord grabbed the boy’s foot and sent the lightning coursing through him. The pain was intense, and Gathol began screaming in torment. But then he shot his own lightning out of his hands and began to electrocute Thajkon. The Sith Lords released each other and fell backwards.

“We are too equal, Thajkon,” Gathol gasped, trying to recover from the electrocution. “We would be locked in combat till the end of the galaxy, never succeeding.”

“You are wrong, boy. I will win this conflict.” Thajkon leaped up and used the Force to project his fighting. Still at least ten feet away from Gathol, he swung a punch at Gathol’s jaw. Gathol began to laugh, but then he felt his jaw go out of place. He popped it back into position as another five punches hit him in the stomach, then a kick that sent him back against the wall again. Then another blast of the sorcerous lightning began to tear through him. He raised his hands and reflected the electrical energy, angling them up towards Thajkon’s sphere. His ex-mentor summoned the energy downwards and back to him, going back into his hand. Then he summoned bolts of hatred into his hands as he had earlier and began hurling them one at a time in Gathol’s direction. Using Force speed to run on the walls, the young Sith Lord narrowly avoided being hit by them. They exploded behind him, blackening parts of the Sith pictographs. He ran a full lap around the room before Thajkon decided to throw one ahead of him. Gathol fell off of the wall and rolled up on the ground, sitting in a crouched position. Then the remaining bolts of hatred came flying towards him. He extended his hand and the bolts exploded within an inch of his hand. The explosion wrapped around Gathol’s Force shielding bubble, as did the lightning that Thajkon began hurling after that. It had no effect, as Gathol rose through the smoke and ignited his lightsaber, blocking the powerful surge.

“That was a mistake, boy,” Thajkon said, igniting his lightsaber. The red blades shown brilliantly, and they glared at each other intensely for a moment before charging each other down and locking blades. The conflict was face-paced, the blades spinning around at blurring speeds and dashing and clashing against each other.

“You cannot defeat me, Gathol. I’m the better swordsman,” Thajkon rasped confidently.

“Keep talking like that and you’ll end up on the ground, dead,” Gathol rasped back. He was sweating profusely, and starting to get blisters on his hands from the fast-paced dueling. Suddenly Thajkon used malacia, the power to induce a person with nausea or vertigo, on Gathol, and he began feeling woozy. While he was leaning over to throw up, he was thrown to the other side of the room by another surge of lightning. He hit the wall with a thud and a crack and slumped to the ground. He rolled to the side to avoid the stone slab that toppled from the wall, and then used the Force to hurl it at Thajkon. The Sith Lord held a bolt of hatred in its path, shattering it to little pieces, and then threw those pieces back. Gathol was pelted with them, but charged forwards. Thajkon also charged forwards, but then leaped upwards and forwards. Gathol mimicked, and they met in mid-air. They both swung, but, impaired by the malacia, Gathol was beginning to feel vertigo. Thajkon’s lightsaber passed his guard, and then there was no feeling in his right arm. He hit the ground harder than he’d hit the wall earlier, and it cracked around him.

“Foolish, Gathol, foolish. You should have known that it is unwise to jump high while under the influence of malacia. But it is too late now. You have been disarmed, literally.” Thajkon grinned his evil grin again, and pulled an arm from next to Gathol to him. Gathol looked to his right and saw that he had indeed been disarmed. Instead of his arm, there was only a stub that ended just above the elbow. He laid back, defeated. Thajkon pried a lightsaber from the hand of Gathol’s amputated arm and ignited it, holding it next to his at Gathol’s neck. “You have been defeated,” Thajkon said as he prepared to slit the boy’s throat.

Instead, he turned and deflected the laser bolts now being fired at him. At least two dozen Republic soldiers were firing high-powered rifles at him, and they weren’t going to stop until they died. Thajkon was fine with the idea, and was reflecting every last shot back at the soldiers. Most of the bolts splattered through the soldiers, breaking their helmets, shattering their armor, and ending their lives. After many deflections and a few Force powers, all twenty-four soldiers were lying dead on the floor. While this was happening, Gathol had pulled himself to his feet and was standing near the statue that Thajkon had placed his orb in. He leaped up silently and lay flat next to the orb.

“Ah, so you’ve returned, Master Yoda,” Thajkon cackled. “And so have you, Master Windu. Well, well, well, do you think you can defeat me this time? As you can see, I’ve already defeated the boy who took the other orb...wait, where is he?”

“I’m up here, Thajkon,” Gathol hollered defiantly. He held a bolt of hatred in his hand.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!” Thajkon hollered as he leaped up towards Gathol. But it was too late. Gathol let the bolt go, and the orb shattered. The rushing sound filled the room, and a violent wind tossed Gathol and the pieces of the orb off of the outstretched hand of the statue. The spirits of the 500 Sith Lords rushed through the room, giving war cries and swinging lightsabers similar to what had happened when using the machine. The rushed to Thajkon and began stabbing him, electrocuting him, and shooting him. Suddenly it stopped, and Thajkon lay on the ground, weeping.

“My powers! Gone!” Thajkon sobbed as Yoda and Mace approached. He stood up in a rage and tried to fend them off, but they were too fast for him. After a few blows were exchanged, the Jedi went in for the killing blow. Mace slashed down hard and Thajkon tried blocked, but Yoda spun behind him and severed his spinal cord with a deliberate blow while Mace cut off Thajkon‘s hand. The Dark Jedi fell, still sobbing and crying in anguish. Gathol rolled his eyes, and ended the sobbing forever with a few bolts of hatred. He sent Yoda and Mace from the room by sending down a flow of lightning, which sparked against the floor and against the green and blue blades. The lightsabers Thajkon had been using were destroyed by the lightning, but that didn’t matter to Gathol. He called his orb to him, put it in his backpack, and then sprinted to the door he had come from earlier.

Chapter 11: The Aftermath

When he pulled down the wooden doors, he had returned to the maze that Galath’s ghost had led him through earlier. The fake walls had returned, but now Gathol knew where they were. He charged straight through them, using the Force to guide him. Why am I doing this if I can just leap over it? Gathol thought. He tried it and soared over the walls, landing on one with precision and balance. He leaped again and arrived at the end of the labyrinth. He had forgotten where the entrance door had been, so he blew a hole through the wall and entered Galath’s burial chamber.

“Thank you, Darth Massacre. I will exact your vengeance upon the Jedi,” he spoke to the skeleton one last time. The skeleton stuck out it’s hands, apparently beckoning for Gathol to take the Sith sword and the lightsaber. Gathol grabbed the lightsaber and clipped it to his belt. The sword, still in it’s sheath, he swung over his back, for it had a strap to hold it there.

“Thank you again,” Gathol called out as he raced out of the room. When he entered the treasure room again, he grabbed a few handfuls of golden coins, shoving them deep down in his pockets. “This should be able to buy me a new ship, among other things,” he told himself as he grabbed one last handful. When he emerged into the cold night air of the Temple’s entrance, he was greeted by high-powered rifles, grenades, and turrets from the Republic cruisers. The soldiers were retreating onto the ships, most of them already standing on the loading ramp, firing. They stopped and ran inside the ships, letting the ships destroy the Sith Lord. A missile or two flew from the cruisers, but with the wave of his hand he sent them back. He ignited the ancient lightsaber that Galath’s ghost had given him and began deflecting bolts back at the ships. Soon he could not stay in the open with all the rockets and lasers blowing the ground around him apart. He dove behind one of the koru-koru trees, remembering what the High Priest of the Varloudor humanoids had told him about the bark’s strength. To ensure the bark’s resilience to blaster cannons, he used the Force to strengthen the bark.

As soon as he finished making it stronger, the ships spotted him and began firing right away. The bark was barely even scorching, let alone not splintering at all. Gathol ran around the trees, avoiding the lasers as they hit the tree and the ground around him. Smoke and fire and explosions surrounded him, but Gathol used the Force to alter the smoke into oxygen, effectively getting rid of it. Then he leaped up into the branches of the trees. The ships stopped firing, but Gathol had a bad feeling about it. He removed his pair of electrobinoculars from his belt and looked up into the sky. A Republic cruiser with orbital bombing gear...not good, Gathol thought as he saw the first bombs drop. They hit the Temple of Galath, destroying it. The explosion created a shockwave, and Gathol fell from the branch he had perched himself in. He grabbed another and hung above the waves of fire and pillars of smoke. Thanks to him using the Force on the tree, it did not ignite, nor did the flimsy twig he hung by break. But the tree was blown over the multiple shockwaves caused by the orbital bombing. It toppled into the flames, but still did not ignite. Gathol stayed on the log, and focused hard on using the Force to change the smoke into oxygen.

Soon the orbital bombing was over, yet the flames remained. Many trees had been scorched or completely splintered, and most were still ablaze. The bodies of two hundred Varloudor humanoid warriors lay dead in the flames and smoke, killed by the Republic soldiers or the orbital bombing. The Temple was still shrouded by the smoke, but Gathol knew what he would see. The massive stones that had put the Temple together would be strewn around and scorched black. The gargantuan statues in the machine’s chamber would have toppled and broken. The machine itself would be crushed under the weight of the Sith statues. The piles of gold might still be intact, but most of it would be melted together because of the flames. Not a problem. Gold is gold, Gathol thought to himself. I can just cut it from the other chunks. Darth Massacre’s burial chamber and the labyrinth had most likely taken a direct hit from the bombs and would have been completely destroy. Thajkon’s body would have been consumed by the fire, or shredded by the bombs. The lightsabers he had been holding had gone with him. Despite the fact that the old man had intended to betray and kill his pupils, Gathol still honored him as his Master and a powerful Force-user. The others had all been killed, and he was the only remaining person to have been trained by the ex-Jedi Master.

“Good bye, Thajkon,” Gathol said hoarsely, and saluted in the Temple‘s direction. Then a light shower began to douse the raging flames. It felt good on Gathol sore body, and he raised his head to the sky. It ended quickly and the cloud spread apart. Through the smoke, steam, and clouds, Gathol could see the sun rising, causing the mounds of melted gold to glitter brilliantly and bringing a new day to the bizarre jungle planet. A new day in Gathol’s life. A new beginning for the Sith.

Bumping. Next story coming soon.

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Defender of the Republic: Story of a Jedi

The Force will be with you, always.

--Obi-Wan Kenobi

Chapter 1: The Carbine Club

“They’re cutting through!” hollered a scared Rodian. He and at least ten others had locked themselves in a safe room to get away from the Republic policemen that had been hunting them down. They were the last of a band of notorious pirates known as the Carbine Club. The Carbine Club, named such for the use of blaster carbines by everyone who had been a member, had branched off from a pirating group that had been nearly destroyed by rival pirates and the Republic nearly five years before. Recently the Carbine Club had been attempting to pull a heist in the Coco District of Coruscant, but the Jedi were alerted, and had chased them down. The carbine-using pirates turned make a stand, but it wasn’t much of a stand. The Jedi had disabled or killed half of the twenty-man team that had been sent to finish the heist.

“Brace the door!” ordered a Twi'lek. His blaster carbine was shaking violently in his hands, and his lekku were twitching with excitement and fright.

“But the Jedi could just cut through that as well!”

“We’re doomed!”

At that moment the Jedi cut through. Young man wielding a lightsaber stepped through the hole he had just cut in the blast door. They opened fire on the young individual, but he merely deflected the blaster bolts back. Most of the shots hit the pirates in the legs, but one shot went stray and shattered the Rodian’s skull. Soon only the Twi’lek was left standing, and he began firing rapidly at the young Jedi. The shots were reflected, knocking the carbine out of the Twi’lek’s hands and hitting him in the left kneecap. He stumbled and fell. He looked up to see the blade of the lightsaber pointed right between his eyes.

“Tron Tereem, you are under arrest for piracy, murder, smuggling, and robbery, among other things. You might want to stay put if you don’t want to be harmed. Put your hands on your head,” the young man ordered, motioning to the Twi’lek’s arms with the blade. The Twi’lek nodded and put his hands on his head. Then a second Jedi came in, an older man, also holding a lightsaber. He had taken a blaster wound to the shoulder, but other than that he was uninjured.

“Good work,” congratulated the older Jedi. “We’ve rounded up the pirates and smugglers outside, so we can consider this mission complete.”

“Well done yourself, Master. Couldn’t have done it without you,” replied the younger Jedi. Then a group of Republic policemen filed in behind the Jedi, stun guns held at the ready. The Jedi and the policemen lifted the pirates to their feet and escorted them out of the safe room and out of the run down warehouse. Policemen outside were busy piling up the blaster carbines and getting out the body bags to clear the area. Yellow caution tape and shock barriers, which gave a little spark and a jolt whenever touched by somebody trying to cross the barriers to get a better look, had been placed at most entrances to the area, as well as more policeman armed with stun guns, effectively blocking it off.

“Quite a show you put on for us, Jedi,” said a policeman who was helping load the prisoners onto a Republic troopship. “I still don’t understand how that Force thing works and how you manage to wield those lightsabers the way you do, but it’s great to watch.”

“It’s even greater to use,” smiled the younger Jedi. “Now let’s get back to the Temple, Master. I’m eager to report our success.”

“Let’s not be too eager, my Padawan,” said the older Jedi, though everyone could tell he was just as eager as his apprentice. One policeman looked at another with a look of confusion, mouthing the word ‘Padawan?’ The other policeman shrugged, and turned to watch the Jedi hop into a two-man starfighter. The engines powered up, the repulsorlift raised it up, and it jetted away.