Knights of the Old Republic II: The Exiled

by DiamondStar40

Five years after Revan turned back to the light, the Sith have all but wiped out the Jedi Knights. The only survivor is Ilana Cyphus, an exile from the Jedi Order. Will she be able to save herself and her companions and bring balance back to the Force? Or will she take them all down the path to the Dark Side?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

The Sith Lords

Chapter 1 – Someone to Watch Over Me

Awaken…

The taste of kolto was unmistakable. Its overwhelming saline flavor had a distinct metallic bite to it, thanks to all the minerals and other chemicals floating around in the solution. Disgusting stuff, really. But it gets the job done; you would just prefer to be unconscious during your treatment.

However, Ilàna Çyphus was no longer unconscious. At least, conscious enough to figure out she was in a kolto tank. Her eyes opened groggily, adapting to consciousness and the image distortions of the liquid slowly. She immediately sensed something was very wrong, but was still too disoriented to pinpoint why. As she came to her senses, she realized that she was in a medlab, but not the one aboard the Harbinger.

One by one, memories started to come back to her. She was on the Harbinger, a Republic battlecruiser, and the last thing she remembered was going back to her quarters from the medlab. Then she felt tired, but not just tired, exhausted. Did she lay down for a nap? Did she sleep through whatever happened? She must have been injured, or else she wouldn't be in a kolto tank.

The tank's sensors automatically started draining the kolto, now that her vital signs indicated she was gaining full consciousness. Once the liquid was drained, the transparisteel cylinder opened so she could get out. Still uneasy on her feet, she crawled out of the kolto tank as it closed and filled back up behind her. Leaving a slimy trail behind her, she crawled a bit further and rubbed the bridge of her nose before opening her eyes at last.

All she could see were the dull gray bulkheads around her. The lack of contrast in her surroundings made her dizzy, so she closed her eyes and groaned as she sunk back into the floor. The cool metal of the deck pressed into her cheek and hands, enough to help her center herself. Eventually, she made out several soft beeping sounds. Her curiosity got the better of her despite the fact she was still extremely groggy, and she slowly got up.

Behind her, she saw four other kolto tanks, all of them occupied by men in brown leather and blue denim coveralls. Approaching one of the tanks carefully, lest she lose her delicate balance and stumble, she looked at the controls only to discover there were no lifesigns inside of it. No doubt about it, the man inside was dead. Her heartbeat quickened; perhaps the others were alive and she could help them. That hope was soon dashed when she confirmed the other three were dead, just like their colleague.

Discovering the other four patients dead in their tanks put her on alert, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Something was very wrong, Ilàna could sense it. At least her chilling realization seemed to cut through the fog of recovering from her stay in the kolto tanks.

"I've got to get out of here," she said softly to herself as she made for the open door that lead to the corridor beyond.

There were three doors in the corridor, the one closest to her on the right was labeled "Morgue" in Galactic Basic, and one further down the hall was unmarked. The door at the end of the corridor was malfunctioning; she was most likely not going to be able to open it using conventional means.

Even though most would want to stay out of the morgue, especially under the circumstances, Ilàna got the feeling there was more to the dead men in the kolto tanks than was readily apparent. The fact the facility seemed to be abandoned also concerned her. It seemed in her best interest to try and investigate, learn as much about her situation as possible. Unfortunately, the door to the morgue was locked, but the unmarked door wasn't. It was a place to start, at least.

Immediately, she spied a few plasteel cylinders and a door that read, "Medical Storage." She figured it wouldn't hurt to collect a few medpacs and stims, if her gut feeling about her situation were correct. A computer console sat adjacent to a lab station, and Ilàna could almost guarantee the storage compartment door was locked, and she'd have to hack it. Taking the medpacs from the plasteel container, she went over to the console and hacked into the system.

"Peragus medical bay console, emergency lockdown, enter command…" Ilàna muttered to herself as she read the information straight off the screen. "Peragus," she repeated, sifting through her mental files, trying to figure out where she was. Peragus II was a planet whose sole export was a cheap, low-grade fuel used mostly in Republic government operations. Actually, the asteroid field near the planet was where the mining took place; the field itself was created when a massive explosion due to the detonation of the unstable raw fuel flung a large chunk of the planet into space. Because of the gravitational shear between the planet and the asteroids, they moved very quickly and chaotically in their orbit, requiring ships to have up-to-the-minute drift charts in order to dock safely at the fuel depot on the largest asteroid. How she ended up here in all the chaos, she hadn't the foggiest idea, but she was going to figure it out.

Humming to herself, she accessed the fragmented medical logs she could dig out from the console's files. A holocron of a lovely, dark skinned woman appeared beside her to deliver the logs, from oldest to most recent:

"Still examining the survivors of the damaged freighter…looks like it goes by the name of the Ebon Hawk. Only one survivor, placed in a kolto tank for recovery. The carbon scoring on the vessel suggests it was in a battle, but no indication of who fired on it…couldn't get much from the navicomputer. I'm surprised the ship was able to make it into the Peragus asteroid field without the asteroid drift charts.

"Aside from the lone survivor, we recovered an old woman, no life signs. There was also a protocol droid and a utility droid onboard – sent both down to maintenance while security sorts through the other items on the ship. It looks like the utility droid, a T3 unit, was able to get the ship working enough to get to the colony. We're prepared to –"

The first log entry was cut off. Somehow she had gotten to a freighter, which took her off the Harbinger. Why it happened was beyond her, but she had a feeling that she wasn't taken voluntarily. The fact she had no memory of anything after returning to her quarters and before she woke up in the kolto tank on Peragus was most disturbing. In search of further answers, she continued playing back the logs.

"…could be a Jedi, but we won't know for sure until we get the transmission back from the Republic. If the survivor is a Jedi, that would account for the recovery rate, but I'm more concerned that a Jedi here may cause trouble. Some of the miners, especially Coorta, are already st-"

The transmission cut off in static, then resumed, "…another accident today – a detonation in the ventilation tunnels. If the lockdown measures hadn't activated, the whole facility would have been destroyed. Got most of the injured to the kolto tanks in time, but the rest had to go to the morgue. One of the miners said a droid caused the accident, but we couldn't get any specifics."

"Jedi shows up at the facility, things start blowing up, sounds like business as usual." Ilàna sighed and shook her head. She had thought those kinds of days were long behind her. These accidents started happening right after her arrival, and that couldn't be a mere coincidence. Her buddies back in the kolto tanks were probably the accident victims the medical officer was talking about. Perhaps their wounds were too severe, or everyone disappeared too fast for them to receive proper treatment. Either way, there was more information to be gleaned from the logs.

"…miners about the Jedi, a number of the droids have been acting oddly, and not even memory wipes seem to be fixing the problem. There was another detonation in one of the fuel vents the droids were working in. We deactivated several of them and moved them down to maintenance, but we're still treating the plasma burns. That cuts us down to almost half shifts, and with the droids malfunctioning, we may not make the Telos shipment for this month. Fortunately, the detonation didn't cause a lockdown."

The automated computer system came in over the comms in the recording, interrupting the medical officer, "WARNING: There has been a fuel detonation in the mining tunnels. Emergency Lockdown commencing. All personnel report to quarters and prepare for emergency venting countermeasures."

The medical officer didn't bother to stop the log recording, saying in a panic, "No! If the ventilation systems are malfunctioning… Evacuate the medical bay! Everyone, evac-"

So, the ventilation tunnels were conveniently compromised and all the droids were conveniently making explosions in the right places at the right times. It was clear to Ilàna that someone somewhere wanted all these people dead. Who and why were questions this console wouldn't have answers for, since she had accessed all the logs she could find. It occurred to her that maybe the dead miners in the kolto tanks were also murdered and didn't succumb to their injuries as she had previously guessed. Swiftly inputting more commands into the computer, she called up the treatment regimen of everyone in the kolto tanks, including herself. She discovered that the men were being treated for plasma burns, as indicated by the medical logs, but that they had died after the last treatment request. All of them, except her.

Apparently, each of them had received a lethal dose of sedatives, administered in their kolto tanks, Ilàna included. No wonder she felt so crummy when she woke up. While her metabolism was far superior, that much medication would make any Jedi feel just as bad. Ha, well, the joke is on whoever tried to kill everyone here, she thought with a smirk. But then, she had a chilling realization: if everyone on the station knew she was a Jedi – or had Jedi training, at least – then whoever wiped out the facility knew an overdose of sedatives wouldn't be enough to kill her. Whoever was responsible wanted her alive. She had to hurry and find a way off the station.

Shaking off the feeling of dread, she sliced both the door to the morgue and the storage door behind her. After quickly gathering supplies from storage, she made her way into the morgue. The dead didn't speak, but maybe they still had some answers.

The deceased old woman from the freighter that brought her to Peragus lay on a bed near the door. A miner – young fellow, not much past maturity – lay on the furthest bed, severely disfigured due to plasma burns. Cautiously, she passed the woman to examine the miner more closely. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but morgues always made her feel uneasy. Maybe it was because the environment was so controlled versus chaotic, unlike a battlefield. In her mind, bodies belonged on a blood-stained battlefield, not in sterile hospital beds.

"Find what you are looking for amongst the dead?" Came a soft, ominous voice behind her. Ilàna whipped her head around and nearly jumped out of her skin. The elderly woman everyone thought was dead most certainly wasn't, if what Ilàna saw before her was any indication.

Even though she was startled, Ilàna replied evenly, "I thought you were dead."

The elderly woman brought her hands together just below her waistline, pressing her spread fingertips together. Her silent footfalls and gravelly voice made her presence sagely, if a little disturbing. "Close to death, yes." She approached Ilàna slowly, "Closer than I'd like. You have the smell of a kolto tank about you, how do you feel?"

Ilàna couldn't decide if she should back away from her, or stand steady. Her answer was brief, "Disoriented," then she realized that this woman's voice was familiar to her, and she continued to speak. "I heard you…while I was in the tank, didn't I?"

"Yes," the old woman answered. "I am Kreia, and I am your rescuer, as you are mine. Tell me, do you recall what happened?"

Ilàna didn't see any reason to not be honest with the old woman. She seemed trustworthy enough, for now. Maybe she even had the kind of answers she was looking for. "Just that I was aboard the Harbinger, a Republic cruiser, and then I woke up here. I have no idea why."

"The ship was attacked, you were the only survivor; a result of your Jedi training, no doubt."

Why does everyone bring that up? Ilàna thought in exasperation. "I left the Order long ago. It is no longer a part of who I am." She said, almost indignantly.

Even though she could barely see Kreia's face beneath her cowl, Ilàna swore she saw a look of slight amusement on it. "Your stance, your walk, tells me you are a Jedi. But your movements are heavy, you carry something that weighs you down."

The old woman was very observant, she'd give her that. "I didn't exactly leave the Order on good terms, there were…certain disagreements."

"So it would seem," Kreia nodded. "But let us put aside your past, and focus on the now."

"Very well," Ilàna conceded. She still didn't fully trust this mysterious other survivor, but at the moment, she'd take anything she could get. "So, do you know what's going on and how we got here?"

"I do not know," Kreia admitted, "I was removed from the events of the world as I slept. A survey of the surroundings may provide the answers we seek."

"Well," Ilàna began, "I've already done a bit of poking around, and I discovered that the facility is all but deserted. Apparently the mining droids were causing explosions in the mining tunnels, causing compromises in the ventilation systems. It seems like everyone who was here is dead, including the others in the kolto tanks."

Kreia nodded slowly, "Yes, I sense you are correct, but there is more to the story here."

"Right," Ilàna said, "The others in the kolto tanks were poisoned, including me, but I survived because of my previous training."

She could already tell Kreia knew where she was going with this line of thought, "It would be no secret to anyone that you are a Jedi, they must have done this deliberately."

"My thoughts exactly."

"The ship we arrived in, the Ebon Hawk, must still be in this place. We should recover it and leave." Kreia's voice sounded urgent, and Ilàna could understand why.

"Well, I for one don't intend on being an easy target for those responsible for what happened here."

Kreia nodded again, "Them, and whoever attacked us before we got here."

"Do you think the same people who attacked us are responsible for all this?"

"I do not think so. Whoever attacked us in the Ebon Hawk wanted you dead. Whoever is responsible for this facility's destruction went to a lot of trouble to keep you alive, and eliminated any possible resistance."

Ilàna shrugged and snorted softly, "Good, fighting on two fronts always keeps me on my toes."

"I would not make light of the situation," Kreia scowled from under her hood.

"Better than running around in a constant state of fear," Ilàna shrugged. I had a feeling she would be a bit of a stiff.

Kreia pursed her lips, "Just be mindful. Even as I slept, I felt much unrest here. I saw strange visions, minds colored with fear. But now," she looked around, "everything here feels terribly silent."

"So I noticed," Ilàna looked around as well, suddenly more disturbed about the deadly silence of the facility.

"A last word of caution," Kreia interjected, "I would find out as much as you can about this place quickly. I fear we will need to depart as suddenly as we arrived."

For as much as she rubbed her the wrong way, Ilàna had to agree, "I better get going. I need to find the Ebon Hawk, and our weapons."

"You may wish to extend your search to some clothes," Kreia quipped, "if only for proper first impressions."

Ilàna looked down at herself for the first time since she woke up, eyes widening a bit. She didn't realize she was wearing the bare minimum of clothing – if you could even call it that. What she was wearing was little more than a bathing suit. "Yeah, good plan."

"I leave you to the explorations of this place. Here I will remain to center myself."

"I will be back for you," Ilàna promised.

Kreia only nodded once, then sat in the middle of the floor with her legs crossed, hands upturned on her knees. It was an unmistakable mediation posture used by the Jedi. Ilàna made a mental note to question Kreia further, but it would have to wait until they escaped Peragus.

The damaged door opened with a little bit of persuasion using a nearby mining torch and some good, old-fashioned elbow grease. There were multiple dead bodies in the large chamber beyond, and Ilàna managed to scavenge some supplies and even a vibroblade from them. An emergency exit to the right was sealed, but a door on the opposite side of the chamber was open. As soon as she opened it, she was greeted by the droids she had heard so much about. They crawled close to the floor and resembled huge spiders. I fucking hate spiders, she thought in the instant before she used her vibroblade to reduce the hostile droids to scrap.

More of the mining droids were waiting for her in the connecting compartments, but they weren't too much for her to handle. The skill she had with a lightsaber helped her easily wield the vibroblade against them, even if she was rusty. She went through a couple more large chambers before finding another emergency exit, but that one was also locked and sealed.

This is the exit, came a voice from inside her head, but it is sealed… Strange, in my visions, it was open.

"Kreia?" Ilàna said aloud, turning around. The old woman wasn't there, or anywhere near her. The voice had been inside her head, and she had no doubt that it was Kreia, but she didn't understand how or why. She certainly wasn't answering her now, so Ilàna decided to keep searching for a way out. There had to be a way to get these emergency doors open, perhaps from an access console.

Continuing deeper into the facility, Ilàna found another control room with a console in it, "Security controls, now we're talking!"

She went into the security records. If anything, these records would probably be the most helpful in figuring out what had happened. The accident logs were a logical place to begin.

"…and according to one of the miners, it was because one of the sonic charges went off prematurely, and like before, it was one set by a mining droid. The three idiots were grouped so close to the charge it might as well have been a grenade going off. The blast turned their bones to dust. It wrecked the internal components of the droid that set the charge, though, so we can't even dissect it to see what happened.

"I don't like what's going on here. Ever since that Jedi showed up, things are getting worse… It's not just Coorta and his miners, or the fights, but now the droids are acting crazy." The security officer in the holocron sighed, "If we don't find what's causing this, or who, this facility's gonna be space dust by the time the next Telos freighter arrives."

Again, there was a pattern with the droids running amok and causing "accidents." She also made a mental note of the name "Coorta," since this wasn't the first time she had heard it. Probably some jackass trying to stir up trouble in addition to what they were already dealing with, but maybe there was more to him, too.

Ilàna decided to move on to the maintenance logs. Two men – one the security officer she had seen before, and the other was presumably the maintenance officer – appeared before her.

"So, you're in maintenance? Then maybe you can tell me what's going on with these droids!"

"Sir, I don't know. It's like their behavior cores are undergoing binary decay, but I can't find the source… This shouldn't be happening."

"Well, that's reassuring, it 'isn't happening.' So the next time we nearly have a breach in the ventilation tunnels, I can just close my eyes and pretend it's my imagination! You better give me some answers. I want to know the damage these droids can do if they start mining us instead of asteroid rock!"

"Sir, these droids aren't combat models! Their mining lasers are weaker and less accurate than blasters. I doubt those droids could even hit one of us."

"Are you blind? What about the miners in medbay? It's sabotage, and it started right after the commander said we weren't going to sell the Jedi to the Exchange! I want you to find out how these droids are being sabotaged. That'll tell me who's trying to clear a path to get that Jedi off the facility and stop him!

"In the meantime, make sure that security's armed with all the ion and sonic charges you can find. If those droids start coming after me, I'm gonna need more than low-grade mining lasers to take 'em down. Clear?"

"Yes, sir. Maintenance Control, out."

"Idiot."

"Sell me? The Exchange?" Ilàna furrowed her brow. She didn't know what "the Exchange" was, but she didn't like the sound of any of it. There was a bounty on her head for some reason, and someone wanted to cash in. That's why someone on this station was hunting her. Could it be that whoever damaged the Ebon Hawk also wanted the bounty? No, Kreia was right: whoever forced them to Peragus wanted her dead, bounty or no bounty.

As she perused the logs more, she found out that a lot of the miners were trying to smuggle in prohibited weapons in light of the droids acting homicidal. However, on Peragus anything stronger than a mining laser posed a great risk of detonating the volatile gases that ripped the planet apart in the first place. Security on Peragus certainly had their hands full between the droids and their own people refusing to abide by safety regulations. When she exhausted the logs, she decided to scout the areas ahead of her by tapping into the security cameras. There were several droids in the storage room that was right off the main security room she was in, and a communications hub somewhere ahead. She definitely needed to get to that hub; there would most likely be a wealth of information there about the facility and, more importantly, her ship.

When she switched over to the camera in the holding cells, she expected to find them vacant or holding bodies. Instead, there was a man in one of them: he was pacing as much as the small space would allow and ruffling his hair. Great, she thought, the only other living being on this station is a criminal. She might as well figure out what his story is, maybe he'd be willing to help her if she helped him. One thing was for sure, leaving him here was a death sentence, and she had no right to condemn him like that.

Satisfied with the information she gleaned from the console, she braced herself for the droid-filled room she was going to have to go through.

Be careful, there is much energy in the room beyond, but it stems from nothing that lives.

"Kreia? Wha.."

Can you not sense them? Reach out, cast aside your sight, cast aside what you see. Instead, reach out with your perceptions…

Ilàna was already aware of their presence because of the security cameras, but she could feel them. Even if she hadn't seen them on the camera footage, she would still know they were there.

Ah, you can feel them. The droids themselves you cannot perceive, but the small oscillations of energy…that you can feel…echoing outwards…

With care, she opened the door and threw an ion grenade through it, shutting the door immediately to shield herself from the blast. The tiny oscillations of energy stopped, and she knew she had been successful.

Ah, you hear it, it is faint, but it is there…

"Kreia, I feel strange… like the sedatives are wearing off." Ilàna's eyes fluttered closed, and she could see the mysterious woman's cloaked face in her mind's eye.

It is the Force you feel, Kreia informed her, it has not been so long as for you to forget.

"It has been almost a decade," she said, shaking her head.

Do not turn away from it. Listen, feel it echo within you. Come, I shall guide you down the familiar paths. You will need it if we are to survive and escape this place.

Ilàna knew she was right, but still felt uneasy. Her connection to the Force had been severed many years ago. Feeling it again was not necessarily unwelcome, it just felt like an awkward reunion with an estranged friend. She was not entirely comfortable with letting it back into her life. But she could feel it swell slowly within her, like a rising tide, and she didn't want to resist. It was a feeling of power she hadn't had in a very long time. She used it to probe just beyond the next door; it was the communications hub she had seen before, and it was patrolled by several of the mining droids.

Bolstered in her confidence, she went through the door and was immediately met with one of the droids. In one instant of pure focus, she channeled Force energy through her body and along her outstretched non-sword arm, stunning the droid. It made for easy prey once it was immobilized. Ilàna looked at her left hand in amazement, panting slightly since she was no longer used to the exertions required for using the Force. She could use her newly re-acquired power only a couple more times before she felt too spent to use it any more. However, it proved to be a huge advantage even though she wasn't nearly as proficient as she used to be.

Recovering from battling the droids in the communications center, she approached the consoles. Her path took her past a door with a forcefield over it.

Beyond this door someone yet lives, Kreia spoke to her as she passed by, be mindful, his thoughts are…difficult to read."

"Must be our prisoner," Ilàna muttered to herself. Figures he would be a slippery bastard, being incarcerated and all.

You have nothing to fear from this one, and he might yet prove useful.

Maybe he shouldn't have been imprisoned at all. Maybe it was some kind of mistake? Her instincts told her no; there was a reason why he was here. At least, for now, it appeared she didn't have to worry. But the prison door was magnetically sealed, she wasn't going to be able to get in there immediately.

Ilàna continued past the door towards the front of the hub, where there were three communications consoles in front of a gargantuan viewscreen. The middle one appeared to be still active, so she sauntered over to it and looked for controls to the prison door. The controls were surprisingly easy to access – someone must have left their clearance code in the computer. She looked behind her as the forcefield over the door dropped and she nodded in satisfaction. It was time to see what cards the proverbial pazaak deck of life were about to deal her.

She opened the door and stood just outside the threshold before proceeding with caution, even though Kreia told her she had nothing to fear.

The man in the cage quirked an eyebrow at her as she approached him, giving her a steady once-over, "Nice outfit…"

Ilàna rolled her eyes, Oh, joy.