Savior Self
Haha. Get it? SAVIOR SELF? HAHAHAH!
Anyway…
Yet another rendition of the game with a female Revan. If you've read my renditions before, you know there's nothing to fear… much. Please read, please reply. - More chapters to come.
Rated PG13 – The game itself is rated Teen so I figured I'd match it.
Disclaimer: My dog owns Star Wars, but I don't.
Savior Self
Trask Ulgo wrinkled his nose at the brown slush in his cup. What was that? It looked like Aephian fodder… or what was left of Aephian fodder once it had been eaten and digested. Trill touched his shoulder, tilting her head to one side. What a doll. She was too innocent and sweet to be a Republic soldier, though she sure as hell couldn't brew caffa.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked him in that soft, slanted accent of hers.
Trask shrugged, forcing himself to drink it. So, not only did it look like Aephian fodder, it tasted like it too. He could feel his face twist itself into a knot for a moment before he could fix it. "It's great," he managed to croak.
Trill grinned proudly and bounced off, and Giles was laughing at him on the other side of the room. Trask glared at him.
"Just wait until it's your turn to brew, buddy –" he began, when there was a violent impact from the right. Trask hit the ground, covering his head and letting the caffa cup go flying. Trill screamed and rolled over him, and Giles let out a faint gurgle was his head was impaled by a sheet of metal. Blood spurted forth and ran over the floor, but Trask could hardly notice, for there was sickening crunch and a hiss and the room seemed to be getting smaller. Trask's head spun. Air! Where was the air? He looked around desperately.
Air was being sucked out a crack in the window. Duraglass wasn't holding out against this onslaught? That wasn't good. They needed to get out of there, and fast.
Swearing violently in as many languages as he could think up, Trask grabbed Trill's limp body by the middle and hauled her out of the room, into the main corridors. He could hear the heavy clink of booted feet on the floor and began to panic. He tried to drag Trill faster, but in doing so he backed up against a heated, leaking generator pipe. He heard the click and the warning hiss, and he lunged out of the way, trying to bring Trill with him, but the force of the explosion sent her flying like a rag-doll through the air. He didn't stop to watch where she landed. She was certainly dead now.
Bleeding at the cheek with singed fingers and knees, Trask began sprinting for the bunkers before whatever had boarded their ship could reach him. He found himself bounding over bodies as he went along, some of which had obvious blaster wounds smoking from their heads and bellies.
Sith.
It had to be the Sith.
Trask found his own bunker and worked to open the door, preparing the security locks in case the Sith tried to enter. He barreled through the door and sank to his knees, gasping for breath.
What was he going to do now? He had to escape. That's right. The escape pods. One of them might be working. But Bastila… Bastila… he had to make sure that woman made it out alive, or he'd be skinned for leaving her to die. He had to hurry, though. If they waited much longer the escape pods would be gone. He looked up and spotted the girl on the bed, staring at him, the sheets drawn up to her chin, her eyes wide and frightened.
Well, wasn't she lovely? How could she have slept through that assault?
Trask got to his feet, looking her over. He couldn't see much but her riled brown hair and unstaring blue eyes, and those full, rouged lips that pouted unhappily. She looked like a child. He would have to address her with urgency if he was going to get her off this ship alive.
Brushing himself off, he said brusquely, "We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up – we don't have much time!" He had already started for the door when the woman stood up, letting the sheets fall and distracting him. Goodness. How had he missed that in the three months he'd spent working with her? But it didn't matter. She was talking to him, sounding groggy and confused.
"Who are you?"
He couldn't shun his duty. Not now. Biting his lip at having to explain this so slowly, he said, "I'm Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. I'm your bunk mate here on the Endar Spire. We work opposite shifts; I guess that's why you haven't seen me before." Like he hadn't seen her before. Well, he was certainly seeing her now. He shook his head. Enough dallying. "Now hurry up, we have to find Bastila! We have to make sure she makes it off the ship alive!"
The poor wench blinked at him, drawing her brows together. "Who's Bastila?"
Trask lost his composure. His jaw dropped. Who's Bastila? Was she joking? But all the same he chose to explain, for the sake of shutting this woman up. "Bastila's the commanding officer on the Endar Spire. Well, not an officer, really… But she's the one in charge of this mission." Of course, their mission, as far as Trask knew, wasn't a serious one. Lick the boots of the governors of Taris and insure that they remained with the Republic. He noticed the girl looked ill-at-ease, like she didn't want to leave. No, no, he had wasted enough time to leave her there. "One of our primary duties is to guarantee her survival in the event of an enemy attack! You swore an oath just like everyone else on this mission; Now it's time to make good on that oath!"
She sobbed once, but nodded. Wow, did she ever look upset. What was her problem? Feeling slightly guilty for snapping, Trask patted her on the shoulder and tried to make up for it. "I heard what everyone's saying about you," he offered gently, softly. "You've explored the farthest reaches of the galaxy, you've visited planets I've never even heard of. People with your skills and abilities are hard to find; it's no wonder the Republic recruited you for this mission. But now's the time to prove yourself! I know you're a scout and not a soldier, but Bastila needs all troops at her side during this attack."
His gentle urgings seemed to help the poor girl. She nodded. "Okay, let's go help Bastila," she said quietly.
Trask became brisk again. "So hurry up and grab your gear. You need to suit up so we can get out of here." He couldn't have her wandering around in her underwear. The Sith would kill her in a second.
The girl nodded. "Okay," she said, and gathered her things from the footlocker near her bed. She dressed quickly, giving her sword a readying twirl. She nodded to him, waiting for his command.
"Okay," he said. "Let's move out."
The girl started for the door without him. He grasped her arm instantly, frowning.
"What?" she asked.
"We should stick together; you'll have more success with a party than on your own," he told her. He couldn't risk her wandering the halls and getting shot. And he himself was worried – he doubted he could hold out against so many Sith on his own.
"Two is a party?" she asked. He gawked. Cheeky! She was cheeky! He never would have guessed! But matters over, he had to get them out of here.
Shaking his head, he made up a story as to why the door was locked. If he admitted that he had closed it behind him out of cowardice, she might laugh, and nothing is more demeaning than being laughed at by a woman. "Because of the attack this room is lockdown, but don't worry – I've got the override codes. You'll have to use me to unlock the door."
She looked him up and down. He flushed. "GOT IT!" he snapped.
"Okay," she said, and stepped back to let him open the door.
Trask stepped up and tapped the door. It opened with a whoosh. He bowed at her grandly. "Now that the door is open you better take the lead again," he told her. Human shield.
She wrinkled her nose at him and headed through the door, pausing to pat a droid on the head. The droid growled and fizzled in reply. Suddenly she stopped and Trask could hear it – the buzz of their comm.'s. He turned his on and Carth appeared, shoulders erect, face set, but his eyes were shining with worry.
"This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position. We can't hold out long against their firepower. All hands to the bridge!" And then he cut out.
The girl looked at Trask uncertainly. Sensing her question, he said, "That was Carth contacting us on our portable communicators. He's one of the Republic's best pilots. He's seen more combat than the rest of us put together. If he says things are bad, you better believe it."
"Then we should get moving," the girl said.
Trask squared his shoulders, not about to be ordered around by a woman. "We have to get to the bridge and help defend Bastila!" He noted that she looked a little flighty, like she was ready to get lost. He groaned. "There's a map of the Endar Spire and a copy of Carth's message in your electronic journal, just in case we get separated."
"Let's move out."
"Whatever." He watched with a coy, evil grin as she tried to open the next door. It was locked, of course. After a few minutes of malicious fun, he said, "That door's locked, dear, and I don't have the codes to open it. You'll have to use your security skill on it if we want to get past."
She glared at him. "Fine." She turned around and got to work, fiddling with the wires until the door gave a satisfying hiss and slid open. They were greeted with a party of Sith.
They fought their way through the ship. That woman was a crap fighter if Trask had ever seen one. She had no idea what she was doing and got shot up worse than a target shot, but she still managed to live. It was unnerving. They reached the bridge and came upon a huge wave of Sith, but there was an explosion and the majority of them – and some Republic pilots – were killed. The girl looked edgy as she picked their corpses for goods.
Trask got the suspicion that she used to be more of an assassin rather than a scout.
They continued on their way, and no matter how hard Trask looked he could find no sign of Bastila. Perhaps she had left. That would have been wise.
The girl opened a door and stopped. She seemed to have sensed something. "We shouldn't go this way," she said.
Trask ignored her, listening. There was a noise behind a door. "There's something behind here," he said, pushing open the door. His heart leapt to his throat and he felt weak. "Damn – another Dark Jedi!" He looked back at the girl, who was shaking. She couldn't fight him, but Trask might be able to… He knew he might be able to… It made sense, and he knew he wasn't going to live much longer anyway. He was, what, now? He was somewhere in his forties, wasn't it? Yes. And the girl… why, she had barely reached adulthood. She had so much to look forward to. So Trask decided to take the leap. "I'll hold him off. You get to the escape pods. Go!" He stepped through the door and closed it, sealing out her cries, as the Dark Jedi stepped up and claimed his prey.
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The girl, in fact, was named Cortessa Blatt, and she was left standing there, numb, listening to Trask's screams on the other side of the door. She was battling back tears. Though he had been a little bit… rude… and abrupt… and had eyed her shirt far too much, he was a good person, in the end. But she knew she could not let his sacrifice hold no meaning. She turned and sprinted through the door, and was greeted again by Carth Onasi.
"This is Carth Onasi on your personal communicator. I'm tracking your position through the Endar Spire's life support systems." Cortessa looked him over. She hadn't realized a hologram could look so stuffy. But Carth continued on. "Bastila's escape pod is away – you're the last surviving crew member on the Endar Spire." These words hurt. She was alone? Everyone else had been killed? The thought made her feel a little ill and vulgar and superfluous. Carth was still talking. "I can't wait for you much longer; you have to get to the escape pods! But be careful. There's a Sith patrol just down the corridor. Use your stealth skills to sneak past him."
"How'd you know about my…?"
"Use your stealth skills to sneak past him, dammit."
"Okay, okay." The comm. fizzled out.
She turned her stealth on and crept at an agonizingly slow pace through the corridor. She walked right past a Sith, opened the door and, for the first time, came upon a wave of Sith alone. She blanched, feeling the weight of her sword, and realized she needed double the power. She drew another sword from her pack and twirled them both between her fingers.
"Come and get me!" she barked.
The Sith looked left to right. They couldn't see her.
She fell silent and resumed creeping past them. The next door wouldn't open and she held her breath as she silently began messing with the computer consol nearby. She found the option to fry some Sith and did so happily. The door opened then to her will. Still stealthy, she crept over the many bodies on the floor, and came to another door. Cautiously, she opened it.
Carth looked up, his fingers flying to his blasters. "Who's there?" he barked.
Cortessa shut off her stealth and stared at him. He looked nothing like his hologram self. This Carth was not stuffy, but sad and serious, with obviously warm hands but a weak sense of self. Seeing him made her feel sorry for him.
Carth's face brightened and he stuffed his blasters in his belt again. "You made it just in time! There's only one active escape pod left. Come on, we can hide out in the planet below!" He seemed to be struggling with the fact that she was a woman. He kept looking her over like he couldn't believe it was true.
Cortessa rested her hands on her hips, not quite sure whether she would rather die or jump in a cramped escape pod with an unknown man. "Who are you?"
Carth's voice grew gentle. "I'm a soldier with the Republic, like you. We're the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire. Bastila's escape pod is already gone, so there's no reason for us to stick around and get shot by the Sith." His voice had regained volume. "Now come on – there'll be time for questions later!"
Cortessa uncertainly approached the escape pod. "I'm not…" she began, but she felt a pair of firm hands on her shoulder blades, pushing her violently inside. She crumpled on the floor. The hatch steamed as a blaster shot missed it by inches. Carth tumbled in after her and closed it with a mechanical hiss. They were plunged into darkness, save for a small, glowing computer panel.
"Here we go!" Carth said, pressing a button. There was a roar and they were launched with a sickening lurch into space.
Cortessa screamed as the city of Taris rose up to meet them.
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Author's Notes: There you go. Something to keep you busy while I work on the next chapters of the Leviathan and Backwater Planet. Enjoy. c",)
