Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Chapter 1: Endar Spire
Kale Star finally got up from his bed. He had light – yet tanned –skin, fierce brown eyes, and long brown hair combed back and coming down in locks to his eyes.
He wore a black windcheater jacket, track pants, black gloves, and held two pistols at his sides.
Kale paced around his room. He was bored. Being a smuggler, he was always on the run from either Republic soldiers, authorities, or various Crime Lords who wanted his head. He had seen a lot in the twenty eight years in his life. Or at least, he was quite sure it was twenty eight. That or twenty seven, he never knew for sure. In fact, most of his childhood was blurred, and he only could remember a few flashes. He could remember a poor world, their family living in poverty. He knew that to be Derelia, his home planet. But there were no memories of his teenager life and anything after five years old, for that matter. He had memories of a grassland world, and some type of hidden building there. He also had flashes of a black world, and a huge battle, and then some flashes of something like a . . . tomb on that black planet.
But he simply shrugged those thoughts off. It was only his mind playing tricks on him. Besides, what need of their was the past, so why remember it? It was probably a head injury or something. But Kale's apathy of him not remembering anything surprised him greatly. It was almost as if there was this power in the back of his mind telling him; 'You do not want to find your past.'
"Announcement," rang the voice in the speaker on the top of the room, "we are about a week away from our destination of Onderon. It will take about that much time to arrive to Coruscant."
He closed his eyes and rested his body on the soft cushion. It had been a long day. The training session for the recruits that day had been intense, and they were working on melee - not exactly his strongest point. Though he knew that he could probably take down all the soldiers with his nearly insane pistol shooting.
'One week, then back again! This better be worth the credits,' he thought wearily to himself. He was so tired. Unnaturally tired.
It wasn't until he realized that he was losing awareness fast that he noticed something was wrong. He couldn't possibly be THAT tired. He fought the intense urge to just drift away and sleep, and instead tried to comprehend that the ship was shaking uncontrollably. He tried to make out the blaster noises that were slipping past his consciousness. He wanted to get up, but there was this strange force that was influencing him, and making his vision blurry. Suddenly, his eyes saw only black for a few seconds, but then a picture was made clear:
A man clad in black robes, a black hood, and near-black gray armor that covered his chest plate and down to his stomach. He held a crimson lightsaber in his right hand, holding it parallel to the floor, his body leaning on his back leg. He stood still as a Jedi with a blue blade lunged at him, but the figure stepped aside and the Jedi made contact with the front window which overlooked a space battle. The figure held the Jedi up in the air with the force and unleashed a wave of a strange purple lightning that killed the Jedi instantly and fueled the figure's powers as he turned back to see a female Jedi charging at him.
He lazily held his hand out in the air in the form of holding a cup, and the woman suddenly gasped and held her throat, only now feeling the consequences of forgetting to throw up her walls of Force Defense. After about half a minute of gasping and coughing, the woman's body fell limp to the ground, and the figure went back to his original position. Another female Jedi with a golden single blade took a defense stance as she circled him, two male Jedi flanking her.
"You cannot win, Revan!" she said with a determined edge in her voice. But Revan simply thrust out his hand and the woman was sent flying back, and rolling till almost the entrance of the bridge. Just before Revan could unleash his attack on the other two Jedi, there was a huge blast that rang through the air, and a huge bolt of energy landed at his feet, causing an explosion that send him flying through the air until he landed two meters away from where the woman had been force-pushed. And ironically, the fact that she had been Force-pushed saved her from the explosion while the other two Jedi perished.
Kale's eyes snapped open as his head jerked up, and he realized that his room was on fire. The flames were burning on the opposite side of the room, and smoke was engulfing a thick gray coat over everything in the room.
He stumbled out of his bed as he became aware of the loud firing noises that boomed through the ship. He got up and fumbled for his windbreaker jacket. After he found it, he slipped it on and zipped it up, and quickly put his gloves on, and put both his pistols on his belt. He yelped in surprise as the table caught on fire; then the walls; then the bed.
The entire room was burning, and smoke clouded Kale's vision. He was able to make out the door and he immediately lunged to it, barely missing death as the place that he was previously standing on caught on fire seconds after he had jumped.
Kale banged on the door and was jabbing the buttons, but screamed in agony as the screen read nothing but; Lockdown: Codes Required.
He kept on banging. This was it. He was going to die here, on the Endar Spire, the end of his pathetic smuggling life. He mindlessly banged on the door, but as it suddenly opened, he lost his balance and knocked over the man who was about to get in, as they were both sprawled on the floor.
Almost immediately after the both of them got up, the man – who had white hair and looked in his early thirties – closed the door to the room immediately. He then turned to Kale. "I'm Trask Ulgo. The Endar Spire is under attack, and we need to move fast if we're going to rescue Bastila!"
Kale simply nodded. He was still in shock. He just brushed the ash off his jacked and continued on through the debris, smoke, embers, and burning fires everywhere. Who was attacking them? Why? How were they going to rescue Bastila? 'No,' Kale corrected himself as a spot three feet away from him exploded. 'I'll think later. Now I just need to move!' And that was it.
He trudged through dead bodies of Republic – and Sith - Soldiers and burning and broken objects, occasionally looking back to see if Trask was following close. There was no time to stop; if they didn't move quickly, they would be blown up by the debris, or engulfed in the smoke or flame.
But suddenly, Kale's leg caught a piece of metal and he fell over. His vision was blurred as he heard gunfire very close to them, and then saw bolts of blaster rifles zooming over his head. He grabbed out one of his pistols – an Echani pistol that he had made himself – and got up, only to duck as he saw a soldier dressed in slightly thin silver body plating shooting at him and Trask. He leapt back to Trask's side as he counted how many of those strange soldiers were shooting at them. Five.
They didn't stand a chance. They would be out shot eventually. So Kale quickly grabbed a frag grenade from his black windbreaker and hurl at the soldiers. There was a loud explosion, but Kale went up to see all soldiers dead, and one gasping for breath as his backside was on fire. Kale gave him a triumphant kick on his stomach as he led on, Trask following right behind him, until they finally entered a room that wasn't completely on fire. They sealed the door quickly behind them, and stopped for a breather once they realized that they were in the part of the ship that hadn't caught fire yet. Kale hadn't noticed that less fire and explosions were coming at them as they went in farther.
As he wiped the sweat off of his brow, he turned to Trask, who was injecting a med pack onto his side. Apparently, a blaster bolt had grazed there.
"Who were those soldiers who were attacking us?" asked Kale as he gulped down some water from the pack of a dead Republic Soldier in the room.
"They're the Sith. They've boarded our ship, looking for Bastila," he explained.
Kale groaned. The last thing he needed were Sith Troops barging on the ship that was going to get him paid. But he was diverted from his thoughts as he smelled smoke. He looked at the door. The fire was starting to break through. He nodded to Trask, and they began again going through the doors, except they made an encounter with three Sith Troops shortly. Kale killed one with a sniper to the head, and the other with a rapid score of blaster fire. He looked to see that Trask had made quick use of the other one with his vibroblade.
They continued on until they reached the Bridge. It was completely abandoned. They continued on, but as they passed through one of the doors, Kale could hear something behind the next one. As they opened it, Kale was shocked to see a dark Jedi standing right there with a cold smile on his face, as if he were waiting for them.
"I'll hold him off! You get to the escape pods, go!" screamed Trask as he lunged at the Dark Jedi, sealing the door behind him.
'Gladly,' thought Kale as went through the door next to where he was that would take him to the Starboard section. The last thing he heard before opening the door to continue on was a scream, and then the sound of a lightsaber trying to blast open a door.
He wasn't going to sit there and start feeling guilty. On impulse he dashed past the door, and through a hall, where he found about seven Republic troops that were standing in a corner, facing an elite commando.
"The Sith have taken strong position in the West hall," he said, greeting Kale with a simple nod. "So, we'll have to bring out someone to place the mines. From there, he or she will fall back, and we'll assault their lines. If we do that, hopefully, some of us will make it to the escape pods alive! So, who'll bring out the mines?"
Kale simple stepped up and snatched the mine packs from the commando's hand, using his stealth field generator as he set them along the west hall, were a squad of Sith were grouped around. Before going back, he threw a grenade, pulling the Sith into confusion.
"NOW!" he roared to the Commando as Kale started hysterically shooting the Sith lines, occasionally sniping. The Republic troops came around the corner and advanced on the Sith lines, decimating their ranks, until only two Sith stood , raising their hands in surrender when only one Republic soldier had fallen. Kale mercilessly shot down the soldiers and ran on, not waiting for the soldiers to catch up. Though he could use their help, he could take no chances. The Dark Jedi was coming, and the ship could explode at any time.
He simply ran on in his stealth mode, silently slipping past a room of two Sith Troops. It was only a matter of time before he got to the last main corridor before the escape pods. He grunted when he saw a Sith patrol. He was exhausted from running all through the debris of a Interdictor-Class Capitol Ship, and was injured from a blaster shot to his side, with only a mild injection to clean it up. He had taken too much to take a soldier head-on, and his stealth field generator had taken a blaster hit. His heart quickened as he heard a lightsaber slashing in the room behind him.
In desperation, he leapt out of the corner and launched a concussion grenade at the patrol, and took him out with blasters while he was in a state of shock. He ran on, hearing the Dark Jedi using his lightsaber to cut through the door. Kale opened the next door and almost stumbled in, but in doing so missed the two Sith guards shooting on his head. Taking his chance, Kale slid between one of the Sith's legs and shot up. The Sith screamed in total agony, which diverted the other guard's concentration, and Kale shot his shoulder with a blaster shot.
The Sith guard grunted in pain as he rubbed his burning soldier, but in a second he took his rifle and shot Kale in the stomach.
Kale screamed in pain as he fell back, but his finger slipped and pulled the trigger. The shot went into the Sith's unarmored neck. Kale was just able to notice the Sith's death as he was breathing heavily in pain, his vision blurring. He was fortunate to have his hand land on one of the Sith's packs, were he found an advanced med pack. As soon as he realized what it was, he immediately injected it into his stomach. A new, tighter pain filled him and he grunted, but he knew the damage that the blaster shot had done was washing away.
He groaned as he got himself up. There was one more room until the escape pods. One more room! But he was too tired to fight anymore Sith. He walked over to the terminal and gasped to see a heavily armed squadron of Sith Elite Troopers on the next door. He had one chance. He went back to the footlocker and rummaged through it, relieved to find five computer spikes. He quickly ran back to the terminal and hacked into the main system. With his skill with computers, he was hacked into the main functions within a minute. He quickly inserted the spikes to channel the system into the power collector into the next room.
He smiled in satisfaction as he saw all the Sith in the room crumple to the ground after a scream. He opened the door and saw the mangled bodies of the dead Sith. He took a look at their remains.
There were not too many things. He was able to find a few credits and a pretty good blaster pistol that replaced his other one, but he was surprised to find an Eradu Stealth Unit. He put it on his belt, and put the Stealth generator on the ground.
Kale was just about to open the door, until he heard a low chuckle. He turned around, and was horrified to see the Dark Jedi standing in the doorway, lightsaber in hand. Instinctually, Kale dived past the Dark Jedi before he could react, and quickly inserted the repair parts into the droid. There was no system to hack, and there was only very minor damage, thank god. In a few seconds, the droid was working and started to shoot at the Dark Jedi, who was concentrating on deflecting its insane blaster fire.
As Kale sneaked behind the Dark Jedi, about to pull the trigger to his neck, the Dark Jedi turned around and slashed at Kale. Kale was able to just jump back in time, although the lightsaber had grazed his right side. He was writhing in pain on the ground, as he saw the Dark Jedi standing over him, having destroyed the droid, and about to strike his lightsaber down.
But just as the lightsaber was coming down, the door to the escape pods opened and a man that looked in his forties emerged, wearing an orange jacket and a French beard covering his upper lip to his chin. The Dark Jedi looked and saw the grenade clutched in his hand. The man threw the grenade at the Dark Jedi, who sidestepped it. But the force of the blast send him flying back past the door behind them.
The man who had thrown the grenade hurried to Kale's side and helped him up, and then helped him walk into the escape pod. The man looked in horror to see the Dark Jedi running at them, so he quickly jumped into the escape pod and sealed the capsule with the Dark Jedi only meters away.
Kale's vision was blurred as he desperately fought to remain conscious. The last thing he saw was a blurred image of the man pressing a few buttons, and then seeing the escape pod being launched into space, away from the Endar Spire.