FORCE HOUND by Kondoru
Standard Disclaimers. (One day I may even bother to put something witty).
Thanks to Pidgey for Betaing.
Note; It seems in this story I have made Daegen Lok a bit more of a villain than he really is. But I needed someone to infiltrate the Infinite Empire; Who else but Daegen would be prepared to do it?
In which Daegen Lok takes a dip in the Dark side.
Byss was something new to Daegen Lok, lately of Typhon, sometimes of Bogan, and now of the Galaxy.
He was now working for Predor Skal'nas, one of the most powerful of Rakata lords. Just as well as Byss was a truly dreadful place.
The Rakata were a strange race of amphibious aliens, many were Force sensitives, but they acknowledged only Bogan. They knew nothing of gentler emotions, and lived in a cutthroat society devoted to backstabbing. Powerful warlords such as his new patron, Predor Skal'nas held their Galaxy spanning empire together, an Empire built upon the souls of Force sensitive slaves.
All his life Daegen had suffered nightmares of a race of monsters who wielded the Force, monsters who stopped at nothing in order to be top of the pile. It had totally affected his mind.
The Rakata were a truly nasty bunch; much worse than his lover and enemy of old, the Despot Queen, far worse than in the visions that had sent the renegade Je'daii mad; for a start, his visions had not revealed that the hideous creatures were eaters of sentients, and their own kind.
`I am loyal only to the King of the Cannibals, and am ready to rebel at him any minute` Daegen thought, and he was oh so careful to shield himself.
For he intended returning to Typhon…Triumphant with evidence his Dark side visions were horrifyingly real. For now, however…The mad Je'daii was content to enjoy his dip in the Dark side.
Now he was a guest of honour at Predor Skal'nas arena. Daegen Lok wanted to see how the Rakata fought. So far he had seen little of intel use. A couple of packs of Flesh raiders maul each other to pieces, a few slaves be trampled by a Reek, and other inconsequential entertainments.
Sat next to him was a young man who went by the name of Xesh.
"That's your name, right." Daegen had said when he had first met the thickset fellow with the shock of dark hair. "Tattooed on your face so you remember it?"
For Xesh bore that letter scarified in purple upon his grimly visage.
"No, it's so my Master doesn't have to remember my name." Xesh had explained. "`Hey you! ` Would bring all the slaves in the palace to him. Force sensitive slaves have a letter designation, Aure, Besh, Cresh, Dorn, what have you. Master sees our faces, he knows what to yell."
"So what is your real name?" Daegen thought he knew the answer to that. He hoped he was not right.
"Xesh" said Xesh. "It is all I know."
The poor skug had no concept of freedom…let alone the Light Side. Daegen was quite sorry for the wretch. Xesh had never known anything except Fear Anger and Hatred.
And yet Xesh had some status. He wore rough armour, and bore a blaster at his hip. People treated him with respect. Xesh swaggered around like he knew he deserved it.
The young man was a Force Hound. He was a potent Force sensitive, trained in battle, and also in searching out Force rich planets for his hideous masters to pillage. Xesh belonged to Predor Tul'kar, who was currently standing on a podium next to the arena.
`Force Hounds are the key to the Empire. ` Thought Daegen Lok. He needed to cultivate Xesh.
The next lot of victims were herded out by handlers armed with electrostaves.
Daegen felt sick.
And these were his fellow Je'daii. Not that Daegen knew any of them, except the purple Twi'lek, Brin Rosko. These were all Rangers, captured while on their long explorations.
He could do nothing to save them. Nothing except one day defeat the Infinite Empire and avenge them.
The Je'daii glowered at all. Thy well knew their fate. A messy death…And then consumption.
Tul'kar would have given an evil smile if his downturned jaws would allow it. "You said you wanted to fight the worst of monsters and so the worst of monsters will make an end of you! Do not say I am ungenerous!" He laughed.
A small figure dressed in a hempen robe pushed through the crowd and knelt at Tul'kar's metal shod feet, "grant me a boon my lord," it said in a high voice (Daegen got the impression it was a female of some form.) "Let me be the one to fight these foul creatures."
Tul'kar looked at the crowd then back to the grey robed figure "Are you a monster then?"
The creature shook inside its covering. "It is my great shame, -but yes, Lord Tul'kar, I am a monster."
"A monster? So, what did the Force do to you?" Tul'kar questioned.
"Gave me the power of Darkness in order to hunt and kill." She choked, "it turned me into a monster!"
Tul'kar nodded sadly. "And what did I do to you?"
The robed figure whimpered. "Don't say it..."
The Rakata raised a hand. "I gave you away to Skal'nas!" The crowd laughed horribly at that.
Xesh turned to Daegen "It's a very extreme step Tul'kar took, -he is without mercy. But it was that or death." It was clear he recognised this individual.
"He did what?" Daegen wasn't sure what to make of this.
"To be given away as a gift is a great shame to us Hounds." Xesh explained gently. "We were brood cage mates, me and Trill…But she hates me now."
"What did you do to her?"
Xesh gave a rough laugh. "I beat her in a duel…And failed to kill her and devour her heart, as I had a right to. Instead I was weak and let Master give her to Skal'nas." He paused. "She does not forgive, does Trill."
Daegen Lok said nothing to that.
"You too, can be saved." Tul'kar told the waiting Je'daiis. "Embrace Bogan and live!"
Brin Rosko kicked idly at the stones. "I would rather die a Je'daii than live as some Rakatas pet."
"I thought you might see things that way." Tul'kar cocked his head smarmily. He stepped back with an extravagant gesture. "Now reveal yourself for what you are, tell us your name and origins."
The cowled figure threw down their cassock, -underneath indeed was a human female. Naked except for a rag around her thin belly. Slight of form with sinewy muscles, her colourless eyes showed the madness of one who is beyond the great duality.
Her shaggy hair was dirty white, plaited into many dreadlocks. Her face must have been pretty once, but now bore a hardness that revealed the Darkness within.
A Rakatan letter in red were crudely tattooed on each arm, leg, breast and back. Her scowling face was similarly marked. Trill.
She bore scars of sword cuts to the front and some awful marks on her back that looked as if they had been made by being whipped with a red hot chain. Daegen really didn't want to ever find out how she had got them.
"My name is Trill, of Byss," she announced proudly. "I am a Force Hound…Bred to hunt the Force! Fated to serve my Masters in life and death!"
"A slave, -like the Je'daii?" The crowd cheered and catcalled. "What a surprise." Tul'kar said. "I did promise you a ferocious monster to fight. Shame it's a monster like you lot are."
"Is this some kind of joke?" complained Brin Rosko "we are to fight some Force sensitive slut?"
"Bogan loving scum!" shouted a grouchy faced woman at the back.
Everybody laughed nastily.
Xesh snickered, "seems the jokes on us!"
"And who and what do you serve?" Asked Tul'kar
"I am the Force Hound of Predor Skal'nas, Devourer of Souls, Master of the Infinite Empire, Protector of the Star Forge, Lord of Misrule..."
Tul'kar waved her down, "-spare me all his titles; we will be here all night."
"I serve Chaos!" Trill told them. "And Bogan!"
The crowd roared with delight. This was one of the legendary Force Hounds, -souls who had gone against Ashla and instead served The Infinite Empire in all its darkness and terrors.
Xesh waved a hand cheerily. "Show the Je'daii what you are made of, Trill!"
Trill produced a cylindrical object she had tucked under her loincloth. She held it up for all to see. "The power of the Force embodied! My sabre is my soul!"
She pressed a button on the side of the cylinder, a blue beam of coalesced energy appeared.
Daegen Lok gave a sharp intake of breath, -this was the burning sword from his vision. It ignited hidden depths in his soul; The Dark side.
He had one question; Where could he get a weapon like that? Daegen looked down; Xesh had a similar cylinder at his belt. Evidently these mystical weapons were common in the Infinite Empire.
The Ranger Je'daii were muttering in doubt, shuffling their feet nervously. Tul'kar turned to them. "You Force sensitives can put the Force in a weapon, yes?" He asked.
A pair of wary eyed Rakatan underlings came out, bearing crude metal axes and swords. These were dumped unceremoniously at the feet of the prisoners.
"Trills Forcesabre can cut through most substances known, -except phrik steel." The Predor explained. "Do not say I am not giving you Ashla loving scoundrels a fair chance." Much laughter. "Dozen of you…And one of her…Fair fight, Hound?" The Rakata Lord asked Trill.
"Fair fight, Master" She replied cheerily. "Do you want me to fight them all at once or one at a time?" Trill asked helpfully.
"Oh, whatever you choose." Tul'kar said casually.
"Then all at once, I think. I haven't got all day."
Daegen knew full well that the woman was right; a mob would get in each other's way, possibly do each other injuries by mistake. He had seen this many a time in the Dojo. But he could not see how one scrawny slave could beat two handfuls of trained Je'daii rangers…Evidently the Dark side gave especial power in a fight, as his visions had told true.
Visions he had been unjustly imprisoned for, told that he was to meditate on Ashla; that way Daegen Lok would be free.
He shook his head in denial. Bogan would set him free. He knew it.
"I dedicate these Je'daiis deaths to Bogan." She announced grimly. "To my Lord Skal'nas and the Lords of Misrule."
And she charged the waiting Je'daii.
It seemed Trill had judged right, here was not a coordinated group but just a mob.
The Je'daii slashed back; Trill jumped. She danced around like a Pittum, her adversaries slashed and hacked, but every time she had vanished.
The bearded guy and the thin one managed to skewer each other.
Brin Rosko charged, axe held high.
Trill lowered her dreadlocked head and blasted him with a bolt of lightning. The Twi'lek went down screaming.
Daegen gave a deep intake of breath; the mastery of lightning was theoretically possible, but only to one adept in the Mastery of Bogan.
Seemed that Trill was this powerful.
Xesh noticed his interest and took it quite the wrong way. "You will have to fight her first." He stated flatly.
"Fight her…To learn that?"
"Maybe so. Trill wont mate without a fight…Fight and her masters orders to. We are theirs to command." Xesh finished.
Daegen had to smile. He really was not that attracted by the ferocious young Hound. And yet…And yet. He would willingly give himself in the pursuit of Bogan. If it meant bedding the grubby thing…To gain a burning sword…Why, he would let the Rakata kriff him themselves! The madman was quite titillated by the horrid idea.
The fight ended as quickly had begun. Trill was as good as her word; The Dark side indeed gave her a terrific edge in combat, allowing the underfed waif to defeat strong warriors.
Her and her burning sword.
The Je'daii were down, and by the looks of things bleeding to death.
"Surrender?" Trill came to a halt.
"Not to the likes of you!" Snarked the woman who had received a cut to the groin and was now in a growing pool of blood. Daegen knew a femoral artery cut when he saw one. This one would not last long enough to submit.
Trill had won.
They retired for Lunch. Daegen Lok looked at his plate thoughtfully. Some kind of red meat, nicely roasted.
Xesh sat by him, mouth full after the fashion of one who knows that their food might be snatched off them any time. He paused to look at his companion, then across to Trill, who was making short work of her share of the meat. Trills red facial markings bisected her mouth, even though the food was cooked, it made her look as if she had been gnawing at raw flesh. She scowled at Xesh, as if she could already taste him. Daegen tried to wonder in what terrifying Reality he might find the pale girl sexually desirable.
Trill was as she claimed, a monster.
But Daegen Lok was a monster now, too.
It kept his mind off the meat.