Hello people xD For those of you that don't know, this was a story I started some time ago, and regrettably lost interest. I know I've been gone for a long time and I truly do apologize. But I have been recently inspired to take this back up again, and this time I intend to finish the entire story. I will be updating and revising the story I had before, and the first ten chapters should be out fairly swiftly. Again, I hope yal can forgive me and enjoy the story this time around xD
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Kotor. That's all George Lucas' stuff xD
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The Galactic Republic is on the verge of collapse.
Darth Malak, the last surviving apprentice of
the Dark Lord Revan, has unleashed an invincible
armada upon the unsuspecting galaxy. Crushing all resistance,
Malak's war of conquest has left the Jedi Order
scattered and vulnerable. Countless Jedi Knights
fall in battle, and many more swear their
allegiance to the new Sith Lord. In the skies above the
Outer Rim world of Taris, a Jedi battle fleet engages
the forces of Darth Malak in a desperate attempt
to halt the Sith's galactic domination…
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I was nervous. How could I not be? In mere minutes, we would be boarding the Dark Lord's very own flagship. Even from space, I could feel his power emanating from the massive vessel before us. What if I'm not ready for this? What if he is too strong? I'm only an apprentice!
No. Quickly crushing the doubt rising within me, I steeled myself for what I needed to do. This may very well be the last chance the Republic has in this war. We must not fail. I must not fail.
As planned, the surrounding space battle provided the perfect distraction. The Republic forces had trapped and engaged Revan's fleet in an all-out space battle. Now, it was our job to infiltrate Revan's ship on a small transport ship and capture the Sith Lord. I glanced once more at my companions. The Jedi Council was right to send three Masters and a Knight for this mission. We would need all the experience we could get if we were to survive this day.
"Jedi Shan, we will dock in two minutes." I nodded at the pilot, acknowledging his words. Anxiously fiddling with my lightsaber at my side, I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I had been holding. This was the worst part of any battle. The calm before the storm. I had to calm myself. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion, ther-
"Bastila! They are trying to close the docking bay!" the pilot exclaimed. I looked from the small cockpit of our ship to see the blast doors on the mighty vessel closing. "This ship isn't built for combat. It's blasters won't be able to open that bay if it closes."
Grinding my fists into balls tightly, I gathered up all of my courage. "They already know we are coming, so no point in trying to be sneaky. Ram it." I was surprised at how calm my voice sounded despite the situation and insane order I had just given. The pilot looked up at me from his seat in disbelief before strengthening his resolve.
"Hold on to something then. Give them hell, Bastila." I could hear the pilot's grin in his voice. As I and my teammates moved to the back of the ship and prepared ourselves for the impact, I knew one thing was for certain. If we did not succeed, the galaxy would fall. Alarms rang throughout the ship as we drew closer and closer to the hangar.
"Brace yourselves. Impact in 5….4…3…2…1…"
I was violently torn from my dreams, and my comfortable bunk bed, by the rocking of the ship and thrown to the floor head first.
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
Rubbing my head, I slowly rose from the floor in a half-awake stupor. Another violent shake from the ship caused me to lose my balance and fall again, this time on my ass. What in the hell was going on? The door to my quarters slid open and a soldier I had never seen before came running in as if the world was ending.
"What the hell are you doing on the floor? We are under attack!" the soldier shouted.
"What do you mean 'we are under attack'?" I questioned, still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
"We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up- we don't have much time!"
"…Who are you?" I get shaken from my sleep, rocked to the floor head first, and then some crazy guy comes in, yelling at the top of his lungs like some lunatic. I'm sure the annoyed face I gave the man showed just how displeased I was.
"I'm Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. I'm your bunkmate here on the Endar Spire. We work opposite shifts; I guess that's why we've never met before," the soldier explained. He was still talking fairly loudly, but at least he wasn't yelling. "Now hurry up! We have to find Bastila! We have to make sure she makes it off of this ship alive!" Spoke too soon.
"Who's Bastila?" Again, I gave him my annoyed face. At my question, Trask looked at me as if I had sprouted another head.
"Bastila is the commanding officer on the Endar Spire. Well, not an officer really, but she is the one in charge of this whole mission. 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!"
I hadn't paid much attention to Frask's little speech. I was more interested in putting on my clothes. Standing in the middle of the room in nothing more than boxers as an army soldier yelled nonsense at me wasn't something I was too comfortable with. After dressing myself and equipping my vibrosword and blaster to the belt at my hip, I turned to him.
"Listen, Track-"
"Trask."
"Whatever. Listen, Trask," I started, hoping he could hear the obvious annoyance in my voice. "You can have your fun with saving the little Jedi princess. I, on the other hand, am going to make my way to the escape pods. Join me or not, I don't care."
"Kaleb Flare, age 26, human soldier, home planet Deralia," Trask listed. "I've heard all about your reputation: elite combat training, and despite your personality, you were the best in your class. It's no wonder why you were handpicked for this mission. Word is the officers haven't seen a recruit with your kind of potential in twenty years. But all that potential doesn't mean a thing if you can't deliver when it counts."
"I bet you have the problem a lot." Ha! He walked right into that one, though Trask didn't seem to appreciate my humor. Ignoring me, he continued.
"We're soldiers, we're trained for combat. Bastila's going to need men and women like us at her side during this attack!"
"I agree. You go be by her side. I'll head for the escape pods." I patted him on the shoulder and headed for the door. For being in a hurry, this guy really liked to talk a lot. Another violent shake throughout the ship interrupted our conversation and nearly made both of us lose our balance. "Okay, fine! I'll help you save Bastila, but only because I might need your help later! But the first chance I get at those escape pods, I'm hopping aboard, deal?"
I could tell by the muttered 'unbelievable' that Trask realized this was the closest thing to a compromise he would get with me. Before we could make our way into the hall, the intercom in our room crackled to life. Though there was static at first, soon a man's voice could be heard clearly.
"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!" A short buzz followed by silence indicated the transmission was ended.
"That was Carth Onasi! And he says we are in trouble" Trask yelled. This man, I noticed, had a talent for shouting the obvious. "He's one of the Republic's best pilots. He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together. If he says things are bad, you better believe it. We have to get to the bridge to help defend Bastila!"
Sighing, I grabbed my blaster from its holster. I should've just gone back to sleep. I would've rather been blown to bits than listen to this guy talk any more about Bastila.
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"Kaleb, move!" Trask yelled at me as he lobbed a grenade into the bridge of the ship. Felling a Sith soldier with a stab to the torso, I didn't stop to think twice and jumped to the side and turned to run as far from the blast as I could, stray blaster bolts whizzing by my face as I made my escape. Diving to escape the explosion, I narrowly managed to close the door behind me before I heard the faint 'boom' of the grenade and muffled screams of the other Sith soldiers that had formerly occupied the bridge.
"What the hell, Trask? You could've blown me to bits."
"But I didn't? Besides, I knew you would get out of the way in time." Trask added flatly.
We had fought our way throughout the ship, getting into small scuffles with various groups of Sith boarding parties. To my surprise, Trask was actually capable with a blaster and made our encounters much easier. Dealing with two or three at a time hadn't given us too much trouble, but once we reached the bridge, we found a battalion of at least twenty Sith troopers waiting for us. Trask had mentioned something about Carth and Bastila falling back to the rear end of the Endar Spire to escape via the escape pods.
"See? They have the right idea. Get to the escape pods, which is what we should've been doing in the first place. Whatever. How much further do we have to go?" I asked Trask as he skimmed over the schematics of the ship.
"Not much farther now. Past this upcoming room should be a hall that will take us to the escape pods. Come on, we have to hurry," Trask rushed as he grabbed my wrist, yanking me forward with him.
Rushing past the room and into the hall, I could feel relief flood me as I saw the door at the end of the hallway. The escape pods rest on the other side of that door. And then I felt a strange presence in the air behind us. Apparently, Trask felt it too as we both turned around to see a black-hooded man enter the room behind us and ignite a blood-red lightsaber. Balls.
"It's a Dark Jedi!" And right on cue, Trask's skill at stating the obvious shines through. Turning to me, Trask placed a hand on my shoulder. "You go to the escape pods and make sure Bastila is safe! I'll try to hold him off! Go!" Before I could even ask him how he would hold a Dark Jedi at bay, he rushed into the room and blasted the locking mechanism of the door, sealing himself and the Dark Jedi off from the rest of the ship. Even I had to give it to him. What he had just done was very brave and noble. Eh, better him than me.
I made my way down the hallway and, approaching the door, I readied my blaster. If there were more Sith on the other side of this door, I'd have to be quick in dispatching them if I were to escape. Taking a breath I opened the door and rushed in, blaster raised and ready. I was met by another man, his twin blasters pointed at me as mine were at him. His bright orange flight jacket and black flight pants both had the Republic's emblem on them. Though given recent events, neither of us was willing to drop our guard. Finally deciding to break the tension, I spoke.
"Kaleb Flare. Soldier and recruit of the Endar Spire." I slowly lowered my blaster.
"Carth Onasi. Soldier and pilot of the Endar Spire." Carth slowly lowered his weapons as well. "We're the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire," Carth continued. Bastila's escape pod is already away so there is no reason for us to stick around here and wait to get shot at by the Sith. Now come on- there will be time for questions later!"
"Finally someone makes sense," I muttered as we both crawled into the last escape pod. It was obvious the pod was not meant for multiple people but we were able to squeeze our way into the pod as Carth took his spot at the controls. After pressing a few buttons, the pod lurched as it shot forward. I looked behind us to see the Endar Spire grow smaller and smaller before being engulfed in a blaze of blue flame as it was fired upon by the Sith fleet. Turning my attention to the front of the pod, I watched as the planet Taris rapidly became larger and larger. Red lights were flashing throughout the pod and alarms were ringing in my ears. Carth decided it would be a good idea to mention that this might be a rough landing.
Great. Bracing myself as much as I could in the cramped pod, I could only think of how I was going to die, in a small, confined space with another man in a tight flight outfit. The pod crash landed and my body violently lunged forward from the force of impact. Everything went black.
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We made our way through the halls of Revan's ship. Something was wrong. Considering we had just come barreling aboard the Sith Lord's ship with our lightsabers hissing to life, we should have been swamped by endless waves of Sith troops and Dark Jedi. Sure, we had encountered a small group upon boarding the ship, but it was as if we were being strung along. It was as if we were the ones who had fallen into a trap. But we had no choice but to press onwards.
Slowly, we made our way to the bridge of the ship, encountering little resistance along the way. Upon entering the bridge, all of us ignited our weapons and readied ourselves for battle. However, there was no large battalion of soldiers ready to greet us. Instead, we were met by five Dark Jedi, and at the far side of the bridge, a lone figure stood. That was the man we had come to capture. That was the man who had caused so much pain and suffering over the past three years.
The five Sith Jedi moved to engage us, and soon the only sounds heard throughout the bridge were the whirls and clashes of lightsabers. My opponent had strength and speed, but his technique was sloppy, and it wasn't long before I had exploited an opening in his form and felled the Dark Jedi. From the sound of bodies collapsing to the ground, I knew my fellow Jedi had dispatched their opponents as well. Now all that stood between us and the end of this war stood at the head of the bridge. There would be no second chances, and we could not afford to fail. I, Bastila Shan, vow to end the war right here.
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Next Chapter up tomorrow xD reviews are more than welcome!