"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
In the Outer Rim, there lies a planet. This planet is consumed by hatred and malice and pain. A world that for the past one hundred years has been taught to hate the Jedi, the Republic, and all the rest. A world tainted by criminal acts of injustice and atrocities that would, back in the Republic, call for the aid of the Republic guard or the Jedi. Sadly this planet is not a member of the Republic and is so far away from the Galactic Core, many do not know it exists. This planet spent a lifetime under the dominance of an unknown Sith lord, of amazing power and endless mystery.
In recent years, Forscan VI, one of the three worlds dominated by the Sith in this system, had developed a slight independence. With a mysterious rebellion brewing the planet had long been expected in sparking the rebellion, but no Sith agent had been able to trace the source of the rebellious inhabitance of the Forscan VI.
Many a Sith solider accused the planet of being the strong hold for, what the antagonists of the new movement would call "The Sword Of Truth" movement. With so many expecting the planet to be the source of the rebellion it had been a sheer stroke of genius and cunning having the SOT's headquarters placed deep in the planets crust. Two kilometers underground lay the HQ of the biggest threat to the current Sith Lord's rule of the system.
The base was built slightly under a waterfall, far beyond the outskirts of one of Forscan's major cities. With a secret passage a kilometer away for the waterfall, the base seemed to be impregnable. The waterfall in question also yielded an entrance, but it was seldom used as it would have caused constant opening and closing of the blast doors that enclosed the base from the waterfall.
It seemed to be a hangar, with an outcrop of a building settling in above the various ships and soldiers scurrying about the hangars rocky surface. In the main chamber of the hangars control room sat one of the highest rank Generals in the Rebellion and the second in command of the whole act itself.
Finishing up a conference call on how recent sabotages are going on Sith capital ships and snub fighters, Iiyana A'lial, formally the Jedi Exile stepped away from her com terminal and headed for her offices passing various Sith officers and soldiers clad in SOT issue armor. A blue-black variant of the original Sith silver armor.
After defeating the Sith Triumvirate last year Iiyana thought or rather expected to at least have a little break from the horrors of war. But after finding out, from Kreia, where Revan went she ended up once again being his general, second in command and –
"And his personal secretary," said Iiyana to herself finishing her thought as she walked into the doors of her office. The door hissed shut behind her as she threw a data pad on her desk and slumped down in her seat, tilted her head back and tried to relax, for she had a stress filled day help run a army that planned to overcome a tyrannical government.
She began to try to enter a meditative state, when she was rudely interrupted by a voice coming from her balcony. "General A'lail," the voice exclaimed in hardly a hushed tone from the balcony. The balcony itself was basically a dug out outcrop of the giant underground cavern that made up the Sword of Truth's base. Turning the inner offices into a maze of tunnels and low lit halls.
Standing on the balcony Iiyana would be able to "supervise" the construction and maintenance of the various ships, transports, and supplies constantly being brought back and forth from the base's eastern entrance, as well as have an out standing view of the inside of a waterfall. All in all the SOT's base was little more that a gigantic cave formation nestled into a large mountain range.
"Sleeping on the job are we?" asked the figure wearing darken robes approaching her from the balcony side of the room.
Iiyana sighed but otherwise remained where she was in her chair, not turning to face her intruder. She thought to herself, "Right on cue as always".
"You do know," she said. "That it is customary to knock in most cultures in the galaxy, right?"
The figure walked in front of her desk with his robes over his face and seemingly looking at her and said, "Well most except for the Sith".
"Maybe, but I'm not a Sith. And neither are you," Iiyana started to say in reply. "Revan. I see your getting ready for that big tournament of yours".
She raised her head noticing the robes he was wearing. The dark figure of a man pulled back his cloak revealing the slightly battle scared face of the legendary former Sith Lord, redeemed Jedi Knight Revan. "I take it that it will begin soon?" she added.
The tournament, called the Sith's Hunger, was announced a month ago and was made up of a series of fights to the death in which anything goes. The winner would become an apprentice of the unknown Sith Lord. Revan thought it terribly stupid for the Dark Lord to have more then one apprentice at a time but it gave him the opportunity to get face to face with the Dark Lord and defeat him in kind. Ending the Rebellion before it really started.
"Next week," Revan said as he sat down in the chair in front of Iiyana's desk. "How about you?" he asked. "Have you secured your position on the Vindicator?"
The Vindicator was to be the Sith's flag ship when they were to begin attacking the Republic. But thanks to the efforts of Revan, and later Iiyana, the Sith's plan was delayed substantially.
Finally Iiyana sat up and looked Revan in the face. "I have, but…" she hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words. "But do you believe that your plan will work? I mean it is possible that this Dark Lord, whatever his name is, knows we're here and that we've been behind the Rebellion. What if you can't get close enough to defeat him?"
Revan raised an eyebrow to the suggestion and stood up. "Then I'll likely be killed and you'll have to lead our army," he said. "But if you fail I'm sure Carth and Bastila can pick up the slack when the Sith attack Coruscant". Revan added trying to push as much humor into his words as he could. He failed.
Revan walked around the desk back toward the balcony and signaled Iiyana to follow. "You see that ship there," said Revan as he pointed toward the small Sith snub fighter in the back of the would-be hangar. "I'll be taking that to Urkupp and hopefully ending this little problem once and for all".
"Yes, and I'll be heading to the Vindicator tomorrow for my new assignment," said Iiyana. She extended a hand to her desk and the data pad flew into her palm. "Here. This is the report of how our task force is doing on Bal'demnic with that capital ship factory," she added as she handed Revan the data pad. "It is slightly less promising then you would have hoped".
Revan looked the datapad over, nodded and handed the datapad back to Iiyana along with another.
"What's this?" Iiyana asked. Her eyes widened as she examined the datapad. "Oh, okay. I get it now," she said.
He thought heavily for a moment and then said, "Okay. We've successfully stalled the Sith's advancement into the Republic. They are at half the force they would have been. All that remains now is to take out the Sith Lord". Revan leaned on the balcony and nodded to the engineer of the snub fighter he was about to pilot.
"Do you," started Iiyana. "Think we can go home soon? There is someone I wish to see." She added, "not that I don't love being your secretary".
A sly grin crept into Revan's face. "Indeed. I hope to have all of this done within a month. The final act is about to begin." He jumped onto the balconies railing. "Good luck General A'lial. I hope to see you soon. And please don't die. It is very hard to find a general of your stature," he said, this time with a noticeable amount of humor in his voice.
Iiyana smiled and nodded as Revan jumped from the balcony, landed and ran toward his snub fighter.
"Well," she said to herself. "I better get moving on that Ziost raid. Otherwise it's not going to get done." She turned and left the balcony and sat at her desk and activated her personnel com terminal
Author's Notes: Yeah so this is my first fanfic. I got the idea for it from the stories "Trouble" and "You Might Die Trying" by Sam Lincoln. Hope you guys like it. Read and Review please.
-DGraham