It was the explosion that woke him up. Zurth Barsad had been tossing and turning on the rack in the quarters he shared with Trask when he jolted upright. His head pounded and he was sweating like he had just finished a Republic Army physical fitness test. With ragged breath, he staggered to the faucet and splashed water on his face and drank a few double mouthfuls of water.

Another explosion rocked the Endar Spire and he stood bolt upright. "Oh right;" he growled, "explosions."

Quickly, he hurried to his trunk when the door opened. In the blink of an eye, Zurth had a blaster on the door, having pulled it quickly from his trunk. A Republic soldier stood there - Corporal Trask Ulgo. "Zurth," he snapped, looking sweaty and anxious, "the hell are you doing? Get up and get your ass in gear! The damned Sith are boarding right now! They've been shredding our exterior defenses and now they're after the crew. Hurry up."

Zurth's head was still swimming but he followed his orders from Trask. Quickly, he jumped into an armor mesh combat suit, grabbed his blaster pistol and vibroblade, holstering them on his hips before grabbing a blaster rifle. "I'm ready. Let's go, Corporal, where are we headed?"

"We need to get to Bastilla and get her off the ship. She's extremely important."

Zurth frowned. "Who is she?"

"She's a Jedi, one of several on the Endar Spire and the more of them that we can get off this ship in escape pods the better. Apparently she has some kind of special force power or something that's supposed to help us turn the tied of this war."

Zurth nodded and turned his rifle from safe to fire. He was just in time too, since they opened the blast doors and found themselves in a firefight. A half a squad of Republic Marines were firing on the boarding Sith shock troopers and being cut to pieces. "For the Republic!" yelled Trask enthusiastically.

Zurth couldn't help but grin at his squad leader's enthusiasm and open fire. With crisp, precise marksmanship, he dropped one after the other. Even so, the boarding craft had a large number of Sith troops and the other Republic marines fell before the last Imperial did. As a last attempt to kill the defenders, whoever was piloting the boarding shuttled ripped free, causing everything to start being sucked into space. "Kriff!" yelled Trask as he tried to grip one of the wall panels.

It was just on the other side of another blaster door and Zurth aimed with his blaster as he held on to some loose wire. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger. His shot was true and the door shut. "That was one hell of a shot, Zurth. Come on. Let's get going."

The soldiers ran as fast as they could, heading for the bridge where Zurth hoped that this Bastilla Shan character was. Several times, they came across more firefights and even managed to gather a small group of marines, eight others all told. Just before they bridge, they heard a strange sound. It was the sound of crackling, humming and hissing. "What's that sound?" asked Zurth. One of the other Marines hissed. "Lightsabers; I'm betting one of ours is fighting one of theirs. Jedi I mean; come on let's go."

They opened the door and a slender young woman fought a larger, armored man. She seemed to be fencing, not challenging his blows but swatting them aside. The man was attempting to overpower her but couldn't seem to make a hit. In a great show of swordsmanship, she redirected his blade and then slashed, cutting across his armored chest, killing him. "Jedi!" called Trask.

She turned and smiled with relief but just as she was about to jog over, their was an explosion. Zurth hurried over and checked her pulse. "She's dead;" he growled.

Trask sighed. "Damn! We could have used her help!"

The marines agreed sourly and they continued on to the bridge. "Hey," said one of them, "it's probably going to be pretty close in there, guys. Use vibroblades and swords."

Many marines pulled vibroblades and vibroswords and prepared to storm the bridge. Zurth had a modified vibroblade himself and when the door opened, he and Trask led the charge. The Sith shock troopers tried to counter charge but they were not ready. Zurth slammed his blade into a chink beneath the arm of a Sith trooper's body army before pushing him into another Sith trooper, one with a double bladed vibroblade and used his lack of balance to cut across the weak part of his throat.

The fighting was fast and harsh but it wasn't long before they took the bridge. Again, Zurth and Trask were the only one's left. They picked up vibro swords and buckled them on, know that the longer weapons would serve them better in the near future. "She isn't here. Lieutenant Onasi must have gotten her to the escape pods. Come on. Let's keep moving."

They hurried from the bridge. Suddenly, Zurth felt cold dread and they both looked towards a door on the other side of the corridor. Trask looked towards the door leading to the escape pods but then hurried over to the one ahead of them and opened it. Inside the room on the other side was a pale, bald man in black armor and wielding a double bladed Sith Lightsaber. "Damn!" cursed Trask, "another Dark Jedi. Get to the escape pods and help Bastila."

"Corporal wait;" snapped Zurth, "you can't take him alone."

"I might just be able to slow him down. Go! That's an order."

Trask shoved him in the direction of the escape pods and ran towards the Dark Jedi, shutting the doors behind him. "Blast!" snapped Zurth.

Since there was nothing more to do, he hurried on towards the escape pods but he swore that he would remember Trask Ulgo and his sacrifice.

Suddenly, his comms unit chimed. "This is Specialist Barsad."

"This is Carth Onasi. I'm tracking your movement via the life support systems. Bastila's escape pod is away and you and I are the last surviving members of the crew. I can't wait for you much longer. You have to get here fast!"

"I'll be there, Lieutenant;" said Zurth. "Just hold that pod for me."

He took off running, slinging his blaster rifle in exchange for his pistol. He'd be able to shoot faster while running with it. On several occasions, he blazed through pairs or small groups of Sith troopers, blasting them down as he ran by. At one point, he stopped just long enough to toss a frag grenade into the room he had to get through and duck behind the door. The explosion, followed by screams, was his signal to move.

After what seemed like a short eternity, he came to the second to last doorway. Somehow, he just knew that there were Sith in the next room. Taking a deep breath, he ran to a console and weighed his options. There was war droid in the corner but he didn't feel like taking to the time to repair it, electing instead to overload a power conduit. There was a loud popping and an explosion, some screams and then silence.

Cautiously, Zurth opened the door. The Sith soldiers on the other side had been cooked in their armor and he hustled passed them to the last door. It opened, and a man in a pilot's uniform with a noticeably out of regs growth of stubble on his face. "You've made it just in time and there's one active pod left. Come on! We'll figure everything out on the planet below!"

Zurth nodded and they climbed in. Just as Carth closed the door, they heard armored boots clumping into the bay. "Punch it!" hissed Zurth, and Carth did. They were away. The ride down didn't feel like anything at first. They were just falling through emptiness. "So;" said Zurth awkwardly, "do we know how many got out?"

"Not a clue;" said Carth. "Get ready, when we enter atmo, this ride is going to get rough quick, fast and in a hurry."

"Got it;" replied Zurth. He wasn't sure how long it was but it seemed as though he could feel them going through each layer of atmosphere. His teeth were rattling and suddenly, an alarm hissed. "Get ready!" said Carth, his words barely understandable. "We've got seconds before impact."

Zurth crossed his arms and tucked his head in. Even so, when the pod crashed and all the impact bags went off, everything still went black.

That's right, I'm doing the often done Knights of the Old Republic, minus all the side missions necessary for experience and sticking only to the main story. It's been requested a couple time now so I hope that everyone enjoys. Anyhow, read, review and request!