Well. Here we go again. This should be pretty self-explanatory by now. Therefore, I'm going to cut to the chase. Sorry for terrible plot and stuff, but KAS4SW, DAMMIT!

DISCLAIMER: See the last Disclaimer. Still hasn't changed.

PART 2: The Cataclysm

The Executrix sailed through space, relentlessly orbiting Manaan.

"Sir, the Star Forge is operating at 227% capacity, far beyond our expectations. At this rate, we'll be at our objective in about a week.

"Good; the Emperor will be pleased with these results. You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir."

Grand Moff Tarkin watched the ensign disappear into the chaos of the bridge. Once there, he sat down at one of the computers and began furiously typing, inputting commands to regulate the ship as a whole.

Meanwhile, Tarkin himself powered up a small holodisc, ready to give a status report.

"My lord, the Star Forge is operating at 227% capacity, far beyond our expectations. We will have enough warships for Operation in seven rotations."

"Good," the Emperor's gravelly voice emanated. "Everything is occurring according to my design. Report on the Insurgent."

"We have trapped the Insurgent in an underwater facility. However, we have not pinpointed his exact location, forgive me."

"You will have it by the next status report, in five know the penalty for failure. The consequences, are are blatantly obvious, are dire."

The Emperor abruptly ended the communication, leaving Tarkin to fret about his predicament.

!0*0!

"No."

"Come on, Shelkar!" Kastan said angrily. "I honestly feel fine, so can I get out of this goddamn infirmary?"

"No! I've already explained this a million times. Also, would saying 'please' kill you?"

"Commentary: I've seen this happen to many a Jedi, but none lived long enough for me to properly observe the side effects."

"How did they die? Enlighten me."

"Answer: Uh…"

He had assassinated them, of course, on the whim of his previous masters.

"Fine," she snarled, glaring at HK. "On one condition."

"Name your price," Kastan replied boldly.

She laughed. "You humans are so brash. HK promised a story out of you, and I see fit to collect. So who, really, are you?"

Today is going to be a long day, Kastan thought.

"My name is Kastan Enderbeck, from Alderaan. Separated from my family by the newborn Empire, escaped to find my family dead, crashed in the middle of the Dune Sea, discovered the True Light-"

"The True Light?" Shelkar interrupted.

"- became the True Light's leader, shot down on Manaan, ended up here. Happy now?"

"No. What's the True Light?"

"Everyone asks that," Kastan replied. "The True Light is basically the beta version of the Jedi, formed in the midst of the Great Jedi Purge. As opposed to simply devoting ourselves to one side of the Force, we seek balance between the light and dark sides, although some of our order prefer to specialize in a particular side The first to truly believe in our teachings was Jolee Bindo, a long-past Jedi who lived during the Jedi Civil War. He believed that love wasn't such an evil thing, and that everyone believed the Jedi to be flawless when they were obviously not, et cetera. The Jedi, being the Jedi, dismissed him as a heretic but STILL kept his holocrons in their vaults. Then… the Great Jedi Purge happened.

"The Keeper, I believe her name was Jail Nash, fled with as many holocrons as she could carry; one of these happened to be that of old Jolee. With his teachings, she founded the True Light. When she was assassinated by the Empire, I rose to replace her. Happy now?"

"No, because I still barely know anything about it," Shelkar protested.

"Do you really want me to keep going?" Kastan asked. "It's going to get really boring."

"It'll be fine," Shelkar insisted.

"Don't say I didn't warn you.

"We have a complex hierarchy within the cult. Graduates scour the galaxy for Force-sensitive children, about three to five years of age, and bring them to our enclave on Tatooine. There, they're cared for, protected, taught in the ways of the Force, and the blade, et cetera. All this is done with the permission of the parents, of course, a far cry from the Jedi of old. When a novice has reached a certain age and passed certain tests, usually around seven or eight, they are taught basic Force powers, such as mind tricks and telekinesis, as well as disciplines that decrease the amount of time it takes to learn a Force power. By the age of thirteen, they take their final test - they take a ship and fly across the Dune Sea in search of an old Krayt Dragon lair, where they will collect a datapad. What is done with that, I am not at liberty to divulge. They have exactly four hours, after which the speeders' autopilot engages and flies them back to base, where the datapads are returned. Those who fail have to wait another month to go out and try again, whilst those who succeed travel the galaxy in search of True Light outposts, the Force guiding them. Still want me to keep going?"

"Absolutely," Shelkar replied.

"Alright. There are many types of Force Powers, all of which fall under one of three categories: Light, Universal, and Dark. Certain Force Powers and their respective progression trees, such as Heal and Stasis, are inherently Light Side, and easier to use by those who have devoted themselves to the Light. Others, like Throw Lightsaber and Force Armor are universal, meaning they can be used by Light and Dark side devotees with equal difficulty. Still more, such as Force Choke or Drain Live, align further towards the Dark side. We believe in a balance, so everyone has a mixture of Dark, Universal, and Light side powers.

"In those outposts I was talking about earlier, Force powers are taught. Each enclave specializes in a particular Force power. When one learns a Force Power, they have a choice: leave in search of another enclave, or stay and learn the next Force Power on the progression tree. However, in order to learn a second or third tier Force Power, there must be some prerequisites, i.e. a set number of already known Force Powers. Certain first-tier Force Powers have this restriction as well. Cure, for example, requires at least five other Force Powers to learn, while Heal, the tier 2 version of Cure, necessitates 12.

"There is always a Teacher at each enclave, the one who is most proficient at the Force Power taught there. Challenges are done through duels, but the only usable Force Power is the one being taught at that enclave. The victor replaces the loser as the Teacher of that enclave, and the loser returns to scouring the Galaxy to learn more Force powers, or find new novices to bring to the base on Tatooine. Teachers answer to a Master, who governs all the enclaves in a particular area, and those Masters answer to one Grandmaster, who oversees all enclaves and makes informed political decisions. I currently hold the title of Grandmaster. Challenges for Grandmaster, and Master as well, are also held in duels, the main difference being that short of death and other dirty tricks, anything goes; any Force Power can be used. However, such challenges are rare, as almost all the True Light members are in the same political party - against the Empire. Does that satisfy you?"

"Still no," Shelkar said, whimsically. "You were talking about Progression Trees earlier. What are those, anyway?"

"Each Force Power can be improved," Kastan replied exasperatedly, his throat as dry as Jakku from explaining without taking a pause for breath. "Cure, for example, can be replaced with Heal; so it is for every other Force Power. These adaptations are termed 'progression trees'. Of course, the total number of Force Powers learnable by the True Light method is twenty. Therefore, Heal takes up two out of twenty, since it has Cure as a prerequisite. Why one would use Cure if they had Heal, though, is beyond me, but you get the point. Basically, if I learned Cure, I'd have learned 1 Force Power. If I learn Heal afterwards, my total Force Power Count is two, even though there'd be no point in using Cure, ever. Understand?"

"Commentary: You spent exactly twenty-six point seven seven two minutes speaking, Master. That almost doubles your last record."

"I suppose so. Go slap on an envirosuit. You'll help us investigate some weird ruins over on the other side of Hracket Rift."

"Hang on, quick question: Can a modern holodisk survive at these depths, or do I have to use a datapad?"

"I don't see why it wouldn't," Shelkar replied curtly. "Why do you ask."

"Oh, no reason. I just think I know exactly what you're talking about. History lesson will have to wait, though; you'll have to give me a month or so before my throat recovers."

Shelkar rolled her eyes in response.

!0*0!

Kastan hadn't even the time to exit the infirmary before a Selkath brandishing a holodisk like a pistol marched into the room, clearly disturbed by something.

"Guys, guys! You won't believe this!"

"What conspiracy theory is it now, Mutrao?" Shelkar replied, evidently bored out of her mind.

"Don't ask me!" he hissed, shoving the holodisk in Shelkar's face.

A few agonizingly slow minutes passed as Shelkar perused the holodisk.

"You've got to be kidding me. How many of our own have already left?"

"About half the Selkath, as well as most of the human researchers."

"Half? Half! But there were four hundred-"

"Which is now 184. Some lady on Anoat figured out how to synthesize a bacta-like compound from a worm on the surface; Hsiu in contemplating moving our kolto refineries there. That way, we don't have to mine it out of the ground, or buy it at a ridiculous price from the Selkath."

"Do you even have a choice?" Kastan chimed in.

"Honestly, not really. Desperate times, however, call for desperate measures."

"Let me see the thing," Kastan said, gesticulating towards the holodisk.

The holographic newspaper displayed on the disc had a multitude of fine prints, images, and the like. To Kastan, only the headline was legible:

New source of Kolto! Is Manaan's Monopoly Doomed?

Immediately below that was a picture of none other than Brenda Enderbeck.

"You've got to be kidding me. You could have told me it was KOLTO, Brenda!"

"You know her?" Mutrao questioned.

"She's my sister."

"So who the hell is left?" Shelkar asked, steely-eyed.

"184 Selkath, this guy, the two droids, the defected Stormtrooper who came down yesterday, and the idiots in Command. That's all."

"They really are all gone…"

!0*0!

Vader stormed into the Rebel Headquarters. Their hopelessly incompetent metal detectors blared, but he paid them no heed.

"Vader, what do you think you're doing? I'll be quite happy to inform the Selkath -"

"That the underwater base exists?" Vader interrupted.

"Hang on, the what?" she replied blankly. Vader had to give Hsiu Wann credit; she was a half-decent liar.

"Don't lie to me. I know it exists. Cough up!"

"I don't know what you're-"

At that moment, waves of Selkath and humans burst out of the innards of the base.

"No time. We abandoned the facility; objectives compromised. We have to reroute -"

The Selkath's voice dropped to an unintelligible whisper.

"So. There is a base after all."

Hsiu Wann looked incredibly distraught.

"What do you want?" she pleaded.

"Simple. Access to the facility. There's a defective stormtrooper there, discharged for murdering his comrades. Discipline must be enacted, and I am NOT going to waste my time talking to you," Vader said, using the Force to throw Hsiu across the room. No more than a minute later, a slew of stormtroopers materialized out of nothingness to detain the Rebels on behalf of the Selkath Authority.

!0*0!

Kastan Enderbeck officially hated envirosuits.

They limited movement so significantly, using the Force was virtually impossible. They smelled terrible - Shelkar said it was to deter any nearby firaxan sharks, who would gladly kill a cocky explorer. They were very confined, and Kastan had serious claustrophobia; he had been locked in a small box just before he had been discovered by the Enderbecks. Or at least that's what he thought had happened; he was only a baby at the time.

"We have reached our destination," Shelkar blared over the intercom, shaking Kastan out of his doldrums.

It was unassuming enough; it was just a good-sized pile of sand and grit at the bottom of the ocean. Strangely, what appeared to be badly crumpled spotlights littered the ground around it. Coincidence?

The location itself was at the opposite side of Hracket Rift from the facility, which meant that the motley crew had to cross a rickety metal bridge. Hundreds of firaxan sharks loomed overhead, as if called there by some primordial entity.

The research team wasted no time in dusting off the gritty substance, revealing an ominous black ball with five large spikes attached to it, four pointing in each cardinal direction, while one faced straight up.

"This is it; the Star Map," Kastan said.

He approached, datapad in hand. As he did so, the upward prong split into four, gaping wider and wider. The central ball began to rise to where the tip of the prong was before its transformation. Once there, it lit itself on fire, and a map of the Galaxy appeared. Of course, there were plenty of corrupted coordinates, incomplete hyperspace calculations, things like that. The point was, Kastan was one step closer to tracking down the Star Forge. He dutifully copied the Star Map's information onto his datapad. Once finished, the Star Map reverted to its original form, plunging the newly made cavern into darkness.

"What was that?" the muscle of the team asked. He had been a former stormtrooper by the name of GRG-892, but the team had taken to just calling him "George" instead. George himself found it "demeaning", but the name stuck. HK, being HK, didn't trust him; instead, it followed the base protocol of "Stormtroopers can't be trusted."

"It's a Star Map," Shelkar replied, as if that explained everything.

"That doesn't help me! What's a Star Map!?"

"Don't ask me; Kas knows, but he won't tell me either."

"I already spent the last half-hour explaining the True Light to you, and now I'm starting to lose my voice," Kastan rasped.

A shadow passed over the mouth of the newborn cave, plunging it into absolute darkness. A minute later, the shadow passed, leaving everyone inside wary.

"What was that, then?" George asked. "Kas?"

"Terrifying, that's what!" a human researcher replied, frantic.

"It could be a giant firaxan shark…" one Selkath said quietly.

"You don't mean…"

"One thing's for certain; I'm not sticking around for the Progenitor to come back."

"The Progenitor? What's that?" Kastan said, blatantly confused.

"Not telling you until you explain what a Star Map is," Shelkar retorted.

"Maybe some other time," Kastan replied hopelessly.

"Maybe some other time," she mimicked.

A high-pitched scream cut off their argument. The human researcher had disappeared- sort of.

!0*0!

"What is that thing?" the man asked.

"Don't ask me!" the soldier replied.

"For the record, it's the Progenitor," a Selkath added, "And it's got Daniel."

"Not Danny! Bridge, fire all available weaponry at that thing!"

"What! No! That's the Progenitor; all our weapons are going to do is make it mad! And when the Progenitor is mad, it'll kill us all! Besides, Selkath authority will be kinda pissed if you do manage to kill it off…"

"Bridge, abort previous order. I repeat: ABORT PREVIOUS ORDER!"

The technician on the other side of the intercom watched, stupefied, at the large red button he had just pressed at his commander's whim.

"Uh, too late for that, boss…"

!0*0!

Something sailed from the facility directly towards the giant firaxan; the warmongers in the base must have attacked on behalf of their researcher.

They were successful in getting the beast to drop him. Unfortunately, he fell right into Hracket Rift, never to be seen again. Of course, they miserably failed in doing any damage. By instinct, the Progenitor started screaming, emanating through the water like the plague as a great number of firaxans descended on the facility.

"What the hell is going on out there?" the admiral said impatiently.

"I don't know, it just started screaming. As are every Selkath in the facility," the technician replied helplessly

On closer inspection, the admiral noticed that the screaming Selkath had some kind of fire in their eyes. A bloodlust, almost. Did they always have claws? And since when were their teeth so sharp? It was almost as if…

Oh, god.

The screaming had since died down, and the Selkath were staring at him, murderously. He no longer recognized the colleagues he had worked alongside for so long; their personalities, their memories, their very sanity had all been leached in the feverish screaming.

Another scream broke his thoughts; he turned to see the technician face off against three of his frie- no, insane Selkath- who had cornered the man. They began to tear bits of flesh off him as he thrashed, trying to throw the homicidal Selkath off of him.

The admiral, not thinking, turned and fled, only to run into yet more Selkath. He was surrounded.

He screamed as they fell on him.

!0*0!

"Everyone take a sonic emitter," Shelkar said, quickly doling the things out.

"What are these supposed to do? Do they, like, stab things?" George asked.

"No, George. They generate a powerful sonic wave which we think will kill a firaxan. The Progenitor is gone, thank god, but even a regular firaxan will kill you without qualms or mercy."

Equipped with their new weapons, the motley crew of three Selkath and two humans set off from the cave, blasting through wave after wave of firaxan sharks, towards the silent facility. At long last, they entered an airlock, and exited dry and envirosuitless. Kastan's dark, hooded Jedi robes made all but his face virtually invisible in the dark, dank room.

HK-47 and T3-M4 were nowhere in sight, which both stressed and calmed Kastan. On the one hand, they surely would have contacted him if something had gone wrong. On the other, if there was something amiss, it must be absolutely terrible.

A quick yelp was all they heard, then another.

Kastan, Shelkar, and George whirled around to see their two other comrades gone without a trace.

"Keep an eye out for anything and everything. I only found two guns, so one of us will have to go without." Shelkar said.

"I'll be fine without a gun. You two take them," Kastan replied amiably.

Shelkar mumbled something incoherent as she passed George a rifle and pulled a smaller pistol from her pocket.

They made their way towards the bridge.

Reddish liquid dripped down the stairs, adding a dark touch to an already utterly horrifying scene.

Two Selkath lay on the ground, utterly motionless. As Kastan moved a bit closer, he could see bite marks scattered haphazardly across their bodies. A quick scan with the Force told him that they were still alive, to his relief.

"Hey? You both okay?" Kastan asked. At this point, he was standing about ten feet from the bodies.

In one fluid motion, both Selkath got up, turned, and leapt at him, newfound fangs and claws outstretched. He hadn't time to react; his life was over.

Bang.

Both Shelkar and George had fired a shot, each hitting their respective targets. The two Selkath dropped to the floor, dead.

"You're welcome, by the way. You're supposed to thank us for saving your life," George said.

"I prefer to let my actions speak for me," Kastan refuted, reaching forward. Bolts of lightning lurched from his hands, directly into the Selkath standing right behind them.

"I think that means we're even," Kastan said cooly.

George didn't demean his response with a remark. "So why are they attacking us?"

"They're insane, I think," Shelkar replied. "Must have been all that damn screaming."

"But then why the hell are WE not doing what they're doing?"

"Could you stop cussing like sailors? I'm trying to concentrate," Kastan interjected, evidently deep in thought.

"Maybe it was the envirosuits, maybe it was the fact that we were underwater. Don't ask me."

"I'm TRYING to help you, so LISTEN UP! We've got Selkath coming in hot from left and right, so we should probably head either north or south. We also need somewhere with space and sustenance. Anyone got ideas?"

"Well, if we're going to pick a place to save our skins we should get going. We have little enough time as it is," George added. "We could use my room -"

"Which is on the opposite side of the facility," Shelkar interrupted. "How about the pantry? It has everything we need and it's just down the hall."

"Works for me. You lead, you're the most familiar with this place."

They tore down the hallway. A blaster shot struck the wall just inches in front of Kastan's face. Whirling, he saw a droid, clearly not HK, approach from the shadows to the north. He watched as more droids materialized from behind them.

They were trapped.

Two blaster shots rang out, before Shelkar and George had time to raise their weapons.

T3-M4 appeared out of the shadows of the hallway, pistols ready for combat; one of the droids had been destroyed.

!0*0!

Vader opened the door to the computer bay. If the Rebels had any brains, he reasoned, then they would have stored the area schematics on a computer, to make it easier for newcomers to operate efficiently within the base. Therefore, he could hack the computers to spit out the schematics, thus allowing him to pinpoint the exact location of the submarines. He summoned a few ensigns to hack the system, as well as ten troopers to keep the Rebels quiet.

"Anyone got any computer spikes? I can upload them to a holodisk, but I need five of them."

Another ensign raided a storage bin, and handed him six.

"Lord Vader, the schematics," he said, handing the Sith Lord the holodisk.

Situated clearly behind two blast doors were the words 'Submarine Bay'.

Now the only problem was getting in.

!0*0!

The other two war droids fired, but George and Shelkar teamed up on one, while Kastan used the Force to send a hypercharged electrical current through the other.

"T3, where's HK?" Kastan asked.

"Boop-weep beep. Woop!"

Katan rolled his eyes. "T3, are you all right? What happened? Where's HK-47?"

T3 looked as if he's almost been eaten; its legs sported bite marks and its head appeared to be coated in saliva.

"Boop-woop bap beep weep woop da-boop. Beep ba-doop, weep?"

"We know the Selkath are insane, and Shelkar isn't for some reason. Where is HK?"

"Weep da-doop," it chirped.

"My room?" George asked hesitantly.

"Boop. Weep bee-doop.

"I thought I told it not to stalk you!" Shelkar raged.

"HK doesn't listen to anyone but me," Kastan interjected, "and it took it about six years to start listening."

"Could you whup it when we get there for me? I'm not about to stay here, and get eaten alive by insane Selkath, but HK'll blast me if I get within eight meters," George mused angrily.

"Let's go, then," Kastan announced, as the group of four moved briskly through the facility, now fraught with danger.

!0*0!

HK-47 sifted through the horribly disorganized drawers, finding clothing, cards, and the rare picture. None of which were useful to a stormtrooper, or course, but it was still worth searching.

It scanned the room, its glowing red eyes searching for anything, anywhere. Anything could be hidden anywhere, regardless of how stupid it may seem on the surface.

Under the mattress, it discovered a small but supercharged communicator, and a disarmed thermal detonator. It made sense, really. GRG-892 had been sent by the Empire to kill his master. The Empire had wanted him captured alive for the longest time, but apparently they now just wanted him dead if they were going to send bombers. They'd given up on taking him alive.

Voices floated from the south.

"I swear, I want to kill that pesky droid of yours!" The stormtrooper.

"Calm down, George; HK doesn't do things without a logical reason. That's not how it's programmed." His master.

"Still, I trust that thing about as far as you can throw me.

"Want me to try?"

"Ha. Give it your best shot.

"You asked for it, Kastan said, falling silent. In HK's mind's eye, it saw George float about a meter off the ground.

"I meant with your hands!" George said hastily.

"... oh. Easy misunderstand-"

A gunshot rang out.

Silence. Deafening silence.

"You guys have got to be less loud," a new voice said. Shelkar.

"Sorry," the other two said in unison.

The door finally burst open as T3-M4, Shelkar, GRG-892, and Kastan barged in.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" George cried.

"Answer: Stopping you from killing my master."

"THERE ISN'T ANYTHING TO FIND!" Shelkar yelled indignantly.

"Query: Why, then, was there a grenade between the mattresses?"

HK raised his arm. Held in its hand was a small thermal detonator.

A pregnant pause ensued as realization dawned in their heads.

"All of a sudden, I feel a lot less safe here," George said, his brow furrowed.

"We all do," Shelkar replied placatingly.

"It looks pretty new. A few days old, at most," Kastan said, his analytical mind quickest to overcome emotion.

"So someone in the facility is trying to kill me?!" George ejaculated, his eyes widening.

"Commentary: Can anyone spare a coin? Someone give the organic meatbag a coin! The furrowed brow is especially convincing."

HK-47 leveled his rifle at George's chest.

"Statement: It will not fool me."

"Beep boop weep!" T3 screeched.

"HK-47. Stand. Down," Kastan ordered. Slowly, he pushed the rifle barrel away from George. "I'm not losing an ally at a time like this."

"Statement: When he shoots you in the back, you will get no sympathy from me. Signing off," it said, almost sullenly, before going silent.

George grinned. Apparently, the Insurgent was too daft to understand the simple concept of betrayal. The only problem was the HK-47 unit. It had its completely justified suspicions about him the whole time, yet no one even bothered to listen to him.

It's been a full rotation, he realized with no lack of shock. Lord Vader will want an update soon, and it would be best not to keep him waiting. Grasping for his communicator, George moved towards the exit.

"George? Where, exactly, do you think we're going?" Kastan said, pushing George out of his doldrums.

"I'm, uh, going to get your lightsaber. Like you said, you're terrible with guns," he ad libbed hastily.

"Funny; I don't recall ever saying that in front of you. I told Shelkar that."

George glanced over his shoulder, demanding for his body to summon its best poker face. To his relief, Shelkar and HK-47 had already started arguing about something. Probably how to best provision for the three biological life-forms that they actually cared about.

"S-she told me, just before the Selkath all went crazy."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Kastan said with an exasperated sigh. "But if you can, get me my sword; I wouldn't be caught dead with a lightsaber in hand."

Like he thought: gullible.

George wandered aimlessly for a number of minutes, then noticed Selkath up the corridor. Seeing that, he dived into the nearest room and locked the door. Immediately afterwards, he pulled out his communicator.

"Lord Vader, come in? This is GRG-892, reporting in, do you read me?"

"You're late in your status report," Vader replied blandly. As he heard these words, George thought he felt a whispering touch at his throat.

"We were… held up," George said cooly. "All the Selkath in the facility have gone completely insane. They're killing anything that moves. Worse, some bloke turned on all the security droids, and they're running around blasting everything that they can point their gun barrels at. With this in mind, I advise a large number of smaller groups when attempting to move around the facility; they're harder to detect and thus minimizes our losses."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Have you any news?"

Just like that, the constricting feeling around his neck had dissipated like it was never there.

"Yes, Lord Vader. I have confirmed that the Insurgent is down here; he's gullible enough to believe pretty much anything, but too powerful in the Force to take head-on. The real problem is the bloody Selkath; you can't attack him all at once, because all the psycho Selkath in the facility will come running, and you can't use smaller forces, because that would be a waste of Stormtroopers. We have a serious dilemma, and it's not an easy one to solve. I would also tell you the weather, but I'm not in a position to give reliable information."

"Do you really think that I would ever send Stormtroopers to deal with the Insurgent? I can hardly trust them to shoot straight, much less fight what might as well be a Jedi! What we need is subterfuge, miscommunication, something to throw him off his feet, something to distract him. Do this before I arrive, which will be very, very soon."

Vader ended the transmission without so much as a thank you.

Miraculously, the traitorous trooper noticed a silvery hilt poking out of a random closet. It must have been Kastan's lightsaber. It would be better than nothing.

As he reached for the mythical weapon, he heard a loud bang and something breaking. He felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. George turned around expecting to see Kastan, but instead got a much deadlier surprise.

A party of four insane Selkath had broken into the room, and now stood motionless, blood dripping from their protruding mouths onto the already red floor.

He had forgotten his blaster, and silently reprimanded himself. A rifle would have come in handy right now!

The Selkath slowly approached, poison-laced claws anxious for the kill. Eager to rend flesh from a body.

His body.

Abruptly, the Selkath froze, claws just centimeters from George's vulnerable skin. GRG opened his eyes, only now realizing that he had closed them and that he wasn't dead. A purplish sheen hovered over their bodies, rippling and dancing across their blue-toned skin as if alive.

"Like I said, I'd rather not lose an ally," Kastan said, leaning casually in the doorway. Clearly, he had caused the queer freeze in time; a Force Power, maybe?

The lightsaber he felt in his hand suddenly jerked; instinctively, he tightened his grip. With a tremendous force, the weapon shot out of his grasp and into Kastan's open palm. He looked at it, almost disdainfully.

"I mean, if I have to."

He turned it on.

Instantly, a blast of light jettisoned from the hilt. It was about three and a half feet long and a bright blue, more of a teal than the proper blue lightsaber George had once seen in a holocron documenting the Great Jedi Purge. A strange heat emanated from it, and the air around the blade appeared to flicker and shimmer as if the blade itself was ablaze. Wisps of shadow danced across the glowing lightsaber like smoke from a bonfire. It appeared chaotic, unstable, as little variations occurred instantaneously, tilting a fraction of a fraction of a degree at any and every given moment. Little blue flame-esque things spiraled up randomly from the bottom of the blade to the very tip, giving it an eerie fire-like quality.

The blade hummed as the True Light Grandmaster quickly stabbed the Selkath closest to George in the stomach, sliced the second in half with a potent vertical slice, and released chaotic purple beams of pure Force on the last two, literally leaching the life out of the stunned senseless Selkath and infusing Kastan's own vitality. Immediately after the purple rods of death disappeared, the Selkath slumped to the ground, dead. George noticed a distinctive lack of blood; the heat of Kastan's blade must have cauterized any injury inflicted with it.

"...Thank you…" George stammered. "But- How? Why?"

"You forgot your rifle," Kastan replied vaguely, pulling the weapon out of seemingly nowhere and tossing it to the hapless stormtrooper.

!0*0!

Vader's communicator blared yet again. He was inspecting the blast doors that barred him from the submarine bay; he had ensigns combing the mainframe for any weaknesses, but to no avail.

"What?" Vader whispered angrily.

"Lord Vader, this is Grand Moff Tarkin, reporting from the Executrix. I come bearing news from the Emperor himself."

"What does he want?"

"He wants the Insurgent off Manaan in… three rotations. If that is too little time, Lord Vader-"

"You can tell the Emperor," Vader boomed, "that I will have the Insurgent on Coruscant in two rotations. I am not far from his current location.

As it happens, I have a contact who's within no less than five feet of the Insurgent at all times. It's a surprisingly intelligent stormtrooper, believe it or not, managed to fool Wann into thinking he was a defect and got access to the base long before I arrived on the scene. I'll be meeting up with him there."

"M-may the Force be with you, Lord Vader," Grand Moff Tarkin said, sounding oddly relieved. "I'll relay this to the Emperor immediately."

The transmission ended.

After twelve hours of attempting to slice the door, the ensigns still had had no luck. Vader let them return to the Sith Embassy to the east, to go and live the rest of their pitifully short lives.

"Giving up already, Vader?" Hsiu Wann laughed, having recently awoken from her Force-induced stupor. She sounded as smug as she could when facing the barrel of a gun.

"I would hardly call resorting to more brutish methods of coercion 'giving up'," Vader replied curtly before igniting his lightsaber.

The stark red glowing blade nearly impaled a stormtrooper directly in front of him. Had it not been for the trooper's duty, he would have probably requisitioned a transfer right then and there.

The Sith Lord promptly turned to the blast doors, and drove his lightsaber directly into it. He began carving a huge hole with the weapon, leaving a glowing red metal ooze in its wake. They glowed with heat, even though no heat emanated from it or the blade itself.

When the fallen Jedi finished his arduous task, a uniform red circle stood obviously in the door. With but a minute movement of his hand, the inset circle blasted out of the remainder of the door, the Force having exerted a tremendous force on it.

He and his squadron of fifty stormtroopers marched into the submarine, and convinced the terrified pilot to drive the sub to the base.

The Insurgent was in his grasp.

!0*0!

"George, do you mind if I borrow your communicator?" Kastan asked innocuously.

"Why do you need it?" he asked, a bit too harshly.

"I'd like to contact some… friends of mine. Too much to ask?" Kastan answered sarcastically.

"More rebels, I assume?"

"Why do you say rebels like that? Technically, you're one too."

"That's debatable," he muttered under his breath, but handed it over all the same.

A pregnant pause ensued.

"This is Specter 0, do you read me, over?" Kastan said.

"Specter 0, this is Specter 6, over," a boyish voice replied. It was broken up by static, but audible to a reasonable degree.

"Huh, didn't think this would actually work. I've got the jewel, over."

"Lucky you," he drawled. "We've been looking for the blue one, but we haven't found it anywhere, over."

"No, not the white jewel. I got the blue jewel. I was shot down by the Empire, and there's a whole facility down under the water. The blue jewel is down here, too. You'll have to go to Dantooine to get the last one; I'm sending the data to you now. There, it should be on your holodisc. Last I remember, it should be in the old Ra- er, I mean, ruins. It should-"

The communicator hissed for a moment, then went dead.

"I think it's out of charge, I'm sorry," Kastan said remorsefully, handing it back to George.

"It's fine. I'll find a way to charge it up," George replied nonchalantly.

"Guys, bad news: We're out of water!" Shelkar announced.

"Commentary: Your statement is false; drill through a hole and we'll all find what we want, now won't we."

"I meant drinking water, HK!" Shelkar yelled irascibly.

"Can't Selkath drink salt water just fine?" Kastan inquired.

"That's a common misconception, actually. Salt water is not ingestible by the Selkath," Shelkar refuted.

"So we're going to… to… dehydrate to death down here?" Kastan said.

"Boop wee-doop!" T3 announced, balancing Kastan's sword and a rather large water container on its "head".

"T3-M4, bless your tin can of a soul!" George stated.

"Boop woop doop bloo-poo-dawoop blee-bee-bea deep!"

"T3, you're so modest," Kastan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Okay, I'm going to be frank. I just looked up on Wookieepedia that apparently, Bacta exists. Therefore, nobody cares about Manaan anymore. But you know what? Forget the Star Wars Canon! This is fanfiction, and if you want to mess with MY interpretation of the Star Wars universe, then I can tell you EXACTLY where you can stick your criticism. NOT HERE, THAT'S FOR SURE!

I feel so much better after that slightly homicidal rant.

Anyway, that was the second chapter of… this… Reviews of any type are appreciated, as long as it's not, like, "Oh, this is cute." That doesn't help me. Give some criticism, how to improve, because that's why we're all here, aren't we, as readers and writers? To improve. Also, feel free to ask questions. I'll be happy to answer any non-stupid questions you may have. Just leave a review, or I GUESS a PM. I'll be happy for the attention either way. Also also, yay, Phoenix cameos.

Ladies and Men of the Gentlekind, this is Professor Zerkxes, over and out.