Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

DARTH PREDORIC

October 9, 1415 Galactic Calendar

2315 Galactic Standard Hours

Reecee Capital Republic Base

Dark Jedi Master Hoth

"You Republic scum, you are so weak and pathetic you deserve to die." I told the thinly Republic officer. Without little resistance, we easily tied the poor excuse for a human up. Ready to move in for the kill I activated my lightsaber. It glowed red and made a humming sound as I danced the lightsaber across his body. He followed the beam with his beady eyes, coursing through his body I could feel him enthralled with every ounce of pounding fear. I could sense the fear, easily enough, almost could smell it too. The ability to easily end one others life was somewhat intoxicating.

"You will gain nothing from killing me, soon the Jedi will come with the force and…" the swine began to whimper.

"The Jedi?" I laughed heartily, "The Jedi fear us, because of our use of the force. Soon they will be an extinct race, a forgotten memory of a sad ritual tradition."

"You Sith, you Sith…" the rat began to say.

"What? Us Sith, yes we are the future of the Galaxy. A Galaxy in which the strong prosper and the weak are slain, I agree with you completely."

"You Sith are disgusting, brutal, animals, and the Jedi will destroy you all." He said with much anger.

"Wrong answer!" I snarled, lunging the beam of my saber into his gut with a passion of unparallel hate. I took out my beloved lightsaber, and pulled up a chair, to watch his torqued face as he died. I faintly smiled as the last drops of blood dripped from his gaping mouth onto the floor. He eyes rolled back into his drooping eye sockets and he died. I had not remembered being so fascinated in a long time. Not since my old Master on Korriban had showed me proper execution of a lightsaber by killing the Sith trooper that walked by our door. It was exhilarating hearing the sharp scream of pain come from his mouth as the lightsaber plunged through his torso and came out the other end.

"Master, we have encountered a problem. During the attack on the base, several of the Republic guards captured our Sith troopers. They've barricaded themselves in the next room and they're holding them hostage; they claim they will kill them if we don't comply with their wishes." A Sith trooper informed me.

"How many did they capture, trooper?" I asked the Sith soldier, seeing my own reflection in his shiny helmet. It was annoying how these troopers were completely covered in all of this unnecessary armor. A trooper is a pawn in battle, they are there to die. What does the Sith benefit from if the trooper is injured in battle, and doesn't die? Nothing, well except for lost funds: to go to medical supplies. War's are made to kill, if a war didn't have deaths how would anyone win? How would anyone be outnumbered? Besides, the armor may fair somewhat if hit with a blaster, yet is totally defenseless against a lightsaber. The armor these Sith troopers wear is nothing more than a nuisance.

"They've captured four of our military officers, and six of our Sith troopers Master."

"Where are they?"

"Just barricaded beyond that door." The Sith trooper pointed out.

Ooh, a triple reinforced blaster door. That would be quiet difficult to open indeed. Quiet difficult for any Sith trooper, yet I am a Dark Jedi Master, such obstacles were merely childish to one such as myself. Sighing, I stood up and clicked my lightsaber onto my belt. As I walked through the corpse of bodies, and bloodied hallway, I took a great sense of satisfaction in the way these lowly termites fear me. Each trooper waddling to another direction of the room as I strolled passed them. Is the mere presence I portray so outstanding? Although I had been accustomed for many years to this fear, for one such as myself, I still found it preposterously exhilarating.

As I strolled pass one specific medical trooper, I can see that he is kneeling down next to another Trooper. The medical troopers wore no armor, other than a blast proof chest flak jacket. They wear black hats, and black Sith masks, relaying oxygen to their lungs. You could easily tell a common Sith trooper, from a medical one. Apparently the injured Sith the medical trooper was tending to, had suffered a gaping blaster shot to his neck one of the only places the armor did not cover. The medical Sith trooper looked up at me.

"This trooper is horribly injured, there is little left I can do for him." The medical trooper explained to me, placing another patch of Kotto solution onto a cloth, applying it on his gouged torn neck.

"If there is little left you can do for him, why waste our medical supplies?"

"Master, this brave trooper is dying." The medical trooper pleaded.

"Do you know how much that damn Kotto cost? It is the most effective medical solution in the entire galaxy. The Sith buy it in bulk, to bring our wounded back into action. Not to let the inevitable nearly dead Sith troopers like this one here, have a reassuring feeling before they die." I hatefully told him. "Spare no more medical supplies on this clumsy trooper, his death is only a reflection of his inability to effectively combat. We do not reward troopers who can't win a fight."

I could sense the anger flowing through his veins, "As you command, Master Hoth." He respectfully bowed, picking up his supplies, and continuing his patrol across the room, seeking injured Sith troopers

As he left, I could sense the loss of life coming from the injured Sith trooper. This Sith was stupid to get injured in battle, clumsy to let his guard down so he could be shot in the neck. I have never once been injured in battle, because I am not stupid. It was fitting the trooper died, that made one less stupid trooper in the Sith Empire. It was impossible to win battles, let alone wars, with stupid Troopers. The smarter you are compared to your opponent, determines the outcome of the fight. This was nothing more than common sense.

As I walked up to the door, I pushed the Sith troopers aside, who were attempting to negotiate the retrieval of our captured. I instinctively activated my lightsaber and lunged it through the right bottom corner of the door. I then traced the beam of the saber across the door in a rectangle motion. Using the force I ripped the beam cut door from it's once held metal plating and through it across the room.

"What are you doing? They have our men in there." The remaining officer who hadn't been captured told me.

I jammed my lightsaber into the next layer of metal and began my motion once again. "I am aware, four officers, six enlisted."

"Then what are you doing? Those Republic members will kill our men if we come through this door." He told me, as I flung the second of the three blast doors, across the hall, with a wave of my hand.

I stopped and looked bluntly at the Sith officer. "Commander, our orders are clear: to eliminate the Republic soldiers from this military base. Now where in those orders did it say to waste time, saving our own stupid troopers who managed to get themselves held hostage?"

"But Master, there are four officers in there."

"Obviously not good officers, if they managed to get captured." Moving him aside I resumed my tactic. "Besides…the Sith have other officers." As I continued my slashing motion through the remaining blast door, I could here what seemed to be Republic scum.

"Hey, we have your men. Come through this door and will kill them."

Slicing through the final blast door, I threw it towards the other doors. I could now clearly see the Republic pigs standing in the room, with our men held at hostage.

"Take one more step and will kill them."

I could sense that if I took another step forward they wouldn't kill the hostages first. They would naturally shoot at us first, firing blindly with their blasters. I knew that from the poorly manufactured Republic model blasters, that smoke would protrude from their tips. Leaving a blast smoke, that would blind both parties. Hesitating, and freighted from the initial gun fire, and not being able to see where the blasters would shoot, the Sith Commander I had just been talking to would surely die, along with the two Sith troopers to the right of me. Of course, taking a step to the right would avoid all blaster shots from hitting me. Now, I could warn them, but why waste my time. If they are stupid and don't dodge the blaster shots, they deserve to die.

"Good…" I took a step forward. Just as I predicted, the fools began to fire their blasters. Shots from their blasters engulfed both parties and smoke filled the entryway. Amongst the blasts of fire, and rampant fools screaming, I took the opportunity at hand.

Activating my lightsaber, I released it from my hand into the Republic crowd. The lightsaber, flew in a boomerang like motion. Guided by my hand, I passed the beam through the neck of all the individuals in the Republic stronghold. Regardless if their Republic soldiers, or Sith hostages, they all are stupid.

The screams were stopped, and I caught my lightsaber with ease. Deactivating it, I clicked my weapon back onto my belt. The room across from me was nothing but beheaded corpses now. Looking to my right I saw the obvious, two dead Sith troopers, as anticipated. Yet something happened I had not expected, the Sith Commander, to the left of me, I had expected to die, had actually lived.

Not as predictably stupid as I had first assumed. Obviously, he was not hesitant when the initial blaster was fired. The Commander on instinct had dodged out of the way of the blast.

"Are you brainless? You almost got us all killed!" The Commander bluntly yelled at me.

I smiled, realizing what he would see next.

"Oh my god…our men are dead, you've killed four of our best officers."

"Our orders were to eliminate the Republic scum from this base. We accomplished our mission."

"Do you not realize what you've just done? Four of our best officers are dead."

"Those officers were not the best, you are, considering you were the only one smart enough to stay alive."

"You don't base whether an officer is bad or good depending if he dies or not."

I laughed at this statement. Though smart this officer may be, boy is he thickheaded? "You could be no further from the truth Commander, what good is an officer giving orders, if he is dead? Without orders you cannot win battles, win wars. A dead officer cannot have their strategic effectiveness in battles determined. The best, and smartest officer, is the one who can manage to stay alive."

"You fool! You know nothing of leadership. You sacrifice your own men for a mission to be accomplished…"

"Old maggot, the ends justifies the means! Great Empires require sacrifices. We are Sith, we have no place for weak or stupid soldiers. We weed out the weak, so we are only left with the strong to fight. We are not some pathetic Republic military, who blindly value soldiers lives, over future accomplishments. If you can't see that, then you have no reason…" I activated my lightsaber. His attitude and lack of respect had begun to annoy me.

"Master Hoth, we are receiving a transmission from General Taurus." A Sith trooper ran up and informed me. General Taurus is the Commanding officer of the entire Sith military. It was one thing to piss off a lowly Commander, it was quiet another to piss off the Commanding officer of the Sith.

"Fine, then I shall not keep him waiting." I said aloud, deactivating my lightsaber and clicking it back on my belt. As I walked by the annoying officer, I whispered in his ear, "Learn to know your place Commander. Or the next time, I will gut you like the maggot you are." I could strongly sense the anger boiling through his veins as I walked to the computer hologram display.

Switching the terminal on, I took a bow of respect. "Yes General?" It was almost frightening to look at his holographic displayed human image staring at me. That man is not only cold looking, he is most definitely cold hearted. The sheer wrench from his grey eyes alone, were enough to give any person goose bumps. Let alone the awkward way his jaw is connected to his face. I overheard that many years ago, General Taurus had his jaw sliced off in hand-to-hand combat. Seeing how Kotto was not available at that time period, he had it primitively sewn back on, with mesh barb wire. I'm pretty sure with the new medical developments he could have his face properly fixed. Yet I believe he leaves it in his original condition, to show people just how scary and tough he really is.

"I take it that the base has been fully eliminated from Republic occupation?"

"Of course General, it was a successful mission."

"Good, you have done well Master Hoth."

"Thank you General."

"Though, now you and your men will abandon this base and return back to headquarters."

"Abandon sir?"

"Darth Predoric will be arriving shortly, to further 'investigate,' this scene of carnage. You and your men, are not to be present while he is looking into this matter."

"Darth Predoric…here?"

"Your transports will have already touched down outside the base by now. You are to leave immediately."

"As you wish, General." I bowed and turned the terminal off. Pacing over to the Commander, I instructed him, "The Sith are to immediately leave this base, stop whatever it is their doing, and board the transport outside. It must happen with the utmost speed. Do not fail me Commander."

"Understood." Activating the intercom, built into his armor he commanded, "Sith troopers, this is Commander Dewey, you have one minute to leave your post and board the transport outside. Failure to comply will result in immediate death, Go! Go! Go!"

Seeing the officer motivating everyone to run, I told him, "You had better get going as well Commander."

"As should you." He told me. There was still a mild urge of attitude behind his voice. And I think he knew it. "…Master." That one remark had just spared his life a little longer.

I knew I had orders to leave immediately, yet I was also curious. I am no droid, like these pathetic soldiers. I am a dark Jedi, one whose curiosity for quiet some time now had disturbed me. I longed to catch a glimpse of this Darth Predoric, I have only heard tells of his terrifying nature. How he looks like the most gruesome creature to ever walk any of the faces of the galaxy. How he drinks the blood of his victims. No doubt just rumors, but I must know for myself. I must see for myself, the agony of curiosity is overwhelming.

"I will join you shortly, I must give an account of today's events to the Admin officer. I will take another transport and meet with you at headquarters." I lied. Knowing that I had to do anything I could, in order to stay behind and catch a glimpse at absolute evil.

I watched as Commander Dewey, the last Sith, boarded the transport and launched itself back into space. I now only had to wait for the arrival of the Dark Lords' apprentice, Darth Predoric.

October 9, 1415 Galactic Calendar

2347 Galactic Standard Hours

Reecee Capital Republic Base

Dark Jedi Master Hoth

After hearing the transport land, I instinctively hid in the armory closet that the men under my control had raided. The armory closet is both long and wide, sealed in by a double door security system. Before killing a Republic soldier, we had gained the access codes. I locked myself in the closet, knowing I could easily unlock it from the inside.

I can hear a flurry of footsteps go through the room, from the clingy metal against metal it was probably the patrol droids accompanying Darth Predoric. I can now hear the faint humming of what seemed to be a sensor. Then after what seemed like mere seconds, I could here one of the droids report, "Perimeter all clear."

This followed immediately with the sounds of the droids scurrying their little metal legs from the base. The room fell silent, and I sensed no further movement. Un-clicking the center hatch, I began to push the armory closet door open. I was planning to step out from the closet and look for the Dark Apprentice. Yet surely if I had not sensed his sheer presence by now from his rumored radiating force energy, he probably was not even worth seeing.

"Ugh…" I grunted as I felt an enormous pounding thump in my chest. Almost as if the wind had been drastically knocked out of me. I clutched my chest in unbearable agony. I fell backwards, and breathed a heavy sigh.

'Oh my god, what the hell was that?' I thought to myself. I felt the pounding, coarse through my chest again. Not ever had I felt such a tremor of such might in my body. Not since, not since…the late Darth Naga Sadow. I had seen him on only one occasion. During my final day at the academy, he was merely sitting across the room viewing the potential Sith candidates slay each other to the death. After I had slain my final opponent in battle he nodded a congratulations to me. A curiosity arose in my body, and I had to focus the force to scan his force exponential. And there, amid the students and masters watching me, I felt no other presence: either than the sheer dark force of the late Sith Lord.

Now that same force was tremoring through my body. A combined mix of fear and absolute terror. This must be the force presence of Darth Predoric. Curse me for underestimating this man's ferociousness for even a blind second. Or was this demon even a man? I felt another sharp pain go through my chest, this was becoming too much for me. Along with the pain, came the crunching of footsteps. I immediately cut off my connection to the force, no longer sensing the force potential he was exerting. Hopefully this would stop the pain.

In fright, I crawled back into the armory closet and nearly closed the door. I left a small crack open, barely being able to peer out of the closet with one eye. I feared that he would sense me. Using all available focus, I suppressed the force within my body, not letting it sway throughout the room. Hopefully by using the force, he could not detect my presence. The crunching of footsteps stopped, the room lay silent. I held my mouth, fearing that my breathing was too loud.

My eye moved through the closet door opening, the anticipation was at its peak. 'Where is he?' My question was abruptly answered, as a large bulk of material violently moved pass my peering point. If I had not been holding onto my mouth, I anticipate I would have yelped in surprise. Darth Predoric was now mere feet from me.

As he walked to the center of the room, I was appalled by his disturbing image. In all my life, had I seen anything that compared to this.

I have no idea what Darth Predoric is. He's clearly a Dark Jedi, as his clothing portrays. A black closed cloak, estranged with what looks to be long, sharp, curved bones protruding from his wide shoulders. Leather boots with spikes at either end. A towering figure: with a heavily built neck. But his face…is it even to be considered a face?

A disturbing image, his so called face is. His face looked to be that of the species of a Kel Dor at one point. I know what they look like, because this species was my final opponent my last day at the Sith Academy. An orange, reddish type of skin, with what looked like flaps of waves connected to the skin as ears. At the top of the head is a pointed tip followed by waves of skin to the eyes. Kel Dor when not on their home world, wear Protective goggles, and some type of mask. I think I overheard it being called an Antiox mask. My late Master told me that this is to protect themselves from the majority of the oxygen-rich worlds. Now most Kel Dor have an extrasensory organ on each side of their face, connected to their Antiox mask for added sense and strength. Where most Kel Dor have one of these organs on each side of their face, Darth Predoric has at least five.

His mask is built differently from the one I have seen before. Where as the mask I saw had curved oxygen valves at the bottom of the mask. Darth Predoric has large curved fangs at the bottom of his mask. It's unpredictable how he's able to breath. His mask also seems to cover much more of his face, the one I remember only covered the mouth. This one covers from the mouth, as wide as the extrasensory organs, up around the eyes in a sloping curve of gold and silver. Where the tip of his skull is, parallel silver spikes run down to his protective goggles: all attached as one piece.

I now see him kneel in the center, over the dead Sith corpse with the blaster fried neck. He unveils his arms from beneath the black cloak. The bulging arms move upwards to the top of his mask where smoke and puffs fume. With a hissing sound he unlocks the mask, as I can now see are connected with bolts to his face. Placing the silver and gold metal off his face to the ground he stares at the dead Sith.

Then with a screaming hiss I see what looks to be his jaw, unhinge. Four large fangs protrude from the square corners of his mouth. Tiny slivers of teeth line up every section of his mouth amongst the four fangs. I am too fixated at his mouth to see his eyes embedded with the dark shadow his own figure portrays.

Without hesitation, in a sheer instance, he gorges his face into the blood stricken neck of the dead Sith trooper. I had once heard a rumor that this monstrous creature drinks the blood of his victims, I would have never contemplated that he eats the flesh of his victims. I have never been so disturbed in my entire life. Without knowing it, I gasp in astonishment.

Regrettably my gasp was too loud. Darth Predoric stopped his feasting activities. As the blood dribbled down his neck, he slowly moved his head up. I desperately tried yet another force suppression technique, in order to stay invisible. Yet my useless tactic brought me to no avail, as the ghastly creature stared right into my soul. Locking gazes with me through the small closet crack. I could do nothing to stop staring into the deadly yellow and brown eyes of his. As my eyes bonded with his eyes, I felt no terror, I felt no pain, I felt, just simply, cold.