Wow... the prologue is on the net for one day and look what happens – 3 reviews! Thanks guys – I greatly appreciate it. This is my first fic, but I try to do my best, so please forgive any amateurism... thanks.

Lord Valentai – thanks for the advice, I'll double-check it next time. Alas, English is not my mother language, so please forgive any glitches. I will continue, don't worry – next comes the real KoTOR story... the Endar Spire and so on. Plus, several interludes to give some more background on Revan – some people say s/he's an "empty" character in the game. Glad you like it so far.

Dark Lord Daishi – I actually considered doing the prologue from Bastila's POV, but then I thought that it would be better doing it like this. That little lecture kind of wrote itself... I thought it might be fun to annoy Vrook like that. Glad you like it.

Ice Appeal – I hope I didn't make Revan too invincible... after weeks in coma, she just jumps up and flees them. But I always thought it would be an interesting plot spin. No one would be fool enough to attack four Jedi Masters... but a Padawan is another thing. Here's the first chapter... the Endar Spire. In the following chapters, you'll find out how Revan ended up on the Republic ship in the first place. Glad you think it's that good.

Chapter 1 – Shadows aboard the Endar Spire

4000 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Republic is on the verge of collapse. Darth Malak, last surviving apprentice of the Dark Lord Revan, has unleashed an invincible Sith armada upon an unsuspecting galaxy.

Crushing all resistance, Malak´s war of conquest has left the Jedi Order scattered and defeated, as countless Knights fall in battle and many more swear allegiance to the new Sith Master.

In the skies above the Outer Rim world of Taris, a Jedi fleet engages the forces of Darth Malak in a desperate effort to hold off the Sith´s galactic domination...

XXX

The lonely Republic cruiser soared above the world of Taris. It would seem like a regular transport, at first glance, slowly drifting through space. But the bombarding Sith fighters advanced on the ambushed vessel, attacking from all sides. How they found out who was aboard the Endar Spire, no one knew. And soon, the red ship was too damaged and begun to sink into the planetary atmosphere.

Inside the crew quarters, a young woman lay sleeping in her bunk, even though she was fully dressed in tan trousers, a waistcoat and a creamy white shirt. She shook slightly in her sleep, half-awake, since her shift would begin in an hour or so. But the entire ship shook violently. Her eyes popped open and she sprang to her feet. Alarms began violently humming around her. That gave her the distinct impression that they were under attack.

A uniformed Republic soldier burst through the door, panting heavily.

"Hey, Ulgo." The woman greeted her bunkmate casually. "What's going on?"

"We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet!" he exclaimed. "The Endar Spire's under attack! Hurry up, we don´t have much time! We have to go to the bridge to defend Bastila!"

The woman's eyes widened. "Are you nuts?! One ship against a fleet? We have to get the hell out of here!"

"You swore an oath just like everyone else on this ship, Denali." Trask Ulgo persisted. "Now it's time to make good on that oath! I've heard what everyone's saying about you – you've traveled all across the galaxy, you've visited planets I've never even heard of! Plus your fighting skills overshadow those of our soldiers! Bastila needs all troops by her side all this attack!"

The woman known as Denali rolled her eyes. "Fine, let´s save the brat as long as we do it quickly."

Her hand instinctively reached to her belt, but she remembered that her lightsaber was hidden in her waistcoat. Instead, she adjusted her cardio regulator, pulled on a pair of Sith power gauntlets and grabbed the vibroblade she "acquired" some time ago.

She nodded curtly to the soldier, who began fiddling with the door. The security codes worked. The pair dashed out of the room.

"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!"

Trask didn't even need to say it – she knew well that their pilot was one of the more famous Republic soldiers. People like the man who introduced himself as Carth Onasi knew well when they were in trouble... though getting out of it was another matter.

She scanned their surroundings through the Force... malicious auras were approaching. Sith.

"Listen, if the Sith attack us, stay behind and cover me!" she ordered as they heard blaster fire nearby. A lone Republic soldier was slaughtered in seconds, since he was alone against two Sith and unprepared for the attack.

"These Sith must be the advance boarding party!" Trask stated the obvious. "For the Republic!"

Denali would have rolled her eyes, but she had no time to do so, since the troops noticed the unexpected arrivals and began blasting them. She dodged the bolts without much problem. Then she stepped between two Sith soldiers, who were dumb enough to blast each other... when she ducked their attack.

An astromech droid exploded nearby and the pair began moving again, only to run into another fight. One of the panels behind a Republic soldier exploded, killing him where he stood. The Republic soldiers were few in number and the Sith easily slaughtered a whole squad with one grenade, though they had to sacrifice one of their own men. But they were beyond caring. Denali watched this from behind a corner. Trying to be as stealthy as possible, she rolled a small object she stole from one of the corpses in the general direction of the Sith. One of the soldiers noticed it and pointed at the frag grenade, but it was too late. It exploded, killing all three of them. Denali smiled and quickly drew her vibroblade to battle the reinforcements that came from behind a corner.

Trask didn't even have to bother blasting them, but he did so nonetheless. Denali was about to parry an attack from behind, but Trask fired one precise shot and the Sith trooper who raised his vibroblade to kill her dropped down, dead. She gazed at the corpse and then spared Trask a pleasantly surprised glance. The Spire shook again. The Force did as well. Dark, malevolent presences... strong in the Force.

"It's a Dark Jedi!" Trask exclaimed when they encountered one of them in battle with a presence strong in the Light. A Jedi, obviously.

"No duh." Denali sarcastically added. But she didn't bother help either of them.

There were panels exploding around the combatants, but they didn't seem to care about anything besides their opponent. An icy blue saber clashed against the red one. The Dark Jedi parried a strong blow and whirled to deliver an attack of his own. A flash of blue and the Dark Jedi let out one final pained sound. The Jedi woman remained battle-ready, though it was useless... the panel behind her exploded, killing her instantly.

"That was one of the Jedi accompanying Bastila! Damn, we could have used her help!" Trask commented.

More Sith troopers came into view and blocked their path. This time, Denali was a bit annoyed and used the Dark Side to shield herself, entering a state of Rage to kill them. No one aboard the Spire knew of her strong affinity to the Force... at least, no one who would dare to approach her.

Of course, Trask didn't notice it. Not that he could – he had to battle several Sith, since he entered the bridge without her. Another explosion killed many more Sith and many Republic soldiers.

"Bastila´s not here on the bridge." Trask commented as he injected a kolto shot. "They must have retreated to the escape pods."

"We should head that way too. The Sith want her alive, but once she´s off the ship, there's nothing stopping them from blasting the Spire into galactic dust! Let´s move!" Denali ordered.

But something didn't feel right. Her companion felt it too, but not as intense as she did.

"There's something behind here..."

The door in front of them opened and a Dark Jedi emerged from the shadows. Denali didn't know his name, but something about him caught her attention – he was far more powerful than most of the Dark Jedi she knew or fought. It was obvious that he was an important one, because the fine black armor he was wearing was much different than the usual Dark Jedi robes.

"Damn, another Dark Jedi! I'll try to hold him off, you get to the escape pods – go!"

"No, wait!" Denali called. That Dark Jedi was too powerful for someone non-Force sensitive to defeat. She didn't care about his life, but on a ship overrun with enemies, you need all the help you can get. But Trask drew a sword and charged at the Sith warrior before Denali tried to stop him, obviously caring more for her life than his own. The door sealed itself behind him and another explosion reminded her where she was and that it would be a good idea to get out as soon as possible.

XXX

"This is Carth Onasi. I´m tracking your position down by the Endar Spire's life support systems. Bastila´s escape pod is away and you´re the last surviving crew member of the Endar Spire. But I can´t wait for you much longer, you'll have to hurry." The man's voice from her communicator informed her.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Denali thought. "Is the way clear?" She quietly asked, just so that she wouldn't alert any Sith to her presence. She knew the answer, of course.

"Not at all, be careful. There's a Sith patrol just down the corridor." Carth informed her.

Finally able to use her Force powers, the more subtle ones, anyway, Denali sent a wave of fear into the soldier's mind. The shock and fear stunned him quite effectively. Attacking quicker than the eye could see, Denali decapitated the trooper.

"One down." She whispered into the comlink, slightly smug.

"Good. But be careful! There's a whole squad of Sith Troopers on the other side of that door!" "No problem." And she shut down the comlink before Carth could reply.

There was, of course, the option of using the ship's defenses against them or reprogramming a damaged droid... but Force Lightning was just more fun. Two soldiers in the first room didn't know what hit them before they died, twitching violently. The second room was more crowded. Lightning bolts emerged from Denali's fingertips, frying the Sith to a crisp. At least she thought so – their armor remained relatively undamaged.

Grabbing a prototype vibroblade from a Sith corpse she made, she opened the damaged door leading to the escape pods.

"You made it just in time! There's only one escape pod left, we'll have to go together. C'mon, we can hide out on the planet bellow!" Said the man she figured to be Carth.

"No time for introductions now, flyboy, this ship is gonna blow!" Denali commented and quickly crawled into the pod. She sensed some amusement in his aura, but he followed her, sealing the pod and typing in the command to launch. She braced herself for a not so pleasant landing.

XXX

Though explosions surrounded it, the last escape pod managed to launch. The ship, already badly damaged, couldn't withstand the rain of shots fired by the Sith fleet. Seconds later, a flash of light was visible even from the planet of Taris and all that remained were several scraps of metal. The Endar Spire was no more.

The escape pod, making a quick get-away, landed on Taris, if such a crash could be called that. Fortunately for those within it, the pod crashed on one of the skyscrapers and not into the lower levels of the corrupted planet.

XXX

Only several hours have passed since their crash on the planet of Taris. Carth figured that they were lucky to crash into the Upper City and moreover, find the abandoned apartment they were in. There wasn't much he could do at the moment, except wait until the Sith finish their primary interrogations and then begin the search for Bastila. He checked the status of the young woman that now lay on the bed – she seemed to be fine, except for the fact that she was unconscious.

No visible injuries, at least. She probably just smacked her head, so it'll take some time until she wakes up. Carth thought.

The woman seemed fairly young, so he wondered why the Jedi would assign a recruit like this one on a mission where the chances of a Sith attack were fairly big. Well, Bastila wasn't much younger than this one, so he figured there was no point in asking her. Except for the vibroblades she had with her, there wasn't much to search for in her belongings. The only thing Carth found was a datapad with her service records.

Alexa Denali - junior intelligence officer, scout

Homeworld: Deralia

Highly skilled in tactical warfare, linguistics and psychology

Language recognition: Huttesse, Twi´lek, Aqualish, Selkath, Trandosian, Wookie, Duros,...

The list of languages went on and on. He raised an eyebrow when he saw at least fifty galactic languages listed there – you could choose whatever species you wanted to from Coruscant to the edges of the Outer Rim and she could communicate with them. That was certainly impressive and it would come handy on a foreign planet like Taris.

Though he saw more than a fair share of war, a search-and-rescue mission was rather new to him. For the sake of the Republic war effort, they had to try and find Bastila. Her Battle Meditation was priceless to them. Which was also why Malak was seeking her so fervently. Even the name seemed foul to him now. Sure, the Jedi managed to get rid of the greater evil – Darth Revan was long dead. May the Dark Lord's ghost never return to plague the galaxy. But it was only a matter of time until Malak would surpass his old Master... hopefully, that day would never come.

No one ever found out why they betrayed the Republic and began their assault. Was there just something rotten in both of them from the beginning? Or did something corrupt them? With Revan dead and Malak as he is, no one would ever find out.

Carth was no Jedi, but even he could tell that this task would change much. It could completely turn the tide of this war... well, not completely. The Republic was doing very poorly, he had to admit. Still, Bastila managed to at least slow the Sith conquest. But if there was one thing he could never do, it would be flee the battle and betray the Republic, even if it lost. Betrayal. He didn't want to think about that. Only one thing was certain - the race was on, and the trophy was out there.

A stirring sound made him snap back into reality. Occasionally, it seemed as if Alexa Denali was about to wake up, but there was always the moment when she had somewhat of a pained expression. She must have been having terrible nightmares. Hopefully it wasn't anything more serious than that, although judging by her face, the dreams she had were bad enough.

The Sith probably interrogated anyone they could after their crash. He was thankful for the minor fact that he wasn't in uniform. Leaving Alexa Denali alone would be slightly risky... but they had to start somewhere. With a sigh, Carth got up, checked his new companion's condition one last time and sneaked out of the apartment, in the search of some... any... information about the downed escape pods.

Alexa Denali stirred once again.

XXX

The last explosion wasn't aboard the Spire. Another ship, larger and far more powerful, was leading a great fleet into battle. The Sith flagship was still attacking the Republic fleet. Advanced alien technology was visible on every part of the Defiance, Darth Revan´s vessel.

Explosions were heard from the outside – the small Republic fleet was loosing the battle. How can they even have hope? Battle Meditation was used against them, mere minutes ago. It was reported to her that a team of Jedi boarded her ship...Bastila Shan among them. She could no longer use her power to aid the Republic. Battle Meditation required focus, calmness. One could not achieve that when they thought of something else.

She watched the battle in front of her, her arms folded. The dark figure knew why the Council sent the Jedi after her. The fools would never take her, alive or dead and they certainly wouldn't leave the ship without swearing loyalty to her or dying.

Her gaze moved to the dead Sith troopers and the dead Dark Jedi. The girl who killed them was quite impressive...she would make a worthy servant. For a Jedi, she seemed a bit too aggressive. The girl named Bastila was fighting the remaining Dark Jedi that stood in her way. She saw an opening in his technique. An attack at his torso. And he was dead. Then she stepped forward, facing the one that she feared the most...