Chapter 2 for yal xD Chapter 3 will hopefully be up by the end of the night. Mostly dialogue in this one. Can't wait for the chapters to get longer!
Disclaimer:I do not own Star Wars or Kotor. That's all George Lucas' stuff xD
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My eyes flew open as I shot up from my bed, gasping for breath. My body was covered in a cold sweat and my heart was racing. What the hell was wrong with me? I had been having the same nightmare almost every night since I was recruited to the Endar Spire two months ago, but lately they had grown longer and more detailed. It was like watching a movie in frustratingly small segments.
Once my breathing slowed, I took my first chance to take in my surroundings. These weren't my quarters. Besides the bed I was laying on and the small couch in the corner of the room, there was no other furniture to decorate the small room. The walls were an ugly, dull brown color and the only source of light was a small lamp that hung from the ceiling. The lack of windows and dim light cast a grim atmosphere over the room. Hell, even the door looked as if it had seen better days.
I slowly got out of the bed, my stiff joints and muscles protested every movement as blood rushed up into my head. A wave of nausea washed over me and left me feeling sick. Damn, I must've drunk myself stupid last night if my head hurts this bad.
I was pulled from my thoughts by the groaning sound of the door sliding open. Looking up, I was greeted by a familiar man in an equally familiar bright orange flight suit. "Good to see you up, instead of thrashing about in your sleep. You must've been having one hell of a nightmare. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up."
"Yea, well I probably should have just stayed asleep. My head feels like it was stomped on repeatedly by a wookie tribe." I grimaced as I said this, another jolt of pain shot up into my head. Chuckling, the orange jumpsuit guy continued.
"Actually, you're pretty lucky you weren't injured more than you were. I'm Carth, one of the republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod, remember?"
At his mention of the escape pod, memories began to slowly creep back into my mind. While still fuzzy, I remembered how Flask and I fought our way through the Endar Spire in search of some Jedi damsel-in-distress. Well, Track was looking for her. I remember I was looking for the escape pods. I also remember the guy stupidly running to fight a rather creepy looking Dark Jedi. That probably didn't end too well for him. While he was admittedly good with a blaster, Task had a better chance of hurting himself than he did an enemy in close-quarters combat.
After Track shut the door behind him, I continued on and eventually found Carth and the last remaining escape pod. The last thing I remember was our rapid descent to the world of Taris. Everything after that was a blur.
"Right. I'm Kaleb, by the way. Kaleb Flare. How did we get here?"
"Well you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now, so I imagine you're pretty confused about things." That explained why I felt as if I was run over by a speeder. "But don't worry. We're safe…at least for the moment. We're in an abandoned apartment here on Taris. You were banged up pretty bad after our pod crashed. You smacked your head pretty good, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. I was able to drag you away from our crash site in all the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene we were long gone." And that explains why my head feels like ass.
"So you saved my life, huh? Thanks." At least this guy was more useful than Trask…that was his name! Trask!
"You don't have to thank me. I've never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I'm going to need your help." Moving over to the couch, Carth plopped himself on it unceremoniously. "Taris is under Sith control. Their fleet is orbiting the planet. They've declared martial law and they imposed a planet-wide quarantine. But I've been in worse spots.
"I saw on your service records that you understand a remarkable number of alien languages. That's pretty rare in a raw recruit." Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was pretty much a genius. "That should come in handy while we're stranded on this foreign world." Letting out a weary sigh, Carth continued. "There's no way the Republic will be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to get to us. If we're going to find Bastila and get off this planet, we can't rely on anybody but ourselves."
Oh no. Not Carth too. Why is everyone so obsessed with this Bastila chick? "Okay, what's so special about this Bastila chick? She's only one Jedi." At this, Carth, just like Trask, looked at me as if I had sprouted another head from my shoulder.
"That smack to the head must have done more damage than I thought. Bastila is a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Darth Malak's Sith master. She is the key to the entire Republic war effort. The Sith must have found out she was on the Endar Spire and set an ambush for us in this system. I believe Bastila was on one of the escape pods that crashed down here on Taris. For the sake of the Republic war effort, we have to try to find her."
Ah. So she is a bit more special than I first thought. Another thought occurred to me.
"How can one person, even a Jedi, be so important?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose in obvious disbelief, it became apparent that I was the only person in the galaxy that did not know who Bastila was.
"She's no ordinary Jedi. She has a rare gift called Battle Meditation. Bastila's power can influence entire armies. Through the Force Bastila can inspire her allies with confidence and make her enemies lose their will to fight. Often, that's all it takes to tip the tide of a battle. Without her, we would have lost this war long ago."
Okay, so this girl was very important. Stop asking questions about her before you make yourself look like even more of an idiot, Kaleb.
"Okay, it sounds like she's pretty important. So what should we do next?"
"Well considering we survived our crash and she is a Jedi trained in the Force, I'm willing to bet she survived hers too. Bastila is going to need our help. This is a Sith-occupied world and many of Darth Malak's followers can use the dark side of the Force, and the Sith have killed more than their share of Jedi in this war. But none of them are gonna be looking for a couple of grunts like us. We'll be able to move around the planet without attracting attention; a luxury Bastila won't have. She's going to have half of the Sith fleet looking for her. They know how important she is to the Republic war effort.
"The whole planet is under quarantine. No ships can land or take-off, so if Bastila is going to escape this planet she is gonna need our help. And we probably will need hers." Getting up off the couch, Carth moved to a small footlocker I had not noticed in the corner. After fishing through it for a few moments, he pulled out his set of twin blasters and holstered them before tossing a spare blaster to me.
Inspecting the blaster for a few moments, I holstered the pistol to my belt. "Well if it means I can get off this planet, I suppose I could help you find Bastila. Any idea where we should start looking?" After another few moments, Carth tossed a datapad over to me. On it were maps of the area, local clubs, cantinas, and recent news. The headlines of the latest article stood out to me: Undercity Crash Site.
"While you were out I did some scouting around. There are reports of a couple of escape pods crashing down into the Undercity. That's probably a good place to start. But we have to be prepared. The Undercity is a dangerous place and we won't do Bastila any good if we go and get ourselves killed."
We made our way out of the small apartment room and headed for the sketchy-looking elevator that would let us exit our building complex. Though given the condition of this building, I wouldn't be surprised if the elevator malfunctioned and blew us both to space. As we rode in the elevator, I took a chance to examine my new partner.
Though at first I had assumed him to be in his mid-thirties, I noticed a few strands of his brown hair had lost their luster and the short, but haggard stubble on his face only added to his older-man look. Add to that the age lines on his face, undoubtedly caused by years of service and war, and it was obvious that he was in his early forties. And it was the old kind of forty year-old man. This guy had been through a lot.
A man his age would have been serving with the Republic for almost twenty years. Maybe he'd have a different take on this whole civil war than everyone else. "Hey Carth, what do you know about Malak and the Sith?"
"Everything I know about Malak is common knowledge." Well, damn. "He escaped the trap that killed Darth Revan, his Sith master. With Revan's death, Malak became the new Dark Lord. He's a ruthless tyrant who won't stop until the Republic lies in ruins. He and his followers don't respect anything except raw, brutal power. It's hard to imagine how someone who used to be a Jedi could become such a monster." This was news to me.
"Wait, Malak was a Jedi?"
"Malak and Revan were both part of the Jedi Order, but they were young and headstrong. And against the wishes of the Council they went to fight in the Mandalorian Wars five years ago. But something happened out there. Something corrupted them and drew them over to the dark side. Or maybe there was something rotten inside them all along. I don't know.
"They formed an army of ex-soldiers and fallen Jedi who had been seduced by the dark side, with Revan at their head…until Revan was killed by Bastila's Jedi strike team. But even that didn't slow the Sith down. Malak just stepped in and assumed Revan's role. He took control of the Sith armada and resumed the bloody conquest of the Outer Worlds."
It was obvious in Carth's tone that the war was bleak. Only having joined the war effort myself about two months ago, it was hard for me to relate with someone who had been protecting the galaxy for twenty years.
"Someone will stop them, Carth." It was all I could say without having to drop my 'I'm-a-badass-I-don't-care' attitude completely. Had to keep my image up.
"I hope your right. But the Republic hasn't been able to stop him so far, even with the support of the Jedi Council. I think Bastila might be the galaxy's last hope."
Having heard enough of Carth's brooding and grim talk of the war, I remained silent until our elevator finally stopped at the bottom floor.
"Well we won't do Bastila much good if we stay here talking. C'mon. let's go."
Nodding in agreement, Carth stepped out of the elevator. "You're right. There's a small hub around here where we can get supplies and such. Just remember to keep a low profile. You seem like that type that attracts attention easily." Well, he got me there.
"Well it's not my fault I'm good with the ladies. And their boyfriends? Not my fault they get jealous."
Huffing in amusement, Carth began walking to a large underpass with me following close behind. "You know what I mean. I've heard some grim stories about the Dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity. But I figure if we don't do anything stupid, we'll be fine. I mean they're looking for Bastila. Not a couple of thugs like us."
Looking at the map from Carth's datapad, I figured we would be heading to the Lower City elevator. Well if all we had to do to get to the Undercity was ride a couple of elevators, we would find Bastila and be off this planet by noon. This was going to be easy.
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Read and review guys xD things will be picking up.