Chapter Two: The Dark Star

The planet Tishi was a derelict. If anything had inhabited it in the past it certainly wasn't there today. With the swirling dark clouds being sucked in towards an enormous fissure at the planet's center, it seemed as if the planet were feeding on itself. I had never seen anything like it in all the Jedi archives.

"We're losing power! At this rate we won't have enough to make another jump into hyperspace," Ryuu said to my left as Tishi continued to grow larger and larger in front of us. The ship let out a long loud groan, the sound of twisting metal, followed in rapid succession by several loud pops as the ship's rivets burst apart from pressure.

"Why are we still moving towards it!?" I shouted at Ryuu, still gripping my seat hard, "Can't you turn us around?"

"The planet's gravity is massive. We're being sucked in," He answered. The ship suddenly began to shake violently as the center of the swirling clouds filled our cockpit window. Ryuu grabbed a hold of the control panel, "Brace for impact!" he shouted. I wanted not to look but I was frozen with fear as the Ebon Hawk was dragged into the anomaly. The entire ship rumbled. The sounds of the loose spare parts and supplies that had been lying around slamming back and forth against the walls only added to the deafening roar. I could see Ryuu's lips moving but could hear nothing he said. A blinding light filled the cockpit and soon there was nothing but white.

The roar around me slowly faded into absolute silence… and the blinding light into darkness. Were we dead?...

Chichichichichichichichi!

I awoke lying against the control panel of the Ebon Hawk to the sounds of birds calling outside. The entire ship was leaning forward, its nose buried into the ground. The cockpit window had been smashed and outside I could see nothing but jungle. I inspected myself for injuries, but outside of a few cuts and bruises I was fine.

My whole body aching as I stood, I pulled myself out of the cockpit window and jumped down to the surface below. Upon inspection from the outside there were trees all around our ship which had somehow wedged itself into the ground between them. It would be impossible for a ship to even land here much less crash down from above without taking out a few of those trees. Just what the hell was going on?

Coming around to the backside of the ship, HK-47 and Ryuu were standing side by side facing out into the jungle. I slowly came up behind them, trying to straighten out my hair.

"Hey, are you guys alright…"

"Shh!" Ryuu interrupted, "Do you hear that?" I went silent and listened carefully. Beyond the sound of the birds and other wildlife was the low rhythmic sound of drums in the distance.

Thump! … Thump! … Thump!

"Drums… there's definitely something intelligent out there," Ryuu said starting forward, "Our ship is in desperate need of repairs, maybe someone here can help us."

"Cautionary: Master, I would advise against that. From my prior experiences with primitive's I have found them to be none too fond of outsiders," HK warned.

"It'll be fine, HK," Ryuu answered, "besides, we can't just sit around in a place like this and wait to be rescued, so let's get moving."

"Whoa, time out! Wait just a second," I shouted, both Ryuu and HK turning to look at me, "What's going on here? How did we survive getting sucked into that planet? Where the hell are we now?" My mind was going a mile a minute. So many questions, nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

Ryuu sighed, leaning against a nearby tree, "Well… I'm not really one hundred percent sure on that one, Mooney. From what I can gather it all has something to do with the intangible sealed on Tishi."

"Intangible?..." I repeated with and even more confused look on my face, "There's that word again, intangible. What is an intangible?"

Ryuu went quiet for a moment, his gaze drifting down towards the ground as he gathered his thoughts, "I only know what I've overheard from my parents and Luster," he began, "The Intangible was a parasitic life form with a massive connection to the force. So large in fact that it was able to ward off its own death and preserve its physical form through use of the force alone. And this tremendous well of power could be tapped into by others who came into contact with it."

"Ok… but what does that have to do with Tishi?" I asked impatiently, folding my arms over my chest.

"The Intangible had fallen into the hands of Luster's brother, Jack. But Jack was unable to handle its power, and the parasite began to take over," Ryuu explained, "Using Jack as its vessel, the Intangible created a black hole with the force over the planet Tishi that the Jedi called a 'Dark Star'. 100 years ago Luster, Alex and the rest of the Jedi melded their strength together in order to force Jack and the intangible into the dark star and then seal it back up."

I was silent for a moment, taking in all the information that had just been told to me, "So you're saying… that the anomaly we fell into over Tishi was this 'dark star' thing that your father sealed up 100 years ago?"

"I don't know," Ryuu answered, "It's only speculation. But Luster certainly seemed to believe that even after sending Jack into the hole that his power was still very much present on the other side. The dark ripples around Tishi never seemed to cease, and thus all travel to the planet was forbidden by the Jedi."

"So then where are we now?" I asked, looking around again. There were lots of planets in the Jedi archives with jungle biomes like this one, though from where we stood it was impossible to tell if any of them were the planet we'd crashed into.

"I have no idea," Ryuu said, lifting his head and gazing back out in the direction of the drums, "but a little exploring may yield some answers. We're stuck here, where ever we are, so we might as well make the most of it."

I nodded and followed behind Ryuu as we started off into the jungle towards the source of the drums. The air was a thick soupy mess, not long after starting out did I find myself completely saturated with sweat. It was absolutely miserable. Slowly melting from the heat and constantly fighting off the insects from eating me alive by swatting at my neck and arms, I couldn't get off that planet fast enough. Ryuu, as always, was the picture of composure, leading the way through the jungle and hacking aside brush that got in our way with his blue lightsaber blade.

It had seemed to me like we had been walking for an eternity, but ever so steadily the sound of the drums grew louder and louder. I could only pray that these people had air conditioning. Finally we came to a massive clearing in the jungle. Ryuu crouched down behind some bushes and signaled for us to do so as well. HK lay down on his stomach and I crouched down and crawled up behind Ryuu slowly.

"What is it?" I whispered, perking up over his shoulder so I could see. My eyes widened at the sight before me. The jungle dropped down into a valley that had been completely cleared of trees as far as I could see. Below us were thousands… maybe millions of sentients of all species. They were being marched in line, dragging large materials and minerals up from mines beneath the jungle and out towards a simply colossal object on the horizon. An amphibian like creature with horizontal eye stalks was sitting up in a tower, beating two large drums in rhythm that the slaves marched to.

"It can't be…" Ryuu finally uttered, fixated on the scene in front of us as I was, "Is that… the Star Forge?" The object on the horizon consumed most of the midday sky. A large sphere with four giant fins attached to its sides.

"Statement: There can be no doubt, master, that is indeed the Star Forge," HK said from behind us, "It would seem they're constructing a new one. Quite an interesting use for a heard of meatbags, but still it seems a waste. It has been quite some time since my targeting computer has been realigned. Query: Would the master be apposed to a little impromptu target practice?"

"Keep it in your pants, HK, we don't want to be drawing attention to ourselves quite yet," Ryuu answered. I was too in awe of the Star Forge to pay any attention to the others, my jaw hanging open as my eyes slowly scanned up over the object.

"Affirmation: Roger. Keeping it in my pants, master."

"But… how could that be the Star Forge," I was finally able to utter, "I thought it was destroyed by Revan during the Jedi Civil War…"

"You got me, Mooney," Ryuu responded, "Everyone keep your guard up, there's no telling what kinds of weapons they might use," He then stood, his lightsaber hilt in hand as he began scaling down the cliff into the valley. Swallowing hard I unclipped the lightsaber from my belt and followed after him. The slaves were pouring out of the cliff face, pulling karts filled with ore behind them. Standing watch over the lines were more of the amphibian creatures holding long spears.

"I'm going to try and knock out the guards," Ryuu said, closing his eyes and bringing his hands together to focus on the force. Suddenly the guards perked up, all at once turning to face us and letting out a howl.

"Commentary: Something tells me that wasn't very effective, master," HK said as a compartment in his thighs popped open and the droid pulled twin blaster pistols out from them, "Permission to consider these meatbags as hostile."

"Shit! Somehow they were able to sense me and are blocking me from their minds," Ryuu said standing up straight and igniting his lightsaber as the guards began to surround us, more of them emerging from the mines, "What the hell are they?"

"Statement: Master, these are the Rakata. I've had run-ins with them before with my former master. They were a relatively weak tribe of organics credited with building the original Star Forge." HK answered.

One of them began to speak rather angrily in a language I couldn't understand, jabbing his spear at us as he spoke.

"Statement: One moment, I believe I understood that, master," HK interjected, "Translation: He seems quite upset with you master, they did not appreciate your attempts to use your powers against them. He says that we all are to be sacrificed to the 'Overseer', whatever that means."

"Well that doesn't sound pleasant," I commented, my back pressed against Ryuu's. I then ignited the violet blade on my lightsaber, but it only seemed to make the Rakatans madder.

"No Moonfire, don't!" Ryuu called out, turning off his own lightsaber, "We'll go with them. There's no need for unnecessary bloodshed."

"Commentary: Oh master… you're about as much fun as one of Yuka Laka's full body maintenance scans," the droid grumbled before stuffing his blasters back into their compartments.

Arms raised into the air we were then marched off across the valley with the rest of the slaves towards the Star Forge which dominated the horizon. The sun beginning to set over the valley did nothing to assuage the oppressive heat. I could feel it sapping the strength from my body with each step. I don't think I had ever felt so hot before, it didn't even seem natural. It was as if something was leaching away my strength and replacing it with a feeling of hopelessness and despair… and it only got worse the closer we got to that Star Forge.

As it became dark enough that the first stars could be seen in the sky overhead we finally made it to the base of the Star Forge. Beneath it was a stone temple whose doors slid open when one of the Rakatans extended his arm towards it. It seemed very much like they could use the force, but their presence in it was clouded somehow. Once we were taken inside we were brought through the winding hallways up onto the temple's roof. On top there was a man in a long black coat with his back to us, the hilt of a sword sticking up from under the coat. His hair was a deep black color and spiked in the back. The Rakatans kneeled down on either side of us to him and a puff of smoke rose into the air from in front of him.

"What is it now, Lao?" The man said softly before turning to face us. His hair hung down in front of his face to his chin that he had parted to either side. His face was very pale and a cigarette butt hung from his lower lip. The Rakatan answered in his language again that I could not understand. All say for one word… "Jack".

Next Time Chapter Three: The Infinite Empire