She walked back over to the crates and projected the data, it showed the schematic of a double-bladed saber or saberstaff. She lost herself in her thoughts. Hmm, Master Yoda was right. I can use this schematic and the crystals to make a new lightsaber, but what material could I use? Maybe the Kaminoan on the station would know of any lightsabers being left behind. She turned her comlink on and spoke into it, "Lucky, where are you at the moment?"
"I am sparring with Shadow squad in hangar fourteen, next bay over. Why, do you need something ma'am?"
A light growl came over Katooni before she replied, "How many times have I told you not to call me that?"
"Before this, a total of 357 times, mistress." Lucky replied as Katooni growled again. "Did you need something?"
Katooni sighed, "I need you to be discreet on looking for certain….."
Before she could finish her sentence, Shadow squad and Lucky were around her huddled close. "How discreet do you want us to be Katooni?"
While they're huddled, Twitch is standing there smirking, "Is there something for me to hack, Come on. Do I get to hack something?"
"Twitch calm down, I need you and Lucky to hack the station and find out if there are any Jedi belongings left on it. Be warned the files may be encrypted." Twitch smiled and Lucky nodded as they disappeared from the group.
While they were gone, Katooni headed to the infirmary to check on Hondo. He was just being brought in on a gurney when she walked into the room and sat by his bed, as two medical troopers lifted him over 0before leaving. She looked up at the IM-2 medical droid that was standing over him and watched.
"This is the first Weequay brought onto this station. His anatomy is similar to humans but different at the same time." He looked over to the young Jedi commander, "He will be awake momentarily." He checked Hondo's status again and left the room to go check on the other troopers who weren't floating in bacta.
She sat there waiting for him to wake up, as she reached out through the Force and began probing at his body, checking to make sure the wounds had healed. A light gasp brought her out of the trance as she looked up and noticed, he had managed to sit up right.
"Ah young one, you managed to save Hondo yet again. What about my ship, is it intact?"
Katooni nodded, "We have managed to repair it, but none of your men survived." She went quiet at that, realizing even though they were pirates, it was still a tragic loss of life. "Hondo why were the Seperatists attacking you again?"
He chuckled, "Why indeed. Because Count Dooku wants me dead and all of his droid commanders have standing orders to kill me." Hondo smiled, "Even with his commandos he still couldn't kill me, Hondo Onaka." He stopped in mid-sentence and looked down at her, "But for that, I have you to thank young one."
She smiled at the compliment and quickly explained her current situation and how she had to leave the Order. Hondo laughed, "Ah you have left your precious Order to become a Pirate, to fight Grievous and his droid army?"
"No not a pirate, I am merely a Jedi fighting on a different side. My forces will commence guerilla warfare against the Seperatists from here in the far reaches of the Outer Rim." She said it with pride, even though inside it also hurt her, the Order was all she had ever known. But she looked up and kept the smile. "Will you help me, if I can help you?"
Like if on cue, the medical droid walked in just as Hondo opened his mouth. "You shouldn't be moving. Now lie down and rest." The droid turned to Katooni, "Ma'am you need to leave for now."
She nodded to Hondo and walked out of the room. She headed for her own quarters as she began to think. We are going to need new ships, a base of operations, and a means to fund our forces. Hondo can help us. But how will my remaining soldiers. My brothers. How will they be able to fight with such depleted strength and numbers?
"Oof."
Brought out of her thoughts by the collision, she opened her eyes, seeing that she was looking at a WAC droid, "Lucky what are you doing up here?" Eying the small droid as Lucky helped her to her feet. They stared at eachother for a few seconds as the WAC adjusted its head.
"Was snooping through the station's logs, found some interesting information, so first priority was to bring it to you. But I didn't mean to bump into you ma'am." She said as the WAC lead Raven to her assigned quarters on the station.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Katooni growled at the droid.
But instead of showing any fear the WAC just chuckled, " Counting that one, it will be 357 times Raven." She starred at Lucky but said nothing.
Lucky loaded up the terminal and expanded on some hidden files that she had found, "Apparently they had another Jedi here awhile ago, maybe six months. Then suddenly they stopped getting transports out here, the Jedi left with his fleet and they haven't seen any action or injured until we showed up today."
She jumped up from her chair to look closer at the data, "No action for six months, thats unsual even for a station way out on the Rim." Slowly looking over the files again to make sure Lucky was right, and she was. They had stopped receiving any troopers, its like they had dropped off the map. She sat back down into her chair, her face in her hands. 'This doesn't make any sense, why did they drop?'
"Lucky did you find out anything else?"
"Some random scans done of the Asteroid field but I didn't think they would be that important."
She looked at Lucky, "What kind of scans?"
The WAC pulled up the files on the screen and expanded them, she pointed at the screen, expanding on several larger clusters. "At first they looked like standard asteroids from a planet bust, but as I enhanced the scans and ran through them a few more times." The asteroid's image enhanced and changed, "Again everything seemed normal until I looked closer and noticed that all of the asteroids in this scan are all hollow."
Raven's eyes shot from the screen to the droid, "Did you say hollow as in empty?"
Lucky nodded and expanded on the largest asteroid, roughly four kilometers in size. "Yes they are hollow and according to the scans, there are large metallic readings on the inside, along with several life signs."
She got to her feet and motioned for Lucky to follow as they left her quarters heading for the CIC. The turbolift was there within seconds as she walked in. The Kaminoan scientist incharge noticed her and bowed, "What can we do for you Commander?"
"Do you know anything about the asteroid field near the station Sun We?"
For the first time in her time with any Kaminoan, she had never seen this before. Her pale whitish grey skin started to grow darker as her eyes' narrowed as she spoke, "Why do you ask?"
The young Commander stood their staring into the Sun We's eyes, "Because I want to know why this station has been alone for six months and why its fleet protection suddenly left around the same time these scans were taken."
Slowly Sun We turned towards one of the monitors, completely ignoring the Commander for a few minutes, as a recorded video appeared on the central holotank. An image of a Jedi Knight standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer turns to her captain, "Jump to lightspeed, we have to report in, to reinforce Coruscant," The captain nods and the fleet jumps away, just before the image cuts to static.
"The fleet that was protecting us left, because their had been warnings about Coruscant as the next planet to be assaulted by the Seperatists. So all available units were called back ." Sun We explained as she turned off the recording and turned back to the frustrated commander. 'I've never seen a Jedi get angry or even show anger before, she really is an unorthodox Jedi.'
Katooni nodded slowly as she looked up at Sun We, "That explains a few things, thank you. I will be leading a party to go examine the asteroids with the largest life signs." With that she turned on her heel and left CIC.
She turned her comlink on as she entered the turbolift, "Prepare the gunships, I want Shadow squad and the Air Slicers ready to go in five!" She closed the link seconds later as she tried to get her thoughts around the situation, 'I wonder what we have found inside the asteroid?' The sounds of the door opening broke her out of them as she began to walk towards the waiting gunships.
Their blast doors sealed, pressurizing the cabin as soon as she stepped on board. Her soldiers looked at her and nodded as the lights were cut bathing them in a red glow as the emergency lights came on. They took off seconds later.
"What's the mission Raven?" Twitch asked as he adjusted the scanners on his gauntlet and made sure all four of their readings were working on his..
"They had scanned one of the larger asteroids, roughly four kilometers in size a few months ago, but had made little progress in trying to figure out what they are. It also has strange metallic readings inside and so were going to investigate." She smiled and looked at the squad and opened her comm for everyone to hear, "Any other questions?"
"None here Commander, we are good to go and awaiting orders." The Air Slicer's sergeant replied as his boys checked their rifles a final time before flipping the safeties off and preparing for immediate drop.
The last few minutes of the ride were made in silence as they searched the asteroid for an opening, but to the naked eye it appeared to be nothing more than a giant rock. But the scanners detected a small metallic opening on the southern side of the asteroid. Slowly the two gunships moved towards it before noticing several bulges around the opening. "Break.…Break... Skyjumper back off their's gun turrets around the lock!"
Both gunships quickly backed off before stopping a hundred meters from the lock. "Wait hold on." Skyjumper said as he looked at the guns, "They're tracking us but aren't armed. Its as if they know we're friendlies."
Arrow looked at the guns again and noticed that they were spaced around a large opening on the Asteroid. As the four of the guns tracked the gunships, suddenly they stopped tracking before moving to standby positions as a hidden hangar door opened slowly. "Raven we have a door opening in front of us, moving in."
The whole hangar was dark and foreboding as they touched down, the blast doors sealing behind them, "Air seal is green. Raven you are clear to exit the gunships."
As they touched down in the hangar and the doors opened, everyone noticed how barren everything looked. Katooni motioned for lights, allowing them to make out the shapes of small craft throughout the hangar.
"What are these Raven?" Demo wondered as he looked over one of them.
"They look like Aurek Starfighters from the Old Republic, but how is that possible? That would make them almost 4,000 years old." She walked around and opened the cockpit and sat down inside, as she looked over the controls noticing they were prepped and ready. The fighter had been waiting for nearly four millenia to take off. As she grabbed the throttle, the area changed.
She was still sitting in the fighter but when she looked around the hangar was lit up and troopers were walking back and forth, prepping fighters and getting ready.
"Hey Jax!" As the pilot of the fighter she was sitting in turned from the fighter to another who was walking toward him.
Jax wiped the grease off of his hands and looked at his friend,"What do you need?"
"The General wants all of us to form up in the main hangar, he wants to address everyone about something.… Wait who are you?" He said as he turned to the young Jedi in the pilot's seat.
At first Katooni didn't think he was talking to her but when they moved towards her, she noticed they were indeed talking to her, but just as they went to try and touch her, the young one disappeared from the cockpit.
Katooni could faintly hear someone telling her to wake up, but she only looked farther into her own thoughts, trying to piece together the situation as a familiar aura entered her mind
"Found what you were looking for hmm?"
"Master Yoda, what are you doing here, did you know what I would find?"
The Grand Master sighed, "Know what you would find, I did not. Only that it was the will of the Force.
"Why, would the Force lead me to some fighters from a time forgotten? What significance do they have?"
He responds, "Know the answers I do not, but trust in the Force you must."
Katooni shook her head, "I don't understand what you mean Master, but I will trust in your guidance."
Yoda smiled, "May the Force be with you Katooni Raven." His aura faded from her mind as the grey clouds slowly vanished as she opened her eyes and looked around to see Shadow Squad staring at her.
Twitch leaned in waving his gauntlet in front of her, checking her vitals and doing a quick scan, "Katooni you choose the most random places to go into meditation, we thought something happened."
She looked at all of them and lowered her head and sighed, "How long this time?"
He tapped his gauntlet again, "30 minutes and your vitals show everything is normal."
They helped her out of the fighter and brought her a datapad of everything they collected while she was in in meditation. They had spread out looking over the whole hangar, dispersed throughout were 24 fighters, crates for fuel storage and other supplies. In addition there were also a pair of gunships that sat by the farthest wall, both had their bording ramps down and were loaded with supplies.
Twitch held up the scanner in his gauntlet once again, "I am getting large metallic readings on the other side of this blast shield."
Katooni nodded and motioned for everyone to get behind cover, "Alright Demo, blow the door open."
Demo walked up to the door put down his pack and started to look through it before turning towards everyone else, "Would that be a small or large explosion?"
She shook her head and sighed, "Just open the door without killing all of us, can you do that Demo?"
The demolitions expert chuckled to himself and placed the charge on the lock and jumped behind one of the barriers and hit the detonator as the bulkhead blew inward. Both squads moved towards the exposed hatchway with rifles raised.
Katooni drew her dual pistols and stepped in front of them as the smoke cleared. She lowered them as she let out a long whistle, "I knew we were detecting metal signatures but I wasn't expecting this."
They were staring at a pair of capital ships that were sitting in what looked like giant berths.
Lucky walked up to the guardrail and looked over the ships and turned to the commander, "Raven these appear to be Sith Harrower-Class Battle Cruisers from the Great Galactic War."
Vo walked up to the guardrail, "That was almost four thousand years ago." he looked at his surroundings, they were inside the asteroid, it had been hollowed out to serve as a base of some kind. He looked back at Katooni, "How have they been here this long, how have they not been found already?"
She shook her head, she didn't know to answer either of those questions. Four thousand years they have been sitting here, but why? Why were two Sith battle cruisers left behind, left to sit and wait? Turning away from the railing the young commander tried to figure out their situation when the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand on end as a shiver shot down her spine.
Katooni walked off from the group, her eyes closed as she tried to find the Aura. But each time she stretched out her mind to try and find it another wave of cold hit her until she dropped to her knees holding her arms to her body as Shadow squad rushed over taking defensive positions around her. "I'm alright, I just feel something very powerful, I don't know what or who it's coming from but we have to find out what it is."
Demo helped her to her feet and she motioned for everyone to follow her as she started running down her hall towards the Aura. They ran down several hallways before stopping in front of a massive blast door. She pointed at the terminal as Twitch held his gauntlet up against it to try and hack the terminal.
"This isn't going to be easy, even though its using archaic securuity codes, the system is still funcioning." He tapped his guantlet a few more times before he pulled a wire from it and stuck it into the port on the terminal, The terminal booted up and displayed several lines of code before flashing 'OVERRIDDEN' on its screen as the doors slowy hissed open.
As the doors parted, the overhead lights came on revealing rows upon rows of soldiers frozen in carbonite. They all wore the same style of armor and were covered in a heavy layer of dust.
She looked up at one of the frozen soldiers, "They are wearing Republic trooper armor, but that armor type hasn't been used since the Great Galactic War, this still doesn't seem possible." Katooni turned to Twitch and pointed at the same trooper, "Find out if they are still alive."
He walked over and checked the life support systems and turned back to her and nodded, he opened up the comlink for the four of them, "There armor looks pretty cool guys."
"Thaw him out."
He nodded again and tapped the sequence for the thawing process as the carbonite began to glow red and pink before disappearing as they caught the trooper before he could fall onto the deck.
The trooper groaned and reached for his helmet and pulled it off, showing everyone a young man with short black hair and several gashes on the side of his face. He looked up at everyone, but still couldn't see anything yet as the hibernation sickness was only just starting to wear off.
"Who….who are you?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes, trying to restore his vision.
Katooni spoke first, "I'm Commander Katooni Raven, I am…was a Jedi Knight of Republic."
He continued to rub his eyes, "Commander? We need to wake up Lord Shadow, he will want to be briefed on the situation."
Katooni froze in place as every hair on her body stood on end as he mentioned that name, "Did you say Lord Shadow, the Dark Lord of the Sith?"
The trooper pointed behind him towards a darkened carbonite slab as Raven took off towards it, activating her lightsaber in midstep as she jumped towards the slumbering Dark Lord.
She landed a few feet away from him, gripping her lightsaber as she raised it towards him and swung but stopped inches from cutting him in half, the blade shaking as she struggled with her emotions. Looking at him, she closed her eyes and opened herself to the Force as she reached out. But when she felt his Aura, it wasn't hatred and aggression, she found a deep resonating conflict within him, as if both sides were fighting over the right to control his mind. This brought her back as she stopped herself and deactivated her lightsaber. Clipping it to her belt as walked to the side of his slab and pressed the controls to begin the thawing process.
His body glowed as the carbonite dissolved away, revealing that he was still wearing his armor and robes. Katooni went to catch him but as he fell, he landed in a crouch with his arm hitting the deck as he sat down. Though his eyes couldn't yet see, he reached out with the Force to see the Galaxy and after a few moments returned to himself as he lifted his head to look at the young Commander and through the Force he spoke, "I sense a great disturbance in the Force, is the War still going on young Jedi?"
At first she recoiled at the intrusion, but she turned to him and replied, "Yes the War is still going on."
He sighed, "Nothing's changed then."
Katooni spoke openly towards him, "Only Time has changed my Lord, only Time."
Shadow tried to openly talk but all the came out was a light gasp as he went into a coughing fit and started to shake.
"Twitch get over here!" Katooni shouted as she dropped to the deck to try and calm him down.
Everyone rushed over and Twitch set his pack down and pulled out a vial from it and turned to the coughing Lord, "Lord Shadow try not to talk very much, you're suffering from hibernation sickness and due to the time that you were under, more then just your vision has been affected. We need to get you back to the medical station as soon as possible." He turned towards Katooni who nodded and they picked him up and carried him back to the Gunships.
They rushed back to the station and quickly got him into one of the Bacta Tanks.
Once that situation had calmed down she turned back toward the medical staff. "I want those frigates over to that asteroid now. Get all of those troopers over here and thaw them out." The troopers nodded and spend the next few hours going over and retrieving as much as the frigates could hold before returning dropping them off and repeating the process.
- Beginning of the Dark Times -
A day passed before Katooni walked back into the infirmary to see Shadow sitting upright in one of the beds, he was reading a datapad on the Galaxy''s recent history, but looked up when he felt her presence draw near. "Young Raven, tell me exactly how long its been."
A day passed before Katooni walked back into the infirmary to see Shadow sitting upright in one of the beds, he was reading a datapad on the Galaxy''s recent history, but looked up when he felt her presence draw near. "Young Raven, tell me exactly how long its been."
"4,000 years Master Hunter, a lot has happend in that time." She replied as she walked into his room, holding a datapad in front of her robes.
He was taken aback by the use of that name, his former name hadn't been spoken since he became a Sith. "Where did you learn that? I know the council erased my very existence from the Temple Archives."
She tilted her head in confusion, "Erased? Why was your existence removed from the libraries?"
Sighing sofltly he nodded,"During the War there were thousands of Jedi leading Republic forces against the Empire, many fell in battle and some even changing sides" He stroked his hair out of his face and sighed,"My fall was heavily felt by the Council, at that point I had willingly given into my own anger and in turn to the Dark Side itself."
She nodded a little shocked as she moved closer, "But what interests me right now, is why you decided to freeze all of your forces." Her eyes watched him with an intense curiosity but a small twinge of fear was behind them.
Shadow sighed and adjusted himself as he pushed his long silver-white hair back from his face and crossed his arms over his chest and took a deep breath before beginning. "Your true question Katooni Raven, is Why did I betray the Sith Empire and also why I put my forces and myself into hibernation?"
Her lips began to part but quickly shut them as she motioned for him to continue.
"You must understand that I am Mandalorian by birth and due to this I've always had an aggressive side to me, which most of the Council and other Masters didn't like and therefore always kept me at a distance. After I had taken on my padawan, they were even more weary. They were afraid that we would both fall to the Dark Side during the War."
Katooni shifted a little closer growing insanely curious, "What caused your fall?"
He sighed, "It'll be easier to just show you." He held out his hand to her and she slowly took it as they were rushed into his a dense fog.
She looked around trying to see through the fog, but it blocked her vision in all directions"Where are we?"
"In my memories, I'm going to show you how I fell, so you will truly understand ."
She nodded and watched as the fog started to expand, showing the memory. Several of the Sith looked at the two Jedi and shouted, "They have breached the temple, Attack!"
Hunter and Arya stood there and raised their hands as many of the Sith rose off the ground and were swept into the walls and ceilings, as if they were bags of rice. Cracks were heard echoing the room as several of them didn't get up.
Three rushed with their lightsabers overhead, four crimson blades crashed against the Jedi's. Sparks flew off and you could hear their humming. Hunter stood their pushing two of the three back and with one swift motion brought them both down. Arya on the other hand was in serious trouble, the Sith she was fighting was not only stronger but taller, giving him an advantage over her.
"You are no match for me, you foolish Jedi." He roared. "I AM A SITH LORD!" he threw a burst of Force Lighting at her and surged forward with the Force increasing his physical strength.
She caught the lighting against her saber but wasn't fast enough as his charge threw her against the wall. Arya slowly regained her balance, ready for another attack. She used the Force to accelerate her speed as she charged at him with several strikes to his neck and chest. They were good tries but his height and longer reach blocked every attack as he brought his lightsaber down hard.
Within an instant her lightsaber went over her head to block his blade, but the sheer force of the attack pushed her into the ground several inches cracking the stone around her. He clipped her arm with his saber and threw her to the floor. He lifted his blood red blades up and brought them straight down into her chest. She gasped one last time, looking at her Master, as her lightsaber rolled out of her hand and her eyes shut for the last time.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hunter screamed and he increased the ferocity of his attacks, cutting down every Sith in his path, leaving the Sith Lord for last. "You will pay!" He growled, his anger and fury fueling him now as he charged. The Dark Lord could barely keep his defenses up against the series of savage strikes. Hunter picked him up with the Force and threw him straight through the temple walls outside.
The Dark Lord could feel the anger, the hatred, and the fury coming from this one Jedi. Soon he regained his footing and reignited his lightsabers, waiting for Hunter to make the next move. "For a Jedi, your well trained in combat, but that didn't save that pathetic excuse of a padawan did it!?" He ranted, trying to get more hatred from Hunter, to pull him closer to the Dark Side.
Hunter exited the temple but didn't answer; he merely jumped straight into the air and brought the staff down in a quick motion that forced the Sith deeper into the ground. The Dark Lord grunted as he was picked up by the scruff of his collar and Hunter jumped into the air. Holding onto his collar as tight as he could, he spun around and threw him back into the temple, through another wall, right into a heavy stone pillar.
He managed to stand up, his body aching in pain, yet his own anger and hatred fueling him with the Dark Side. "Come on, let your anger drive you, let it fuel you and provide you with more power than ever before!" He snarled and charged at Hunter his lightsabers behind him
Their blades clashed like thunder as one attack was blocked or another sweep was dodged. The Sith Lord swiped his blade in a heavy right arc before turning to go for a left slash. It was blocked just in time as the impact sliced several strand of his hair off, pushing Hunter into the wall. The Lord then continued to press his advances swinging against Hunter's defenses, hoping they would fail, but they held true before Hunter returned the assault with a violent Force Push from point blank, throwing the Sith back against the other wall, his lightsaber rolling away from him.
Hunter walked over him, saber in hand and a growl on his face as he pointed the violet blade at the Sith's throat, "You killed her and now you pay for what you have done."
A soft cackle was heard and it grew louder and louder as Hunter looked at the Sith Lord who was slowly standing up against the wall, his armor and cloak ripped and damaged, cuts and abrasions across his face. "For what I have done? You're the reason she is dead, you and the entire Jedi Order caused her death. You taught her to be weak, to hide her emotions, to not form any attachments. She is dead because of you!"
That last sentence pushed Hunter over the edge as he pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the Sith in the side, watching him gasp for air and howl in pain at the same time. "That isn't going to kill me, you don't have the guts to kill me, do you…huh… do you, you pathetic piece of Jedi filth!" He shouted, pulling Hunter into his trap.
"Silence, I am a Mandalorian and a Jedi. Fighting is in my blood." Hunter replied proudly as he glared at the Sith Lord.
"Ha…So then you'll let me live, I'll take her body and present it to the Council for their experiments." The Sith smirked as he slowly pulled a knife from his gauntlet and went to stab the femoral artery in Hunter's thigh. Due to the Force, Hunter jumped out of the way and with the Force picked up the Sith Lord and slammed him into the floor.
Igniting the violet blade, which to Hunter seemed to have turned Blood red as he cut down the Sith Lord. For one Lord had fallen this day, but in his place a new more powerful Lord has arisen.
Slowly the fog closed around them and brought them back to the room. Shadow coughed as he wiped his eyes before looking down at Raven. She was shaking and gasping lightly, "Hey are you alright?"
She turned her head towards him and smiled, "Yeah….yeah….I'm alright." she said as she wiped away the tears, "That was a lot to take in at one time." She walked over and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through that."
For the first time in millenia he actually smiled and returned the hug. ''She is very powerful and cares for her men. She's even taking care of me, a battle hardened warrior who isn't worth saving anymore."
Raven broke the embrace and backed up blushing as she adjusted her armor and robes, before spinning around at the sound of the door opening.
