Chapter 9: The Wizard, A Sith, and the Huntress (Part I)
Asajj sat comfortably in the cockpit of her Ginivex-Class starfighter as she waited for the fleet to arrive. The dathomorian assassin sat with her eyes closed feeling through the Force for any disturbance that could lead her to fulfill her Master's wishes. Her target was supposed to be powerful and if she could best him she would truly be worthy of her position as Dooku's apprentice.
She loomed over Taris menacingly, searching for the slightest indication of a disturbance so powerful that her Master on Serenno and as far as she could tell there was none. It was as if whoever her target was knew stealth techniques that could rival those of her Sisters.
It would be worthy kill, at least, not on par as her slaying of the Immortal Jedi on Queyta or the decapitation of the brute Glaive on Ohma-D'un. She wondered if he was an exiled Jedi or if he was even a he… she imagined him to be a tall, imposing figure that was surrounded by the Force. He had to be threat or Dooku would not have sent her to this backwater nor would he send an occupying force to distract the Republic while she completed her mission. Once the invasion started it wouldn't be long before the Jedi sent a force of their own to liberate the planet and if she were lucky they would send Kenobi and all scores would be settled.
Sadly, she was not alone. The Bounty Hunter known only as Durge was sent after her query as well. The Gen'Dai was particularly exited to be hunting such illusive prey but Ventress doubted he was telling the whole truth. There were reports of Death Watch within the Vao sector.
The last of the Mandalorian Super Commandos would not survive Durge if he came upon them, Ventress rationalized. She knew of the tremendous rivalry between the Gen'Dai and the Mandalorians of Old, both were hunters but Durge was a monster without equal. Asajj had worked with Durge before and each time they worked together the body count associated to her grew exponentially.
"We are now entering the system." The mechanical voice of Wat Tambor rang through the overhead speaker. "We will initiate our attack over the capital in the next hour. Be ready." The communication cut and Asajj opened her cold grey eyes and smirked as a small ripple in the Force revealed itself near where Death Watch was reported.
This would be entertaining if nothing else.
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In an old YT freighter, a ragtag group of charlatans were busy doing their own things.
Things were going well, which should have been enough of a warning for Harry to guard his nads 'cause the kick was undoubtedly coming, but he hadn't. Sure, the kneazle of a Jedi had tried to kill him but not much else had happened and he was content with how things were going for him. His growing crew were (with the exception of the Jedi) were content keeping themselves busy.
Vhonte kept a close watch over the Jedi; HK was keeping himself busy by improving the overworked engines; R6 was locked out of the cockpit; Theron was in the medbay with Fawkes keeping a tight inventory on a number of medicines that Harry in no way could pronounce; And Harry, well he… well he was stuck doing captainly duties… which while stuck on planet while his ship was being upgraded meant all he had to do was pay for it.
Oh, the joy.
Good news, the group hunting the Cathar Jedi hadn't returned to try to kill them all, much to HK and Vhonte's disappointment, and in a few days they were scheduled to leave the city planet and onto much greener places.
"Can you dance like a Hippogriff?!" Harry sang along to the song blasting from his computer. "Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma! Flyin' off from a cliff! Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, m-" Harry had to duck as what could only be described as an armored boot flew right at his face. It hit the far wall and landed next to his satchel.
"Ne'johaa!" Vhonte shouted from the door. Her rusty red hair was not in its usual braids and she wasn't wearing her usual armor, instead was dressed in the black lining that was more often than not under the plates. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"
"Sorry." Harry apologized and quickly moved to shut off his laptop. "I'm still not used to having people around." His mannerisms were purposefully sheepish but he didn't particularly feel sorry. When one was alone with only a magical bird as company one must become creative if they wanted to keep a relative level of sanity.
Take Sirius for example, he created some rather absurd stores about the time he spent in Azkaban. Like the one time he claimed to have pissed on a guards through the small slot on the iron door of his cell and the managed to trick the guard into believing that Bellatrix did it. Harry doubted the validity of the story but he wouldn't put it past Sirius to have tried.
"Don't do it again." She said as if she were scolding a child. With her arms crossed and looked past Harry and onto the computer in his bunk. "What is that?" There was genuine curiosity in her voice but that was simply an undercurrent suspicion that set off warning bells in Harry's head.
"A computer from my home planet." He replied, it wasn't a lie but it wasn't whole truth. The computer was so much more to him… it was one of the few links he had to his closest and dearest friend. Harry wasn't sure if Sirius would have either teased him or comforted him… but he surely hoped it was the latter. Vhonte did neither, instead choosing to look at him strangely before shrugging. The wizard knew that the woman in front of him didn't particularly care for him, which was fine, and was only using him to get to Death Watch… which was screwed up but it was still fine.
She would be useful if she stuck around. The galaxy was a dangerous place and when he found Sirius he'd need all the help he could get to clean up the colossal mess left in his wake… but he was sure that he was over thinking things.
The truth of the matter was that Harry was scared of something but he couldn't pinpoint what was causing him so much dread. It wasn't the 'lightsaber', as Vhonte had called it, he no longer felt the ghostly chill that lingered around the ancient metal cylinder… nor was it the violent Jedi Padawan currently confined to ship. It was almost as if magic was warning him that something was coming for the young Wizard.
As time passed the feeling grew in strength. It became so strong that eventually it pushed Harry into apparating onto the roof of hangar, but before that the aforementioned carmine lightsaber was summoned from the nightstand into his left hand.
Freezing winds blew right through the poorly coated wizard. Harry looked around the dark skyline and saw nothing out of the ordinary, no Death Watch huntress glaring at him from behind her scope, no dark wizard who was obsessed with his scar, and no Weequay Pirate selling faulty astro-mech… nothing that immediately called his attention… until he looked up and felt the largest ball of anger and hatred since he last faced Voldemort.
He could practically feel the mass of magic and emotion reaching out through space feeling for something… until it stopped right on him… well not exactly on him. The entity was focused directly beneath him… on the Cathar within his ship.
"Oh, no!" He hissed and apparated back into his room. He did not hesitate exiting the quarters, he did not pause to look around and in his haste he missed the grinning specter. The tattooed woman looked eager. Her chosen would face his first trial and with it she would know if he was worthy of her master's heart and his legacy.
Harry barreled through the circular corridor, barely dodging the rusted 'Protocol' Droid and jumping over a beeping R6.
"Query: What is the matter, master?" HK-51 asked but was ignored as the green eyed Wizard ducked into the ships cockpit. "Annoyed Statement: How rude."
"Wooo weep ooh."
"Correction: The Master is not rude. He simply cannot stand such inferior droids like yourself." R6 responded with a sorrowful wimper an a flicker in his lights
Fawkes flew immediately behind Harry and perched himself onto the young wizard's shoulder. Its sharp claws dug into his red shirt. The phoenix began singing in an effort to sooth his nerves.
Sadly, Fawkes attempt to help were just the sign that the Dark entity needed to launch its attack.
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Ursa Wren woke to the sound of artillery raining down on the city world. The Mandalorian huntress lifted herself from her wall and peered through the nearby window to see a world on fire. Taris had known horror since the founding of the Galactic Republic. Wars were fought and won on the on its soil yet none were as violent as the burning Taris by Darth Malak. It had taken the planet centuries to recover from the sheer brutality of the Sith.
From where she was standing, Confederacy wanted to do the same. The planetary defenses were barely outfitted to drive off pirates they crumped like parchment against the combined might of the CIS. They were quick to take out the ion cannons before even entering atmosphere it wouldn't be long before they began to deployed their battle droids and the planet would be theirs.
Ursa pulled the long rifle from her back and aimed it towards the ship bay across the dark chasm that lead to the rakghoul plagued Undercity. Ships were scrambling in attempts to escape from the armada's onslaught, yet her prey ship was still docked… as if waiting for the opportune time to launch their escape.
Wren cursed under her breath as she looked towards the sky and spotted four Recusant-class Destroyers, one Subjugator-class Dreadnaught, a small fleet of buzzard droids. Her kom'rk fighter wouldn't last two minutes against that swarm, but she took comfort that her prey nor her Guardians could survive against such an onslaught either. It was shame that there would be no honor for the dead… no honor for her brothers and sisters in Death Watch.
The Huntress shifted her rifle ever so slightly when she caught sight of a bronze colored ship weave through the swarm in such a fluid manner that Ursa knew that no droid could ever be programed with that much inhuman grace. She followed the trail of the ship until a Buzzard droid flew too close for comfort. Ursa ducked behind the nearby wall and waited for a few tense moments before retreating farther into abandoned building that she'd been using as a base.
Her yellow/orange armor was slightly too small for her so she couldn't move at her usual speed. It chafed against her skin but she ignored it in favor of getting to her ship. Ursa needed to contact her Mand'alor and inform him of her cadets failure… of her failure.
Ursa grimaced at the thought. She should have acted sooner, despite her weariness of the new force user, before her prey surrounded herself with an odd array of protectors. Mand'alor Vizsla would not be pleased to hear that Tervho had returned into play.
It was her duty and she could not shirk it.
She descended down to the base of the tower and sprinted to her grey tarp covered ship. Her kom'rk starfighter was older then most as it had been in bloodline for nearly two generations. Every dent told a story of a successful hunt, every scorch mark a glorious victory. It had been her father's before he fell to the blade of Jango Fett.
She was ready to board the ship when a sound unlike any she had ever heard. It was somewhere between a roar and a hiss of flame. It was loud enough that the sound echoed through her helmet. She tried to access the ships longs range but jammers were stopping all kinds of communication.
The Huntress cursed under her breath and boarded her ship.
There would be no glory in a death to droids but her Mand'alor needed to hear what she had to say if they ever hoped to complete the hunt.
Ursa boarded her ship quickly and proceeded to blast her way out of the hangar with a volley of heavy cannon fire. When she broke out, she expected to see the swarm to attack her but instead a mass of melted metal being devoured by some kind of colossal flaming horned beast with hooves. With every ship that entered it grew exponentially larger until it engulfed every buzzard it consumed.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the bronze ship keeping its distance from the flaming behemoth. She paid it no mind as the beast disappeared into nothingness and the old YT freighter shout out through the smoke. Against her better judgment she began to follow. Ursa scanned the air waives for something that she could follow and found an old pirate homing signal was being emitted from within the ship.
The Huntress smirked as she committed the frequency to memory just before the ship and her prey disappeared into hyperspace. They were soon followed by the bronze ship. The CIS forces continued their attack on the plannet as Ursa broke through atmosphere… it wouldn't be long before the Republic responded to this vicious attack on a Neutral world.
The scene would drive her husband to tears, he was an artist, attuned to the Satine's culture of passivism… he would weep for the fallen and blaming it on those who used power to rul over the weak. Ursa looked onto the slaughter and saw the need to arm her people against invaders that would rule them.
Pre Vizsla would agree.
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A/N: Here's chapter nine. I'm sorry for the long wait but this chapter kept fighting me and i've rewriten it half a dozen times.
The fiend fire beast that Ursa saw was a stag.
To clear something up; Kyber crystals are alive. Not exactly sentient but they have a way of communicating with people across the is why the crew's most volatile member was able to sense it from within Harry's satchel.
