9: Hoth
Syntarus sat quietly, surrounded by the mangled corpses of the students. He had killed half of them easily, but before long the others had felt the tremor in the force. It mattered little, and as one by one they fell to him, he downloaded their unique fighting styles and tactics. Discarding the information that was useless to him, but keeping moves that suited him well, he was growing smarter..better. Before long, the masters had sensed the disturbance, and the first of them entered the dorms in a rage.
He was so enraged that, in his anger, he'd carelessly failed to try and sense his students' killer. Within seconds, Darth Syntarus cut him down, without so much as a fight. The old, white human's head rolled out of the dorm, and into the dim lit hallway. Three other masters were rushing upstairs, and upon seeing the head, all three drew their sabers.
Syntarus drew his own saber, and awaited their arrival at the top. He could feel their strength, and he was quite ready for a more challenging endeavor. The first master waved for the other two to wait. He was challenging Syntarus alone, which was obviously foolish, but Sith Masters weren't known for their team work.
"So," the Sith said with a scowl, "You think you can just break in here, kill our students and live?"
"Well," Syntarus replied with a laugh, "Yes, yes I do..."
The master became enraged at the Darth's lack of empathy or restraint, and blindly rushed at him. His fighting style revealed that he was a very capable Sith, yet just as all the others, Syntarus found that he was lacking in the nature of the true Dark Side, and carefully studied the master's movements.
The master was growing somewhat tired, both from fighting, and his previous day. Not to mention his lack of sleep, now that he was awake, and in the middle of the night no less. All were weaknesses that Syntarus didn't have, and being half mechanical helped him keep a more sustained stamina while he seamlessly moved.
In a mere few minutes, he had forced the masters back down the stairs, and Syntarus was careful to make as much noise as possible. Sure enough, the remaining students awoke, hearing the noise, and rushed downstairs to see the two warriors fighting violently. Both shot out force lightning, clashing and ricochetting to and fro, as well as slicing into the walls and surrounding objects with their sabers.
As Syntarus' visor indicated that all data had been stored, he delivered the killing blow. The movement was so fast, that neither the students, nor the masters could comprehend what had happened right away. For a moment, there was a heavy silence, embraced only by the hum of a light saber, and then the master fell. Smoke was rising from his chest like a taunting ghost of what once was the human's soul.
The other two masters, both human as well, drew their sabers. One had a staff light saber, while the other revealed dual sabers. Both alone would be challenge enough, but Syntarus couldn't help but feel the mortal danger looming over him. They lunged, locking sabers with Syntarus, and began to duel.
Clashing violently, the students watched with a mixture of fear and excitement, but this was short lived. As Syntarus weaved in and out of their range, trying to strike into an opening, the remains of a Sith Snow Fighter crashed through the tower, crushing a groups of students under its weight, and knocking the others down and over the stairs in a fiery explosion of metal.
The masters were caught off guard, and Syntarus was the first to recover. Being half mechanical, among many things, had given his reflexes an upgrade, and as such, he recovered from basic shock much faster than normal. He targeted the larger threat, the blonde woman who was weilding the staff light saber. In two strokes, he cut off the master's arms, and then decapitated her.
The other master whirled and blocked Syntarus' next strike, which most likely would have hit his neck as well. Their sabers were locked, and although they were evenly matched, the Darth could sense what the master was blind to. The second fighter of the squadron would soon crash into them much the same way the other had. He freed himself from the saber lock, and in a wide backflip, kicked the master's jaw hard enough to knock him back a few feet.
Before the Sith landed, the master was crushed as the fighter, sure enough, came smashing through the ceiling of the tower. The rest of the students were caught in the blaze, with some still alive. Syntarus' ears were filled with their screams of panic and agony as they burned, but he felt nothing for them. Using the force, he ended them by speeding up the fighter's remaining explosion, electrocuting its fuel cells. A massive mushroom shaped flame rose up out of the tower, causing it to collapse, and although he didn't want to, Syntarus needed to get out of the academy quickly.
Dashing through the mess hall, another fighter came crashing in, and this time nearly hit him. As he ran, it roared behind him, and he swore it was almost following him. The debris and smoke were beginning to spread, and eventually, the entire structure would be in flames. Finally reaching the end of the mess hall, he came to the massive blast door, sealed shut, and half way frozen. Dammit, he cursed in his mind, I don't have time for this...
Gathering the force, he blasted the door wide open with a powerful push, and jumped through. Just as his feet cleared the hole, the fighter smashed into it, and exploded wildly with a gust of flames. He hadn't noticed until just now that the reason this door had been locked was to prevent anyone going that way, and he was now in free fall. The cold winds of Hoth whipped past his face violently, and as he struggled to find a way to catch himself, the ground hurtled ever closer towards him.
xxxxxxx
Athaliah stood gazing over the Trandoshan's corpse, and had a slightly disappointed scowl on her face. All she had managed to pry from his animalistic mind were the words Hangar 32. This, she knew, was the place where the Trandoshan had last encountered the Inquisitor, but for how long he would remain was a mystery. She gently touched the scar on her cheek, letting her rage build slightly, then made her way out of the large room.
She had seen a mass of hangars spread across multiple levels of the facility, but one thing she'd recalled was the number of her own hangar: Dock 29. Without even realising it, she must have been only a few meters away from her target when she arrived. So that's how he knew, she thought to herself. It was now obvious that this was turning into a game of cat and mouse. The Inquisitor must have saw them land, and sent out a hunting party to track down whover had landed. Remembering the pack of Trandoshans who had captured her and Malik before, she knew there would be others.
Not to her surprise, she was cut off by yet another Trandoshan upon reentering the facility. He was a bit taller than her previous attacker, and much more muscular. A scar on his right eye had rendered it useless, but made him appear that much more menacing. Stepping back strategically, she drew her light saber and held it in front of her defensively.
"Young meat is not designated target," he growled in his native tongue, "but nonetheless, Kreetol will accept the small one's challenge. Scorekeeper will surely grant points for tiny one's defeat."
"I hate to break it to you, but your Scorekeeper doesn't exist," Athaliah replied with a smirk, "As you will soon discover for yourself."
Kreetol rushed forward, wielding a pair of baton-like electro sticks. Surprisingly, they clashed with Athaliah's saber and didn't fry as most weapons usually did. To match her surprise at his weapon's endurance, he was equally strong. She could see by the way he moved and dueled that she was not the first Sith he had faced. Leaping back, through the doors that led back to her docking bay outside, she threw her saber wide to the right. As if expecting it, Kreetol simply deflected it by slamming down hard, breaking the saber entirely to pieces.
Damn, she thought to herself, Malik won't be happy to hear about this. Feeling slightly more confident, Kreetol walked foorward menacingly, hissing and raising his sticks as if to crush her under his mighty strength. As he did so, she gathered what little force energy she could, and built it in her hands, collecting it into a mass of lightning.
"How sad," the Trandoshan hissed, "Only now does the small one understand the blessings of the Scorekeeper."
"I already told you," she replied in a dark tone, "your Scorekeeper is a LIE!"
As he began to slam his arms down, she fired the dark force lightning into his chest with explosive force. Though it was only a small amount that she was able to gather, the damage was nonetheless extensive, and the hulking Trandoshan was sent flying into the air with a powerful jolt. To any untrained eye, you'd think he was still alive as he hit the ground, but Athaliah could sense otherwise.
The moment he was knocked back, the hunter was dead. Walking calmly as Kreetol's dead body slumped to the ground next to her, she simply put up her hood, and flicked the remains of her saber into the stormy waters below. She had always been strong in the force, even at a young age, and this was her pursuer's downfall. She stepped into the facility, and made her way towards Hangar 32.
xxxxxxx
Malik had spent the majority of his time meditating, and gathering dark force energy. Though the time was not yet near for him and the Jedi to fight, he knew that he needed to be ready for when that time did come. He'd also sensed Athaliah's emotions and power in the nearby facility. Everything else had passed by like a blur, as if some veil had sped up time itself. What troubled him most were the visions he was having.
In his meditation, the force had reached out to him, showing him visions of pain and blurred images of screaming faces. He couldn't quite decipher them yet, but they seemed to strike him deep in his core. A few times, he'd lashed out with bursts of force lightning and even managed to damage the walls of the room he was in. It was an unsettling feeling of doom, but he merely ignored it. Just as he began to fall into a deep meditation once again, the commander interrupted his silence.
"M-milord," the commander began, "Forgive me, but we thought you might want to hear the transmission we've just received from Hoth."
Malik's eyes widened, and he reached out with the force. He saw Syntarus falling through the snow off a cliff, saw the destroyed fighters and the decimated Academy, and then he sensed something else. He couldn't be certain, but he swore that he could briefly feel the Jedi's presence on the planet itself.
"Show me," Malik said in a stern voice, and then followed the Commander to the main deck.
Malik took note of the entire crew working hard, scavenging on every frequency as if to find something out of place. As they made their way towards the main terminal, the Commander seemed unsettled. Finally, he stopped and brought up the holo message they had intercepted.
"We received this just moments ago," the Commander began, "We believe that the cause may be related to a small group of rebels, but we can't be certain."
"Play the message, Commander," Malik demanded.
With a nod, the Commander switched on the terminal, and as it hummed into life, a hologram began to form in the shape of a pilot's head.
"This is Delta Shadow 1," the pilot shouted in a panicked, static covered voice, "We've engaged...rogue ship, but it's...faster than anything...ever seen. Not sure how... can last. If anyone...this message, report...high command."
The message was lost, and the final playback of sound echoed in what seemed to be an explosion. Malik's vision seemed to be accurate, and he stormed off to the hangar, making his way to the ship. The Commander followed him with haste, and as Malik entered his fighter, he glared down at the man trembling with fear.
"When my Apprentice returns, she will be in command while I am gone," Malik began, "I am going to Hoth, and will return when I have finished there. You are not to leave this planet under any circumstances."
The Commander merely nodded and watched as Malik's fighter roared into life, and then went roaring out of the ship's hangar bay. He reached out, sensing that his assassin was in danger, and as he left the Kamino's orbit, blasted off into hyper space.
xxxxxxx
Upon entering Hoth's frozen surface, Willow's ship had been attacked on sight. She took note of how fast their response times were, and realised they must have already been pursuing another ship. She'd had no choice but to knock them out of the sky. Not only was her ship faster, but her high velocity cannons had been upgraded multiple times, and thus her ship was superior in every way. What none of them seemed to notice was Dakriel's reaction to the burning academy.
He'd awoken recently, just in time to strap himself in as they weaved in and out of blaster fire, and was feeling the mass of death inside the academy. Xenos was the first to notice his reaction, and rushed over to help him. Dakriel was now screaming as if in agony, and Xenos flooded his body with light force energy. Xenos could feel it as well, but he was more accustomed to it. As Dakriel hadn't had any training, things like this would constantly affect him this way.
"What's wrong with him," Willow shouted as they dodged the final Sith Fighter's blaster fire.
"He's reacting to the dark force energy of the Academy, we need to land," Xenos shouted over Dakriel's screams.
"Gonna be kind of difficult," Willow replied as they dove down in a spiral.
Without realising it, they whizzed past Darth Syntarus, barely missing him, but the pursuing fighter didn't do as well. Syntarus felt the immense force energy flowing from the Raven's Claw, and took advantage of the Sith fighter roaring after them. He reached out with the force, catching its wing, and used his metallic claws to latch on.
Though the intense speed was almost overwhelming, it beat dying any day. Slowly, he clawed his way towards the cockpit. The pilot was completely oblivious to the monster just outside his window, and as he pursued the rogue ship as best he could, Syntarus smashed a clawed hand into the cockpit, impaling the pilot's shoulder.
"Excuse me," he began, "But would you mind moving over?"
Ripping the pilot through the glass covering and tossing him away with ease, he climbed into the cockpit and strapped himself in. Only Xenos had felt the disturbance, but was too focussed on Dakriel to pay any attention. As both ships roared through the blizzard, Willow focussed on getting further and further away from the academy. Finally, Dakriel was able to calm down, and collapsed from a lack of energy.
"What happened," Willow demanded in a panicked tone, "Is he okay? What's wrong?"
"He's fine," Xenos replied with a pant as he sat down, "but I fear we have much bigger problems."
Syntarus glared, reaching out with the force, and locked on to their ship. There was no doubt that he had indeed sensed a Jedi, and should he let them escape, Malik would have his head. The fighters roared through the ice filled winds of Hoth's frozen surface, and Syntarus locked onto them with extreme difficulty. Just as they rolled to the left in a wide swirl, he followed and took advantage of their opening. He fired twice, and hit a fuel cell dead on.
It hadn't been enough to permanently damage them, but he'd severely crippled the ship, and they would soon have to land. Smirking inside his helmet, he merely followed them until the dark, sleek Raven's Claw was forced to land. He followed suit, and waited. He could sense multiple life forms in the ship, but he was only here for the Jedi.
"Dammit," Willow shouted in a furious roar, "We're grounded until I get that fixed."
"Don't worry," Xenos replied, "If he wanted to fry us he already would have."
"Don't worry? Don't worry," Willow shouted incredulously, "He's fried my fuel cells, not only are we grounded, we're about to run out of heat. If I don't get that fixed, we're dead anyway!"
"Well then you'd better get to it," Xenos said as he opened the ships ramp and made his way outside into the blistering cold.
Syntarus smirked, finally getting a look at the Jedi he'd sensed, and jumped out of the cockpit's gaping hole. With a few flips, he landed perfectly, drawing his saber, and walking towards the Jedi.
"So," he said in a mechanical voice, "After all this time, a Jedi has finally emerged."
"So I take it you're not surprised," Xenos replied, drawing his saber as well, "Guess you knew the Sith could never truly reign forever."
"If there's anything I've learned in my time as a Sith," the Darth retorted, "It's that nothing lasts forever. At least the Sith weren't the first to die out."
With that, Xenos lunged forward, clashing with Syntarus violently. While he did not use his dark emotions, Xenos was still just as powerful as he'd always been. Syntarus could feel this as they dueled, and did well to avoid being sliced in half. His data was constantly reading inconclusive, and he took notice that Xenos constantly fluctuated between defensive and offensive strategies. They both flourished in the snow, with only their sabers being visible to anyone watching, and clashed in the blistering cold.
As Xenos pushed Syntarus back with crushing blows and flourishes, the two warriors deflected and struck out simultaneously. There was something off about this assassin, and Xenos sensed much more than just him holding back. It was faint, but there was a subtle conflict within him. Mistaking this for a conflict of morality, Xenos flipped backwards, and withdrew his saber.
"I can sense your uncertainty," Xenos began, "There is conflict within you."
"You fool," Syntarus growled as he lunged at Xenos violently, "The only conflict is deciding how I wish to kill you!"
Their sabers clashed with high intensity, with Xenos drawing his saber seconds before the impact, and he realised that there was no way he would win. This machine, whoever it once was, had become a hollow shell of hatred and darkness. He could also sense that his moves were being read, and studied, and knew that he would soon be overwhelmed. His only hope was to end the battle here, and now.
"I've done it," Willow shouted from her ship's ramp, "I fixed the fuel cells!"
Xenos felt a slight hint of relief flow through him, and as he and the assassin remained locked, he noticed that they were dangerously close to the Sith fighter Syntarus had hijacked. Without hesitating, Xenos kicked the Darth back hard, and then lifted his fighter above him. Landing hard in the thick snow, Syntarus tried to dodge by dashing towards Xenos, but it was too late. With a massive quake that shook the ground around them, the fighter came crashing down on Syntarus heavily, and knocked the saber from his hand.
Xenos watched for a moment, as the only visible part of the assassin's body, his arm, twitched as if struggling with the massive weight above it, and then went limp. A silence fell over the air for a moment, with the only sound coming from the blizzards of Hoth, and Xenos stared for a moment. That could've been me, he thought sympathetically, just a shell of anger and power. Xenos made his way inside the Raven's Claw, deep in thought, and strapped himself in.
"You alright," Willow asked in a calm tone, but Xenos said nothing.
Dakriel seemed to be feeling better, but the three of them barely made a sound. Taking off into the air, the ship dashed into Hoth's orbital field, and then into hyper space. Setting the coördinates, Xenos intended for them to reach Kamino, and they set off.
xxxxxxx
Malik's ship finally came out of hyper space, and descended to the planet's surface below. As he flew past the decimated Hoth Academy, taking note of the damaged structure, and the flames that still burnt fresh in the snowy breeze, he flew for a few killometers past the steep cliff to the south. He was not surprised to sense the mass of lifelessness that had once been the stench of death. His visions had already shown him what was to become of the Hoth Academy, and thus he felt no remorse for the lost lives.
Ahead he saw the wreckage of a Sith fighter in the snow, smoking slightly, and descended. He could barely sense Darth Syntarus's presence under the mass of metal and glass, and using the force, he hurled the ship off of him carefully. As he looked down in anger, he saw that the assassin had lost both his legs, and had one side of his torso ripped open, revealing a cluster of bones and intestines.
He was both concerned and disgusted at the sight of the Darth's mangled body, but nonetheless brought him aboard his ship for repairs. He wasn't done with his assassin just yet, and despite the tremendous pain it would cause, he would revive the Sith Assassin once more. While the medical probes sought to Syntarus' corpse, Malik set his coördinates for Kamino, and took off into the stars. He now had no doubt that the Jedi had been here, and his lust for revenge was growing ever stronger, seething like a rising flame inside of him.
Good, the dark side hissed in his mind, only with our anger can we track down and defeat this Jedi...Only as one can we destroy the light once and for all...