Author's notes: Roll up, roll up! Last Tarisian chapter, people! Extra, extra, read all about it! The planet of Taris is officially finished! Darth Malak orders full-scale bombardment to get Jedi Bastila Shan! Darth Revan & co. escape! Extra! Extra!

Dark Lord Daishi – Not to worry, not to worry. Here's another chapter.

Brynn – (takes a bow) Thank you. I always appreciate encouragement. By the way, I never liked the mind-wipe either. A brainwashed Sith Lord – I could never understand why the Jedi didn't give Revan a chance for normal redemption. I mean, even Vader could be redeemed, why not Revan?

X X X

Chapter 8 – Eclipse

X X X

Far above Taris, a Sith flagship slowly orbited the planet. The bridge was filled with Sith officers and troopers. A lone figure, taller than the others, watched the Outer Rim world without much interest. There was nothing worth his time on the insignificant planet bellow. If the fleet wasn't so incompetent, he wouldn't have to waste time here. Unfortunately, Bastila managed to escape the Republic cruiser alive and crash land on the planet. So far, she had avoided all detection. Could she have achieved that alone? The corrupt world of Taris still had a connection to the Force, because of traces from the past. A strong and familiar presence… the remains of her strength from the times she visited it were in this world. It was one of the reasons why he didn't land on the planet and remained on the flagship orbiting it.

A Sith officer, clearly an important one, slowly walked towards the figure.

"You summoned me, Lord Malak?" the man asked, not without fear.

The Dark Lord of the Sith continued to watch the planet. "The search for Bastila is taking too long. We cannot risk her escaping Taris. Destroy the entire planet!"

"Th…the entire planet, Lord Malak?" the Admiral stuttered. "But there are billions of people on Taris! We'd be slaughtering countless innocent civilians, not to mention our own men, still on the surface."

This wasn't cowardice, this was a fact. But it seemed the other way around to the Sith Lord.

Malak finally turned to face the Admiral. A mask covered half of his face, for medical reasons. Since he was clad in a blood red bodysuit with streams of a black fabric coming out of the belt and was wearing a black half cape, the paleness of his skin seemed nearly corpse like. His eyes were filled with hatred and perhaps even disgust. They have lost their natural color long ago, replaced by the metallic gold showing the darkness underneath.

"Your predecessor once made the mistake of questioning my orders, Admiral. Surely you are not so foolish as to make the same, mistake?" Malak growled dangerously. The warning seemed more like a threat.

Compete or die. Mercy is irrelevant. Malak ignored the female voice he remembered saying that, as he did most of the time. The Admiral backed away in fear.

"Of…of course not, my Lord Malak. I will do as you command. But it will take several hours to position our fleet…"

"Then I suggest you begin immediately!" Malak snapped. "You are dismissed, Admiral."

"Yes, Lord Malak."

The Dark Lord returned to watching the planet. Something…maybe a slight disturbance in the Force, made him think that there was more than one good reason for doing this.

X X X

Davik´s estate was certainly impressive, to say at least. Revan followed Canderous to see the crime lord himself. She had a bad feeling. Not about the plan. It was something else, something she couldn't place. Like a suspicion that something was going to happen and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

Davik met them with the bounty hunter Calo Nord. It was obvious that the bounty hunter seemed wary in her presence, although he had no reason to. They were only here to steak Davik´s ship, after all.

"So, Canderous, I see you've brought someone with you…most intriguing, if I do say so myself. You usually travel alone." Davik noted.

His comment made Calo Nord smirk. "It's not like you to take on partners, Canderous. You're getting soft." He jeered.

"Watch it, Calo. You may be the newest kath hound in the pack, but you sure aren't top dog yet." Such words from an angry Mandalorian would frighten almost everyone. Luckily, Davik stepped into the fight.

"Enough! I won't have my top two men killing each other – that's not good business. I'm sure Canderous has an explanation why he doesn't travel solo anymore."

"This is a special case, Davik. I ran into someone the Exchange might want to recruit. You've seen some of her escapades already."

The crime lord looked at Revan and a smile crossed his face. "Ah, yes. Now I recognize your companion. The rider who won the big swoop race. Very impressive, as was your display in the rather heated battle afterwards."

"Good to finally meet you, Davik. I'm Alexa Denali." Revan said, taking his hand. Instead of shaking it, he kissed her fingers lightly. She smiled at that. At least someone knew tact.

"Pleased to meet you, miss Denali. You know, Canderous was right. The Exchange is always looking for new talent. Someone with your abilities could have a bright future in our organization. Many would kill to prove themselves worthy of this honor!"

Revan smiled politely. "Your offer intrigues me."

"Come with me – I will take you for a tour of my operations. I'm certain you will find them most interesting…" he offered her an arm, which she accepted, taking her deeper into the estate.

XXX

The operations were exactly what she expected them to be – smuggling, spice labs and of course, the Ebon Hawk. And that was not even the entire estate.

Davik led the group into the guest quarters.

"These will be your accommodations. The slave quarters are just down the hall. If you ever need anything – food, a massage – feel free to call upon their services. You will stay in these rooms as my guest for the next few days. I will not accept no for an answer. I must warn you, that if you're found outside the guest quarters during your stay or if you disturb my other guests, my security guards will deal with you most harshly. Come, Calo. Let us leave our guests to talk."

Davik exited the room, the bounty hunter close behind him. Canderous and Revan waited a few minutes after the footsteps vanished.

"Okay, we're inside. Now all we have to do is disable the security around the Ebon Hawk and then steal it. No sense waiting here, though. The sooner we get off Taris, the better!"

Revan nodded and drew her vibroblade, just in case. First, she went to check out the slave quarters – there's no telling what the guests might have slipped.

"Welcome to the slave quarters, mistress." a male slave said, as soon as Revan walked into the room, "Here we have succulent fruits and berries to tempt your palette, as well as luxurious baths to soothe your aches and pains. Would you like a relaxing massage, mistress? Whatever your desire, we are here to serve."

"Heh. Now this is my kind of place." Canderous noted, grinning and eying the female slaves.

Revan thought for a moment, then approached one of the female slaves.

"I need information." Fear flashed through the slave's aura. Revan figured that she thought that Revan was working for Davik and punished disobedient slaves. "If you tell me what you can, he'll tell Davik how pleased he was with your performance." Revan added, pointing over her shoulder at Canderous. He glared at her, and even though she didn't see it, she pushed away a smile. "One is weakest when in pleasure. Surely your overheard something."

Nervously, the woman glanced at the other slaves, then nodded, "Praise from the guests is a valuable commodity here. Davik rewards the slaves who perform their duties well. I will tell you what I know. Davik rarely lets us leave the slave quarters. We only know what we hear from Davik's guests. Recently they've all been talking about poor Hudrow. He was caught trying to steal some spice from the lab. Normally Hudrow is allowed to get away with things like that because he's Davik's personal pilot for the Ebon Hawk. But since the Sith have grounded every ship on the planet, Hudrow doesn't get anymore special treatment. They've locked him up in Davik's torture chambers."

"Where is the torture chamber?" Revan asked.

"I think you can get there through the hall behind the west door of Davik's throne room." she answered, obviously uncertain. Revan assumed the woman was never there and had no wish to go there. "Just keep going west from the slave quarters and you'll see the throne room. But Davik's certain to have guards patrolling the area. If you leave the guest wing, they'll shoot you on sight. Please - I don't know anything else."

Revan nodded curtly. "That's more than enough. Thanks." She turned on her heel and walked out of the slave quarters and through the guest wing, only to find the throne room filled with corpses. Blaster fire was heard from the north and a minute later, Canderous emerged from the very same direction.

"Having fun?" Revan asked.

"Nothing interesting there." He said with a shrug. "Any luck with the slaves?" A hushed scream reached them from the direction of the torture chamber. Revan smirked.

"Yeah. Follow the screaming to the Ebon Hawk pilot."

With the instructions from the slaves and the screaming sounds, it wasn't difficult to find the torture chamber.

Lucky for them, no guards were patrolling the corridors and Davik and Calo Nord were nowhere to be seen. Spotting a lonely Trandosian bounty hunter on the corridor, the "intruders" swiftly killed him and found what they were looking for in his remains – a pass card to every console and door in the estate.

When they opened the torture chamber, they had to destroy two "medical" droids to release the captive, even though Revan would prefer to turn up the tortures to max. Revan was able to tune out his babbling except for the important part – he had the codes to the hangar security, uploaded them into her datapad and she punched him hard in the face, knocking him out.

"We got what we came for." Canderous said. "Let's move." Revan briefly nodded.

Now it was only a matter of stealing the ship before anyone notices them. Revan sliced a

security console and disabled the hangar security. Mere feet before the hangar doors, the whole estate seemed to shake because of an explosion. Canderous quickly opened the doors.

The hangar was being bombed.

"Damn those Sith – there bombing the whole planet!" Davik and Calo Nord emerged from the other side of the hangar.

"I knew they'd turn on us sooner or…well, look what we've got here!" Davik spotted them. "Thieves in the hangar!" It seemed as if the bombing had stopped for those few moments.

"So, you figured you'd just steal my ship for your get-away and leave me high and dry while the Sith turn the planet into dust? Sorry, but that ain´t gonna happen!"

"I'll take care of them, Davik. I've been looking forward to this for a long time." Calo Nord grew two Mandalorian heavy blasters.

A ruby red lightsaber flashed to life.

"You overestimate yourselves, gentlemen." Revan said, as calm as ever. Davik´s eyes widened, but he said nothing. Canderous eyed the lightsaber warily, but seemed pleasantly surprised. The only reaction from Calo Nord was fast blaster fire. Revan deflected the shots aimed at her, covering the Mandalorian as well. Canderous fired several shots at the bounty hunter as well. Another explosion reminded them what was happening. Davik didn't see it coming and that was his last mistake.

Calo Nord realized he was alone and panicked. He pulled out a shiny object.

"You may have me outnumbered and outgunned, but if I'm going down, I'm taking all of you with me." He sneered. "This thermal detonator will blow us all to bits."

Revan merely tightened her grip around her weapon. She didn't have to, however. The next explosion was even bigger.

"Damn those Sith – they'll bring this whole hangar down around our ears!" Calo shouted.
He screamed as the metal part of the ceiling fell down. He didn't have a chance to dodge. With the bounty hunter out of their way, Revan and Canderous quickly stripped what they could from Davik and ran to the ship.

"Let's get this ship fired up! We'll pick up your friends and then we'll have to get off this planet!"

Quickly dashing to the cockpit, they took the pilot seats and flied the ship out of the estate hangar, landing in the skyscraper complex. The rest of their group was already uneasily expecting them. Once Revan called them inside, Carth took up the controls, Bastila becoming the copilot.

X X X

The Leviathan moved into a battle-ready position. Hours have passed since Malak gave out the order to destroy the planet. The Sith fleet was in position and awaiting further orders. Admiral Saul Karath returned to inform the Dark Lord of the situation. He bowed his head.

"Taris is defenseless against our assault, Lord Malak. They are offering no resistance. The city is in ruins." He said, slightly sadly.

The Sith Lord observed the doomed planet. Soon, there would be no one standing in his way.

"Resume the bombardment, commander." Malak replied, his voice cold and ruthless, as usual. "Wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy!"

X X X

The laser cannons of the Sith ships were bombing the whole planet. They weren't trying to destroy the planet itself, they were trying to kill everything on the surface. The tall skyscrapers of Taris were burning and falling. Every creature was desperately trying to find a hiding place. It was no use.

The Ebon Hawk took off with difficulties and tried to avoid the bombs and cannon fire. As it broke through the Sith blockade, several snub fighters followed it.

Inside the escaping vessel, Revan was standing behind the pilot seats. Carth and Bastila were doing their best to get them off the planet alive.

"They're bombing the planet." Revan frowned. "Guess Malak lost patience… as usual."

"Incoming fighters!" Carth reported.

"I'm on it." Revan curtly said, bolting from the cockpit and immediately climbing the metallic ladder to the gun turrets.

Calling upon the Force to give her sight, she destroyed the fighters, one by one. Within minutes, all that was visible was the now lifeless planet of Taris, and the Sith fleet orbiting it. Then the ship made the hyperspace jump and Revan exhaled loudly. They were safe.