Chapter 24: Fleeing the scene

I shake my head, what the fuck did I just read? Was this really the Sith's plan, what am I thinking, of course it is. While Revan wasn't a nice Sith, he understood the need to keep the societies he conquered alive. No point being a ruler if everyone you ruled is dead. But this plan with Malek, it didn't matter to him as long as he had complete control of the Kolto distribution.

The slaughter of innocents, the morphing of Alto City into a base for Kolto and training of recruits for the Sith army, but worst of all. The extinction of the Selkath entirely, genocide. This is what Malak truly is, a monster. The galaxy would have been a better place with Revan was still in charge, but after the Jedi changed Revan into Jax, I'm not sure what to do anymore. But whatever it is, I need to talk to Bastilia about what actually happened to Revan, what they did to his mind.

I exit the room, and see only Katarina standing up surrounded by the bodies of the others in the room. She looks over to me and shrugs "Whatever happened, it wasn't my fault. I was knighting him, when I may have slipped and taken his head off"

I let out a quiet chuckle at Katarina's bashful, and admittedly playful, excuse as to why she was surrounded by bodies. "Shit happens I suppose. But in all seriousness, we've gotta make tracks" I say, holding up the datapad "Jax will want to read this, I'll explain in later but what is important is we get out of here as soon as possible"

"Well, I suppose we need to pick up Mission before we regroup with Jax" she says, and I nod my head. Mission and HK-47 were sitting in the control room keeping everything organised. We leave the room and make our way back to the control room and the shuttle.

"Mission" says Jax over the radio "We're at the shuttle right now, has Jason and Katarina come back yet?" he asks

"No, they haven't. They entered an area where the camera's where shutdown, I assume they are in a radio dead-zone" the Twi'lek replied. I let out a quiet laugh as I open the elevator and Katarina gets in, and I follow her in.

"We're on our way back Mission" says Katarina into the radio "We managed to get something big, we'll show you guys when we get back to the Hawk"

"Roger that…Wait, Shit! Jax, get out of there now!" Mission's voice changes into shouting, and my blood starts to pump up. What was happening that was causing such a panic?

"Mission, what is it?" Asks Jax, asking the question that most of us are asking in our heads.

"It's the Selkath, they're entering the base! They're moving with war droids towards the hanger, they must know you're there"

Wait, what? The Selkath authorities were in the base? The Sith must have made an alarm and now they were coming in for 'peace'. But how do they know it's the hanger? Wait, the cameras would be hack-able?

"Mission! Disable the camera's now, they are using the Camera's to find us. Katarina and I will make our way to you, and we'll break our way out of here" I command over the radio, hoping she obeys without questioning me. "Jax, I'm afraid there is no escape. Just don't resist and you'll be ok, we'll find a way to break out you, I promise"

"Just worry about getting out of here, I can worry about the Selkath courts" was his reply right as his radio turns off.

The elevator door opens, and I start running towards the command bay. We needed to get out before the Selkath set up a proper perimeter. It was a short run thankfully, and I soon find myself outside the room. Opening the door, I find myself looking down the barrel of HK's Rifle.

"Jason! I'm so grateful it's you. The Selkath have taken Jax and the others, we need to escape before we get caught too" Mission says. I let out a small sigh, before nodding.

"Stay behind me and Katarina, we'll clear the path. HK, if you spot any Selkath that sees you, you have permission to kill them" I order the pair, before putting the hood of my robes on. I am near certain that we'll run into at least 1 team of Selkath, and if they can't see our faces, the better. I glance over to Katarina, who has also put her hood on.

Katarina moves down one of the halls, and I follow her. She was making good progress, moving from hall to hall without being spotted. We'd managed to get close to the door; after all, Mission's hideout wasn't too far away from the main exit.

Katarina and I turn the corner, entering the final office where the door was. Freedom! That's when I spot the 5 War Droids and 3 Selkath with blasters next to the door. All of them turn to face us, and silence consumes the room for several moments, as if a spell was cast on us.

"Engage them!" I yell, activating my Lightsaber, and the red blade ignites. I charge forwards as I hear the ignition of Katarina's lightsaber. I raise my blade as the droids open fire, but I use my blade to deflect the shots.

Deflecting the blaster shots of enemies was simple really, but it required fast reflect, something all Force-Sensitive's have. You watch the bolt, and track the shots line. If you're in it, then you move your lightsaber to intercept it. A simple principle really, and one that meant that gave Lightsabers their power on the battlefield. It means it's near impossible to get shot.

I get right next to the droid, and with a swing of my blade, the droid came in half. Continuing the arch of my blade, I connect with another droid and the Selkath, cutting him in half. I look around the white room, now only Katarina and myself alive in it, having dispatched everyone in the area. I press the button on my hilt, my blade returning into my hilt. I wave Mission and HK-47 in, and they enter the elevator where Katarina waits. I make my way to them, and the elevator door slams shut.

Outside the noises of the elevator, it is silent. I look at the others, Mission Vao, Katarina Lubot and HK-47. Katarina….

What is it about her that made me trust her? Sure, she's attractive physically; she's got a smoking hot body. Curvy, beautiful pale skin, eyes like emerald. But it's more than that, hell; her physicals looks are nothing to why I trust her. The reality hits closer to home than I like to admit.

Both betrayed by the Sith in our own ways and wanting Darth Malek dead, we both wield the Dark Side of the Force, and yet we're fighting to help the Jedi. I suspect the main difference is I willingly joined Darth Revan's Sith after the Mandalorian War, while Katarina. I don't actually know why or how Katarina joined up with the Sith, but I should ask her about that some time. She accepted me as a Sith without question, and we've fought together well. Perhaps it's simply a battle bond as they called it, where after fighting enough times with someone, you can develop a bond on the battlefield…

That has to be it…Aww, fuck it, why am I trying to fool myself? I'm developing a crush on Katarina…Fuck, why now of all times? Sure, she's nice, cute and such, but we're in the middle of breaking out of a Sith base with the Selkath authorities while the rest of the crew was under arrest and will eventually face trial. If there was a worse time to realize I had a crush on my ally, I'd have to find out. At least the crush I'd formed with Amanda Gomez back on Taris was during lifeless patrols, but here was a bad time.

"Jason!" I hear Mission yelling at me "We've gotta get going! Come on!" I shake my head, realizing the elevator door had opened and they were waiting on me. Shit! I must have been too deep in thought to notice the door opening. I exit the elevator, and we slowly walk away from the base, thankful that the Selkath haven't actually deployed any units outside the base. We speed walk our way through the white corridors of Alto City until we make our way into the Ebon Hawk.

"This is a disaster! Everyone has been captured except us, and I doubt we can break in and get them free" says Mission once we'd all rallied in the main hold. There were 4 of us now, and we needed to rescue the others…somehow.

"HK, can you do some scanning of the holonet for us? We need to figure out how the Manaan court cases go, anything to help Jax out" says Katarina, much to my surprise. The Manaan legal system was pretty basic compared to a lot of others, humans were overly complicated.

"No need, I've been here enough times to know how it works. It's pretty basic when you compare it to others, all you have to do is prove your innocence through any means you have. No need to give witness testimonies like in human courts, meaning Jax has just gotta prove what he did was to help the Selkath government"

"Statement. Jax found the Selkath children in the base, it would be a good assumption that this information would make the Selkath government release Jax and the fellow crew members" says HK-47. I turn to the droid slightly surprised, no meat bag comment? No plan to kill the government? Is this really HK-47 or an imposter?

"Declaration. Of course, we could always commence a full frontal assault and break them out. Eager Threat. I have always wanted to break so many laws at once, may we do it?" finished the assassin droid. That's the HK-47 I know, and while his plan could be entertaining in some ways, we needed to stay on Manaan in order to find the Star Map.

"No, that wouldn't work. But remember that Datapad you found Jason? Didn't you say that could help?" says Katarina, and she is right. But there is something more to it, I'm sure of that.

"Yeah, but there is multiple files on here and I think having a copy of them might be a good call. I'm going to just make a quick copy, then you can take it to Jax" I say, holding the datapad in my hand lazily. Both Mission and Katarina nod their head, and I take my leave to the crew quarters.

I grab another datapad I have, and a few cords. Plugging them in, I activate a transmission system so all data from the Sith datapad copied onto my own. It would only take a few minutes, but there was a little something I needed to do before I gave Katarina the datapad.

The data on this pad, the one revolving around the genocide of the Selkath, I haven't actually got all its data since it is partly encrypted meaning I would need time to break in it, plus having another card to play isn't a bad thing. I hook up the datapads, and start a memory swap, taking only the data relating to the Sith plan to overthrow the government. Once it was completed, I picked up the datapad, and started to make my way back to Katarina and the others.

I shake my head, the data I haven't decoded yet covered Genocide, I knew that much. The code on the opening page read the very codes that Revan had set all those years ago. But that brings me back to the original question, of why. Why would Malek order a form of genocide? So much about this didn't make sense to me, and yet in some weird way, that's why it makes sense. So much about Malek didn't make sense to me, his betrayal of Darth Revan at the top of the list.

I enter the main hall, and throw the datapad at Katarina, who catches it with the force and pulling it into her hand. I nod my head, as if to confirm the data was on there.

"It's all there, the encoded data that talks about the theft of the Selkath and the plan to put them in positions of authority, giving the Sith control over Manaan and its Kolto supply. Take it to Jax, it'll hopefully get him out of the cells" I say, before turning around back towards the crew quarters.

"Aren't you going to come with us?" Asks Katarina, and I shake my head.

"Na, I'm sure you can get Jax and the others free. Besides, there are a few things I need to meditate on. Trust me, it's nothing really, just something I need to do" I reply, continuing my walk into the crew chambers. If Katarina did reply, I didn't hear it. I needed to concentrate for now, because I needed to ask myself many questions. Many questions about the force, about the nature of the Sith.

I must know if the force, the Dark Side, really can corrupt the mind of a person and twist them, like Malek is twisted. Because, if it is true, then myself and Katarina face a terrible fate.

A truly terrible fate that could destroy the Jedi.