EPISODE II
Chapter 7: The Return
One week has passed since the Battle of Onderon, and now, Zolph Vaelor, Grein and Hiriss Moraana have been dispatched to Kashyyyk, the homeworld of the Wookiees, where they are to repel the Valkoran and Kur'Ada forces stationed on the planet and to eliminate the Forceless Archfiend, Harphscor.
After a few hours of travelling through hyperspace, the Blazing Manta entered the Kashyyyk system, where the Alliance and Valkoran fleet – teamed with the Kur'Ada fleet - were engaged in combat.
"We're here." Grein alerted her crew, and they came into the cockpit.
"So, this is Kazook?" Zolph asked.
Hiriss then slapped Zolph in the face.
"Ow! What did I do?!"
"It's either pronounced Kuh-sheek or Cash-ick." Hiriss answered him. "And don't reference that. Ever. Especially once we're on the planet's surface."
"I know! I was just having fun with you!"
Grein then interrupted their conversation. "If you two kids are done roasting laughably bad Imperial propaganda films, we've got a mission to carry out." She then pointed towards the viewport. "And you should see this."
Away from the Manta, the Kur'Ada fleet was attacking the Valkoran fleet.
"Called it!" Zolph blurted.
"So the Kur'Ada have turned on the Valks. Now it's time to see if they're switching sides or not." Hiriss stated before she spotted a Hatchet-class gunship destroying an Alliance Corellian gunship.
"Okay. You know that saying 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'? The Kur'Ada apparently think it's ronto dung due to their philosophy on ethnic cleansing towards Force sensitives and their supporters. But at the very least, this does make things a bit easier for us."
Grein spouted out an idea. "Since the Valks are preoccupied with the Kur'Ada's betrayal, we can sneak down to the surface and deal with Harphscor. But first, we'll make our plans in Rwookrrorro."
Zolph asked with her curiosity. "How is that spelled?"
"You can drive yourself insane trying spell Shyriiwook words later, when we're not in a warzone."
The Blazing Manta then flew past the battling fleets and entered Kashyyyk's atmosphere.
After carefully navigating past many Wroshyr trees, the Manta docked on a tree-supported landing platform not far from Rwookrrorro, the capital city of Kashyyyk.
Exiting the vessel, the three Jedi were greeted by a Wookiee lookout guard. Despite the species' simple speech pattern consisting solely of grunts, they could understand him clearly, and not only because Jedi tend to pick up new languages quickly. Zolph had been to the lust forest planet before, back when he was travelling the galaxy with his parents; Grein once knew a smuggler with a Wookiee companion back on Sleheyron; and finally, Hiriss just picked it up from one of two Wookiee students at the academy, and Force-sensitive Wookiees were incredibly rare.
"I assume you three are the Jedi that Master Skywalker sent?" The guard asked them.
"You assume correctly," Zolph answered, "although Grein's ambiguously a Jedi."
"If the blue one has a lightsaber and Force powers and is on our side, that's good enough. Anyway, our chieftain, General Choi, and Colonel G'jan await you in the conference hall."
"Lead the way." Hiriss told the guard, and three Jedi followed him.
As they walked through Rwookrrorro, they witnessed other Wookiees fighting off what was left of a Kur'Ada attack force, but the Miralukas were no match for the hairy ten-foot tall warriors. They even witnessed one Kur'Ada warrior getting his helmet thrown off, then having his photoreceptor violently torn from his eye sockets and being thrown off the treetop platform and into the Shadowlands below.
Inside the conference hall, which is currently doubling as a war room, the three Jedi met up with General Ven Choi, Colonel Birik G'Jan and the elderly Wookiee chieftain, Attichitcuk. Thankfully, the latter wasn't anywhere near as unintentionally horrifying as the costumes from the propaganda film made him out to be. But what surprised the three was that headmaster Luke Skywalker was there too.
"Wasn't expecting to see you here, Master Skywalker." Zolph told him.
"Well, I can't be sitting in the academy all the time. Besides, I thought this would be the perfect time for me to get some more experience with one of the Forceless after a while… provided we actually encounter the Archfiend." Luke told him.
"So we might actually get to see Skywalker fight some ancient alien monster for the first time."
General Choi then spoke. "I'm sure you noticed the infighting between the Kur'Ada and the Valkoran on the way down here?"
"Yep." Hiriss answered him.
"That gives us only a slight advantage since the Kur'Ada still aren't helping us, but at least they aren't helping the Valks either." Zolph explained.
"Exactly." Choi replied. "Anyway, we've already gained intel reports on some Valkoran staging grounds, and we figured out where Harphscor's summoning temple may be."
Suddenly, one of the troopers in the room – a veteran from the Battle of Polus - had a brief panic attack when he noticed Hiriss and pointed his blaster at her, causing Zolph to activate his lightsaber in her defense. After getting a good look at Hiriss, he lowered his guard and Zolph deactivated his saber.
"Someone's a bit jumpy today." Zolph told the trooper.
"Forgive me, Commander Vaelor. For a second, I thought the Mirialan was someone else."
"I can't blame ya, when I first heard and saw Hiriss, I thought she was…" Zolph then slightly got defensive with the trooper. "Do you have against something against Dynn Manthis?"
"Nothing sir, but please don't forget that she was with the Valks."
"I haven't forgotten."
General Choi then interrupted. "Actually, there's something all of you must know. Early in the war, I secretly assigned Manthis to infiltrate the Valkoran Empire, get as close and learn as much about them as possible, even if it meant switching sides. Unfortunately, this was before we realized this war was about paranormal creatures that could possess the living, and she stopped contacting us around the time she got the Forceless arm grafted on her. So I feel partially as responsible for her fate as you do, Vaelor."
"I don't blame you for her transformation. None of us could have seen that coming. But I still wish you told me and Hiriss about her being a double agent sooner."
"As much as much I hate keeping secrets, especially after a similar incident with the old Jedi Council during the Clone War, I couldn't afford to blow her cover. But now that she's passed on, that cover is pointless now, and considering how much grief her death caused you and that her cousin is here, I felt the need to let you know about this."
"And you're telling us this now because…?"
"I haven't seen you since Dagobah, and at that time, you were still trying to deny that your incident with her ever happened. I could sense your anguish then, but I didn't know what it was about."
"Right."
The briefly-panicked soldier then addressed both Zolph and Hiriss. "You two were that close to her? I'm sorry about my earlier behavior."
"And I'm sorry about getting defensive towards you." Zolph responded back.
Colonel G'Jan then interrupted the moment. "Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to interrupt this sentimental discussion, but we've still got a campaign to finish."
Choi then thanked the Bith. "Thanks for getting me back on track, Colonel." He then activated the holoprojector table and displayed a hologram of a tower sitting on an island. "Anyway, the Valkoran seem to have been busy around Kachirho and this island, kilometers away from the Wawaatt Archipelago, and according to some ancient Wookiee historical texts provided by Attichitcuk, that tower is an alien lighthouse of some sorts."
Zolph responded to the intel. "Don't tell me: Rakata, right?"
Grein then answered him. "Yes. In fact, they're responsible for the overgrowth of Kashyyyk's forests."
Suddenly, Besh Squad member Spectre entered the conference hall, just having gotten back from a scouting mission. She quickly greeted Zolph and his allies. "Hello Zolph. And Grein, and Hiriss Moraana if I'm not mistaken."
General Choi then spoke to the Kyuzo scout. "Spectre? Where is the rest of your squad?"
"They're catching up. Xad sent me back first to give you a heads-up that there is a Valkoran attack force heading for Rwookrrorro."
The Kel Dor general then sounded the alarm. "ALL TROOPS, BATTLESTATIONS!"
Zolph, speaking from experience, asked the general. "If the battles of Manaan and Dagobah are anything to go by, I guess we can expect them to be coming in from the forest floor?"
"We can also expect air drops, even if the foliage covers up potential landing zones. In terms of forces, we can only expect infantry, light vehicles and gunships."
"What about plasma weapon technology? Wouldn't that cause a planet-sized forest fire?"
"They're still using it here, because wroshyr wood isn't as flammable when reinforced. If there's anything I know about common Valkoran ethical values, they don't condone genocide."
"Assuming whoever's leading the forces here isn't one of those psychotic exceptions." Zolph then addressed both Hiriss and Grein. "Alright, ladies, let's defend the Wookiees."
They left the hall and prepared for battle.
On Rwookrrorro's supported platforms, several Alliance soldiers and Wookiee warriors armed themselves and set up gun turrets for the oncoming assault while Spectre took a sniping position on one of the tree branches.
Within moments, Zolph and the Alliance forces could hear the humming of several Valkoran Nexu-class gunships hovering above them. The planted anti-air turrets were able to shoot some of them down before they could drop off their infantry platoons, but there were more troopers rappelling from the gunships successfully than getting destroyed prematurely. Some of those gunships – designed for carrying light vehicles – dropped off some Gundark-class walkers onto the city platforms. While the Alliance forces had no light vehicles of their own for this fight, the Wookiees were able to supply their own aerial vehicles such as Ornithopters, and they still had portable anti-vehicle weaponry for eliminating the walkers and gunships.
Before things could get too predictable to the Alliance and Wookiee forces, some grappling hooks tore into the platforms from below. Some small holes were cut through the platforms and out of those holes came Shadow Troopers. When any holes were cut near the Jedi, they simply tried to detach the cables and make the troopers fall down to their deaths, but the Shadow Troopers that did make it up provided some trouble to both Alliance troopers and Wookiee warriors while the Jedi had relatively little trouble against their mocksabers.
However, some more gunships arrived, and deploying from them were foes that were even more of a threat than the Shadow Troopers – foes Zolph had not seen since the Battle of Krantisi, wearing black-bandaged helmets, cloaks and armed with plasma staffs.
"Black Guard? Well, that can only mean one thing: he is here." Zolph said as he deflected one on the guard's blows.
Zolph tried to Force push him off the platform, but the guard simply stopped his flight by striking his staff into the floorboard and kicking Zolph down. Zolph retaliated by slashing at his ankles while he was down and then stabbing him in chest as he fell over.
Grein and Luke had relatively little trouble fighting the Black Guard. Hiriss, on the other hand, had a bit more trouble than Zolph since she didn't have any previous experience fighting them before, but she still had a bit of an advantage in the fact that they weren't accustomed to fighting Jedi armed with double-bladed sabers.
While there were a few casualties on the Alliance's side, they were able to eliminate the entire Valkoran attack force in moments. However, they all suddenly heard a high-pitched shriek from miles away.
"What the hell was that?!" One of the startled soldiers asked.
"Probably just some really shrill bird." Another soldier answered him.
Hiriss then responded to both of them sarcastically. "Yes, privates. That was most definitely a shrill bird native to Kashyyyk and not the Archfiend."
Zolph could sense a heavy Forceless presence coming closer to their location. "He's already been summoned, hasn't he?"
Suddenly, a large creature - with a human-like torso, a human-like head with two empty eye-sockets with glowing ethereal eyes and one corporeal Forceless eye in its forehead, some reptilian wings in lieu of arms, and long prehensile stinger-tipped tail for its lower body – rapidly emerged from below the village, destroying one of the platforms in the process and sending everyone on it plummeting into the Shadowlands. The creature then let out another high-pitched and deafening shriek.
"I swear! Every time we get caught in a long battle, the Valks are able to summon them! Even when the Force acolytes are killed, what's already been channeled is enough to summon them!" Zolph complained.
Luke then asked Grein. "I presume this thing is Harphscor?"
"You presume correctly." She answered back.
General Choi gave orders to the remaining soldiers and Wookiees. "Men! Do not underestimate this thing! Attack with maximum firepower!"
The Alliance forces fired several missiles and concentrated laser blasts at Harphscor, but he blocked all of the blasts with his wings.
The Archfiend then taunted them back in a rather grating voice if his shrieks weren't already proof of that. "Aw, was that supposed to hurt? Well, TOO BAD! Now it's your turn to suffer, you stupid apes!"
Harphscor's ethereal eyes emitted lasers which destroyed some of the anti-air turrets and incinerated some of the infantry. He then sprayed a circle of acid from his stinger around the feet of another infantry squad, causing their position to break off from the platform and fall to the forest floor with them. For another squad, he just sprayed an acid puddle right at their feet, causing them melt down inch by inch from bottom to top as they screamed in agony.
The Archfield cackled psychotically. "SUFFER! SUFFER! SUFFER!"
As the Jedi watched Harphscor avoid fire and kill both Alliance and Wookiee forces, Zolph proclaimed, "That's it! If blasters and rockets aren't going to scratch him, then he's getting a lightsaber to the brain! That is, if he stops being a sadistic coward and gets down low enough."
"I don't think that will be happening, Vaelor! In fact, I've got some friends I would like you meet." The airborne Archfiend then sprayed puddles of something else on the platforms, but it wasn't acid; it was Black Matter.
"Wait, this guy can self-generate Black Matter?!" Zolph then watched as one of the blob-like creatures started crawling into one of the troopers' face, but he mercifully killed him before the parasite could take over him.
"Commander Vaelor! What are you doing?!" Another soldier yelled at Zolph.
"These things can possess the living and use their bodies as weapons, but right now, there's no way we can save the victims without killing them." Grein told everyone.
Zolph followed up on that. "In other words, do not let them get near you, and use energy weapons to kill them. If you don't want to kill any of your own allies like I just did or suffer a fate worse than death, take my advice."
The infantry and Jedi proceeded to fight off the Forceless, with some of the blobs reshaping into vaguely humanoid forms with multiple eyes and clawed hands – quite different from and less skilled than the warriors Zolph and Grein encountered on Sleheyron.
While the Alliance and Forceless fought, Harphscor got ready to leave. "Well, it's been a lot of fun, but regrettably for me, I've got to go. Have fun killing each other!"
Before Harphscor could fly very far, Zolph Force jumped and grappled onto his tail. "Where do you think you're going, sleemo?!"
"Get off of me!"
"No. I'm very comfortable right here."
As Harphscor fled the scene, he struggled to throw Zolph off while the Jedi struggled to hold on.
Minutes later, and when Harphscor had reached the Wawaatt Archipelago, Zolph was still holding on. It was situations like this that made Zolph sometimes think losing his right arm was a blessing in disguise. However, when Zolph was beginning to lose his grip, Harphscor was approaching the top of the Rakatan lighthouse that was shown in the briefing hologram.
Once they reached the aerie, Zolph let go and collapsed on the ground. Harphscor then approached Zolph readying his stinger.
"You just had to ride me all the way home, didn't you?" The Archfiend told him. "Well, you can die here, too!"
As Harphscor thrust his stinger towards Zolph, a red lightsaber pierced through his right shoulder, causing him to scream in pain and misdirect his stinger into Zolph's left shoulder instead of his heart. Harphscor turned his head to see a man dressed head-to-toe in black armor with a cape and a red visor standing on his back. This man also had demon-like wings coming out of his back, and growing out of those two wings was another pair of wings.
"Hello, Zolph." The figure greeted him.
"Hello, Maesterus." Zolph greeted him back while he pulled the stinger out his shoulder.
"You're still alive?!" Harphscor yelled in shock.
"Oh please, I've survived being drenched in acid rain, falling in lava and flying close to a star. It's going to take more than a strong kinetic impact to kill me. Next time you try to kill me, make sure I'm dead. Oh wait, scratch that; there won't be a next time. Now you will pay for killing my men, Harphscor, but I would still like to thank you for getting rid of those probe droids that Valkor programmed to spy on me." Maesterus then spoke to Zolph. "And thank you, Zolph, for bringing him back here for me to finish off."
Maesterus then skewered the Archfiend repeatedly in multiple places, but he still wouldn't die.
"But…but… you're one of us! How is you're symbiote not taking over you if you've turned against me?!" Harphscor panicked.
"I benefit from the symbiote's mutations, but I'm in charge of my destiny now. Oh, and will you please stop moving your heart around? Your death will be a lot less painful if you do."
Harphscor tried to shake Maesterus off, but to little effect since the Forceless-mutated Jedi hooked himself into his back with one of his spike bones.
"Um…gramps?" Zolph asked with concern to Maesterus as he clutched at his wound.
"I may be over a thousand years old, but can you please not call me that? I'm still physically young!"
"I've got some Black Matter in my wound, and now it feels like it's infecting me! Aren't I supposed to be immune to this?!"
"Yes, but that shouldn't be happening."
Suddenly, the excess Black Matter got absorbed into the wound much faster and Zolph began to brim with a mixture of both Force energy and Black Matter while he clutched at his head. "What's...happening...to me?!" Zolph then flashed in a blackish-red light and a vaguely humanoid monster resembling a typical Forceless creature took his place. He was nude - but with no visible genitalia - with some bestial claws, a new organic right arm, eyes on the backs of his hands, a featureless face minus eyes and some lines, some flesh flaps on his head resembling his bangs in his human form, and a long prehensile tentacle coming out of the back of his head - like his ponytail - with a blade on the tip.
"Well, well, well. Looks like you're NOT immune to the embrace of the Collective!" Harphscor taunted the creature – who was actually a transformed Zolph – before trying to order him. "Now begin your service by killing the traitor!"
Zolph then looked toward Harphscor and spoke to him with angered fear in his voice. "I…only…serve… myself! You... Forceless scum! I won't let you infect anyone else! I'll kill you first!" He then raised his right arm and fired a blast of Force lightning at Harphscor, bringing him down to the ground. He then Force pulled the relatively larger Archfiend over to him and - forming a large aqua-colored energy blade from his right hand similar to his lightsaber - slashed off the creature's tail, causing him to scream in intense pain.
"No…no! Mercy!" Harphscor cried out in pain as the transformed Zolph formed two energy blades from both arms. Zolph then slashed off Harphscor's wings.
"Like when you melted down my allies starting at their feet?! Like when you try to have them possessed?! You don't deserve that luxury!" Zolph then used the Force to cave to make Harphscor's skull to cave-in on itself. Harphscor – now dead – collapsed to the ground.
Zolph then approached Maesterus, seemingly intent on killing him as well. "The infected…must…be…purged!"
Maesterus knew that his distant descendant had been corrupted by his personal fears, and that he wouldn't even try to kill him now. Knowing how this newfound ability works and with his defense only slightly raised, he simply evaded Zolph's attacks, but when he got held telekinetically, he simply broke out of his grasp by shooting spike bones at him.
He waited it out for a few minutes until Zolph stopped and his body disintegrated as if it were a shell, reverting back to his original form which then fell unconscious on the ground.
A half-hour later, Zolph regained consciousness and saw Maesterus standing next to him.
"Maesty? What the hell just happened?" Zolph asked him before noticing the gruesomely mutilated corpse of Harphscor. "And did I really do that?"
"Yes. As for what happened, you remember how Belluzub implied that our immunity to Forceless possession is genetic?"
"Yes?"
"And do you remember that holocron I got from Bast Castle?"
"I almost forgot about that, but I don't see how that is relevant."
"What was recorded in that holocron was information that Darth Vader felt was too dangerous to fall into the hands of the Emperor. At some point during the Jedi Purge, he and some of his men discovered and captured a Forceless symbiote. They brought it to his personal laboratory in Bast Castle, often testing it on rebel prisoners or fugitive Jedi. One of those test subjects - who wasn't actually a Jedi during the waning days of the Republic but rather an independent with ingeniously-masked Force sensitivity – was your grandfather, Gerik Vaelor."
"So that's why I never knew him: he died to the Galactic Empire's experiments before I was born."
"From what I understand, that's what also motivated your father, Alec, to fight for the Rebel Alliance. Anyway, Gerik was the only one of those people that didn't actually get possessed by the symbiote, but his immunity to the possession was far more developed than mine, as he did not show any possession symptoms like I do. He was executed shortly after the possession attempt and the symbiote was killed shortly after as well, as Vader had everything he needed to know that parasite was too dangerous for this galaxy. From what I gathered, the immunity develops more with every generation. In your case, you're able to absorb any Black Matter that gets into your blood and somehow convert it into Force energy, using it as a weapon. Unfortunately, control over this power requires control over your emotional state, and when you're feeling strong emotions, such as fear of infection in the most recent case, that emotion will dominate your actions, often turning you into an irrational lunatic in combination with other emotions felt."
"So it's more of that swirly whirly, Forcey worcey stuff. Well, no wonder the Collective wants me dead: I can use them against themselves. Thankfully for my sanity, I don't think they'll be trying to possess me if they know they can't control me, and I really don't want to go through that again. The idea of turning into a berserk killing machine is already scary enough."
"You might have to use this power again someday, but hopefully when that time comes, you will have learned to tame your emotions in intense situations. And the good news for you is that the transformation only lasts as long as there's Black Matter to feed off." Maesterus then prepped his wings for flight. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to prepare my forces to retreat and report my 'mission failure'." He then jetted upward and flew down to the bottom of the lighthouse.
Zolph then activated his comlink. "Vaelor to Alliance Command: Harphscor has been exterminated."
"Very good. We've also eliminated all of the Forceless here." General Choi commended him. "Please rendezvous back at Rwookrrorro."
Back at Rwookrrorro, procedures were being taken to clean up the battle site. However, Zolph had some information to share privately with General Choi, Luke Skywalker and Grein.
"I had a run-in with Maesterus. I also learned something else about my immunity to Forceless possession. I got infected by Harphscor when his stinger got misdirected away from my heart to my shoulder, but rather than get possessed or be unaffected, I turned into some powerful creature brimming with the Force."
"Well, that would explain the energy we felt from all the way over here," Luke responded, "but I could sense you were in intense fear at the time."
"According to Maesterus, my body's feeding off the Black Matter and for reasons I don't really understand, converting it into Force power. Unfortunately, the downside to this ability is that whatever strong emotions I feel when I channel it will dictate how I act when I'm transformed. When I transformed at the lighthouse, I was a fearful lunatic intent on killing all Forceless."
Grein then chimed in. "So, from what I understand, it's those emotions that typically fuel the Dark Side of the Force that you want to avoid when you transform. And the last hallucination you had was only one week ago, so you're not in the mental state to be playing with this ability."
"I was thinking the same thing. And luckily for us, we haven't had many encounters with shapeless Black Matter. And personally, I prefer to rely on my wits for fighting my enemies." Zolph replied back.
Moments later, when the Alliance was still cleaning up after the battle, Zolph was observing the scenery of Kashyyyk when Hiriss walked in on him.
"So those creatures were what forced you to kill Dynn?"
"You would be right, except in that case, that one was an entire arm with a mind of its own, and a clearly malicious one at that."
"Anyway, I heard your little 'private conversation'."
"Can you not eavesdrop for one minute, Hiriss? And are you even familiar with the word 'private'?"
"I just happened to pass by and I got curious. From what I heard about your transformation, you really hate the Forceless Collective, don't you?"
"I won't lie, I still do. In Dynn's last moments, I wanted to kill everyone I thought was responsible for her disfiguration, but I was being irrational. I no longer hate the Valkoran as a whole for it, and I don't hate Maesterus anymore since he didn't kill my parents willingly, and he saved my life twice. I still hate the Collective because they've taken so much from me through an orchestrated sequence of events, just for the sake of destroying me. Before the month or so of psychotherapy paid off, I felt I had lost everything worth living for, but that's not the case anymore."
"Judging by your actions in the war room, before the Valkoran attack, you still have some semblance of attachment to Dynn, even after her death, but you were very quick to defend me when that soldier panicked."
"To be honest, I still see a lot of her in you."
"Zolph, I want to clear this up: I am NOT a clone of Dynn with a species change. I'm an entirely different person. You can't have me substituting for my own cousin."
"I know that, but it's just an instinct of mine."
"You're just going to have to let go. You can mourn for her and remember as much you need to, but you can't replace her."
"I understand. I won't forget that."
"So, have you found anything worth living for again?"
"I don't know. I'm still looking for it."
"Well, keep looking. I'm sure you'll find it someday."