Chapter 35: New Guardians approaching
These Lower Shadowlands, as Jolee calls them, honestly don't seem that bad. Sure it smells worse than a grandparent's sofa, the air itself feels like I could drown on it there is so much moisture in it and the cry of creatures echo through the trees like the small shivers they send up my spine, but we'd yet to encounter any of them. Jax and Jolee were leading our small team, following a windy path build into the ground by running tree roots and overgrown vegetation which would probably poison me before I cook it. Behind Jax, Juhanni and Canderous walk side by side, the Cathar Jedi holding her blade in hand while the Mandalorian held his large Heavy Repeater by his waist, as if the weapon didn't weigh anything. Then behind them, I and Bastilia walking in silence side by side.
These Shadowlands feel odd, different when the area where Jolee had been living, it felt older, and in that, spookier. The aura emitting from the trees gave a chill up my spine, this feeling I've felt only once in my life before, and that was on this planet in front of the Star Map when Revan had first found it.
"Wait a second….something isn't right…" I hear Jax say as he stops walking. Looking around, we're in the middle of a clearing. What was it that had caught Jax's attention? I don't see, or feel, anything that is out of place.
"What is it Jax?" Bastilia asks, walking past Juhanni and Canderous to his side, before pausing "Oh…"
"Could someone explain to me what is going on?" I ask as Canderous walks forwards and crouches down to the ground, placing his rifle on the ground as Jax turns around to face me, Juhanni and Katarina.
"Wookies, three of them, all dead" he says calmly, almost as if these deaths upset them. This is the Shadowlands, they were either a hunting party, or those exiles that the chieftain mentioned, though I thought there was only one of them, not three.
"These are the Shadowlands Jax" I reply "They aren't known for their safety"
Before Jax has time to reply though, a loud yell came from a certain Mandalorian Merc "AMBUSH!"
Wait, what?! Ambush? I look around, quickly grabbing the lightsaber off my belt and activing it, a red glow appearing in front of me. Around me, I hear the activation of several blades as we turn to face the jungle. Looking at us, if this is an ambush, we're in the middle of the open, and I would be a slaughter if we didn't have lightsabers.
"What do you mean Ambush Canderous?" demands Jax who I could see looking out in the woods.
"Something felt wrong, so I checked. These Wookies weren't killed by any creature that exist. Their wounds come from weapons, blasters and blades specifically" he replies, pointing his heavy repeater at the tree line close to us.
"Ok, then any ideas what kind of weapons killed them?" Jax asks as I feel a cold sensation scream across my body. This situation seemed so familiar, and I close my eyes and open them again, but now I was no longer in Kashyyyk, but back on my home world's moon as it burnt.
My team and I had been patrolling the eastern flank of the main base when we'd seen it, a squad of dead Republic troops. Naturally, we moved to their position and took up a defensive stance while calling it into command.
I placed my hand against the cheek of one of the troops, a young child like myself at the time, his eyes were open and boggled with fear, his chest had been completely opened and his organs littered the ground.
"Fuck, what could have caused this?" asks Jenkins, one of my teammates as I shrug.
"The wildlife on this moon is ruthless, and there are no way the Mandalorians have gotten into this position" I reply, standing up and picking up my Assault Rifle, holding it lazily at my side.
"You're probably right" says my squads' sergeant, a calm guy called Wilson, as he knelt down over the bodies of the Republic troops.
"This war, fuck, we're not ready for this. Why did we join the Republic?" asks one of the team, though I'm not sure of his name, after all, my joining of the Republic isn't really legal. The legal joining age for the Republic is 18…
"Wait a second, look at this…." Says the sergeant as I turn around, kneeling down next to him and looking at the wounds of one of the troops "This wasn't the wildlife, that's a blaster shot…"
I feel Hoths' temperature scream around my body, utter horror as the realisation dawns on me. A Mandalorian infiltration team. Standing up, I look around, and spot it. A shimmer of light next to a tree, I didn't even think about it, hell, I didn't even notice it! Active camo!
"AMBUSH!" was the yell, but it was too late. Red blaster bolts had already launched themselves at my team and me, cutting us down where we stood. A trained soldier would have raised his rifle and shot back, engaged to the last man. But me? I dropped my rifle and ran, ran away from my squad and to the main base. The team that wiped out my squad turned out to be one of many Mandalorian Assassination team that had been sent, the teams that comprised entirely of well-trained Mandalorian Elite troops that became a menace during the war. It was the first team that I'd lost, and as if the war was to torment me, it was far from the last that died with me in their ranks.
"Mandalorians?!" I hear Jax's disjoined voice blurred in my mind as the burning planet of Dxun vanished in a flash, and I find myself back on Kashyyyk with allies at my side, a blade in my hand and in the middle of an ambush.
"He's a smart one" says a distorted, almost robotic voice. I look around, tracing the voice to be almost right in front of me. Looking at the ground, I call out to the force to help feel for the life senses of the Mandalorians. I feel it, standing right in front of me! I raise my blade as something shimmers right in front of me, and out of thin air, a Mandalorian wearing golden armour materialises before me, a vibroblade in one hand, a Mandalorian Heavy Blaster in the other.
"You bastards, you survived the war somehow, and now you're hunting anyone down here" I say, a deepness in my voice I wasn't aware existed as a bare my teeth at the Mandalorian. Hundreds of people died to these teams in the war, and after the war, we stripped their armours and melted them down! How did this team survive, and avoid the clean-up crews?
"Oh, this sounds personal" the golden Mandalorian replies, his singular glowing eye looking straight at me "As if you were in the Mandalorian war yourself…"
"Shut up!" I yell back, flashes of the war jumping into and out of my eyes, the planets burning from Mandalorian guns, piles of dead troops, using our dead allies as cover from the relentless Mandalorian assaults, the brutal trap holes with explosives and the ambushes.
"So you were in the war! And as a Jedi too, tell me, how many of your friends did you lose in the battle? How many of your friends are gone? And look at yourself, now a Sith!"
My anger boils inside, rage and what feels like fire pumping through my body, through my veins, through my very soul. The anger, the hatred, the loathing I have for the Mandalorians who take pleasure in the slaughter of people, the ones who still live in the path of the Mandalorian War that killed millions! Soldiers, Civilians, no one was safe for their oppressive conquering and merciless tactics! I feel my body shake, the muscles in the back of my neck tightening as I start taking deeper and deeper breaths to keep my body satisfied.
"I'll tell you what" I say, finding it genially difficulty hard to think of the words, and the tightened muscles around my jaw made it harder to move "I saw most of them die in your war, shot down, exploded, cut to pieces and torn apart. But, that goes both ways" I raise my lightsaber, the red glowing weapon of destruction pointed at the Mandalorian leader. I glance around, spotting a total of 9 other Mandalorians having deactivated their own camo, forming a perfect circle around us.
"What do you mean, both ways?" asks the golden one, as I smirk darkly at him.
"Much like how the Republic and Jedi died, the Mandalorians also died in droves. And unlike you, after the war, they stopped their murderous ways! But mark my words Mandalorian, I have killed your kind in the hundreds and when the war ended, the slaughter had ended. But now, it's started again!" I lean back on my back foot, and calling upon the force, should give me the forward momentum to leap forwards fast enough that the golden prick won't know what hit him.
"I welcome you to your slaughter, little lambs!" With that, I unleash the force behind me and use its power to throw myself forwards at him. If his eyes were visible, I'm certain they'd of been bogged with fear as I stick my blade out and impale it through his chest as he falls to the ground, and I land on top of his armour, before looking around. The Mandalorians in the circle seem not to have reacted, and that's perfectly fine with me! I turn to the closest one, right on my left, and charge forwards as he raises a Vibroblade to protect himself. Crashing my blade into it and pushing hard, he lowers the blade in an attempt to hold the lock, only for me to spin my blade up and remove his head.
Blaster shots now fill the air as I continue my charge around the circle, quickly cutting my way through the next target with a simply straight line cut through his chest, making him split in half. I call out to the force, using its power to speed my movements up as I quickly catch up to the next contestant, and this one was still in the process of drawing his blade. Getting straight up in his face, I swing my blade at the hand drawing the weapon, slicing it clean off before ramming my blade through his stomach, then withdrawing it and looking at the remaining Mandalorians. Only four were left, and all of them were heading away from me, retreating from the battlefield!
"Where do you think you're going!?" I call out as I crouch down low, once again calling upon the force to empower myself "You think you can just do whatever you want without consequence? That you can kill whoever you want, and then when things turn against you, just vanish into the night and pretend you don't exist!" Using the force, I leap up high in the air, and using the momentum, I see the speeders the Mandalorians are fleeing too. Shame they won't get to use them! I come down towards the ground fast, and unfortunately for one of the Mandalorians, right on top of him! Using the power of my jump to shove the Mandalorian down, I roll up as I head a screaming noise at my feet. I look down to see my lightsaber has taken the arm off the Mandalorian, his right arm, without actually killing him. But his begs and screams for mercy ring in my ears like bad music from a comm link.
"I'll come back for you later" I say as another cold wave streams over my body, as I continue my pursuit of the fleeing duo. I spring through the forest, chasing the blue armoured Mandalorians as they try and flee deeper into the wildlife and forest that is this Shadowlands. I won't let the murders get away from me, not after what teams like that had caused me, the suffering and loss that I've sustained from these hit-and-run teams, they deserve death, and I am the one to give it to them!
The Mandalorians turn a corner around a rather large tree trunk, and I quickly sprint around it myself, lightsaber raised. Around the corner, the pair of Mandalorians had their backs to a wall, their blasters facing me. They'd run themselves into a dead end, and if they tried to climb to steep hill behind them, we all knew they'd be slaughtered.
"What the hell are you?" asks one of them, though which one it is, is completely irrelevant to me, after all, they're both dead in my eyes already. Corpses that I just haven't killed yet, and that'll be fixed soon enough.
"I am a survivor of the war, the war your kind seeked and pushed for. I survived the bombings of Onderon, the fires of Dxun, the destruction of the 7th fleet, the Mandalorian retreat of the outrim. I survived it all, and in turn, you bastards have turned me into a killing machine" I take a slow step towards the Mandalorians, who kept their blasters trained on me, not that it would do them any good as I would deflect any shot they fired at me.
"But now" I say, unable to stop the smirk arising on my face "now your reign of terror is at an end. And I, I am the one to take your lives and end the cycle of hatred that has consumed us for years"
I leap forwards and duck, rolling on the ground as the first blaster shots go far too high, swinging my blade in a forward semi-circle ahead of me, I find the targets of the four limbs attached to my opponents, their legs. Blood comes out from the cut on their thighs as they fall to the ground with cries of pain. I feel blood spatter over my face as well as getting onto my robes. I stand up, looking down at the pathetic sights of the legless Mandarlorians. Holding my blade in my right hand, with my left, I reach to the back of my robes and draw the blaster pistol I have there, usually in case of emergency, but now, it's time for their execution, and I am the executioner!
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today" I say containing a chuckle "to witness the execution and extermination of two Mandalorians in what remains of a bloody war. If anyone has a reason why I shouldn't pull the trigger, speak now, or forever hold your peace"
My ears are now assaulted by begs and cries of mercy and objections from the victims now at my feet. I look around, pretending that I can't hear their cries for mercy, mercy from what is the inevitable.
"Well, since there is no one objecting, I suppose it comes to me to carry out the duty" I raise my blaster from my side, pointing it at the head of the first Mandalorian, pulling the trigger as the blaster shot went straight into the eyepiece, giving him a quick death. I move my aim to the second Mandalorian, who tries to move his arms to block my shot.
"Tell me Mandalorian, how many have you killed? Do you know how it feels to die? We all find out in the end, I suppose you're going to experience it long before me though. Say, after you die, can you do me a favour?" I lean down, looking straight at the Mandalorian helmet "Make sure the devil leaves enough room for me, because I'll see him soon" I say coldly before pulling the trigger three times, ending his life.
Standing up, I look around me to realize that I haven't the foggiest clue where I am. In my frenzy to chase down the last Mandalorians, I hadn't even tracked my own movements. Slowly walking back around the corner, I see the body of the Mandalorian I had tackled lying on the ground, not seemingly moved since I left him. Smirking, I start walking towards him, the bloodlust I had just felt slowly seeping into my system. I would make sure this survivor felt nothing but agony for the last moment of his life.
That's when an inhuman roar filled the air, one of a primal beast, and a big one at that! I look around, behind me, but I can't see it. The ground starts to vibrate, and the vibrations seem to be getting stronger, as if the beast is walking towards me. I look at the tree that made an effective corner, and thankfully for me, there seems to be a small branch hanging very low down. I leap up, and with the assistance of the force, I manage to make the distance, gripping onto the branch with my left hand as I hang down, deactivated lightsaber in hand. That's when the roar comes out again, louder than before, then I see it. A giant beast, probably larger than a Rancors, with a greyish skin and sharp spikes pointing from its back. In its mouth, giant tusks emerge, its skin looks like its actual armoured, hard and tough with dozens of scratches on it, and in its hands, giant sharp claws that seem to have dried blood on it. It looks like a Rancor, but different, because Rancors don't have dark side force auras, and this creature does. In fact, the only creature this thing could possibly be is a Terentatek! But they went extinct years ago, I thought the Jedi hunted the beasts to extinction. Well, obviously they missed one.
I watch as the beast picks up the injured Mandalorian, his screams amplifying for mercy as the Terentatek roared in his face before shoving him down its large mouth and the crunching, fuck I can hear it from here! How strong is its' jaws to eat a Mandalorian and his armour and not have some digestion issues? Wait! Terentatek, like Revan taught me, influenced by the Dark Side of the force, very powerful and specifically hunt down force sensitives, and since Star Maps have powerful Dark Side presences, perhaps this beast is effectively protecting it, though I don't recall Revan ever finding one down here. Still, perhaps I can follow the beast to the maps and find a way to contact the others?
The Terentatek seemed to be content with the Mandalorian snack, that was, until it turned its ugly gob towards me! Its' red eyes held all the rage and anger it has, and all of it was faced towards me, a sith hanging on a tree only a good couple of metres away from something that wanted me as another snack!
"Well, shit" I say as the Terentatek lowered its head and charged straight at the tree! "You've got to be fucking kidding me! Its' a bull now?" I call upon the force, using it to leap off the tree before the beast strikes it, landing on the ground behind it as I hear a thud of the Terentatek's head crashing into the tree. It slowly turns around as I activate my lightsaber in my right hand, and use my left hand to draw out my blaster. Running against these things might been possible, if not for their sense of smell and the fact there is no small passage I can run to that it won't be able to follow me.
I raise my blaster pistol and fire away at its armoured hide, the shots going from its chest to its face, though from the roar, I think I'm only managing to piss it off! It runs at me, swinging its big claws at me. I raise my lightsaber, swinging at the claws coming towards me, clashing against them, as the creature roars loudly, hopefully from pain, as it pulls its claws back. I stare up at it, throwing my blaster to the ground and gripping my lightsaber with both my hands. My blaster wasn't actually able to hurt the beast, my lightsaber on the other hand, was. I look at up at the beast as it swings it claws downwards, hoping to crush me with its huge weigh. Calling upon the force, I use its power to amplify my leap to the left, dodging the attack and preforming a roll to dissipate the forward momentum. Looking up at the beast, I let a small breath escape my throat. These creatures were labelled 'Jedi-Killers' for a reason, and I suppose us Sith are just as much on the menu as the average Jedi is. Then again, the Jedi's Great Hunt was what removed these creatures, we never hunted them down.
I raise my blade once again as the Terentatek swings at me with its claws, this time I leap back and swing for a cut against its claws which hits! I look at the damage as the beasts draws its claws back, a small hit of horror as my clean cut was barely a scratch on its claws! How tough are these things, and what happened on the Great Hunt that allowed the Jedi to take these things out?
It raises its claws once again, and I leap out of the way of where the claws should land, had the beast not changed where it was going to attack. It swung at me and its claws crash against my body, throwing me from the ground and rolling onto the ground, my lightsaber bouncing off to near its feet. I look up from my position on the ground as the Terentatek slowly walks its way towards me. My lightsaber was far away, behind the creature. I raise my arm and try pull my weapon towards me, only to glance up and see I'm about to get crushed! Ditching the recovery of my lightsaber, I roll over to the right, narrowly avoiding a large foot that crashes down where I just was. How am I meant to kill something that blasters and lightsabers are useless against! Wait, of course, the force! Though I must be careful, I've been using the force constantly since the Mandalorians attacked, if I use too much and leave myself drained, I'll be a free meal for this beast.
What powers have I got, none of the elementary force abilities would even dent a beast this size, and if it was feeding from the dark side in the map, it might have accumulated force resistances, but to what level I haven't a clue. But it hasn't been around for that long, no longer than 5 years, surely they aren't that powerful. I close my hands into tight fists, feeling the blood circulating through them as I start feeding upon the hatred I have, hatred for so much. The strongest hate I have is for the Mandalorians, their ruthless war that slaughtered millions, the pointless death and destruction, and of these Mandalorians who are keeping to trying to keep these dying traditions of war and butchery. But is that enough to stop a 'Jedi-Killer'? Only one way to find out I suppose. I open my hands as streams of burning force lightning fly towards my target, crashing against its hide as I hear the beast roaring. I feel the burning in my hands, the consequence of force lightning is rather simple, the said lightning you are channelling needs to exit the body, and unfortunately, your skin doesn't like hot lightning on them.
I lower my hands and stop channelling the force through them, the pain biting at me. Using the power for too long would mean I take it impossible to hold anything, how some Sith use this power without thought or consequence is beyond me. I look up, hoping to see the Terentatek retreating or at least injured in some kind. Looking at the beast, it stood up taller and let out a mighty roar. Looking over its body, I can't see any signs that my attacks have done anything against it! What do I do now? My lightsaber would take more power to cut through and with the beasts' full focus on me, there's no way that'll happen. Plus I can't use the force against it since it seems to have a high level of force immunity, plus its armoured hide makes blasters useless, and I'll assume explosives are just as ineffective.
I start backing up from the Terentatek as the beast takes slow steps towards me as I feel my heart starting to race faster. Is it toying with me, is it even capable of that? I don't think it is, but it certainly feels like it is. Tightly griping my lightsaber in my hands, I take a slow deep breath to calm myself. I wouldn't let this thing kill me. It rears its head back and lets out a roar towards the tree tops. I lean backwards, planning to throw myself at it while it's distracted and hopefully make enough of an impact to escape. That's when I see it, red bolts streaming straight into the beats chest, blaster bolts unrelentingly being unloaded on it. Turning around, I see the sources of this firepower, and honestly, it shouldn't surprise me. After all, he's the only gun-toting person in this damn forest. Canderous Ordo, the Mandalorian was slowly walking forwards with his Heavy Repeater going on full-alto.
"Come on!" I hear someone yell, Bastilia? Turning to face my left, Bastilia sprints past me, her duel-hilted lightsaber ignited at both sides, quickly followed by Katarina who has her own duel-hilted lightsaber ignited as the Jedi and Sith charged in side-by-side against the Terentatek, diving and dodging its attacks with speed and agility I've never seen from either of them before. Their seemingly new found speed made the beasts attacks look slow and clumsy. I feel a hand on my shoulder, I turn to see Jax's hand on my shoulder with Jolee standing behind him.
"Jax" I say, feeling my own breathlessness now I'm safer and less about to be eaten alive, I feel a burning desire to breath as I start taking more breaths to recover "How…did you find me?"
Jax smirks, a very sly smile on his otherwise smooth skin "Well, admittedly, we were waiting for you to find us, managed to find that Wookie exile we were asked to kill. Turns out he wasn't just some exile, but the former chieftain Freyyr who, if you couldn't put it together, is Zaalbar and Chuunder's father. That's when we heard this thing roar out, and, well, Katarina said that only you would piss something off to make that noise, so here we are"
I shake my head, so they were just going to wait for me to come back after preforming a hunt on Mandalorians? Fantastic. On the bright side, I have a feeling that whatever situation occurred involving the Wookie would be resolved by Jax, he had an eye for that diplomatic stuff. Always had back when he was still Revan.
"Wonderful" I say, looking at Bastilia and Katarina dance around the beasts attacks.
"Turns out you found what we're looking for. Freyyr, the former Wookie Chieftain that I mentioned, is looking for a sword of his people. Says it was last seen in one of those Terentatek creatures, and I'll assume it's the one that tried to make a snack out of you"
I look at the Terentatek, but I can't see any sign of a blade hilt embedded in its hide, then again, it is a giant monster and the blade handle is probably made of wood like many Wookie weapons, and the colour of wood and this creature's hide are very similar. I'd need to be right up close, and the only real way I'd get that is fighting it, or when it's dead on the ground.
"Somehow I assume that we're not going to kill him like the chieftain demanded we do?" I ask, already knowing the answer to this question.
"I'm not going to help Chuundar. He is selling his own people into slavery, he betrayed his brother to gain political power and tried to kill his own father, his own chieftain, for a chance to rule. People like that deserve a single fate, which simply ends with them dead" Jax's face seems to go distant, his usually active eyes seem to fade in colour.
With what my former master was telling me, the old him was still in there when he was commanding the Sith. Betrayal of another Sith wasn't uncommon, however, this so called betrayal was a challenge from one Sith to another on level ground in a bid for power. This challenge, this duel, had a very strict code of honour and was always done with witnesses to ensure these rules were being upheld. At the very least, this could confirm one thing Jolee said to me. My former master was still in there, if be it only fragments.
"And this blade is going to help us how?" I ask. I wasn't there when they found Freyyr, and as such, obviously there is some level of information that I'm not privy too.
"Incite a Wookie rebellion against Chuundar and his Czerka employees, it's the right thing to do" he says simply as I hear a might roar, turning my eyes back to the fight. The mighty Terentatek was kneeling down, one of its legs coated in its own blood and a blur of yellow and red blades dance around it, ducking, weaving, cutting and dancing around it, slowly taking the beast down. I grip my blade tightly and take a step forwards as Jax's hand slides off. I raise my blade and start my charge.
I spot Katarina and Bastilia leap onto the beasts back together, planning to deliver the finishing blow upon its neck as I charge straight at its face. The beast seems to spot me and reacts instantly, and very violently. It throws it shoulders back, throwing Bastilia and Katarina off its back and onto the ground, their lightsabers scattering on the ground.
"Katarina! Bastilia!" I yell as the beast faces the Jedi as she slowly starts to stand up, an easy target! I burst into a sprint as the Terentatek moves its claw in a downwards motion to crush her. Dropping my lightsaber to free up my other hand, I raise my left hand and fire a quick burst of force lightning at it as I lower my right hand to grab Bastilia as I run past. Firing a second, I lean down and grab Bastilia's outstretched hand, pulling her with me and out of the way as the huge claw crashes into the ground where she had been momentarily. I let go of her as she finally stands up, seemingly breathless. I look straight at the beast as its claw starts moving. But this time, instead of coming up, it's coming straight along the ground! Bastilia is in no condition to dodge it after being thrown off its back! And a hit like that might just kill the Jedi, if not make her unable to fight. And if I'm honest with myself, she's a better fighter than myself.
Lifting my arms, I grab Bastilia's shoulder with both hands and, once again, call upon the force to push the Jedi away from me. Bastilia, completely unprepared for what is happening, get thrown onto her side, rolling in the grass briefly before stopping. I start to turn, right as something heavy crashes into the left side of my body. I feel myself leave the ground, being launched upwards with a stabbing pain in my left arm! I feel myself flip several times before crashing down hard against the hard ground, letting out a groan of pain. My whole body felt like it had been shaken around, and my left arm specifically had a very painful stabbing feeling emanating from it. My breathing is staggered, finding it hard to take deep breaths. Looking over to where the Terentatek was, I see a certain Sith standing on top of its head, their red blades spinning over its neck, taking chunks from it. I feel a hand on my right arm, pulling me off the ground. Finding my feet, I lean heavily on whoever lifted me up, slowly getting my breathing back to normal.
"You know, next time you pick a fight with something labelled a 'Jedi Killer', make sure you can actually kill it" says Jax in a light-mannered tone "Are you ok though? That looked like it hurt"
I nod my head "It's nothing, just a little shaken up" I reply.
"The gash on your arm says otherwise" he replies. Looking at my left arm, true to his words, my left arm does indeed have large amounts of blood and a very clear gash from just below my shoulder down to slightly above my elbow. It doesn't look too deep, outside of the pain and possible limit to my mobility, I should honestly be fine. Hell, the scratch itself doesn't hurt as much as having my body thrown around like a ragdoll in some children's playground.
I raise my eyebrow at it as I see Katarina reach into the Terentatek's back, the beast looks very dead now, its' neck is covered in lightsaber punctures and cuts along with a good number of them moving across into its face. Katarina stands on top of its' back, and reaches down, pulling out a sword. I assume that it's the sword that that Wookie Freyyr asked us to get, well, asked Jax, but that point remains the same.
"Found it!" proclaimed Katarina as she hefted the blade up in the air, before lowering it in her left hand and placing the blade on her belt, hopping down and slowly walking over to us, deactiving her weapon before her eyes glance over to me. "Oh shit! Jason! Are you ok?" She runs up to me, placing one hand on my shoulder while she looks at my wound.
"I'm fine Kat" I reply, chuckling quietly at her fretting over me "I just need a quick shot of adrenaline or something like that to keep me going. As long as I don't push myself too hard, I should be fine. After all, it's my non-natural arm, guess we should be lucky for that"
Katarina nods her head as I look over at Canderous, who opens a medical pack, walking over to me as he pulls out a silver syringe, before walking out of my line of sight. Quickly, I feel another stabbing pain in my left arm around where my injury is, before a numbing feeling starts to overwhelm the pain, forcing it back. I raise my head and take in a deep breath.
"Well, you should be fine" says Canderous putting the field medical equipment away "Honestly, your body reacts almost instantly when I injected it, you've had shots like this before?"
I nod my head "y-yeah, far too many times if I'm honest with you"
"If we've all calmed down now" says Jax quietly "then perhaps we can continue. Katarina, you have the blade?" he looks over at her, the Sith nodding her head and tapping the hilt of said blade "Good, then that's settled. I want you to take the blade back to Freyyr, Bastilia, you'll be going with her. As you do that, we'll find the Star Map and rely the coordinates to you to come back. Once we have that map data, we're going back to the village, saving Mission and the others, returning the Wookies to their rightful place, then we're going to Korriban. We're nearly done, and the time is slowly running out"
It seems like a logical plan, inciting the Wookie Rebellion while not wasting valuable time that will be used searching for the Map. Plus, Jax will be with us. When we were here last, he, with some minor assistance from me, modified the data so that, well, I'm honestly not sure what he did, but he said it would be impossible for anyone to follow his tracks except himself. Although, whatever the fuck that means, hell if know. Although, one thing leaves me with questions. Why is he sending Bastilia and Katarina? Is there a trust between them that I've missed? In fact, when they arrived to save me, the pair of them attacked in sync. Battle bond perhaps, or perhaps the simple minded objective that they both shared to save me.
"Hey" says Bastilia to me quietly, almost pulling me off to the side. "Listen, why did you do that? Push me out of the way I mean, you could have died from the impact of the ground" she says quickly and quietly. Is she concerned for me? If it was before this, then I'd say she was being sarcastic. But after our brief chat and discussion, that is very unlikely.
"Why?" I reply "Well, you're the better fighter. Plus, I was more likely to survive the blow than you, so I took it for you" It was the logical and honest answer. She'd just been tossed around and she'd more fragile than me, if only a little bit. That and she's the better fighter and more important to the mission than me. If I died, then the mission would continue mostly unhindered, however, if Bastilia was to fall, then Jax would break and the mission is as good as dead.
"I...I see" she looks up at me "But next time, I'm pushing you out of the way. And don't make it a habit"
I let out a quiet chuckle "Let's hope you never have to push me out the way huh?" I small smile forming on my face as I look back to Jax, who had just finished organising something with Katarina.
"Consider it done. Come on Bastilia" says Katarina, who turns and walks off, with the Jedi Padawan close behind her. I watch as the pair seemingly vanish into the green murky mist of the Shadowlands, before turning to face Jolee. The old man nods his head as Jax who stands next to me, before walking deeper into the Shadowlands, to where the Star Map is I presume. Looking at the others, there are worse people to be with in the Shadowlands. Jax, Canderious, Jolee and Juhanni, with Bastilia and Katarina hopefully making their own way back to us after they've finished with the Wookies.
I follow Jax through the Shadowlands, a Mandalorian walking besides me. I look over at him, his grey eyes solely focussed on the path in front of him. Canderous wasn't like the others I had killed before, they were living in the days of their past, trying to relieve the so called glory of the Mandalorian war they sought. Canderous on the other hand, he was different. A Mandalorian in heart, but he knows the chaos the war caused, the death and suffering. He may want to reunite the Mandalorians, he wouldn't be the first. But first, he'll need the mask of Mandalore, and only a few people know where that mask is. Revan, Malek, Saul Karath, and me. We are the only ones that know the truth, that the mask of Mandalore was on the planet Rekkiad, chilling in the Chorlian sector in the tomb of some old sith who called himself Darth Dramath. But I suppose that knowledge is forbidden, known to us four, and unless we want the Mandalorians rallying, I suspect that's where that damn mask will stay.
I look up, seeing Jolee taking a left turn under a large tree root. Following the old man, I turn the corner and see what we've been searching for straight away. A large metallic computer seemingly sticking out of the ground right next to a tree, a hologram projection pad that is lowered. Right next to the hologram pad, the closed Star Map. We'd found it! Now, we just had to open it.