Chapter 5 – Anything that can go wrong…
"Could you please stop that?" asked the incensed Forn Cha, her Jedi guard, as he rubbed his temples to stave off a peculiarly painful headache.
Louise raised an eyebrow at the Quarren, halting the fiery serpent she had conjured above her hands. "Could you tell me what's going on?" she asked in reply.
He groaned, rolling his eyes. "I've told you before, I cannot and will not disclose any information until ordered."
"Too bad." Turning back to the illusionary construct, she resumed manipulating it, feeling like a cat as she batted at it, bending the Force to her will as it swam through the air as if we're in water. Eventually, like she had many times before, she willed the construct to split and morph into various different shapes, changing the colour and consistencies of the illusion. Sometimes it would not work leading to the illusion to unravel into nothingness and sometimes it worked, changing to her will. All Louise knew was that practice made perfect and she had plenty of time to practice.
Meanwhile, the Jedi closed his eyes with a long-suffering sigh, leaning on the doorframe of her holding cell, waiting for his shift to end. Louise would have felt sorry for him, but in her current predicament, she couldn't care less.
It had been four standard days since the bombing and four since she was detained by the Republic. Without much prompt, she was escorted to the detention cell while her captors investigated the attack. As it turned out, the room she slept in when she first arrived in the compound was the detention cell. Louise had no idea whether to feel insulted or amused. Nevertheless, she understood the reasoning well enough: Get the Sith out of view while emotions ran high and the civilians were more likely to point fingers and resort to mob justice.
Her issue came when, aside from the interrogation she got when she was first detained, no one else ever visited bringing news of the outside world. That and the only time she was allowed to leave and see the sun was when she needed to relieve herself of bathe. All she could do was sit, twiddle her thumbs and muse about the mysterious darksider to herself and Khem – Who was currently asleep on his bed. As time passed, however, the topic turned stale. She had thought, many a times, to contact her ship and get Toovee to pick her up, but dismissed it. It would have caused far more issues than it was worth.
So now, with nothing better to do other than have her sleep plagued by the Sith Temple and the darksider, she decided to practice Sith Sorcery, creating fiery serpents and other such illusionary constructs to push the limit of her abilities as per Aloysius' command – it also annoyed most of the Jedi who were chosen to guard her, which was a plus. Her guards were generally neutral towards her, but the underlying distrust in their eyes was quite annoying.
Though. She mused darkly. It could have been worse. An execution would have put quite the dampener on my mission.
The Force alerted her before the door hissed open. A Jedi had arrived, and she did not even have to look to know who it was. "Knight Cha," the Jedi greeted, sounding exhausted beyond belief.
"Knight Dorjis, what are you doing here, are you okay?" her Jedi guard questioned in reply.
Quorian groaned as if he heard the question many times already. "I'm fine, I'm just here to speak with Louise."
"Remembered that I exist, did you?" Louise butted in, not turning from her sorcery as she spoke, her annoyance plain as day.
"I'm sorry about that," he sighed. "It's been hectic the last few days."
"I wouldn't know," she continued, finally turning to face Quorian, her illusion dispersing with the loss of concentration. Exhaustion was certainly an understatement; he looked as if he were well on his way to being dead with the only thing keeping him alive being sheer will alone. "I've been stuck here in the dark"
Quorian was quiet, swaying where he stood. Forn opened his mouth to probably express the worry clear in his eyes, but before he could, the tired Jedi took a deep breath. He moved on to the wall, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor. "Things have…" he paused as if trying to think of a way to properly phrase himself, "not been… well, these last few days." He took another deep breath. "Master Korr is missing."
"What?" Louise honestly had no idea what else to say. Master Korr was missing. The only other Jedi who treated her with any modicum of respect. Not only that, but he was the only Jedi Master on the Demon Moon. This is not going to end well. She noted.
"Not only that, but two other Jedi have gone missing," He shook his head, rubbing his nearly bald head. "eleven casualties have been confirmed from the bombing and a few injured. Worse still, our medical bay was destroyed along with our comms, our ship and our supplies. We're stuck here."
Louise stayed silent, contemplating, her mind a maelstrom of thoughts as she processed what had been revealed. Korr was missing and someone else was defiantly in charge – Who? she did not know, but she doubted it was someone sympathetic to her. Not only that, but people had died with three Jedi missing, bumping it to five in total. The compound was halfway destroyed leaving the place vulnerable to anything, really. It was worrisome, especially should the Republic blame her for it all.
Louise shook her head and focused on the present. There was one more thing she wanted to know about. "What of the darksider?" she asked.
"Yes… the darksider…" Quorian rubbed his eyes, struggling to stay awake. "Well, we have no idea. Aside from relocating the corpse, we've not the time to examine it."
Louise frowned. "Could I see it?"
"Since Master Korr's disappearance, Urik's taken charge," he explained. "I'll have to ask him."
Louise sighed as she went over the newest revelation in her head. It was as if the universe was actively conspiring against her. Yet, despite this, Louise would not be deterred from assisting the Jedi. If they all died, she would be all alone, forced to finish her mission with Khem by her side. Not only that, but it would help change their view on the Sith. So, with that in mind, she replied, "Well, I'll be here. Waiting."
Quorian groaned, pushing himself off the floor, steadying himself against the wall. "I'll be right back," he said, though it was little more than a mumble. With that, he left the room, leaving Louise alone with her sleeping monster and the worried Quarren who seemed just as concerned as she was about the tired Knight.
Roughly ten minutes later, according to the chrono on her datapad, the door opened once again, however, instead of Quorian's face appearing before her, it was Urik's.
He must have sent Quorian off, hopefully to bed. Louise thought to herself.
The last time she had seen the Jedi Knight, he had been calm and collected as he questioned her and Quorian about what transpired before the bombing. After that, he left, never to return until now. He looked horrible. He was not exhausted like their friend but lost. She could not only see it, but he felt much darker in the Force than he had before.
Upon entering, Urik got straight to the point, his voice as hollow as he appeared, "You've requested to see the darksider?"
While taken aback by how pathetic the Jedi looked, Louise did not let it show as she replied. "Yes, if you would allow me. I think I could assist in identifying the corpse."
Urik looked as if he were considering her words, his eyes unblinking as they were locked on hers. "I will allow this… however, I must first ask you two questions."
Unlike her previous conversations with the Jedi, the urge to bite back with sarcasm was nowhere to be found. He just looked so defeated that she felt compelled to humour him. After all, there was not much that could be asked that had not already. "Go ahead."
Taking a deep breath, he asked his first question. "Do you know anything about Master Korr's disappearance or any other of the missing Jedi?"
Louise could practically feel the weight of the words upon her, the pleading in Urik's eyes. "No, I only learned of the disappearance today."
It was like Urik had been punched in the gut, the pain that threatened to overtake him. "This is disheartening," he said.
"What of your second question?" Louise asked.
Urik was quiet, nodding his head absently as he seemed to try and rebuild his composure. After a few moments, he asked, bluntly, "Whose side are you on?"
This time Louise recoiled slightly at the question. "What do you mean?"
"There is a high chance that this darksider may be Sith," he explained, his expression hardening. "If that is so, whose side will you be on?"
Louise paused, understanding how dangerous this meeting would go if she answered in any way he deemed wrong. "If this is the work of a Sith, it might cause some issues." Urik did not look pleased by her response. "But, as the apprentice to a Darth, I might have more political sway should it be the apprentice of or a Lord or lesser Darth. They would be interfering, not I."
"Sith politics are strange," mused the Quarren in its native tongue.
Aside from a passing glance, they paid the Jedi guard no mind. Turning back to each other, Urik took a deep breath before replying, "I guess that's the best I'm going to get." He sounded disappointed yet unsurprised. Rolling his shoulders, his looked around the room, briefly pausing where she knew Khem lay, before returning to her. "I'll take you to the darksider."
Inclining her head, Louise replied, "In a moment, I'll have to inform Khem first."
Spinning on her heel, she moved to where Khem slept and tried to shake her monster awake. It took a few moments, but soon the Dashade roused, his sleepy eyes glaring up at her as he asked in his usual grumpy tone, "What is it?"
"I'm going to inspect the darksider," she said, ignoring his frown. "Stay here and I'll be back in a bit."
Shaking his head, Khem grumbled something about sleep and eating the next person to wake him before returning to his pillow. Shrugging off the oddity that was her Shadow Killer, Louise turned back to the Jedi Knight, who beckoned her to follow.
Aside from her toilet and bathing breaks, she had never really left the confines of the detention cell and as such, she was momentarily surprised by how bad everything looked the deeper they walked. Much had changed in the four days, from the new pile of scrap that was once the collective medical bay, ship and communications, to the buildings that were scarred and even damaged by the explosions. Few were out and about and those that were looked as if they were trying to repair or build something from the scrap. Under the light of the eclipsing planet, all seemed depressing and small.
The duo continued for a bit, walking along the dirt pathways until they arrived at what she assumed was a barrack repurposed as the new medical bay. The layout of the entire building was quite standard – large, long and rectangular with room for beds and other amenities – which allowed it to be easily converted into a makeshift medical bay with a scrap wall separating the morgue from everything else.
As Louise and the Jedi Knight walked through the building, she could see that, while there weren't many injured, those that were looked horrific. Sterilised gauzes covered the burn victims of the attack while others needed primitive stitches to seal cuts and gashes – the worst off were those that needed both. With limited supplies of the miracle liquid, kolto, Louise knew that most of these people would end up horribly scarred by the attack. It was disheartening to see. What was worse were those who noticed her entrance and the suspicious if not outright hostile glares levelled towards her.
Louise tried her best to ignore them.
Soon past the scrap wall, they found themselves at the morgue where the darksider's corpse lay. On the floor and on a few tables, the dead lay with dark sheets pulled over their forms, hiding whatever gory sight one might see under the white artificial lights. Aside from her and Urik, nobody else was in the room. She could smell the decomposition, but there was another smell lingering in the room she could not place.
"Do with it what you will," the Jedi said, gesturing to one of the cadavers that sat further away from the rest.
Louise nodded in reply, walking over to the covered body. She attempted to pull the sheet from its form but found that the sheet was stuck to it, it also seemed crusty in some places. Using the Force, she pinned the body down and with her other hand, she tore the sheet free, only to regret it moments later.
Under the bright lights of the barracks, the disgusting sight of the beheaded darksider was free for all to see. The fungal description she had given it all those days ago continued to fit quite well. The growths was not armour as she previously believed, but organic cancerous growths. What once were human features were twisted and disfigured with these strange growths jutting painfully from various points around its body. Its mouth was little more than a slit in the hard chitinous shelf that covered most of its head and then some, its eyes nothing but small holes. Not only that, but it seemed… bigger than it was four days before.
Aside from the strange bodily growths, she noticed signs of tattered clothes and bits of armour underneath, the strange growths growing over and melding to the materials. Unfortunately, the clothes were far too old and ragged for any identification, and from what she could see, the armour was little more than rusted plates of metal.
Louise could not help but breath a slight sigh of relief, however, that still left her with the enigma that was the strange darksider. From its armour to its appearance, she recognised nothing about it, aside, of course, its– wait…
Slowly, Louise moved closer to the corpse, stretching her feeling out in the Force, poking and prodding with her senses. There was something strange, something familiar about the cadaver. Pulling back, she snapped towards Urik who had been quietly watching, arms crossed, with indifference.
"Have you discovered its identity?" he asked, his fingers beginning to drum against his arm as we waited.
Louise shook her head. "I'm going to need some gloves and a saw of some kind."
Indifference was soon replaced with confusion as he asked, "Why would you need gloves, you have your own, and why a saw?"
"It could be infectious, and I'd much rather not burn my clothes. As for the rest, I have a theory about what this thing could be," she explained. "I hope I'm wrong, but I need to cut it open to check." She could practically see the questions on the Jedi's tongue as she spoke, but they were apparently unimportant as Urik turned and left the room with a murmur of 'one minute'.
When he returned, Louise had finished setting up the room for her needs, repositioning the table the creature rested on under one of the bright lights and acquiring a nearby wheeled table with a long shallow tray to hold all the messiness that was to come. Urik, for his part, managed to salvage a pair of navy polymer gloves and what looked to be an electric surgical saw.
With a thank you, Louise took the gloves, replacing her own with them, then took the saw and moved towards the corpse. Taking a second to roll up her sleeves, she turned on the saw and began cutting into the darksider's chest.
As she did this, she could feel the incredulous stare of the Jedi Knight burning into her back. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Urik asked while she worked.
Louise had absolutely no idea what she was doing.
Aside from spilling entrails and cutting open the skull of a mutated Tuk'ata, she was completely new to the idea of dissection. However, one thing she did know from her studies, though not proficiently, was biology. Anatomy, microbiology and cytology, from genetics to physiology, she tried reading up on everything relating to how living creatures worked and what they were made up of – Yet even then, she knew she had not even scratched the surface of her studies. Nevertheless, all she knew she needed were the illuminating journals written by the enthusiastic Sith scientist, Lord Renning.
"Un moment," she muttered, focusing on getting this right. If Renning was correct, and she desperately hoped he was, there were obvious signs to discern the origin of the darksider, if only one looked inside.
Cutting through the torso was a simple task made difficult at points. The growths needed to be shaved off before she could get to the body proper which took time and effort, but it all paid off. Soon, the skin was peeled back with liberal use of the Force, revealing the sicking sight of the ribcage and organs. Fortunately, it seemed the creature did not bleed, but blood would have been a welcome sight compared to what she was seeing. The growths were not simply limited to the outside of whoever this once was, but seemed to have originated from the creatures very core. Unlike the usual red or at least pink one would expect to see when opening up a corpse, the organs were an ashen grey with misshapen deformities aplenty. The heart was at least double the size of a normal human with strange spindly root-like tentacles sprouting from it, whereas the digestion track was nothing but shrivelled up tubes.
The sound of disgust filled the air, gaging from behind her. Louise could not blame him. Even she could feel bile rising to the back of her throat. She continued regardless, loathed as she was to do so.
Returning the saw to the body, she began cutting through the ribs one at a time. While bone was certainly tougher than flesh, it was far easier to deal with, and soon enough, she was able to remove the ribcage with only a bit of resistance. Once that was out of the way, she summoned her dagger to hand, and with the razor-sharp blade, she carved out the various organs for closer inspection.
Upon removing the heart, lungs, kidneys, and various other bits and placing them on a nearby table, she moved onto removing the final piece: the brain.
Unlike carving the chest, the chitinous shell was far harder and in far more abundance, requiring Louise to shave off chunk after chunk of the organic armour with the saw. However, this did not deter her. In roughly ten minutes, the brain was out, sitting with the other organs.
Looking over the selection, her grimace deepened. Most of the organs were in similar condition to the intestines, shrivelled husks, whereas the lungs, heart and brain seemed by far relatively 'healty' despite the deformations. The brain also had similar rootlike tendrils that seemed to grow from its centre, just like the heart, which caused further issues when she tried removing it. Arbitrarily, she decided to inspect the brain first to see if she could learn anything.
Levitating the clump of grey matter with the Force, she brought it close, once again stretching out her senses to investigate the brain and almost immediately she noticed. The creature was nothing natural. It was not born as such, it was not infected by some pathogen or mutagen transforming it into such – It was twisted by Alchemy. Examining the other organs, she found that they all shared a common trait. She could feel the Dark Side, not lingering like the snow in the early days of spring, but emanating from the very tissue, the cells that made it.
"Merde!" she swore, dropping the heart onto the table with the rest of the organs.
"What is it?" Urik asked, stepping closer to Louise. "Do you know who or what did this?"
Louise nodded her head, a frown creasing her lips. "Yes, I think so, but I'm not sure how it would help."
"What do you mean?" he pressed further.
Shaking her head and hoping it would not backfire, she told him what she knew. "This creature is sithspawn, a creature twisted by Alchemy."
"So, the Sith are at fault."
"No," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I doubt this was the act of the Sith Empire. This creature seems far too… sloppy compared to the sithspawn I've seen and fought." Louise paused, thinking over the history briefing she read en route to Dxun, trying to come up with a reason to back up her claim. "Freedon Nadd was trained by Naga Sadow and had acquired quite a few pieces of Dark Side lore, for all we know this could have been a creation of his, or one of his Naddists."
Urik hummed, musing, "Didn't Exar Kun also travel here during the Sith War?"
"Exar Kun is no Sith," she corrected, before confirming, "but you are correct."
"Could there be more of these?" he asked.
"Possibly," she said, beginning to remove the dirtied gloves from her hands, placing them on the table with the organs. "I doubt the creator of these things only had one test subject to work on. A few of them could have been working in tandem during the attack."
Sighing, Urik rubbed his face tiredly. "We need to get those comms repaired."
Louise nodded her head slowly in agreement. Without communications, the sithspawn could pick them off without the Republic or Jedi at large knowing until it was much too late. "I'll see what I-" she cut her sentence off, an epiphany striking like lightning in her head. "My ship. We could use my ship."
"Your ship?" Urik echoed, looking at Louise strangely for a moment before blowing up in outrage. "Why haven't you brought this up before!?"
Recoiling, Louise quickly defended herself. "I was stuck in a detention cell for four days!"
The Jedi looked to say something but hesitated. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. "It doesn't matter now," he said. "What matters is getting to your ship. Do you have anyone, a droid perhaps, you could hail?"
"Yes, just give me a second," she said, pulling free her holocommunicator from her belt before dialling her ship – The holocomm beeping methodically as they waited for Toovee to respond. Time passed and soon the beeping came to an abrupt end, intoned with a sound reminiscent of the alarm back on Elu. "What?" Louise stared at the holocommunicator confused. This had never happened before.
Dialling up her ship once more, she waited for Toovee to pick up, her eyes flickering over to Urik who's face was bereft of emotion. The dial tone once again played, each beep deepening a pit forming in her gut. Once again, the dial tone died with the grating alarm sound, sparking the lights of anger and irritation within her. "Come on, come on!" she growled, dialling the ship once again, only to get the same response. "Damn it to Chaos! They must have destroyed my ship," she shouted, the urge to try and crush her holocomm out of frustration passing through her before she managed to get control of her frustration.
"No." Urik shook his head. "Had you ship been destroyed; the call would have never gone through. Nobody's there to answer your calls."
Knowing the Jedi was probably right, she tried calling once more. "Come on, Toovee! Answer or I'll turn you to scrap!" but once again, it ended with the grating alarm sound.
But before Louise could start pulling her hair out of frustration, Urik butt in. "How far away is your ship?"
Sighing, Louise tried to calm herself, putting away her holocomm before she decided to throw it at a wall. "A few kilometres, in the old Mandalorian outpost from the Dark Wars. You want to send a party out?"
Urik nodded. "You'll be coming with, of course," he said, crossing his arms. "If we can get to your ship, we can get to Onderon and help."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Louise asked.
"It's far too late," he replied with a shake of his head. "The jungle is dangerous at night, so it'd be better if waited until tomorrow."
Louise could understand his concern. Dxun was dangerous enough as it was and adding on the darkness of night would just make it easier to end up in the maws of cannoks or drexls.
So, with this, Louise spent the last few hours of the day working around the compound. The day passed quickly as she helped, however, without much skill with the mechanical or medical arts, she found herself relegated to simple tasks, helping lift heavy loads with the Force or assisting actual trained medical personnel. It was interesting to see the medics work, and while she could not learn much from the short time and lack of many practical things to do aside from making sure that the injured wounds were clean, she enjoyed it.
Soon, night fell, and Louise returned to the detention cell with Khem – without a Jedi guard – ready to get a good night sleep so they could head out in the morning. But before sleep could find her, the familiar hiss of a door opening alerted her to a midnight visitor.
Her hand was only halfway to her dagger hidden under her pillow before she stopped, recognising who the visitor was.
"Quorian?" she called, pulling herself into a sitting position on her bed, her hand under her pillow just in case.
In the nigh-pitch black room, the Jedi looked nothing more than a shadowy figure, barely visible against the walls, his silhouette moving and oscillating slightly as her eyes struggled to see him. "Uh, sorry, did I disturb you?"
The desire to send the Jedi away so she could sleep was strong, but Quorian was her friend so she instead asked, "What's wrong? Having trouble sleeping?"
Quorian did not answer for a time, the only sounds in the room being Khem Val's snoring. Eventually, he seemed to gain the courage to speak. "I… Louise, I wanted to speak to you about something."
Pulling herself further out of bed, she snapped her fingers softly, bathing the room in a dim warm glow as a small flame danced centimetres above her palm. Both the Jedi and Sith found themselves briefly blinded by the sudden light, but quickly their eyes adjusted. Quorian, while looking much better than he was the day before, still seemed haggard and tired as he stared at the flame with a small amount of appreciation. Louise hoped his appearance was just because he probably awoke recently, but it still worried her.
"What did you want to talk about," she asked, drawing his attention away from the flame and on to her.
"Um... I'm not sure how to say this…" he said. "Uh, you won't tell Urik or anyone about this?"
Louise blinked at his caution, her sleepy mind jumping around trying to figure out what he wanted to talk about. But nothing could come to mind at this point, though this only served to bring suspicion to her mind. "No… I don't have any reason to tell them anything."
"Thank you," Quorian replied earnestly.
"So… what is this about?" she asked, trying to hide the suspiciousness from her voice.
"I… uh… I'm not sure if you'll understand," he mumbled. "I'm having problems sleeping."
"I can see that," Louise said patiently.
"I hear whispers." In an instant, a cold pit formed in her gut. "Ever since arriving on Dxun, I could hear it whispering in my ear."
"Whispers?" she asked tentatively.
"The Dark Side," he said gravely. "I… I can hear it whispering in my ear whenever I'm trying to sleep. It's… It's just like on Korriban."
Louise had no idea what to think of this. The Dark Side was just the Dark Side to her, nothing evil or vile, but she knew Quorian did not think that way. So, she pressed on asking. "What do you mean?"
"You know what happened to me on Korriban, how they drugged me," he explained, sitting himself down on the floor, "how I was barely lucid at times. When I went back to Tython for healing, I'd have these strange surreal dreams. The mind healers just thought it was the after effects of being on Korriban too long… as time passed, the dreams became less common, but now on Dxun?'
"The Jedi council were so close to not letting me go on this mission, said it was too dangerous for my health," he continued staring off into nothingness, "but I picked up quite a few things from Korriban, so I was qualified. When I arrived on Dxun, I could immediately feel the Dark Side; it wasn't like Korriban, but close. I'd still have the occasional dream, but when the attack came… every day I've tried to get some sleep but the whispers… the dreams. I can't."
"Do the other Jedi know of this?" she asked, thinking over what he had said.
"No, not at the moment," he replied.
"I'm not sure what to say," Louise said, and she honestly did not. "I've never heard anything like this."
Quorian became quiet for a time, and just when Louise began to think he was hearing whatever Dark Side whisperings he was plagued with, he spoke again, "How… how do you handle the Dark Side?" he asked, his brow creasing as if he were trying to figure it out as he spoke. "Like, how do you use it? How does it feel when you do?"
Louise opened her mouth, then closed it quickly. "I've never really thought about it before," she said. "The Dark Side has been the only 'side' for me. It's been with me since I was a slave and it's been in my blood for thousands of years. It's just… natural to me, I guess."
"The Jedi Council would disagree with you there," he muttered.
"I don't really care what they think of me as long as they're not actively trying to kill me," Louise said shaking her head. "I'm sorry I couldn't help." And she meant it. While she had no qualms about the Dark Side, she had heard the tales of Jedi who 'fell' to the Dark Side, and those Jedi who 'fell' usually fell hard.
"You might've," he sighed. "I've got to go, don't want anyone noticing the Jedi sneaking into the Sith's bedroom at night." At that, he quirked a slight smirk.
Louise smiled in return. "They'd probably think I was seducing you to the Dark Side," she joked.
"Would it be enough to wake the Emperor?"
Louise could not properly articulate her outrage at such a crass comment, one she never expected from a member of such a chaste Order as the Jedi, because she was currently choking on her own breath. Consequently, the fire she used to light up the room died. When she finally recovered from her choking fit and relit the flame, she could not help but gape at the Jedi before her. "I never thought I'd hear that from a Jedi," she said with pink-hued cheeks.
Quorian smiled at her outrage. "Well, if there's one thing I learned during my time on Korriban, it's vulgarity, swears and how oddly attractive some Sith are," he said, looking quite thoughtful as he spoke.
"Yeah.," Louise said breathlessly, thinking of one Sith in particular.
Sighing, Quorian said his goodbye's once more, leaving through the door he came. Once the door hissed closed, Louise dismissed the flame and went back to her bed, covering herself with her sheets. Just as she laid her head down to get some sleep, she heard the gruff voice of Khem speak to her. "You're very oblivious, aren't you, pink Sith?"
Surprised, Louise asked, "You were awake?"
"Yes," he replied.
"Oh. Sorry for waking you," She said apologetically, only to realise what Khem had actually said a moment later. "What do you mean, oblivious!?"
Her only response was what passed for a sigh from the Dashade. When no other reply came, Louise grumbled to herself about Khem and Jedi before trying to get to sleep. Like the nights before, her dreams were plagued by the Sith Temple, but instead of the dilapidated mess it was today, it looked freshly built, its walls unblemished and the carvings as clear as day.
The dream would always be the same, her walking down the halls of the Temple, following the sounds of someone calling for her, deeper and deeper into the dark abyss that was the bowls of the temple. And then, when she had reached the end of her journey, just before a great stone door, she would just wake up.
The first thing she noticed upon re-joining the land of the waking, was the sound of someone knocking on her door.
Khem was already halfway there to answering, so Louise allowed herself to enjoy the comforts of her bed for a few moments more. It was pleasant. And then, though surprised he may be at who opened the door, Urik entered looking far better than he did the day before. "Uh… Louise? Are you ready? We've got to go."
Louise could hear the anxiousness in his voice, the urge to get to her ship as quickly as possible. "Ugh, fine!" she said tiredly, pulling herself up from her pillow. "Just give me a few moments and we can go."
Urik nodded, spared a glance to Khem, then left.
Sighing, Louise pulled herself from her bed and began to get ready for the day. It was roughly twenty or so minutes before she deemed herself ready, including the brushing of her hair, cleaning of mouth and other such cleanliness activities in spite of the poor supplies.
Soon, Louise joined Urik who waited patiently near the makeshift medical bay, where three other beings; Nola the Togruta Jedi, and two Republic soldiers, donned in their white and red full-body armour wielding their blasters.
"So, the Sith finally decided to show up," Nola called upon noticing Louise.
"Nola," Urik said warningly.
"What?" she asked looking slightly confused by Urik's chastisement.
Louise ignored the girl and just focused on the two others in the group. "Who are these two?"
"I am Sargent Monsi," said one, a distinctive male voice coming from the one on the right, their armours making It difficult to tell the difference. "And this is Trooper Jensun of the Republic Military, Sith." he continued gesturing to his cohort, who only nodded in acknowledgment.
"A pleasure to meet you," Louise said diplomatically before briefly looking around the compound. "So… where's Quorian?" she asked.
"He said it would be better to stay," Urik explained. "Come on, enough stalling, let's go get your ship," As he said this, he began walking towards the only entrance into the compound there was, determined. Nola quickly joined Urik's side with the Republic soldiers behind her. This left Louise and Khem to lag behind somewhat. Fortunately, she was not the only one who knew where they were going, at least somewhat; Urik knew exactly where he met Louise and so, she deferred his leadership.
Louise followed with Khem by her side, but she did not stand as close to Urik as she would have liked, if only because any time she tried to move closer, Nola would glare at her.
Soon, they eventually entered the jungle proper, the undergrowth brushing against their legs as they pushed forwards. Thankfully, the sky was clear from clouds, allowing a good view of Prael, Onderon's sun.
It was roughly thirty or so minutes into their walk when Louise began to feel paranoia grip her gut. Every so often, her eyes would dart around, snapping to any sign of movement. If they were correct and there were more of the strange sithspawn, it would not end well. Deciding not to endanger the party by keeping this to herself, she called out to the group. "Does anyone feel like their being watched?"
"Yeah," muttered Urik, his eyes darting around. Nola, too, was looking around, following where he was looking almost instinctively. She knew what they were looking at, or at least trying to look at. She could sense it too; the jungle was brimming with life and she could sense it all, especially whatever it was lurking outside her vision.
"Predators," Khem said, his hands reaching up for his Sith sword, unsheathing it in one fluid motion. "They're hunting us."
"What did the monster say?" asked Nola, agitation rolling off her in waves.
The urge to snap back was strong, but she ignored it and instead translating, valuing her life over a petty grudge. "Khem Val said that we're being hunted by predators."
"Everyone, be on guard," Urik ordered, taking Khem's warning seriously, his hands hanging gripping the lightsaber that hung from his belt.
The Republic soldiers, as well as the two other Force-sensitives, followed suit, their hands resting on their weapons, ready to whip them out at a moment's notice. But nonetheless, they continued through the dense undergrowth, eyes ever watchful as their mind filled their heads with fear – Khem exempt.
The sound of flapping wings heralded something massive, and Louise only had a split second to react before a massive purple mass smashed into the path ahead of them. Everyone stopped, their weapons torn from their holsters and belts, lightsabers ignited, all aimed towards the massive mass before them.
Slowly, the creature unfurled, two massive leathery wings expanding out, revealing a head that looked like the unholy offspring of a bird and some form of spider. Spikes jutted out along its spine, down a long and powerful looking tail that reminded her of a manticores spike upon its tip that swayed like slightly as the creature looked down on them with four pitch-black eyes.
Louise had no idea what they were going to do. The creature was far bigger than a terentatek, its height nearly reaching the canopy of the tall jungle trees that surround them. She knew what the creature was, having read about them when researching about Dxun, but seeing one in person, it was like seeing an adult dragon for the first time.
"That's a big drexl," one of the Republic men muttered unhelpfully beside her.
However, the most interesting thing about this was that the creature had not attacked yet, it just stood, staring at them, at her, with is alien black eyes.
It reared its head back, and for a second, Louise was under the assumption that it somehow learned to breathe fire, but instead of fire burst from its strange maw, an ungodly screech tore from its mouth. All she and her companions could do was quickly throw their hands to their ears in a feeble attempt to stop the sound from defining them. Eventually the screech stopped, yet the ringing in their ears did not subside, nevertheless, they managed to recover enough to raise their weapons in defence once again. Already, Louise's mind was working to figure out how to dispose of the obstruction, only for planning to be cut short in shock.
Before her, standing side by side with the drexl, was a veritable army. She could not even count how many of Dxun's monsters she could see before her, seemingly materialising out of thin air. From cannoks to zakkegs, these monsters stood snapping and snarling at the small party.
It was almost like every creature from Dxun had arrived just to block their path. It was unreal… unnatural. It was just like the pack of cannoks five-six days ago. Stretching out her feelings, she found it was exactly like it was five-six days ago. All the creatures were touched by the Dark Side.
And suddenly, Louise knew that if they stayed here, they would die.
Quickly, Louise grabbed the shoulder of the closest person to her, drawing the attention of the Republic soldier, before shouting "Run!" at the top of her lungs.
Whether by reading her lips or for some other reason, the Republic soldier did not need telling twice and quickly grabbed his squad mate, pulling him back as he retreated. The Jedi and Khem looked at her, their eyes snapping between the fleeing Republic men and her. "Go!" she shouted, pointing towards the soldiers.
They understood and obeyed, no questions asked, not that she would be able to hear with the ringing in her ears. Using her fear and pain, she called upon the Dark Side of the Force, summoning what strength she had, and flung it forth, summoning a massive wall of fire. Some creatures recoiled in fear, the Dark Side losing its hold on them for a moment, but it was all she needed to quickly high-tail it out of there, following the path left behind by the rest of her group.
As she ran, she hurled her lightsaber at the nearby trees, using the Force to guide it, cutting through the wooden trunks and letting them fall behind her, acting as a distraction for any perusing beasts.
They continued running and running, and eventually, they could run no more, or at least Republic soldiers couldn't. Underneath their helmets, their breaths were haggard, as if they were struggling to gulp down as much air as they could. One even removed his helm, revealing the features of what looked to be a brown coated cathar – a race humanoids with strong cat-like features. "Is everyone okay?" she asked the gathered group.
"Karking… hell! What was that!?" cried Urik, his breathing a little less laboured than the Force-Blind.
Louise had no idea, but she certainly knew that whatever it was, it must tie into the strange sithspawn. Looking back, she stretched out her senses, trying to see if they were followed or not. When she noticed nothing but the presence of trees in their vicinity, Louise frowned in confusion. The last pack of Dark Side addled creatures attacked them relentlessly, but these ones seemed content to scare them off.
"Guys… is that smoke?" one of the Republic men asked, his voice clear in her ears despite the ringing, as he looked off above the tree-line.
"What are you-" Following his gaze, Louise could feel jaw drop at the sight of the smokestacks that wafted up into the air, twisted by wind as it rose. "Oh, merde!"
"Kark!" Urik shouted, his skin unhealthily pale. "The compound! They're in danger!"
"We can't run anymore!" one of the Republic men cried, his breathing still dangerously laborious.
Growling, Louise threw her hands up in the air. "Oh, for the love of the Emperor!" she shouted, tightening her grip on her lightsaber before pointing at her Shadow Killer. "Khem, pick him up." She gestured to the heavier looking Republic soldier. "I'll carry this one."
"What ar-" said Jensun, or was it Monsi? Louise did not care at this point in time and instead used her rune enhanced strength to lift the guy up, bridal style. "Oi, put me down!"
"We don't have time for this," she snarled at the man as Khem dealt with his own soldier. "Let's go!"
Calling upon all the speed the Force would allow, Louise, raced through the forest, followed closely behind by her companions. They sped over the jungle floor, trees passing like blurs as darted left and right, heading in the general direction of the smokestack.
Yet, despite the Force augmenting their speed, they were still too late.
The compound was practically ablaze. Buildings, already damaged from five nights before, now lay in ruin, a few corpses of the Republic workers lay strewn around, some killed by beasts, others murdered by way of lightsaber. Everyone looked around, trying to find any survivors, but all they found were butchered men and women, though the Jedi were conspicuously missing. Even Quorian, her friend, was gone without a trace.
No.
Her dream came to her, replaying through her head with crystal clarity as if she were living it for only a few moments. Walking through the temple she went, her hand brushing across the carvings upon the walls, of beasts tearing each other apart as caricatures fought with swords or lightsabers. She could hear the voice calling to her, but there was more to that now. She could feel the Darkness encroaching in on her, like the presence she felt when she first entered the tomb. So like the Dark Side it was, yet different.
Louise nearly collapsed from the weight of the vision, gasping for air.
The Temple was the key to all of this.
Whatever was going on, the Temple would have answers.
AN: Happy Holidays? Yeah… 58+ days is far too much time. I am profusely sorry for the wait. This chapter was a bridge chapter and I wasn't sure if I could split it up or not. Instead I chose to just go 'Fuck it' and have everything go to hell quite quickly.
Hopefully the next one will be out sooner.
I have updated the first few chapters, 1 - 4, of act 1. Tell me what you think!