STAR WARS
THE CRIMSON BLIGHT
Episode 10: Power of unity
On the orange fuel rich planet of Quesh. Tikala and her Master, the kel'dorian jedi master Buzz. Who had taken Tikala with him on their first diplomatic mission together on behalf of the republic and the jedi council.
Tikala felt tired after a lengthy talk with the local Hutt rulers. Despite trying to be at her best the entire time to seem generally interested in their proceedings, she and her Master had both concluded that diplomacy wasn't her strong suit.
She was in her late teens and the horns on her head had almost stopped growing, to her annoyment they could be very itchy at times. Signaling her as a jedi padawan, a thin but long braid hung from her light brown hair, also both her master and herself wore the traditional brown robe of a Jedi.
Her Master suddenly looked up above them, as he spotted a dark hooded figure moving about the rooftops.
Tikala shivered nervously, "I... I feel there's something menacing lurking here."
She felt a hand on her shoulder. "It will be alright," she heard her master say.
Without really realizing what was going on, Tikala instinctively rolled out of harm's way, as two crimson lightsaber blades burned through the air where she stood a split seconds ago. Both enemies unleashed force lightning, aimed at her and her master. Then she witnessed her master calmly hold a hand in front of her and absorbed the incoming lightning.
The Jedi simultaneously ignited their green lightsabers. Both their opponents were completely covered in large black cloaks, with some kind of cloudy net in front hiding their faces.
Tikala calmed herself, as she went into motion, drawing on the force to guide her actions. She and her Master counter attacked in the fencing style of Makashi, she with speed and he with precision. While the cloaked assassins were able to block or step backwards to avoid injuries, it was clear to her that they didn't expect to be on the back foot.
She noticed the assassins were trying to back away into a nearby building, to once again merge with the shadows and gain the stealth advantage. So she quickly changed her style to that of Ataru and force jumped over them and performed a somersault slash from above. While they deflected her attack, she was now blocking their escape routes to the buildings behind and had them caught in between Master Buzz and herself.
Tikala sensed an overwhelming amount of fear gathering in their now trapped enemies, as they desperately fought to get out of their precarious situation. Tikala could feel a burning rage glowing from the two in black. But she figured that as long as she could keep the momentum going, her enemies wouldn't be able to focus their darkside powers on her without risking a fatal or disabling injury.
While she clearly held the speed advantage, constantly minimizing her enemy's ability to maneuver, her strength however was a bit lacking. Twice her cloak was burned by her inability to completely block the sith red blade, once her hair was roasted slightly on the top of her head and even the tip of her lightsaber hilt was melted. She used the force to amplify her muscle capability in order to avoid dangerous injuries.
In the meantime, she noticed her Master was out fencing his opponent, and as soon as an opportunity presented itself, he used the force to in case the sith in a stasis field. The sith in front of her was a bit too slow to react to the fact that he stood alone and in between two jedi. The Assassin only managed to put up a meager resistance before Master Buzz weakened him with force suppression, while she used the distraction to kick the lightsaber out of the assassin's hand.
She sighed in relief, as they disarmed and escorted the assassins to the Hutt's security, to report the attack on their lives.
"You have certainly improved your skills with Ataru," Buzz complimented, even as she could sense he disapproved of the rash way she put her own life at risk for blocking the sith's escape earlier.
In hyperspace, on board the Silent Fang.
Mathorn wakes from his sleep, he rubbed his temples, as he tried to remember the vivid dream. As he exits the crew quarter, he stumbles upon Briza, who had just stepped out of her own personal chamber, "Morning Sis, did you see today's Tikala vid? Or was it just me?"
Briza couldn't decide if she should shake her head or chuckle, so she just casually replied, "I witnessed it too. It's strange to see the war from the opposite perspective," the latter said in a more contemplating manner.
"See the side of the good guys, and you know, the good guys always win in the end," Mathorn grinned widely.
"Yes yes, you and those good guys can go out and heroically sacrifice yourself for the greater good," Briza sardonically replied.
Tikala, who already was up and had been looking over star maps for the past hour in the conference room. She noticed the talking outside the main hall, she rose from her seat and walked out to say, "Good day you two. What were you talking about just now?"
"About another instance of your memoirs sneaking into our dreams," Briza informed. "This time we witnessed you and your master fighting a group of Sith assassins."
"Sorry about tha-" Tikala was about to say, until she was interrupted by a disapproving Brother.
"SORRY?! No sis Tik. Thanks for that awesome memory of your battle against those darn sith bastards, they really had it coming," Mathorn eagerly applauded. "No offense Briz, being sith and all."
"None taken. But call me Briz again, and I will have you search all the asteroids bare handed, Briza casually threatened.
Mathorn was taken aback by that response, "Duly noted."
"Well it's good my memories at least have some entertaining value," Tikala said, as she tried to remember which event he was referring to. "Also could you please not call me Tik. It sounds so off putting."
"Got it, Sis. I'm very much looking forward to the next episode," Mathorn grinned widely to his own delight.
As Briza was taking it all in, she asked, "What was the goal of your mission in visiting Quesh? It was never stated in your memory."
"Honestly... I don't remember," Tikala had to admit. But on the other side, at least she didn't accidentally lack classified information.
"By the way, what happened to your old lightsaber? Did you lose it?" Mathorn asked, as he couldn't remember when he had last seen her former single bladed lightsaber.
Tikala had to think for a moment, "No I didn't lose it, instead I used its parts in making my current one. Since it was in need of repair anyhow."
As they were just talking casually to each other. Briza decided it was time to be productive, "Okay, let's get something out of this day, and since we don't have enough room to do proper fencing training, I suggest we train our force link abilities."
Tikala nodded, "I concur, we don't know when we will get another chance to test ourselves."
"Sis One and Two, I am at your service," Mathorn bowed for the fun of it, but was ignored as usual.
Briza led them to the conference room, as it was the only room where they wouldn't be in the way. After pressing a button that made the table and the chair disappear below the floor. They all sat down cross legged on the cold floor.
Tikala was the first to speak, "If I may make a suggestion, since I´m the only one who really knows how to share my powers with you through our link. I suggest that both of you learn to do so as well."
"Good idea, I want sis powers," Mathorn replied in agreement.
Briza was initially going to agree with the idea. But doubt kicked in, as she remembered that they were witnessing Tikala's past events in their sleep, she realized that she too was running the risk that her siblings would be able to see her past events. But as the Jedi siblings were awaiting her answer, she decided to take the risk regardless, "Okay. Let's try."
Tikala could sense Briza's unease, but wasn't sure why. She decided to commence teaching, "Close your eyes. Reach out with the force." She felt her siblings were following her in the force and she sensed that they were connected in the force, and all participants did their part to uphold it.
Everyone remained calm, while their force present became known to all. It was like an eternity before Tikala spoke again. "Imagen, all that we feel, all what we are, all are the same. There is no individual, there is only us, and we are only one," Tikala said, as she was showing them through the force, how to let go of themselves and let their force presents flow in and out of each other.
While Mathorn clearly tried his best to do as told, he so far lacked the ability to make himself flow in the force, and experienced some trouble lending his force present to his sisters.
Briza on the other hand, was getting a feel for this link connecting, as she tried to simulate Tikala's method in her own way. It took a while though, before she could finally get herself ready to lend out her force powers.
Tikala could sense her sister was now lending her force powers little by little. She opened herself as much as possible to accept the energies that flowed to her through their force link.
To Briza, this felt very strange and slightly repulsive. She was actively making herself weaker, by offering her power to her Sister, "This may be the least Sith thing I have ever attempted."
As Briza was letting her force present seep into her sister. Tikala could feel the ominous dark energies flowing through her body. It made her shiver, it felt cold and menacing. While the dark energies didn't seem neither hostile nor corrupting, but was a huge wake up call to the simple fact that her sister was a dark lord of the sith. At least she was impressed by her sisters' abilities to keep this dark power calm and compliant.
As Tikala was controlling Briza's dark force powers for simple tests, such as lifting one of the chairs from beneath the floor, she pondered if her brothers could accidentally fall to the dark side, just by the mere exposure to her sister's dark energies.
While Briza lent her force presence away, Tikala's own presence became darker in the force. She was pretty sure everyone in the Jedi counsel would have forbidden her from attempting to control a sith's dark powers like this. She could even feel the slight temptation to test its destructive properties.
Briza became aware that her dark presence was actually tempting her sister's curiosity. She grinned, as she realized that this could be a way to turn her sister to the dark side. Not that she thought it would be wise to attempt it now, as she also realized how powerful and dangerous their combined presence was becoming. One wrong move and they could send their ship flying off course in hyperspace, instant death would be highly likely.
After a while of practice, the two sisters could now fluently send their force presence back and forth, through their shared force link. They now turned their full attention to their brother, and actively helped open up Mathorn's flow in the force. Trusting his sisters, he let them guide him open and let his force present flow out like his sisters were doing.
While different in feel than her own, Tikala found her brother's force powers much easier to use as they, simply put, just worked well in tandem with her own, since there was only a little dark side energy in his presence.
Briza also found their brother's force powers easy to use as it was very neutral in its form, and with little effort it could be used to fuel her own darker force powers.
Mathorn found it all extremely strange, his force presence was flowing around in their force link, instead of staying in him. It was even stranger when he felt Tikala's force presence entering him, simultaneously with his own being shared.
At this point, all the chairs were hovering in the air, frequently being controlled by a different person, but with the same force present holding it up.
Although he had tried Tikala's force presence before and knew the feel of it, it was in complete contrast to the sensation, when he felt Briza's force presence coming into him. Mathorn felt dark, and overwhelming darkness was hanging over him, he felt both terror and exhilaration as the dark energies entered his body, it was... nothing like he could have imagined. He felt both incredibly energized and icy cold at the same time.
Briza could sense Tikala was very fixated on Mathorn's reaction to the dark powers he was being exposed to. However she must admit, it was a bit surprising how quickly Mathorn presence seemed to darken and distort. "I could turn him now, if I so desired," she thought to herself. However, she couldn't turn him without alerting Tikala to her doings. So she concluded, "If I am to succeed in turning them, I must turn Tikala before I turn Mathorn."
To say Tikala was nervous, would be a grave understatement. She was however happy to the fact that Briza seemed to reduce her dark presence over Mathorn, so much so that he never seemed too tempted at any given moment.
While Mathorn had felt the call of the dark side many times before, mostly when he was very angry or frustrated, this was something entirely different. He felt like the dark side was already a part of him, giving him a taste for how it would be, if he actually became a sith apprentice and the freedom it would bring. He would answer only to Briza, as they together would destroy anyone in their path.
But as Mathorn could feel the tempting and begging darkness in him, calling him to give in, he also felt Tikala's presence of light entering him. He felt like a whirlpool of conflicting energies rushing through him, if his sisters hadn't kept their force powers in check, he feared he would simply explode from the overwhelming amount of energy.
It took, what felt like forever, before he finally figured out how to use even a fraction of the energy he was receiving. "If this wasn't so darn difficult to control, I might be powerful enough to crash a Dreadnought into a planet," he mumbled to no one in particular.
"Maybe the future would give us the opportunity to test it," Briza commented, while still keeping her force presence in full control.
"Should we invite Terrow to join us? I sense he has just awoken," Tikala thought, as she shared the thought through the force link. They all concurred and simultaneously reached out to him.
Terrow was just about to check if everything was in working order, then his siblings all reached out to him through the force, inviting him to join them. As he neared the conference room, the door opened automatically for him to enter. In the room, he noticed everything was hovering in midair, lamps, chairs and even the large table was rotating slightly around its own axis. The only stationary was his siblings, as they sat motionless on the floor, in full concentration.
As they noticed Terrow seated cross legged beside them, they began to carefully connect him to their already quite energy intensive force link. He could feel the enormous amount of energies coursing through him as his siblings were kinda testing how powerful they could make Terrow, without burdening him with maelstroms of force power.
"If I have had this kind of power back on Korriban, I would have been a top sith acolyte with ease," Terrow thought to himself. Not that he had any skill in using these powers he quickly realized, as even controlling a single chair was next to impossible. He only felt powerful.
While they could add Terrow's force presence to their combined pool of force power, it was only like a small drop of water in a vast expanding ocean. At least he did learn how he could actively communicate with them through their force link.
As half a dozen hours passed, at this point they had lost all sense of time. So it came as a bit of a surprise when they heard a Twi'lek speaking over the ship's central comm, "We will reach our destination within an hour."
It took them all a moment to get out of their collected trance. It felt like they were now standing on dry land, after they had all been swimming in a river of force energy.
"I suggest we get something to eat before we reach the outer rim asteroid fields," Briza said through their force link, as she rose up and headed for the door, with the remaining siblings following suit.
For the Twi'leks, it was really strange seeing their zabrak superiors not uttering a single word to each other at any point while they ate, only occasionally sighing or smiling at each other.
As the Silent Fang exited hyperspace, they immediately engaged its cloaking generator. Now invisible to the surrounding sensors, the ship began to carefully search the asteroid field for anything of interest.
All four siblings stared out of the front viewport and into the endless amount of asteroids. A truly awesome sight to behold, looking like millions of planets have collided and fractured into an unending amount of tiny pieces.
"We could be looking here for the rest of lives and still never find what we are looking for," Terrow uttered, as he tried to grasp the enormity of their mission.
The three other siblings had already begun to reach out with the force, trying to sense if there was any sign of life or anomalous in the force.
Though Terrow couldn't detect anything on the ship's sensor array, he knew that through the force link, that his siblings had discovered something dark out there. Through the force link, he was given a vague direction for the ship to follow. He took direct control of the ship's steering, he believed it would be safest, as he would get any hints of danger immediately from his siblings.
As the Silent Fang scouted the vastness of this rock plagued part of space. The siblings could sense that there indeed was life, even in this atmospheric place. Some microscopic form of fungus was infesting the inners of millions of asteroids. But they could also sense other more significant beings deep within the center of the asteroid field.
For several hours they searched with little success, however it did feel like they were approaching something living, though still outside the range of the ship's sensors, scanners and radar. If it hadn't been for the force and the force link they shared, Terrow would basically be flying blind, as asteroids were blocking most of the sunlight and some of the asteroid's metal components could interfere with the ship's sensors.
Mathorn was beginning to have problems concentrating on sharing his energies, so it was a relief when Tikala pointed out and shared her discovery. "There is something of durasteel in that direction, a dozen people reside inside of it."
After a few minutes, the ship's sensors picked up what Terrow believed to be a small installation.
"Everyone to your stations! We are entering a pirate's nest," Briza ordered, as she and her siblings had noticed that the installation was full of hostile and greedy people.
"Since we are still undetected, shouldn't we just head out of here and report back to Darth Deedrah?" Tikala and Terrow thought in unison.
In contrast, both Briza and Mathorn would prefer to use the element of surprise, kick in the door and take the installation for themselves, as they believed the four of them and the Twi'leks would be enough to conquer the base. Briza ended up deeming it a bit too risky, not to mention going against their direct orders, nevertheless she did want to make an alteration, "Terrow, get us out of here, but find a different route. We are still searching for the artifact Death Deedrah was talking about."
"Very well," Terrow replied and changed course.
Despite the fact, no new orders had been given audibly, the Twi'leks calmed down a little, after seeing Terrow changing course away from the installation.
For a long stretch, they searched the endless maze of weightless rocks. But while it did seem like they were flying blind, Tikala in particular and her siblings could feel that something odd and strange was emerging, a dark aura of a sort.
To the twi'leks, this was becoming increasingly scary and the feeling of unease was spreading through every inch of their bodies. Though they did trust their zabrak superiors in normal circumstances, this just seemed too strange to be part of. The zabraks never spoke, they just sat with their eyes closed and seemingly guided them through this nightmare fueled place, only Terrow seemed to open his eyes once in a while to check something on the display at the cockpit where he was seated. They were essentially doing nothing, they could only remain seated and wait for orders that never seemed to come for what felt like an eternity. Some of them wanted to protest, but were too afraid to distract their commanders in fear that they would accidentally steer the ship into a nearby asteroid.
Reaching out with the force, searching every asteroid within a few parsecs in every dimension, "Out there," Tikala said in the force, as they could finally sense a single large asteroid that was covered in dark side energy. "Got it," Terrow immediately replied and steered the ship towards the lone asteroid, which was still one and a half parsec away.
Slowly turning their focus away from the force link, both Tikala and Briza began to notice the frightened state of the twi'leks. Tikala began to use the force to ease the twi'leks nerves, mentally calming them in the light side of the force. Briza couldn't really get used to the light side energies that her sister was unleashing around the ship, but it was useful for the moment, so she ignored it and let Tikala do her work.
"I believe this is the place where we should go look," Terrow told them, as he pointed out of the viewport to a large dark gray and very ominous looking asteroid, almost like it was possessed by something from a nightmare.
Mathorn froze for a second, do they really expect me to go out on that thing? "Do I have to? Space is so cold," he complained.
Tikala wanted to offer to wear the suit in his stead, but with only a single glance at the spacesuit, the twi'lek's had made ready, she knew she was simply too small.
Briza gave Mathorn a stern look, "Well, either you do it or I would have an inexperienced twi'lek take your place."
Mathorn wanted to combat that idea, but their spacesuit didn't really take the twi'leks head tails into account, "Okay. I'll do it, so they won't have to."
Tikala at first wanted to tell him that he shouldn't concern himself with his image, but instead she just said, "Good luck and may the force be with you."
Mathorn smiled in return, "Thanks Sis, I'm most likely going to need it."
A little later. Mathorn was walking outside on the rocky and barren asteroid in a movement hampering spacesuit. "This is awkward," he muttered to himself, as he tried to move around in this cumbersome durasteel tin-can of a suit, without stepping into some of the millions of tiny holes that covered the surface.
"Is everything okay?" he heard Tikala's voice asking over the suits comm unit. Mathorn didn't really want to bother replying, "Everything is great... I just realized where I would least like to end my days."
As Mathorn was searching for... whatever was supposed to be out here. He started to feel more and more spooked out, "Now all you little monsters, I know you are out there, you can all come out to play."
"Shut up moron! Focus on the task!" Briza firmly demanded of him. Mathorn didn't reply, but made a mental note to himself not to speak out loud while his comm unit was on.
Tikala felt worried and disturbed. This dark side energy was not something she had experienced before, it was alien, "I sense too much darkside energy emanating from here, and... It feels like it's getting closer!"
Mathorn had just heard his younger sister's warning, when a tall skeleton silhouette appeared in front of him. After a second look, Mathorn could only describe it as unnatural. Whatever that thing came from, It was not from his galaxy.
It was tall and gaunt, it had long sharp talons, wild white and glowing grayish eyes, staring at Mathorn with a hungry expression.
"WHAT THE! What are you?" Mathorn asked out of fearfulness, as he stared at this grotesque looking humanoid being.
It replied in a telepathic brain damaging shriek! Mathorn fell to the ground in agony. All the ship's personnel were falling to the floor in horrifying spasms, even Terrow spasmed to the floor, lacking any control over what they were doing.
"KILL IT!" Briza screamed in return. As she was barely on her feet from that telepathic shriek, she and her sister were still standing nonetheless.
"FOCUS!" Tikala shouted. "We must force-link with Mathorn NOW!" and immediately began injecting her present into Mathorn, to help him regain his strength.
Mathorn, who had collapsed on the surface of the asteroid, had suddenly gotten all his energy back, plus a little extra... Which was just in the heel of time, as It lunched with its long sharp talons right at his face. He instinctively rolled away despite his cumbersome suit.
He got back on his feet, just as It's other hand launched for him. He turned on his lightsaber that he had brought with him in case a cutting tool was needed. His blade collided with It's three talons per hand, as It attacked in fury at him in rapid sessions.
As his yellow blade now illuminated the monster, he could properly see It's hideous face, as well as notice that It was hovering instead of walking and was nearly naked aside from ephemeral rags of clothes.
He also noticed that his suit had received deep claw marks to the side of his helmet. One direct hit and his suit would be leaking air. He had to be on the defensive, as in this space suit he simply couldn't match the speed of this monster, as it was hovering all around him and attacking where it presumed him as vulnerable.
To say Mathorn was stressed to his breaking point, would be an understatement. To him, this was like living in a nightmare, he had never dreamt of encountering such a horrifying beast. It goes against everything he thought he knew of the force and the beings that inhabited the world he lived in. He now firmly understood that he knew nothing.
Inside the ship. Both the female siblings had trouble understanding what It was that was attacking their Jedi brother. But as It was now flying up in space to make a dive down attack on the Jedi on the ground, both of them got a glimpse of the hideous creature of nightmarish proportions, out of the front view port.
At first, Tikala wanted to get down on the asteroid to help fight the monster, but realized that it would be wiser to keep her force-link to Mathorn open at all times and she would also need to focus on cocooning herself in the force, just to survive in the vacuum of space.
Briza cursed herself for the fact that they didn't have more than one spacesuit on the ship, an oversight she wouldn't repeat, she quickly followed her sister's example and began opening her force-link with Mathorn, before it was too late. But in her mind she wondered, "Is this one of the dark side creatures I read about? Born from sith alchemy millenniums ago and unleached to terrorize the republic."
Mathorn began to feel pretty powerful, as now both his sisters were giving him their force energy. But consequently seemed to make the monster go into more of a frenzy than It already was, as he seemed to be more of an enticing meal, the more powerful he became.
With the force-link feeding him the power to keep up with the undead being, he could now retaliate with quick and powerful strikes at It's pale and skinny body. But while his yellow lightsaber could block and slam the creature away... it couldn't piece It. "Help!" Mathorn uttered, as another terrifying truth was revealed to him.
Both his sisters instantly became aware of the problem facing them... They didn't even know how to kill it?! Briza began to fear for their brother's survival, but Tikala said in a calm but firm voice. "Briza, give him as much of your force present as you can. I'll try to charge up a light-side trick that might just repeal It away."
Briza absolutely hoped her little sister knew what she was doing, but she didn't argue and unleashed everything she had into her brother below.
To Mathorn's observation, It seemed to be frustrated that he was now less delicious and began to get angry. Instead of It's usual melee attacks, It first screamed at him, which didn't really do much, as Mathorn had made force bobble strong enough to block It's telepathic attack. When that didn't work, It unleashed a storm of force lightning right at him. Mathorn was doing his absolute best to absorb all the lightning into his blade that was now more blue than yellow from the sheer intensiveness of that dark side lighting he was trying to manage.
The pressure mounted and his endurance and focus was put to the ultimate test. His lightsaber hilt was beginning to overheat from the insane amount of energy it had to handle, and unfortunately dark side lighting sparks damaged the lightsaber's focusing lens. Mathorn didn't have time to react, before he was engulfed in agonizing lighting and hurled backwards into the rock formation behind.
As Mathorn was losing consciousness from the burning pain and the impact alone, It came right for him, ready to make the killing blow. Briza panicked and instantly unleashed force lightning through Mathorn, Who was now firing dark side lightning right back at the monster. It screamed in pain, but only seemed to be slightly damaged by the otherwise deadly display of power. It seemed clear that dark power was not the better solution.
Concentrating on gathering the pure light side energy into herself, was a feat that felt next to impossible in this dark side infested asteroid. Tikala had to meditate on all the good she knew and of her willpower to protect others no matter the cost. After what felt like forever, she managed to gather enough light side energy inside herself, next she used Mathorn as a conduit of her focus and channeled all of the gathered energy into him, ready to be used.
The shirking monster now began to strike again, but also seemed to be confused about the changing present from dark to light and that made It hesitate for just a second. As It was within touching distance, Mathorn fired a concentrated emerald blast of healing and purity right at the undead monster. It didn't even manage to scream, before It was utterly disintegrated by the power of light, as if the being of darkness had never even existed to begin with.
Mathorn collapsed on the rocky surface, "Someone please promise we will never see another of those things ever again."
"I really wish I could," Tikala replied, in a tired voice. "At least I don't believe It will ever come back."
After Briza had checked on Terrow's condition and made sure he was alright, Briza returned to the task at hand. "Mathorn, you have definitely earned time to relax, but could I ask you to look for the artifact? Once we have that, we can leave this cursed place for good," she ordered softly in a weary tone.
Mathorn mostly wanted to just go back and take a rest, but the logic of his older sister seemed reasonable. He got up and began to look around again, while asking a simple question, "Does anyone know what we have just faced?"
"I am not sure. But from what I read, I believe the thing we faced is called a Spaceweird," Briza told. "It's said that they are manifestations of the dark side."
"This is also what I concluded," Tikala nodded. "That's why I believed it would be possible to calm and heal It to death."
"So that is what you did. The light side is not so bad after all, maybe it's only the Jedi themselves that is the problem," Briza contemplated.
Tikala sighed, "That makes me wonder, whether you and my master would get along?"
"If he is preaching the same nonsense as the rest of you, properly not," Briza replied nonchalantly. "Then again from what I have seen of him in your dreams, he seems alright."
While Mathorn could hear his sisters talk over the comm unit, he sensed something that had the unmistakable call of the dark side, but it seemed harmless compared to what he had to face earlier today.
As he looked down into a nearby crater, he could almost make out something with a square form. "I think I found something," he called over the comm.
"Try to gently pull it out of the crater," Tikala suggested.
Mathorn carefully reached out with the force, but it was stuck in the crater, so he focused even further and made a mental grip around it and began to pull it hard. After a few tries, he finally yanked it free and nearly hit himself in the head with it, as it flew up towards him.
As Mathorn inspected this little black chest, he found it almost dull like in its appearance, he could sense it has some sort of dark presents, but nothing of significance. The chest itself was neither heavy, nor did it have any markings. But he didn't care, he was too exhausted, "Pick me up. I got what we came for."
As Mathorn entered the ship, only Tikala was there to greet him and help him out of his space suit. But before he could ask where everyone was, he noticed that Briza was the one flying the ship, and that all the personnel, including Terrow, were sitting lined up against the wall of the ship. All of them looked as if they had a concussion or something similar, "Was it the screaming?"
Tikala just replied with a worried nod, as she was handed the black box, before helping Mathorn out of his spacesuit.
After she succeeded in releasing Mathorn from the spacesuit, they both went into the cockpit and began helping Briza navigate the near endless stream of asteroids.
"Thank you sisters," Mathorn uttered honestly. "This Monster has been the only thing more frightening than Imperious."
"Not to say this hasn't been a dreadful experience. But talking to the entire Dark Council directly, is still my most terrifying experience," Briza told, but it didn't feel all that correct. "But it's been a long time since I had worried so much for others," though she only thought it inside herself, she noticed Tikala seemed to have picked up upon it.
"I just hope we will be more prepared, if we should ever face another of those," Tikala hoped. Then she remembered why they were here to begin with, "Should we go see what is in that chest?"
"You two handle whatever that box thing might contain. I'll get us out of here first," Briza replied nonchalantly, as she kept her focus on the flying.
The lock on the chest was easy enough to break open, Tikala carefully unlocked the chest with the force. "A mask?" Tikala pondered, as she slowly took the artifact out of its casing. The Mask itself was made of some sort of crystal like martial, half was made of black crystals and the other white. It didn't feel neither dark nor light, but instead it radiated an eerie feeling in the force, like it was twisting the currents in the force.
Tikala found it very strange why the mask was sealed in a dark side radiating box, she wondered if it was the box or the mask that attracted the Spaceweird.
"So... should we put it on?" Mathorn suggested, he really wanted to know what it was and what it could do.
While Tikala had to admit she too would very much like to find out what this artifact was made to do. She firmly replied, "No. Though it doesn't seem to be of the dark side, I still believe it is of Sith origin and putting it on could make oneself susceptible to a LOT of unforeseeable dangers."
"Let's show it to big Sis," Mathorn said and just took the mask with him to the cockpit. Tikala sighed, and followed behind.
Despite keeping her focus on the display at all times, Briza could easily sense an object with a strange aura of a sort. It became really distracting, when this object was now held out to her by a Mathorn saying, "See Sis, we found this weird Mask and we kind of wonder what it does."
Briza had to admit to herself that it was a fascinating looking mask, she would like nothing more than to study it here and now. But this was no such time. "Whatever it is you are thinking about doing, wait until we are out of here."
Tikala nodded in agreement, then asked, "What do you recommend we do?"
"The best course of action would be to contact Darth Imperious about our findings... when we have escaped this labyrinth of asteroids," Briza told directly. "Do me a favor and help me navigate out of here," she added more as an order, than a polite request.
As Tikala took the role as the navigator and began coordinating a more optimal route, Mathorn began to look over the sensor array. "Sis! That huge ship over there, is turning towards us!"
"How far away is it?!" Briza quickly demanded to know. Whilst she had noticed the other ship on the radar, but as they were still in stealth mode, she hadn't considered it a possible threat.
"A quarter of a parsec!" Mathorn relayed, before warning signs began to flash on the screen. "IT'S SHOOTING AT US!"
Briza couldn't believe it, but as she looked over her own little radar monitor, the unknown ship was indeed firing at them with its long range Ion cannons. "Get to the turrets!" Briza firmly ordered. "We are in stealth mode! How come it can see us?" she cursed her luck, meanwhile her Jedi siblings scrambled to the ship's only two defense turrets.
As soon as the Jedi had seated in a turret each, they could hear Briza speaking over the comm, "Target the Ion cannons! With them out of action, we should be able to outrun them!"
As the first blue Ion plasma blast hit the starboard of the Silent Fang and cut the ship's remaining ray shields down by half, Briza had no longer any doubt their ship was visible to the enemy. The question was how they had spotted them, whilst they were flying in stealth mode… As Briza maneuvered around a few asteroids, she also quickly looked over the state of the cloaking generator and made a diagnosis of the system, only then did it report that the cloaking generator was damaged. "WHY DIDN'T THE SHIP REGISTER THAT CRITICAL PROBLEM?!" she shouted at the monitor in rage. If she hadn't been using her hands to control the Silent Fang, she would have used them to slam its dashboard.
"That's the risk of flying a prototype of anything," Terrow muttered, as he was gathering his strength to start moving again.
"Shut up and help!" Briza told him flat out, despite being happy to see his consciousness again.
"Yes my lord," Terrow quickly replied and began to look up schematics of the ship they were facing.
As the Silent Fang was hit by another ion cannon blast and its ray-shields were reporting close to zero remaining energy, it was clear that they couldn't get away in time. Its turrets also weren't doing any damage to the pirate frigate, even when Mathorn and Tikala were aiming directly for the pirate ships Ion cannon… problem was that their turrets were made to shoot fast starfighters, not other large ships. Briza was getting insanely frustrated that the ship couldn't maneuver fast enough to get out of harm's way. "THIS SHIP IS USELESS WITHOUT STEALTH!"
AsTerrow was looking over schematics, he realized that they were heavily outgunned. Without a functional stealth generator, they were hopelessly outmatched in every category. "This does not look good!" he muttered under his breath. "Or... maybe not," he quickly looked over everything in the schematics again to make sure he was right. "We need to send a message and proclaim our surrender."
Briza really didn't like that option, not that she could see another way out at the moment, so she played along. "You do that, Terrow. You look much more like an imperial captain than I."
"Very well, as long you and our siblings take care of our guests," Terrow smiled and turned on the comm unit. "This is Captain Dexten of the Silent Fang, we wish to surrender."
"Power down and prepare to be boarded!" replied a brutish female voice.
"Understood," Terrow replied, as he began to turn off everything, except for the comm systems.
"Are we surrendering?" Mathorn asked, a bit confused, as he and his little sister entered the cockpit.
"We could attack the Frigate with asteroids, once it gets a little closer," Tikala suggested, simply because she was out of more peaceful solutions.
Briza, trying to keep calm, shook her head, "No, we need the element of surprise. So, Terrow, let's hear this plan of your's."
Looking out the side viewport of the Silent Fang. The pirate frigate came close enough for them to notice that it was painted in green and orange, the same colors that the Tenken Syndicate Bounty Hunter guild normally used.
"So it is them again, something tells me we are on the right track," Mathorn pointed out, while occasionally getting chills from his nightmarish fight with the spaceweird.
Tikala nodded, "The Pirate base, as assumed, properly belongs to them too."
She felt none of them were at their peak, this spaceweird really had made a number on them. "A thought had occurred to me, this spaceweird thing could have damaged our cloaking generator with it's insane screaming."
Mathorn nodded and replied in a mumble, "Bloody weird thing, could all those old Sith not find a better hobby, than create death creatures."
"Enough chit chat, we need to be ready when the syndicate enters," Briza cut them off, as she walked over to the airlock that the invaders were most likely to use. They were all really tired as they prepared themselves for the fight soon to come, but she however still believed that they could fight their way through the frigate's personnel.
As Jedi and the Sith lord readied themselves for the battle to come, Terrow was typing like crazy on the communication console. The adrenally was pumping, as he readied a message to be sent, "Please! This has to work!"
They could hear the frigate magnetically connect one of its airlocks to their single airlock. "Everyone get ready," Briza ordered, as she and Mathorn stood to each side of the airlock, whilst Tikala stood further away to the side of a doorway, where she had a complete overlook airlock entrance.
As soon as the airlock opened up, gas grenades were thrown inside. Tikala instantly force pushed the grenades back at the likely throwers from the other side of the airlock. As the grenades exploded in a thick cloud of gas, cut off shouts and coughs could be heard.
"Amateurs," Briza thought to herself, as she and her siblings ignited their lightsabers. While using the force to protect themselves from the harmful gasses, they counterattacked into the ranks of unskilled mercenariness. Just to make more confusion, Briza did her usual trick and detonated the bombs on the people wearing them, while Tikala only activated the stun grenades to avoied risking injureing anyone.
As one of the officers realized that a bunch of Sith were attacking them. He immediately sounded the alarm... but to his horror, it wasn't working and none of the frigate's safety systems was working either. The only solace in all of this, was that the largest of the lightsaber wielding zabraks knocked him out with a quick punch, instead of killing him.
While the fighting was taking place, Terrow could now ease a little back on the Silent Fang. He had completely sliced into the frigate's systems and disabled everything, except for life support. Earlier he found vulnerabilities in the frigate's aging systems, as he had rightfully guessed that its datacore hadn't been upgraded for quite a while, perfect for exploits using the Silent Fang's state of the art slicing array. After making sure he had absolute control, he could comfortably relax in his chair, as he followed his siblings' progression using the frigate's own surveillance systems.
They continued their speedy rampage through the frigate's narrow durasteel corridors, with next to no resistance hampering their progress. Tikala was getting the familiar feeling that something dark was approaching, "I sense Psiron is coming, he knows we are here."
"Oh no, not again," Mathorn muttered in frustration. "Get ready for a zombie rush."
"Not if we have anything to say about it," Briza firmly stated. "We ought to be able to stop his effort with our force-link. Be ready to link between one another!"
Tikala had to admit they were all a bit too tired to fight Psiron's mindless goons. Outwards however, she just nodded and prepared to repel his dark mental infestation.
As they reached the entrance to the bridge, Mathorn quickly kicked the door wide open. And... he was immediately overwhelmed by a few dozen force controlled crew members, including the captain. "A... little help please!" Mathorn uttered in desperation, as he was attacked with vibroblades and other durosteel made objects that could be used as a bludgeoning weapon.
"Force-link with me NOW!" Briza commanded loudly, with her sister responding immediately. Using both hands aiming at the mindless enemy in front, she unleashed her red force drain lightning, with the extra energy at her disposal, she drained the force powers that controlled the crew members. And as a shock to Tikala, their life energy was drained as well.
"That was awesome!" Mathorn praised his elder sister, as all the mindless people fell lifelessly before him.
Briza felt incredibly fresh again, after receiving so much of the drained energy from the crew members, "Now this feels great."
Tikala was shocked that Briza converted her own force present into an all consuming dark energy that murdered all these people. "You didn't have to kill them!" she angrily scolded her sister.
Briza dismissed it and responded firmly, "If you value the lives of these people, gather the unconscious survivors and make sure they aren't suddenly being mind controlled."
"Very well," Tikala replied calmly, turned around and went to look at the remainder of the frigate's crew. But to her horror, she found out that Psiron had already mentally killed them all personally. "There is no death, there is the force," she muttered to herself, in hope of calming herself, "This monster needs to be stopped."
In the meantime, Briza was talking to Terrow over the comm, "You're sure it's safest to fly this ship all the way to Dromund Kaas?"
"Yes, while some of the Twi'leks are waking up, we still don't have the manpower necessary to completely ready the frigate for combat, in case more ships should arrive on our position," Terrow explained. "We need to check this ships datacore, I would really like to do it in a safe environment."
Briza thought about it for a second, before she made up her mind, "In that case, you will take what you need to make this ship flyable. I will fly the Silent Fang myself. I'll have Tikala and Mathorn help you out."
"As you wish, I'll be there shortly," Terrow smiled and disconnected.
Accompanied by nine Twi'leks, Terrow walked through the corridors of the frigate. He stopped for a second as he noticed a great number of lifeless bodies levitating around the ship, "Did we kill everyone on board?"
"A few, but most were killed by Psiron's mind control," Tikala replied, as she moved all the bodies to the coldest part of the ship's storage room.
"I see," Terrow said in a sadden voice, but returned to focus on the task at hand, "Well, we are going to take this frigate back with us to Dromund Kaas."
Tikala nodded, "Let me know if I can be of assistance."
"When you are ready, join us on the bridge," Terrow replied politely, as he continued on. The Twi'leks, who had already been traumatized earlier by the shrieking spaceweird, were getting extremely nervous with all those dead people lying around this ship.
As Terrow entered the bridge, he immediately addressed his sister, "Lord Briza, I have prepared the navicomputer for Dromund Kaas, you only need to exit the asteroid field and engage the hyperdrive."
"Excellent, I will leave you to it then," Briza smiled and exited the bridge. On her way back to her own ship, she did notice the cooling room was filled with dead bodies. "Did we kill everyone? Or did the usual madman take the credit,"she asked her sister, who at that moment was placing the remaining bodies in an orderly fashion.
"The madman. When he abandoned the fight, he took their lives," Tikala elaborated in a low and sadden voice.
While Briza didn't care much for any of those lost lives, it was easy for her to see that Tikala was deeply troubled by all those deaths, "Together, let's end this madman."
"Together," Tikala mimicked with a temporary smile.
With the help of the Twi'leks, they got the frigate moving again after detaching from the Silent Fang, the two ships were now navigating the endless maze of asteroids. Terrow could see that a number of other ships were trying to hail them over the comm unit, in order to confuse the possible enemy, he made sure that the comm system would send a corrupted signal in return, making it seem like the comm system was malfunctioning.
After half an hour of very careful flying, they were finally free of the asteroid field and made the jump to hyperspace.
As Terrow, Tikala and the Twi'leks were flying the frigate, who's name they found out was Anvil.
Mathorn in the meantime, was taking a tour of the ship by himself, everywhere he looked it was metallic gray, cables and other equipment was hanging from the sealing, no one cared to hide the exposed wiring or the ventilation canals. Finally he found what he was looking for... The kitchen. Though he didn't find any kind of exotic foods, there was on the other hand, enough food rations for months, if not for an entire year. "Good enough." He thought to himself, before he opened one and took a bite of its greenish bread-like substance.
Mathorn realized he must be tired, as he barely noticed Tikala had found him, "Hi sis, want a piece?"
"I am not really hungry," Tikala responded slowly, as she looked around the piles of rations that Mathorn had opened up.
Mathorn found her lack of appetite disturbing, "Really?! There is plenty of it."
Tikala just looked tired, as she changed the subject, "Terrow said, he is taking care of things for the time being, I suggest we should go to sleep in the meantime."
"You are going to sleep too?" Mathorn asked surprised, his sister normally meditates all the time.
Tikala nodded, "Yes, I'm exhausted and in need of rest."
Mathorn thought for a moment, "Well I believe I noticed a room full of bunk beds, right down the hallway."
"I know, I cleared the room of the people who died in their sleep," was Tikala's direct response.
Mathorn couldn't really think of anything appropriate to say... So he just replied with, "That's rough."
Again Tikala just nodded, "I have locked the rooms where they have died and made sure the rest was usable. Anyway, good night Mathorn, I'm going to bed now."
"Night Sis." Mathorn replied, as Tikala went to get some shuteye. It didn't take long before he decided to heed her advice and went to bed too.
Mathorn found Tikala sleeping soundly, like any other humanoid in the galaxy. "She looks so cute when she sleeps," he thought to himself, as he chose a bed for himself and fell asleep.
It was strange for Briza to be alone without her family, she had to admit, she had gotten so used to them by now, that it felt a bit lonely. While some of the Twi'leks were still on board the Silent Fang with her, they were exhausted and traumatized by the spaceweird's shrieks."Why did Terrow have to take the most able servants with him," she thought irritated, not that she needed them much to begin with.
For the first time, Briza was alone in the conference room when she made a call to her superior and ally. "Darth Deedrah, our mission has been a success," she uttered, as soon as the image of the sith-pureblood flickered to life in front of the desk.
"Excellent. I have already received the details from your brother," Deedrah congratulated. "I'm impressed, this was quite a feat, both your apprehending of this space creature and capturing a fully armed frigate. Darth Imperious is pleased with your actions."
Briza sighed in relief, while trying not to show how tired she really was, "We are here to serve."
"Before I forget. The mask you dug up, would you show it to me?" Deedrah asked politely.
"Certainly," Briza replied in kind and showed the mask that was lying in a small box beside her. "Why Psiron decided to dump this mask out in an asteroid field is still beyond me. It's not dangerous as far as we know."
Briza could tell that Deedrah was studying the mask for a moment, when Deedrah responded again it was in a heavier tone, "I know you have just archived this valuable artifact, but I highly request that you bring it to me."
Briza had expected this to be the case and she did feel an amount of irritation in handing it over after all this hard work. But in her mind, it was something she could let go of, "Very well, it's not like any of us have grown attached to it."
Deedrah smiled brightly as she spoke, "Thank you Lord Briza. You will be compensated for its value and for your effort."
For a time they talked, now that they had the opportunity to speak freely, with Deedrah at one point asking, "How goes the training of your renegade apprentice? Or should I say, how does the transition develop into his new role as a Sith apprentice?"
"Truth be told, it's still work in progress, mostly because he is not as interested in power, or the dark side, as he is in achieving total freedom," Briza told and continued by laying out her plan. "I have learned he is eager in expressing himself, so a few well orchestrated parties could easily invigorate him to commit fully to the empire with both body and soul."
"Sounds like you are already planning such an event," Deedrah grinned slightly.
"Not at the moment, but it's on the drawing board for the time being," Briza reassured, with a grin of her own.
Deedrah sighed slightly, as she looked at her chrono, "As much as I want to continue this conversation, I have much to attend to, you must be tired by now."
"Well, I'll let you get back to work then. I will deliver the mask personally tomorrow, we can continue then," Briza replied.
Deedrah nodded, "Tomorrow then, may the force serve you well."
"You too," Briza bowed, as the image flickered out.