CH. I – Silent Knight
I watched the stars in the night sky fly past at a blinding rate, completely oblivious to what I should be focusing on...the kill.
It was what I had been to told to do, it was the purpose of this "assignment", in a way, it was the deciding factor of whether or not my continued breathing would in fact continue I thought to myself as I watched him.
A Republic diplomat I had been told, that's all I had been told....as much as I didn't like the idea of being sent to strike someone down without knowing what I am up against I had very little say in the matter.
Master Fenox had given me my orders, I must execute them, the penalty for failure is death.
I couldn't seem to get that fact out of my head, not because I was afraid to die, by comparison to others I did not have that much left to live for, but the simple thought of that young apprentice back at the academy, the way she....I was becoming distracted again, I really need to quit that.
I was soon brought back to reality by the movement of the other passenger in the compartment with us, by us I mean myself and my mark, I had been studying him for a while now, his movements and mannerisms, trying to sum up my odds.
Presently my odds look good, a little to good, this one looked as old as the Republic itself and diplomats don't usually travel by themselves, but after the fall of the Republic fleet in the attempt to destroy the Star Forge, they were desperate and becoming more and more secretive, may be he was try to sneak by...it mattered not, I had found him, it obviously hadn't worked.
We were alone now as the other passenger had gotten up for who knows what and left.
Now is my chance to prove myself and I prepared myself to strike, it must be quick and quiet, as little noise as possible.
For a moment our eyes met and I knew his time had come.
The last thing he saw was likely a rushing mass of black coming towards him as I leapt to strike, maybe even a flash of red, no one will ever really know what he saw, but as for what I saw, I can be sure.
A perfectly placed slash across his neck ended his career as a diplomat, or anything else for that matter.
The placement of the slash, instantly lethal, gave me a sense of accomplishment, the job I do may be considered, but evil is subjective, regardless of whether what I do is right, I can be assured I do it well.
I knew he was dead, he had no time to scream or make any noise – not a sounds to shatter the quiet clam of the night...damn I'm good, besides I could feel it, when you've seen as much death as I have you can sense it, but when you've seen as much death as I have it also diminishes the thrill...damn.
Quick and quiet I thought to myself as I smiled under my hood, one slash and done, hell, this was too easy.
Now it was a matter of getting off this hover train...
An old adage states that you should never say things cannot get any worse, because they will, it became clear to me at that moment you should never state that something was to easy, because at that moment something or things will come to complicate the hell out of it....and something did.
In the doorway of the compartment stood the passenger who had left earlier, accompanied by 5 Republic soldiers holding rifles.
Just another passenger.....good call Rane, I thought to myself as I watched the man now holding a blue bladed saber and staring me down.
"I could sense your evil, Dark Jedi" he said to me in a monotone voice.
I stared and said "You knew I was here and you left the one you were protecting? You must be one hell of a guardian" I said putting emphasis on the term guardian "Are you always this good or am I just special?" I said to him.
The smirk on my face was quickly removed when I realized that I had a Jedi who's aura was steadily becoming stronger which is a bad sign between myself and my way out...this is not good.
"You could run for the door behind you fool, but you wouldn't make it" he told me.
There's a door behind me? Said to myself and turned my head slightly, so there is...damn.
Six of them, one of me...nope, aint gonna happen I thought as I made a break for the door, I figure I had a better chance of those soldiers missing me than I had of not missing them with a thrown lightaber at such a close range.
Lucky for me I made it through that door and sealed it, allowing myself to rest against the wall to collect myself from my death defying leap through a doorway in the midst of laser fire.
Wait a second I thought, he has a light...at about that time that same blue saber beam came through the door to greet me and I proceeded to get just as far away from that door as I could as fast as I could, I may be good with a saber but I'm no match for a master, Fenox made that painfully clear in "teaching me my place", something akin to being beaten on with a semi-sharp excuse for a sword for hours on end.
I found myself now in a storage compartment that had 2 floors, should I go up to avoid him I asked myself, my answer quickly being delivered by the sound of a saber cutting metal from behind me, that answer being that it didn't matter where I went all that mattered was that I got there really damned quick.
I reached the door at the other end of the compartment as the Jedi and his lackeys came through the front door.
From seemingly nowhere a small round object fell onto my head, I picked it up to find that it was a thermal detonator, taking advantage of this I did what any reasonable Dark Jedi faced with almost certain death would do...I dealt it back tenfold.
The detonator in one glorious flash and one hell of an explosion and sent the soldiers, or what was left of them to the ground and gave the train a new skylight with which to attract new passengers in lieu of the fact that most of them likely wouldn't return after realizing 6 people had been killed and a compartment fragged in just one train ride.
"Someone up there must like me" I thought.
The quiet "Shit!" from above me revealed that secret admirer to be an Republic grenadier with an open pocket that had apparently fallen open, on his grenade belt.
"Or not" I said as I stuck my lightsaber through the ceiling and finished him.
I could feel the train slowing and I opened the back door to see the soft grasses and open air.
From behind me I heard something stir and turned to see that Jedi master standing again, injured but standing.
"Assassins don't leave survivors" he said to me "Are you always this good or am I just special?" he smirked at me.
Okay, now I'm pissed I though as I drew my saber and turned it on, this was it, my mark dead albeit with a few complications and a master's lightsaber as a trophy, how much better could this get?
That apprentice from the academy would be nice...."Dammit quit thinking with the wrong head Rane" I thought to myself and attacked the Jedi.
Maybe it was because he was injured, maybe it was because I really am that good, but he fell and I took his saber.
Now to get off this train, really.
By now we had slowed enough that I could jump and be relatively assured of a safe landing, hey I had just killed a master I reasoned, whats a 5 foot drop?
And drop I did, right on my ass.
"No one saw it, I'm still good" I said as I stood and looked around.
I walked to a stream and kneeled to drink before contacting Master Fenox to tell him of my success.
As I activated my holopad I couldn't help but wonder what he would say, would it be a "well done" or did an execution await me for being discovered?
Fenox's image came up on the holopad and he spoke
"Is it done my apprentice?"
"Yes master, it is done" I replied and awaited his next question.
To my surprise no question came, simply a "well done" and an order to return to Korriban, I was needed to train new apprentices, and on top of that, I was being given a new "assignment"
With that his image disappeared and I sat back to wonder what "assignment" awaited me on Korriban, only to decide to that whatever it was there wasn't anything I could do about it, that being said I had better things to worry about, I though to myself with a smirk, like that young apprentice on Korriban I'd be seeing so soon...
I watched the stars in the night sky fly past at a blinding rate, completely oblivious to what I should be focusing on...the kill.
It was what I had been to told to do, it was the purpose of this "assignment", in a way, it was the deciding factor of whether or not my continued breathing would in fact continue I thought to myself as I watched him.
A Republic diplomat I had been told, that's all I had been told....as much as I didn't like the idea of being sent to strike someone down without knowing what I am up against I had very little say in the matter.
Master Fenox had given me my orders, I must execute them, the penalty for failure is death.
I couldn't seem to get that fact out of my head, not because I was afraid to die, by comparison to others I did not have that much left to live for, but the simple thought of that young apprentice back at the academy, the way she....I was becoming distracted again, I really need to quit that.
I was soon brought back to reality by the movement of the other passenger in the compartment with us, by us I mean myself and my mark, I had been studying him for a while now, his movements and mannerisms, trying to sum up my odds.
Presently my odds look good, a little to good, this one looked as old as the Republic itself and diplomats don't usually travel by themselves, but after the fall of the Republic fleet in the attempt to destroy the Star Forge, they were desperate and becoming more and more secretive, may be he was try to sneak by...it mattered not, I had found him, it obviously hadn't worked.
We were alone now as the other passenger had gotten up for who knows what and left.
Now is my chance to prove myself and I prepared myself to strike, it must be quick and quiet, as little noise as possible.
For a moment our eyes met and I knew his time had come.
The last thing he saw was likely a rushing mass of black coming towards him as I leapt to strike, maybe even a flash of red, no one will ever really know what he saw, but as for what I saw, I can be sure.
A perfectly placed slash across his neck ended his career as a diplomat, or anything else for that matter.
The placement of the slash, instantly lethal, gave me a sense of accomplishment, the job I do may be considered, but evil is subjective, regardless of whether what I do is right, I can be assured I do it well.
I knew he was dead, he had no time to scream or make any noise – not a sounds to shatter the quiet clam of the night...damn I'm good, besides I could feel it, when you've seen as much death as I have you can sense it, but when you've seen as much death as I have it also diminishes the thrill...damn.
Quick and quiet I thought to myself as I smiled under my hood, one slash and done, hell, this was too easy.
Now it was a matter of getting off this hover train...
An old adage states that you should never say things cannot get any worse, because they will, it became clear to me at that moment you should never state that something was to easy, because at that moment something or things will come to complicate the hell out of it....and something did.
In the doorway of the compartment stood the passenger who had left earlier, accompanied by 5 Republic soldiers holding rifles.
Just another passenger.....good call Rane, I thought to myself as I watched the man now holding a blue bladed saber and staring me down.
"I could sense your evil, Dark Jedi" he said to me in a monotone voice.
I stared and said "You knew I was here and you left the one you were protecting? You must be one hell of a guardian" I said putting emphasis on the term guardian "Are you always this good or am I just special?" I said to him.
The smirk on my face was quickly removed when I realized that I had a Jedi who's aura was steadily becoming stronger which is a bad sign between myself and my way out...this is not good.
"You could run for the door behind you fool, but you wouldn't make it" he told me.
There's a door behind me? Said to myself and turned my head slightly, so there is...damn.
Six of them, one of me...nope, aint gonna happen I thought as I made a break for the door, I figure I had a better chance of those soldiers missing me than I had of not missing them with a thrown lightaber at such a close range.
Lucky for me I made it through that door and sealed it, allowing myself to rest against the wall to collect myself from my death defying leap through a doorway in the midst of laser fire.
Wait a second I thought, he has a light...at about that time that same blue saber beam came through the door to greet me and I proceeded to get just as far away from that door as I could as fast as I could, I may be good with a saber but I'm no match for a master, Fenox made that painfully clear in "teaching me my place", something akin to being beaten on with a semi-sharp excuse for a sword for hours on end.
I found myself now in a storage compartment that had 2 floors, should I go up to avoid him I asked myself, my answer quickly being delivered by the sound of a saber cutting metal from behind me, that answer being that it didn't matter where I went all that mattered was that I got there really damned quick.
I reached the door at the other end of the compartment as the Jedi and his lackeys came through the front door.
From seemingly nowhere a small round object fell onto my head, I picked it up to find that it was a thermal detonator, taking advantage of this I did what any reasonable Dark Jedi faced with almost certain death would do...I dealt it back tenfold.
The detonator in one glorious flash and one hell of an explosion and sent the soldiers, or what was left of them to the ground and gave the train a new skylight with which to attract new passengers in lieu of the fact that most of them likely wouldn't return after realizing 6 people had been killed and a compartment fragged in just one train ride.
"Someone up there must like me" I thought.
The quiet "Shit!" from above me revealed that secret admirer to be an Republic grenadier with an open pocket that had apparently fallen open, on his grenade belt.
"Or not" I said as I stuck my lightsaber through the ceiling and finished him.
I could feel the train slowing and I opened the back door to see the soft grasses and open air.
From behind me I heard something stir and turned to see that Jedi master standing again, injured but standing.
"Assassins don't leave survivors" he said to me "Are you always this good or am I just special?" he smirked at me.
Okay, now I'm pissed I though as I drew my saber and turned it on, this was it, my mark dead albeit with a few complications and a master's lightsaber as a trophy, how much better could this get?
That apprentice from the academy would be nice...."Dammit quit thinking with the wrong head Rane" I thought to myself and attacked the Jedi.
Maybe it was because he was injured, maybe it was because I really am that good, but he fell and I took his saber.
Now to get off this train, really.
By now we had slowed enough that I could jump and be relatively assured of a safe landing, hey I had just killed a master I reasoned, whats a 5 foot drop?
And drop I did, right on my ass.
"No one saw it, I'm still good" I said as I stood and looked around.
I walked to a stream and kneeled to drink before contacting Master Fenox to tell him of my success.
As I activated my holopad I couldn't help but wonder what he would say, would it be a "well done" or did an execution await me for being discovered?
Fenox's image came up on the holopad and he spoke
"Is it done my apprentice?"
"Yes master, it is done" I replied and awaited his next question.
To my surprise no question came, simply a "well done" and an order to return to Korriban, I was needed to train new apprentices, and on top of that, I was being given a new "assignment"
With that his image disappeared and I sat back to wonder what "assignment" awaited me on Korriban, only to decide to that whatever it was there wasn't anything I could do about it, that being said I had better things to worry about, I though to myself with a smirk, like that young apprentice on Korriban I'd be seeing so soon...