Rewrite of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Chapter Two – Taris 1

Disclaimer: Don't own anything from it and I'm not making any money from this fic

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Callista was dreaming. At least, she thought she was.

Callista was seeing two people – a woman, and someone wearing a cloak and mask – fighting with lightsabres – Jedi, Callista guessed. She felt that she should know both of them, but couldn't quite place them.

Then, Callista jerked awake to find herself lying on a bed in a dark room with the man from the Endar Spire watching her with... concern?

"Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep," Carth commented. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare." He looked away as he added, "I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up." He looked back at her as he said, "I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember?"

"Carth, the one on the communicator," Callista answered. "I remember."

"Well, you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now," Carth replied. "So I imagine you're pretty confused about things. Try not to worry. We're safe... at least for the moment.

"Where are we?" Callista wanted to know.

"In an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris," Carth explained. "You were banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. I was able to drag you away from the crash site in all the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene, we were long gone."

"I guess I owe you my life," Callista said thoughtfully. "Thanks."

"You don't have to thank me," Carth replied. "I've never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I'm going to need your help.

"Taris is under Sith control. Their fleet is orbiting the planet, they've declared martial law, and they've imposed a planet-wide quarantine. But I've been in worse spots.

"I saw on your service records that you understand a remarkable number of alien languages. That's pretty rare in a raw recruit, but it should come in handy while we're stranded on a foreign world.

"There's no way the Republic will be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to help us. If we're going to find Bastila and get off this planet, we can't rely on anyone but ourselves."

"Why is it so important to find Bastila?" Callista wanted to know. Saying the woman's name felt somehow... weird.

"That smack to your head did more damage than I thought," Carth frowned. "Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master. Bastila is the key to the whole Republic war effort. The Sith must have found out she was on the Endar Spire and set an ambush for us in this system."

"How can one person, even a Jedi, be so important?"

"Bastila is no ordinary Jedi," Carth explained. "She has a rare gift the Jedi call Battle Meditation. Bastila's power can influence entire armies."

"How do you even know Bastila's still alive?" Callista asked.

"I don't," Carth answered. "But Bastila's young and has a powerful command of the Force. We survived the crash landing, so she probably did too."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"Bastila's going to need our help," Carth replied. "The Sith will be looking for her because of how important she is to the war effort. The whole planet is under quarantine, so if we're going to escape Taris, we'll probably need her help and she'll need ours."

"Any idea where to start looking?" Callista asked.

"There are reports of a couple of escape pods crashing into the Undercity, so that's probably a good place to start," Carth answered. "But it's a dangerous place, so we'll need to be prepared."

"The sooner we start looking for Bastila, the sooner we find her," Callista said. "Let's go."

"Good idea," Carth said. "We can use this abandoned apartment as a base. We have to keep a low profile, though. I've heard some grim stories about the Dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity!"

For some reason, Callista felt an odd pang at those words.

"But we'll be okay if we don't do anything stupid," Carth continued. "They're looking for Bastila, not a couple of grunts like us. Alright, soldier, let's move out."

Callista and Carth left the apartment.

As soon as they got outside, they found a Sith patrol hassling a couple of aliens. One of the aliens protested, and was shot down. Spotting Carth and Callista, the Sith patrol immediately attacked them.

After the battle was over, Callista turned to the remaining alien, who thanked them. Callista then asked, "Won't someone come looking for this patrol?"

"I will move the bodies so that it looks like they were killed elsewhere," the alien reassured Callista in his own language.

Once the alien was gone, Callista turned to Carth. "Can we talk now?" she wanted to know. "I'd like to know more about you. After all, we are going to be working together for a while."

"Me?" Carth blinked. "Well, I've been a starpilot for the Republic for years. I've seen more than my share of wars... I fought in the Mandalorian wars before all this started. But with all that, I've never experienced anything like the slaughter these Sith animals can unleash. Not even the Mandalorians were that senseless.

"My home world was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission, and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do to stop them!"

"You're talking like this is your fault," Cally commented. "Like you failed somehow."

"It shouldn't be my fault," Carth replied. "I did everything I could... I followed my orders and did my duty. That shouldn't mean I failed them! I didn't!"

"Them? Do you mean the people of your home world?" Callista asked.

"Yes," Carth answered. "No... no, that's not what I mean. I mean... I'm sorry. I'm not making much sense, am I? You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually. I'm more used to taking action... keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later."

"Ok," Callista sighed, realising that she wasn't going to get anything else out of Carth, at least for the moment. "I wonder if there's a cantina on this planet," she added thoughtfully almost to herself.

"A cantina?" Carth repeated with a frown. "Why do we want to go to one of them?"

"Because people in cantinas tend to be freer with information," Callista replied. "Besides, I'm thirsty."

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