Our Revels are now Ended

"Dante," he whispered softly as he continued to peer out through the view. He gazed out at the boxy freighter that was spinning into the planet. "I can only imagine who gave the order to fire upon it." His eyes became slits, further exaggerating his marred face. "Vincent."

I will deal with him later. My brother is resourceful, he will survive that. And if not… he sighed in resignation, then perhaps he was not worth the effort.

"My Lord," a voice came over on the speaker over his head. "We're ready to approach the planet."

"Good. Let us make haste, I want that device in my hand by the day's end. Inform our people to get ready to disembark." He smiled to himself, craving what was to come.

Now, I shall have it all. The aristocrat still wore his black suit, in homage to the apprentice to the Dark Lord of the Sith. He continued to peer out from where Seth had previously stood in the bridge. He watched as the Sith Lord's shuttle flew into the planet, as the freighter had spiraled into the planet.

A smile formed on his face. When he returns, I shall defeat him with the gentlest of strokes. He looked at the Captain, who had begun to leave to personally oversee the prisoners they had picked up. The Captain would be caught unawares, especially when he realized that the bridge was locked. This would be a day Vincent Baroque would long remember.

Oh, it feels like a Bantha stampede trampled on me, he thought to himself as he slowly rose, opening his eyes and rubbing his head. Note to self: do not serve juma juice to Sekula next time.

he thought to himself as he slowly rose, opening his eyes and rubbing his head. do not

The young Jedi looked around as he saw the entire main hold mangled. The table and holoimager had torn apart and flew into the cargo bay. The workbenches and lab stations had spilled objects over and it had seemed the interior of the ship had gone through a war zone. Looking up, he saw where a large portion of the hull had protected them from being sucked into space used to be. This baby is never going to fly again, he thought sadly.

He looked around and saw the body of Gors, the young medic. "Gors!" Walking over, on shaky legs and careful not to lose his grip, he made his way to the young man, who appeared to be just dazed. "Are you all right?"

"What? What happened?"

"I think Sekula gave us a crash course on drinking and piloting."

The young man only looked even more puzzled. He had been miraculously all right.

"Come on, let's get you up," Dante said as he helped his companion rise. "We need to split up and look for the others."

"Including Phaete?"

This caused the Jedi to pause. No one gets left behind, he thought. As much as he was tempted to, Phaete was a Jedi and he was a life. It would have been unjust to leave the Iktotchi Master to his death, though the Force knew that he deserved it. After a moment, he looked at the sandy haired man. "Including Phaete."

After a few more moments of searching and finding a suitable exit—which was created by Dante carving a large hole from the hull of the destroyed vessel with his lightsaber—they gathered and made sure no one was hurt. Miraculously, everyone survived with a few bumps and scratches—including Master Phaete.

"I guess this is goodbye to her," Sekula said softly.

"She was a good ship, reliable and sturdy. She got us here to the last. We'll find a way home," Dante answered, as he watched the freighter lying on its side, a mangled wreck with its hull torn in several places, marked with carbon scoring.

"Sirry will get us home," Rin said, noticing that both men looked sad at the loss of the Thunderbolt.

"Well, at least the Thunderbolt gave us a fighting chance. Now we find the holocron and wait for the Sith to reveal themselves." Dante looked at his companions. "They have a means to get us back to the rest of the Galaxy."

"You're right," the commando leader replied, cocking his repeater. "We'll be sure to pay them a visit and give them our gratitude."

"As motivating as this speech must be, I think it would be most prudent—and to our benefit—if we retrieve the device and be rid of this planet," the dour Phaete said.

"You're right. Let's go."

With that, the 5 companions began to look for an entrance to the caverns.

The shuttle landed near the entrance of the caverns, ignoring the wreck of the freighter several hundred feet away. As he left, cape billowing as the wind blew gently, lightning lighting up the dark miasmatic sky, the scarred man could only look around, a smug, triumphant smile on his face.

"My lord," Lotus said gently, taking care not to anger the Sith Lord in his seeming moment of triumph. "It would appear that any survivors from the vessel have meandered their way into the caverns."

"We'll take care of them when we run into them," he said, not even looking at his supposed Apprentice. "For now, let us make haste. I want it in my hand."

"Very well, Master," she said through gritted teeth. He wasn't giving her the time of day and she knew that could mean several things: she failed him, he was going to have her killed or he was so deep in thought at the prospect of having the artifact that nothing else mattered to him. Regardless, her mortality was near—somehow the Force kept telling her that. Or was that her fear?

She felt a trembling and noticed her hand was shaking at the prospect of her death. Shaking it off, she looked away and nodded to the two elite Sith troopers who piloted the vessel and the 6 remaining Dark Jedi. They all went into the tunnels below the darkened and decayed planet, eager to follow their lord and master into limitless power. She still had a trump card to ensure her survival, but one never knew how long they lasted in times such as these.

The Jedi shall find their days numbered, she thought to herself as she walked through the darkened tunnels. It seemed almost as if it were perfectly constructed; almost as if it were a tomb. She fought down the urge to shudder at the thought as she continued to walk away. Perhaps it was an academy, of a sort. Or perhaps, she mused darkly, this tomb was made to keep something in.

They traversed cautiously, as the winding tunnels and forks in the paths continued to crop up. The one problem with the Force was that one could not determine the exact spot of their quarry, only the area.

"This tunnel seems to tread forever," Phaete mumbled more to himself than to anyone in particular. Unfortunately for him, the acoustics in the tunnels carried the message around to everyone else.

"What would you prefer?" Sekula asked. "Would you like it back in the Thunderbolt?"

"No thanks," the Master began to say--

"Then shut up," Sekula finished.

Dante bit back the urge to laugh; instead he feigned a cough—and a bad attempt at that.

"He is right," Gors said, as he flashed his glowrod across the tunnel. "This tunnel must extend forever."

"Be that as it may," the Knight replied, "we still have a job to do. And right now, this tunnel seems to be a direct route."

"Can you be so sure?"

"Phaete, I thought I told you to shut it."

"Please, Captain, I am just asking a simple question."

Dante silenced the two before the debate began to spark into a fight. "Yes, I am sure, Phaete. The Force is stronger in this path, which—may I remind you—is the only chance we have at finding this holocron. Now, do as the Captain said and shut it."

As quickly as they had spoken, a low growl resonated throughout the circular tunnels.

Withdrawing his blasters, Sekula looked around. "See anything, Dante?" He whispered quietly, careful not to let it echo too loudly.

"Nothing," the Knight whispered back. He closed his eyes and reached out into the Force only to feel… something. He continued to pry through the Force, while Rin and the others slowly formed fighting stances, back to back. He continued to peer through… there had to be something, anything. And there it was: a quiet, subtle disturbance within the Force that told him more than he wanted to. Eyes opening widely, he yelled, "get down!" As he rolled towards the floor to watch a large bipedal creature, which appeared to be a distant—if not somewhat shorter—relative to the rancor, crashed into where the Jedi had been moments before, screaming wildly.

Heeding the call of their companion, the others had leapt back and away from the large rancorous creature.

It continued to peer out at them, growling as its voice resonated against the very walls and the companions themselves.

"What is that!" Sekula screamed as he unloaded the contents of his pistols at the creature, only aggravating it further.

"Whatever it is, let's shoot first and ask later!" Gors screamed as he poured continuous fire from his repeating blaster.

The creature slowly, but surely began to be pushed back as energy lanced all about it, crashing against its hide, as it absorbed some energy. It was obvious, by the sheer rage of this creature that it was surely a product of the Dark Side, but it definitely was no Terentatek.

Calling on the Force to increase their movements, Dante and Rin both felt each other through the Force and began to assault the creature with their speed and the rapid blur of sapphire and violet upon the creature's hide.

Phaete, as usual, stood waiting, as he eyed his companions' efforts to eliminate the creature.

In a bold feat, both Knights leapt as high as the cavern's height would allow them, and in a synchronous slash, decapitated the beast before it could let out another blood curdling howl. The creature crashed to the floor as its head rolled off to the side, the fresh scent of cooked meat from the cauterization wafted into the noses of the companions.

"If it weren't so repulsive, I'd call it dinner," the Captain said, slamming a pair of new power cells into his pistols before he holstered them.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that," Phaete replied as he continued to tread further down the caverns, leaving Dante and the others to ponder the intentions of the Master.

They had walked through a winding tunnel that branched off into three, but yet, he could sense the presence of others. Dante, he thought to himself. So, you live after all. Good, so that feeling of loss wasn't you…yet, who could it have been? He shrugged it off, knowing that his time was at hand. He knew Vincent would get what was coming to him momentarily, so would Lotus, as well as the others.

"My lord," one of the elite soldiers said, awakening the attention of the Sith.

"Yes?" Seth asked, momentarily dazed.

"Which direction would you lead us?" The Sith chose his words carefully, suddenly realizing that he might have disturbed the Sith Lord at an inopportune moment.

"Continue to follow me, Lieutenant," he answered, his back still to the Sith. "Oh, and do keep up." The unspoken threat behind those words didn't need to invigorate the crew further.

Dante, I can feel you. I will come to you, my brother. He continued to lead them through the winding tunnels, coming ever so closer to a stronger and stronger Force presence. Ah, what's this? He thought to himself. There are Jedi who travel with you, Dante. So the game's afoot, huh? So be it.

As the crew rounded the bend, they walked into one of the secondary prizes that their Master had so desperately sought: Dante Ravenmoon and a crew of Knights and commandoes.

Standing tall and undaunted, Seth watched as his own elite ignited their lightsabers and cocked their blasters and took aim.

Standing cautiously and feeling rage swell within him, Dante watched as his companions did likewise to Seth—excluding Master Phaete.

"Well, well," Seth started, his sickly yellow and brown eyes staring at the intense brown eyes of his brother. "What do we have here? 2 Knights, a Master and 2 mere Republic commandoes."

"I don't see you faring any better, Xavier—or should I call you Seth?" The young Knight spat back.

This caused Phaete's expression to move to extreme curiosity. It would appear that these two have met, much less know one another. His eyes shifted to the deadly, attractive Apprentice dressed in a formfitting black outfit that highlighted her features and her piercing green and blue eyes. He knew that his time had come near, but it would have to wait for a few more precious moments as these two brothers—which became apparent now—bickered over trivial matters.

"Perhaps, but now that I have you and will have the key to unlimited power, I shall be unstoppable."

"You're one to talk," Dante replied evenly. "You're too eager, as always. You show your hand before you even win—and that is why you lose."

Before the Sith could even reply, the sound of marching footsteps further down the tunnels alerted both groups to another presence.

"Truce?" Dante called out quickly.

"Truce," Seth agreed, as the soldiers drew beads and Jedi, Dark and Light alike, ignited their blades and prepared themselves for the continuous, undeterred marching that was coming closer. The undeterred marching of footsteps from the countless battalions of droids not seen since the Sith War.