Dark Shadows

by Solo Jedi

A tale of Revan and Malak before they began their journey to the Dark Side. Follows Revan from his young days up to the beginning of his dark journey.

6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: The Fires of War

Smoke rose from the jungles of Onderon. Cracks ran down the walls of Iziz, and people quietly moved among the piles of rubble, searching for survivors, or merely hoping to survive. The ships of the Mandalorians that had wreaked the havoc on their city were gone, but the people knew that a garrison had been left to control the local population and plunder it. But the fires still burned.

In space overhead, Mandalorian troop carriers and starships flickered with psuedo-motion and vanished into hyperspace, leaving the twin orbs of Onderon and Dxun hanging in space, the blue of their shared atmosphere surrounding them like the embrace of a small child trying to calm an older sibling. On Dxun's surface the tombs sat silent as those whose ancestors built them cried out below in the smoky haze.

The fires of conquest spread across the Outer Rim of the galaxy. Methodically and ruthlessly, the Mandalorian fleet destroyed cities and enslaved populations, always taking those who were strong or wealthy. The poor and weak were simply obliterated. Many worlds perished. As the fires spread, Republican ships tried to intercept the raiders but were repulsed contemptuosly. The Mandalorians were warriors, and disdained the Republics efforts at diplomacy; the ring of steel and the heat of blaster fire was the language they listened to.

The Republic gradually sent more ships to the slaughter, and more ships were destroyed. Eventually the attacks on the Outer Rim became a concern for the Senate as a whole, and the Chancellor, at the behest of the Senate, asked the Jedi for assistance. The Chancellor's representative asked the Jedi High Council to evaluate the threat of the Mandalorians to the Republic as a whole and called upon them to aid in the protection of the Republic. The High Council sent messages to the Outer Rim worlds, asking for Jedi there to come to Coruscant and report on the Mandalorian threat. Along the Outer Rim, Jedi Knights departed for Coruscant, visiting conquered systems on the way.

There, the fires still burned.