Chapter 3: Preparations

The sleek black ship landed smoothly in a large clearing in the extensive forests of the lush green planet of Tatooine. Using a long dormant remote signal, the forest floor dropped and sank into the depths, replaced with a holoscreen/forcefield. He had built this base a few years ago when he'd first laid down plans for the destruction of the Jedi Order.

He'd requested and received permission to spend a few months in seclusion to meditate and find inner peace. Yeah right! He'd immediately come to Tatooine and begun construction of his base. It was not very large, so as not to attract attention, but then Tatooine was barely inhabited except by many species of dangerous creatures and a particularly tenacious race of indigenous natives.

There were still a few areas to touch up and the jungle had reclaimed some of his territory. He examined the wear and tear that this place had taken over the half-decade he had been gone. All of a sudden, there was an almighty roar and a tremendous crash as a Krayt dragon plunged into the basin from above. It shook itself and began to come towards Devien.

Ah, I needed a challenge, he thought. Drawing his lightsaber, he found that this dragon was the largest specimen he had ever seen, nearly seventy metres long from head to tail tip. He leapt up in a high arc over it and landed on its back, not that there were many places to land because of the spikes.

The dragon, sensing him there, tried to dislodge him by shaking its body wildly. Devien's lightsaber was ineffective against the beast's thick, armour-plated hide. Through the Force, he felt the weaknesses in the creature's anatomy and somersaulted onto the beasts head. However, it swerved to the side and he landed on the floor, with his back to it.

It opened its gaping maw, intending to chomp down on this savoury morsel, not expecting him to slide under and cut off half a front claw. The humungous lizard thrashed around, splattering the walls and floor with black ichor. He nimbly avoided the swinging tail and the slashing claws, jumping up onto the agonised dragon's head. He plunged his lightsaber first into one eye and then the other, blinding and further angering the beast.

Blinded and in pain, the Krayt dragon sought his quarry, but how does one get something off ones face? The dragon raised its uninjured claw and swiped at its face, Devien dodged between the two massive horns adorning the creatures head and cut of this claw completely. Now crippled, the dragon fell forwards, slamming Devien off its head and to the ground. Struggling to get up, it stood on the stumps of its front claws and brought its body to bear, Devien was faster though and cut a long vertical line down its abdomen.

Devien thought, that's what I like about this place, everything here has such a will to live. For the finishing blow, he once again jumped on the creatures head and stabbed it between the eyes, using the Force to push it in deeper than his hands could reach.

The dragon, its massive head rolled on its shoulders, and with a last, earsplitting roar, it died. Devien Tavar called his lightsaber back to him and quickly removed any traces of the dragon's acidic blood. Of course, he too had heard of the Krayt dragon pearls that are found in the belly of such creatures. Working along the gash he had made in the underside of the corpse, he found the gullet and cut it open, various stones popped out but one especially caught his attention.

It emanated waves of Force energy, he picked it up and cleaned it with a handkerchief. It was lustrously black and seemed to pulse with inner power, undoubtedly it would make for a fine focusing element for his lightsaber, he gathered up the other gems and then thought about how to get the carcass out of his lair. Laying down the lightsaber and gems, he raised his hands, calling upon the power of the Force to lift and throw the carcass out of the hole. Task completed, he activated a few droids and set them to work cleaning up the mess.

Devien Tavar knew it was only a matter of time before the Jedi, as well as the Republic would come looking for him. He had left a clear ion trail and had not randomised his trajectory; also, there were analysts and worse, Gand Jedi who with their 'divining' powers could sense him acutely, even so far away.

He had to prepare some nice surprises for them. Using the Force and his own technical and mechanical abilities, he designed and built auto-defence turrets around the perimeter of his base, and also custom made a pair of blasters for himself, using modified lightsaber crystals to focus the beams, and modifying the power cells to draw power from himself. Besides, he implemented the Krayt dragon pearl in his lightsaber, increasing the deadly potential of the already deadly weapon.

Using the same technology as his blasters, he reconstructed his ship to draw power from himself and thus not need refuelling; he also plated the fighter with that same material that he had retrieved from the now dead weakling. He could escape to virtually anywhere in the Galaxy, the ship itself would run unless he were dead.

But first, he had to show the Republic and the Jedi that he was not some fly to be swatted but a very real threat indeed. And to do that, he had to kill people, his favourite pastime.

Devien Tavar paced his room, lavishly furnished with expensive and exotic items from across the galaxy. He had no qualms about living life to the fullest, having denounced the Jedi principles of sacrifice a long time ago. He fingered a small shard of crystal that hung around his neck, a mere fragment of that which contributed to his immense power. Its surface was black, no, it was beyond black, it was a darkness, an emptiness which absorbed light, destroyed hope and crushed belief. The darkness seemed to pulse, sending out tendrils that quested for the souls of the innocent.

Putting himself into a trance, he plotted and for the downfall of the Jedi.

Activating a unique assembly matrix, he began to create large quantities of the black material which he christened cortosinium. Enough to create an army, or an armada. Sitting down, he drafted plans for an army of droids, one that could take out even Jedi. Each droid would have four limbs, each with two opposable 'thumbs' allowing for extreme dexterity, furthermore the 'fingers' would be claw-tipped for wall-climbing ability for an added element of surprise. Every one would be armed with two weapons of a sort never before seen, with lightsabers as the forward half and vibroblades as a rear half, they could wield these with hand or foot, it would not matter. Also, the weapons and the droids would be cortosinium plated, to be impervious to lightsabers.

But at the heart of the war machine that he wanted to build would be the crystals. The crystal fragments of a much larger whole that would make his droids have the power of the Dark Side coursing through them, and since that power stemmed from himself, they would be all but invincible.

Using the rest of the pearls retrieved from the gullet of the dragon, he constructed a device which when used, would be devastating to his enemies. It would turn them from invasion force to a bloody rout. With each death he caused, as the crystal absorbed more of the life-essence of others, his power grew.

Thank you to Acidic Paranoia, my dear sister for giving me my protagonists' name.

Thank you to Trillian4210 and CO Seth for their positive comments and support.