Slayers of the Old Republic
Book VI: Manaan
By Michael Weyer
A benefit of never having been in a serious relationship (or any real relationship for that matter), Faith concluded, was that she avoided the inevitable heartaches it brought.
That conclusion was coming to the fore as she sat in the small apartment Elora and Sunry owned. It wasn't too lavish but comfortable and showed the signs of long-time residence. Elora herself was sitting by the table with Jolee next to her. The woman was doing her best to be brave but Faith knew it was a front.
"Jolee, I can't thank you enough for this," Elora was saying as she was sipping her tea. "With you helping him, I know Sunry will be cleared of this horrible misunderstanding soon."
Jolee was quiet, looking away and Faith stepped in. "It may not be so easy."
"What do you mean?" Elora frowned. "Sunry is obviously innocent!"
"Depends on your definition of innocent," Faith dryly noted.
Elora's frown deepened. "What? What do you mean?"
"Elora," Jolee broke in, his voice sober and serious. "I've been doing some checking and I've found out some things about Sunry that you may not like to hear."
There was a flash of something in Elora's eyes and Faith and Jolee both realized the same thing. She knew what they were going to say. "Elora," Jolee went on. "He was having an affair, wasn't he?"
Elora's eyes went wide but they could tell she wasn't at all surprised to hear this. "Of...of course not! He...he..." Her voice broke into sobs. "Yes. Yes, he was having an affair. He was seeing that...that Sith woman." Her voice changed, almost a snarl as the anger and betrayal she'd kept hidden for so long came boiling forth. "After all these years we've been together, he just...just dropped me like that. Not publicly, oh no, but...inside, that's what it felt like. He started seeing Elassa last year. I...I had my suspicions for a while, but he was careless. Pretty soon, everyone knew. But even though he cheated on me, he's still the man I loved..." She wiped at her eyes as she tried to collect herself.
"Elora, I..." Jolee wasn't sure what to say. "He may not be so innocent."
She stared at him, her shock for real this time. "I...I can't believe...You can't believe that he'd kill someone in cold blood, do you?"
"Elora, that's just it. I looked at Sunry and saw a man I don't know anymore. I don't even know if it's possible to save him."
"But you're his Arbiter! You...you have to try."
"Yes, I do," he said reluctantly. "Thank you, Elora." He rose and turned to go. Faith gave the woman a long look before following him out.
"Were you and her a couple once?" she asked as soon as she was out of the apartment. "I know you don't exactly fit with the classic Jedi rules."
"No," Jolee replied. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted. But…we just couldn't hurt Sunry like that."
"And yet he decides to do it to her." Faith snorted. "Irony may be dead at home but it's alive and well in this galaxy."
Jolee rubbed a hand over his smooth skull. "Let's get back to the ship. I need to think about this more."
Faith followed him, trying to hide her own nervousness at the thought of just who was waiting back at the ship for them.
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"Query: Master, just how does one get a bottle of beer on the wall? Follow-up query: Why would you continue to pass them around to other meatbags?"
"Just an old song from my world," Buffy replied as she shuffled in her seat. She and Vance were seated in the middle of the submersible. Canderous was at the controls next to Bastila and HK sat in the rear. The submersible was top of the line and handling the pressures of the ocean well. However, it was also claustrophobic and thus added to the tension the group already found themselves under.
Despite having been in space numerous times in the last few years, Buffy still found herself fascinated by the view outside the port windows. Phosphorescent fish darted among dark beds of kelp. Giant firaxan sharks as big as their submersible passed within meters of them. Rock formations were akin to high-rise apartments, layering many crustaceans, water insects, and tentacled life forms in a discernible pattern that changed gradually as they descended.
With the pressures at the depths, only the firaxan sharks and a few hardy fish made their home here. Some sea plants had adapted as well, clinging to the depths and swaying with the current. Canderous coolly piloted past the wreckage that used to be the station.
"Damn," Vance remarked. "Whatever happened did a number on this place." He could see an entire section of the facility was caved in on itself and there were marks of damage all over the outside hull.
Bastila leaned in to check the readouts before her. "The south side is flooded, but I'm reading two sets of life forms," she said. "One is near to the kolto processing at the south-east corner. The other set is in the northern half of the station. Much of that part is surprisingly intact."
They pulled into the docking bay and rose to the submersible berth. Applying the anchoring gear, Bastila opened the hatch, allowing them to exit the craft. It was like a watery grave; the life supports barely functioned, and the station was dying by millimeters as its pressure seals leaked slowly, like the walls were crying. Small creaks and groans were amplified, and the sound of distant Selkath voices could be heard. The air was breathable, but bitterly cold. Stale air reeked of ocean water and rotting flesh. It did not appear to affect Canderous, and it certainly didn't matter to HK-47, but the other shivered through their robes.
There were several bloodied bodies in the docking bay, looking as if they were set upon and literally torn into pieces. It was barely a taste of things to come. The door on the far end opened. A shaking, green-skinned Twi'lek pointed his blaster at them.
"How...how did you get in? Did they send another submersible? Quick, we have to get out of there. We have to get away!"
Bastila raised her hands. "Please, slow down...calm yourself."
"No!" he stammered. "We have no time, we have to leave now! I managed to close the door after they killed everyone else, but I don't know how long it will hold."
"What happened here?" she asked.
"The Selkath, they went crazy! They started killing anything that moved! Someone must have triggered the defense systems, too, because all the droids activated as well. I was one of the mercs the Republic sent down here to find out what happened."
"Some excuse for a merc," Canderous said.
"What became of the scientists?" Bastila asked.
"They're dead! All dead! We came down and secured the first couple rooms. There were bodies everywhere. And the Selkath came out - screaming and croaking their fishy little war-cries." His eyes were wide with horror. "They swarmed out and over us. There was no way we could stop them. So, we ran, but hardly any of us made it. I locked the door behind us, but...but the others had already left in the submersible! The sharks...the firaxa out there and...worse...I heard an explosion shortly after the submersible left. They didn't make it. Just food for the sharks and the Selkath...like us."
Buffy nodded. "Let's get you back to the surface."
"Back to the surface? Yes...NO! there's something out there. It got the other submersible already. "
HK-47 turned his metal head to Buffy. "Suggestion: Perhaps we could dismember the organic? It would make it easier for transport to the surface."
This made the mercenary shake even harder. "You…you can't do that? Rip me to pieces! I'll die!"
"Amendment," said the assassin droid grudgingly. "I did forget that. Stupid, frail, non-compartmentalized meat-bags!"
"We can't leave until you do something," the Twi'lek insisted. "Blow up the entire station, maybe. That might distract whatever it is long enough for us to escape to the surface. But all the machinery and stuff is in the southern half, and that's already flooded. There might be environmental suits around but...but...the Selkath might have laid their eggs in them!"
"Wait here, then. We have to get into the station," Bastila said.
"No! I locked the doors so that the Selkath won't get in. If you open it, we're done for."
"We'll deal with that. You get in the submersible and wait for us."
He stared at them like they had gone mad. "If you go in there, you're dead - you're all dead! If you want to die, then go! You won't hear me mourning for you. I'll stay here and be safe until some kind of real rescue comes!"
Canderous pushed past the frightened man in disgust. "Don't get your hopes up too high. I have no intention of dying."
"And I have no intention of doing a hat trick," Buffy remarked.
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Juhani noted the way the tension in the room rose when Faith and Jolee entered. Carth looked up at her, then quickly looked away and Faith mirrored the reaction. The feline Jedi raised an eyebrow as she watched the two enter. "Are things well?"
"Not as well as I'd hoped," Jolee remarked, settling into a chair. "The evidence about murder may be a frame but in regards to Sunry's love life…"
"Ah, about that," Mission spoke up. "Um…I think T3's got something to show you." She motioned to the small droid. "I was talking to him and he mentioned he downloaded some files from the Republic embassy and one of them…well…" She shook her tentacles. "Go ahead, T3."
The droid let out a beep and his hologram emitter turned on. The group watched an image captured from a security camera. It showed Sunry and Elassa together, in a kiss, her in a short robe, him in uniform. She smiled and turned away and in a move surprisingly fast for his age, Sunry pulled out his blaster and let out a shot right in her back. Elassa was frozen, her face in shock before collapsing on the ground. Sunry stared at her body, as if unable to believe what he had done. Then, he limped out as fast as he could.
The image faded and the room was filled with a stunned silence. Jolee sank into a chair, rubbing over his face. "Dammit…dammit…dammit!" He leapt up and kicked the console, T3 letting out a startled whistle as he backed out of the way.
Faith shut her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jolee. I am."
"What are you going to do?" Zaalbar asked.
"I don't know," Jolee admitted. "I really don't."
Carth took a deep breath. "I know this is going to sound wrong but…maybe we should keep this quiet." As everyone stared at him in shock, he quickly went on. "If the Selkath learn a Republic officer killed a Sith in cold blood, it could lead to sanctions against us. The economy is on the ropes as it is, if we can't afford kolto, the Sith get the advantage."
"So we should just turn a blind eye to what he did?" Juhani snapped. "To murder?"
Carth glared at her. "Things aren't so simple now, Juhani. I'm sorry but there's a war on and the fate of the Republic takes precedence over some things."
Juhani leaned toward him. "If we ignore something like this then what does that say about the Republic and what it stands for?"
"She is right," Zaalbar grumbled. "It does not matter what his intentions were, he should pay for his crimes. My people understand that."
"But the war…" Carth argued.
"Quiet!" Jolee turned to face them. "I'm the Arbiter. He's my friend. I'll decide what to do." With that, he turned and marched away to his quarters. Faith and Carth locked eyes and without a word, turned to walk in opposite directions.
Mission just sighed deeply. "Man, I'm hoping my own romance isn't this complicated."
"I will ensure that," Zaalbar stated. "By bodily threat if necessary."
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The air inside the facility was thick and musty, the life support systems barely working. The group carefully made their way around, all alert for any danger. HK took the lead, his receptors sweeping in various directions. His head stopped swiveling. "Observation: My sonic sensors indicate sounds coming out of that locker, Master." HK suddenly noted, pointing his disruptor riffle at the plasteel object nearby. As if the locker was whimpering…
"Is somebody out there?" a high-pitched voice asked, from within the locker, "Fishy, fishy, fishy? Coming to eat me, too? You can't get me little fishy. Not in here. I'm safe behind my walls."
Come out," Buffy called. "It's safe."
"Oh, you'd like that - wouldn't you?" the maniac said, "I walk out and - BAM! Selkath swarm in from everywhere, ripping and rending! Fishy move fast and silent."
"Come out from there right now, or we'll blast our way in," Canderous snapped.
"Ha-ha! That's what you think! Fishy think that too. These walls and door are six centimeters - no... twelve centimeters! - of durasteel! I'm invulnerable behind my walls! Nobody's getting in here!" he said, laughing maniacally.
"Statement: I'll blast you into little fish-bits, meatbag!" HK snapped at the idiot hidden in the locker, already preparing his blaster
"Just leave him, HK," Vance ordered. "We'll come back later."
HK let out a disappointed beep before following him on. They headed down a series of corridors that wound around, one surrounded by thick glass and showing the ocean around them. They stopped as they saw a figure in a yellow pressure suit trying to walk along the surface. It saw them, waving its hands and coming toward them.
Before he got a few steps, a dark shadow suddenly sailed in out of nowhere. The figure turned just in time to see a massive creature that to Buffy resembled a great white shark on steroids. Its jaw was wide open, the teeth gleaming and it swung in and chomped the figure down with one bite. There was a burst of red around and metal around the mouth as the firaxa flew on.
"Damn," Vance muttered. "These things aren't supposed to be so…hostile."
"Maybe whatever's made the Selkath go bananas hit them too," Buffy noted.
"All the more reason to go on," Bastila stated. "HK, find those life signs and lead us to them."
"Statement: I do not enjoy being bossed around, Jedi metabag but I shall do as you say."
He was leading the way when a gurgled roar caught their ears. They turned to see a pair of Selkath rushing toward them. Their eyes seemed glazed, their faces carrying rage as the raced in with surprising speed. One was holding a blaster, the other a sharp pipe.
Without a pause, HK hauled his rifle up and let out a stream of fire that cut the two aliens down. One still tried to crawl forward but falling limp. "Well, that was interesting," Vance noted dryly.
Buffy shook her head. "This is definitely not normal behavior for these guys." She glared at HK. "Did you have to cut them down like that?"
"Statement: Master, I would think some gratitude is warranted but of course, that would be too much to ask, yes?" He turned his head to the side. "I am detecting two more life signs from that chamber there."
The two life signs they had read earlier were waiting for them behind a high-level forcefield. Unfortunately, it became clear they were only slightly saner than the Selkath. The man was wild-eyed, looking like he hadn't slept much in days. The few days' growth of beard and clothing stained in Selkath blood added to his feral appearance. He carried a stained vibroblade. Equally animalistic-looking was a disheveled looking woman of Buffy's approximate height and build, clutching a blaster in her slim, dark fingers.
Upon seeing them, the man shouted. "No - no, you can't come in here! You'll let the firaxa and the Selkath in! No. Stay out! Stay out! I won't let you open the doors for those monsters to get in."
"Sir –" Bastila tried to speak to him, but he was past reason. The doors around them slammed shut, trapping the party inside. The man continued to rant.
"I'll stop you." He laughed unsteadily. "I'll suck all the pressure out of the chamber! That'll stop you."
"Kill them. Kill them all!" shrieked the woman.
There was a hiss of air being sucked out of the chamber as it became hard to breathe very quickly. Buffy pulled back her robe to show them her lightsaber, reaching out with her emotions as well as her words. "Please!" she said between gasps. "Stop this. You'll kill...kill yourselves. We're...we're here to help you...Please!"
Whether it was Force empathy, her words, or both, it got through to the half-crazy man. He slammed the depressurization panel again and slumped to the floor. Welcome, breathable air circulated within the chamber again.
"What...what do you want? Go away! You'll let the firaxa and the Selkath in! They'll get us like they did the others!" He groaned and closed his eyes, starting to babble. "No...the firaxa...the Selkath...I...I can't let you in. they'll get us!"
"I can protect you, I promise. But you're going to have to let us in." Bastila projected her emotions to try and back up her sincerity.
"No, the firaxan will get us. No, the Selkath are coming...No..." said the man.
The woman was in tears, rocking back and forth. "No...no..."
"Forget it," muttered Canderous. "They've utterly lost their minds."
"Allow Buffy her chance," Bastila said. "She seems to be getting through to them."
"Shh...shhh...they're gone. I'll protect you. You're safe," Buffy's voice was like that of a mother soothing a small child's nightmare. The spell of insanity seemed to break like a fever, and the man shakily rose to his feet.
"I...I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone. I'll unlock the door, but you have to come in quickly!" He lowered the forcefield and the three of them entered what had once been the station's harvest monitoring room. The man made a shaky apology. "I...I'm sorry for what I did. I don't know what came over me. I...I panicked when I heard someone outside the door. Please forgive me. I'm just so scared. I am Kono Nolan, and this is Sami. We were scientists working here on the Hrakert rift project."
"We're both scared," said the woman.
"The Republic sent us to help," Buffy stated.
Dr. Nolan shook his head. "When the Selkath went crazy, I thought everybody except Sami and me went mad. We had a few people outside the station when it happened."
"The firaxan sharks just tore them apart!" said Sami. "It was like they were frenzied!"
Nolan continued. "The next thing we know, our Selkath researchers started screaming and...clawing at everything around them. My team...my team was torn apart and eaten before my eyes! Sami and me...I...I thought we were the only ones left. We heard the Selkath outside at the doors every once in a while, and those strange noises echoing through the base."
Sami's voice could barely get above a whisper. "We thought everyone was dead - dead or insane."
"What could have driven the Selkath mad?" Bastila said.
"We don't know...not for sure," Sami said.
"The work teams were outside in the rift near the vent," said Nolan. "Then there was this rumbling and my head felt like it was splitting open..."
"This...this monster rose up from the rift. It was a firaxan shark, I think...bigger than any I'd seen before. Bigger than our submersibles..." Sami put her hands to her temples. "It was like it was screaming inside my head."
Nolan shook his head. "Then all the Selkath started screaming too...and turned on us."
Buffy paused, both digesting their words and using her empathy to listen harder to the presence she felt outside the station. "The shark...it was protecting something..."
"It may...it may have been," Nolan said. "Maybe it was protecting the ruins by the rift. It could have been. It might have a lair in the Hrakert rift near the kolto vent. Hmmm...that might explain a few things, too..."
"Like what, exactly?" said Bastila.
"Like why it reacted so violently when our construction efforts got closer to the vent, and why it is so large. It must be feeding off the kolto. It would have to be ancient indeed for it to reach that size, but with kolto as a food source..." Nolan was back in scientist-mode, analyzing and interpreting what he had seen.
Sami got to her feet, equally back in her element as she talked to Nolan. "And all those other firxan sharks. Those might be its offspring."
Nolan nodded. "This may be why they all swarmed when it called out to them - children coming to protect their mother."
"You mentioned ancient ruins that it may have been guarding. Did you learn anything about them? I've heard of an artifact. It's black metal, three meters tall, has three large spires centered on three smaller spires..." Bastila asked.
"We did find something like that in the ruins," Nolan confirmed. "But I don't know anything about it...the ruins were excavated when we were digging the foundations for the last section of the harvesting machine. But we can't go anywhere near those now. Maybe...maybe that's why it all happened in the first place."
"Where is this mother firaxan now?" asked Vance.
"I don't know," Nolan admitted. "It must still be out there."
Sami held her hands to her temples, the madness starting to drag her back. "Out there...waiting for us."
"Is there anything that can be done about it?" Canderous said brusquely.
"The firaxan sharks have always been a serious problem," said Nolan. "We had some blasters and projectile weapons to defend ourselves against them, but they still got some of our workers from time to time."
Sami elaborated. "We were working on a soluble chemical compound that would drive them away. Something that smelled or tasted repulsive to them, but we never got it working right."
Nolan shook his head. "Oh, I think not! Even flawed like it is, it should be ideal for this situation."
Sami grabbed Nolan's arms, pleading with him. "No! It's not working right, Kono! You don't know what it will do." She turned to the party. "The repellant we made was supposed to drive firaxan sharks away, but instead, was violently toxic to them, rupturing their outer skin and preventing them from drawing oxygen from the water by clogging their intakes".
"Which is exactly what we need in this situation!" argued Nolan "Something to kill that monster shark that destroyed our station."
"But we don't know how the chemical reacts! We only tried it in a controlled environment, and you saw what it did - not just to the sharks, either. In the open ocean, who knows what it can do. It could even affect the kolto."
"We know exactly what it will do: it will kill that shark. That's what we designed it to do!" Nolan folded his arms, unwilling to hear any further appeals.
"Destroy the shark. Sounds like a good plan," Canderous said. "Simple and effective."
"And do Force-knows-what to the Rift and the kolto? Surely there is another option," Bastila countered.
Sami turned from Nolan to float her theory. "Well, the monster seems to have been driven out by the machinery we installed at the edge of the Rift. We've seen it out there on the cameras bashing itself against the machines. I think if you destroy the machinery we installed, the shark would calm down and retreat back into its lair within the rift. You can reprogram the harvesting machines to over pressurize their self-oxidizing fuel so that the fuel tank canisters will rupture and the entire machine will destroy itself."
"But we'll lose everything we've built here - all those years of work," Nolan wailed.
"It's better than what your chemical will do to the water," Sami said.
Vance thought about and handed his lightsaber to Buffy. "Here. I'll go."
"Whoa, wait a minute!" Buffy argued. "I should go out there! I'm the more experienced Jedi!"
"Vance, she may be right," Bastila began.
Vance shook his head, already moving to the closet nearby. "Sorry, I already volunteered. I did some underwater work on a job on Kolto years back. I know how to handle the pressure better."
Buffy paused before putting her hand in his. "Hey…" she softly said. "Be careful out there."
Vance gave her a smile as he squeezed her hand back. "Count on it."
It did not take him long to suit up and be out the airlock onto the rift. Two narrow encounters with the firaxans later, he had managed to get close to the kolto harvester. His movement was an awkward bobbing motion as he braced herself against the station's edge. The harvester, an enormous machine at the far end boasted, two containers of fuel. "I see it," he talked over his communicator.
In the control room over at the facility, Sami leaned over the console. "The best way to blow it up is to tamper with the gas mixture in the fuel cells – at four million units, it will become explosive. You'll have to move fast when it's done."
"Roger," Vance noted. "Starting to fill injector pod. Three million sangen and counting."
The others watched her closely on the monitor. Buffy had also suited up, leaving the helmet off should a swift intervention be needed.
Canderous seemed disappointed. "Told him venting the toxin would be easier."
Bastila shook her head. "And if we somehow damaged the kolto? Think of the trouble that would be."
"You may be right," he admitted. "Still, I notice you Jedi never do anything the easy way. Almost makes me want to shoot the lot of you. Unfortunately, you're also too interesting to really enjoy the kill."
"Statement: I must agree with our bloodthirsty meatbag companion, Master! Even were I able to eliminate you, my desire to do so has diminished."
Bastila just gave Buffy a tired look as if blaming her for the droid's presence. Vance's voice cut into the air. "I've got one million sangen in the container pod, three million in the injector. Attempting transfer now."
Buffy was suddenly overcome with dread. "Vance, something isn't right. You've got to set that and get clear – hurry."
"Three point five...three point seven-five..."
"Vance!"
"Don't worry about me. Four!"
A huge explosion rocked the station, causing their minimal light to flicker and sending the scientists sprawling against the wall.
"Vance?" Buffy cried out into the monitor. "Vance, come in!"
Canderous looked at the rubble on the monitors and set his jaw. "Damn it. He didn't make it."
"No," Buffy immediately said. "I can sense him. He's still alive." Without a word, she slammed the helmet onto her head and moved to the airlock. Ignoring Bastila's yell, she marched in, sealed the door shut behind her and then opened the second to enter the ocean.
Moving was slow, painfully slow, since every second meant greater chance that they would not rescue . Under the shattered remains of the kolto harvester was a fissure in the coral, revealing the old ruins that they sought. Buffy could see Vance's yellow envirosuit partially buried under a pile of rock thrown by the blast.
She stopped as a huge shadow flowed over her. The explosion also brought something else from the rift. Looming like a shadow as it emerged from the depths to stand between her and Vance was the largest firaxan shark she had ever seen. Firaxns were normally the size of a man – this one was easily as long as the Ebon Hawk.
The being stared down at her with its huge eyes as if trying to read her thoughts. Its gaze turned to the broken machinery, taking it in. It returned to Buffy and slowly began to float away. Buffy let out a long breath as it returned to the crevice it had come from.
She heard a moaning over her communicator and turned to see Vance pushing himself out of the debris. She moved as quickly as she could to take his arm and help him up. "Are you okay?" she asked in an excited voice.
He nodded. "Guess so…did it work?"
"We destroyed the machine and it looks like that was enough to get that…thing out of the way," Buffy answered. A glint caught her eye. "And I think we also found something else."
Vance followed her gaze to see the familiar outline of the Star Map before them. "Well, that's a lucky break."
"Let's go get it before the break breaks," Buffy said.
"That doesn't make sense…"
"It does in my world."
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They let out gasps in unison as they removed their helmets and shrugged the suits off. Bastila and Canderous helped them shed the suits as the two scientists stared with different reactions.
"That shark..." Sami could barely speak. "Oh, we saw it all on the cameras! That creature...the giant firaxan shark, the guardian of the kolto, or whatever it was, seems to have calmed down."
"More than that," Buffy said. "She's sentient."
"Incredible... " Sami said. "We saw it, but...well, you're the Jedi, not me. Destroying the machinery was the right thing to do for everyone."
"The hell it was!" Nolan interjected, his face furious. "I can't believe what you did. How could you willfully destroy the kolto machinery? That will set us back years. I will have you know that when we get back to the surface, I'll have the Republic do a full inquiry into your actions! Now, get back to the surface and get the Republic to send a real rescue team down for us."
"We're guests here, Dr. Nolan," Bastila said gently. "File what reports you like, but the planet belongs to the Selkath."
"Arrogant Jedi..." Nolan stormed off behind one of the doors to start swearing.
Sami smiled. "Don't mind him. He'll eventually realize you did the right thing. And so will the Selkath."
Bastila nodded. "We shall make sure the Republic sends a rescue craft down at once."
"Thank you," Sami said. "We'll start gathering our data."
The group soon made their way back to the docks. "So we've got another piece of the map," Buffy intoned. "Next stop is Korriban."
"A Sith world?" Canderous snorted. "Sounds pretty dangerous."
"As opposed to the pleasure cruise this trip has been so far?" Buffy said. She stopped suddenly, as did Bastila and Vance. Canderous and HK were confused as the door before them suddenly slid open to reveal three figures in black. The middle one smiled, the dim lights glinting off his bald head.
"I had feared something else had killed you and robbed me of the pleasure," Darth Bandon intoned as he lit both ends of his lightsaber. "But now…you shall feel the full power of the Sith."
A longer chapter this time around. Next one wraps up Manaan with the fight with Bandon, the resolution of Sunry's fate and a bit of romantic entanglement.