EPISODE I
Chapter 4: Demon of Tatooine
After several hours of traveling across Tatooine on Swoop Bike and stopping at a few settlements to refuel, Zolph Vaelor had found himself at a Krayt Dragon cave in the Eastern Dune Sea. Outside of said cave, he found the corpse of the Dragon that once resided in it, a Behemoth-class carrier and a Sigma-class shuttle. The Valkoran were there like Va'Za the Hutt said.
"Wow! These guys are good!" Zolph said to himself with surprise at the sight of the fallen Krayt Dragon. However, he also noticed a few dead Valkoran Troopers within proximity of the beast's corpse. It did not go down easy.
Zolph entered the mouth of the cave. It seemed like an ordinary Krayt Dragon den, but then he noticed a small, man-sized tunnel deeper inside and proceeded through it.
After going further into the tunnel, Zolph found himself in an ancient temple filled with lamps, pillars and statues of stalk-eyed aliens. "It's about time I found them! Now I get some sweet light and a lot less dirt in my face!" He also noticed a squad of Valkoran Troopers.
"What the… A Jedi?! Here?!" one of the troopers panicked upon seeing him.
"I've really got to look around before I speak more often…"
"Open fire, men!" The squad commander barked. "We can't let him know what we're doing here!"
The troopers fired at Zolph, but he responded by uprooting one of the alien statues and throwing it at two of the squad members and then cutting the rest down.
"Okay, that's taken care of, but now I just need to find what has them so interested in this dusty cave."
He then moved forward through a door farther back.
Farther into the ruins, he found a locked door and three pedestals with an interface next to each of them.
"Hm. Only one of them may open the door. The others are most likely death traps." Zolph then heard another squad of Valkoran Troopers entering from an adjacent room and hid behind a statue.
Three troopers entered the room. The leader of the squad spoke. "This is the room I was talking about. I'm suspecting two of the pedestals are booby-trapped." He then looked to one of the troopers.
Said trooper then spoke back in protest, "Why do I always have to be the one to disarm the trap?!"
"You already know the answer to that, Private Helms."
"Do you think I enjoy that?!"
"It trims down casualties."
"Fine…" Helms then walked on to one of the pedestals and put his hand on the terminal. However, the pedestal opened up into segments and Helms lost control of his balance and saw below him a live Sarlacc with its beak open.
"No! No! No! I can't go out like this!" He reacted in horror knowing that it would take a long time for him to die. He then fell into the sedentary creature's gullet.
Zolph, still hiding, put his hand to his forehead, knowing not only is the supposedly immortal soldier going to be digested alive for over a thousand years, but he will never figure out how he kept coming back.
However, the Sarlacc promptly regurgitated Helms at an angle at high velocity, slamming him into the ceiling. He then fell to the ground covered in dirt and some of the beast's body fluids and looked to the troopers. "I. Hate. Both of you." Helms then died and the pedestal closed.
"Thank the Force." The other lower-ranking trooper said in relief knowing Helms would still be able to reincarnate. "Now we know we are indigestible to these things."
The squad leader then spoke. "And that is not the pedestal we need to activate. Now we just need to wait before we try again." The troopers then left the room to kill time.
Zolph, still slightly lamenting the missed opportunity, got out from behind the statue and used Force sense to determine the right pedestal. He learned that the Sarlacc, being rather large, was the only one in the room. Then, something snapped in Zolph's mind. "Oh wait! I don't even need to touch them." He Force pushed one of the interfaces, revealing a spike pit beneath one of them. Using deductive reasoning and one more push, he activated the other interface and unlocked the door. "You know, now that I think about it, why didn't I just try to saber down the door? Oh well, no harm done." Zolph then moved forward.
In another room with a square walkway bordering a spike pit below was an ancient droid sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the spike pit. The droid activated shortly after Zolph entered the room and attempted to light him with a built-in flamethrower. Zolph naturally dodged to the side.
"Well, whoever these guys were, they were a pretty advanced race. Too bad the droid's in a very bad place." Zolph then attempted to Force push the droid off the pedestal into the spike pit, but it was anchored into the pedestal, preventing such a mundane strategy. "I guess Force powers don'tsolve everything." The droid then tried to burn him again.
Eventually, the droid ran out of fuel. The droid's glowing eye flickered as a claw descended from the ceiling, unscrewed the bulb in the top of the droid and pulled it back into the ceiling. Then it descended with another bulb and put it into the droid, which then resumed torching Zolph. He had figured out that the bulb was a fuel tank for the flamethrower.
Zolph let the droid empty its tank once more and attempt to replace it. He drew out his blaster as the tank was being replaced and then fired on the replacement tank as it was being set, detonating it and obliterating the droid. Zolph then moved further into the ruins.
Later, Zolph found himself in a large outdoor arena with many stone pillars. He took out the Valkoran Troopers in the arena, but realizing there was nowhere else to go, he wondered why he was there.
Shortly after, he felt the ground beneath him shake and out of the sand emerged a large snake-like creature with a head resembling a hand, with the three fingers and two thumbs forming mandibles. In the palm of the head was a glowing red eye that resembled a crystal ball. The creature somehow roared at Zolph despite not having a visible mouth.
"Wait. This is why I'm here?" Zolph asked himself looking at the creature. "Oh well, if it's just a wild animal, this shouldn't be a problem."
The creature positioned the thumb-like mandibles upward, and the ground shook once again. Zolph looked down and a sand geyser threw him upward and as he fell, another one erupted and sent him upward again. He then fell to the ground and activated his comlink, dodging more geysers in the process.
"Master Skywalker, I'd like you to see this." He then activated the comlink's miniature holocam to show the creature to Luke. "Since you grew up here, do you know anything about a species like this? Because the official Tatooine almanac sure doesn't!"
"No, but it's a giant sand snake with a hand-like head. What about it?"
"Well, it's trying to kill me when I haven't even tried to do anything to it yet…with sand geysers!" Some boulders were then summoned from the sand and flew towards Zolph, with him narrowly dodging and slashing at some of them. "And now it's telekinetically throwing boulders at me!"
"That's not normal. This may be the reason the Valkoran were distracting us with the criminal uprising."
The snake suddenly dug into the ground and then emerged from under Zolph, grabbing and gnawing on him before throwing him. As Zolph got up on his feet, he yelled into his comlink. "You think?! When I heard the Valkoran were plundering ruins, I was expecting an ancient superweapon or an artifact of doom, not a monster with supernatural powers!" Zolph then calmed down. "However, I'm also sensing something abnormal about it, and it's not the Force. More specifically, the same abnormality I sensed from Maesterus."
"Zolph, do what you can to put this thing down. If it gets out of the ruins, who knows what kind of terror it may unleash upon Tatooine."
"I was thinking the same thing." Zolph then deactivated the comlink.
The beast dug into the sand again, but Zolph, using his Force sense to detect the abnormality from underground, jumped up into the air before the creature could grab him again.
"Oh no, I am not falling for the same trick twice!" he then performed a downward stab into the creature's eye just as it rose from the sand. Once the blade connected, the creature let out a painful shriek and flailed, throwing Zolph off along with his lightsaber.
The beast retaliated by throwing another large stone at Zolph, who used the Force to grab the boulder in response and throw it back. The creature flinched in pain, and as it readied for another attack, Zolph lowered his goggles and put up his mouth cover.
It made a blast of sand to throw Zolph off and make him easier to ambush. Unfortunately for it, Zolph jumped up into the air from behind it and swiftly decapitated the beast. The veil of sand disappeared and the creature's headless corpse fell to the ground. The eye on the severed head lost its glow, looking like nothing more than a glass ball.
Zolph panted in relief, "What in space was I just fighting? Well, at least it's over now."
He then backtracked into the ruins.
Making it back to the pedestal room, Zolph saw a female figure wearing a full helmet that obscured her face and light gray armor pieces over a black body glove.
Zolph responded. "After dealing with that thing, I was hoping I wouldn't run into any more trouble." As the figure drew out a double-bladed lightsaber with orange blades, Zolph did the same.
The masked woman swung her blade viciously at Zolph, who blocked and dodged her blows and then attacked back. While attacking, he got a good look at the lightsaber hilt and recognized it.
"That's a nice hilt you've got there. You've toughened up ever since you went missing…right, Dynn?"
The figure then jumped back, deactivated her lightsaber and took off her helmet, revealing herself to be a human woman with red hair and green eyes. She was indeed Dynn Manthis. "So you figured me out, Zolph. You're still as observant as ever despite your occasional lapses. I guess you also figured out I'm now working with the Valkoran?"
"Yeah, and I'd like to know why and what the deal was with that sand snake I just killed?"
"Sand snake? You mean Terraris?"
"Wait, that thing has a name?! Was it your pet?!"
"He was an incredibly powerful and sentient creature we summoned to help us fix the galaxy, almost on god-like levels. And you just screwed that up."
"Okay, considering the thing tried to kill me on sight and his abilities, I see something wrong with that. But that doesn't completely answer my other question."
"Well, I originally intended to collect intel on them while I was held prisoner, but then I learned more about their motives. They're not interested in conquering the galaxy; they're interested in rebuilding it."
"Then why are you guys at war with the Alliance?"
"The New Republic would've had everything to build the galaxy, but it was not as militarily effective as it once was and thus fell apart during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. When the Galactic Alliance rose from the rubble, they resorted back to that military effectiveness, but lost their economic effectiveness. From my experiences, I was somewhat inclined to agree with them."
"So now you're a galactic revolutionary with good intentions, but very extreme about it?"
"If that's your idea, then yes. By the way, Maesterus still wants me to bring you back to him."
"I'll tell you the same I told him: I'm not coming."
Dynn reactivated her lightsaber.
"Can you please take 'no' for an answer?"
"Sorry, Zolph. I don't want to do this, but unless you come willingly, I am going to have to take you by force."
Zolph sighed and reactivated his lightsaber as well.
Dynn charged at Zolph, only slashing at him in a way as not to kill him. Zolph dodged desperately in response. They clashed sabers for several minutes, even throwing things at each other.
"Come on, Dynn! If he killed my parents, why does he want me by his side?!"
"We can't tell you that until you've joined us. Besides, he's not so bad once you get to know him. He doesn't kill his own men for failure or fun. And we can go back to being friends again."
"I told you I don't want to be with that bone-launching bastard!" He then cut off her right arm, causing her to yell in pain. He then responded in shock. "Oh my! I didn't think I'd do that! Sorry!" He then regained his composure. "Either way, you've lost, Dynn. Why don't you come back with me?"
Dynn looked up as she clutched at her stump. "As a war criminal? Sorry, but if you're not letting me take you back, I'm not letting you do the same to me either." She then used the Force to collapse the ceiling. "You might as well get out while you can."
Zolph fled the area as the room caved in on itself.
Outside the Krayt Dragon cave, Zolph spoke on his comlink. "Luke, I've got good news and bad news."
"Let's start with the good news," Luke said.
"I killed the sand snake, which I learned was named Terraris. And I've confirmed Dynn Manthis's survival."
"That's great. So what's the bad news?"
"Dynn's now working with the Valkoran."
"That's unfortunate. You may have to put your feelings aside if you meet her again."
"I'm counting on it. On another subject, I think there was something else Va'Za knows that could be potentially dangerous. I'm going back to talk with Mr. Mustache Hutt."
Zolph then deactivated his comlink, mounted his Swoop Bike, put down his goggles and headed towards Va'Za's monastery.
After a few hours of backtracking, Zolph found himself back at Va'Za's palace. He aggressively banged on the palace door, and out of it popped the gatekeeper droid from before.
"What is your business here?"
"I need an audience with Va'Za…now."
Without any words, the droid attempted to retract back into the hatch, but Zolph used the Force to hold it and said to it. "Oh no, you are not avoiding me this time." The droid's stalk then broke as it tried to pull itself back in.
Zolph then pulled out his lightsaber, cut a hole through the door and entered.
In the main lobby he found himself surrounded by many of Va'Za's thugs, but Zolph just casually tossed them aside, made his way back to the throne room and confronted the Hutt, who was very surprised that the Jedi would ever come back.
"Okay, Va'Za, how did you know about those ruins?" Zolph commandingly asked him. "And don't you dare talk yourself out of this. What was in there could not only have threatened Tatooine, but possibly the entire galaxy itself if had the means to leave this planet. So speak the truth. Now."
"I don't really know much about those ruins except where they are, and I don't actually know Tatooine that well!" the Hutt told him panicking.
"Then where did you get their location from?"
"An associate gave it to me!"
"Associate? Please elaborate. I demand specifics."
"His name is Girdretto. He is a Toydarian kingpin on Sleheyron. He said I would turn a profit from trading this information! And now you've clearly ruined my only source of income."
"That's all I needed to know." However, Zolph then noticed the Twi'lek slave girl from before is no longer sitting next to him. "Hey, where's your slave?"
The Hutt played innocent. "What slave? She's free now!"
"Don't lie to me. I can sense something coming from your stomach!" Zolph swiftly slashed at Va'Za, cutting his stomach open. As the Hutt screamed in pain, Zolph used the Force to pull out what was the same slave girl he tried to eat before, covered in slime and horrified but not too badly digested. "Va'Za, you are an idiot! I wasn't kidding about my warning from last time!"
He then looked to the terrified slave girl. "Okay, you're free now. Now get out of here." The Twi'lek promptly fled from the monastery. Zolph then looked to the rest of Va'Za's thugs. "As for the rest of you, get real jobs!"
Zolph then walked out of the palace.
As Zolph was flying back to Ossus through hyperspace in his Z-95, he issued his mission report to Luke Skywalker.
"I still can't believe you killed Va'Za," Luke responded. "The rest of the Hutts are probably not going to like you after that."
"Hey, you said he wasn't that special, and I thought he would simply be hospitalized and not die from his wounds. I guess he was too heavy to haul to the hospital. Besides, the guy ate his own slave girls! That one I saved killing him is most likely going to have psychotherapy after almost being digested alive. I'm just surprised she didn't die from suffocation."
"Well, I do commend you for protecting the innocent at the very least. But still, the way I see it, getting an audience with Girdretto is going to be difficult after that."
"Yeah, I'll be ready to head to Sleheyron tomorrow. After the crazy stuff that's happened today, I need a break."
