EPISODE I
Chapter 10: Crippled

After four hours of traveling through hyperspace, the Blazing Manta had tracked the Vriknash to its destination: a small red planet covered in an ocean of lava and surrounded by two intersecting asteroid rings.

Zolph Vaelor asked in bafflement towards their destination. "Wait? This planet's habitable? Doesn't even look like it."

Grein answered him. "There are a few small continents."

Zolph then continued. "Where are we anyway?"

"This is Kratzar. It's a Mustafarian mining colony and also one of the youngest planets in the galaxy."

Zolph got even more curious. "How young are we talking?"

"About 5,000 years."

Zolph was very shocked. Even the Old Republic was older than this planet. Although Kratzar was a Valkoran world, it also meant that it was not part of the Infinite Empire, eliminating it as a potential Archfiend planet. However, he also guessed the planet would be a lot different reaching its millionth year.

Zolph then got back on subject. "Before we get into a lengthy discussion on this planet, let's get back to following that weirdo."

The Blazing Manta then flew into Kratzar's atmosphere, trying to be careful to not get noticed by Gahmah Raan.


Save for several islands, Kratzar was covered entirely in lava, and not as a result of volcanic activity. In fact, there weren't many volcanoes at all. The lava was a result of the planet still being somewhat in its development cycle, and strangely enough, the lava was unusually cool yet still somewhat hot to the point that it was safe to be near it. The sky was unusually clear for a world of its type, although still a light shade of grey.

Meanwhile on Kratzar's surface, the Vriknash, a vessel somewhat resembling a Kuat Drive Yards Firespray Patrol Craft, flew towards a large plateau on a slightly larger island. This plateau had many tunnels going into it on all sides and a military complex on top.

Between two tall buildings on the plateau, the Vriknash laid its backside on the landing pad. Gahmah Raan exited the ship's boarding hatch and was greeted by a black-armored figure with demon-like wings coming out of his back and an escort of soldiers.

"Nice wings you got there!" Gahmah Raan complimented Maesterus. "Can I have them?" He jokingly asked him.

Behind his helmet, Maesterus was just as confused as anyone meeting the bounty hunter for the first time, even though this wasn't the first time. "Not the response I would expect, but thanks. And sorry to disappoint you, but they're real. I take it you have Menbar Mun?"

"Eeyup!" Gahmah answered. "He's sleeping like a baby right now." A repulsor-sled carrying the Sullustan sprayed and frozen in carbonite came out of the Vriknash's loading ramp.

"Excellent." Maesterus then caught the scent of blood on the hunter. "I also take it you killed your competitors?"

"Yeah, but only because they were too lazy to capture my other target alive."

Maesterus sighed in disbelief and thought to himself, "I really need to be more careful when dealing with mercenaries." He then asked Gahmah. "Speaking of whom, do you have Zolph?"

"I don't have him with me, but he should be touching down on this island within the next few seconds. By the way, why do you refer to him by his first name?"

"That's none of your concern, bounty hunter."

Gahmah then shrugged. "No biggie. I already know your little secret with him, but I'm not saying anything since there are too many prying ears around."

Maesterus was somewhat unsettled. "Why ask at all then?"

"Just felt like it." They then both heard a starship setting down on the beachhead below. "Right on schedule. Mind if I hang around for a bit?"

"I don't see why not." Maesterus answered as he headed back into the building. "I could give you a few more credits if you help subdue Zolph."


The Blazing Manta had landed on the island's rocky beachhead after sneaking past the installation's searchlights by flying close to the lava.

"Wow, I'm surprised we didn't burn to death flying that close." Zolph said.

"A lot of volcanic worlds are like that." Grein answered him.

Zolph then felt a familiar presence. "I sense Maesterus. Now I know why Raan didn't take me prisoner."

"He probably expected us to put a beacon on his ship."

"This rescue mission is going to be lot riskier than I anticipated." Looking out the Manta's viewport, Zolph noticed a lone Valkoran trooper coming out of one of the plateau's tunnels. Thankfully, the Manta was docked to the right of the tunnel entrance. "I've got an idea."

Zolph quickly dashed out of the Manta's loading ramp and to the side of the plateau. Eventually, the trooper approached the Manta. Zolph then snuck up on him, knocked him unconscious and dragged him off to the ship.

Moments later, Zolph exited the Manta again, this time wearing the ambushed trooper's armor. The only thing that could possibly give him off to non-Force Sensitives was his lightsaber, but he took it anyway in case his cover was blown without it. Besides, he could always pass it off as a trophy if anyone questioned him about it.

The comlink that came with the armor started ringing with a voice coming from it. "Base to Cannok, what is your status? Why are you not responding?"

Zolph answered. "Cannok to Base, my comlink probably had some signal interference."

"What's your report on the ship that landed down there?"

"It's just a civilian freighter passing through. The crew stopped here for an emergency landing to repair it."

"Let them go then. You've just been reassigned to the interrogation center. Again, be careful passing through the lava mines."

Zolph refrained from asking any questions in case Cannok's been stationed on Kratzar for a long time. "Yes sir! Cannok out!"

Zolph then headed into the plateau tunnel.


Zolph moved through the Valkoran mining tunnels with his rifle in position, passing by several lava siphons attended by Mustafarian miners of both subspecies and several Valkoran troopers for protection from who-knows-what.

Moving further along, he figured out what they were there for and what the person over the comlink was warning him about: Pyrons, large eyeless lava serpents with tusks protruding from both jaws and so far, one of the only known native species on Kratzar. They would occasionally pop out of the siphons at random. In case of these emergencies, all troopers and miners were armed with kinetic blasters to penetrate their heat-resistant skin.

At one siphon in particular, a Pyron caught one Valkoran trooper in its mouth with its tusks piercing through the trooper's pelvis. The trooper incoherently muttered from inside the beast's mouth "Why does this always happen to me?!" The Mustafarians the trooper was guarding then opened fire on the Pyron until it dropped dead with the trooper still in its mouth. The trooper muttered "Someone, please kill me…" One of the miners, a Northern Mustafarian, granted his wish when he fired up his rear end…although he probably didn't mean it like that.

"Private Helms is down!" another trooper told the guard commander.

"Really?" the commander dryly responded, unsurprised at what he obviously saw. "Get back to work, soldier." The trooper did as told.

After 30 minutes of moving through the tunnels, Zolph eventually reached the turbolift to the top of the plateau. He entered and went upward.


At the top of the plateau, Zolph saw many Valkoran troopers, droids and vehicles on patrol, always ready in case of an attack on the installation. He then noticed two large – but not really noticeable from the beachhead below – buildings connected by a landing pad, where a non-Valkoran ship was docked. He quickly figured out where the interrogation center was.

He walked into one of the buildings. Moving upward in the building, he passed several prison cells, most of them empty, but what little cells were occupied had mostly unruly soldiers or corrupt officers from within their own ranks.

He made it to the top floor and eventually the interrogation room. He found lots of lab equipment, Menbar Mun strapped to an interrogation table and Doctor Thilid, a Quarren wearing a gray lab coat and a mask that hid everything but her mouth tentacles.

"You're late, trooper!" Thilid berated Zolph.

"Sorry, ma'am. I got lost on the way back. Those mines are still annoying to navigate. That and those blasted Pyron infestations."

"While you were busy being lost, I just finished probing this rat's brain for our enemy's bases and cleared it of ours!"

Zolph realized he was too late, but he noticed a datapad in the interrogator's hands. Apparently, that intel hadn't been publicized yet.

Thilid then continued to berate him. "If I were in charge, I'd pull your brain out through your nose and eat it, but Maesterus would kill me if I did that, so you're a lucky human." She then turned toward Menbar. "However, now that he's of no further use, I don't think he'll mind if I eat the Sullustan's brain before turning in my results."

Menbar tried to turn his head away in fear as the insane Quarren approached the table. She opened up his left nostril with three of her mouth tentacles, but before she could stick the fourth tentacle up into his nostril, Zolph ignited his lightsaber through her back and killed her.

"Actually, I think he would." He then destroyed the datapad she was holding, took off his helmet and freed Menbar from the table. He then asked him "Are you alright?"

"Thanks. Of all the ways I could die, I couldn't imagine this being one of them. And I don't plan on sleeping tonight anyway. That aside, I'm sorry I cracked and lost the intel you wanted."

"That's a shame, but hey, at least they don't have our intel anymore." Zolph then put his helmet back on. "As for our plan on getting out, in which of these two buildings is your scheduled holding cell?"

"It's the adjacent building."

"Okay, because I'm going to be your escort." Zolph then put some binders on Menbar's wrists.


Trying to keep up his disguise by taking a convenient shortcut, Zolph escorted Menbar by going across the landing pad on which the Vriknash was docked. There, he spotted Gahmah Raan casually leaning against the side of his ship with his arms crossed.

The eccentric mercenary then spoke to Zolph in a fast-paced manner. "Excuse me, Ma'am. Have you seen a human guy around here that looks a little like a girl? He's about your height and your weight and has a lightsaber exactly like the one you're carrying on your belt."

Zolph did his best to ignore him, just moving along with Menbar, until Gahmah got up and fired a shot from one of his blasters, barely missing him.

"Hey! Don't ignore me! That's just rude!" Gahmah shouted to him.

Zolph was finally annoyed, and took off his helmet. "Alright! I get it! You know who I am!"

"Pretty much." Gahmah responded. "By the way, you're late!"

"Yeah yeah. No one's getting anything new from Menbar."

"No. I mean you are late by – I don't know – three weeks."

"Seriously?!" Zolph was annoyed by his lack of time comprehension. "It's been eight hours since we last met!"

"Really? Because it feels like it's been three weeks."

"Remember, Zolph, the guy is a spice addict. Just ignore him," he muttered to himself. "Now that I'm here like you want me, can't you just let me go?"

"Nope. I still need to fight you."

"You already got your money for bringing me and Menbar here, so why do you need to fight me?"

"Just because." Gahmah then drew his other blaster out.

"Because Maesty's giving you more for aiding in my capture?"

"Ding Ding!" Gahmah shouted as he then fired two charged shots towards Zolph's legs, but he promptly dodged back.

Zolph then charged towards Gahmah with his lightsaber ignited and deflecting his blaster shots. He eventually got close enough and cut off both of Gahmah's hands. He only reacted with a simple 'Ow!'

"'Ow'? Oh come on, you've lost within a few seconds of our duel!"

"Uh, no. Not yet. Hold on a sec." The blades on his forearms flipped outward and he cut away the burn marks made on his stumps. Zolph and Menbar were grossed out. After the marks were removed and the stumps bleeding a little, he immediately regenerated his hands. "Okay, all done! Now for Round 2!"

The hunter then leaped into the air and dived towards Zolph, knocking him down. He quickly jumped around to reclaim his blasters, but he put them back in his holsters to resort to melee combat. He then jumped toward Zolph and started slashing at him with his wrist blades.

Zolph blocked a few of his strikes, but Gahmah was somehow still able to cut through the armor he was wearing. "Some armor that is!" Gahmah taunted.

"Yeah." Zolph agreed as they continued striking at each other. "Why do I get the feeling they never properly tested this armor?"

"Probably because someone out there had to make the grunts easy to kill."

After ten minutes of not really getting anywhere with the duel, they were both fatigued. "Okay, I'm done!" Gahmah said. "I'm ready to go home now."

"Seriously?" Zolph asked with surprise. "But I'm not even fresh for capture!"

"Yeah, but this fight has gone nowhere… and has gotten pretty boring." Gahmah waved his hand, causing the Vriknash's loading ramp to open. As he paced towards his ship, he told Zolph "Well, we'll probably be seeing each other again by the time they've forgotten about me." He then entered the ship and the ramp closed.

The Vriknash lifted off the ground, with its main body rotating perpendicular to the landing pad, the engine pods parallel to it and the s-foils opening up. It then flew away from the facility.

"Did he just use the Force?" Zolph asked himself.

"Don't ask me." Menbar responded. "I'm not a Jedi."

"I almost forgot about you. However, thanks to our little duel and the battle damage this armor's taken, I think our cover's blown." He then removed the binders on Menbar as they were now pointless. "Now let's just fight our way out!"

They then headed through the building on the other side of the pad.


Zolph and Menbar ran out of the prison complex, with all Valkoran personnel firing at them. Zolph deflected blaster fire and cut down troops while Menbar fired the rifle Zolph was carrying while in disguise. They eventually found the turbolift to the mines and boarded it.

While descending, the lift suddenly stopped only one floor below the top of the plateau. The doors opened to reveal Maesterus waiting for them.

"Damn!" Zolph exclaimed. "Menbar, go ahead to the bottom. My ship is just outside!" Zolph then moved out of the lift.

"He can go along, as he's no concern to me now." Maesterus told him. The Sullustan stayed in the lift as its doors closed and continued its descent. "I'm so glad you came to visit."

"Save it!" Zolph told him. "I know you hired those bounty hunters just lure me into your trap! And aside from that black ooze in your body, what possessed you to recruit that psychotic hag of a squid?!"

Maesterus put his palm against his helmet and sighed with disgust at what Zolph was implying. "I take it you met Doctor Thilid and that she tried to eat another prisoner's brain?"

"And I take it someone equally, if not more insane recruited her?"

"You are correct." Maesterus then drew out his lightsaber. "But let's not get off topic. And as usual, I take it I'm going to have to beat you into submission again before taking you prisoner. And this time unfortunately, I'm not letting you off the hook like I did on Vjun."

Zolph then spoke as he pulled out his lightsaber. "Speaking of Vjun, what horrors or doomsday devices did you find out about in that holocron? The Emperor's Exhaust Port? The Power Cord of Palpatine?"

"You don't need to be worried. There was nothing related to superweapons or Dark Side artifacts in that holocron, so the Galactic Alliance isn't doomed yet." Maesterus then raised his lightsaber and spread out his wings. "But enough side-tracking. We've got business to settle." He then unpredictably fired a bone spike from his left palm, which Zolph managed to dodge.

Zolph made a jump slash at Maesterus that was quickly blocked. They clashed blades until Maesterus blew some wind into Zolph's face with his wings and then floated several feet back into the caverns.

Suddenly, Maesterus's wings started to react. A new pair of wings violently tore themselves out of his original pair, stacking on top of them. He looked even more intimidating to Zolph, despite his affable demeanor.


Meanwhile, after shooting his way through the lowest levels of the mines and avoiding several Pyrons, Menbar made it outside the plateau and reached the Blazing Manta. He got onboard the vessel and met up with Grein.

"Okay, you're here, but where's the guy who came to rescue you?" Grein asked him.

"He stayed behind to stall Maesterus." Menbar answered.

Grein then sighed. "Buckle up. It looks like Zolph's going to need my help…again." She then started up the Manta.


Back in the upper levels of the mines, Zolph and Maesterus's duel continued, going even further past the turbolift and above several lava pools. With a second pair of wings, Maesterus had another advantage. He could shield himself with his first pair while he could fly with his new pair at the same time, even though there wasn't much flying space in the mines. Not even Zolph's lightsaber could cut through his wings. Not to mention he was still fatigued from his earlier duel with Gahmah Raan.

"Okay, it's bad enough that you can shoot spikes out of your body and that you can fly, but this is just ridiculous!" Zolph complained in regards to Maesterus's biological advantages while dodging spikes fired from above.

"Would you prefer I do something else?" Maesterus asked as he then used the Force to hurl some rocks at Zolph. He then swooped towards Zolph, batted his lightsaber back, and cut off his right arm almost up to the shoulder, in the exact same place he cut off Dynn's arm. Naturally, Zolph screamed in pain.

"Well, looks like you've lost again, Zolph." Maesterus told him.

Zolph responded with obviously feigned snark. "Uh, no. Not yet." He then used the Force to pull his lightsaber from his severed arm on the ground to his left hand. He tried to strike at Maesterus, but he effortlessly batted the lightsaber out of his hand and then promptly cut it in two. "Aw nuts," he then reacted with a mix of annoyed disappointment and dread.

Maesterus then picked Zolph up by the throat with one hand. "Oh please. Did you really think attacking me with your weak arm was going to work?"

"Hey! I thought you weren't going to kill me!" Zolph told him as he was gasping for breath.

"I'm not. The last thing I need is you struggling, so either cooperate or go to sleep."

Zolph was then thrown off by his choice of words. "You're not going to do that to me, are you?"

Maesterus then responded with slight shock. "What in your right mind would make you think I would do such a thing?"

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the arrival of the Blazing Manta. Behind his mask, Maesterus was very surprised, as he felt a very familiar presence.

The Manta fired two concussion missiles at him, which he promptly redirected away from him. However, that was promptly followed by a laser blast that knocked Zolph to the ground and sent Maesterus falling into a lava pool several floors below.

The Manta then landed on solid ground and opened its boarding ramp. Grein got out of the vessel and got Zolph on his feet.

"Watch where you're firing! You could've killed me!" Zolph chastised her. "But thanks for your help! I was sure to be drafted into the Valks! And I take it Menbar made it?"

"You don't need to worry about him." She told him. "Let's get you out of here and get you a doctor." She then carried him with his left arm over her shoulder onto the Manta.

The Manta's loading ramp closed and the vessel flew out of one of the many tunnels in the plateau and left Kratzar's atmosphere.

As they left the system, Zolph doubted that Maesterus was killed when he fell in the lava. His reasoning: he would have attempted to fly away if he wasn't resistant to it.


Later, the Blazing Manta rendezvoused with the Galactic Alliance frigate, Sanctity – specifically a Nebulon-B frigate – to drop off Menbar Mun and get Zolph medical attention.

In the Sanctity's medical bay, Zolph laid on a medical cot with some apparatus hooked up to his newly-made stump.

"So, Doc? When am I going to get that new arm?" Zolph asked the 2-1B medical droid in the room.

"We can install a standard prosthesis anytime. However, if you want that design you requested for ignoring EMP weapons and amplifying your physical strength, you'll be on medical probation for up to six months."

"I'm willing to take that risk, but could you please get the surgical engineers to do it as fast as possible? The Valks may not be that bad, but they are summoning creatures that may do as much damage as the Yuuz-…" Zolph was then interrupted and fell asleep. He had a tranquilizer fired into him from one of the engineers in the room.

"We can try," the droid answered, "but you shut up and get some rest, sir."