Chapter 3

Dantooine

the two ships arrived on the green planet without much ado except from the looming hulk of the Anagrossa in orbit, engines powered up and firing escape pods down to the planet below.

Derryn pulled up his comm unit, "Luke what is that thing doing?"

Luke was silent on the other end for a bit before speaking, "we need to disable that ship."

Derryn's respirator expelled spent Medicated gas and he pressed the indicator button for R-7 to scan the previously dead hulk, "doesnt look like its got active cannons or even shields! you could take its engines, I'll take out the other pods."

Suddenly Ellie's hand flew to Derryn's shoulder just as R-7 let out an alarmed string of droidspeak swear words, Derryn looked up from the console and his eyes widened behind the photoceptor lenses of his rebreather helmet, the ship's gun turrets were turning to face Derryn's crusader, "R-7! EVASIVE ACTION!"

The ship dipped as R-7 took control. Weaving and dogding in and out of laser fire. The dark red bolts flying all around as R-7 expertly avoided the attempted crossfires, every now and then centering on one of the turrets and blasting it apart with the arsenal at the Crusader's disposal, "LUKE! I swear that thing was dead a minute ago!"

Luke responded, "it looks like we're going to have to back off for now, lets go down to the planet so I can show you exactly what I mean by Dark army."

Derryn hesitated, "what about Darth Horde?"

Luke scoffed, "the Anagrossa doesn't have warp engines, I had R2 scan for it, apparently they're damaged beyond repair rather than simply out of commission like your scans indicated, so We know beyond a doubt that it cant escape that fast."

Derryn looked at Ellie who looked at the console to see R-7's affirmative that there was no sign of warp power from the ship.

"Alright Luke, I'll land."

The two landed on a grassy plateu that overlooked what looked like a lush forrest. without much to do. being that Dantooine's government was only a loose fitting set of village elders, there was a severe lack of spaceport, meaning that this mission would go mostly uninterrupted.

As they landed, Derryn looked to R-7 who had already come down from his slot, "R-7, I need you to guard our ships, keep watch alright?"

R-7 beeped and whistled in a slightly miffed tone, dissapointed that he wouldnt be coming, but he agreed.

Luke, Derryn and Ellie met up between their two ships, both he and Ellie seemed just as beleagured as when they'd been in orbit with the anagrossa, Luke spoke first, "can you feel it, Derryn? The sheer weight of the dark side here...Dantooine isnt like this, its usually so balanced here."

Derryn nodded, "its like a fist squeezing my brain...is this because of the dark army?"

Luke nodded, but then tensed up, Derryn did as well, the hatred in the air was intensifying, moving towards them, luke was right, it wasn't just the force aura of the planet, there was some sort of living mass beneath them in the forrest.

Suddenly Derryn caught a glimpse of something emerging from the woods, its a man, clutching desperately at his face which was beset by some sort of small black creature whos webbed finger like legs had wrapped themselves about the man's head along with a long tail.

Ellie gasped audibly as she saw this, Luke looked wary, "this is how this dark army propogates...humanoid hosts."

"Well we gotta help dont we!?" Derryn yelled as he lept off the ledge, using the force to land softly so he could approach the man, who was still struggling, "its ok sir...i've got you."

As he approached the man however, he heard shrill screams in the darkness between the trees, Derryn looked up and the lenses of his breathing helmet polarized, shedding light on a black slimy thing crouched and stalking near to the ground, its figure almost feminine, its head elongated and armored, it hissed at Derryn as it advanced.

Just looking at this thing was jamming Derryn's life sensing abilities, the overwealming darkside influence of these dark creature was truly getting to him, his vision darkening as everything seemed to fall away! the Xenomorph aproached the fallen man, ignoring the Jedi altogether as it seemed to know that Derryn was off balance.

Suddenly Luke and Ellie were at his side, two glowing lights in the darkness that had enveloped Derryn's vision. Derryn swayed on his feet as static rang in his ears, Luke seemed to be trying to say something to him, but all he could see is that all around them were things, blacker than the blackness that had envelloped the world in front of him, creeping in from all around! Crawling out of every nook and cranny!

Suddenly his head rattled, he staggered, Luke had struck him on his helmet, shaking the Jedi out if his reverie, "FOCUS!" Derryn opened his eyes and the darkness was lifted from them! He could see hordes and hordes of these creatures crawling out of the forest, being beaten back by Ellie, who was not having fun as she blasted more and more of them away with the force, but more kept coming.

"That was some sort of...haze." Derryn took a deep breath of medicated oxygen, Luke nodded as he used the force to fling a few of the creatures into trees, "you have to stay focused or their dark miasma is going to crush your mind!"

This in mind, Derryn drew his saberstaff, the emerald blades blazing forth as he consentrated his power. Derryn hadn't fought sith in years, let alone dark side creatures. the employment to the hutts and the resturaunt he and his wife had started seemed to keep any potential threats away.

Derryn's master, when he was still alive, had trained him in the ways of the Jedi's Shadow. Because of this, Derryn was used to treading a line between the dark and the light, he was a learned student of the Vapaad lightsaber form, and unlike most jedi, he was not required to hold back his anger during a fight.

Ellie jumped as Derryn tore past her, shredding Xenomorphs and blasting their remains away from he and his wife, seeing the scattered green chunks sear through the trees and assorted wildlife.

"these things have ACID BLOOD!?" His respirator began to strain again as his heart quickened pace.

Luke nodded as he impaled one through the skull, "yea, these things are just poison inside and out!" Luke also paused, looking at Derryn who had backed up towards him, "We need to get out of here, we need a plan or we're going to get overwhealmed!"

Ellie nodded silently and joined the other two, seeing the couple on a united withdrawl front, Luke conceded, "alright, but...wait...Ellie do you know how to create Sith Fire?" Ellie turned to Luke and nodded profusely, "alright then...we need to set the forrest on fire...we wouldnt be able to do it with normal fire...but anger charged force fire could burn a lake."

Ellie smiled evilly as her hands caught fire, she turned to the nearest patch of grass and immolated it, the fire quickly began to spread as if it had a mind of its own!

As the fire began to course towards the xenomorphs, the creatures sensed the danger and gave back! Ellie's expression positively demonic as the fire lept up the trees as if they were dry twigs, grasping at anything in its path, including the Xenomorphs who popped like acid filled baloons as their bodies went up in flames!

Luke grabbed Derryn's arm, "we need to go, we dont want to be here when the fire consumes the forest."

Derryn grabbed Ellie and pulled her along, "so thats one swarm taken care of...what's next?" Asked Derryn looked at Luke only to have luke point at the Anagrossa now sitting low enough in orbit to be visible, "we need to take the Anagrossa down before Darth Horde gets any more powerful...we'll need to be inside for that, though."

Derryn smirked, "Alright then, I know exactly how we'd go about that."

In orbit over Dantooine

"THIS WAS YOUR PLAN!?"

"you got a better one?"

Derryn laughed maniacally, hacking and coughing against his ventilator as his Crusader barreled straight for the Anagrossa, still hanging dead-ish in orbit! Luke clung to the back of Derryn's seat in fear as he saw the hull getting closer and closer, "PULL UP!" Shouted Luke as he braced for impact!

Last minute, Derryn pushed a button right as they were about to crash and a massive hole was blown in the side of the ship! The Crusader landing hard inside the cargo bay of the Anagrossa!

There was a small movement from the atmosphere as the force field around the ship tightened to asuage the vaccum.

Derryn chuckles and stretches, Luke looked around and laughed, "That...was insane, and believe me, I've pulled off some insane maneuvers in my lifetime."

Derryn stood and was knocked off his feet as the Anagrossa suddenly jumped to light speed!

Luke had grabbed Ellie as she'd suddenly gone flying, both Derryn and Luke swore as they made their way to the door of the crusader, "great, so our scanners were wrong and now we're who knows where inside a ship full of Darkside monsters, wonderful."

Derryn looked at Luke, "Are you always so pessimistic? We took care of them on the surface, we can take care of them here."

Luke groaned, "I know, but I'm too old not to complain." He chuckled

The three quickly disembarked, looking around the disgusting cargo bay, covered floor to ceiling in the Xenomorph's secretion.

"Eugh...what is all this?" Luke groaned as he sniffed the air, Derryn shook his head, "its not the problem, its just gross...the door's here." He slashed the secretion along a certain stretch of wall, revealing a closed Blast door, "Ellie help me with this door."

The two began to use their lightsabers to melt the door while Luke stood guard.