Jump Chain Gothic 12 - BTVS 4

Part 5

The Phoenix. Halloween Universe.

I tugged on my new uniform jacket as I wandered around the bridge of the Battlestar, ensuring that the recovery of all our resources and materials from the planet below went as smoothly as possible. Now that we'd extracted the minerals that we'd come back here for and the remaining darkspawn were in the process of getting hunted down by a few squads of commando droids, it was time for us to finally move on.

We'd not been able to find all of the dormant Archdemons, as they didn't register on our scans, but with the Darkspawn dead there were none left to taint the dragon gods should there be any left down there to taint. Of course, this wouldn't be the end of the threat as there was something behind the darkspawn threat, and the taint would still exist within the Grey Wardens, but I wasn't here to solve every problem this world had.

"We've nearly recovered all of the mechs we sent down" I heard Tali say over the comm "But we're going to need some more time to secure them all".

While the bots could easily be beamed up to the ship it was a bit more work to place them back in their capsules than it had been to deploy them as we'd had to make more bots during the operation and those damaged needed to be repaired before going into storage or they wouldn't be ready to deploy the next time we needed them, and since I might need my bot army again soon we had to make sure that they were ready for battle.

Even with the help of the Athena the sister ship of the Phoenix gathering up everything was taking some time, and I had to wonder if this large scale operation had been worth it even with all the ore we'd gathered and the treasures. I had a limited time in this universe as the BTVS Jump would not last forever, but there was no sense worrying about that anymore as this operation was nearly over.

"I'm not sure if I like these uniforms" I heard Jane say as she entered the bridge.

Since Forestwind's mission was over, she'd been somewhat successful in gathering lore from the Dalish and I'd used probes to collect DNA samples from them, I'd placed her back into stasis. There would be other fantasy worlds out here so I would need her services again soon of that I felt sure.

"Blame Padme for the outfits, not me," I said to my adopted daughter "She designed them".

The uniforms were somewhat like those worn by the Atlantis expedition, Padme must have found the design somewhere in my vast databanks and then adapted them for our use. While the outfits were basic black with a white phoenix symbol on the tops and jackets we all had different colours on our uniforms to signal our role within the Gothic Consortium, which had become a much more formal organisation than I'd ever intended. For example, I wore command silver, just enough to show that I was in command, with gold being used by Padme who served as an ambassador for the consortium.

Padme had ensured that the female uniform had trousers which drew attention to the backsides of anyone who wore them, and the tops of the female uniforms showed off quite a bit of cleavage. Some of my companions had argued for keeping the bodysuits, but Padme had pointed out that it was time for something different.

"You'll get used to them" I assured Jane as I looked away from the readouts I'd been studying "and you wanted to come along".

I noticed that the psychic teen was armed with a Force Lance, one of the little gifts she'd gotten from me and that she wore a utility belt that would be full of useful little items, as well as a pouch of holding. This meant that while she might not like the outfit she was at least willing to look the part.

"The pants are a nice fit" she commented.

I did have to admit that Padme had done a good job when selecting the materials for the new uniforms. She'd made sure to use layers of lightweight fabric that energy-absorbing properties and were better than kevlar when dealing with physical attacks but were also more comfortable than the materials I normally used.

"Tali could do with some help loading up the bots" I mentioned to Jane.

It was clear to me that she'd come to the bridge for some attention from me rather than because she wanted something to do so I made that an order and gave her a quick telekinetic slap on the bum as she left. She rather liked that and skipped a little as she left the bridge.

"Cortana let the captured dwarves go at the last moment," I said to the AI "We don't want them getting in the way while we pack up".

Thankfully for my operation, and the dwarves, the Legion of the Dead hadn't gotten caught up in the mining work as while they couldn't have stopped me they would have gotten in the way and tied up resources that were better spent killing the Darkspawn.

Seeing that everything was going so well I decided to spend some time in meditation before the ship departed this system, they didn't need me for any of this and it was rather dull.

(Line Break)

The Phoenix. Hyperspace.

"Master you wanted me to call you when we arrived," said a very familiar voice.

I snapped awake, or alert since I'd not been asleep, and as I got to my feet I felt a little shaky.

"You okay, Master?" my apprentice acquired.

I turned to face Ahsoka, who had come to this bare-walled room that I used for peace and quiet, so as to inform me that we'd arrived at our next destination.

"While I was meditating I had a very intense vision about something going on far away and yet parts of it were so familiar," I told the former Jedi Padawan "I was there, but I don't think it was me, and you were there too, and Aayla Secura for some reason".

Ahsoka seemed confused.

"The Jedi Master Aayla Secura?" she asked.

There was more to the visions.

"It's getting harder to remember," I said while struggling to recall the images that had been entering my mind "There were clones of Dark Jedi we were fighting them with help, and then some robots based on the woman from the DC universe. I fought with some people I don't recall ever meeting. One of them was a werewolf of some kind".

Ahsoka gave a smirk.

"Sounds more like a dream than a vision," she said, "But if I know you as well as I think I do it wouldn't shock me at all if it comes to pass".

Maybe I had fallen asleep, but I felt fairly certain I'd been in a trace and you don't dream in a trance, but in this crazy universe, plenty of things didn't make much sense.

"If it happens it happens" I stated.

Rather than dwell on the vision I decided to focus on the here and now.

"If we've arrived a Dantooine then we need to get moving," I said next, "I want to complete our mission before we drew any attention to ourselves".

Before heading down I would need to change into some armour and grab some weapons. In this galaxy, you never could be too careful.

(Line Break)

Crystal Cave. Dantooine.

While waiting for an offer on the ore we'd spent so much time digging up I'd decided to take a quick trip to another galaxy to quick up some special crystals. Not that I really needed them, but this was a place that I wanted to visit again.

I was mildly surprised about how easy a time Ashoka Tani and I had found the caves. Of course, it helped to have the Force as well as decent scanning equipment, but still searching an entire planet for one cave system was something that should have taken longer. Perhaps the cave wanted to be found.

The Crystal Cave was located on the southeast end of the Khoonda on the world of Dantooine. Khoonda still existed, granted it was a major city in this version of the Star Wars galaxy, but it was still in the same place as in the KOTOR game and it had the same name so that had helped narrow the search quite a bit.

According to one of my holocrons, the Jedi Order discovered the caves that Ahsoka and I were now visiting back when Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas established the Jedi Enclave not too far from here. The Enclave had been bombed and the Jedi were gone, however, this world was still strong with the Force.

After the Enclave was set up the Jedi Order was given sole access to the world's wealth of precious crystals, which were vital to the construction of the Order's lightsabers. Among the naturally occurring crystal structures were the rare Adegan crystals, once believed to only grow on Adega, which produced blue, green and yellow variations.

While I knew that both Revan and the Jedi Exile had once been in this very place I felt no trace of them. But they had both been dead for thousands of years so that was to be expected, and this was really only a copy of the real Dantooine which I once visited.

"Why are we here, Master?" my student asked me.

I'd not told my apprentice why we were coming here because I'd wanted to keep the alien babe in suspense.

"You'll find out soon" I promised.

I let the central chamber of the crystal cave answer for me, at least in part, and I'd been here before, that had been many years ago and with a different student, the cave still impressed me.

"You should know why we are here," I said.

Her smile let me know that she'd figured it out by now.

"We're going to find crystals for lightsabers" she realised.

She was only partly right.

"These crystals also have value in trade" I explained to the former Jedi Padawan "But we won't take too many and I mostly want some spares in case anything happens to your lightsabers and you decide not to use artificial crystals".

This cave offered crystals in many colours and in the past different coloured lightsaber crystals were used to indicate a Jedi's chosen class. Blue indicated a Jedi Guardian, a Jedi who used the Force on a more physical level, a warrior in truth. Green indicated a Jedi Consular, a Jedi who preferred to reflect on the mysteries of the Force and fight the dark side at its heart. Yellow indicated a Jedi Sentinel, a Jedi who honed his or her skills in a balance of combat and scholarly pursuits. However, this was not a rule and there was nothing stopping a Jedi from having a purple bladed lightsaber or any colour other than red, and there a few places that a Jedi could find the right crystals.

Having a variety of different coloured blades was something that fell out of practice in later years, and more modern Jedi, those seen in the movies, nearly always used blue or green crystals that came from the Ilum caves. Purple, yellow, and orange crystals were still used by some Jedi until the fall of the Jedi Order at the time of the prequels, but they were exceedingly rare.

To me, that was a sign of how stagnated the Jedi Order had become by the Clone Wars as while each lightsaber was still unique due to the range of different materials used during constructed, my holocrons had informed me that in times past a much wider range of crystals from across the galaxy had been used.

In this version of the Star Wars galaxy, different versions of the Jedi Order existed together and with so many Sith to fight, as well as the Yuuzhan Vong, I hoped that they were not bickering over minor differences.

"If none of the crystals here calls to you then there are other places we can try," I told my student "and some of the lesser crystals we can just take".

While it was possible for me to grow crystals, I knew how to make organic crystals, and Ahsoka could grow her own as well, nurture it, forging a connection to the crystal, the natural ones were better, at least in some ways and much more valuable in trade. Not that I would take too many and I intended to keep some for myself as while I could grow my own the natural ones were just so pleasing to look at. No sense having a secure vault if I didn't fill it with valuable things.

"Another place we could try is the Adega system," I said to Ahsoka

That system was located in the Auril sector of the Outer Rim Territories, it was once a major centre for Jedi activities according to the gatekeeper of the Tedryn Holocron. Again its abandonment was a sign of the Jedi Order's failing. They were so focused on maintaining the Republic that they kept nearly all their operations on Courscant, a world that was not strong in the light side of the Force.

"I think there's something wrong here, Master" Ahsoka warned me "I suddenly feel cold".

There was a sense of something dark heading this way. Someone strong in the Force was coming this way and they meant us harm. When the two figures appeared I knew right away who they were, and what they were.

The Imperial Inquisition was an organization of Force-sensitive dark side agents who served the Sith-ruled Galactic Empire. Members of the Inquisitorius were called Imperial Inquisitors, or simply Inquisitors, and were not to be confused with the Inquisitors of the 40k universe, they could be much, much worse.

They were tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi who had survived Order 66 at the end of the Clone Wars as part of the Jedi Purge, retrieving any children identified as force-sensitive, as well as dealing with political dissidents. The Inquisitors were governed by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, who was the apprentice to the Galactic Emperor, Sheev Palpatine, and led by an individual known only by his title, the Grand Inquisitor.

In the years leading up to the Galactic Civil War, the Inquisitors came into conflict with several Jedi and groups affiliated with surviving or former Jedi as part of the purge. One of these groups was the Spectres, a rebel cell that included the Purge survivor Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan, Ezra Bridger. Their pursuit of the Spectres also brought them into contact with another Jedi Purge survivor, the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, as well as the former Sith Lord Maul, who sought revenge against the rest of the Sith for casting him out and killing his brother and mother.

I'd never encountered these kinds of dark side users before as the version of the Star Wars galaxy that I'd spent over a decade in had been based on legends rather than the later canon, and the Empire had never risen in that galaxy. However, this version of the Star Wars galaxy was much like the Milky Way in that factions that shouldn't exist alongside each other somehow did.

So in this galaxy, the Galactic Empire, the Old Republic, the New Republic, the Galatic Federation of Free Alliances, a number of minor powers, and several Sith Empires all fought for the control of a galaxy filled with other factions that were at the same time losing whole worlds to the Yuuzhan Vong.

Since I had vast databases full information on a variety of subjects, and a link to those databanks thanks to Cortana who was in my helmet, I was wearing my Sith Stalker armour, displayed information about who I was up against. One of them was the individual who became known as the Seventh Sister originally occupied a position within the Jedi Order and survived Order 66.

At some point, after the Galactic Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire, she was inducted into an Imperial agency of Force-sensitive assassins called the Inquisitorius, which was tasked with hunting down and eliminating any Jedi who survived Order 66. To accomplish this, she and her colleagues were trained by The Grand Inquisitor but soon fell under the command of Darth Vader who continued their training in the ways of the dark side of the Force. Like all Inquisitors, the Seventh Sister carried a double-bladed, spinning lightsaber. The weapon had two spikes and ornate engravings on its ringed emitter.

The second Inquisitor was unknown to me, and while I could tell from the shape of his body that he was humanoid male most likely, I didn't know anything else, other than he would soon be dead.

"So the Emperor's vision proved correct," said the Seventh Sister.

I wasn't the only person around who could foresee future events. Palpatine must have a vision of powerful potential enemies coming to this cave and had sent some minions to take us out.

"Wait a second" I heard Ahsoka say "I know you from somewhere".

Since Ahsoka used to be a human who'd been transformed into a character rather than having been created by the spell her memories weren't intact, but she seemed to recognise the Seventh Sister. Enough to have some strong and hostile feelings towards her.

"Go away, we're busy" I tod the Sith wannabes.

The sound of marching boots began to echo through the tunnels and soon many Stormtroopers appeared. Sadly for them, this place was a nexus of raw Force power that I could tap into easily, and with a mere gesture, I sent the Imperials flying down the tunnel.

Well not all of them, the two dark siders were able to resist my attack enough to remain in the cave and still stand up, although they did seem alarmed by my display of power. I knew that there weren't any more around because we'd have detected any outside of the cave next work and there wasn't that much room to hide while down here. The Emperor must not have been able to foresee just how dangerous we were. Or perhaps he'd only seen Ahsoka here as I did have a Perk that stopped people from seeing me through different forms of scrying.

"She's mine!" Ahsoka yelled.

I knew better than to get between two women who wanted to fight and I trusted her to take care of herself. Which left me free to deal with the humanoid male who had one of those spiny disc lightsabers

The lightsaber's overall design hardly made it any bigger than a single-emitter lightsaber, a stark contrast to the design of dual-blade weapons previously used by warriors such as Darth Maul. Now, he was someone who might have been a challenge for me to face.

A unique feature of this weapon was that the blade emitters would spin along tracks in the disc while the hilt would remain stationary in relation, allowing for more emphasis on the attack whilst maintaining a better degree of control over the weapon. Some versions of the lightsaber, such as the one I had to deal with right now, contained a rotating wheel of sharp razor blades which could intimidate an enemy or be used as an alternative way of slicing through opponents armour and flesh. Best to be avoided.

This weapon suffered from a number of design flaws, which was one of the reasons why I would never use such a weapon myself. One weakness was if, given an opening, an opponent could cut through the disc from the inside or outside of the ring, causing the weapon to fly apart if it was spinning. Also, the ringed emitter presented a larger target for a disarming move, and should the emitter be damaged it affected the lightsaber's ability to function properly.

When my foe, who must be a new member of the Inquisitors, proved to be a rather poor foe in battle, I barely needed to use my lightsaber, I simply used my near-ascended power to switch off his lightsaber and then cut through the weapon before he could switch it back on again.

I then pinned him to the wall of the cave and used some magic to finish the dark sider off.

"Ignis incende"

The Inquisitor began to cook inside his own armour even as Ahsoka defeated her foe and the Seventh Sister made a run for it. She chose to show mercy and let the dark sider escape, I wouldn't normally approve of letting an enemy flee like that, however, the dark siders weren't much of a threat to my group and once we had our crystals we would just stay out of their way.

"What is that smell?" Ahsoka asked.

Setting someone on fire while they were wearing a suit of metal resulted in them smelling like burnt meat, but not for long as the magical fire very quickly consumed the flesh. I could have drawn out the man's death for much longer had I wished, but I wasn't a monster.

"Come on let's get our crystals and then get out of here," I said.

(Line Break)

Afterlife. Omega

As it had been back in the Mass Effect universe the Afterlife Club is a nightclub on the mercenary-controlled space station Omega. It was comprised of three floors, featuring a large circular bar with dancing females from many different races who were performing atop the centre stage. Among the dancers, I spotted female Orion slave girls, Twi'leks, Togrutas, Zeltrons, a woman who had to be Trill, some sort of elves, and many others that I couldn't get a proper look at to identify due to the poor lighting as well as the crowds.

The second floor features a large circular opening in the centre, above which more dancers performed on a large ring suspended from the ceiling and surrounding a large purple holographic cylinder that extended all the way to the ceiling.

Around the outer edge of this floor is an elevated section with holographic images along the wall, that showed images of yet more females in states of undress, or downright naked, and booths in which most patrons of the club spend their time.

At the back is a private and well-guarded lounge from which Aria T'Loak, the asari ruler of Omega, observed her realm. I had no business with her, and hopefully never would beyond giving her cut of the profits I made here, which everyone did and it was handled through her minions.

The third floor consisted of a balcony circling the entire edge of the club featuring flaming torches on the outer edge and this space provided a complete view down to the second floor. I could see some people up there, looking down below as they chatted away.

Afterlife also has a section reserved for VIPs. It had a back-alley bouncer-protected entrance where people can get in with a namedrop passphrase.

Just like the Citadel, the space station known as Omega had also been created by the Halloween Spell, like B5 and DS9 it served a centre for trade in its part of the galaxy, only here the trade involved people and organisations who didn't care so much for stuff like morality and legality. An example of this was the crew from show Tripping the Rift, that perverted purple guy with the spots was hard to miss.

I'd come here to sell the ore as while there were plenty of legitimate places in the galaxy to sell the minerals I'd been asked to come here by an interested party. I was a little worried than the ores my bots had spent weeks digging up would be used to fashion weapons that might end up in the hands of pirate groups, or raiders.

My concerns, while understandable, could be unfounded, as in the area of space that the Citadel races would call the Terminus Systems there were many legitimate organisations and peaceful races who just happened to share this part of the galaxy.

To be on the safe side my more scientific companions had tagged some of the minerals in a way that should avoid detection by anyone who didn't have our advanced tech and allow to find out where the ore was taken. If the ores went somewhere legitimate we'd leave it be, but if it was transported to a group who planned to use it to do harm to others we'd destroy them and take the minerals back to sell elsewhere.

While it looked like I was defenceless right now that couldn't be further from the truth. Valkyrie was sitting next to me, half-naked herself, so as to look like she was nothing more than an escort, and Cameron was out of phase somewhere around here. This meeting was also monitored by AI who was partly here and partly on my ship with the use of probes and I could beam out if there was any trouble.

"I think we'll be waiting for a while," Valkyrie said.

We'd gotten here earlier than expected and this wasn't such a bad way to spend my time. After working so hard recently it was nice to kick back and relax. I watched the dancers and tipped one of them with a slip of gold-pressed lantuim.

"If you can hold on till the end of this dance," a blue-skinned alien babe said, leaning down to display the hard violet nipples on her bare breasts "I will give you the best time you'll ever have on this dump".

Well, I needed something to do until the buyer arrived.

"Sounds like fun" I replied.

When the music changed the Asari began to give me a more personal performance, and I subtly made sure that I could keep a view on the place even as I sat back and watched as the young Asari in front of me began a seductive dance. She only wore what could be described as a pair of panties, and this was more than what some of the dancers wore, and this made me wonder where the tips went. Did the dancers have access to a form of Hammerspace or was any money they were given transferred via a magic spell to a secure location?

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Sanantia," she said, as she climbed onto his lap while facing me

The thong, the only clothing she had on, rubbed into my crotch and she looked down as if in surprise.

"Wow! Are all humans this big?" she asked.

Of course, she knew the truth of this. She was only pretending to be both impressed and more navie about sexual matters so as to make herself seem more innocent as well as to flatter my ego. Not a bad way to get a larger tip.

"He's average" commented the Asgardian who was sitting by my side "But it's a nice size for me".

Ignoring that Sanantia bit her lip as she looked me in the eyes

"Not to ruin the mood but I need the money upfront," she told me.

Valkyrie paid for the dance and gave me a grin.

"Now we're going to have fun," Sanantia promised as she began her lap dance, moving with the music.

It was hard keeping an eye on the club as the young Asari did her best to dry hump me while calling it a dance. I could feel her getting hotter and hotter as she changed positions from cowgirl to reverse cowgirl, leaning forward and backwards as well. I started to let my companion keep an eye on things for me so that I could use my powers to make the dancer feel really good with my powers. She orgasmed long before I made a mess in my trousers.

"How about one more dance?" the dancer offered.

Sanantia was now pulling aside the crotch of her thong as an enticement. However, I waved the dancer away as I'd just gotten a message from my ship.

"Come back later" I commanded, "Give me your thong I might let you have it back".

She did as I ordered and I then began to focus on something more important. According to the message an Alkesh, a Goa'uld mid-range bomber had just docked at the station. From what I recalled during my time in the Stargate Jump the Al'kesh was manoeuvrable, heavily-armed, and capable of firing enormous blasts of plasma energy. It could be used for combat in space, but it was also capable of entering and manoeuvring within a planet's atmosphere.

In this universe, they were mostly used by the Lucian Alliance, the middlemen who would take my ore and sell it on to other parties. In the Stargate verse, the Lucian Alliance was a shady, yet powerful consortium of smugglers and mercenaries that merged together to take advantage of the power vacuum left behind by the Goa'uld following their defeat by the Replicators. The evil lego didn't seem to be about at least, that was something to be grateful for.

As for the alliance in this universe, they were much the same, only they did have legitimate businesses as well, including transporting cargo on their few Hat'ak vessels, and those ships could move cargo a lot of people and goods safely from one system to another.

According to the data their fleet consists of at least nine Ha'tak, many Al'kesh, and an impressive amount of Death Gliders and had been growing in strength and technological advancement as they trade or stole tech from other factions. They could even be building new ships.

My sources also told me that Lucien Alliance was made up of a committed band of individuals who were not afraid to get what they want by force, they did do plenty of legitimate trading and acted as mercenaries when paid to. When on these jobs they would follow a contact.

On the worlds they controlled they acted more like feudal warlords than administrators, going as far as to burn crops and forcing villagers to eat only the food they provided, some of which was addictive space corn. They also controlled what the teachers teach, and put guns in the hands of children while they indoctrinate them from an early age.

These were the reasons why I wanted to know where the ore I was selling would go but in the grand scheme of things they were no worse than many of the other groups who operated in this part of the galaxy.

When the Lucian Alliance folks arrived I knew them right away as they wore uniforms and carried firearms of design different from what other people around here carried for defence. They weren't all human either. One was a Feregini, no surprise to find one of them involved with shady business people, and there was a Kalderan as well. From what I knew the Kalderans lived in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud.

"Captain Gothic" the human of the group greeted "I am here on behalf of Gorlo the Hutt and the Alliance".

How a Hutt from Star Wars ended up as part of the Lucian Alliance I didn't know and it was a demonstration of how crazy this universe could be. But I was used to crazy so I quickly got down to business.