Chapter 4:
I spent almost six years in training with Gethzerion. Day after day she took me into the jungle, and ended the day with the finer details in her hut during our meditation. Time and again she made me cast rocks at blinding speed into targets, coming closer and closer to my mark than before with each try. The trees in the training area where she trained me each day were riddled with holes, and increasingly larger sections of trees were blown apart as my skills grew. Gethzerion taught me how to use the Force to quicken my movements, to run through the forest at blinding speeds. She taught me how to leap over boulders and felled logs several times my height, and anything else that got in my way, landing with all of the gentleness of a whisper. My abilities grew through the years. Faster and faster I sped through the forest and came to know it, not fearing the dangers within, knowing that I was now the danger.
I learned to pick up boulders larger and larger, with the Force, and send them flying like a missile, toppling an entire tree with the strength of the Force within me. Gethzerion helped me expand the power in my mind to exert my will over others. She taught me to look into other's minds and read their thoughts, putting myself into their bodies, seeing what they saw. She taught me to obscure their thoughts and issue commands to the weak of mind.
Then came one of the greatest lessons to a user of the dark side. Not the power of mind, or the strength of the will, but the fiery blaze of a lightsaber. It was Gethzerion's lightsaber. The only one to exist within the tribe, that only she knew how to wield. Slowly I mastered the grace and technique, and learned the different styles to wield it. Gethzerion trained me day after day during the almost six years since I had escaped from the labor camp. The dreams came night after night in those years, as if to train me in my sleep as well to harden my heart, temper my hate in the fires of the Force, guiding what I believed, what Gethzerion helped me to believe was my destiny.
Gethzerion integrated me into the tribe of Nightsisters and taught me their ways. I was hesitantly accepted as one of them. It was not acceptance of me, but fear of Gethzerion that quashed any argument. I didn't care what they thought or how they felt. I was completely devoted to my cause. I was hungry for the dark side, a hunger that Gethzerion satiated. But over the years, I became more eager, more ambitious, and impatient. I began to try Gethzerion's patience. My discontent fueled her increasing distrust of me, a distrust that existed within the dark side of the Force itself, and its nature to turn upon itself. My desire to know more than she was willing to teach wore on her. I didn't care.
**********
The void had by then all but claimed me during the dream. I danced in the event horizon, no longer restrained by Stormtroopers. They too now lay beside my dead family, the blood pouring equally from their bodies. The sound of the wind calling out my name in the dream was lost as I embraced the comfort of the blackness that hungrily engulfed me. Each day I woke feeling renewed in my desire, and eager to have more of the power Gethzerion had shown me.
Eventually came my day of reckoning. Gethzerion waited for me within her hut, beckoning me to enter.
"You have done well, my apprentice," she spoke. "Your hate for the Empire has made you strong and you have grasped the teachings of the dark side quicker that I could have imagined, which is fortunate. Now is the time, Makaashyya," she said in an almost mocking tone, my impatient desire for more having tried her patience over the past years. It was unsettling. She came closer to me speaking softly, conspiratorially.
"The very prison you were forced to build will be your proving ground. Soon the Emperor will quarantine this planet. I have seen it. The order has already been given. The Emperor fears us, and rightly so. Tomorrow we will lay siege to the prison. We cannot allow the Emperor to cut us off from the rest of the galaxy. We must secure our passage from this place and continue to fight from beyond the boundaries of this planet. Tomorrow will require all that I have taught to you these past years, my apprentice."
With that, she bade me to meditate on the coming battle alone.
I went to my hut at her command. I couldn't hold back a smile as I sat down upon my bed. Finally I would seek my revenge against the oppressors. My family, dear Syymbacca and all of my people would inflict pain and death on the Empire through my hands.
Gethzerion spent the rest of the day in planning with her Nightsisters. I spent my day alone in the darkness of my hut as my master commanded. I fought with feelings of anxiousness, wringing my hands in excitement, but I also felt repulsed by the thought of seeing the gray soulless prison again. I wondered what they had done with Syymbacca's body. Over the years I had let go of my regret of escaping into the forest, but a part of me wished I had stayed behind to fall with my beloved brother; I wished I knew what they had done with him. The thought of the oppressors desecrating his remains sickened me. I had to push those feelings away. I had lived for a reason.
"Today is the beginning," I told myself.
I paced the floor of my hut reviewing in my mind over and over all that I had seen, heard, and learned those past years. Finally retribution was at hand, and I would have my chance at inflicting the revenge I had so desired against the evil Empire.
"Make them pay," I told myself. "Make them pay for all they have taken. The trees they destroyed, my people whose spirits they shattered and killed. The very tasks they made us slave over would become our freedom. I felt at that moment that I could bring down the Empire on my own. I felt that not even the Emperor could stand against me. I had become convinced of my own power to the point of flaunting it, foolishly, almost recklessly. How unprepared I was.
It was the night before the assault. The subtle changes in the atmosphere, the cooling of the air, the chirping of nocturnal creatures, and the changing of energies within the very soil told me. With my newfound intimacy I had with my surroundings through the Force I no longer sought out the sun hidden behind an impenetrable blanket of cloud; the predators of the jungle were no longer hidden in the shadows. Their minds spoke loudly, and I was no longer afraid. I had undergone the coming of age ritual like no other Wookiee before me. The dark side had matured me, hastily tempered me. I closed my eyes and drifted. I beckoned for the dream to come to me again, but it did not. Once being the bane of my sleep, it refused to come when called, when expected, and hoped for. An omen that made me feel uneasy about the coming day.
**********
I woke with the rising of the sun. No light pillared into my hut, and the night chill was still on the wind, but I could feel the star's life-giving presence in the sky. I went out into the small village. Nightsisters were stirring, dressing themselves, and readying their rancor mounts. I stood at the entrance and breathed the air. Just as I had forgotten what freedom once was while being an Imperial slave, I had forgotten what being a slave was like, having lived among the Nightsisters, and tutored by Gethzerion. I felt as free as I ever had before.
The Nightsisters were clothed and armed for battle, spears in hand. The four monstrous rancors were covered in pieces of carbon-scorched, claw-raked scrap-metal, some pieces still bearing the Imperial insignia, strapped about their hulking bodies. Gethzerion emerged from her hut like a ruling Empress.
She spoke to me first.
At my side, she beckoned wordlessly. I went to her side as she wished. She then turned and started walking towards the surrounding jungle, and I was at her side, the right hand of death, vengeance walking alongside absolution. I felt invincible.
Soon we had reached the tree line about a mile from the prison. A construction site no longer, the prison had been fully built during my self-imposed exile from slave labor. All of the towers had guards posted within, manning laser cannons. The finished guard towers, once our toil, stung me to look upon. The main wall connected each tower to one another in a hexagonal shape. The prisoner's caged area extended beyond the building, creating another hexagonal shape in mimicry.
It was quiet. Not even the creatures made a noise. The gray walls of the prison housed the main command structure. The three towers that faced towards us had laser cannon emplacements. The white armor of Stormtroopers could easily be seen in contrast against the dull colors of the prison, and the dark painting of the sky. A large gate closed off the prison from the outside at the apex of the hexagon. Just beyond the gate was heavy blast door. Along the top of the wall the three white wings of an Imperial shuttle could be seen sticking up over the wall, like teeth in the gaping maw of the prison.
Gethzerion and I and the rest of the small clan of Nightsisters stood at the tree line. The main structure of the prison was more of a detachment base. The actual prison was in the open air surrounded by two rows of barbed and electrified fencing, and Stormtrooper guards paced back and forth along the perimeter of the towering wall in their bone-white armor. Many Wookiees could be seen mingling about, none that I recognized, but also other species from other planets, even humans. The prisoners wore dark gray clothing all of similar style, making them difficult to see.
The barracks that housed the prisoners from the elements were a shock to see. It pained me to remember our harsh nights in the open air exposed to wind, cold, and rain. Such little concern for the labor, so much more concern for the prisoners, only helped to enrage me further. Though the prisoners were free to come and go about the yard, as it was when I worked there, the thoughts of escape must have been little comfort considering the teeth and claws of animals that roamed just a mile into the forest. On foot with no protection they would be little more than a warm, running meal for a more than formidable predator.
A prison, through and through, I thought.
It was not just the local predators prisoners had to fear, walking with a lumbering gait, was the two-legged Imperial predator, the AT-ST patrolling the perimeter. Aside from the thundering footfalls of the walkers though, the grounds leading up to the prison were calm and quiet. There was no hurried extraction, no guards packing up gear, no disturbance whatsoever. I had expected there to be chaos, not just another day on the job.
"They must be unaware of the withdrawal, and there's only one shuttle remaining." Gethzerion whispered to me. The Nightsisters had spread out along the tree line. They watched for Gethzerion's command with unyielding eyes. The malevolent Nightsister with her burning eyes looked up and down the thin ranks of her army, and nodded to each side; like tusked panthers, they broke from the trees in a crouched, blindingly fast prowl towards the prison wall. Amazingly, they reached the wall undetected, and just as a walker passed them by.
"Another lesson you have yet to learn, my apprentice," said Gethzerion, reading my thoughts without my knowledge. With an arrogant, almost hateful smirk, Gethzerion started her short trek to the prison wall to join the rest of the clan. I needed no order to follow. Behind us the mounted rancors gathered just on the edge of the trees where we had been standing just out of sight.
The guards paced with disinterest along the catwalk on top of the wall. Guards posted in the cannon towers seemed to not be watching the surrounding valley; they instead talked amongst themselves. Steadily, as if scaling a mountain at the edge of a chasm, we shuffled along the wall in a single column, Gethzerion in the lead, and I just behind her. As we looked up from the bottom of the wall, the Stormtroopers were hidden from our view, but we could still hear the scuffle of their armored boots. Gethzerion looked to me with a commanding glance and continued skirting her way along the wall towards the prison barracks. I was surprised how easy it was to walk unnoticed to the prison yard. It was as if the Imperials had grown complacent from inactivity.
I looked upwards at the guard tower Syymbacca and I built. The images of my brother ran through my mind like flashing stars streaking across the sky; the memories started to pour forth again as I looked at the towers. Revenge had always been in my mind, but the memory of Syymbacca did not always stand side by side with my intentions during those years of training. I stopped for a moment and let my mind wander to my dear brother, and how he bravely fell to protect me. Gethzerion threw me a fiery look, knowing that I had become distracted. I promised myself that I would shed further tears for my beloved brother after I had avenged his death.
After a little while we finally reached the edge of the prison wall as it connected to the double layer of fencing that kept prisoners inside. I couldn't hear the hum of electricity, but I knew it was there; it made my fur stand on end. With a little extension, I could also sense the four mounted rancors that stood waiting with their Nightsister riders, waiting for the sign to attack. The two fences were of equal height, thirty feet straight up. The very tops of the fences curved inward to prevent climbing, but it seemed like a cruel joke being played upon the imprisoned since electricity would have fried any challengers to a crisp, and digging was point, the foundation was several feet of duracrete. The doubts of our entry began to fill my mind when Gethzerion shot up into the air in one powerful leap, and landed with no more sound than the flapping of a bird's wings on the other side of the double fencing. In turn the Nightsisters followed her as flawlessly, one by one until only I remained on the other side. They looked at me for a moment and just walked off, leaving me to stand there in awe of the awesome feat they had just displayed, while I had not mastered a leap more than fifteen feet.
"Jump or you will be left behind, Makaashyya," said Gethzerion with finality.
How dare she leave me here to rot! The anger grew within me in a blinding flash until I could feel the pulse in my temples. My hands shook with rage and I let go of inhibition and I sprang from the ground as hard as I could, letting the dark side fuel me, and before I realized it I had jumped over the fence and landed not so gracefully upon the hard floor. My bumbling was met with looks of disdain from Gethzerion and her Nightsisters.
I had imagined the assault on the prison to be my moment to shine. Never did I think I would have been so clumsy. It was a cruel blow to my newfound pride, but there was no stirring of guards or prisoners, so we continued through the compound to the rear doors of the prison.
The doors were closed tight. Gethzerion neglected to explain how she planned to penetrate the prison. Though I had helped to build the prison, what did I really know about it? Not a lot apparently. A few towers we had constructed, but much had been built over the years since my escape. The layout of the interior I hadn't the faintest clue about, nor did I know of any of the security measures. I contemplated our options, trying to search my mind for any knowledge, any observation when I was an Imperial slave that could help. I chided myself for not having paid closer attention. Just then a horrible buzzing alarm broke the silence of the prison camp. I darted my head back and forth to see what had happened. The yelling and hollering began, prisoners screamed in defiance, Stormtroopers yelled commands and threats, and a few blaster bolts were loosed as a warning.
Gethzerion yelled her orders.
"Makaashyya and I will try to find a way into the prison, the rest of you release the prisoners. Kill any Imperial you see!" My heart started racing, the excitement and fear of the inevitability of combat pulsed in my veins like spice. I followed Gethzerion's lead as she made her way to the doors that separated the prisoner's yard from the prison itself. All around me I could hear the chaos growing louder, prisoners screamed for vengeance.
Maybe the prisoners will revolt, I hoped. They will hold no more prisoners, and once we get into the air we can firebomb the scourge. Vindication has come, Imperials, I thought to myself, and imagined the steaming white armor containing charred Imperials within, like a bizarre kind of shellfish.
Gethzerion, without warning, stopped, and I almost ran into her. Three Imperial Stormtroopers emerged from the gate and blocked our path. Unsure of what to do, I froze behind Gethzerion. Before the Stormtroopers could level their rifles at us, Gethzerion ignited her lightsaber, and an arching bow of red blurred my vision. When I blinked to clear my eyes, the three Stormtroopers lay dead on the ground in a heap, cut neatly in half, and twitching grotesquely. I had seen blood and gore but the speed and ruthlessness of Gethzerion disturbed me, but the desire for revenge took control.
To hell with them, they had earned what they got in the end. I just hope the life that they lived was worth the end they received. An ultimately comforting thought.
Gethzerion replaced her lightsaber upon her belt, and continued her march through the open gate. As we approached, I could see that the main doors to the prison were thin, without intersecting support structure, and not made for stopping any kind of real threat from the prisoners in the yard. A quick slice of a lightsaber would be all it would take, but as we reached the doors, Gethzerion raised her hand and she Force-pushed to one side of the doors. I slammed into the wall hard, jarring my senses. Gethzerion sidestepped to the opposite side.
The doors opened, and a surge of laser blasts burst forth from inside and into the massing of angry and confused prisoners, and Nightsisters. Explosions followed the impacts as the solid gas energy decimated whatever it touched. The angered yelling turned into screams of pain and panic.
I looked to Gethzerion who paid no attention to the slaughter. She called for my silence with a wave of her hand as Stormtroopers began filing out from the opened doors. I hugged tight to the wall hoping not to be seen. Fortunately, the cumbersome armor they wore offered us some cover from their sight. Twenty troopers rushed in a military march out of the prison and into the yard. They continued firing into the crowd of confused Nightsisters and prisoners. I looked to Gethzerion in desperation, and again she raised her hand for silence.
"We have to help them, they are being slaughtered!" I said, as my master ducked into the prison, and then grabbed me hard by the fur on my chest and pulled me inside and threw me against the wall. For a human her strength matched, if not dwarfed, mine.
"You had best learn to keep up, child, or you will be left to die with the others," she scolded, and clenched her fist, tearing fur from my body.
"You are going to leave them to die?" I snarled at her.
"They are our means of escaping this prison. You know just as well as I that this planet is nothing but a giant prison," she spat the words at me. "We may as well be locked up with these pathetic creatures here!" Her eyes burned with rage. I could not help but cease my argument with that inhuman stare of hers. Gethzerion was more like a predator, like one of the rancors her Nightsisters had trained.
I kept silent, averted my eyes from hers, and said nothing more. As well as she had trained me, I still had no doubt she could butcher me as she saw fit. To my relief, she released me and continued down the corridor. Somehow, Gethzerion seemed to know perfectly well where she was headed. Pulsing, red emergency lights lit our path.
We passed several doors that lined the hallway to each side. Cargo crates, computer terminals, and other unidentifiable equipment lined the walls. I kept an eye on the doors, half-expecting one of them to open and more Stormtroopers to burst forth. As I turned my head side to side watching, I was stopped in my tracks. Two Wookiees, a male and a female, rounded the corner up ahead, and came running down the hallway right towards us. Before Gethzerion could shove me to the side again, I stepped out in front of them. My heart swelled with the thoughts of freeing some of my own kind.
"Wait, you've got to follow us. We're getting away from this horrible place!" I said excitedly. They stopped, sliding a few inches from their momentum, and looked at me perplexed. "Where did you find guns? How did you make it out of the yard?" I asked.
"You cannot be outside the yard." The male spoke first, and then the female.
"You have to go back, you can't be caught wandering around, or they'll kill you." There was a hint of concern in their voices.
"What are you saying?" I grabbed my head in frustration. "I am not a prisoner, neither is she," I pointed to Gethzerion. "Neither are you… are you?"
"The Imperials have assigned us to work. They let us live in exchange for acting as guard, for being loyal to them. They've given us a new life. We have to take you back." Said the female. They then leveled their Imperial issue blasters at us.
"Come with us and we won't have to shoot," they both ordered. I stepped back as a gun barrel was jammed into my stomach.
How could they betray their own? How could they side with these Imperials? Unbelievable! Unbelievable! The disgust hammered in my mind. "Traitors," I said under my breath. The anger built inside of me again. My heart thrummed in my chest, my temples throbbed. I lost control. It was like a bloodthirsty creature took possession of me. I wanted to maim, punish. I wanted to show the traitorous Wookiees their mistake. I lashed out.
My claws extended as I swung my open hand at the female's neck in wild abandon. Her blood splattered across the face of her male companion. A look of opened-jawed horror masked his face. I didn't feel or hear the blaster bolt from the male Wookiee's rifle rip into my shoulder. I leapt at him. I bit down into his neck, and dug my claws into his flanks like a piece of game, tearing out the vital arteries from him with my teeth. I released him from my embrace that had lifted him from his feet, and spit a chunk of his flesh from my mouth. He crumpled to the floor, pouring blood on his female companion.
My vision returned, and the void receded. Only then did I realize what I had done as I watched their final anguished spasms. They both lay there dead by my hand. Their eyes stared at me, empty, looking almost confused, their mouths hanging open as if to ask, How could you?A small piece of flesh hung from my claws, the claws that are forbidden among my people to be used for anything more violent than climbing a tree. I had desecrated them by killing. Madclaw. Unbelievable. Unforgivable.
For several moments I stared at my hands. Blood dripped from my mouth and hands falling onto the dead Wookiees like rain. I flung the flesh from my claws in disgust, and wiped the blood from my body as best I could, splattering it onto the floor like morbid paint. I looked at the two dead once more, their E-11 Imperial issue blasters scattered on the floor. I pointed at my two victims like I was passing ultimate judgment upon their souls before they could ascend.
"You are the abomination," I said aloud.
Gethzerion walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"Your hate is making you powerful, my apprentice. We will soon be free of this place." Gethzerion stepped over the bodies and moved on. I followed, casting the female Wookiee body out from my path with my foot like debris.
We made it to the far end of the hallway to the doors that separated the small shuttle port area from the facility. How Gethzerion knew where she was going, I didn't care. My mind was blank. I could feel the sticky blood drying on my hands. I rubbed my fingers together further smearing it, feeling the cold, almost gritty texture. My mouth tasted as if it was full of metal.
"Not even a Wookiee," I told myself reassuringly. "An Imperial."
When we reached the door, Gethzerion pushed some buttons on the control pad, and the door quickly slid up and out of the way, and there rested the white, triple-winged shuttle. Gethzerion lifted her hand and the ship's platform descended. I could see a few dim lights within, but it was still dark.
"Get on board. Eliminate all but the pilot," she commanded, and I obeyed. Gethzerion closed then prison door, then tampered with the controls. I walked onto the shuttle, panning my head back and forth, straining my eyes to see, and then out of the shadows an Imperial officer ran into me face first, nearly losing his footing. He took a step back. His eyes met mine. Before he could reach for his blaster, I snatched him up by his jaw and clenched his neck with my other hand. Uncaring, still feeling the lust for vengeance, and with a brutal twist, I turned his head around on his neck until I could hear and feel the spine separate completely. He dropped his blaster and flailed his arms frantically in a desperate bid for survival, and in reaction to the pain, but it couldn't stop me. I looked at him for a moment, satisfied that he was dead, and flung him like a doll to the side, and walked further into the shuttle's cargo bay towards the cockpit.
Another officer who had been sitting in the cockpit, and who witnessed my entrance and the death of his comrade, ran towards me with a small blaster in his hand and opened fire. I dodged the first bolt with ease, nearly catching the second in the head as I ducked behind a chair. The same chair I uprooted from its bracket and threw at the officer. It slammed into him, knocking him to the floor and out cold as his head collided with the metal hull with a sickening crack. The last remaining Imperial, a pilot sitting at the controls, frantically tried to contact someone on the radio when I ran up behind him and grabbed him by the back of his neck letting my claws dig into his soft flesh. I growled at him. Or so he thought, not understanding my language.
"Don't move," I said again, tightening my grip. My claws drew blood. He got the message, and raised his hands in submission, wincing from the pain. I looked out the dark tinted windshield of the shuttle, and saw Gethzerion turning away from the prison door, its controls gutted. The shuttle suddenly rocked, a crack of an explosion followed. I craned my neck to look out of the windshield, and saw the laser cannon on the guard tower pointed at the shuttle.
"Hurry!" I roared at Gethzerion, "we are going to be destroyed!"
Outmatching her amazing reflexes, a bolt from the cannon emplacement struck at the ground right in front of her and sent her flying back into the door she had just sealed. Her body hit the door, leaving a splatter of blood as she slid down in a heap. Dirt rocketed into the air in a cloud obscuring my view of my master. Another bolt impacted the side of the shuttle. A warning light on the dash came on. I stared at Gethzerion as she lay on the ground not moving, her face riddled with tiny cuts. I tried to call out to her, but I could sense nothing; either my ability failed or she was gone. Another bolt hit the shuttle, causing it to teeter.
The pilot could not understand me, but I could easily understand him. The pilot spoke.
"He is going to destroy this shuttle, and us with it. He won't risk prisoners escaping!"
"Get us out!" I roared, pounding my fist on the control panel in front of him. He got the hint, and he engaged the ship's engines. I looked to Gethzerion again; she did not move. More bolts struck the ship, and then the ground in front of it. An alarm sounded. Smoke and dirt rose into the air obscuring my view of Gethzerion. I roared at the pilot, and jerked towards the sky with my still bared, gore-covered claws. The trembling pilot engaged the engines, sending a torrent of dirt and exhaust around us, and that was the last I saw of my master. The Imperial retracted the cargo-bay platform with a push of a button, sealing the ship. One final laser bolt hit the side of the craft as the pilot mashed the throttle, and carried us up and out of the prison shuttle bay, and into the atmosphere with blinding speed.
I fell into the co-pilot's chair from the force of the thrusters, and stared out the window. The dark sky grew even darker as we ascended. As the clouds thinned, for the first time in years I saw the stars, their vivid light unrestrained by Dathomir's dark skies. The prison shrank in the distance below us. Blaster bolts flashed across the sky trying to chase us down, but failed. The clouds enshrouded the ship as if to make one more futile attempt to hold us down, and then we broke from the atmosphere of the prison planet. \
My hands shook uncontrollably. I felt sick. The blood had dried and matted my fur. I looked at the pilot. He did not look at me, but I could feel his fear. He tried to subdue his shivering. Sweat beaded upon his brow, and he stuttered as he spoke.
"I have to contact my commander for authorization," the pilot said to me, though not looking at me. I bared my teeth, and then nodded. I slid from my seat to the floor with the small blaster of the officer I knocked senseless still in my hand, I pointed it at the pilot's head as I lay on the floor out of view.
The ship's radio squealed.
"Shuttle Alpha 1-1. Transmit security codes and verify objective."
The pilot flipped a switch on the console to respond. "Admiral Zsinj sir, this is shuttle Alpha 1-1. Final cargo has been delivered, planet is clear for quarantine, sir."
There was a short silence. The pilot remained surprisingly calm and collected.
"Very well. Good luck on Tatooine." A crackle of static and Admiral Zsinj was gone.
"Yes sir." The pilot responded without hesitation.
Discipline befitting an officer, I thought mockingly.
"I have to get the ship into hyperspace now and follow orders or they will know something is wrong. You're lucky he didn't ask to speak to my CO."
I nodded, and stood from the floor, and held the blaster at the base of the pilot's skull. I roared at him to get to it. Very carefully he entered the destination into the navigation computer, and a few moments later we entered the hyperspace tunnel.