Chapter 11: The Slug.
Thee days later, the ships arrived at the jungle moon of Dxun, the ships landed in a grassland. The groups descended from the ships and met.
"Okay, where we are." Atton said.
"Have you found anything Mical?" Bastila asked.
"I have detected a signal; it seems it's located in the very deep of the jungle." Mical answered.
"Okay, well we are going to do something different this time, half of each group is coming with us, the others stay here and guard the ships." Bastila said.
The groups agreed and they separated, the group entered in the jungle and started walking.
"This is the first time I see a world like this." Mission said looking the jungle. "You know, something about this place gives me the creeps."
"The Mandalorians call it `The Demon Moon´." Jolee said.
"Why?" Atton asked.
"They said that here live the fiercest animals and the most dangerous predators in the galaxy, hell, only a few knows how to live here." Jolee said.
"And the rest?" Meetra asked.
"They end up in the stomach of the beasts. Ugh! Awful, I can't imagine how much time someone will live here." Jolee answered.
The groups continued walking, until a boma attacked them. The group ignited their lightsabers, but before they could attack, blasters shoots came from the jungle, killing the boma. Few seconds later, a group of Mandalorians appeared from the trees. They surrounded the group and took them to the Mandalorian Outpost. When they arrived at the Outpost, the leader of the expedition group went inside of a tent, five minutes later, the leader and other Mandalorian exited the tent.
The Mandalorian walked to the group, he was wearing a silver shiny armor and his head was cover with a helmet. The Mandalorian step in front of the group and he remained in silent, he took off his helmet. Everybody shocked when the face of the Mandalorian was shown.
Revan fell down for the third time, two sith grabbed him for the arms and forced him to sit on his knees, he lifted his head only to meet with Kryat's face.
"I'm going to ask you again. Where are the holocrons?" He asked.
"Go to hell!" Revan said angry.
Kryat bend down until he was at the level of Revan's eyes. "Should I remember what your punishment is for not cooperating with us?" Kryat asked.
"Torture me all you want Kryat, but I'm not going to talk!" Revan said looking directly at Kryat's eyes. Then Revan spat in Kryat's face. Kryat got up and cleaned the blood mixed with saliva from his face. He walked to the door.
"Give him another beating." He said to the two Siths who were holding Revan, he left the torturing chamber and closed the door behind him.
The group couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Canderous?" Mission asked. "Canderous, is that you?" She asked again surprised.
"I can't believe it" Jolee said.
"Something told me that we were to find you here." Bastila said.
"It's nice to see you again Icy Queen." Canderous said. "Hi Jolee, hi Mission." He said.
Mission smiled and hugged Canderous, when she released him, he asked them what they were doing on Dxun, Jolee answered that they were looking for a holocron which Revan recorded years ago.
"Where's Revan?" Canderous asked when he didn't see him around.
"He…he was capture by the Sith." Bastila said.
"Really?" Canderous asked surprised. "The Sith are the worst scumbag in the universe." He said. "Come on, we can have dinner and later you can tell me what are you doing here."
The group had dinner and they introduce Meetra, Atton, Mical and Visas to Canderous and asked him for his help in locating the holocron, he accepted and told them that now, he was Mandalore.
"So, where did you locate the signal?" He asked.
"I have located the signal in the very deep of the jungle." Mical answered.
"Can I see the coordinates?" Canderous asked.
"Sure." Mical answered and gave him his datapad.
"Coordinates , I know this place." Canderous said. "It's a cave north of here, no many knows what is inside the cave, but I'm sure you will found the answer."
"Can you take us there?" Meetra asked.
"Sure, but one thing." He said.
"What is it?" Bastila asked.
"Only seven of you can go." Canderous said.
"Why?"
"Because that part of the jungle is full with predators, and I can't babysit you all, I know you Jedis can take care of your own, but this is a big group and it would call the attention of the predators." He said.
"Okay, when we can go?" Bastila asked.
"Tomorrow at first hour." Canderous said.
The door opened and Revan was thrown inside the cell, the two apprentices laughed and closed the door. Revan could barely get up, his blood was dripping off from his mouth and nose.
"Revan!" Kraig said surprised. He helped Revan to get up and sat him in Revan's bed.
"What the hell happened?" Kraig asked.
"They wanted to know about the holocron, but I told them nothing." Revan said as he was trying to recuperate his breath.
"Yeah? Well, now look at you, when we met you only had a busted lip, and now you have nose bleeding and you have bruises all over your face, you were lucky they didn't beat you to death." Kraig said.
Revan chuckled and cleaned the blood off from his face with the sleeve of his jedi robe.
The next day, the small group exited the Mandalorian Outpost and headed to the north of it. After walking several hours, they arrived at the entrance of a cave, Bastila recognized the cave, it was the same from her vision.
"We have arrived." She said.
"So, what now?" Atton asked.
"We go inside and look for the holocron." Bastila answered.
"Okay guys, you stay here and guard the entrance of the cave, use your stealth mode; I don't want a funeral when we have returned." Canderous said.
"As you command Mandalore." The four Mandalorians said.
The group went inside, the Jedis ignited their lightsabers. Blue, green, yellow and violet light illuminated the surroundings of the group.
"The taint of the Dark side is very strong within this place." Visas said.
"There is an old tomb of a formal Lord Sith here." Jolee said.
"Yes, is the tomb of Freedon Nadd, he used to be a Lord Sith and King of Onderon." Mical said. "We also need to be careful with the creatures that can reside here."
"What kind of creatures?" Meetra asked.
"Orbalisks. These are parasitic creatures that attach on a host, then they start multiplying and growing. But, we must consider ourselves lucky." Mical answered.
"Why is that?" Atton asked a little scared.
"They only feed on the power of the Dark side, that's why we are lucky." Mical answered.
Mandalore chuckled. "Where did you learn all that kid?" He asked.
"At the Jedi Archives." Mical answered confused. "Why?"
"You Jedis always like to seek for knowledge, even when you have the basic. Just be careful kid, being a smarty can bring you problems." Mandalore answered.
The group continued walking for twenty minutes, until Bastila recognized part of the path from her dream.
"This way." She said.
The group followed her and they reached to a stone door, they opened it and went inside, it was like a tomb, but with no sarcophagus, the only thing that was there, was a trunk made of stone and many statues. Fortunately for them, the cave had torches, so they could see the entire room.
Bastila recognized the trunk and made her way to it, when she was in front of it, she took a deep breath and opened it; there, in the bottom of the trunk was the holocron, she took it and put it on her belt.
"C'mon, we have for what we came for." She said.
The group walked towards the exit, when they were out of the cave, Mandalore realized it was getting dark.
"We should camp tonight. Dxun is more dangerous at nights." He said. He called his men and told them they needed to take turns to guard the camp. They nodded and two of them started with the first turn.
"My Lord." An officer said.
"What is it, officer?" Sion asked.
"The groups you sent had already arrived at Dxun, they want to talk with you." The officer said.
"Good, communicate me with them." Sion ordered.
The officer nodded and opened a communication with the apprentices, the image of the apprentices were shown and the bowed in front of Sion.
"You may raise apprentices." Sion said. "You have news?" He asked.
"Yes my Lord, we have landed near the coordinates you gave us, we are five miles away from the target." One of the apprentices answered.
"Good, remember, this slug is one of the most dangerous insects in the moon, so be careful." Sion said.
The apprentices nodded and Sion turned off the holocron. He returned to the torture chambers to know what information Kryat had extracted from Revan.
Morning came and the group picked up the camp and they started their way back to the Outpost, when they were few miles away from the Outpost, two of the Mandalorians detected something.
"Mandalore!" One of them said.
"What?" He asked.
"We have detected six forms of life not far from here." The other Mandalorians said. "They seem to be human beings, sir."
"Trace the signal of their ships." Mandalore ordered.
The two Mandalorians made the search of the signal, when they found it, they showed it to Mandalore.
"These signals are not from a Republic ship or a Mandalorian ship. The Sith are here." Mandalore said.
"What?" Bastila asked confused. "What are they doing here?" She asked again.
"I don't know, but we're going to find out, c'mon." Mandalore said.
"Jolee, take Mission with you and return to the Outpost." Bastila said.
The old Jedi nodded, but Mission wasn't too happy. "Ohh, c'mon Bas, let me fight this time." She said.
"I know Mission, but I prefer you to fight in a planet that is not filled with bloody predators. Next time I promise." Bastila said, the young twi'lek nodded and went with Jolee.
"Atton, you should go too." Meetra said.
"You got to be kidding me, babe." He said.
"No, I'm not." Meetra answered seriously. "I know you have great skills in combat, but you are still too new with the lightsaber, you need to practice your blocking, I don't want you to get hurt." She said.
Atton sighed. "Okay babe, you win, but next time I'm going to kick some Sith-ass." He said.
"I know you would." Meetra said smiling.
"Be careful." Atton said.
Meetra kissed Atton gently in the lips. "I will." She whispered in his ear.
She went with the group and Atton went with Mission and Jolee. When the group reached to the place where the Sith were, they saw three of them loading a terrarium in their ship.
"What they have there?" Mandalore said in a low voice. "Use your thermal visors and trace their footprints, find out where they come from." He ordered two of his men.
They nodded and used their stealth mode and left the group. The others looked at the Sith.
"Careful with the creature, Darth Nihilus wants it alive." One of the apprentices said.
"What are you doing here Sith-scumbag?!" Mandalore asked pointing his riffle to the sith apprentices.
"Look what we have here, Mandalorians and Jedis." The leader of the apprentices said. "Take the creature out of here and gave it to Nihilus." He said to the three apprentices, they nodded and the ship took off.
The other three sith apprentices ignited their ligthsabers. The group ignited their lightsabers and charged to the apprentices, red blades crashed against the blue, green, yellow and violet ones, Mandalore and his men where shooting to the Sith, until one of the apprentices threw a smoke grenade. When the smoke cleared, there were no Sith and no ship.
"Where are they?" Meetra asked.
"I don't know" Bastila answered. "Canderous, sorry, Mandalore; did you saw anything?" She asked.
"No, I not even heard the sound of their ship taking off." He answered.
The group was confused, if the Sith didn't took off, they were hiding in the jungle using a stealth mode, they looked around looking for them, but there was no luck. They exchange looks trying to understand what had happened, but for now, the only thing that could have the answers were Revan's holocrons.