"The past is a ghost that haunts us. Ghosts must be banished. Lingering on the past is weakness" - Lord Vader
Sith Gothic 2
Part 3
Quickly I ducked behind the door frame as two automated fire extinguishers popped up out of the floor. They sprayed the doorway area with what I guessed to be something that I really didn't want touching me. The energy they fired made the room feel cold, some sort of freeze ray I guessed.
As I didn't dare try to run past the deadly fire extinguishers, from cover I blasted them with my laser, hitting each several times to make sure they were reduced to scrap metal.
Then I heard the crawler droids, and I got into cover. A single mining droid came into view. I dropped it with few well aimed shots without exposing myself to fire, however soon I could hear more coming, along with the clanking footsteps of those big bipeds. They were actually a threat. Two of them had nearly done me in the way to the airlock.
Back when I'd been at full power I'd been able to battle the likes of Malak and Revan, now I was hiding from simple droids. It made me feel shame, but not so much that I wasn't able to focus on the task at hand.
Since I was lacking Force Powers I had to be creative. I didn't have any grenades, however I did have a couple of sonic mines, which as it turned out could be thrown like Frisbees, alas they didn't do that much damage to the biped droids.
Worse they attracted more attention. Five crawlers scuttled into the room and began firing. I shot back and dropped two of the droids in short order, but the downside to this was that my mining laser was already running low. It wasn't meant to be used at its highest setting.
The remaining crawlers kept up the fire as the bipeds joined the fight. One of the big droids approached the corner I was hiding behind while the other hung back. If it got much closer it could kill me with one of the tools it had in place of a hand.
It took all the Force power I could draw on, but a small bolt of blue lightning leapt from my fingers to hit the droid in the chest. Not that long ago the lightening would have been like a storm, my current performance was pathetic.
Still it worked, the big droid fell and soon the second biped came at me, intent on ending things. But I stopped that by driving my virbocutter into its body, either by the will of the Force, or by dumb luck I'd found a weak spot.
At this point I was just grateful that the non-biped droids were incapable of harming me without having vastly superior numbers. I destroyed them in short order.
Once I moved on I found that the passage curved slightly as if it followed the shape of the asteroid, and soon I found the entrance to the dormitory proper. It was sealed, so I moved to a console across the hallway.
Quickly I brought up a camera feed of the dormitory. Everyone was dead, no surprise there, the rooms were filled with toxic gas. Because of this I put on the high tech gas mask that I'd found in the workshop along with the recorder I'd use to get the pass code from the HK droid
I spent the next ten minutes looting the dormitory, without my powers I needed more supplies. I found several data cards with log entries which shed some light on what had happened while I'd been in the kolto tank.
The mine administrator was pretty certain that a small group led by a miner named Coorta were responsible for the sabotage. The mine foreman had recorded Coorta and the maintenance officer plotting to sell me to the Exchange, even though I wasn't a Jedi. The Ebon Hawk, which had been repaired by maintenance drones, would serve as the getaway ship.
Coorta, or the HK droid, had killed the foreman before he could alert anyone, and the explosions had occurred moments later. The mine administrator had been trying to override the lock-down when the gas had killed everyone in the dormitory.
From what I remembered of the game, at this point I just needed to get back to the administration level, collect Atton and Kreia, and get onto the cruiser. We couldn't fly it, but we could get to the other part of the mining colony by going through the ship, enter the hangar, and take the Ebon Hawk away from here.
Next I headed for the mess hall and the turbolift back to administration. I found Coorta and his crew were dead on the floor; all three had been shot more than once.
The turbolift was locked; so checked the console and found a security hologram of what had happened. This got me the code I needed to open the doors, and not long after that I left the dorms.
(Line Break)
"I have felt a disturbance" Kreia said to me as soon as the lift's doors opened "Our enemy is here; we must leave at once"
While I didn't trust this old woman I did need her, if I was going to defeat the other Dark Lords I would need more training. Also if this bitch had stripped me of my powers after forming a Force Bond I couldn't know for sure if killing her would restore them I could end up killing myself. So for now I needed her alive. Once I had no further use for her, then I'd kill her. Which would be after I killed the other two Dark Lords, which would make the only Sith Master within known space.
"Then let's go" I replied.
I exited the turbolift.
"We need to make our way to the docking area on this level," said Kreia, "I fear the airlock has already opened, and if so, we must be on our guard. If we cannot reach the Ebon Hawk, then we must find a way to escape on the ship that has docked here".
Together we ran through the corridors to the control room. Upon hearing our footsteps Atton turned, and then did a double-take when he saw Kreia.
"What in space is going on? Who's this? Another Jedi? What, did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking?" he asked.
There were no Jedi here, only Sith, although to be fair most people didn't see any difference. They just saw bad Jedi and less bad Jedi.
"We have to leave" I insisted "Now"
"Uh… all right," said Atton, nonplussed. "I'm guessing that Republic ship that just docked isn't carrying friends of yours".
Kreia made a disapproving noise.
"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skill with a blaster" she said "If not, then I fear our time together will be short indeed".
Atton's grunt was equally disapproving.
"Listen even if you two aren't big friends of the Republic, that warship's the only way off this station" Rand was saying as we moved towards the airlock "Good thing we have a clear run to the shi…"
Actually we didn't.
"Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke" said the HK droid who was between us and the exit. "I suggested that you should shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue".
We didn't have time for this so I opened fire and a heartbeat later I was finding cover behind computer banks.
"Distract him for me!" I shouted out.
Atton did just that by taking pot shots at the assassin droid while I charged up the most powerful bolt of lightning I could manage, which was enough to fry the droids circuits.
After that I led the way to the docking arm and onto the Harbinger.
(Line Break)
Within the cruiser, the corridor silent and empty. The ship seemed to be operating on backup power, and I had a sense of being watched, although that might have something to do with the fact that I knew there were killers hidden by stealth tech somewhere nearby.
"Something is wrong" Kreia told us "I sense no one on board".
Neither could I, but my Force Powers were greatly reduced so that didn't mean much.
"You sense no one on board?" asked Atton scornfully. "Sense any assassin droids creeping up behind us like last time?"
Kreia shook her head.
"Everyone here has been slain" she pointed out "yet there are few signs of battle, no carbon scoring, no blaster fire. This place has been hit by assassins of a different sort".
The light levels were low, but I couldn't see any blood stains, or bodies for that matter, someone had cleaned up.
"Then what are we doing on this ship?" Rand quested "We were better off in the facility!"
Atton was getting agitated. I didn't need the Force to sense it.
"You two are supposed to be Jedi?" Atton was now saying "You two are the worst Jedi I've ever met!".
I turned to face him.
"There are no Jedi here" I told him.
This led to him muttering under his breath.
"We can reach the hangar by getting to the engine room on this ship, then exiting through the fuel pipe" I told the group.
Or at least that was what I recalled, really this was all still a bit confusing for me. I still couldn't put all the pieces together and make sense of things.
"Look, I don't mean to cast another shadow on this," said Atton, while shaking his head, "but even if you could reach the ship you came in on, it wouldn't matter. You'll need the orbital drift charts to clear the Peragus asteroid field, unless you want a really short trip".
Atton stroked his chin.
"Normally, you'd download the charts from the docking computer on the station, but the systems were locked up" he went on to say.
The solution seemed simple to me.
"Let's head to the bridge and get the drift charts" I said "This ship has to have them, and we can download them from their navi-computer or whatever".
While I could fly the Ebon Hawk, I'd never learned the proper names for the equipment that made it work. Much like how many people on my world only had a basic understanding of how their cars worked. You'd think that my lack of knowledge would make it impossible to fly my ship yet I could do it.
I headed for the bridge with the others following. The door slid open to reveal a grim sight. More than a dozen of the crew were dead, including the captain. They were all at their posts, and none were armed. The crew had been taken completely by surprise, and unlike in other parts of the ship the mess hadn't been cleaned up. Nasty.
Still gruesome or not that didn't stop me from downloading the needed charts, I had no intention of staying here. I also downloaded a map of the ship so that it could look like I knew where was going.
"Let's get to the engine room" I then said "It's on the lower deck; the turbolift is beyond the crew quarters"
The three of us left the bridge, heading aft through offices, briefing rooms and such for the ship's command staff. I was heading past the table of what I assumed to be the conference room when I thought I saw movement in the corner of my eye.
"I feel it too," said Kreia, "we are not alone."
My weapon was moving into place as a masked figure appeared, dressed all in black with red-coloured goggles. He swung some sort of quarterstaff at my head, but I deflected the strike with my virbocutter and then with my free hand I lashed out with the Force, creating a crude Force Push, which rammed the assassin into the wall. Before he recovered I drove the vibro tool between the man's helmet and body suit.
These were Sith assassins from what I knew they preferred to ambush their intended prey from the shadows rather than engaging them in open combat. Almost always working solo or in small groups, they utilised Stealth field generators and the rare art of Force camouflage to aid their surprise attacks.
While some elite assassins fought with lightsabers, the majority utilized less remarkable melee weapons, such as force pikes. These stealthy warriors were also unusual in that they drew their power from the Force presence of their prey. The stronger their targets were in the Force, the stronger the hunters became, which was my crude Force Push had been so effective, right now my weakness was a strength.
During the Jedi Civil War, the assassins' primary purpose was to kill or capture Jedi. Upon successfully incapacitating a Jedi, the captive would be tortured until they fell to the dark side or died by the hands of elite Sith operatives trained in the art of torture. Using this method of capture and conversion, the ranks of the Sith swelled even as the number of Jedi decreased.
These assassins weren't actually trying to kill me, they wanted to capture me for their master, hence why they were using Force Pikes rather than more lethal weapons.
"Watch it," cried out Atton, "there's more!"
Three more attackers were coming at us from both behind and ahead. Atton fired and dropped one as Kreia used a blade she'd gotten from somewhere to battle another. The enemy fighting me was defeated by another crude Force push that sent him crashing to the floor. I finished off too by driving my tool into a vulnerable part.
Once that was done I couldn't remain standing anymore. I used too much power too quickly, and without being able to call upon the Force like I use to be able to I couldn't use it to support myself.
"There have to be more than these to take down a ship this size" Atton said as reached down and helped me up.
After dropping the virbotool and picking up a Force Pike we moved on. Corridor we were going down led past the armoury and med bay, which were both located at back of the ship. Unfortunately, the armoury was magnetically sealed, which was a damn shame because some repeating blaster would come in real handy about now. Without my lightsabre the only thing that could open a magnetically sealed door were explosives, which would be locked up in the armour.
As we entered the medical bay I noticed that it was well-lit even though the rest of the ship was on emergency power. The two long walls were lined with kolto tanks; a special tank in the centre of the room allowed for surgery while a subject was still immersed. The surgical tank was shattered; it looked as if something had broken out from inside. I knew who had done that.
However before I could do more than look around more assassins attacked. The first pair came at me and while calling upon the Force, something that was getting easier, I kicked one backwards and focused on the other. I parried a blow downward and then stabbed my attacker in the chest with my new weapon.
By the time the other assassin had gotten back onto his feat I was ready to attack, he parried a slash at his head, but I lashed out with the Force sending him into the wall. He was easy to finish off after that.
The assassins were use to fighting Jedi, and they weren't that well trained. Plus they were handicapped by the fact that they couldn't use lethal force. Also they lacked proper team work, if they'd been under my command I'd have fired the lot of them.
(Line Break)
The lift opened, and the three of us stepped out into the Harbinger's engine deck. The whole deck was dark, with the emergency glow panels providing the only light. The corridors were being used as extra storage; crates of machine parts and other supplies were scattered about here and there
"I have a bad feeling about this" Rand commented.
Atton drew his laser and looked around warily.
"Trust me, when it comes to staying alive, I'm rarely wrong about these things" he then said.
It was faint, but I could feel it, someone who was strong in the darkside was nearby, a Dark Lord. It was Darth Sion, the Lord of Pain, a Sith Lord who had fought for Exar Kun's Sith Empire until the day he was struck down. Rather than die, though, Sion found that by calling on his pain, anger, and hatred, he could rise from certain death and achieve immortality, at the cost of all-consuming agony. With a body fractured and decomposing, but held together by the dark side of the Force.
From what I'd read about him I knew that Sion allied himself with the next Sith Empire to arise in the galaxy, that of Darth Revan and Darth Malak. When they fell Sion soon found new purpose with Darth Traya and Darth Nihilus, a pair of Sith Lords who together with Sion formed the Sith Triumvirate, a group dedicated to eliminating the Jedi.
In their headquarters on Malachor V, Sion served as Traya's disciple. Eventually, frustrated with her teachings, he and Nihilus stripped her of the Force and cast her out. The two ruling Sith Lords went on to reunite most of the surviving Sith remnants and continue their war on the Jedi, with great success.
"This battle is mine alone. I am not defenceless" Kreia said
She turned to face me.
"He cannot kill what he cannot see, and power has blinded him long ago. Run. I shall be along shortly" she ordered
The door shut and sealed behind here, which left Atton and I to head into the engine room. Within I found a console and opened the propulsion systems inspection hatches. I moved to the hatch, waving for Atton to follow, however he hung back, shaking his head.
"Tell me you're joking. We're not going to cross back into the Peragus facility through the fuel line, that's crazy!" he said.
Well it was either this or wait to for the Dark Lord to catch up to us, and while I could handle a few of his minions I couldn't face their master. Not in my weakened state.
"It's the only way to get around the sealed door and into the hangar where the Ebon Hawk is" I told Rand "but feel free to stay here and went for that Sith Lord to come after us, stepping over your corpse might slow him down".
Suddenly going through the pipe didn't seem like such a bad choice.
"Alright," said Atton, "but I know I'm going to regret this".
He soon followed me back into the mining colony.
(Line Break)
Even though I'd been expecting it I wasn't prepared for the burning hot pain that made me feel it was as if it was my hand hat had been chopped off.
"What's wrong? Are you all right?" I heard Atton ask in concern.
I couldn't even answer him.
"Dammit, hold on," said Atton, as he helped me to my feet. "It's only a little further. Don't give up on me now!"
Thankfully the pain cleared, and I was soon able to stand up on my own.
"What happened to you?" asked Atton.
This time I could answer.
"Kreia" I said "I think she just lost a hand, but don't worry she will catch up to us".
Atton didn't worry about Kreia, and the only reason I did was because if she died she might take me with her.
(Line Break)
"It's a utility droid," said Atton, as we found my robot "Looks like it's been hit with an ion charge and just dumped here".
I reached down and powered the droid on by pressing its switch. T3 rotated his dome from side to side and emitted a series of bewildered honks.
"Come on, we have to hurry" I said to the robot "We can fix you up later".
Soon we left the fuel line and found ourselves in the lower level of the fuel depot, on the far side of the containment fields that would prevented from coming here directly from the administration level. .
One of the biped mining droids stepped out from behind a corner. Atton coolly drew his laser and fired. The bolt splashed harmlessly against the droid's shield. Atton cursed and ducked back into the pipe as a second biped followed the first. I wisely joined him.
Then I watched as T3 rolled forward. He fired his blasters and shock arm simultaneously, crippling one of the droids. Atton popped out and finished off the damaged biped. Meanwhile I blasted the other with as such Force Lightening as I could muster.
After that I found the ramp to the upper level, and activated the manual shutdown for the containment field. Then we ran along the catwalk and through the door into the hangar control room.
Atton raced to the hangar door. He tried to activate the door control, then slammed his fist in frustration.
"This door's magnetically sealed. I can't believe this! The ship's right out there, and we can't get to it" he complained.
T3 rolled forward and beeped enthusiastically.
"Huh?" asked Atton, "what is that piece of junk saying?".
I didn't need to guess.
"He says he can open the door" I explained.
I doubted I could override a lock-down, but I was no slicer.
"All right, well, if he can get the door open, then don't let me stop him" Atton said.
T3 honked and rolled up to the console. Moments later the door was open.
"Thank you" I said as headed into the hanger bay.
Four bipeds and a half-dozen crawlers were gathered along the final hallway, blocking our path. I dug deep, drawing on the Force as best I could, and rushed the droids in an impossibly fast sprint, tearing into the bipeds. With my Force Pike I slashed this way and that, taking the droids apart as quickly as I could. Normally this would be child's play for me, but by the end I was winded and barely able to stand.
Thankfully there was no more danger between the Ebon Hawk and us, no Sith troopers or assassins, which made sense as only a small number of them would have been able to hide on a Republic cruiser even with invisibility.
Atton raced to the cockpit while I waited for Kreia. It was tempting to leave without her, but for now I needed her, and like any good darksider I kept my allies alive for as long as I needed them.
"There is no time, we must leave" the sith bitch said when she caught up
I spoke to Rand via the comm as I closed up the ship.
"Ramp is sealed-take off" I ordered.
Atton lifted the freighter off. While I couldn't see it I felt us accelerate as we left the bay and zoomed away from the station.
"Hold on!" called out Atton as I made my way to the cockpit. "This is going to get a little rocky."
There was no time to debate about blowing up the mining colony ourselves, as things started to exploded anyway. Thankfully we flew clear and jumped to hyperspace before any exploding rocks could destroy us.
(Line Break)
Atton turned around to face Kreia and myself.
"Well, now that we just killed a planet, maybe one of you can tell me what's going on" he requested "Because between assassin droids, a Sith Lord that looks like he sleeps with vibroblades, and being target practice for a Republic warship, I was better off in my cell".
Kreia sighed.
"The Republic warship was the Harbinger. It was seized on its way to Telos by the Sith" she explained, while her head was turned to face me "They were looking for the Jedi who body was laying in the morgue when we met".
That much I knew.
"Many roads lead to Telos, including ours" she then added.
Atton snorted.
"Not like we have much of a choice, the Peragus astrogation charts being what they are" he remarked.
It seemed that Fate, the Will of the Force, or whatever would ensure that we would end up following the Exile's journey. There was no sense fighting it.
"So why were these Sith bothering me?" I asked "The Jedi Exile is dead, couldn't they go bother someone else".
I knew the answer, I shouldn't have bothered saying it.
"With the Jedi defeated you are the only threat to them" the sith bitch said "A Dark Lord can have no rivals".
Not that I was much of a rival right now.
"We can not hope to triumph against them alone," Kreia said thoughtfully. "To stop them, you will need weapons, allies, and, a teacher. In the end, I fear it may not be enough".
However if I just ran away and hid Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger would sooner or later find me so that he could consume my life force or whatever. And Sion would hunt me to remove a threat.
"We have spoken long enough, and my wound pains me. If you have other questions, find me in the crew quarters" the sith bitch said.
She turned to leave.
"Hey, don't stop your long, boring rants on my account," Atton quipped, "I was just getting sleepy-eyed"
Kreia marched out of the cockpit.
"Also, in private, we will be mercifully free from the opinions of imbeciles and fools" she said.
Atton turned to face me
"Look, uh, not like I care or anything, but you might want to go check on our passenger-especially with that hand of hers".
I so didn't care.
"Can you handle things up here?" I asked "I need to get some rest".
And I needed to eat I couldn't remember when I'd had my last meal.
"We're on autopilot until we hit Telos," said Atton. "Until then, the droid could fly this thing".
T3 beeped, no doubt saying that indeed he could.
(Line Break)
After getting a few hours sleep and having gotten something to eat I checked the ships logs to find out what happened to me before I'd woken up in that sickbay.
Once I'd done that I found Kreia kneeling in the middle of the port dormitory, meditating. She stood up when the I walked in.
"Have you come for more answers? There is little left to give" she said.
Well there was one thing we needed to go over
"When you lost your hand, I felt it, too" I said.
"That does not surprise me-any more than you hearing my thoughts when we were apart," the sith bitch replied. "The pain, however, was unexpected; if I could, I would have shielded you from it"
She ran her hand along her stump
"It seems the Force flows easily between us," said Kreia. "Now that we know, I suspect our minds are prepared enough to shield each other from the pain"
This was very unlike the Force Bond I'd shared with Bastilia, but I tried not to think about that or her, the past was best left in the past.
"Any idea why I lost my connection to the Force?" I asked "I'm starting to recover my powers, but its a fraction of what I used to have".
Something must have happened. I'd checked the ship's logs, and according them the Ebon Hawk had been attacked. I'd sent out a distress call, which the Harbinger had answered. Later when the Sith had attacked the Harbinger I'd fled that ship's hanger bay in the Ebon Hawk, with the Jedi Exile and Kreia.
Only for some reason I didn't remember this, someone, Kreia mostly likely had messed with my head. Also at some point I'd lost most of powers, had Kreia done that? She had been stripped of her powers by her former students so she might be leeching off me to restore them.
"What do you believe?" asked Kreia "That you suddenly lost your connection with the Force without reason?".
Well I couldn't exactly come out and accuse her, I had to let the sith bitch think she had me fooled, that she was in control. It was clear to me that she wanted to use me as a weapon against her former students, and since they wanted me dead I was okay with killing them. Besides she could teach me things.
"Can my connection to the Force be healed?" I asked.
Kreia stroked her stump with her hand as she thought.
"I may be able to teach you, train you to feel the Force again" she offered.
The old woman smiled strangely. I didn't understand what it meant.
"For now I would see to that fool in the cockpit, and remind him of our destination. I would not want him attempting to veer us away from Telos" Kreia advised.
He could handle it.
"Rand is not a fool," I told the sith bitch "that's just what he wants us to think".
I knew that trick I was using it on Kreia right now, letting her think I knew far less about what was going on than I actually did.
"He is a fool and an imbecile; his potential lies downwards, not up" Kreia replied, her voice thick with contempt and suspicion. "Watch that one. His thoughts are slippery. I do not trust him, and nor should you. Such a man serves himself first, and his 'allies' second".
Since there was nothing else to say I turned and headed back to the cockpit. Atton heard me walk in and turned in his seat.
"How's our passenger? She still aging?" he asked.
I wasn't sure how to answer that question.
"She seems fine, she just needs some rest" was what I said on the matter
I didn't think that anything would make Kriea better, she was evil. Not that I should be judging, but there was a difference between being dark and being evil.
"Well, she sure could use it," Atton commented "It might do wonders for her mood, too. She's lucky she's a Jedi, or someone would've killed her years ago".
I figured they'd been trying, but that she had killed them.
"She's not a Jedi, at least not anymore" I told Rand.
I wasn't sure that she could be called a Sith either.
"Then she must be royalty," said Atton derisively, "because she's got to be Queen of the Galaxy to bark out orders like that. Or maybe she's senile".
I had no doubt that she was insane, but it was a special sort of insanity.
"Are we still on course for Telos?" I asked, desiring to change the subject.
"Like we have a choice?" Atton replied with a snort. "It's the only place Peragus had logged in their astrogation charts. The navicomputer on this ship has been fried, so we'll have to get charts from the ports we pass through."
Must have been damaged when the Hawk was crippled by the Sith.
"If you thought Peragus was dead, then Telos is a dying world they're trying to breathe back to life" Rand was now saying.
No words were spoken for a while.
"So… what happened?" asked Atton "I thought a Jedi was supposed to be married to their lightsaber. Guess I heard wrong. Were you a single hilt or one of those double-bladed types? I heard some Jedi like the double-bladed when they go all Sith".
At the heart of every lightsaber was a set of crystals that resonated to produce the powerful blade. While the most common crystals used in the process were from the Adega system, Ilum, and Dantooine (in the so-called Crystal Cave) Jedi and Sith used a variety of crystals to produce various colours, effects and unique abilities.
Some crystals could even enhance the Force powers of a particular user. Other gems, such as coloured crystals or diamonds, were used exclusively for the prismatic effects. However not all lightsaber crystals were actually crystals at all.
There were plenty of exceptions where a Jedi or Sith would use a different material or substance in place of a crystal, such as physical remains, shards of glass, and even special micro machinery.
"My lightsabre was a single hilt with a kyrpt dragon pearl as its focus crystal" I explained "I used a different crystal as well to change the blades colour, you don't have to to use a red synthetic crystal just because you're a Sith".
Atton didn't turn around to look at me.
"So you're a Sith" he said, sounding casual "How about that".
At this point I decided to leave. I wanted to find my armour, and to see which of my weapons were still on board. Hopefully no from the mining colony or the Harbinger one had found the smuggling compartments.
