The Fall of the Infinite Empire

by dentedpat

Many thousands of years before the events of KOTOR the Rakatan Infinite Empire dominates the galaxy, with no enemies on the horizon. But an uprising on the world of Korriban and the capture of a family on the world of Tatooine will set the stage for the Fall of the Infinite Empire and the rise of the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic.

1. Revolt of the Sith

The Fall of the Infinite Empire

Chapter Two

Three Rakatan ships jumped out of hyperspace above a red planet. They each consisted of three long, narrow decks, one of which was perpendicular to the other two, and which met at a large sphere in the rear of the ship. Though they arrived in close formation, they broke that formation quickly with the two outer ships moving farther away from the center ship, so as to take positions far above and around the northern hemisphere of the planet below. As they moved away from each other, fighters streamed out from the many hangars on each ship, flowing out like a stream of lights. Most of the fighters took up a patrol around the red world, but two of them broke from that formation to escort a third, larger ship to the surface.

Within the larger ship sat twelve Rakatan warriors, wearing obsidian armor and wielding spears. One of them stood and walked towards the front of the ship and through a door that opened to the cockpit.

Walking into the cockpit the Rakatan warrior took a long look down to the surface of the planet, growing larger as they approached.

"No sign of enemy ships?" asked the Rakatan warrior.

"No battle-leader. Not a ship flying according to any of the patrols. The planet appears undefended," responded one of the pilots while he monitored the gauges and display in front of him.

"This planet is never undefended pilot. Remember that." The battle-leaders spoke with neither anger nor reproach, only apprehension.

"Yes battle-leader."

The battle-leader turned back to the main compartment. As he left the cockpit the ship began to shake, a sign they were entering the atmosphere. This roused many of the Rakatan warriors from their solitary thoughts. The warriors looked first to each other and then each to the battle-leader. He looked at each of them in turn, the expression stern and rigid, before speaking.

"Today the Infinite Empire begins its glorious reclamation of this world, and we have been honored with the first mission in this campaign. This you know. The nature of that mission is something you have not been told due to its sensitive nature. We go to the last outpost on this planet from which we received communications from our brothers on the surface. It is not known why communication was lost. We do not know if the rebels are jamming transmissions, or whether there has been some kind of mechanical failure."

One of the warriors squinted as the battle leader said this. He loudly interrupted, "Or whether they have been killed." This interjection caused the other warriors to look around at their fellows apprehensively.

The battle leader's face showed his annoyance as he responded, "There were over a hundred of our people at that facility. They had supplies sufficient to last for three Lehon years. It is not believed that the rebels…"

"The Sith!" interrupted the same warrior again. "They aren't rebels; this is their world. We are fighting the natives, and none of them ever did us homage, or ever will."

The battle leader gritted his teeth but then nodded slowly and continued, "It is not believed that the Sith are capable of destroying an outpost as well defended as that one. This is a reconnaissance mission. Our job is to figure out what is going on, and to re-establish communication between the outpost and the fleet if possible."

Another warrior responded, "If the warlord does not think the enemy can take the outpost, then why does the planetary garrison need such a large fleet to re-inforce it? Where are the ships that were stationed here?"

At this second interruption the battle-lord snapped, having lost his patience, "The reason you do not know these things is that no one thinks it is important for you to know them. The Council has decided on a strategy. A War-Lord has been sent to carry it out. I have been tasked by him to re-establish communication with the surface. I will lead you in that effort and you will do as I command, with no further questioning of the mission or of your superiors!"

The offending warrior stared back unblinking. The others watched the battle-leader and the unruly warrior for a moment before their attention returned to their gear. Each carried a long spear as their only visible weapon.

The battle leader appeared to have nothing more to say and with his attention elsewhere one of the Rakatan warriors turned to another and asked, "Do you know what this planet is like?"

"No, but Gran-Nock was stationed here, years ago. Ask him," was the reply.

The curious warrior moved from his seat to one on the other side of the cabin. As he opened his mouth Gran-Nock, the first of the warriors to challenge the battle-leader, began to speak.

"Korriban is a dry world. Not a desert exactly, but not like Lehon. There are springs and small lakes here and there, but you should be prepared for thirst. The local animals and plants are mostly unsafe to eat, so stick to your rations."

"How do the natives live here if it is so barren? How did they develop in the first place?" asked the curious warrior.

"I don't know. Maybe it used to be nicer. Maybe the Sith spoiled this place," Gran-Nock said with weariness.

"What makes you say that?"

"Experience."

The curious warrior looked taken aback, as though he was searching for the right words to respond. Gran-Nock put an end to his search, 'You are trying to find a polite way to tell me I sound scared. You don't want to offend me, but you want to know whether you should be scared. You should be."

"I heard they are not as strong as us."

"Us? Do you think we are all the same?" Gran-Nock turned to look at the young warrior for the first time, who did not respond.

"Some of us are stronger than others. I am stronger than you. Maybe someone on this ship is weaker than you. The pilots maybe." The young warrior clenched his teeth at this insult, but Gran-Nock continued, "It is the same with the Sith. Their strongest is not as strong as our strongest, but their strongest is more than enough for me or for you. They have the Gift, that is all that matters."

From across the cabin another Rakatan spoke up, "We have defeated others with the Gift. This will be the same."

Before responding Gran-Nock looked first for the battle-leader, who had by then found his way back to the cockpit. Gran-Nock then turned to face the Rakatan across the cabin.

"The Sith are not the Kwa. The Kwa don't understand war. They are soft and timid."

From across the cabin his interlocutor said sharply "You would have us fear these primitives, we who defeated the Celestials. Drove them from their worlds."

Gran-Nock grinned, showing his teeth, sharp and small, amused by the youth's brashness. "You speak like you took part in those battles. Have you ever seen a Celestial? Ever fought one?" Gran-Nock received only a scowl as an answer to his question.

"I saw a Celestial once. Stood in reserve as we sent wave after wave of our best warriors at it. We had cornered it on some ice-world I can't remember the name of. Went looking for it. There were hundreds of us in each hunting party. Hundreds against one. It killed more than half of us before we brought it down. You can't understand how powerful they are, how much more powerful than us they are. The weakest Celestial could slaughter any Elder on the council. Pull his body apart with a thought. We are like bugs to them. But you get enough bugs, and you can kill anything. And yes, we are stronger than the Sith. But there are more of them than there are of us on this world. Maybe there are more of them on this world than there are of us anywhere. They are dug into every cave and every valley. They watch from every mountain peak. This is their world. You all need to be ready."

Gran-Nock's grin had left him, and he looked down after finishing his speech. From the doorway to the cockpit the battle-leader took a long look at his warriors before speaking.

"Every warrior should be ready before any fight. Do not think this will be an easy assignment. If we encounter the rebels we will have to fight and we will have to take care. But we can defeat them. They are unsophisticated, not just in their technology but in their use of the Gift. Stick together, obey my commands, and we will succeed."

The battle-leader looked around at his warriors, given each one what he hoped was a comforting stare. The younger warriors seemed heartened by this, a few of the older veterans looked away quickly, while Gran-Nock never looked up at him at all.

"We will be landing in a few moments. Scans show no movement around the facility, so we do not have any reason to expect contact with the rebels. Our job is to reach our brothers in the base and get them back on their feet. We don't know what state they are in or how long it will take to re-establish full functionality. I will no doubt dispatch some of you to missions the need for which will only become apparent as we proceed. We will meet again after nightfall, and you will get firmer orders then. Armor on, spears up!"

The warriors all stood and turned towards the rear of the craft. The craft lurched slightly as it slowed down over the base and descended into the hangar. After a slight bounce marking landfall the rear wall of the craft lowered like a draw-bridge. The warriors filed out, walking in two lines, side by side. The hangar in which they landed was a large circular room with thirty-foot-tall walls and no roof. It was clearly designed to handle several ships the size of the one they arrived in, but no other ships were in the hangar besides their own. The hangar was lit only by sunlight, despite the fact that there were lamps regularly spaced along the entire length of the walls.

There was no one in the hanger to greet them. There was no one in the observation room above them. The door from the hangar to the rest of the facility was open, but no light in the hallway beyond it could be seen. The battle-leader walked between the two lines of warriors who had stopped, spears up and out, just outside of the ship. As he reached the front of the line he stopped and said "Gran-Nock, to the front."

Gran-Nock stepped out of the line and walked forward, each Rakatan who had been in front of him taking a few steps back so that he could take the lead position. As Gran-Nock reached the front of the line the battle-leader turned to him and asked, "You served at this location, correct?"

"Yes battle-leader."

"Was it standard practice to not have the observation deck manned in your day?"

"If no ships were expected it might be empty."

"Perhaps they did not expect our arrival. If their communications are down their scanners are likely also out. They seem to have suffered some kind of power loss. Where would they be now?"

"I do not know battle-leader. I never served here while the base was under attack."

"It does not seem to be under attack now. Where would we find our people if this were an ordinary day?"

"If this was an ordinary day you would already be able to hear some sign that someone was here."

The battle-leader looked Gran-Nock in the eyes for a moment before turning to face the rest of the warriors.

"We are going to enter the facility to find our brothers! Do not break formation! Do not fall behind!"

The battle-leader turned back to look at Gran-Nock once more. Gran-Nock returned his stare defiantly. The battle-leader turned forward and began to walk at a quick pace. The two lines of soldiers started after him, spears now pointed straight into the air. As they approached the door to the facility they squeezed closer to each other without a word. The hallway was dark and after a few steps the battle-leader found he could see nothing ahead of him. He stopped, made a peculiar sort of whistling through his teeth and banged his spear on the floor. A moment later a low growl came from all the warriors and the tips of their spears began to flicker with a purple light. The growling grew louder and as it did the flicker grew into a swirl of purple electrical energy. The Rakatan warriors all closed their eyes and as they did, they ceased to growl, but the purple lightning remained flickering around the tips of their spears. The purple light was enough to illuminate the hallway. The battle-leader extended his spear head farther in front of him and the warriors behind him raised theirs towards the ceiling of the hallway.

Bathed in purple light the Rakatans continued their march down the hallway. They quickly reached a large room. The light from their spears was not sufficient to illuminate the room and they could not see either the ceiling, which was higher than the hallway's had been, nor the walls which were too far away. The battle-leader motioned to the warriors to halt and then walked a few steps forward by himself. He stopped when his booted foot made contact with something on the floor. He moved his spear towards the floor to get a better look at it, recognizing it as a woven wicker basket. It was a common thing to see around homes in Lehon, but the domestic life that led to the creation of such objects did not exist among the garrisons on planets like this. Someone had brought this thing with them, across the stars, an act which the battle-leader disdained due to its useless sentimentality. He focused on his disgust for the weakness of this unknown warrior and once again growled. This time the purple electricity around the tip of his spear shot out towards the wicker basket, which swiftly caught fire. The light of the fire shed more light around the room.

Gran-Nock called out to the battle-leader, "This room should have windows, my lord."

"All of you, look for the controls," was the battle-leader's response.

The battle-leader could hear the derision in Gran-Nock's voice as he said, "The power is out, the controls won't work."

"So just open them yourselves then!"

The warriors moved around in the firelight, trying to make out the windows. Eventually one of them found one. The power being down he reached out, using the Gift, and lifted the blast shields that protected the windows from the elements and from attack. Light streamed in the room, revealing it to be a in a state of advanced disarray. Tables and chairs were knocked over, and bits of trash were strewn everywhere. But there was no sign of bodies.

"Why were the blast shields down?" asked one of the warriors.

The battle-leader responded quickly, not willing to let Gran-Nock answer, "The blast shields automatically go down when there is a loss of power."

"They also go down when there has been an attack," added Gran-Nock. The battle-leader turned to glare at Gran-Nock, who stared back calmly. Eventually the battle-leader turned away and addressed the whole company.

"We will head down to the generator, to restore power. It is several floors below us. Form up!"

The warriors lined up again in their earlier formation. Gran-Nock took his original place towards the back of the line. As the Rakatans left the chamber illuminated by sunlight and entered a different unlit hallway they again channeled energy through their spears, creating again the purple lightning halo around the tips. After a few moments the warrior to the left of Gran-Nock whispered to him, "How far down?"

"I don't remember. It is a few stories down to the entrance to the base, and a few more stories down to the room with the generator."

This did not please the warriors near to Gran-Nock.

"We have to go down several flights of stairs in the dark?" one of them complained.

Gran-Nock grinned, "It could be worse, you could be up front."

This mollified no one of course, but the warriors walked on in silence until they reached a large door to their left. The Battle-leader who had been up front stopped upon reaching it. He waved his hand in front of the door and it opened, revealing a large cylindrical shaft. Around the walls of the shaft was a circular stairway. In the center of the shaft was a large metal rod, and several stories down an elevator which would, had the power been on, have moved up and down along it.

The Battle-leader placed his spear in the straps on the back of his armor and said to his warriors, "One at a time jump down to the stairs, then re-light your spears for those who follow," the Battle-leader called out and then jumped down, landing safely on the stairs approximately two meters below the door. He pulled his spear back out, ignited it, took a few steps down the stairs and while raising the spear as high as he could, to illuminate the jump for the next warrior. One by one by they jumped, until they formed a long single file line on the stairs. Once all were down and their spears were lit the Battle-leader continued down the steps, the rest of the warriors following behind. All else in the facility seemed still. All that could be heard was their boots hitting the stairs, and the soft crackle of the energy at the tips of the spears. At every door the Battle-leader would pause, holding his spear aloft to read the sign, and then move on, until finally he reached the door he had been searching for. He moved his hand quickly in front of the door again and it slid open, but not smoothly and swiftly, as had the previous door. The door moved quickly for around a foot then slowed perceptibly, but did not stop. With a short soft grunt the Battle-leader pushed harder at the door, pushing through whatever was hidden in the wall resisting the door's progress. With a small hop the Battle-leader was on the floor just past the door, which was as dark as the elevator shaft had been. He motioned the others to follow him and then lowered his spear and pushed it ahead of him as he walked forward.

Once all the warriors were on the floor behind him the Battle-leader called out, "Gran-Nock."

And once again Gran-Nock left his position in line to move up to join the Battle-leader, and asked, "Yes, Battle-leader?"

"This floor is built into the rock yes?"

"Most of it I think, yes. The generator was placed in a deep cave to protect it from assault."

The Battle-leader nodded but did not move. After a moment spent seemingly lost in thought he turned to look at Gran-Nock. Neither spoke as they met each other's gaze, and were saved from having to say out loud what they were both thinking by a young warrior who nervously blurted out, "Where is everyone?"

This failure of discipline was not met with reproach by his fellow warriors but rather with murmurs of agreement and worry. The Battle-leader thought briefly about reprimanding the warrior, but what was the point? He had the same question. There were supposed to be hundreds of Rakatans in this base, including both the normal garrison and those who would have retreated here after the general uprising began. There was space for them here, and supplies enough to last for years. But it hadn't been years. It had been only a few months. Enough time for the lack of communications to be noticed, for an automated scout ship to be sent to confirm that no transmissions were coming from the surface, and for the fleet of which they were the leading edge to be formed. If there had been a battle where were the signs of it? Where were the bodies of those they came to rescue? Where the bodies of the thousands of Sith it would have no doubt taken to kill so many of their brothers? They had found nothing but a mess in the main the hall, and an absence. An absence of power, of friends, of enemies.

These thoughts forced themselves through the minds of each Rakatan in the company, the Battle-leader no less than the rest, until he called out, "Whatever happened here we need to get the power back on. Defensive formation! Spears out! Follow me!"

The group made their way down the dark hall. After a dozen or so paces the walls changed from the smooth metal of the rest of the base to the red stone common to this part of the planet. The base was built into the cliff with the most secure parts of the base set farther back and deep underground. The generator room was one such secure location. The hangar was actually another, though at the top level for obvious reasons. The armory was also set into the cliff, though a few levels above the one they were on now, so that it was equally accessible from all points on the exterior. As the battle-leader went through this list of secure locations in his head something nagged at his mind. He felt as though something important was escaping his attention. Gran-Nock must have been thinking the same thing, for he began to speak.

"Sir, if they Sith took this this facility and held it long enough to remove the bodies, then they had time to explore the entire facility."

The Battle-leader stopped and turned toward Gran-Nock. Behind them the other warriors came to a stop as well. The Battle-leader could feel his anxiety growing. He knew there was something he was missing. He was going over the briefings in his mind, but those briefings had assumed he was going in to relieve a besieged Rakatan force. None of it had been about damage control if the enemy had taken the base.

Gran-Nock continued, "They have the Gift my lord. If they have the Gift they can use the…"

"The Star Map!" The Battle-leader's yell drowned out Gran-Nock's identical words. The directionless anxiety was replaced by a cold, breathless, specific fear. The Star Map. The way to Lehon. To home. The Battle-leader had a moment of panic induced inaction, which he forced himself out of so quickly only Gran-Nock really noticed it. He turned around to face the warriors behind him.

"I want the first two pairs to continue on to the generator. It is at the end of this hall. Get it back on! The rest of you with me!" His voice rose in volume and in tempo as he gave these orders. He turned back towards Gran-Nock and nodded. Gran-Nock set off at a run, his spear in front him. At first all the group was going the same direction, but after a few seconds Gran-Nock turned to his right and down a different hallway. The Battle-leader and most of the party followed him.

They ran until the hallway turned into a steep ramp, which they ran down. At the base of the ramp was a large stone door. Gran-Nock stepped to his left to allow the Battle-leader to run in front of him and place his hand on the door. For a moment all was silent except the heavy breathing of the Rakatan warriors. Then came the sound of stone sliding across stone. The door, which looked solid was revealed to be composed of many different slabs of stone, all of which appeared identical and could only be made out as distinct pieces when they began to move independently of each other. Some moved up into what must have been hollow spaces in the wall above the door, some to the right, some to the left and some down. The door was like a puzzle. It required no electricity; it contained no automation. It was a door that only those with the Gift could open. On a hundred different worlds ruled by the Rakatans that was enough to keep it safe from all but them. But on this world, it was nothing but a game. Nothing but a children's game stood between their families and the creatures who had seemingly slaughtered an entire planetary garrison.

The door opened revealing a black room within. The Rakatans entered and held their spears aloft. The room had high ceilings. Along the walls were large statues of Rakatans, all standing, holding their spears, looking down towards the center of the room. In the center of the room there was a difficult to make out shape. Most of the warriors would have never seen a Star Map. The Battle-leader had. He stepped forward, his spear crackling with as much energy as he could channel through it, casting a long shadow on the floor behind the obelisk it revealed. He reached out to touch it. After a few seconds he pulled his hand back and said, "They did not access it!"

This was the first good news the war party had gotten, and it greatly helped their confidence. They should never have been worried, they told themselves. For all their natural aptitude with the Gift the Sith were still a backwards, primitive people. They had been barely capable of space flight when the Rakatans had found them. Their ships were small weak little things, incapable, due to their lack of hyperspace drives, of making it out of the solar system, or even really of getting to other planets in the system. The technology of the Rakatans and the mysteries of the Star Maps were quite beyond these animals.

As his fellow warriors reassured themselves Gran-Nock walked around the room. He had never been inside a Star Map chamber before. Such things were not open to simple warriors. He looked up at the statues on each wall. All in the same pose, all mammoth. One on each wall. He could barely make them out. He could not see the expression on their faces. Were they carved to look down on the Star Map in awe? In terror? Until the lights came back on there would be no way to know. Even then Gran-Nock suspected they would be only partially illuminated. This didn't seem like a room designed to be well-lit.

Gran-Nock stopped walking when his foot hit something. He lowered his spear to see what it was. A large piece of stone was lying on the floor. Gran-Nock looked up to see whether the ceiling showed any missing sections, but the light from their spears did not reach that high. He pushed the stone piece out of his way with his foot, took another step and found an even larger piece of stone. He held up his spear to cast more light ahead of him. The space between the Star Map and the back wall was littered with stones, some of them larger than a full grown Rakatan. It was as though some large rock had fallen from the sky and shattered in the chamber. As Gran-Nock looked at the stones he began to make out their shapes, and the shapes they had once formed.

"Sir…" Gran-Nock began to say, when he was interrupted by the sound of the generator kicking back on. A second later the lamps in the room turned back on. As Gran-Nock had suspected they did not exactly make the room bright. But what light they did bring showed Gran-Nock that what he had suspected was true. The stones were from a collapsed statue. He could make out the shape of a Rakatan head in one of the larger pieces. Had there been a fifth statue? Where would it have gone? There was already one for each wall. Gran-Nock looked up to the statue on the back wall and for a moment refused to accept what he saw there.

The statue on the back wall was not made of stone. That stone was now on the floor. In its place was another statue, made up to look as close to the others in the room as was possible given the materials. The sculptor could be forgiven for the rough work, however. That he or she was able to get this new statue as close to the originals as they did was quite an accomplishment. For this statue, the new statue, was not made from stone. It was a statue of a Rakatan like the others in the room, but it was made entirely out of severed Rakatan heads contained by some thick metal wires. They had found the missing garrison.

Upon seeing this Gran-Nock stood for several moments, motionless and speechless. The Battle-leader, unaware of Gran-Nock's horrifying discovery, placed his clawed hand to his head and cast his thoughts to the four Rakatans in the generator room.

"What was the problem?" The words were pushed into their minds. Back came the response, "The generator was fine. Its failsafe had been activated but there are no systems showing a failure that would have tripped it."

The Battle-leader had only a second to think this fact over before he heard Gran-Nock's voice, real though weak, saying once again "Sir…Sir…" The Battle-leader brushed his inarticulate pleas aside as he tried to remember what would cause the failsafe to trigger. It took him only a moment to realize what had done it, the same moment it took for Gran-Nock to run to him, grab his shoulder and forcibly turn him towards the monstrous statue behind him.

"They are here," the Battle-Leader whispered, as though to himself.

"They are dead!" screamed Gran-Nock.

"Not the garrison, the Sith!" the Battle-leader replied with an equally fierce shout, continuing with "The generator went down because the garrison cast a pulse!"

Gran-Nock immediately looked up towards the ceiling while the Battle-leader called out "In formation, back in formation!"

By the time the words had left his mouth the walls had begun to move. Or, more accurately, stones in the walls had begun to push out from the walls and ceilings. As the Rakatans scurried to reform, Gran-Nock pushed the Battle-leader out of the way as a large block fell from the ceiling, followed quickly by several others around the room. From all over the walls and ceilings they could see them, crawling through tunnels leading into the chamber. The Sith.

Their red skin stretched tightly across cheekbones and brows that protruded from their face, leaving most of their faces in shadow. But even through the shadow their yellow eyes could be seen. They were emerging from a dozen tunnels, all of them too small for a Rakatan to fit in, but Gran-Nock could see dozens of pairs of glowing eyes staring out at him from those tunnels.

"To the ship!" came the Battle-leader's voice, broadcast directly into the minds of each of his warriors, and presumably, possessed of the Gift as they were, the minds of the Sith. But there was no time for subtlety or deception now. The Sith knew what their enemies were going to do, it was just a matter of whether they had the numbers to stop them. The Sith were streaming into the room from the holes in the walls, and several were now dropping from the ceiling. The Battle-leader looked up to see one coming down almost on top of him. His instincts kicking in, he pushed his spear upwards and purple lightning sprung forth from its tip. The lightning hit the Sith and not only completely arrested his fall, but shot him straight back up towards the ceiling, which he hit with a bone-cracking thud before falling limply to the floor.

The Rakatans could be surprisingly graceful given their size. Other creatures with their height and bulk would have struggled to deal with the waves of smaller Sith rushing towards them, but the Gift was so strong with the Rakatans, and the training of these warriors so thorough, that they cut through the oncoming Sith warriors seemingly with ease. Gran-Nock had taken position in the back of his line, and seemed to be spinning more than running, though he kept pace with his fellows. His spear cut through the air backwards and forwards and whenever it came into contact with a Sith it cut cleanly through skin, and muscle and bone. The spears changed their shape subtly, so that no matter where they hit the Sith that was always the sharp end. The tops of the spears seemed malleable and fluid, right up until they made contact, by which time they had quickly hardened. It was a demanding art, wielding a Rakatan spear, calling on the integration of powers derived from the Gift and the physical agility and strength gained through years of training.

The first waves of Sith held simpler, short blades of their own. They advanced in waves, each trying to get close enough to deliver a killing blow. But no matter how hard they tried to get under, or go around, the whirling spears, they were cut down. That was when they weren't killed before ever getting close to the Rakatans by a blast of lightning from the spear tips. A handful of the first few dozen Sith had gotten close enough to make contact with one of the Rakatan warriors, but at the last minute were pushed back as though by great invisible forces. Such was the power of the Rakatan.

But, seemingly heedless of the number of their dead compatriots, the Sith kept coming. The Rakatans held both lines of their formation intact long enough to get out of the door of the chamber. Gran-Nock and the warrior next to him kept firing lighting through the doorway, until the Battle-leader was able to lower the huge stone door.

"Can they open that?" asked one of the younger warriors between deep gulps of air. The Battle-leader seemed to ignore him as he turned away from the door and looked up the ramp towards the hallway. The way seemed clear.

"We make for the ship!" the Battle-leaders voice boomed. After a brief pause he began to speak again "We do not stop until we have…"

He was interrupted by the sound of the stone scraping along stone behind them. The Sith were trying to open the door. It was designed so that each of the pieces of stone within it would have to be moved in the correct order and at the correct speed. If this was not done the door would not open. The idea behind it was that the Sith, though possessed of the Gift, did not have anyone strong enough in it to simultaneously move all the stone slabs within the door. It was a job that could be done by a group, but the Sith were simply acting in concert to rip it apart. It would not hold for long.

"We move now!" The Battle-leader followed his command by turning back up towards the top of the ramp and starting to run. After only a few steps he could see the Sith waiting at the top of the ramp. They were surrounded. Sith behind and Sith ahead, between them and their ship, between the Battle-leader and the four warriors he had sent to restart the generator.

For lesser warriors this would have been a moment for fear. To wonder whether there was any point to going on. But these were the Rakata. Hundreds of worlds had fallen to their armies. Each of these warriors had fought his way through the ranks of his young compatriots to achieve his position. All were bloodied, all were killers. And all knew themselves to be more than a match for any alien. For any ten aliens. Let them come, they thought. They would all die.

So it was without hesitation or doubt that his warriors would obey that the Battle-leader shouted "Charge!" With the stone door vibrating behind them, the nine Rakatans ran up the ramp, firing lighting in an attempt to punch a hole in the crowd of Sith that waited for them. The Sith ducked and dodged as best they could, though several were hit, and a few fell down the ramp to be trampled under the Rakatan's boots. As they ran the Battle-leader clenched his free hand, and closed his eyes. Just before reaching the top of the ramp his clenched fist pushed forward, opening as it moved. The Sith flew back as though they had been hit by a boulder. Those who were not killed by the impact swiftly jumped back to their feet, but they were not quick enough to stop the Rakatans from reaching the hallway and pushing through the first line of the enemy.

The Sith were thick in the hall, each stabbing, some trying to use the Gift to push the Rakatans back. The warrior next to Gran-Nock was the first to fall, bleeding from the many stab wounds on his body. There was no time to mourn him, and no chance of taking his body with them. He lay where he fell, his head perhaps to be added to the grotesque statue in the chamber behind them. The Rakatans stabbed and pushed their way through the Sith as best they could, losing another warrior before they reached the hallway down which the others had turned to go to the generator. Two of the four Rakatans were halfway down the hall, surrounded by Sith, and fighting vigorously to get through them and back to the rest of the company. For a moment it looked like they would succeed. Fewer Sith seemed to have been down their hallway, and many of them had already died taking down the other two Rakatans, whose bodies could be seen farther back. The Battle-leader turned down the hall, trying to reach the warriors before they could be taken down when one of them fell quickly, despite not seeming to have been struck by a Sith.

As the warrior fell the Battle-leader could see a Sith down the hallway behind him, holding a large blaster rifle in two hands. He was taking aim at the last of the four from the generator team, when the Battle-leader grabbed his spear with both hands, raising it above his head until the blade touched the ceiling, and then, with the purple lighting flickering all around the it, brought the spear back down hard on to the ground. The impact seemed to shake the entire building and a shockwave of purple energy was released from the spear. It passed through the Battle-leader, through the Sith, through the walls and rocks. It was a pulse of energy meant to knock out any electronic device, and this pulse had been cast so powerfully that the blaster rifle's internal components had no doubt melted.

It also knocked the lights back out. They were in the dark again. The generator, so recently returned to functionality, was down again, probably for the same reason it had gone down before. The only light came from the Rakatan spears, whirling and stabbing in the darkness.

"Come on!" the Battle-leader yelled as he turned back to the main group. The lone surviving Rakatan from the generator team followed, cutting down several Sith along the way. With all the remaining Rakatans in one group again they picked up the pace, and headed for the elevator shaft. There were no Sith between them and the elevator doors, which were still open. The Battle-leader tried to remember how many floors up the hangar was before remembering that it would be the floor with the open doors. As he reached the door he turned, and came to a stop.

This took the other Rakatans, no doubt hoping to ascend the stairway in the shaft as quickly as possible, by surprise. The Sith were reforming behind them, and more were clearly streaming in from the Star Map chamber. If they stayed on this floor they would be overwhelmed. The Rakatans just behind the Battle-leader were so desperate to keep moving they tried to push their way past the Battle-leader without thinking of how great a transgression that would be. Their trespass, however, gave them a glimpse of what he had seen, what had stopped him in his tracks. All the doors in the shaft were open, and in each of them there were Sith, their yellow eyes glowing in the dark. They were in the doorways, they were on the stairs, blades drawn, waiting. The trap had been sprung. The Battle-leader was frozen in place.

Gran-Nock pushed his way to the front of the line as the warriors began to panic. He grabbed the Battle-leader's shoulder and shook him, yelling "The front, we can still leave by the front door!"

As he said this the Sith from the hallway the Rakatans had just fought their way through reached them. The sound of renewed fighting stirred the Battle leader to action as much as Gran-Nock's words had. He pushed the Rakatans at his back away from the doors and closed them with a wave of his hand. As the warriors thrust forward with their spears to keep the onrushing Sith back both the Battle-leader and Gran-Nock pointed their spear tips towards the edges of the door frame, lighting leaping from their spears to melt the door shut.

The Battle-leader turned to Gran-Nock and asked "How far down?"

"Just one floor! Use the windows!" was the response.

"Then what? We have to get to the ship!"

Gran-Nock had to spin around to ward off Sith who were trying to encircle their group. The Battle-leader joined him, stabbing, and shocking any who came near.

Gran-Nock yelled, "We can climb the cliff outside! Get to the top and you can drop into the hanger from above!"

The Battle-leader nodded, "Follow!"

He began to move sideways, while continuing to thrust his spear to keep the Sith back. At this distance he could see their grotesque faces. The bone spurs so pronounced that it almost looked like they were wearing fleshy helmets. The facial tentacles dangling from their cheeks, whipping around every time they moved. Their blades were too short to get past the Rakatan spears, unless the spear-wielder could be overcome by numbers or the use of the Gift. But the Sith were not strong enough to overpower the Rakatans in the use of the Gift. A mental push from the Sith felt to the Rakatans like the push of the wind. If enough could push at once it could knock a Rakatan warrior down, but they were each doing their best to push back at the Sith, not just with the spears, but using the Gift as well. And as they did so they moved, maintaining formation, a step to their left, and then another, and another. They were now a line moving from the sealed elevator door towards the wall.

The Battle-leader was the first to reach the wall and began feeling for the seams in the wall which would have marked where the blast shields for the windows were. Upon finding them he did not gently raise them, as his men had earlier. He channeled all his fear and rage into one might push, blowing the blast shields clean off the building. The transparent material from which the windows were made went with it. Suddenly there was light again. The Battle-leader motioned to Gran-Nock to jump out first. He would have to lead the way up the cliff face anyway. One by one the Rakatans jumped with the Battle-leader covering them as they did. When it was just the Battle-leader and one warrior left the Sith made a last mad attack.

The Battle-leader pushed back with all he had. A half dozen Sith flew backwards knocking those behind them over. Purple lightning erupted from the Battle-leader's spear taking out the third line of Sith. As he did this he saw the young warrior fall. There were two Sith impaled on his spear, which had consequently grown too heavy for him to use effectively. Panicking, he had refused to drop the spear, but instead tried vainly to wave it around. Sith closed in on other side of him, stabbing him multiple times in his sides. His body went limp and for a moment all that was holding it up were the Sith still intent on stabbing him.

Howling with rage the Battle-leader, with his back to the open window, swung his spear from his left to his right, lighting shooting out from it, sending the Sith around him to the floor, some writhing in agony, some dead before they hit the ground. In the moment this gave him the Battle-leader jumped backwards out of the window, twisting himself around in the air so he landed on his feet, the base now behind him. He had landed amongst his warriors, all of whom were standing, breathing heavily, looking straight ahead into the valley in front of the base. The battle-leader did not see the terror in their expressions, for they were behind him, but he did see the cause of it.

The cliff the base was built into faced another cliff, approximately a quarter of a mile away. Between the cliff faces was a valley of red earth. Directly across from the base entrance was a small hill. At least the Battle-leader thought it was a hill at first. His attention went first to the single Sith sitting on the hill, watching them. Unlike most of the other Sith, whose skin was red, this Sith's skin was jet black. As the Sith stood up, the Battle-leader was shocked at his size. Most adult Sith barely came up to a Rakatan's neck, but this Sith warrior looked like he was a full head taller than the Battle-leader. For a moment the Battle-leader assumed it was the size of this Sith that had horrified his remaining warriors. This confused the Battle-leader. Who cares how big he is? It was only as the Sith began to walk down the hill that the Battle-leader understood.

Back there, in the horror of the Star Chamber, it had not occurred to the Battle-leader to wonder, if there was a statue made entirely out of the heads of the hundreds of Rakatans who had been at this base, where was the rest of them? The answer to the question he had not thought to ask was before him. A hill of headless bodies. As the Sith's deliberate steps hit each body, they slid down and resettled in a grotesque way. This had all been planned. This wasn't just a trap; this was meant to humiliate and terrify the Rakatans before they died. Hundreds of Sith lives thrown away just to make a public spectacle of the Rakatans' defeat.

In his fear and anger the Battle-leader, in a fluid and graceful motion, threw his spear towards the Sith with all the power he could muster. The strength of his body was sufficient for the spear to have cut through any Sith, no matter how large and muscular but with the power his Gift added to the throw, the spear could have split a boulder in half. He wanted his spear to tear through this monstrosity. He wanted that small measure of vengeance for those who had died here, those it was his mission to rescue.

The spear shot through the air, so fast it was a blur. And then, a foot in front of great obsidian Sith, who was still walking slowly down the macabre hill, the spear came to a sudden halt in mid-air. The Sith smiled at the Battle-leader as he reached up to grab the spear which hung there before him. He pulled it down and twirled it around in his hands once, before throwing it back the direction it had come. This all took the Battle-leader so much by surprise that he failed to use the Gift to push back at the oncoming missile until it was almost to him. But it would not have mattered. He had not the strength to stop what was coming for him.

The spear hit him in the middle of his chest, knocking him backwards as it went through him, pulling him down as its point lodged itself in the ground behind him, pinning him to the ground face up. His picked his head up to see the butt end of the spear sticking up and out of him. He grabbed the base of the spear with both hands, but could not pull it out, because, of course, the other end of it was buried securely in the red dirt beneath him. His grip loosened and his head rolled back. There, upside down, were more Sith. Some were jumping out of the same window he and his warriors had used. Others were coming out of the doors of the base. All were heading towards him and his warriors. He turned his head to the right and saw Gran-Nock looking at him, yelling something. The Battle-leader could not understand it. He couldn't really hear it. That was when he realized he couldn't actually hear anything. He did not hear his own voice as he yelled for them to go. He did not hear the sound of his body sliding farther down the spear as he again rolled his head back. He did not hear the crackle of lighting as it left his hands, now stretched out towards the Sith coming from the base. He did not hear their screams as the lightning hit them, which disappointed him. He would have preferred the last thing he heard to be their screams.

As Gran-Nock led the remaining Rakatans towards the cliff to the right of the entrance of the base, the huge Sith walked towards the Battle-leader. He held up his hand and closed his fist. As he did so the lighting from the Battle-leader's hands stopped, and the Battle-leader's arms and legs curled up and in. His bones broke as his body was rolled into a ball, the spear still sticking out of him. As the huge Sith reached his broken body he put his foot on the Battle-leader's corpse, and pushed down on it as he lifted the spear out of him. Once it was out he turned to look at the group of Rakatans attempting to reach the cliff wall. He twirled the spear in his hand absent-mindedly as though it were a toy.

There were seven of them left and Gran-Nock was leading them towards the red cliffs just past the base. They rose a hundred feet into the air and stretched out beyond the horizon. But Gran-Nock was making for a path along the front of the cliff that wound its way up its face. Once on the top they could double back and find their way to the hangar bay. It was their only chance. Gran-Nock looked back to see the Sith gaining on the six warriors behind him. They would be on the two in the rear in a few moments.

"Can you see the path?" Gran-Nock yelled to the two warriors behind him. They looked up and scanned the cliff face, and one of them nodded, no breath in him to waste on words. Gran-Nock pivoted on his left foot and lifted his spear with this right hand, bringing it to a rest on his left wrist, so that it was pointed at the Sith. Shots of lightning leapt from the spear tip, taking down the Sith closest to his warriors. He was able save one of the two stragglers, the other was overtaken by the Sith, and fell beneath their knives. As the warrior he had saved passed him Gran-Nock retreated, walking backwards as he kept up his barrage of lightning. A group of at least ten Sith were close to him. All but two fell, smoking as the electricity coursed through their bodies. Immediately after releasing the last burst of lightning Gran-Nock stabbed out with the spear, catching one of the two in the shoulder. He stepped back with the Sith still caught on his spear to avoid the second's thrusting blade. Gran-Nock spun to his right, ripping the spear from the Sith as he did so, and bringing the spear tip down on the second Sith as the spin completed.

Gran-Nock had a second to look at the Battle-leader's broken body on the sand in front of him, the large black Sith standing next to it, looking on as his seemingly endless horde of minions came for the Rakatans. There had to be a hundred Sith headed for Gran-Nock now. More than enough to take him down. He turned back towards the cliff. The surviving members of the team had made their way onto the path and were making their way up it as quickly as they could. The path was narrow and discontinuous. There were several points where they would have to jump from one rocky outcropping to another. The path was hazardous enough that the Rakatans who had commanded this base thought it was impossible for the Sith to make their way up it. It would otherwise have been destroyed to prevent this obvious way to get around the base defenses. Years ago, when he had been assigned here, the young warriors would try their luck climbing the cliff along this path. A few died, but most made it. That, however, was when they had only the path itself to worry about. Now there was an army after them, an army that had the Gift.

The first warrior in the line seemed to have forgotten that fact. For when he made one of his jumps he reached the apex of his leap before seeming to freeze in mid-air for a second. Then his body was thrown to his left, down off the cliff. Gran-Nock looked over his shoulder as he climbed the first few feet of the path, and behind him he saw a Sith standing while his fellows ran around him, his arms outstretched, staring at the Rakatan's body as it hit the ground. Gran-Nock closed his eyes as he turned his head forward, and slowed for a moment, concentrating for a moment on that Sith. And then its neck twisted in a horrible fashion until it snapped, and the Sith fell to the ground.

Gran-Nock hoped that the other warriors would interpret correctly what they had just seen, and concentrate on guarding themselves against the Sith using the Gift against them. There was no way they would hear him now if he ordered them to do so. And it seemed that they had understood what they need to do. The next few warriors to make the jump did so without incident. Gran-Nock could feel the Sith drawing close behind him. He did not look back.

Instead he looked up. And there he saw the Sith running along the top of the cliff; running toward the point where the path would bring him and his warriors. The enemy was prepared for everything, he thought. There wasn't going to be any clever trick that would lead to escape. They had every option covered. Gran-Nock was a veteran warrior. He had served longer than any in their expedition. He was not Battle-leader because he was not quite so strong as some others, but his experience, and the discipline and steadiness that came with it had seen him through battles before, battles that many others had not walked away from. For the first time on this awful day that had already carried off half his unit and its commander, Gran-Nock could feel the fear and desperation rising in him. He could feel his breaths coming quicker and shorter as the Sith behind him snatched at his feet.

He looked ahead up the path, and could see that one of the warriors had opened up a lead on the others. He was farther ahead than the Sith on the cliff, who were racing to reach the point towards which the lead Rakatan was moving. He could make it, Gran-Nock thought; with a little help he could make it. He could get to the ship. He could raise the alarm, tell the fleet what had happened here. That was all that mattered. Gran-Nock stopped his rapid climb and pushed a hand out in front of him. The Rakatan warrior in the lead was suddenly catapulted into the air, forward and up onto the top of the cliff, opening up thirty feet between him and the closest Sith. The Sith behind Gran-Nock grabbed his legs and began to pull him down. As Gran-Nock fell to his knees he kicked at the Sith, hitting one squarely in the face. He thrust the butt end of his spear back as well, making contact with a second.

He stood up, steadied himself for a moment and then pushed his spear into the air. The Sith grabbed him from behind again. This time two grabbed his legs, one on each. Another wrapped his arms around Gran-Nock's midsection, and one jumped onto his back. Gran-Nock looked at the warriors just ahead of him, and in his mind gave them a silent apology for what he was about to do. He brought his spear down again and as the spear made contact with the rock, the rock exploded, blowing stone, Rakatans and Sith into the air as it did so. The path Gran-Nock and the other Rakatans were on was obliterated, and the section of cliff around where he had been standing collapsed. The Sith on the cliff above Gran-Nock were blown up into the air with the rock, their bodies flipping end over end before falling down to the earth below, onto the rocks which now buried Gran-Nock and his warriors.

All except for the warrior Gran-Nock had pushed ahead of them. His way back to the base was now mostly clear. There were a few Sith on the mesa with him, but they were dazed from the force of Gran-Nock's sacrifice. The Rakatan ran forward, calling on the last of his strength, aware that he was the last member of the expedition and he had to escape. As he ran towards the tower that rose above the base he stabbed two Sith who were unsteadily getting to their feet. There were two more between him and the base. He threw his spear at one, hitting him in the gut. The warrior opened his hand and the spear pulled from the Sith's body and returned to the Rakatan warrior just in time for him to use it to block the blade of the last Sith on the mesa. The Rakatan pushed the Sith back with the shaft of his spear, quickly overpowering the smaller creature. The Sith fell to his back and as he tried to push himself back up the Rakatan's spear pierced his throat.

The Rakatan warrior could see no living thing between him and the base. The tower containing the top floors of the base was only a few hundred feet in front of him, and the hangar bay was behind it. The warrior looked over his right shoulder as he ran, and saw the Sith in the valley below running back towards the entrance to the base. It would be a race. The Rakatan remembered the exercises that had been drilled into him since he was a child at the Academy; how to call on the Gift. This last warrior was not exceptional. The Battle-leader could kill dozens of enemies at a time with lightning he projected. Gran-Nock could blow a hole dozens of meters wide in the cliff. Such things were beyond him. But he was not helpless. The Gift was given to all Rakatans, and he could use it to push his body to its limit, to move faster than the Sith now streaming towards and through the base; fast enough to get away.

By the time he reached the hangar bay he was a blur. He could see the hanger bay, like a bowl beneath him, with the ship still there, right in the middle. Its doors were still open. As he leapt down it occurred to him that the doors should not still be open. There was no way the pilots would have not heard the fighting. At the very least they had to have heard Gran-Nock's explosion of the cliff. That would have been audible for miles. As he ran up the ramp into the ship's main cargo hold he found his answer in the mangled, bloody bodies of the pilots. They weren't in the cockpit. They probably had been killed before the Sith attacked the main party; taken from behind as they did the routine inspection of the ship between landing and take-off. He would have to fly this ship himself. The first thing was to find the controls for the door. He ran into the cockpit and sat in one of the chairs. He didn't know this ship, trained as he was only on fighters.

From behind him he could hear the rumble of hundreds of feet from within the base. He had to close the door now he knew. He closed his eyes, and did his best to clear his mind. If his mind was clear the answer would come. The Gift would give it to him. He took a few breaths, trying to keep from thinking about what was happening in the base. Trying not to think of the Sith, blades in hand, running through the darkness. There was only him, and the ship. He needed the control for the doors. His hand moved and it seemed to the Rakatan warrior that it was not him who was moving it. It came to rest on a button, and he pushed it. The ramp began to lift. The warrior turned around to see the aperture in the rear of the ship closing. He could see the door they had used to enter the base from the hangar only an hour or so before. And in that darkness he could see the yellow dots of Sith eyes. Just before the ramp came all the way up he could make out the face of the first of them. They were too late.

He looked over the controls again as the Sith outside the ship encircled it. Some of them began to climb on the ship, perhaps looking for another way in. Let them, the warrior thought. They can fall to their deaths or freeze as he ascended. He found the switches to activate the engine and flipped them. The ship began to raise into the air. The Sith on top of the ship were beating on it. A vain wasted effort. Even if they had blasters and they still worked, no handheld blasters could punch through the ship's armor. For another moment the ship raised into the air until it shook, as though it had run into something. The warrior looked up out the front window. There was nothing there. Then he looked down. Several of the Sith who now filled the hangar had their hands upraised, as though they were holding on to invisible ropes. And of course, in a way, they were. They were trying to pull the ship back down. The warrior brought his hand to the stick that controlled flight and pulled back. The engines roared to life and he broke free of the Sith below.

Back on the surface the large, dark skinned Sith watched the ship fly away. He saw a few of his people jump off of it. The first couple of them might have survived the leap, but the last one was miles in the air before he let go. He was a fool and had died a fool's death. His people would sometimes do foolish things when their blood was up. This Adas knew well. He had lead his people for many years now. The reclamation of their world was almost complete. Many had died in the show he had put on today, but that was the only way to make sure the show was convincing. Such prices were the necessary payment for victory.

Adas walked towards the rubble created by the Rakatan warrior who had killed so many of his servants. His priests were already moving the rocks away, to see whether there were any survivors. A few Sith, their bodies broken, wriggled vainly as the rocks were lifted off of them. The priests inspected each one quickly, then dispatched them. Broken warriors were just dead warriors you still had to feed. Adas himself waved his hand, and several large boulders were lifted into the air and flew off to his left. Under them was a Rakatan. The Rakatan responsible for the mess his servants were currently cleaning up. Adas could tell that the leader of the expedition was the one he had impaled with his own spear. It would have been nice to have kept that one alive, but he had been butchering Adas' men, so he had to die. But this one would be an interesting keepsake too. And he was still alive.