The Power Of The Dark Side Grows.
Back on the planet Azeroth, the jedi and their allies were doing all they can to find some clues about who was commanding those rogue Orcs, and who the master they claimed to serve was. But the Orcs were to fanatical, and would die before they revealed anything helpful. So the Republicans had no choice but to try and find information themselves. Nova headed out on her own, still a little unnerved from Arthas' recent brutalities. She didn't tell anyone but Lena about it, and while Lena assured her Arthas would be fine, Nova had her doubts. But she knew she had to focus on the mission, so she cleared her mind of all distractions as she searched deeper in the planet's dark forests. She had a bad feeling about this, she felt something familiar... very familiar.
"Feels like... what I encountered during my first mission with Lena..." Nova mumbled before she noticed a dead body.
Nova narrowed her eyes, and just to be safe, she aimed her blaster pistol at the corpse as she approached. Chunks of flesh was missing, meaning whatever killed him also took some bites out of him. Nova carefully walked up to it and nudged it with her foot... she got no response and sighed, maybe she was just being paranoid. She turned to leave... but then an all to familiar sound was heard behind her. She looked and the corpse had indeed stood back up and was slowly approaching her with his arms stretched out.
Nova aimed her blaster and scored a perfect head shot, killing the zombie on the spot "Great, and if we didn't have enough to worry about with the crazy cultists running around".
She contacted her allies and Uther answered "Nova, have you found any leads?".
"Well, yes and no. I have no clue who this Master is, but I've found something else which might at least give us a clue of what we're dealing with" Nova answered.
"And what is that?" Uther asked.
Before Nova could answer, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps "Something's coming. I'll contact you later".
She quickly activated her stealth suit and hid as something large emerged from the trees. Nova had wide eyes at what she saw. It stands over 8 feet tall and and judging by it's size and the loud sounds of it's footsteps, it should weigh well over 500 pounds. The skin of the creature is a sickly green and yellow, obviously covered with disease and twisted with horrible experimentation. It's organs were visibel and the entire body looked like it had been stitched together by different corpses. It was... an Abomination.
It's mere presence was enough to make Nova feel like she was about to vomit, and she had a feeling that trying to fight it alone wouldn't be a smart idea.
With this in mind, Nova carefully began sneaking away, making sure not to make any sounds that could reveal her presence to the creature. Said creature seemed to notice someone was nearby, but since Nova was invisible, it couldn't see her... But it didn't need to see her.
"Living meat... cut meat... crush bones... eat body..." The Monster spoke in a dark voice and a less than smart tone.
'What?! How did it know I was here?' Nova wondered to herself. This was bad, if it finds her, a fight would be inevitable, she had to find a way to escape before-
Suddenly the Abomination grabbed her with it's large hand and lifted her up "Meat... Alive...".
Nova quickly raised her blaster pistol and shot the abomination several times in the face, causing it to roar in pain as it tossed her back down on the ground. The impact knocked the air out of her lungs, this thing was as strong as it looked. She barely had a second to catch her breath before quickly rolling to the side to avoid being crushed under the abomination's foot. Despite the pain in her back, Nova managed to get back on her feet and began running. Luckily the Abomination wasn't that fast, struggling to move it's massive body as it gave chase.
Nova figured that the abomination may be big and strong, but this also made it clumsy and slow. She could use that to her advantage. She came to a stop and planted a trip mine. Had the monster been faster, she wouldn't have had enough time to set it up, but wit how slowly it was moving, she had all the time she needs. Once done she continued running, and the clueless monster walked right in to her trip mind, which exploded, causing the abomination to roar.
That should slow it down even more than it already was, giving Nova enough time to escape. Safe to say she had some important stuff to report and Uther knew they needed help.
Back on Alderaan and old yet powerful jedi master named Antonidas was meditating by himself... Or at least he looked like he was by himself until he opened his eyes.
"I know you're there Jaina, you can come out now" He said calmly.
A young woman emerged from seemingly out of nowhere, having used the rare force cloak ability to hide herself "Sorry for sneaking up on you master, I was just-".
Antonidas chuckled "It's your curiosity I've come to rely on my young Padawan. But now for the reason I summoned you here. I received an urgent transmission from Master Uther from the planet Azeroth. He and his former Padawan Arthas has encountered some kind of plague, which could be related to the dark side in some way. You've been studying all kinds of force abilities over the years, even the ones most master didn't want you too. Yet you were never tempted by them. Which is why I believe you are perfect for this mission".
"I'm honored master, will you be coming with me?" Jaina asked.
"I'm afraid not, I'm still needed here. But if this plague is force related I'm counting on you to find out who's behind it and help our comrades stop them" Antonidas answered.
"I will not fail you, master" Jaina said as she began to leave.
"I know you won't, Jaina. May the force be with you" Antonidas said.
Jaina would be lying if she said she wasn't a little nervous for her first important mission... but she was also excited to see Arthas again. She hasn't seen him for so long, and while they did talk whenever they had the chance, they hadn't seen each other in person for a long time. They would have a lot to catch up on.
Meanwhile on Naboo, Artanis was speaking to Thrall over a hologram. He had informed Thrall of what he and Leah had found, and safe to say, the Orc jedi master was deeply troubled by the news.
"This are indeed a dark discovery, Artanis. If the tablet you've found is what I believe it is, then the Sith won't be the only darkness we need to worry about" Thrall said.
"I am aware, Master Go'el. Which is why we need your help. The tablet is written in the ancient Orcish language. And you are the only I know who could learn what it's about" Artanis said.
Thrall sighed "I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help. Remember I did not grow up with my people, so even my knowledge of ancient Orc artifacts is limited... Besides, even if I could read it, I worry it may corrupt me, like it did my ancestors".
"I understand your concern, Thrall. But we need your help. And if you can't help us, then who else could?" Artanis asked.
Thrall was silent for a moment "Very well, I shall travel to Naboo and meet you. I would like to check on Leah anyway".
Artanis gives and eye smile "She's missed you, I'm sure she would be overjoyed to see you again".
Thrall smiles as well, he had missed his Padawan too. He was curious to see how much Leah had learned since she went to train on Aiur, he hoped she was no longer struggling with the dark side.
As for Leah herself, she was sitting outside the ship, waiting for Artanis. However she suddenly heard something approaching, something big. Before she could even react, a massive two headed ogre burst through the trees, charging at her like an angry reek and Leah barely had time to avoid his charge, but was quickly back handed by his large fist, sending her flying in to a tree, knocking her out cold.
"Leah!" Artanis called out as he ran outside after hearing the commotion.
The two headed ogre glares at him "You have something we need (It belongs to the master!) You will hand it over now (Or die die die! Crushed like a bug! Torn like roten flesh!)".
The two heads clearly had different personalities. The head with two eyes and normal hair spoke much more normally, but the head with one eye and a horn would suddenly cut in with a much more crazed speech pattern. Artanis responded by taking out both his lightsabers. The Ogre heads roared as they tried to smash him with their massive hammer. Artanis dodged and struck the hulking beast with his sabers. Their thick and strong hide offered some protection, but the strikes still hurt.
"We will crush you for that! (Crush and Crush! Crush until dead!)" They said as they attacked again.
Artanis leaps over them and slashed them down the back, causing more pain. They continued their attempts to crush him with their hammer and fists, but Aratanis dodged each strike and struck their legs, making them fall on their knees before Artanis delivered a cross slash to their chest, leaving a very noticeable burn scar on their chest. They held their chest in pain while glaring at Artanis who stood with his sabers ready.
"Surrender, or I will have no choice but to strike you down" Artanis warned.
The two headed ogre only glared, until a dark voice was heard "Had I known a Jedi of your caliber was here, I would've handled this myself".
Artanis looked and saw an elderly orc with spike growing out of his back. And he was holding the tablet Leah and Artanis found. Artanis was so distracted by Cho'Gall he didn't even notice that Gul'dan had arrived.
"Who are you?".
"My name is Gul'dan. But to you, I am your doom" The dark orc said before unleashing a blast of destructive green energy from his hand.
Artanis tried to block, but the force from the blast sent him on his back. Gul'dan used the force to lift Artanis' ship, and before Artanis could move, the ship was slammed down on him and exploded.
"The jedi really have gotten weaker. Then I have nothing to worry about. Cho'Gall!" Gul'dan angrily said as he used some of his power to heal Cho'Gall's wounds "I expected better from you. Fail me again and I will consume your life. Now, bring me the girl. We have work to do".
Cho'Gall grumbled as they picked up Leah and walked away with their master. Not long after they left, the destroyed ship was lifted up and tossed away. Artanis had barely managed to used the force to save himself as he weakly walked away from the wreckage. He was alive, but wounded.
"Leah..." He said before collapsing on the ground, unconscious.
The power of the dark side had proven to much for him today... and now, there was no telling the danger Leah was in.