The Hunt for the Sith Hunter

[jokemaster]

Roma and Martins followed, both with their hands on their weapons.

[Writer]

"Welcome, Sith Hunter," a voice called. "Come join us!"

 

Riebe activated both sabers and glanced over her shoulder at Roma and Mertens. "Watch yourselves. There are more than one."

 

She entered the room the voice had come from.

 

"Speak!" she called. "I have come."

 

"So you have," the 'bait' Sith answered, coming out of the shadows with four others.

 

"A warning," Riebe said. "The Sith Hunters you heard of were good. But I have had an extra 2000 years to train... to learn. I am not the Sith Hunter you think I am."

 

"Let's get on with your execution!" the leader snapped. Riebe used the Force to toss one of them into the blade of another, cutting him in half. Then, she dropped her sabers and brought her hands together. A second Sith was completely crushed in the Force. Picking up her sabers again, she laughed.

 

"But I want this to be at least a little fair," she said. Then, she attacked with her sabers.

[jokemaster]

The lead sith laughed harshly

"We've dealt with two sith hunters already. The third one should be easy." He pulled out a saber staff, and leapt to attack.

[Writer]

"Two?" Riebe snapped. That was the last straw. She gripped a third Sith and slammed him head-first into the wall. Then, she vanished and a burning hole appeared through the heart of the fourth. She reappeared and faced the leader.

 

"Do you want to reconsider your assumption?" she growled.

[jokemaster]

The sith smirked.

"You have no idea do you?" He laughed again. " Oh this is good. You're here on a guess, you don't even know what's going on."

[Writer]

"Give me information or die," Riebe growled, knocking his saber aside and placing one very close to his neck.

[jokemaster]

The sith laughed.

"Why ruin the surprise." Then to everyone's surprise he pushed himself forward, cutting his own head off on Riebe's saber.

[Writer]

Riebe flinched and backed away, but the damage was done. With a yell of rage, she slammed her fist down through the dead leader's stomach and into the ground below. Her hand came back bloody, but she didn't seem to notice.

 

"You say Craig is alive," she said to Roma. She gestured to the Sith. "He says he's dead... I want to trust you." She glanced around the room. "Can you prove your words? Don't answer that."

 

A sigh. "Come on. We're not done here."

 

She absentmindedly wiped her hand on her shirt and moved for the only other doorway in the room.

[jokemaster]

"It's possible he faked his death." Said Roma.

 

They passed the doorway, which led to a hallway. At the end was a door.

 

They went through it and seemed to be in a security room. The holograms there showed what looked like an excavation under the temple. One screen in particular caught their eye.

 

On it was Jokemaster, a.k.a. Jack, apparently had been caught trying to escape. He was wearing chains made from cortosis, and had a scar on his cheek, he had been the man in the video. Next to him was a man with a long stick, also made of cortosis. There was also a cage full of Ysalamiri. The man spoke.

 

"You gonna get used to wearin' them chains afer a while, Luke. Don't you never stop listenin' to them clinking. 'Cause they gonna remind you of what I been saying. For your own good. "

 

Jokemaster grinned his almost-trademark grin and shot back "Wish you'd stop bein' so good to me, cap'n."

 

The man grew angry. "Don't you ever talk that way to me. " He hit Jokemaster with the stick, and kept hitting him when he fell. "EVER!"

 

He regained his composure, and spoke, apparently to some other prisoners off-screen.

 

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."

 

Roma clenched his fists. While he'd been searching for Riebe, jokemaster had been captured and apparently needed their help.

[Curt-Man]

Curt was silent through the entire thing. But when the AI made Caitlin break down, he was fuming inside. He was brought up to have the utmost respect for females, and this just pissed him right off. His left hand was clenched so tight it was ripping the glove, but he quickly hid it hoping no one would see it.

[Writer]

Riebe's right hand clenched into a fist as she turned to Roma. "Track that... we have to find him."

 

-------------------

 

"Where do you think Riebe is?" Nadira wondered. Erica shrugged. Caitlin said nothing.

 

"No answer..." Nadira muttered. They returned to the ship in silence and found a droid waiting for them.

 

"Here is a datapad," the droid said. "The coordinates of your next hyperspace jump are there. Have a nice trip!"

 

"Empty space," Nadira said, taking the droid's datapad.

 

"The Watchtower," Erica gasped. "It has to be!"

 

"It is," Caitlin said quietly. She boarded the ship and waited for the others to do so.

[jokemaster]

"Got it." Roma worked quickly. Meanwhile Martins worked at another station. Soon he turned, frowning.

"I'm looking at the security measures. Wherever he is it's impossible to penetrate. Ysalamiri everywhere, motion trackers, traps, cameras everywhere. Guards, both force-using and otherwise. Weaponry better than the empire had back in the civil war."

[Flamehart]

Craig joined the others on the ship. He had been rather startled by Caitlin's behaviour in the cavern, and when they had mentioned his red-eye trick possibly being disturbing he had stopped it immediately. As he looked at her now, he noticed she seemed quite a bit more calm. He looked at her curiously, "You going to be okay?" He asked her in a sincere, concerned tone. He took off his cloak and offered it to her, considering she had been shaking and shivering quite profusely earlier when they were still in the damp cavern. Suddenly, there was a beeping noise and Craig reached his hand into his pocket. "That's odd..." he said to himself, pulling out a small device. "Looks like someone found something that belongs to me..." he thought. He put the device away and looked at the group. "It's nothing," he said with a straight face, deciding to keep quiet about it for now. Someone had stumbled across his old journal disk, he realized, because the signal his datapad was showing was coming from Korriban. He looked at the others, "Let's go to the Watchtower then."

[Writer]

Riebe said nothing for a moment. "Do you have any suggestions?"

 

----------------

 

Caitlin accepted the cloak gratefully and nodded. "I'm better now."

 

She watched quietly as Nadira and Erica started bickering about who would be piloting and a small smile reached her face. With a little sigh, she stood and moved forward to do the piloting herself. She plugged in the coordinates that she had often heard Riebe mutter in her sleep and engaged the hyperdrive.

[jokemaster]

"We could wait for the others" Suggested Roma.

[Flamehart]

Craig nodded Craig walked forward and gently seperated the two arguing ladies and asked them to take a seat. He stood casually behind the cockpit for a moment, making sure Caitlin was doing alright piloting, then sat down with the rest. He put one hand on his forehead and closed his eyes, letting his mind drift until they arrived.

[Writer]

"Others?" Riebe wondered. "As in the people you were following until ArC brought you to me?" She shook her head. "They aren't coming here..."

 

--------------------

 

Erica and Nadira took charge in the cockpit, ordering Caitlin to get some rest. She sighed and thanked them before heading to the nearest bed she could find.

 

(Time skip)

 

"Out we come," Nadira chirped as Erica brought the ship out of hyperspace. Caitlin stepped into the cockpit and joined the other two as they stared at the planet ahead of them. Erica frowned.

 

"That's not the Watchtower," she said slowly.

 

"Where are we?" Nadira wondered. Caitlin let out an astonished gasp.

 

"It's Korriban," she whispered. She checked the coordinates she put in the computer and shook her head. "I must have been a little more shaken than I thought... those are definitely Korriban's coordinates."

 

"Now that you're more alert, do you want to adjust course?" Nadira asked. Caitlin did not answer. She turned to Craig, who had just entered the cockpit. "She's here..."

 

"What?" Erica demanded. Caitlin was obviously astonished.

 

"Do you feel her, Craig?" she asked quietly. "Riebe is here..."

 

She leaned heavily against the nearest wall to prevent herself from collapsing.

[jokemaster]

"We can't do this with three people." Said Martins quietly. Your powers will be void down there.

[Writer]

"So what do you suggest?" Riebe snapped. "To let him die there?"

 

She sighed. "I can't sit here and do nothing. I thought he was dead once... now that he's alive, how can I let him die again?"

[jokemaster]

"They're not gonna kill him. Not until they finish excavating or whatever they're doing there." Said Martins.

[Flamehart]

Craig moved over and helped support Caitlin, and looked to the other two. "I feel it. She's here. Caitlin did not punch those coordinates in accidently. The Force brought us here for a reason." He looked out the cockpit window. He could see the location they were headed to and his face seemed pale. "That...is where we will find Riebe." He pointed at the planetary map where a Sith Temple was. Near the sith temple they could see a parked ship, and a bit away, Craig pointed out a much larger crash site, "That's where I made a less than smooth landing with my old ship. There's another ship here." He pointed to the parked ship. "There's a chance that could be Riebe. Does that ship look familiar to you?" He asked the other two. "As for the Sith temple," he continued, "there's a high possibility they're in there. I stumbled in there after a Sith ambush over Coruscant, where I had been reported dead when I sent the message to the Coruscant authorities asking them to report it that way, hoping it would throw them off track. Upon arriving in the temple, I tried to hide. The Sith were smarter, had beat me there, and ambushed me. I was lucky to survive, and I lost my cape and personal journal log I kept. I don't keep one anymore, because I don't think leaving that kind of information behind about myself is that safe."

[Writer]

"Then, I must return to the Watchtower," Riebe announced. "By now, the others should have arrived."

 

She spun to leave the temple.

 

-----------------------

 

Caitlin was barely breathing as she stared at the surface of Korriban. "Here is a place I had not intended on ever visiting again," she said quietly. She turned and left the cockpit. For several minutes, she wandered around the ship, but her wanderings were directed to a sealed cargo bin and the pounding inside.

 

"Hello, Alyssa," she said quietly as she opened the bin. The girl scrambled out and fell in a heap at Caitlin's feet.

 

"I'm not going back to Master Skywalker," she said. Caitlin smiled as the girl's attempt at defiance failed, sounding more like fear and pain than anything else.

 

"Of course you're not," Caitlin answered. A look of partial relief crossed Alyssa's face, but it vanished when Caitlin continued. "We're over Korriban now, looking for my former master."

 

"What would your master be doing on Korriban?" Alyssa asked, awestruck and fearful.

 

"That's what I'd like to know," Caitlyn answered sympathetically. She turned to go back toward the cockpit, but on second thought faced Alyssa again. "You've made a lightsaber, right?"

 

"I carry my father's and one I made," Alyssa answered. Her face showed her confusion. "Why?"

 

"You'll need them," Caitlin answered. "We're going to the surface."

 

She made her way back to the cockpit, a rather frightened Alyssa Renolin trailing her.

 

"We're what?"

[Flamehart]

Craig was standing in the hallway outside the cockpit, looking like he was prepping himself for the task ahead. He was securing his gun holsters and making sure his sword and lightsaber were ready, when he turned and saw Caitlin and Alyssa walking back. "Hello ladies." He said, he looked at Alyssa. "You must be the one Skywalker spoke of." He said, and noticed the fear on her face, "Fear not. I sense quite a bit of talent in you, and I'll make sure we all get through this okay." He said reassuringly, then offered his hand to Alyssa, introducing himself, "Strider Flamehart, or you can call me Craig, that's what the others here have come to know me by."

[Writer]

Alyssa's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Her fear was gone, replaced by complete and utter astonishment. Then, she laughed.

 

"Flamehart died a long time ago," she said. "Nice try, though."

[jokemaster]

Martins and Roma followed Riebe. They went back to the temple entrance and got on the speeder bikes.