KOTOR III: The Stand of the Sith

[Tysyacha]

((Will replace this with a good post tomorrow. I got back from a week-long

business trip about 30 minutes ago, and if I try to write now, I will pass out

on the keyboard. Sweet dreams, everybody! )

[RobQel-Droma]

(((Tysy, just to let you know, I'm going on vacation this sunday for about 8 or 9 days. Since you still haven't found Revan, you could probably just have him "nowhere to be found", so to speak, until I get back. That is, unless you want to take him over or it interferes with the story.)))

[Tysyacha]

Tysy nodded. She, the Mandalore, Aerl and Jack moved forward, at first

with the same soldierlike confidence Aerl had exhibited, and then more

tentatively. It seemed that the further they traveled on the barren

surface of Ziost, the more twisted and confused the landscape got.

Eventually, they all concluded that for now, Revan, "Master" or not,

was nowhere to be found. They hoped to find the Ebon Hawk

again!

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Dammit, we've been wandering around this dust-pot for hours!" the Mandalore growled, the teadious task of find the Hawk again winding him down to his last nerve. "I sure hope we find some kind of monster here so I can blast its head right off!"

[Jason Skywalker]

(Oh my, i completely forgot about this RP! I was HK, Tysy, can you tell me how to fit in?)

[JasraLantill]

Aerl smacked the small 'coil-emission' tracking device he held in his hands. "Work, dammit," he grumbled. The device made a single spluttering sound, then was silent.

 

Wtih a determined frown, Aerl blew on the device and a small cloud of dust erupted into his face.

 

"Phfth! Pah! Great! Just great!" Aerl choked out between coughs. "All this dust has clogged up its sensors. But, I was sure the last reading said there was a ship that way," he said, pointing with his finger to their left. He frowned, then turned the device in his hand the right way 'round. "Erm...I mean," his finger pointed to the right instead, "that way."

 

He looked up and noticed that the others were just staring at him. "What? It's not my fault that my tracker isn't working right. I mean, it worked fine on Tatooine. Erm...for the most part," he added quickly. "And there's no dustier place in the Galaxy than that." He looked around. "Well, except for here, maybe." He shrugged. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going this way," he said, starting to walk as he looked over his shoulder at the others. "I mean, the Ebon Hawk can't be that far a...."

 

The dusty, sandy ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way and a large gaping hole appeared where Aerl once stood.

 

"...wa-aaaaaay!"

 

There was a soft thud a moment later.

 

"I'm okay," Aerl's muffled voice travelled up through the hole. "Think I lost my blaster though. Can't see much. It's dark down here. But I landed on something soft."

 

A low growl rumbled up through the hole.

 

"Erm...soft, but apparently not very friendly."

 

The growl grew louder.

 

"Hey, Mandalore?" Aerl called up. "Think I found a head you can blast. A big head."

 

The growl morphed into a snarl.

 

"Lots of teeth."

 

A roar echoed in the chamber below the ground.

 

There was a choking cough from Aerl. "Ugh! And really, really, bad breath!"

 

Another roar, then a moment of silence.

 

"Erm...Mandalore? You guys can hear me up there, right?"

 

Then a heavy sounding scraping sound could be heard, like something large starting to move, followed by a hollow metallic 'crunch'.

 

A faint "Crap" echoed from the hole. "Erm...think I found my blaster," Aerl called up. "Mandalore?"

 

The roar came again, followed by a reverberating thud.

 

"Tysy?"

 

Another thud.

 

"Jack?"

 

Another thud and another more ominous roar.

 

"Anyone?!"

 

Another thud, followed this time by quick scuffling sounds.

 

"Aw, c'mon, guys!" Aerl's panicked voice echoed up through the hole. "I didn't come all this way because I had aspirations to be a snack! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

[ForceFightWMe12]

The Mandalore smiled beneath his helmet.

"I think we've let him sweat long enough. Besides, I'm not exactly feeling patient."

Aiming his arm at the side of the hole, Canderous pulled back a section of armor on his arm, a cable headed by a thick spike firing from a hidden launcher. Then, leaping into the pit, he swung across the pit and slid down the side to the ground below. Flipping nightvision on his helmet visor, he glanced around.

"Now where is this big bugger..."

[JasraLantill]

"RA-AAAAA-RRRRRRR!!" The hairy beast roared like thunder behind Canderous, and pawed at the dusty ground.

 

Aerl was pinned up agains the wall of the pit bathed in the dim light beaming down from the hole in the ceiling above. "Think you offended him," Aerl said to Mandalore. "He. Didn't. Mean. It." Aerl said the words slowly to the beast. "You're. Not. A Bugger. You're a. Nice Kitty." He paused. "At least, I think you're a kitty."

 

In fact, the beast, by all reasonable guesses, looked like a grossly mutated Corellian Tusk Cat. But it was incredibly large. As big as an adolescent rancor.

 

It roared again, and this time Aerl could feel his hair move in the stench wind of its breath.

 

"Canderous?" Aerl said in a very quiet voice. "Help."

[ForceFightWMe12]

"And you call yourself a man." Canderous murmured as Aerl's voice cracked with fear. "All right you big cat, over here!"

The Mandalorian fired a few rounds into the side of the monster's big head, which seemed to simply irritate it. It flicked its ear in an annoyed fashion and turned towards him. Opening its gaping mouth, it growled at him.

"Nice to meet you too!" the Mandalore shouted, and fired a grenade straight beneath the thing's tongue.

[JasraLantill]

The beast shuddered, then it inhaled.

 

Aerl cringed as he anticipated another ear shattering roar, or at worst, a chomp.

 

But then, the beast choked, and spluttered and its eyes began to bulge. It turned away from Canderous, and was just about to let out a mighty, convulsive cough...

 

The grenade exploded.

 

Aerl didn't have time to dodge before being buried in a mixture of blood, fur, and black stringy fibres. As he extricated himself from the tangled mess, he grimaced.

 

"Ugh! Hair ball!"

 

Pausing only to pick up the bits of his crushed blaster, Aerl made his way around the dead beast over to where the Mandalore was standing looking smugly victorious. "Thanks," he said to the Mandalorian. "I owe you one." He looked again at the giantic beast. "Okay, maybe two," he conceded. "But that has got to be the largest cat I've ever seen in my life. I've heard that animals in captivity sometimes grow larger because of a better diet, but...this thing's ridiculously huge! What do you think it's been eating? And, more importantly, who's been feeding it?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Who knows." Mandalore said gruffly, trying to pull a bit of carnage from the folds of his metal plating, "All I know is that it's dead now. And that you've got to grow a backbone if you're going to be traveling with us."

[JasraLantill]

Aerl looked over his shoulder, as if trying to see his spine. "Backbone, huh? Well, excuse me if I don't have room in my pockets for nightvision goggles and a grenade." He held up his mangled blaster. "What was I supposed to do? Throw this down it's throat and hope it eventually died of indigestion?"

 

Suddenly, something caught his eye. Something that had caught a glint of light reflected from the metal of his flattened blaster barrel. "Hey, what's that?"

 

He rummaged in one of his pockets and finally latched on to a penlight.

 

"It's a gate," he said, picking his way through the old bones and rubble on the floor of the pit they were in. "Probably built to keep this kitty cat in," he said, peering through the large grates of the metal gate. He shone the light through the gate and down the corridor. "Well, Mandalore," he said. "You gimme a spare blaster and I'll muster up enough 'backbone' to investigate what's down there. Deal?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

The soldier looked at him silently for a few moments, his eyebrows cocked beneath his visor. After a moment he sighed, and turned his head back to the mouth of the pit.

"Hey Tysy! We found some kind of tunnel down here; we're checking it out. Be right back."

Lifting a hold-out blaster from a holster on his belt, the Mandalore tossed it into the air, catching it by the barrel and holding it out to Aerl.

"Start growing."

[JasraLantill]

Aerl snatched the blaster from the Mandalorian. “Gee, thanks,” he said deadpan. Holding the penlight between his teeth, Aerl squeezed through one of the grates in the gate. “Well, if I had anymore ‘backbone’, I couldn’t have done that!” he smirked. “Hold on. I’ll see if there’s a lever or something that…ah! Here it is.”

 

The gate lifted, groaning with years of disuse, until it was high enough for the Mandalorian to duck under.

 

With Aerl in the lead, the two walked down the darkened corridor. It was disused enough to have cobwebs on the stone walls and ceilings, but used enough to have a wear pattern on the stone floor. Finally they reached the end. There were two doors, one to the right and one to the left, and a strange computer panel directly in front of them.

 

Aerl examined the panel. There were no signs that it was working. No lights, no hums. But there were five buttons, each with an unfamiliar symbol on them, and a blank, dusty display screen. Aerl shrugged. “Pick a number,” he said to the Mandalorian.

[ForceFightWMe12]

The Mandalore looked over the man's shoulder for a moment before brushing him aside.

"I've seen these controls before...or something like it."

Pausing for a moment, he hesitantly pressed the fourth button, and the tunnel was filled with an even louder grating noise, the doors to either side being drawn up into the ceiling.

"Well isn't that interesting. It still works."

[JasraLantill]

"Yeah. Interesting," said Aerl, with a disparaging scowl. "Ok, Mr. Smartiepants. Left or right?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

"I got us this far, Meat-head." Mandalore answered, "Your turn."

[JasraLantill]

Aerl sighed dramatically. "O-ka-ay," he said. "I'll take left. It smells better."

 

He trudged forward, the corridor becoming more and more narrow as they went, until they came to another door. This one didn't have a lock, merely a simple handle.

 

"Here goes nothin'," Aerl said, and, with blaster ready, he opened the door.

 

It was a large chamber. Another computer, of the same ancient style but much larger in comparasion, stood in a sunken area in the middle of the floor. Around them were cages. Large cages. But, thankfully, empty cages.

 

Lights flashed on the ancient machine, indicating that it was not only on, but running.

 

"Well, would you look at that," Aerl said in awe. Then his expression became serious. "Uh-oh. Droids."

 

He pointed with his blaster to what looked to be like sentry droids. Only the droids didn't look active. "Don't think they're working," Aerl said, and he crept forward cautiously to investigate the nearest one.

 

He waved a hand in front of it. "Ha. Dead as a dwarf star," he said. And just to prove his point, he kicked it.

 

A red light in the middle of the droid abruptly came on.

 

"Erm...or maybe not."

[ForceFightWMe12]

"Idiot!" the Mandalore growled, leveling his blaster rile at the droid, "Now you're working on my last nerve. We should've left you back on Dantooine."

[JasraLantill]

"Quit moanin', will ya?" Aerl said, rolling under the droid and blasting it several times from underneath. The droid's top plate popped off it's 'head', and the red light went out. "It's just one droid." He blasted it again, just to make sure it was 'dead'.

[ForceFightWMe12]

"But if you hadn't kicked it, there would never have been 'only one droid. And, if you hadn't been a clutz, I wouldn't have had to deal with our cat friend back there."

[JasraLantill]

"Hey, that cat was no friend of mine!" Aerl said defensively. "And how was I supposed to know that I was going to fall through to his cage, huh? It could have been Tysy who fell through instead of me. Or...or Jack. Or you." Aerl frowned a bit. "'Course, you probably would have killed the poor creature straight away, landing on it's back wearing all that heavy armour," he added quietly. "And," he said pointing an emphatic finger, "if I hadn't fallen through that hole, we would have missed this important..." He waved his hand in the air. "...whatever the heck this place is. Bet you didn't think of that, huh?!"

 

Aerl waited for a reply, but none came.

 

"You think I'm an idiot, don't you. Well, I'm not." Aerl crossed over to the ancient computer, and stood in front of it, arms crossed indignantly. Then he frowned. "And if this thing had its labels written in Basic, I could show you."

[ForceFightWMe12]

"And you say you're not an idiot." Mandalore sneered. Keying open a comm. channel, he cut off the speakers in his helmet, instead speaking into the comm. mike.

"We've got something down here you might want to see, Tysy."

[Tysyacha]

((Hey, I know! You can have HK FIND us on Ziost, since he's so DS!))

[Tysyacha]

Tysy had heard a lot of roaring, thumping, commotion, explosions...She

would have jumped into the messy melee, but something held her back.

Not the dust, or the size of the gaping sinkhole into which Aerl and the

Mandalore had been engulfed. Not even the possibility of certain death

within said sinkhole had made the Exile feel afraid at that moment.

 

It was a pull. A pull, and a pulse. The Dark Side was strong here. Granted,

this was Ziost, a Sith world, but even for the Sith...This power poisoned one.

Infected one, like some mutant virus. Tysy knew that lesser sentients would

have been killed in a matter of minutes had they been here. Then again, none

of her crew were lesser sentients, so, gathering her courage, she pressed on.

 

Down into the sinkhole she went, into the dark, empty corridor where

Aerl and Canderous had suddenly found themselves. Tysy brushed her

hair back from her face and entered what seemed to be a computer

console room. An ancient one, like the ones Revan had supposedly

found in the ruins upon Dantooine. She nodded to her two comrades.

 

"Thank you, Canderous," she said, bowing humbly to him at the waist.

"And you too, Aerl," Tysy continued with a smile. "Sorry I wasn't down

there to help you two with that--large creature--but whatever it was,

something else had me more afraid. The Dark Side power's lethal up there."

 

She strode up to the console, which was humming quietly. Instead of

saying her own name, first or last, she pronounced one simple syllable.

"Revan?" she asked. The computer went dark for a moment, and then

flashed a detailed message in Basic, which Revan undoubtedly spoke,

on the screen:

 

Welcome, Dark Lord. Which function would you prefer to execute?

1) Display a list of all terminations that have happened since last access.

2) Analyze a series of missions and counter-missions by Jedi since last access.

3) Project a list of possible targets for future termination if missions continue.

 

Tysy took a deep breath and pressed 1). She felt a tug of pain as she read

the list of names. Human and sentient names, not just clinical "terminations."

 

Master Vrook. Master Kavar. Master Zez-Kai Ell. Master Vandar. Master Dorak.

Plus hundreds upon hundreds of lesser Jedi that had served them all.

 

After composing herself, Tysy took another deep breath and pressed 3).

 

Her name was not on the list of future "targets" for termination. Neither was

Jack's, and neither was Aerl's. Neither was Canderous, especially with his

affinity for the darker side of human nature. However, something surprised her...