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Chapter 2
A Long Walk
What just happened?
Karo limply pushed himself up to his feet, staring at the scene before him. His leg had been bleeding earlier, as it was cut down the side and the snow below him was pink. However, it appeared to have been somehow sealed, as the gash was almost healed completely. All before him laid dead soldiers. Whoever won the battle Karo did not know, and any footprints the retreating force had made had been covered in the blizzard of snow surrounding Karo.
The boy pondered his situation, hysteria shoving its way into Kildiao’s mind aggressively like a tank.
Am I really to die here? Now? In a blizzard in a section of Hoth unknown to the galaxy?
Karo then recognized something in the distance; the abandoned hut outside the eastern town of Aguyo. Karo had vague memories of visiting the town once during his “training” (a day of weapons explanations in Aguyo), and had long since pondered the abandoned hut, a supposed home of an elder practitioner of voodoo.
With nothing else but a war in his future, Karo sprinted with vast speed to the hut, gazing inside. His eyes glimmered as a sparkling, blurred image appeared buried beneath the icy “floor” of the hut.
He shoved his uncovered hand into the snow carelessly, powering it with the force like a drill through the snow and ice to the shape. His arm emerged, a triangular, red container in his hand. It was odd… and disturbing. It seemed to be calling the boy to it, releasing an ominous glow.
Karo instinctively raised his hand over it, releasing a tiny amount of “force” as he’d identified it into the small prism. It pulsed blue briefly before returning to its standard glow, sending a shockwave through Karo’s body. The boy fell onto his back, gasping for breath. His already “compact” and scrawny chest felt as if it had been beaten to a mere skeleton covered by now retracting skin.
Karo pulled himself up, staring at the small image.
A holocron. his mind told him, a word completely unknown to the boy. He had never heard it uttered before. Then came another thought. A Sith.
Kildaio shoved the holocron into his backpack, carefully fitting it between his various tools and journal.
__________________
Lord Aeneis’ hand cradled his brow in his head, and exhausted look on his face.
As a “rogue” Sith, Aeneis was constantly looking behind him, worried the justice of the Sith Empire would be dealt out to him on the edge of a knife- or a lightsaber. Since the bounty on his head was released, Aeneis had fled across four systems from a Sith armada.
Apparently, Aeneis’ military coup to overthrow the Dark Lord hadn’t gone as planned, and as Aeneis ignited his lightsaber to kill the Emperor a troop of guards marched up the stairs. The Lord had barely fled in time to escape gunshots, let alone the Dark Lord’s wrath.
Aeneis had fought it out with the Sith for roughly three minutes as he retreated down the hall, nearly slaying the Emperor several times. However, as Aeneis neared the window a powerful blast of the force sent him flying from the six story building to a small landing pad where he found his ship again.
The Lord escaped Korriban, fighting of a few Sith cruisers as he fled. Taking with him his battalion of rebels, Aeneis decided to flee to Hoth where he could, hopefully, join the Five Worlds in an attempt to overthrow the Republic and kill the man leading the Five Worlds, seizing the organization as his in its infancy.
The plan was complicated, but would become even more so as the war progressed. Aeneis hd an idea of what he was doing, but actually bringing himself to do it would be nearly impossible without aid.
This won’t work. With the Republic and the Sith attempting to kill me… no! The Sith shall bother me no more… I destroyed the records…
Every record but one was destroyed. The holocron, an indestructible (or nearly so) brand upon Aeneis, was buried beneath three feet of snow and ice. And even should a Sith open it, there was an empathy link Aeneis had established to it- a project that took three months of deep contemplation to complete.
Should it be found, Aeneis would immediately have the resources to track down the one who’d unearthed it, and deal out to him the punishment the elder Sith saw fit…
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Karo stared at the holocron now beaming out a red image of a Sith. His curiousity had overwhelmed him, so he had taken out the ominous item once more for a thorough examination.
“The following are the official records of Lord Aeneis.”
The image faltered as if the holoshow had been cut and pasted.
“Took in apprentice-” was another disembodied phrase floating around in the wreckage of computer images. “Lead military coup against… wanted by Sith Empire… most likely living in the outer… Hoth…”
The holocron released a stream of random beeping noises, stuttering out random numbers and letters at high speeds. Finally, the image of a Cerean Sith appeared, staring as if posing for a picture at Aeneis.
Czzch!
Karo’s back was literally lit on fire as some sort of lightning penetrated through his leather jacket. He fell back, extinguishing the flames as he fell into the pillow of snow below him. Hurling himself back up, Karo summoned all his “force” to hurl balls of ice behind him into whatever had attacked. Instead, they were shoved back into his chest as he twisted around, sending him flying into the edge of the tent.
Trotting up to him was the cerean Sith Karo had seen, Lord Aeneis…
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