Retribution of the Chosen: A Remnant Without Sin

Rive Caedo · Retribution of the Chosen: A Remnant Without Sin

This roleplay is currently in progress, no further sign-ups are allowed.

This roleplay exists inside the Without Sin storyline. You're encouraged to join even if you weren't a part of either of two previous roleplays or if you haven't read the current chapters of the fiction piece.

However, please read this short timeline of extremely relevant prior events if you wish to participate. If you were a part of the previous roleplays, feel free to scroll down to the Retribution of the Chosen logo - which is where the new story begins. Although this might be a nice refresher.

24,500 years before the Battle of Yavin (Episode IV): The first split between Light Jedi and Dark Jedi occurred. This was known as the Great Schism.

~24,410 BBY: The Legions of Lettow (the Dark Jedi) gather on the planet Palawa. Believing that they can finally end the war with a single stroke, hundreds of Jedi masters work in unison to destroy Palawa with a powerful Force technique. The process is relatively slow and most of the Dark Jedi are able to escape. The majority of Palawa's natives however, are not.

~24,409 BBY: The few survivors of Palawa - among them a shapeshifting Shi'ido woman named Shadra - flee to a new world named Kallibann and establish an underground society there. With them they have brought large amounts of a metal named Pacathium from Palawa's remains due to the discovery that it somehow has been altered by the Jedi's attack and now has the apparent ability to block Force powers nearby.

In addition, the survivors develop the martial art style Teräs Käsi as a means of fighting.

~24,000 BBY: Over the next few hundred years over several generations the Palawan decedents on Kallibann decide to leave the underground caverns and find a new world. They travel to the planet Bunduki. Shadra places herself in stasis - believing that the Jedi will one day attack them again and Kallibann's caverns (protected from the Force by the altered Pacathium) will be needed once again.

~25 BBY: Shadra is removed from stasis by a Bunduki named Ceth (descended from the Palawans) who travelled to Kallibann wondering if the legends of it were true. He tells Shadra that the Jedi have been defenders of the galaxy for thousands of years.

~23 BBY: Shadra infiltrates the Jedi Order on Coruscant by taking on the role of a Jedi Historian named Armia Delvron.

22 BBY: The Clone Wars begin.

~21 BBY: The real Armia Delvron is killed (possibly by Shadra) and Shadra takes over her life entirely.

~20 BBY: Something occurs that causes Armia (Shadra) to believe the Jedi Order is still as destructive as it was thousands of years ago. She leaves the Order and takes a Jedi Interceptor with her.

19 BBY: The Republic falls and the Empire is established.

Armia comes into contact with a small group of aliens (Yuuzhan Vong - although they are not called by this name within the story). Their leader, Nyss'ra Syllac and a shaper, Yiim, made a deal with her to develop a substance that would "eat" Pacathium and replicate its ability to block the Force.

17 BBY: Kallibann: A World Without Sin

Armia's plans are discovered by a group of adventurers. They prevent Armia from releasing the "slime" substance that the Yuuzhan Vong developed to spread throughout the galaxy and block the Force everywhere.

15 BBY: Venom of the Empire: A Galaxy Without Sin

Armia is captured by the Empire and forced to help them attempt to develop a synthetic version of Pacathium. She sends a distress call to several of the members of the group who foiled her plans previously and is inadvertently rescued by them. In the process, the star destroyer she was being held on, the Integrity, is destroyed.

Lies of Bakura: A Secret Without Sin begins.

This story is currently in progress and spans multiple years. Armia is held by the Jedi until they can figure out what to do with her.

14 BBY: Retribution of the Chosen: A Remnant Without Sin

It is an end of an era
for the Bakuran Order.
For the previous five
years they have ignored
the growth of the Empire.

After the Integrity incident,
the Council was no longer
able to deny the danger
Imperial forces posed.
They ordered all Jedi
to return to Bakura.

When a single Jedi Knight,
ABBA REGANA, failed to
respond, a search party
was reluctantly authorized . . .

((Welcome to Retribution of the Chosen!
This is a "minor" roleplay in the Without Sin series intended to run for about a third of the length of the previous two "major" roleplays.

Three quick rules before you join:

You may only post once per day. So make it count!

Place out-of-character text in Cyan.

The roleplay creator (Rive Caedo) reserves the right to edit your posts if necessary for storyline purposes.))

Rive Caedo · A Sunny Day

Bakuran Jedi Temple
Northern Landing Pads

It was midday on Bakura. Dakoth Mandol stood atop the Narix - the overhauled Imperial Lambda-class shuttle whose reconstruction was completed just minutes ago. He leaned against the shuttle’s massive wing - the only one of the original three remaining. The other two wings had been destroyed entirely in the shuttle’s disastrous crash into the flight deck of the Star Destroyer it was launching from - he had been aboard at the time. In fact, he had been the one to pull the lever engaging the desperate launch at Hyperspeed velocities out of the hangar.

It had been the right decision. They had survived. If they had stayed in the clutches of the vengeful Darth Vader, Dakoth had little doubt they would now be dead or worse.

This was the first time he’d seen the shuttle’s progress in several weeks. He’d been keeping himself as busy in the temple as he could. It was a self-defense mechanism to stop himself from thinking about his... situation. One year ago his body had been exposed to a large amount of a synthetic Pacathium-based gas developed by the Empire. It had robbed him of his connection to the Force entirely and permanently.

At least that’s what he had thought originally. However, the Empire’s prototype weapon was apparently only capable of binding itself to his body’s endothelial cells - at least Dakoth thought that’s what the temple’s medical team had said. It hadn’t reproduced or altered his DNA. So, as his Pacathium infected cells slowly died out and replaced themselves with normal ones, his connection to the Force had grown stronger. That process was now nearly complete, though the sensation was still comparable trying to hear someone speak while underwater. Muddled, murky, unclear. Still, he felt better having it there at all.

A dull pounding sound shook the Jedi from his thoughts. He turned and leaned toward the source of the noise. Rive Caedo was pounding on the cockpit’s glass trying to get his attention. A series of hand gestures conveyed the message: they were ready to launch.

The mission was simple: Find out why Abba Regana, the nineteen year old formal apprentice to Narix, hadn’t responded to the call for everyone to return to Bakura - a decision that had been made in light of the tightening grip of the Empire on the galaxy. She’d left for Mon Calamari five months ago with Rive Caedo. It was common knowledge at the temple that Regana and Caedo didn’t get along. However, they shared a common link with Narix, so when she’d requested that Rive get her away from the temple after Narix had been moved to the medical wing to slowly die, he’d taken her on his next trip without question.

Dakoth took one last glance back toward the Bakuran Temple as he hopped down from the shuttle to the landing pad. The entire massive structure was bathed in sunlight from the midday sun directly overhead. Not a single shadow cast, it was an inspiring sight.

As Dakoth walked up the ramp into the shuttle’s hold. He was taken aback briefly by the sight of a large reptilian Chistori sitting at the very rear of the hold. After a moment Dakoth recalled that a Chistori Jedi named Kydii had found his way to the Bakuran Order several weeks ago. That made him one of only a handful of Jedi from the Republic’s Jedi Order to do so over the past 5 years since the Republic’s fall. It was strange that he hadn’t encountered the Chistori sooner, considering all the things Dakoth had been doing within the temple.

There were two other Jedi in the rear hold as well - sitting on the opposite side of the shuttle from the Chistori. Dakoth recognized their faces, but couldn’t recall their names. Dakoth had seen one of them attending the Old Galactic Basic Linguistics class he’d helped instruct months ago - just one of many things Dakoth had done trying to keep busy.

Dakoth acknowledged all three Jedi with a brief nod that was returned. He then turned to face the cockpit access doorway sitting behind the shuttle’s ramp system. With a subtle wave of his hand Dakoth attempted to close the ramp using the Force. The effort failed. Now slightly annoyed, Dakoth hit the retraction button with a closed fist - hard. The ramp retracted loudly as he rounded it to reach the cockpit.

"All systems check out. Of course, you're trying to test a non-standard Hyperdrive core against standard system checks." Korus Zhett - as far as Dakoth knew, the Mandalorian was the only non-Jedi ever allowed to stay at the Bakuran Temple for longer than absolutely necessary, declared from the co-pilot's seat.

"Well that's what makes this more interesting than a blue milk pickup run." Rive Caedo replied with a smirk, warming up the reinforced Hyperdrive resonators of the modified shuttle and locking in navigation coordinates Korus was feeding him. Dakoth had noticed subtle changes in Caedo’s behavior over the past months. He seemed to be less certain of himself and he’d been leaving the temple far more rarely than in the past.

A ten year old youngling, Adam Zahn, sat in one of the passenger seats. There had been an uproar over whether someone so young should be allowed to go on this mission, but eventually the Council relented. Zhan knew Abba well and his concern was obvious in his voice, "You don't think Master Regana is in trouble? I have a bad feeling about all this."

Another Jedi, older than the other, spoke dismissively, "That's probably just the radiation getting to you. Did you see how many wires they have linking those Hyperdrive cores together?"

Rive smirked, "He's right. You'll probably be in more danger during this takeoff than the rest of the mission. I don't sense anything wrong. I'm sure Abba is just off preaching ‘live and let live’ philosophy to the Mon Calamari as the Empire enslaves them."

The Jedi glared, "You shouldn't disrespect her like that. Master Regana's already done more for this Order than you ever will."

Korus sighed as he engaged the lift thrusters, "This is going to be a long trip."

The shuttle lifted off from the landing pad and engaged with more power than Dakoth had expected. He had to grab the framing of the doorway to the cockpit to stay on his feet.

Rive glanced back as he heard Dakoth stumble. Caedo’s graying hair was barely visible against the sunlight shining directly into the cockpit window as the shuttle ascended.

“What in blazes are you doing standing there?! Sit down now or you’ll b---” Dakoth could still see Rive’s lips moving, but his voice was drowned out by the overwhelming whine of the shuttlecraft’s cross-channel Hyperdrive struggling to engage.

With effort, Dakoth was able to practically throw himself onto one of the two smaller seats behind the regular passenger chairs.

A split second later, the Narix hurled forward at record breaking velocities. Stars streaked by and disappeared almost instantly. The blue vortex of Hyperspace seemed to shake and jink randomly - although that was actually Korus and Rive struggling to keep the experimental shuttle on course.

By the time Korus shouted that the engines had grown too unstable, they’d crossed nearly half the distance to Mon Calamari in under 12 minutes. A distance that would have taken one of the seldom used freighters in the Bakuran Temple’s hangar over 2 hours to travel.

If not for the smell of smoke coming from the main hold and a series of circuits in the cockpit that had blown out - unable to handle the increased power flow from the engines - it would be fair call the maiden flight of the shuttle a huge success.

___________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)____________

Mon Calamari
Home One - Ackbar's resistance base

Nova Sky growled as, for the sixth time, The Black Spice failed to connect to the Holonet. He needed to get back into contact with his people on Nar Shaddaa and he needed to do it now.

He’d been contacted weeks ago by Rive Caedo. The message had been routed through several secure channels and scrambled nearly beyond recognition. But Caedo had made enough not-so-subtle references to their previous encounters that there was no doubt it was him.

The Jedi had been concerned that the Hutts would soon make a move and attempt to set up a trade deal with the resistance movement on Mon Calamari. Imperial defenses of the world had cracked down tightly, which was limiting the supply drops from certain other - less encumbered - rebellious movements across the galaxy to assist the watery world.

As the Mon Calamari’s resource reserves had dwindled, they’d grown more desperate. Nova had figured the Hutts would wait until their supplies had reached their breaking point before offering to make a long term smuggling contract with the resistance. It was standard cartel operating procedure.

Apparently that was a miscalculation. Nova had arrived at Home One just hours ago. It was still the home of the resistance's leader, Ackbar, made from the hollowed out remains of a floating city bombed by the Empire from orbit. It looked like not much had change in the past year. He’d been welcomed as a former visitor to the resistance, but had then been informed that a Hutt team had arrived just two days before him.

He needed strategy now. He needed information. He needed to which Hutt clan it was. He needed to know the lowest price they’d be willing to smuggle for. He needed a lot of things right now... but he couldn’t get any of them without the help of his people back on Nar Shaddaa via the Holonet... and it was becoming clear that something was blocking all connections right now.

Xander Vos

Korus heaved a sigh as the craft shuddered from Hyperspace. He set about recalibrating the instruments and setting up the trip the rest of the way to Mon Calamari.

Whilst this was tedious work, a sense of excitement still worked its way into his stomach. This was his first real taste of action in almost a year. He'd come to the Temple following that incident on the Star Destroyer, and hadn't done much else.

Sure, he'd started telling the Jedi about the Mandalorians, tried to provoke some interest and sympathy in their plight, but all it did was remind him that he'd all but abandoned them on Nar Shadda.

Still... now was like old times. Out with Caedo on some wild space faring adventure half-way across the Galaxy. The other faces had changed - except Mandol - but the feeling remained.

That little tingling at the base of his gut told him something though; it was as it had been on Kallibann, and as it had been on Nar Shadda just prior to running into Caedo again.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Lord Invictus

Garoluun Kydii, seated securely in the back of the shuttle next to a window, gazed out the thick glass to the Bakuran temple. He'd arrived only a few weeks before and was already leaving. Never had he seen such a wonderful and tranquil place since the Old Republic. It was a pity he had to leave so soon.

Yet Garo could only expect such a "welcome" as to send him off. After all, he was an elder Jedi from the Clone Wars. Humble as he generally was, he could not deny his experience was impressive.

Garo was a a colleague of Rive Caedo- as well as many other Jedi. When all else failed, and Garo lost the ability to contact any other Jedi, the Christori remember Caedo and attempted to make contact with the Jedi. He had sent an awkward message somewhere along the lines of "Greetings... I am Garoluun Kydii, a Jedi from the Clone Wars.... I've tried contacting several other Jedi since the Great Purge with no result. I was wondering if you have made contact with any others... so... er... have you?"

Garo had flown to the temple shortly after the response and managed to somehow allow himself into a position of seniority as a Jedi. When the call came to search for Abba, Garo immediately volunteered as a way to "pay back" his friends at the temple.

Garo watched out the window like a child as the galaxy shifted. He could recognize the atmosphere (if he could call it so) out in space change as the shuttle left hyperspace. Kydii pushed himself up, proceeding to the cockpit relatively unnoticed by the small mob of Jedi- and a Mandalorian- inside.

Anakin

EDITED

-Mon Calamari, Main City-

"Hey!" The Imperial stormtrooper said, slightly pushing him back with the nozzle of his standard blaster rifle.

"I'm going to need to check you for identification."

I should have seen this one coming. Jecht thought, feeling the troops dark eye lenses digging into the back of his head.

He had just been wandering around one of the alley ways, getting information for the resistance movement on any unusual Imperial activity when idiotically he let on a close follower, who had just snuck behind him.

He was dressed in civilian clothes: a loose fitting old pilot jacket with some old khaki cargo pants. His choice of places though, the Industrial section of Mon Calamari's capital city, was more than enough to be checked out by the troops that scoped out any activity.

"Sure officer," Jecht said, turning around with his hands slightly raised in the air, and knowing that concealed in his jacket was a silenced blaster tucked fittingly into chest holster.

The storm trooper, obviously new the whole policing act and probably a rookie,unsuringly waved his blaster rifle at Jecht.

"No sudden movements bud, I'll shoot you ya' know." Came the helmet-muffled response.

"You're a rookie." Jecht said, calmly with a smirk. Hands still raised in the air.

"...Huh..?" Seconds after he uttered this confused question, the blaster rifle was snatched from his (nervous) loose hands using only one hand from Jecht, the other hand reaching for the knife on back of his belt.

The stormtrooper didn't know what to do, the situation had become a haze.

Jecht's unsheathed small blade came up to the exposed black glove material that covered the stormtroopers neck and dug it deeply. He didn't see the soldier's face but he knew it must have been some horrible awe-struck look etched into his young features.

Jecht withdrew the now blood-slicked blade just before the stormtrooper collapsed to the floor. Dead.

This was highly discouraged by the resistance, but he had no time for morals. He cleaned the blade and put it back into its sheath and started to pickup the dead body to stash it away.

Rive Caedo

After Korus had left the cockpit. The older Jedi ((Ga'nen)) across from Zahn turned to Garo Kydii who had just entered the cockpit, "I told the Council this was a foolish project. They cannibalized half our working shuttles to build this failure." He made sure he said it loud enough for Rive - and probably Korus in the next room - to hear it.

Rive didn't even know this man, but he was already getting under his skin - he reminded him of Abba. Rive grabbed the side of his chair and twisted around to see the man, "You just crossed half the galaxy in under fifteen minutes in a teeny tiny shuttlecraft equipped with a hyperdrive system more powerful than most full size starcruisers."

The Jedi still appeared sullen, but seemed silenced by Rive's firm voice. So Rive stood and followed Korus into the main hold - giving a quick nod to Garoluun Kydii on the way.

Garo and Rive had crossed paths less than a year after the Republic's fall. He wasn't proud of it, but Rive had attacked the man due to believing him to be a dark side disciple. Apparently he hadn't quite gotten over his long held speciesism against reptilian species (stemming from some bad encounters with Trandoshans in his younger years) because the Chistori's appearance still unsettled him - despite the fact that he had been the one to vouch for bringing Kydii into the order.

Korus already had the main drive core's instrument access panel open - which had been rigged to also monitor the second core hanging directly above it. Rive coughed slightly from the smoke pouring from both of them, "Does the system just need to cool off a bit or are we going to need to decouple the drives and just run on one for the rest of the trip?"

Xander Vos

"Looks like it's held up fine, so it should just need to cool off," Korus said, nodding at Caedo as he entered the room. His respect for the man had grown over the last year, especially after seeing the attitude much of the Order had with him. Any Jedi who other Jedi deemed to be reckless got the tick in his book.

That said, he still occasionally flared up against Caedo, especially when the matter of Kallibann was raised. Caedo's flippant treatment of his men had cost a lot of them their lives, and those losses would live with Korus forever, losses Caedo seemed to have shrugged aside - as losses that just 'came with the trade' it seemed.

He had been asked to recount his version of Kallibann to the younglings, at Caedo's request, but the pair had become quite heated about Korus' choice terms to describe Caedo's decisions, and a hard punch to Caedo's chin, followed by an equally hard hit to Korus' gut had ended the exchange amidst an awkward and shocked silence in front of the younglings.

Still, the pair's friendship had grown, and whilst they had their differences, they were no less than two fiery men could be expected to hold. Korus saw it as a strength of their relationship, not a weakness, as neither would hesitate in voicing their objections to the other's ideas.

Dakoth

Dakoth sat silent amongst the bickering Jedi as they argued the merit of this shuttle, the merit of the mission, and the merit of eachother. He took this oppurtunity to try one of his force exercises that he had been struggling to develop to better adapt to his condition. Seeing as it was rather obvious as to the emotions his fellow Jedi were feeling, he tried to expand his presence into the blotchy fog that had become the force. His bootlace tightened. He should have expected as much. Honestly Dakoth didn't even know why they had brought him on this mission. The young padawan sitting adjacent from him could probably beat him down mercilessly in a saber duel.

Lord Invictus

Garo bowed respectively to Caedo as he passed by, moving away respectively as he noted the tensing of Caedo's lower jaw. Sadly, Garo tended to frighten many people. Reptilian species tended to be feared by most humanoids.

Kydii brushed dust off his rare Bantha fur robe- a treasure from the Tusken tribes of the Valley of Jishuama in which Kydii had fought most of the Clone Wars- awkwardly, pulling himself out of the comfortable seating.

A force presence briefly brushed against Kydii- someone was attempting to sense someone. However, it seemed untrained. The force probe fumbled around, unable to secure its position anywhere. Kydii's eyes quickly scanned the room for any source of the probe, brushing against it experimentally with his own. Each time Garo probed it Dakoth blinked, unable to find the location of the other probe.

A Jedi master unable to secure a probe? Garo thought in the deepest bowls of his mind, trying to keep any Jedi- specifically Dakoth- from reading the somewhat offensive idea. What happened on the Integrity?

Garo outstretched his head, extending his neck as far as possible (a full foot and a half- long even for a Chistori). He immediately pulled it back once his massive yawn was finished. Old age was not treating him fairly. His once powerful combat skills were gone, his mind was dulled, and he remained mostly quiet. It was a wonder the council of Bukara had decided to send him on the mission at all, considering the unfortunate luck that always surrounded the few men aboard the ship.

Anakin

The corpse of the stormtrooper was dropped down into the uncovered manhole and the splash reassured Jecht that the body would not be found for a while. It was a shame they weren't closer to the edge of the city so the body could be dropped directly into the vast ocean. The Empire may look for---Gerg Les---according to the ID card he had on him---but at the looks of it, one missing grunt was not going to be missed. Not to mention the Empire was getting hundreds of thousands of Imperial recruits every month. Shortages were not even in their mind, and to the Emperor Palpatine, every trooper was expendable.

This view differed from the loosely organized resistance here on Mon Calmari, who savaged and savoured every thing they could get their hands on. Just to think how they had quickly accepted him as a field agent 4 weeks ago when he had shown up at their secret meetings showed how desperate they were. Idiots.

Jecht covered the manhole and made sure there no observers before moving on, heading slowly through the tight and crooked corridors that laced between the tight factories that were very prominent in this section of the city. He had in his pocket a chip full of holo-photos and schematics he had aquired while exploring that day. It was so important that the tighly guarded Home One leader Ackbar had asked him for it personally. Previously Jecht had only worked in association with the much smaller Home Seven group - who held clandestine but infrequent meetings in the many abandoned factories in this floating city.

Jecht had been given a set of coordinates for Home One. It hadn't taken long for him to discover that it was the location of the city of Hikahi - one of three cities the Empire had bombed to intimidate the Mon Calamari and Quarren natives of the world into submission. It was a clever location for Ackbar to hide - the Empire wouldn't check on a location marked as destroyed.

Whatever they wanted, Jecht gave. He couldn't care less for this all these missions, and they never questioned his motives. They would see soon enough.

Ga'nen

Rolling his eyes at Caedo's appreciation for old ships he turned back to focusing on any dangers that would be presented either from the ship or outside. He had been asked to come by the Council and he had taken their request only because he felt the group needed one reasonable mind on board.

Markis was only twenty four years old and for the first time was going out on such a major mission to find Master Regana. He admired the Master as if she had been his teacher, it was one of his main reasons for having agreed to come on the mission with the crazed Caedo as some called him.

He wasn't comfortable with the other man named Korus, Caedo had assured everyone that the man was helpful during the Kallibann incident. Reluctant to have believed such a crazy story he went along with the idea, the rest of the Jedi had fallen for Caedo's epic story of fighting the Empire in one way. But he threatened the Order by strolling around the galaxy as if it were some promenade only reinforcing the idea to the Empire that Jedi still existed and that they had to step up their hunting games.

Then there was the other Jedi whose force power was almost stripped from him but deep inside Markis could feel the glimmer of the force. It was small, the sort of small you felt in a youngling as they grow into this power. It was really one of the few things that reinforced Caedo's story but there had been many stories of the force's removal from a Jedi so it had not surprised him completely. All in all he felt he was thrown into a world where things were going to be done not based off the books but someone's last minute suggestion. He would be fine of course but he wasn't sure about the others, foolhardy could only save ones life so many times before it ran out of luck.

Rive Caedo

Mon Calamari
Home One - Ackbar's Office

"What have they done now?" Ackbar rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes tightly.

The former councilman for Coral City had seen better days. He was dry from stress which had caused some light cracking to appear on the skin just below his eyes as well his the knuckles of his webbed fingers. He'd caught himself snapping at other members of the resistance and even his niece Jesmin. Worst of all, a week ago he'd demanded - rudely - that his contacts on Chandrila send more assistance to him and they had responded by cutting off contact completely.

Ackbar tried to ignore these things, but the one thing he could not ignore was his uniform. His deep blue dress uniform - the last true remnant of his brief time as Coral City's representative - was dirty and torn in several places. He had previously reserved the uniform for greeting supply runners - people like Raymus Antilles, Rive Caedo and his associate Skod, and Andu Bantum. But the past few months had been... difficult. There had been little choice but to work the uniform into his regular wardrobe.

"Now, sir?" The young - perhaps only 15 - Mon Calamari who had just entered Ackbar's office (and now quarters - Ackbar had recently moved his sleeping pod here) seemed confused by the question asked of him.

Nearly growling Ackbar answered, "Yes, now. I assume you're back here again to tell me about something else the Hutt representatives have managed to break?" The three Hutt goons (consisting of the unlikely pair of a Trandoshan and a Wookiee backing up a Klatooinian who seemed to do all the talking) had damaged one of Home One's very few working docking elevators when they'd landed and had also somehow wrecked an air processor a few hours ago. If Ackbar wasn't so desperate for additional supplies, even if it meant working with the Hutts, he would have told them to leave.

As Ackbar continued to stare at the man, he broke eye contact and spoke hesitantly, "I - you must be thinking of someone else, sir. I was just told to tell you that communications are still down."

Ackbar wanted to tell the young man that he was entirely aware that communications were down and that he only needed to be told when they were back up... but instead he apologized for mistaking him for someone else, thanked him for the update, and dismissed him. His anger was with the situation and not with his people, Ackbar successfully reminded himself for a moment: they didn't deserve to face the brunt of his woes.

___________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)_____________

Deep Space: Somewhere between Bakura and Mon Calamari
Aboard the Narix

Korus slid the latch that would lock the external vents back into place - he'd just vented most of the overheated drive coolant into space. Time was more valuable than coolant on a search and rescue mission (despite Caedo's insistence that Abba Regana had simply lost her comlink). Korus had been impressed that the untested cross-channel Hyperdrive had been able to engage for nearly fifteen minutes... but Caedo seemed somewhat melancholy, perhaps due to that other Jedi - Markis - belittling the success?

"We couldn't have expected much better. We were lucky to keep the jump stabilized at all." Korus offered as the drives gurgled with the sound of new coolant being injected.

"Yeah..." Rive sighed loudly at the heat monitors for the hyperdrive cores and clicked his fingernail three times against the small glass panel holding them, "I thought for sure the regulators would be able to handle the heat for at least a half hour burst."

Korus clenched his fist and hit it against the deck plating, "It only has one regulator: that's the primary link between the systems! Why do I need to keep telling you this?!"

Rive turned his head toward the back of the shuttle - away from the kneeling Mandalorian - to hide his smirk. It was so easy to get Zhett riled up.

Anakin

-Outskirts of Home One-

Jecht regretted taking short combat boots. He had been out of the Home One for a couple of weeks now, and even though he considered it much more accomidating than the places he had been sleeping the past days, the way there was more than enough to fret about it.

The field agent quickly as possible navigated through what was the ruins of one of the bombed cities on Mon Calamari that the Empire had deemed a target. After days of unmerciful barraging and proton-bomb dropping what remained was skeletons of old buildings, burnt husks of once-great architecture.

Oh how he admired the Empire for their power. Their willingness to execute plans instead of threating they would. Mon Calamari could do nothing even though they were enraged at the Imperials and resistence cells had sprouted up in the desolate, abandoned buildings around the planet's major cities.

They should have seen that this was expected. Palpatine had EYEs everywhere.

He jumped over a fallen pillar, its sides once gleamed white marble but was now peppered with flak and bits of metal. And like the other former marvelous structures that endured in this part of this city, stains of moot and ash darkened its texture.

Jecht sloshed through the knee deep water, noting that sun down would be down from the rays of sunlight that found their way through paneless transparensteel frames, or gaping holes that he seen every couple of seconds.

However, he knew he was close, looking at one of the tale-tell symbols Ackbar's resistence branded on one of the walls. It would look like graffiti to a observer but to members it told that they were close to the fort.

Even though he had been here many times, and knew there were numerous other such entrances to the base around here, always seemed to have a difficult way of finding it.

Where could it----Ah. Bingo. Jecht made his way slowly through murky seawater to what seemed to be the wreck of a speeder. Like many other things around here, the paint had been burnt off to reveal the rust and grime that had grown on it, and even some pocks of graffiti from vandelism.

He slowly went inside the immolated piece of scrap metal, watching himself as he had cut his hand before on the sharp pieces of rusted metal and durasteel, he went to what had been once the cargo storage in the back of the speeder and opened the lid with a loud creak.

It was empty. But Jecht knew better. The former police officer placed his palm flat on the gritty bottom of the empty storage case. Five seconds passed before a small hum resonated through the speeder's husk. Slowly the bottom of the cargo case opened up revealing ladder into the depths below. Which might seem incredible to a observer, Jecht calmy got into the "case" and started his way down the ladder, when the bottom closed above, sealing him inside Home One.

(I tried to be creative here on how to get into Home One, I'm not sure if its accurate with the Home One's location but I just used my imagination. You can edit it if it doesen't sound right.)

Darth Carnage

Mon Calamari
Home One - Room 226

A faint hint of light shone through the dark room as Andu took a drag from his favorite pipe. He had laid down with his back against the side of the small bed and his leg spread out, despite the slight feel of water seeping through his pants from the wet floor.

"Damn fish." His voice was the only sound he had heard in over an hour. He had arrived at Home One early in the morning, bringing in a pretty small supply of rations from a group in the Inner Rim Territories. But the fish stuffed him into this small room when the security found his stash of glitterstim onboard The Famous Bandit. Whatever stress that Ackbar character was under, he still found time for some of his morals apparently. So now, Andu knew he was stuck until he could talk his way out of this one. Still, a nice break was always good for a smuggler...too bad this room couldn’t be considered “nice”.

The lights in the stupid room only came on every few minutes and he could hear the dripping of water coming from somewhere - which explained why his pants were soaked now. He knew that what Ackbar was doing here was top secret, his client made sure that Andu knew that, but it took him walking through this place to see how hard it must be. Most of the facility was at least tolerable, but once Andu was pushed farther back into the underwater facility, he could see more and more of just how bad it was for these rebels.

But Andu pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He just stretched his long arms out and relaxed even more in the floor. He thought he would just take a quick nap and then go on his way, back to what he was used to - too bad things wouldn't be the same ever again.

((This is my first post in this role-play, so please excuse me if I made a mistake. If I did, please tell me! I really want to do this role-play...but I want to do it right.))

Anakin

Same old, same old. These thoughts crept into Jecht's head, as his boots touched metallic floor and he stepped off the ladder. His eyes had to re-adjust here, as the tight featureless hallway had some flickering luma strips that were placed either on the corners of hallway intersections or on the ceiling.

As he slowly made his way through the claustriphobic hallway, his boot sometimes splashing into a puddle of muddy water, he got the feeling of as if he was in a old ship wreak: the bulkhead walls were a slight rust color, always moist with flecks of water on the each bulkhead; some metal tiles that made up the floor were missing exposing the duracrete pavement underneath, and every so often the hissing of unseen pipes was heard.

Such a dump. However, he admit, it was better than some of the other worthless resistence cells he had been to. Last one he attended, the rag-tag members slept on rotten cots in bug infested dilapated apartments.

Ackbar and his people were lucky to have aquired this.

Jecht passed a couple of bulkhead doors as he made his way into another hall, which looked the same as the last. He knew these rooms were either sleeping quarters or just full of useless material that as usual Ackbar did not know what to do with.

As he took another right turn, he slowly started hearing the bustling of talking and noise and knew it was coming from the command room. Which was more impressive than this whole place combined.

He entered into the bustling area, fulled with over sized computer machines, and cramped quarters of members passing information to one another, or studying survelliance videos. Jecht knew they would do this all night long, gathering noteworthy recon and analyzing it to put it in their database.

Most did not give him a second glance as he shuffled through the narrow walkway, sometimes bumping into one or two members with their hands full with metal cartons of overfilling flimsiplast or computer equipment.

He however smiled as he noticed for some reason as no one was getting close to the bulkhead door in the room's back corner. Why? It was Ackbar's office. His smirk vanished quietly as he was infront of the door, and he rapped it a couple of times with his hand.

Lord Invictus

Garo, paced throughout the shuttle, hardly able to notice its movement as it gently hovered toward Mon Calamari. Garo was normally calm, but as he remembered more and more of his past visits to Mon Calamari- what seemed to be ages ago-, the elder Jedi Master could recall various instances of friendships to Calamari... perhaps some would be able to forge an alliance between the Bakuran Jedi and the Mon Calamari.

However, Garo had never met and rarely heard of the Calamari most commonly mentioned by the crew. An Ackbar of some sort? Garo had met Ackbar's but this man was a complete stranger to Garo.

My failing memory... Garo grumbled, recalling to his mind thousands of events he would almost instantly forget.

The Chistori glared at his feet, scratching them against the chair as boredom germinated into his mind.

Rive Caedo

Deep Space: Somewhere between Bakura and Mon Calamari
Aboard the Narix

"Alright boys and girls, we're back in the green." Rive stated cheerfully as he ducked back into the cockpit.

"Just boys." Markis muttered from his corner of the cockpit, "And it took you long enough."

Rive didn't see the rush everyone seemed to be in. He had actually considered trying to deliberately slow the process of resetting the engines. He wasn't looking forward to this, what could be the last mission offworld for the foreseeable future sanctioned by the Bakuran Council, coming to an end. Then again, no one had actually volunteered for the mission besides himself. Korus had been all but obligated to go on the Narix's maiden flight. Dakoth hadn't objected to coming when asked, but had seemed at a loss as to how he could help in his current condition. The others had been chosen due to special circumstances or relation to Abba.

After a quick recheck of the nav coordinates, Korus (now in the pilot's seat) initiated the second and hopefully final jump to Mon Calamari.

____________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)____________

Home One
Ackbar's Office
Less than an hour later

"No, I won't be able to give you credits directly. You'll be given Whaladon meat - or whole carcasses if you wish. Those should be more than valuable enough on the black market to make up the costs of the supplies we need."

"Carcasses are heavy. Hard to transport. Credits are light. Light is good." the Klatooinian leader of the Hutt envoy spoke gruffly. He sat on one of the metal stools across from Ackbar on the other side of the large desk. The Trandoshan and Wookiee pair completing the Hutt trio stood behind him.

Ackbar was growing angry again. This was the exact same conversation they'd been having for two days since they arrived. Either these Hutt criminals were just stupid or they were deliberately trying to wear Ackbar's patience so he would agree to trading more Whaladon for less smuggled supplies.

Before he could begin explaining again that the Mon Calamari resistance had almost no access to hard credits (due to the Empire confiscating all property upon their takeover of the planet and freezing all citizens' bank accounts), the comm system on Ackbar's desk blinked and there was a knock at the door to the command room - almost simultaneously.

"Hold on a moment, please." Ackbar said loudly with intent for both the Hutt trio and whomever was at the door to hear. The comm system displayed the secondary landing dock after Ackbar activated it. A... very strange looking... Imperial shuttle had just been brought into the facility. Ackbar's slight concern vanished as Rive Caedo and several others descended from the shuttle's ramp.

As it slowly dawned on him that Home One now contained a trio of bounty hungry Hutt criminals and a group of bounty marked Jedi unaware of that fact... Ackbar's concern rose again. Nothing had gone right these past few days.

"I'm sorry, we'll need to continue this conversation later. I'm going to have to ask you to return to your ship for the time being." Ackbar said as he stood.

"You have not requested this before... has someone arrived you do not wish us to meet?" The Klatooinian said with a toothy smile.

Ackbar froze for a moment and focused his widened bulbous eyes at the sitting alien, "... that's not relevant to this discussion."

The Klatooinian chuckled softly and made a gesture with his arm. The Wookiee and the Trandoshan both drew sidearms from their backs and leveled them at Ackbar's chest. The Mon Calamari dove for the emergency alert button on his desk, but was hit with one of the pair's blaster bolts as he did so. With a grunt he landed limp on the desk with his legs dangling off the edge.

The Klatooinian rose from his chair and walked slowly around the desk eying the unconscious - or dead - Mon Calamari closely. After reaching the other side, he brushed the fish to the floor and leaned in close to the comm unit screen.

"At last." The Klatooinian pressed hard against the side of his nose, "Welcome, Jeedai who will herald in the era of The Chosen Race." The false skin around his nose rippled in reaction to his press and then pulled back entirely, revealing the scarred visage of Nyss'ra Syllac.

Smiling with the pain of the gablith masquer's hood being removed Syllac glanced at his two companions, "The era of the Yuuzhan Vong."

Anakin

CRASH! came the almost inaudible noise through Ackbar's steel office door. And at first, Jecht was unsure he had heard it as most of the sounds coming from the inside of the office was silenced by the heavy door. He had to press his ear againts the cold steel door, and finally heard the pang of a blaster bolt, making his eyes go wide in fear.

Oblivious to the fact that most of the resistance members were standing behind him working, Jecht quickly grabbed the smooth durasteel handle with his right hand, and his left unsnapping his blaster pistol from his chest holster.

He used his weight to swing open the heavy slab door, feeling something hit it as he swung it open quickly. The human had his blaster pistol up, his mind trying to register the captors/assilants as his eyes caught a large Wookie, a Trandoshan, and a....a...what the hell? The last one, Jecht had only seen its kind once, and even that was in very confidential holo-plast screen shot. Its muscles were ripped and bulging, and had...many lacerations and what seemed to be purposeful scars marked across its beastful body.

Jechts instincts took a hold of him, he fired a volly of blaster bolts at the thing. The shots collided into the alien, but with not to much effect. What seemed to be like thick armor just coiled with smoke but guarded againts the shots like they were nothing;and its wearer recoiled back a bit before snarling visiciously at him.

"Infidel!" came a deep, devilish voice from its mutilated mouth

The Wookie at his right reacted faster than his comrades, and before Jecht could fire into the giant beast, a hairy fist connected with his chin, lifting him up off his feet and flying into one of the metal nearby desks.

But Jecht did one thing right: the entirety of members in the Home One command room were staring into the ajar office and instantly hell broke loose.

Xander Vos

Things went better the second time. Korus had jumped to Hyperspace, and the jump to Mon Calamari, lasting twenty minutes, had been largely uneventful. The ship had held together, and made a smooth transition back to real space. That was a real improvement, and boded well for a speedy exit if they were required to make it.

"Unidentified shuttle, please identify yourself, this is Home One," came a raspy voice over the comm unit.

Caedo leant over, "Home One, this is Rive Caedo, associate of Ackbar, aboard the Narix. We request a hangar bay, and an audience with Ackbar."

There was a pause, no doubt confirming details, "Narix, you're free to land in hangar bay 12B, follow the set trajectory to the landing pad, and you're craft will be lowered into the bay."

"Acknowledged Home One," Rive said.

Korus guided Narix towards the landing pad, along the designated path, "Everything seems to be running smoothly," he observed, "Perhaps too smoothly."

"Nonsense," one of the Jedi remarked, "There was nothing to this mission from the start, and this just proves it. Not even this blasted shuttle broke down."

Korus shrugged, not in the mood to argue the point further. The shuttle landed smothly on the pad, and a moment later, was lowered into the hangar bay. As the shuttle came to rest, Korus stood from the cockpit console, and made his way aft to prepare for exit.

The other Jedi followed suit, and after making some final checks of the system, and recalibrating some of the instruments, Korus opened the ramp, making his way out into Home One.

The smell hit him first, that same smell as the last time he'd been here. The mixture of grease, oil, smoke and fish was an unassailable combination, and it made his eyes water.

Lord Invictus

Garo immediately went for the door. It wasn't in his nature to sit around while the rest moved on to better things- in this case, a collision with an unknown alien species.

Garo slowly hovered down the stairs to the landing platform, quickly remembering the sight before him. The smells, the look, the.... humidity. It was all how Garo remembered it so many years ago.

But something was odd about this place. Garo felt a wounded creature- sentient- nearby, the presence of firearms, and something more frightening. The force was clouded in one area of the building. It was as if a veil had been pulled over a presence. Garo knew something was there, but it was no more than a deep nothingness, devoid of any force connection.

The elder Jedi tensed, his hand gripping the railing as he stepped onto the landing pad.

Darth Carnage

A noise came from outside his room as Andu slowly opened his eyes. Stupid guard. He thought as he looked through one of rusted cracks in the door to see the Rodian guard moving from his chair. Andu slowly set his hands on the wet ground and even slower than that pushed himself off the ground as he stood up. He slowly walked to the door, a slight feeling as pain shot through as his muscles tensed. Now he regretted sleeping next to the bed instead of on it - but then he smelled it, and he knew that the pain was worth it.

Andu then placed his left hand on the corroding door as he looked out the crack to see the guard slip away down the corridor. “What the hell?“ Andu whispered out loud. He couldn’t figure out what would make the guard leave his post. But he couldn’t care less, now was his chance to get out of there. He quickly pulled out his blaster, aimed it at the crack in the door, and discharged a shot and watched half the door crumble to the ground. He quickly moved out the door, looking for any guards that might have heard him, but something seemed to have the attention of everyone.

So, Andu quickly ran down the halls, blending in with the soldiers running towards what Andu assumed was the Command Center. But once he reached the hallway towards the Hanger, he turned and began to head down as quickly as he could. He knew he was home free now. Whatever was keeping everyone distracted would likely give him enough time to shoot into space and get out of here.

He approached the large door into the hanger and watched as it opened. The moment the door opened, his eyes locked onto the only others in the hanger. Stang! Andu said. His eyes had caught the gleam of their lightsabers, so he quickly tried to hid behind from a huge crate next to the door.

Anakin

Darkness. But no, a dim fluorescent slowly glowed into his grainy field of vision. A built muscular man approached him, attired in standard combat gear, and the patch of the Galactic Security Organization sealed on his right t-shirt arm.

"Major," The man said to Jecht, in a clear, crisp basic dialect, saluting him. Jecht quickly recognized it was Vash Cornipus. One of the leading captains in the GSO's mercenary platoons. A strapping young soldier, proved in combat. A orphan of war, the Organization had been lucky enough to aquire him some years back on one of the Clone Wars ravaged worlds. At the time when Jecht was just getting started in the works.

"I have heard many things in the past few days Captain, some of which disturb me." Came his own voice. Jecht finally recalled this conversation that had happened four weeks earlier.

"Yes sir, this is my briefing which I showed the High General Council. Here
it is as you requested." The young captain replied handing Jecht a brown folder.

Jecht watched as his past counterpart flipped through the file full of report papers, eyeing them carefully before stopping at one scan.

"What is this?" Asked Jecht's voice questioningly, taking out on of the files and showing it to Vash who glared at it hesitantly.

"Thats still up to debate sir, but on my mission Kallibann my team encountered...a dangerous foe..." Vash's response slowly dronned out as Jecht view of the recent past became faded and blurry.

Jecht awoke to the sound of hissing electrical wires and loud forceful crashing. He could taste the metallic-like savor of blood in his mouth and the aching pain in his lower back and right forearm. His eyes slowly opened as he heard more commotion; the pang of blaster bolts or a cry of anger or pain. The soldier slowly lifted himself up, every ounce of movement invoking some sort of pain throughout his body, and cast his eye upon the ongoing one-sided battle between Ackbar's captors and... the inexpeirenced resistance guards.

Jaden Nightsaber

Nova was pacing franticly around an empty conference room. His boots splattered the dirty water that lined the floor. From here Nova could see out the viewport, in case any ships were to arrive. He was hoping one of his transmissions had gotten through to one of his men on Nar Shaddaa. Thoughts raced through his head like an old pod race. He wasn't sure what to do about the Hutts.

A gleam in the sky caught Nova Sky's attention. His head was hanging as he walked, and even through his hair that dangled in front of his face he saw the ship coming in. But he had never seen a ship like this before. It certainly wasn't a Mon Calamari ship coming back. And it certainly wasn't a ship large enough for a Hutt. The paint seemed fairly new on this and there was something strange about the engine design. On Nar Shaddaa Nova saw many ships passing through and the closest remote likeness to any other ship he could attribute would be Imperial. But the paint and engine design seemed to flashy for the Empire.

Nova decided to take the Hutts off his mind for five minutes and try to figure out who and what this new ship was. Maybe he could even use the ship to relay a message back home. Out the door and down the wet hall he went, curious to the new visitors. Nova kept his hand on his pistol at his side as he approached the hanger bay. He never took chances when it came to his life.

Rive Caedo

Home One
Secondary Landing Dock
Moments after the landing of the Narix

"Did you feel that?" Adam Zahn, the first down the Narix's rampway and the youngest of the Jedi group, exclaimed suddenly.

Rive Caedo saw Garo, just ahead of Zahn, nod and his hand hover towards his lightsaber. He hadn't felt anything himself, but Rive wasn't about to dispute with both of them.

An answer ((not really - Garo and Adam felt Ackbar being shot)) came a moment later as the dock's access doors opened loudly and a blue haired man stepped through. He seemed to react with shock and dived behind a cargo crate just inside the doors.

Rive smiled. Who did he think he was fooling? With a sweep of his hand Rive slid the crate nearly two meters across the floor parallel to the wall. It sparked slightly as it skidded. This left the Zeltron standing exposed and looking slightly more shocked than he had before he dived.

"I suppose you're one of the Hutt's thugs? I knew Nova wouldn't make it in time." Ackbar had warned Rive that he would need to make a deal with at least one of the Hutt clans soon - that's why Rive had asked Nova to try to make a smuggling deal instead.

"What? No! I'm not wi---" Andu Bantum, the Zeltron, said as quickly as he could, but was cut off by the dock's access door opening again.

"Ah, right on cue." Dakoth said, referring to Rive's mention of Nova Sky only seconds earlier.

"Looks like another thug to me." Markis stated, still standing on the shuttle's ramp.

"Yeah, but he's not with the Hutts." Rive stated frankly, "Though I still wouldn't let him behind you with a blaster." He added with a wink to Nova.

Nova hadn't even had a chance to say a word yet, but was now already on the defensive, "Hey! Your droid almost shot me once!" He said loudly as he pointed at Rive Caedo.

"That was a long time ago... And I think I apologi---" Rive cut himself off as he did feel a significant disturbance nearby this time - as did the other Jedi. Even Dakoth had unclipped his lightsaber in unison with the others.

_______________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)_______________

Home One
Ackbar's Office
Moments after Jecht's entrance

Well this had not gone exactly according to plan. Luckily, Nyss'ra Syllac was already aware that where Jeedai were involved that plans could easily fall apart.

Of course, he hadn't expected an obviously non-Jeedai human to be the one to throw them off course so quickly.

There had been at least two dozen Mon Calamari in this command room a moment before - Nyss'ra had learned a few of their names over his past two days masquerading as a Hutt negotiator here. The one whose throat was currently being crushed in his grip was named... Kolen. At least he thought so.

By the time he slammed Kolen's lifeless body to the ground (it impacted with a satisfyingly moist crunch), there were four others lying dead - killed by his two companions - and the others had fled.

Syllac quickly ascertained which of the many computer systems in the command room (most of which had warped or rusty, water damaged casings) controlled the dock systems. When he'd first arrived in this galaxy, working with technology would have struck him as heresy - even being around this many machines would have made him uncomfortable. But he had... adapted.

"The human is gone!" Syllac's second companion, still disguised as a Trandoshan, exclaimed loudly as he returned from checking Ackbar's office.

"No matter." Syllac pointed to the monitor above him - displaying the Jeedai and two others talking amongst themselves. They had their energy blades activated... apparently they had sensed the death and danger but not the danger to themselves. If they had... they would have fled.

With the press of a button, Nyss'ra closed every docking port's access shaft and disabled the lifts that could bring the docked spacecraft back up to the surface. The Jeedai now had no way to leave the underground of this ruined city surrounded by thousands of kilometers of water.

Xander Vos

A grinding, bolting noise sounded in the hangar, echoed around the large room over and over. Korus glanced up, drawing his blaster, "What was that?" He muttered.

The Jedi had drawn their lightsabers moments before after sensing some threat. He was getting used to being the one left in the dark. Everytime something went wrong, it was preceeded by a Jedi reacting violently to some disturbance in their precious Force.

Korus moved down the ramp, nodding in recognition to Nova Sky. He hadn't seen the Bounty Hunter in a while, but he knew that he'd visited Nar Shadda over the time since their lats reunion.

"How are things on Nar Shadda?" He asked, casually.

"It's fine, your men miss your leadership, but are propsering in your absence. Their influence is spreading, and they long for your return," Nova said.

Korus nodded, absentmindedly, but was snapped back into the present when one of the Jedi muttered, "Enough with the reunions, what in blazes is going on?"

Dakoth

"Some insight here would really be nice, Hutt boy." Dakoth said, gesturing the Zeltron, who seemed to be trying rather hard at the moment to go unnoticed. For added effect, the Jedi ignited his viridian blade, pointing it at the rather smelly man.

It might have fooled the Zeltron, whose hands were now up in the air as he pleaded ignorance, but the slight quivering of the blade and sloppy stance were all the cues a seasoned Force adept would know to mark him as an ametuer at best.

Anakin

His eyes searched the now cluttered floor that had scattered papers, rusted computer towers, wires, and was what he had to be cautious of: wet floors that hissing electrical cables danced on in some sections of the room. The alien had trashed the place along with his helping duo and most of the damage was caused by their habitual throwing of bodies into inanimate yet metal objects.

Jecht saw them finishing helpless resistance members by twisting their necks sharply or throwing them with a wet crunk in response. He painfully ducked down behind the desk, kneeling down on the floor that was wet with dirty sewer water and spotted with scattered flimsi-plast. However he was having second thoughts of engaging the trio. His left arm felt slightly numb and guessed he tore a couple of ligaments after being thrown, and he had numerous cuts and tears.

He slowly removed his grimy, wet pilot jacket revealing his white t-shirt that was marked with grease and fresh blood from his minor wounds and fully exposed his leather chest holster which was...weaponless.

Jecht just waited, watching as the alien took a odd shaped staff and jabbing it into the chest of one of the few remaining defenders with a one clean motion before using a jagged armor covered leg to slide the body off the weapon with a wet plop to the floor.

Darth Carnage

Andu’s hands raised in the air, he made sure that he made no moves when surrounded by Jedi and who he assumed was their friends. “Hey, man. I just got here yesterday! Karkin’ Ackbar needed some fish food. That’s all.” Andu slightly moved his hips back, slowly moving his loose holster around his waist so that it was on his back - just in case. “My guard left somewhere in a hurry, so I decided to leave.”

“Your guard?” The Mandalorian ((Korus)) asked, strong suspiciousness, being enforced with his hand on a blaster, obvious in his voice.

“I - uh, meant my escort.” Andu said, hoping the Jedi would be to busy to care about some random liar in the hanger. “It can be a dangerous place around here.”

“More than you know.” The one that first placed his lightsaber towards Andu ((Dakoth)) said with force in his tone.

Anakin

Ah, just what I needed. Hello beautiful. Jechts blue eyes caught a gem in the water. A grimy Mandalorian Ripper shone from the 2 inches of murky water just enough for his gaze to catch.

He quietly snatched the slugthrower out of the water. He fixed his attention to it, looking for any sign of damage to the heavy sidearm. He clicked back the hammer and noticed that it had a couple of slugs left in its chamber before bringing its cross hairs on the brutal captors who were near the exit of the command center, their backs turned to him.

He carefully aimed, knowing that slugthrowers weren't always accurate, and not reliable as blaster bolts. He pulled the trigger. The recoil strained againts his grip, as his knuckles turned white.

The slug whisped across the room in the blink of a eye and hit into the back of the Wookie's hairy neck. He could almost here the soft muffling sound as the round exited the other side of the giant's neck. And a wet gutteral choking as the hairy beast grabbed at its own neck in shock and pain.

Wait...what? The large brown hair near the entrance wound seemed to...melt off---and fall to the ground with large plops. Jecht narrowed his eyes and he was dumbfounded as he saw a glimpse of red, leatherish alien skin that had just been covered by a patch of hair....

The alien was running towards him at full speed. Fast, and deadly. Its giant muscular armored legs smashing aside desks and obstacles that seperated him and it. Jecht swung his gun in the uncoming creature's obstacle---his eye catching the Trandoshan just meters behind it----he pulled the trigger---two--four times.

The slugs collided with its chest armor. The metal rounds bursting areas of the chest plate into shards. However the alien did not slow its sprint towards him.

Bam

Bam

Bam

Jecht felt confidence as spurts of dark blood shot from each hit as he clipped it's sides.

Click, click, click.

He dropped the weapon into the water and braced himself as the alien jumped across the desk he was behind; its clawed hand reaching for his neck with a unnatural speed.

Jecht batted away the armored forearm with his right--wincing from its jagged edges--but the alien's hand came back again. This time catching him straight in the gut. He doubled over from the fist, and was hit again in the face as the beast upper cutted in one swift motion.

He tasted fresh hot blood gush into his mouth as he collasped againts the corner, gasping for air.

((Help))

Ga'nen

Markis was prepped, he was extending his senses all over the room, something was going on here and it wasn't the simple mission that Caedo had told the Council it would be.

"As touching as it is to see grown men play catch up, I believe we have more important matters here." Looking around he saw the doors shutting that would lead back up. The hissing sound and the clanking of metals within the doors indicated they were being locked too.

"How about that Master Caedo, you lead us into a wonderful trap," Markis would tell everyone this was one of the reasons why Caedo would see an early death. He could feel panic setting in now, people within the fallen city were now in a buzz scuttling around in his mind. Twirling his blade he was not going to get caught by surprise here, not like Caedo had been.

"There's more going on, I sense fear swelling," Markis turned to his group and stated as he kept probing outward for people and what they feeling.

Rive Caedo

Home One
Secondary Landing Dock

"There's a hundred different reasons they could have locked down the dock." Rive said as he walked to the small intercom unit affixed to the now locked door, "So let's just calm down and..."

Garo sidestepped quickly past Rive and plunged his now active lightsaber into the center of the heavy doorway. This must have destroyed some sort of electronic locking mechanism because the door immediately opened itself. This also destroyed the intercom system.

The Chistori responded to Rive's confused and annoyed glare before the Jedi even had time to make it, "I felt time slipping away to act."

Confirming this fact, just above them and slightly beyond the dock door a loud clatter of something scratching loudly against metal could be heard.

"Let's not wait and find out what that is." Dakoth said somewhat nervously as he walked toward the now open dock door.

As the scratching grew louder they all shuffled out of the dock - directly under the sound and then past it as they hurried into the sewage pipeway that served as a hallway.

Korus was the last in line and turned his head as he heard a loud metallic clatter and a large six-limbed lizard sprung into the docking bay from above the doorway. Apparently it had been let loose into the ventilation systems. Three more followed quickly behind it - one of them jumping far enough to land on the Narix's cockpit.

With a well aimed blaster shot, Korus hit the access panel for the dock door. It slid shut, but the Mandalorian doubted the already lightsaber damaged door would hold for long at all against the beasts.

____________________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)__________________

Home One
Command Room

Jecht struggled to maintain consciousness. His feet were now dangling just above the damp floor of the command room due to his skull being held in the grip of what was very clearly not a Wookiee.

The pale alien was now hunched over the displays showing several reptilian creatures spilling into the docking bay the Jedi and others had occupied a moment ago, "How quickly they found their way."

The Trandoshan (although it spoke with a reptilian slither, Jecht was willing to bet that its appearance might be deceiving as well) that stood beside the alien spoke in a measured tone, despite the recent bloodshed, "There was enough bait to draw a Fero Xyn from a hundred kilometers."

The scarred man laughed a terrible, grating laugh, "And how disappointed they are to not find a meal awaiting them." The Fero Xyn had been brought by them to Home One. His companions had spent most of the past two days placing special bio-engineered bait in key locations around the facility - they could be activated through a node hidden behind his ear. In effect, he could control the lizards.

Finally the not-Wookiee spoke as he swung Jecht - still held by the head with a firm grip - away from the wall and towards the alien, "Supreme One, what do you wish done with this human?" Jecht almost smiled at the absurdity of a Wookiee with a half-burned face speaking in gruff basic rather than a series of grunts and growls.

The alien, now apparently their leader, considered for a moment before speaking, "He is not a Jeedai. He serves no use to us. Do as you wish." He then turned his attention back to the displays.

Jecht felt the fingers of the alien close tighter around his head. The pressure built until he could bear no more. His eyes fell closed.

A heavy toolbox flung across the room and slammed into the not-Wookiee's frame. With a grunt he fell to the floor and dropped Jecht to the ground. The furred alien was hurt, but not seriously injured. He drew his head up and looked towards the source of the impact. A second, smaller toolbox lifted up from a table and flew towards him. This one he was able to duck to the floor to avoid.

With shock, the not-Wookiee crawled away from Jecht who was now raising himself up from the floor. He shouted to his leader just meters away, "He is a Jeedai!"

"What?" Nyss'ra looked up from displays just in time to see one of the computer displays attached to the wall shudder and shake. It sent off sparks in every direction before flying towards his Trandoshan companion - who blasted it with his snub-rifle.

Syllac looked back at the displays - it wasn't possible for the Jeedai to have made it here yet... was it? No. They were still hundreds of meters away. They had hardly moved beyond the secondary docking bay. The main display cracked and suddenly shattered. The shards of glass flew up into Syllac's face. It was unbecoming of his heritage, but he did let out a loud shriek from the unexpected pain.

Holding his face with both hands, Nyss'ra stumbled backwards. This was the cost for not demanding the immediate death of the human and being distracted by his games, it seemed. He had trusted his eyes and assumed the man to not be anything special. It was a mistake he wouldn't repeat, "Kill the Jeedai! Kill him now!"

"You're mistaken. He's not a Jedi."

Nyss'ra froze at the sound of a voice he had heard before. Just recently, in fact. But it couldn't...

"But I am." Through his freshly bloodstained fingers covering his eyes, Nyss'ra was able to recognize the speaker. She stood in the corner of the room opposite to him. She was wearing tattered clothes and her frazzled brown hair appeared coarse and brittle - damaged by moisture. It was Abba Regana.

"That's not possible!" Syllac withdrew one of the hands from his face entirely and pointed towards her, "You can't be here!"

The young woman pointed back towards him without speaking. The console of displays he had been working at just a moment before began to fall towards him. He was able to take a few steps further back to avoid the impact. The Jedi leaped across the room and landed atop the toppled machine with her fuschia energy blade activated.

Things never went according to plan when Jeedai were involved.

Xander Vos

"We've got trouble," Korus called ahead, causing Caedo to turn back with a quizical raise of his eyebrow.

"Lizards," Korus explained, "Big lizards. Blocked them off with the door we came through but I doubt it'll hold for long. We'd better keep moving."

"Are you sure?" Dakoth asked, "I didn't sense anything untoward."

"Yeah but you don't sense much these days, do you?" Korus shot back, but the pained expression on Dakoth's face made him instantly regret it.

"I didn't sense anything either," Rive interjected with a frown, "Are you sure they were malicious?"

"I don't know how else you could discribe big lizards crawling all over the Narix," Korus said.

"On the Narix?! They'd better not ruin anything," Caedo said, surging back the way they'd come.

Korus reached out a hand, stopping the man, "We've got to keep moving. That disturbance in the Force, remember old man?"

Grumbling something about precious hours spent restoring the Narix, Caedo relented, turning back to lead the party further into the complex.

Anakin

"Who was your client, captain?" Came Jecht's distant voice again, but this time he had to strain to hear as if far away.

"One Darth Revenous, Major. We didn't have him in the database."

Replied the young voice of Vash that strummed through the infinite darkness in his mind.

"Really? And the High General Council approved of this? His own voice echoed, and he could recite it as if it was a play. He had said it in the past month.

"Yes sir, they analyzed to see it was a trust worthy account. And If I may speak Major?"

"You may." Boomed his voice through pitch black.

"I didn't trust him and honestly, I think they approved him just because of the credits he gave in advance to the assignment..."

A loud breaking sound brought him back to reality. His body felt as if being thrown in a pool of freezing water, and for a second, he realized he wasen't to far off. His tongue slowly explored inside his mouth, tasting the sickly metal taste of blood that lined his gums. He also found gaps where teeth use to be.

He opened his right bruised eye, and looked at all the commotion. He saw a...woman, a elegant blade in her right hand, as she crouched on one of he destroyed console machines.

Jedi? Jecht inquired to himself, noticing he was againts a bulkhead, steeped in not-to-healthy sewer water that had must of come in when someone did not turn on the suction machine on to keep flooding to a minimum.

His left arm felt tender to touch and painful to move. But he took his mind off it by looking at the confrontation between this..."Jedi" and the shocked trio.

Jaden Nightsaber

Nova faced the door from where they just came from. He could hear the tearing on metal on the other side. The group around him muttered words that only sounded like mush in Nova's ears. A large part of him wondered why he always met up with this group when they always faced certain death when they were together. Nevertheless he turned about face and jogged to catch up with the rest of the group.

He knew there was going to be trouble ever since Caedo contacted him on Nar Shaddaa. But Nova Sky was never one to back down from trouble.

Rive Caedo

Home One
Ackbar's Office

The metal above and below Nyss'ra and the Trandoshan creaked and warped at the command of Abba's hand. The ceiling of the command room buckled downwards simultaneously with the floor bending upwards. The pair were trapped vice-like between the two. With her other arm, Regana kept her blade leveled at the sitting not-Wookiee a meter to her left.

"It's quite possible for me to be here." Abba said as she lowered her right arm - satisfied that the two were trapped, "I came to an agreement with your little lackey. Seems he didn't like the way you were treating him. He set me loose."

Nyss'ra struggled against the metal pressing against him from above and below, "Yiim would not betray me."

Abba glanced at the alien Wookiee to make sure he hadn't moved, "Believe what you want. You won't live long enough to see him agai--"

Beneath the two Yuuzhan Vong, the lower section of metal pulled up moments ago by Abba warped further without her command and then burst open. The command room - situated at the very bottom of Home One - was now exposed to the raw ocean and began flooding quickly with it. Abba and the not-Wookiee were pushed back hard by the initial rapid blast of water. Nyss'ra and the Trandoshan were consumed by the torrent entirely and hidden from view.

Dakoth

A slight tremor reverberated through Dakoth's feet as the group began to distance themsleves from the clawing sounds emenating from the sealed docking bay door. He hesitated for a moment, mindful of Korus' earlier response, before speaking up

"Did anyone feel that?"

"Feel what?" Nova responded, his hand falling back on to his blaster

"The floor, it just shook, I think something just gave out."

"He's right" Markis finally said, after a brief moment of concentration. "I think we need to pick up the-"

The Jedi's words were cut off by the low warbling of some sort of alarm echoing off in the distance, confirming Dakoth's suspicion that something had, or was about to, explode.

Anakin

"Great." Jecht muttered with his cracked bloodied lips just nano-seconds before the ceiling-high wave of Mon Calamarian sea water smashed into him.

The taste of strong salt stung his tastebuds and burned his nostrils as the force of the water took him off gaurd. He didn't dare open his eyes however. He knew of the consequences and stories of those who did. Because of the very high acidic salt content of Mon Calamari's ocean water it would cause blindness after prolonged exposure... not to mention one of the worst pain ever experienced. How he envied the Quarrens' and Calamarians' natural eye that helped them not to be affected by it.

His limp body slowly drifted underneath the water; a almost peaceful calm as he heard nothing in the water, except for the occasional movement of metal furniture rumbling againts the steel tile floors.

He stretched out his hands, feeling the walls, and trying to memorize where he exactly was by grooves and dents in the wall. He had swam a bit till he reached what seemed to be a electricity box. Bingo. This was right near Ackbar's office, which he was certain had a ventilation shaft.

Jecht slowly picked up his swimming pace, as his lungs were starting to hurt from holding his breath. His arms outstretched, he felt the edge of a door and pushed himself through into the flooded room, trying to keep his ears from pressurizing.

The soldier quickly pushed himself againts what he thought was the far wall of Ackbar's office and searched blindly on it, running his hands across it as if looking for a Mon Calamarian waterhorse.

That was intill----a webbed hand grasped around his forearm making him almost suck in water in surprise.

Rive Caedo

Home One
Twisting sewage pipes (serving as makeshift hallways) leading away from Secondary Docking Bay.

Only moments after the alarms began blaring, the floor shook again slightly. This time it was followed by the sound of four ravenous lizards running towards them from the docking bay they'd locked them in less than a minute before.

Some of the group continued running for a moment, but stopped once it was clear the the others were making a stand. The echoing rapid splashes of the six-legged beasts rushing down the wet pipeway hall made it clear they could easily outrun even the fastest of the Jedi - and certainly the non-Jedi.

The first of the lizards jumped with great agility around the corner and for a brief moment stood sideways up against the sewage pipe's rounded edge before propelling itself back into the air towards the group. It was followed quickly by the second lizard.

Andu, held firm at his collar by Garo to prevent his running away, said in a half pleading, half desperate voice, "All I did was smuggle some glitterstim! I don't deserve this!"

Xander Vos

Korus fired a quick blast at the first lizard, but the shot ricocheted off scaly armour. Backing away, he continued to fire, as the Jedi drew their lightsabers. The lizard snarled at him, and leapt towards him, its claws outstretched. Caedo lept forward, spearing it through the jaw, and up into its brain.

A slight moan issued from the lizard, before it collapsed to the ground. Caedo withdrew his blade from its skull, and nodded to Korus, who returned the gesture. The pair backed away from the incoming lizards, but it soon became aware that they couldn't run from the three lizards, and Korus was shocked to his core when the lizard Caedo had speared through the head began to move again.

"Can these things be killed?!" He exlaimed.

Anakin

Jecht's lungs ached for oxygen. He had been holding his breath for perhaps over 2 minutes and he was slowly releasing bubbles of precious carbon dioxide from his mouth to try to relieve his air-stricken lungs.

Hurry up! Jecht screamed inside his head to the mysterious person---or thing that was was pulling his forearm with a webbed hand through the flooded command room. The absence of his sight however made it seem as if the this helper was just pulling him in circles much to his dismay.

He felt a slight change of direction and then a forcefull push behind his back and he slowly swam forward; his arms outstretched. His numb white finger tips met the sweet feeling of cold recycled air as he found surface. He brought his head up out of the water, sucking and coughing as oxygen finally filled his lungs to his pleasure.

"Ah, yes." He managed, and finally opening his eyes to see where the mysterious person has took him. It looked to be one of the poorly light service tunnels, and next him, coming out of the water he was just in, led a rusty ladder that went up to a unseen platform. Probably led to more tunnels, he guessed.

Jecht looked around, not seeing his personal saviour anywhere, and heard nothing just his slightly echoed breathing and the distant rhythmic dripping of water pipes.

The soldier grabbed the first rung with his right hand, knowing that he would have to make the climb up with only with one hand, as the other most likely had torn ligaments. Nothing new, thought Jecht as he started to climb.

Ga'nen

The beast that Caedo had stabbed through the head was somehow regaining conscious thought as it slowly began to pick itself up. Wasting no time or thought, Markis jumped onto the beast slamming it back onto the floor and with a precise swing cut the head off the beast. As the blade cut through the rough scales of the mysterious lizard, there was acid that sprayed onto Markis' arm and began to melt through his cloak and to his skin. Removing the cloak as quickly as possible to avoid being severely burned he threw the cloak aside and watched as some droplets of acid, barely enough to do serious damage, sizzled upon his bare skin. Holding the urge to scream he held his breath before finally exhaling the pain.

"I do not suggest that idea to anyone," he said as he turned to the group. Moving away from the dead beast they still had others to worry about, and all of them probably contained this mysterious acid in them.

Lord Invictus

Garo's hand twitched, holding the young smuggler in place as would an angry old man to a child. He stepped back as the lizards attacked. Instinctively leaving the boy, he outstretched his hand, channeling a beam of force into the creature, slowly pressing it back.

"Ugh..." was the creature's only sound before Markis decapitated it.

The end of any life displeased Garo, but- being a reptile himself- Garo sympathized with lizards. He would expect no less of his fellow Jedi with mammals, but Garo's sadness melted away as lizard blood-acid seethed through metal slowly.

"Ich, what is this?" he asked, nearly twisting his head instinctively to the Zeltron "youngling" he currently gripped tightly and angrily.

Xander Vos

Two down, two to go.

Korus flicked the setting on his blaster, sendinga spray of blaster bolts into the hide of a lizard leaping towards Caedo. Caedo slashed off one, two, three of its legs, as it hit the ground, hard. Limping slightly, it turned towards Korus, horrendously smelling saliva dripping from its mouth, sizzling as it hit the metal floor plates.

"Come get me," Korus said, spreading his legs and beckoning with a hand, the other hand creeping around towards his back, where a special 'present' for the lizard lay...

Screeching at him, the lizard leapt, its mouth wide open, ready to snap his helmeted head off in an instant. Removing the frag grenade from his belt, and arming it in the same instant, Korus threw it, accuratetly, into the mouth of the beast. Even with the corrosive acid, the grenade still went off. The lizard's skull caved slightly and its face crumpled. As it landed, moaning in pain, Korus stepped over, holding his blaster over its face, pumping round after round into it, careful not to get any of its blood on his armour - he would never allow himself to damage his armour, his only link back to his home.

Finally, the lizard expelled its death rattle - Korus was surprised it still had enough of a throat to do so, its head a complete mess - and slunk to the floor, unmoving.

Jaden Nightsaber

The last Fero Xyn was pounding the floor with it's six legs. It charged towards the pirate Nova Sky and the Jedi Dakoth Mandal. The Jedi's green and blue blades casted a dual glow on his face, showing a determined look. The pirate took aim behind and to the left of the Jedi. Sounds of the others fighting off their own Fero Xyn surrounded them. From what Nova could gather two of them had already fallen.

This one was galloping towards them at an unbelievably fast pace. It made Nova ponder about having six legs for a brief moment. The beast leaped from the metal floor, avoiding blaster shots from Nova, and quickly landed on a pipe on their right. It stopped their only a moment, then the beast leaped again. This time it's claws were placed for a precise hooking into Dakoth's jugular vein.

Nova continued to fire off pointless blaster bolts that simply bounced off the creature's hide. The Jedi was ready though. Calling on the Force as his aid, his body contorted it's way to dodge the attacking creature. He brought around his left arm and threw his lightsaber into the back of the beast that was now making it's landing.

The beast landed with a thud. Dakoth called back his lightsaber from it's back. Now there was only a hole where the blade had been. To their amazement the hole closed up as the beast turned around for another attack. Frak.

Anakin

-Water Maintenance Tunnel # 47-
-In the depths of Home One-

Jecht took off his soggy boots, as he sat on the floor of what seemed to be poorly lit service tunnel. Perhaps it was used back then to maintain the fresh water supply before the city was visiciously bombarded by the Galactic Empire. Its walls were grimy; blotches of mold in the crackes of the floor, and the corner of the walls. Jecht doubt that few members of the Home One knew about this, or the hundreds of other tunnels and narrow maintenance shafts that spidered through the resistance's shelter.

THe aged soldier looked at his aching bare feet, that was wrapped in former dry padding cloth which he also tore off.

Where am I? He could only hope that could find his way back to the surface through the maze-like broken-down large pipes that ran through the deep oceans and under the floating cities.

He slowly got up, slowly walking over to what looked like a medium-sized electrical box. He opened it with a large creak and....there was a single ear sized comm link inside.

What the hell...? He picked up the light object and placed it in his palm.

Buzzz Buzzzz Buzzzz, it vibrating almost inaudibly, and he stared at it confused before placing it in his right ear and clicking the activation piece.

"He---"

"Listen don't speak." A deep voice resounded in his ear loudly. The user had a voice manipulator, masking how its pitch. Jecht could recognize it anywhere.

"You can call me Deepthroat. You have a data disk in your possession containing information on certain events on the planet Kallibann. I want it. If you retrieve it for me, I will reward you. If you fail to comply, I...will...kill you."

"What a minute, who the hell are you?" He stampered, obviously not like being pushed around like a puppet.

"No questions. In your complex there is a team of Jedi. Follow them, and will further contact you at a point. Know that I have eyes everywhere."

Dakoth

Dakoth cursed himself as he flipped his sabers back into a defensive stance.

Too clumsy. He sidestepped the charging lizard, blades glancing its hide.

He twitched his saber outward, taking off one of the beast's legs, dodging a tail lash as he did.

Too Slow

one of Nova's blaster bolts found its mark in the Lizard's underbelly, causing it to flinch, letting out a chilling shriek as it stumbled forward.
Dakoth stabbed down hard at the beast's head, only to be greeted with the harsh fizzle of durasteel.

Too sloppy

The beast roared up on its hind legs , leaping at Dakoth for the killing blow, swiping a wicked talon at his breast. Time seemed to slow for the Jedi. His blades were down, his stance was off, he felt nothing, he was alone, he was dead. Reality snapped back into focus, the Lizard caught up suddenly, inches away, froze. The creature's perplexed look vanished as it slammed into the durasteel grating, warping the metal as it did.

Dakoth's heart swelled for a brief moment, only to fall back into it's abyss as he saw Rive emerge from his peripherary, almost casually lopping off the beast's head as he did.

With a trembling hand, Dakoth let his blades slide back into thier hilt, watching as the acidic bile of the Fero Xyn pooled at his feet.

Pathetic

Anakin

He strode down the narrow, dilapidated service tunnel. The walls warped and slick with the thick moisture they ran rampant down there. The air was heavy as if he could breath the water particles that tainted the oxygen.

The events and the words described by this...Deepthroat seemed almost trivial. But what irked him was the fact that someone had gone out of their way just to put that commlink---which was now in his pocket---and to hide it for him to find. How did they know he was going to come here? Was he being watched? No of course not, there was no servalliance cameras down in these abandond sewers. Was is his savior that had saved him from drowning?

Jecht tried shaking it off as he reached the end of the tunnel which led to a rusty hatch in the floor, his bare feet padding againts the rough, craggy scorched durasteel floor.

He wrapped his hands around the hatch lever before pulling with all his might, his arm muscles bulging out as it slowly opened with a bone-chilling creaaaaak.

He looked down to see another ladder. If what this Deepthroat told him was true, he was close to the sleeping quarters where his room where was located. There he had the data chip that his close observer mysteriously wanted---but for what reason? He slowly was getting irritated by the face he did not know.

Lord Invictus

Garo remained in his state of panic even as the battle's intensity began to lessen. Even as a hardened Jedi, and elder was an elder. He was here for his guidence and wisdom, not for swordsmanship. Garo fell against the wall, weakened as he noticed a pain in his arm. A large gash was clearly visable on his left arm.

"Cold" lizard blood seeped through his injuries, wetting his shirt. Garo hovered his hand over the injury, focusing his force energy on what healing he could do. The bleeding slowed, an some strands of flesh reconnected, but the slash remained a visible and painful scar of red-black blood and muscle.

Garo's eyes skidded across the room, scanning his environment, as he attempted to avoid the wreckage of battle and reunite with his group of his comrades.

Xander Vos

Breathing hard, Korus holstered his weapon, and glanced around. No one seemed badly hurt, that was good. What had set the monsters on them in the first place though, that remained a mystery, and for some reason their nature made him remember those horrible warriors in the impenetrable armour from Kallibann all those years ago.

Shuddering as the memory flashed through his mind, he nodded at Rive, "Better keep moving."

Rive Caedo

Home One
Twisting sewage pipes (serving as makeshift hallways) leading away from Secondary Docking Bay.

“Moving where?” Rive Caedo questioned as he clipped his lightsaber to his cracked bantha leather belt, “We obviously can’t stay here, but I’m not sure where...” The aging Jedi took a moment to move his silver-tipped bangs away from his eyes. They’d been splashed during the fighting with the Force-invisible lizards and were sticking to his skin.

With unimpaired sight, Caedo took stock of the group. Dakoth seemed shaken and the youngling seemed to have a new appreciation for the perils of life in the real world... but only Garo appeared to be injured. The gash appeared to be severe, but Rive was fairly sure that the overgrown lizard could endure it.

Markis’ head snapped towards the other end of the moist corridor they were standing in, “Master Regana?”

Everyone looked in that direction. A moment later Rive was able to feel her as well - the presence that usually accompanied the teenage girl trying to lecture him about what it meant to be a “real” Jedi. He’d learned to avoid it - but now it was their objective to find... and it had come right to them?

Apparently so. Only a few seconds later Abba came sprinting around the corner - her robes torn and drenched by salt water. She stopped as she saw them and pulled her wetted hair away from her eyes - mirroring Rive’s actions a moment ago.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, only slightly out of breath despite the speed she’d been running at. She glanced down and stepped over one of the large, ferocious and biting only moments ago, alien lizard corpses.

Dakoth answered in a markedly surprised tone, “I... we... were... looking for you. I guess.”

The purpose of the mission had been lost for a moment when a simple pick up had turned into an unexpected fight for survival. Abba's arrival as they were attempting to reevaluate their situation was... unexpected.

“Really?” Abba was confused as well. She’d been captured from Home One by those hideous shapeshifting aliens months ago - at least it felt that long. Why would a search party be sent here now? “Well then I’m glad I took care of that for you.”

Abba was trying to be lighthearted, but the tiredness and pain in her eyes was obvious.

She took a breath and began to speak again, “We’ll need to... Gyaaah!”

Abba’s sudden cry was met with met with similar gasps and moans of pain by the other Jedi in the group. The youngling fell to his knees - splashing against the water on the floor of the pipeway. Markis stumbled and had to brace himself against the wall. Garo’s hiss was amplified by the pain his wound was causing him. Dakoth was the least affected due to his Force sensitivity being dampened by the traces of Pacathium still in his blood, but was still able to feel the gravity of this disturbance in the Force. Rive moaned and dropped his head - his bangs falling back over his eyes.

Nova Sky, the pirate and only other non-Force sensitive member of the group besides Korus Zhett - who was staying silent, spun around to look at all of them, “What’s happening? What’s wrong?!”

Andu, the smuggler that had been dragged with them against his will, took the chance this momentary confusion caused to slip away. He just hoped that there weren’t any more of those deadly lizards around.

After the massive disturbance in the Force had subsided... though only somewhat. Abba spoke in quick bursts, “Do you... have a... ship!?”

Markis nodded and ran down the corridor and around the corner towards the docking hold they’d sealed the shuttle in only moments ago. The rest in the group followed along as Nova continued to shout - demanding to know what was going on.

___________________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)___________________
Remnants of Peragus Asteroid Field
Interior of Asteroid 32-19K

Dozens of parsecs away, the sole surviving Yuuzhan Vong of that had been left behind after the failed great-siege of the reviled world Sekot, Yiim, smiled through his pain.

It had happened. Just as he had foreseen.

The pain was finally becoming too much for even one who reveled in it to bear. He removed the coral bracer concealing the fresh scarring on his left arm. With a single swipe of his fingernails he reopened the wound and withdrew the small, greenish crystalline shard from within.

It had taken only a few months of experimenting on the young female Jedi they’d captured from the watery world to achieve his desired results. He’d successfully shaped the last remaining shard of silverly metal Pacathium that Armia Delvron - the wayward Vong’s former ally - had wished to spread throughout the Galaxy to rob Jeedai of their special powers. Now it had a new form - one that did not destroy the “Force” but instead... enhanced it. It drew it in like a black hole and did not give it back up.

And the pain it brought was... beyond intense.

Delvron had told them that they - the Vong and their biotechnology - were invisible in their “Force”... as if it did not exist within it at all.

And it seemed that was true. When Yiim had inserted the crystal into his arm it had drawn the Force into him. But it resisted him, tried to break free and escape him, to resist his will... but the crystal’s pull was strong enough not to allow that. It was, however... difficult to utilize... it was like trying to control a starship spinning out of control.

In time, perhaps, the “Force” would accept him and it would become easier for him to use. In time...

But that hardly mattered, all of the obstacles in his path had already been cleared. He’d seen through the “Force” that other Jeedai were coming to attempt to recover the Jeedai they’d captured - Abba Regana. Nyssra’s rage had turned The Jeedai Abba’s rage had caused her to kill Yiim’s former superior, Nyssra Syllac - and his two remaining warriors that had survived the disaster on Kallibann.

Yiim had his own rages. Against Nyssra’s blind trust of Armia Delvron. Against Delvron for betraying them. Against this galaxy’s Empire for defeating them at reviled planet Zonama Sekot. And, lastly, against his own people for leaving him behind.

But he had seen what rage could do. It had led Nyssra to his death, it had turned Abba from a naive young girl into a weapon, and now... Now, with the crystal’s help, he had foreseen the rage that Abba - and many other Jeedai would feel in just a few short hours. He had seen the torment that they would endure - and that they would cause themselves.

So he would not act on his rage. He would stay in solitude and be free to work. The only one who knew he was alive was Abba Regana. She had the chance to kill him when he had set her free... and did not. Yiim doubted she would return to kill him now. If she could even locate this asteroid that Nyssra, himself, and the 2 other Yuuzhan Vong survivors had retreated to after escaping Kallibann.

Nyssra had been slain - too quickly for Yiim’s liking, but still - death was the only fitting retribution for Nyssra’s arrogance and stupidity, Armia Delvron was dead already it seemed... and the Jeedai would be punished enough without need of any further retribution from him...

Yiim smiled again - this time bearing his sharpened teeth. By doing nothing more than setting Abba Regana free, he had won.

___________________(Insert Star Wars Style Scene Transition)___________________
Home One
Outside Secondary Docking Bay.

It was a fairly impressive sight, Nova thought, seven Jedi working in unison with their lightsabers to cut through the docking door that Korus Zhett had sealed in an attempt to keep the lizard creatures inside... but he still had no idea what was happening.

Abba had felt a disturbance like this in the Force only once before. It was five years ago. She was only 11 years old and she had been sleeping in the eastern wing of the temple on Bakura.

She’d awoke - along with everyone else - as she’d felt the shockwaves in the Force of all of the other - non-Bakuran - Jedi across the galaxy being slaughtered. It was first action of the Empire. The Great Jedi Purge.

Now they were experiencing the same shockwaves. The same howls of pain in the Force.

... Except this time it was coming from Bakura.

To Be Continued in "Lies of Bakura: A Secret Without Sin"...

Retribution of the Chosen: A Remnant Without Sin

A Sunny Day