The Blood Rite of Korriban

((OOC:- This run-on is a sequel to the Korriban Affair, a run-on I hosted a while back (details here - http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/forum/i...?showtopic=1469 ). You may want to read or at least skim through it first. I will be locking participation at 12 members, so far there are 8 involved. If you want to take part, please PM me first, and I'll write you into the story. Also, please, do not kill Darth Malice in this run-on as I intend to use him again.))

Revenant had been dreaming lately. Visions of a barren wasteland, where red-skinned beings performed some arcane ritual. At first he thought it had been visions of the past, but as they contiinued he became more and more certain that it was the future he saw.

How this was possible, he wasn't sure. The red skinned beings could only be the original Sith. But they had been extinct for millenia. Only one thing was possible - Darth Malice. He had been experimenting with Sith DNA for years. This could be bad. If Malice had returned, and had found some way to clone the ancient Sith... The Warrior couldn't bring himself to contemplate it.

Recently, Flight leader Acara Rayden had been appointed Chronicler of Sadow. He had access to the most forbidden tomes the library had to offer, so revenant had paid him a visit. The Commander of Sapphire Squadron had spent many a sleepless night in the library, searching for some mention of the ritual he saw in his dreams. He told himself that this was because he needed to find this reference as quickly as possible, but some small part of him knew the truth - if he wasn't sleeping, he wasn't dreaming.

Eventually, he had found a reference to the Mortalus clan, a clan of ancient Sith who practised a ritual almost identical to the one he saw in his visions. All references to them, however, stopped after the beginning of the Great Hyperspace War. There was only one thing for it - he had to go back to Korriban.

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A few days later, Revenant stood in his private hangar aboard the Sapphire Star with Acara and Eldrad Sin, his Flight Leaders. He had sent a communication to Raven, Macron and Doku, as they had all accompanied him the last time he went to Korriban. Also, he had elected to bring along Xayun Erinos, who had proven himself a most competent Dark Jedi, and Malisane de Ath, who Revenant had worked with during the Battle of Jagred and many more occasions since.

Now all that remained was to wait for everyone to arrive. He stared at his new ship, the Shrike, eager to be onboard. It was a modified VT-49 Decimator. The dorsal laser turret had been replaced with a turbolaser cannon and, of the three warhead launchers, one had been replaced with an ion cannon. The hull had been plated with black chrome.

"Commander," asked Acara, "do you really think Malice could have cloned the ancient Sith?"

A grim look crossed Revenant's face for the briefest of moments before he replied. "It's been his life's work. I only hope that if he has, we can stop him." And so the wait began.

The Deathshead cleared hyperspace around the Sepros system, the starlines slowing into the usual familiar constelations of the Naga Sadow home world.

Malisane swerved a few seconds later to avoid a slow moving cargo ship that was dead ahead of him, getting a burst of confusion over the communicator as he veered round it and resumed his course. His finger paused over the mine launcher before he smiled and resisted the temptation. He gunned the accelerator blasting the firespray clear of the cargo vessel before getting on the comm link to the orbitting headquarters that was looming in his view screen. "This is Malisane de Ath, put the landing lights on, open the doors and clear me a space in the hanger. Also tell Commander Revenant if he's sitting down to dinner to set an extra place."

"Malisane this is Sin," the voice of the Flight leader and Ludo Kressh Envoy came back, "you missed dinner but the canteen can probably rustle you someting up when you land. You're clear to drop that ship of yours in the main bay. You want tractoring in?"
"Balls to your tractor beam," Malisane replied with a grin, "I don't need a computer to land this ship." He guided the firespray smoothly through the spacedoors and landed gently on the hanger deck.

After waiting a minute or so for the hangar to repressurise he opened the ramp, grabbed his saber and blaster pistol and walked down the ramp. "Whats happening Sin?" he asked the Knight who was waiting for him. "The message I got on Lyspair wasn't very clear, something about Korriban?"
"Probably better if Rev and Acara explain this one, I'll show you upstairs, you can grab a snack from one of the dispensors en route."
"Very well," the Aedile replied.

Macron continued to punch the controls as the Silooth glided through space. "Sapphire Star, this is Interrogator," he said as the com clicked across. "Permission to board?"

"Cleared," replied Sin's voice. "Welcome home, Master."

"Thank you. I brought goodies... see you guys on the bridge," said the alchemist.

Minutes later, Mononoke strolled into the bridge area. He was not wearing his customary armor, and the effect was slightly unsettling to those used to his normal appearance. He smiled a ghoulish grin and sat down, steepling his fingers as they awaited the rest. Revenant, Sin and Acara were working at the helm, giving commands to the incoming vessels.

Malisane sat down at the table with him with a synth-chow plate in hand. He grimaced at the bland flavor. Space food always tasted like cardboard, a well-known fact amongst spacers.

The two were known to work together on a variety of projects, and seemed to get on as well as any two Dark Jedi can. Malisane spoke. "Well, you did mention goodies. Stop holding out, man."

"Sure, why not. I brought some nice Ewok hide coats for all of us," he laughed. "Culled them from the experiment survivors. They are in the cargo area, got some ASP labor droids to move them. Help yourself!"

Malisane smiled, knowing the coat would make a nice layer in cold environments. Or a gift to a lady, for that matter.

" So, Revenant must have brought you for a reason. Anything that your... insight is needed for is generally unpleasant," stated Malisane truthfully with a shrug. "What is it this time?"

"Well, something about Ancient Sith, DNA and the Mortalus' rituals. A most fascinating topic, indeed. I’ll wait until we begin the briefing to share the little I have found,” Macron said as they noticed another ship gliding in across the viewport.

"Buggers and their rules!" Raven retorted after being asked to identify himself, which was frankly quite normal, excempt his odd mood. He told the officer ("I'm going to give you a nice whack when I get on board,"), and began an approaching the Sapphire Star's landing bay.

Macron snickered, hearing the officer curse Krath and their insanity. Raven stode through the door a few minutes later, shoving the same officer back out the doorway, and the others just got a glimpse of a bright red mark on his left cheek.

"Been awhile since I got to do that," he laughed as he hovered a chair over to the table, and took a seat. "So what was it you called me for Rev?"

His attitude changed quickly at the word Malice from Revenant's lips.

Revenant surveyed the bridge, and the assembled Dark Jedi. Almost everyone was here. It was time to move down to the briefing room. "Sin, I'm going to bring the others up to speed. Join us downstairs when you're finished here."

A few minutes later Revenant sat in the briefing room with Acara, Macron, Malisane and Raven. He was about to begin telling them about his visions when he was stopped short by the shrill chime of his comm-link. He thumbed the 'recieve' button and was greeted by Sin's voice. "Commander, we have an unregistered TIE approaching, pilotidentifies himself as one Krakkenthrarr."
A frown creased the Commander's brow. "Fire a warning shot across his brow, then instruct him to land in hangar bay one. Have an armed escort standing by to bring him here to me." So, they were going to have some company. But what was a wookiee doing approaching the Sapphire Star unannounced?

Five minutes later the room's door hissed open and a giant of a wookiee was marched in by four guards, one holding onto either of the creature's arms and two behind him, blasters levelled at his back. For all the good it would do them. A fully grown wookiee was more than a match for four humans. A wookiee armed with the Dark Side of the Force was truly terrifying. There and then Revenant made a decision; He's coming with us...

Krakkenthrrar looked to his right where the human had a hold of him. He could see the fear spread into the man’s eyes as he shook his head and bared his teeth, an obvious threat to the man. With a quick glance at Revenant, who nodded, the guard let go and promptly backed off. The other let go as well, eager to get out of range from the wookie. The blaster’s, however, were still leveled at him, the remaining two guards circling to his front.

The black wookie got down on one knee and looked directly at revenant. The red stripe across his face gave him an evil air. Knowing that at least one person could understand shirryywook, he said, “Forgive me for intruding without any sort of introduction, but I wanted to get your attention as quickly as possible. I think I have it now. I would be honored if you would let me join your little adventure. Life in the DB has slowed for the moment, and I could use a challenge worthy of a wookie. Please accept my request.” He added a small bow at the end. The glint of a Ryyk blade could be seen on his back by the others.

A glance from Revenant was all that Acara needed. “Far crying out loud!” a small portion of the Adumarian dialect had slipped through, “Lower those damn Blasters.” Acara waited, watching the guard’s slow realisation of the order they had been given. The Blasters were reluctantly lowered, the guards being aware of what a Wookie can do to an arm.

“If you’ll excuse me Commander the information I needed has just arrived from the Library as well as the Prototype I’ve been working on. Though I must warn you that not all the bugs may have been worked out.” Acara smiled at Revenant.

“Off you go Acara.” Revenant didn’t bother to look round. Acara walked out of the room he was in, leaving the Wookie still kneeling, it wasn’t his problem to sort that part out.

Revenant gestured for the Wookiee to take a seat. Seeing Krakkenthrrar on his knees caused Revenant to think back to the days of the Empire, when a Wookiee on his knees was not uncommon. The Imperials had made slaves of the natives of Kashyyyk, used mainly in construction projects, particularly that of the first Death Star. The sight before him now was of a more comical nature. The chairs in the briefing room had been designed for humans. It was amusing to watch a being roughly eight feet tall try to wedge its massive frame into such a small space. In the end, Krakkenthrrar gave up and sat on the table.

"Okay," the Commander announced, "we're leaving in an hour. If you have anything you need to take care of, I suggest you get to it. Meet in my personal hangar in forty-five minutes. I'll be taking The Shrike. The less ships we take, the less chance of Malice's defences picking us up, but if anybody need to take their own ship, I understand that." With that he turned on his heel and strode for the door to find his feathered companion Gorg.

This would be an interesting trip. He hadn't been to Korriban since his last encounter with Darth Malice. The same went for Gorg. Gorg was the result of one of Malice's experiments - a crow gifted with human intelligence, and the power of speech. Although Gorg himself would not consider it a 'gift'. In his mind, having human intelligence in a body as limited as that of a crow was nothing short of a cruel jest. The one thing he desired above all else (except maybe eyeballs, his favourite dish) was opposable thumbs. The hole situation left him with a rather cynical attitude. More than one officer on the Star had found himself on the recieving end of his sarcastic jibes, so sharp they almost scarred.