Killer Instinct - DJB Forum Archive

Dismal

30-01-2007 18:11:49

A fiction I wrote for a competition, won 3rd place. And for the Sithese, it's not just random gibberish, its real (props to Wookieepedia for being awesome).

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Killer Instinct
By: Dismal Visutor al’Tor

Dismal sat on his mat in his office. The Aedile’s office was a nice room, rather large. It almost resembled Chancellor Palpatine’s office, in a way. There was a large window, looking into the dangerous Decarian Jungles. He had a desk, neatly tucked away to the far left wall, where he would sit to write reports or do other paperwork. It was usually cluttered with papers, documents that needed his approval. Behind it was a weapon rack nailed to the wall. It held his two most used weapons, his Rutilus Trucido, a custom Sith Sword that he built himself, and his Iron Electrostaff, another weapon he built himself. Light poured in through the window, tinted green due to the thick canopy of trees and plants. It slightly illuminated the stone walls. Gave the place a nice vibe. Dismal was meditating, listening to the whispers of the Force. His view of the Force was not as developed as the rest of the higher ranked members. There were so many interpretations, and they could all be correct. During meditation, he usually pondered the rights and wrongs of each view. The young Sith had spend many hours thinking about the mysteries of the Living Force. All of a sudden, a loud beep interrupted Dismal’s deep state of thought. He got up from his cross legged position, and walked over to his desk, where an old hologram projector was sitting on one of the very few clean spots on the surface. The Hunter pressed a button, and an image of his Quaestor, Ky Terrak erupted from it.

“Dismal, are you there?” the booming voice of the Quaestor asked.

“Yes, Ky. What do you need?” Dismal replied.

“Come to the briefing room for a summit meeting, and hurry,” Ky responded.

Dismal bowed and said, “Yes sir.” The image of Ky disappeared swiftly. The Sith donned his cloak, sheathed his Rutilus Trucido, and walked out the door, cape flourishing.

The Aedile walked casually into the door of briefing room, or the war room, as he called it. Dismal peered at the long, rectangular table filled with Dark Jedi. At the head, was Ky. Next to him was an empty seat, which Dismal was supposed to be sitting in. Across from the empty chair, Archpriest Scorpius, former Quaestor and Dismal’s master, sat comfortably in his own chair. Beside of the Aedile’s chair, Laigerick, Dismal’s close friend and Sith Commander of Exar’s Shadow, sat, hands in his lap, looking bored. To the right of him, Orzon, Laig’s master and ProConsul of Plagueis waited for the meeting to start. The Jedi Hunter was greeted by a mixed mumble, and then he sat in his chair. Ky stood up, and opened the meeting.

“Greetings leaders of Plagueis. Today, I have scheduled a meeting of the Summits, to discuss a mission. There are a group of Rogue Dark Jedi, all about Protectors or Guardians. They want to be the new Sith bullies, and wish to tell the Jedi all of our secret information. Now that you know the mission, anyone have any ideas of who to assign? ” Ky explained. A wave of mumbles burst out at the table. Guardian Laigerick broke the wave of chatter.

“I volunteer Exar’s Shadow for this mission!” he exclaimed

“I thank you for your offer Laigerick, but the Jedi at the Praxeum could sense an entire team. This needs to be a one man job, two or three tops,” Ky responded.

“Fine, I volunteer myself,” the Guardian said.

“Yes, Laig here needs a mission,” Orzon piped in, “but there is no way one Guardian can take down five or six of his peers.”

“I concur. I’ll accompany young Laigerick,” Dismal said.

“Aye. Dismal needs to prove himself as a Hunter,” Scorpius replied.

“So it’s settled. Laig and Dismal will go to Yavin IV and take down the threat. Both of you will be using TIE Interceptors I presume?” Ky queried.

“I’ll take the Merk-6,” Laigerick said.

“I’ll take the Interceptor,” Dismal added.

“Very well, get prepared. You leave in one hour,” the Quaestor instructed. “And may the Force be with you.”

The Jedi Hunter walked into his office for the second time. He walked briskly to the weapons rack behind his desk, took the Trucido and it’s sheath, and clipped it to his belt. He also got the Iron Electrostaff, and placed it in a sort of quiver on his back. He slipped off his cloak, and placed it neatly on it’s hanger. The Sith checked his supplies, and walked out the door.

Dismal stepped out the entryway into the fresh air of Aerun. He stared at all the starfighters, and took in it’s amazement. “Dis, over here!” he heard a familiar voice shout. The Hunter jogged over to his companion Laigerick. The two exchanged a handshake and greeting.

“Ready to kill some rogues?” Dismal asked.

“You bet,” Laigerick replied. Dismal and Laigerick checked the outside of their ships. Laigerick carefully studied the engine and exterior of his custom Firespray, the Merk-6. Dismal did the same to his issued TIE Interceptor. The pair climbed into their star fighters, and put on a comlink. Dismal was the first to speak.

“Checking channel Z-538, Laigerick and Dismal.”

“Channel operational. Let’s go,” Laigerick responded. The two fighters lifted off of the cool earth, and exited Aerun’s atmosphere.

***

“Dis, Dis!” Dismal awoke to. He had fallen asleep, seeing as he had set his autopilot. Laig was now screaming frantically.

“Yeah Laig?” The Hunter said groggily.

“The Jedi musta seen somethin’! They got a small squadron of X-Wings after us!” the Guardian yelled hastily.

“Okay, lets stay together. We got weaponry, we got skills. We can beat them,” Dismal said calmly.

“Dis, these are trained pilots. They know more maneuvers than Ky!” Laigerick shouted, “only one of us is getting down to Yavin. The other one of us gotta go back, or enter on the other side of the planet.

“Well, you go back to Aerun, even though you were the one assigned,” the Sith Hunter replied, “Orz can send you on another mission.”

“Okay…” the Sith Commander replied. Dismal could sense in his voice that he wanted some action. Dismal, however, hardly saw any action these days. It mostly was paperwork, training some journeymen, signing documents. The Aedile wanted to do a thrilling mission, and he was going to do just that. He signed up to assist Laigerick. He watched through the peripheral view hologram as the Firespray ship left Yavin’s orbit, and the ten X-Wings followed. Laig dropped a sonic charge, but the enemy did a complex maneuver where each one scrambled, and then reassembled in their formation. They moved with grace, and with knowledge. They knew what they were doing. Dismal turned around, and entered Yavin’s atmosphere.

“Sir, entering planet to fast. Repeat, entering atmosphere too fast!” the digitized computer warned. Dismal pressed a series of buttons and hit swiches, but the fighter did not slow. The engine must have been malfunctioning. “Darn you, SLOW DOWN!” the Aedile yelled in frustration. He watched as the earth of Yavin IV approached swiftly.
Dismal felt a large shaking sensation, and he was thrown out of the cockpit of the Interceptor, along with the cockpit door. He heard the sound of fabric ripping, and felt a sharp pain in his right arm. He turned his head to find it bleeding, the scarlet liquid staining the fine fabric of his robe’s arm. The Hunter closed his eyes, and concentrated. The pain started to slowly drift away, and the wound closed ever so slowly as he called upon the power of the Force for help. He got up, and stared at his surroundings. He was in a clearing, surrounded by jungle every which way he turned. Dismal was marooned.

“Well…wasn’t expecting this,” the Sith mumbled to himself. The Hunter sat down, and started to think of what to do, and how to get to the rogues. He all of a sudden felt a chill go down his back, and he broke into a cold sweat. There was a presence in the Force. It was menacing, scary, and intriguing all at once. Dismal got up swiftly, and started to follow it.

***

Dismal approached the Massassi temples. The Sith’s feet ached, he had been walking through thick trees and shrubs for miles now. He thought nothing of it. What he did think of was the incredibly dark aura the many different temples were emitting. The Hunter started walked into one of the buildings. He stared into the eyes off a large, black, doglike creature. The Sith scrolled through his memory, and remembered the creature was a Sith Hound. These creatures were incredibly dangerous, and were semi-sentient. He even heard somewhere that they could speak sithese.

“Jidai?” a raspy voice came from the hound. Dismal had learned some sithese in the Shadow Academy. He responded.

“Yes, Jen’jidai,” the Hunter said clearly.

“Sith?” the hound questioned once more.

“Yes,” Dismal replied.

“Massassi? Or Kissai?” the beast inquired.

“Uh…Kissai,” the Sith replied.

“Liar!” the raspy voice responded. “I am Saarai-Kaar.”

‘Keeper of the truth,’ Dismal thought, ‘I can’t lie to him.’ “Vexoc savaka,” Dismal said, pausing trying to remember the Sith vocabulary. The creature looked puzzled. The Hunter unclipped his data pad from his sash, and entered in the words “I am on a very important mission. I must kill some bad sith.” Some words that Dismal had not learned came out of the pad. The hound said something indistinguishable, growled, then leaped on the Sith Hunter.

The Sith’s Rutilus Trucido flew across the large room. He heard the hound roar out a few more words in Sithese, but heard none. He had closed his eyes, and was trying to meditate, without any luck. He called the power of the force, and fell swiftly asleep.

Dismal awoke to see the beast asleep in one of the four corners. The Hunter got up silently, and hid his presence from the Force. He gripped the pole of his Iron Electrostaff, and walked casually to the hound. A burst of hot anger ripped through the body of the Dark Jedi. He flipped the switch, and watches as bolts of violet electricity cackled on the ends of the staff, and he thrust it as hard as he could, though the heart of the Sith Hound, with a little boost from the Force. The Hunter watched with a grin creasing on his face as the nerves of the beast were highlighted with powerful surges of electricity. The Dark Jedi’s killer instincts had come out, and were here with a powerful vengeance. He saw a specter rise from the burning corpse in the shape of the hound. He heard it whisper something in the Sith language. “Ja’ak” ‘I am free,’ Dismal thought.

“Zhol kash dinora,” Dismal said calmly. It is done. The hunter picked up his two weapons, put them away, and ventured back into the jungles of Yavin IV to continue on his mission.

THE END