{Arcona Run On} Rage of a Broken Rebellion, Saga 2

As every member was into place near one of the panels, they pushed in the digits of their ID
numbers and saw the panel open up and show a red button.

"How...cliche.." Ylith said and Archean and Selene smiled.
"Wait...How can we push them all simultaniously?" Selene said and Archean and Ylith looked at
each other and both raised their shoulders.
"Good Question..."

-------

"Halc, this is Strategos, I'm in place and I sense the others are too."

Halcyon watched as the droids laid twitching on the ground and multiple turrets were still flashing with
lightning like surges due to broken circuitry. The Deputy Combat Master had only a minimum of
wounds. Just a few burns from avoiding incoming turret fire. The Consul had moved to the general
leader quarters where he was before it startted. With a few slight movements with the hand a door
opened up and a Panel was erected from behind the door.

"This is Halcyon, I'm ready. the Adept said in a telepathic shiver trough the force, reaching every
member. Every member near a panel did the same, telling Halc they were ready and already punched
in the ID's

Halcyon concentrated, the force flowing as an aura around him, chanching himself and reality into outlines,
showing him everything and everyone trough the lines. Halc used the force to form tenticals, all shooting
out to each and every member near a panel and linked with them.

To the outside Halcyon was just standing there, eyes closes, his hand on the button. To the eyes of the
force he was linked to every member of the clan. And in an impulse of battle meditation the Adept Pushed
the red button, and every member who was in the same position did the same. All simultaniously.

In a loud shriek every turret came to a halt and every training droid de-activated on que. All circuitry fried
and disabled. The only was to get the whole defense working again the whole grid-software needed to be
re-programmed.

Communications flicked back online and secutity camera's went back online.

---------------------------

Ylith opened his eyes again.
"Did it work?" he asked as he glanced at his Apprentice and friend. Archean looked around and sighed.
"We're still here, so it had to work." He said and Ylith smiled.
"Master, lets go back to the Mess Hall, there I can treat your wounds properly." She said caring and Ylith nodded.

Suddenly the screans flicked on again and Halcyon appeared on screen.
"Members of Arcona, we have little time for celebration, we have more problems at our hand. The families we
brought in to protect were all bought over by the Rebels to betray us so they would be rewarded freedom.
Ofcourse, we can not let this go unpunished. Go and kill every single one of them, man woman child, I want
their blood washing away the pain we have suffered."

Suddenly Halc's screen flicked away and ****, who was in the security checkpoint appeared on the screen.

" I am sorry Halcyon, this is of grave importance. Radar shows incoming Rebel troop ships, they are planning
to invade us, probably thinking we're all killed or weakened far enough to ensure a low resistance. they could be
right but I have updated each screen with maps. The dark grey area's are places they might enter the base.

The Green spots indicate weapon depots. While most of the weapons were taken to the Mess Hall, I suggest to grab
any weapon and take them to the Mess Hall. The Blue spots indicates places to defend. The only way they can enter
the Base is trough the ground level, so we need to set up Defensive positions there. Not that our inner defense
is offline, we can't hold them off without a fair perimiter.

Go kill for Arcona, Defend what is ours!"

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OOC:
Phase 3
{{{{{{IMPORTANT}}}}}}

Ok, so here's the deal, we can go all out against those families, some may have guns or rifleman skills, while some
are just waiting to be slaughtered. You were hurt now, now lets slaughter them....w00t!

As for the Defenses, describe how you do that, First do the fmailies and in the meanwhile collect weapons you could
use. Then set up defences. The Rebels wont enter the base untill Phase 4...

Now that you know what is coming in Phase 4, I suggest to make it look good.

Now, I will judge on: Battle tactics, Defensive Idea's (Why you would place a gun left instead of
right...etc etc) and, yes again, character development/description.

Also, storyline and Continuity will be of Importance.

Rules:

No god mode....you're still wounded or bound by rank or fatigue, Realism people!

read before you post, dont post before you have a clue what is happening.

No Spam, Spam is instand ban from run on.

Have fun

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Map:
(only the ground floor one is changed, the families are all scattered over the base.)

Gruond level
Sub level 1
Sub level 2

Archean, Ylith and Selene looked around to notice that the Hangar became extremely quiet with the deactivation of the turrets, yet, something could be heard outside, the yelling of women and children, bloodcurdling screams. Ylith’s eyes grew, a devilish smile grew on his face, he absolutely loved the sounds of flesh being ripped from bone, women pleading for their lives, only to be silenced by a swift slice to the neck. Archean on the other hand wasn’t like most Dark Jedi, he wasn’t hell bent on killing everyone and everything, he isn’t the type to kill innocents if the need isn’t there, some might Archean’s downfall. Selene could see the anxiousness in Ylith’s face, he wanted to get out there and mutilate all that stood in his way.

The Obelisk Knight couldn’t wait anymore, he quickly ran off to the door of the hangar, his Apprentice soon followed while the Sith Aedile was left behind.

“Ylith, wait!” The Bruth'Kothae exclaimed, but his friend’s body disappeared through the door, the sound of the activation of his lightsaber echoing through the silent Hangar. Archean shook his head and hurried to the door, to be met by a twirling crimson blade and blaster fire.

“What the bloody hell.” The Bruth’Kothae breathed as he quickly ducked to dodge blaster fire, his sapphire blade extending forth from the chrome cylinder. More shots were fired at the direction of the Sith, who deflected them with ease, looking up he saw who was firing at him, a man and his wife, each with blasters. In his mind he was confused, he didn’t know what to do, killing innocent people was not his way of doing things, yet, they were attacking him. The crimson blade stopped and a voice was heard.

“Archean, they were put here by the rebels to end us, they MUST die!” Ylith barked as he grabbed the head of a man, he shoved the head into the wall, busting the man’s forehead and nose wide open, gushing with blood, slipping down the wall ever so slowly, the sight of blood was what Ylith lives for. Quickly he bought his saber back and stabbed it directly into the mans chest, Ylith slowly bought it out, twirled it above his head and decapitated the man, the head falling with a thump on the cold floor. Selene aimed straight for one of the women running around, swiftly she cleaved the head from the woman with the great Valheru sword, she was slowing becoming like her master.

Archean honestly couldn’t believe the pictures he was seeing in his mind, the outline of his friend causing carnage, he knew Ylith was like this but he had never seen him attack defenseless people, they didn’t even know how to properly operate the blaster, that’s classed as defenseless in Archean’s book. A few more shots were fired and Archean deflected them away, not aiming them where they came from. With the fire fight that was ensuing in the hallway further up from the Hangar, 2 men were sneaking up on Archean, silently moving while aiming their blasters directly at him. Archean’s ears perked up, his hearing is tremendous, one sense getting boosting from losing another, without hesitation Archean back flipped behind the men, he font kicked the one on the left and swiftly force pushed the other to where Ylith was, sensing this, Ylith spun the saber behind while kneeling, slicing one of the men in half. Archean pressed on, his mind thinking “its either him or me.” The man scurried to pick up his blaster, the Sith ran up and kicked it away before he could reach it, the man looked up and began pleading for his life.

“P..p..please don’t, i..i didn’t mean it.” He ranted. Archean deactivated his saber and picked the man up by the scruff of his neck and through him against the wall, knocking him out cold.

Once again the hallway became silent, the hum of Ylith’s saber soon vanished as it retracted into his hilt.

“We should start getting supplies for this defense system.” Archean said. Ylith nodded and signaled to training room one. The three Dark Jedi calmly made their way to the room, passing the severed limbs and lifeless bodies that were scattered on the floor which was now their tomb.

(WARNING: Descriptions of Gore ahead. If you are the squeamish type, please use the Find command and type in “Summary” to skip past it. Thank you, and have a nice shiny day.)



“Go and kill every single one of them, man woman child, I want their blood washing away the pain we have suffered."

The words rang in Jaixen’s mind.

Screams suddenly reached Jaixen’s ears and he turned around quickly.

~Ktulu, in the General Quarters. He must have begun killing the families already.~

Jaixen growled suddenly as he felt a pang of guilt. Within him, the child was crying, demanding to help them. Jaixen simply turned and walked out of the Study, starting down the hall. Though he did not care whether he had to kill or not, he would kill when it was necessary, for now he would help prepare the defenses. They were of far more importance.

“Jeax! To the Quarters, Ktulu will need help!” Yelled Quejo as he and Xaviar ran towards the White Knight.

Jaixen looked at him with a cold stare, causing Quejo to stop in his tracks.

“What happened to -“

“It’s Jaixen. I’m not about to do senseless killing, you guys go on ahead and help him. I’m going to get defense weaponry to help above.” Said Jeax in a soft monotone voice.

The way he said it, the stare he had, it seemed to mesmerize him until it sounded as though it was Quejo’s own thoughts.

“Okay then, we’ll see you later then.” Said Quejo, tapping Xaviar on the arm, then taking off with him.

Jaixen picked up his pace and jogged to the lift, hitting the activation button and feeling gravity shift as he was lifted higher in the base. As soon as it opened, he saw the work of the Dark Jedi everywhere.

Blood coated much of the walls and floor, limbs with shreds of skin still laid upon the ground strewn everywhere. Bodies were lying against the wall or across the floor, some simply decapitated or cut up, while others had skin ripped from their flesh, allowing the bare muscle to be seen, or even for some poor souls, layers of skin had been ripped off until nothing but bone was left, a puddle of organs and fluids laying next to the ivory joints and blankets of skin. Some warriors had apparently had fun with their victims and had stabbed daggers and knives into their bodies at various points on the wall, allowing them to slowly bleed to death, some still alive and screaming, begging for help as sometimes the knives would slip, cutting more of their body.

~Please, help them, I’m begging!~ Cried the Child

~They are not of our concern.~ Replied the Adult

The adolescent stayed silent.

Jaixen walked slowly, concentrating the force carefully to move the blood and various bodily items out of his way as he walked towards the Weapons Lab.

A loud bang was heard and Jaixen looked to his left as he walked spotting a renegade running towards him, shooting several shots off with his blaster, which Jaixen easily deflected with his saber, then before he could retaliate, Valnir ran up from behind the warrior and stabbed his saber through his chest, causing the man to scream as the blade burned through him, scorching his insides as he then pulled the blade down and right, then up, creating a V in his chest.

“V for Valnir, that way if they count the bodies, I can claim I killed the most.” Smirked the Knight

Jaixen simply turned and started for the Lab again, opening the door and peering inside for any attackers. Noticing none, he slowly entered, but quickly jumped back as the amethyst blade of Esca attempted to behead him. As Jaixen reentered the room, Esca got a better look at him, but was cautious.

“Identity and Rank.”

“Old Identity, Jeax; New Identity Jaixen. Rank, Dark Jedi Knight.”

Esca looked at the warrior skeptically. “A new hair and eye style and you need a new name?”

“People associate a particular personality to a name, that personality does not befit me anymore, thus a new name is needed to be rid of the association to the old.”

Esca still looked skeptical, then nodded as the statement did possess logic.

“What are you doing and how can I help?” Asked the Krath as he looked at Sashar, Trepidus, and Keiran.

“We are taking an E-Web Repeating Blaster with a highly powerful, though experimental, shield generator, to the Hangar where we plan to create a makeshift bunker by cutting a horizontal line in the back wall of the hangar in the Base Command Center thing, setting the E-Web up in there, creating a corridor of fire in the Hangar, whilst still using the walls of the hangar as barricades. Also, we’re taking upgraded T-21 light repeaters and A295 rifles to arm anyone else we come across to put them in another makeshift bunker in the Troop Barracks in order to create a nice flanking position that will turn the Hangar into a nasty killing zone.” Stated Sashar without a second thought as he helped Kieran gather assorted weapons.

Jaixen nodded and started to walk towards some himself as the door opened again, Esca’s saber activating immediately before deactivating.

“About time you got here.” He said “I sent the message out to the Ground Level almost 10 minutes ago.”

Guardian Vodo and Odin, as well as Protector Kale, all entered through the door.

“All the members of SoulFire are here now Sir.” Stated Trepidus

“All but Selene, but she’s with her Master.” Said Ethran “But that’s understandable. Okay Troops, haul as many weapons as you can carry. Jeax, I mean, Jaixen, you and Sashar are working on Guard Duty. I want my two Lightsabers on guard to deflect any blasts that come our way, we can’t be dropping these things left and right.”

“What are you going to be doing Sir?” Asked Jaixen

Ethran smirked. “I get to carry the big load.” he stated as he walked towards a large coffin shaped box marked with the E-Web’s designations. Using very little extra Force, he almost easily lifted the box and held it upon his back. “With my speed and strength, we don’t have to worry about it getting dropped or hit by anything melee, you guys are to keep the blasters off me.”

Sashar and Jaixen looked to each other, then nodded in agreement.

“Okay, does everyone have as much as they can carry?” Esca asked, looking around to nodding faces. “Okay Troops, MOVE OUT!”



Summary:
Jaixen ran to the Weapons Lab, leaving Quejo, Xaviar, and Ktulu to kill the rebels in the Quarters. All of SoulFire, minus Selene, is in the Lab, gathering weapons for a plan thought up by Sashar to help defend the Troop Barracks, Hangar, and Base Command Center. Esca is carrying the biggest load and everyone else has a full burden of weapons to carry, while Sashar and Jaixen have been given the order to protect them at any cost. They have begun to move towards their goal.

Scyrone had been sitting down; when on the screens a sudden message appeared on one of the screens in the Training Bay 1. He listened intently. Then he heard men, women, and a few children outside screaming. After the screaming, he heard some lightsabers activate and blasters fire. He sheathed the Katana, and ran over to the door as fast as possible, with some excitement in his eyes, and put his ear against the door. He heard a woman plead for her life, and then heard a slice of flesh, only for the screaming to fade into slurred words of suffering. Scyrone’s face turned extremely pale, but it was barely noticed as he already had pale skin.

“What the . . . ?”

The Protector looked to his side to see a map that had been left here by someone. It had the objectives on it, and he wasn’t pleased. He faced the door, slammed it open went outside, and faced what he thought was hell on earth (or on base). He saw Dark Jedi just slicing men and women and he saw children running and hiding and Dark Jedi killing them as there screams softened to silence. Scyrone thought that this was bad, but something came over him. It was like his life wasn’t cared for, and no-one cared about him. He looked at all the men, women, and children and for the first time in his life he felt true jealously against them. All there comfy families and all there perfect lives, until now, until revenge for there arrogance, as to puff there bonds and relationships, calling out to each other for help.

“Not today!” growled Scyrone as he took out his Katana. “You will all pay for your ignorance!”

Scyrone’s eyes became very pointed and angered. He looked to his left and his right, only to see the stupid families draw a few blasters.

“Put down your Katana,” said the one man, with women and children behind him, “and your life will be spared.”

“I DON’T THINK SO!” shouted the Protector.

Even though he could not deflect blaster fire and even though he could not dodge so well, he had enough strength to overpower them. He remembered the Sith code.
There is no peace, there is only passion,
Through passion, I gain strength,
Through strength, I gain power,
Through power, I gain victory,
Through victory, my chains are broken,
The force has set me free.
He would use his strength to beat them, to gain power, and victory.

Scyrone swung his Katana across the blaster and cut off the barrel. He then spun and stabbed the other man behind him and swung back around to behead the first man. He then sliced and swung at the women and children on the one side, and turned around to do the same on the other. They were almost defenseless, and he killed them. He truly felt power, which he hadn’t felt for a long time.

Suddenly, he looked down and saw that there was a large cut across his leg. He looked over among the remains of the people and a small kid had a small sword with him, small enough to be concealed, but big enough to make a wound. He looked up and saw some other Dark Jedi heading over to where he was, at the first Training Bay. He waited for them to come up to him.

Scyrone let out a satisfying comment, which he said in a little kid’s voice, like the one he had slaughtered, “I will stab da tall man. He will suffer undow me.” Then he went to a deeper, darker voice of his own, “Yea, right, young one, you will suffer under the might the Dark Jedi.”

Warning: could be bloody, just telling...

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Ylith moved trough the hallways of the center, clearly enjoying the screams of agony and choking of bodies as the
hallways and walls were covered in blood and gore. Archean and Selene watched as Ylith took the lead, he had
experience in this. The time he used the Scimitar of Warfare to travel trough dimensions to train for his own style
in battle made the Obelisk lose his mind. Since that day he loved the taste of blood and the scent of the dead
lingering withing the air.

The hallwas was full with civilian men and women, all butchered by collective suicide or simply terminated by their
guards. Those who survived were either wounded or didnt know how to fight.
Archean had doubts about the meaning of this, he opposed this fully, while Selene enjoyed it the same way her
Master did. She loved her Master and loved the way he did his work. To her he was a rolemodel and she did every-
thing to be the same.
Ylith grabbed his saber and slashed up, originally intended to split the incoming Rebel in half but as he backed of
the sabertip slashed trough the mans' abdomen, creating an opening trough with the insides of the man fell out
just before he fell as well.

"Die...you dirty Jedi..." the man said and Ylith's eyes shot fire and in a fluid motion the Saber stabbed into the
man's back, scorching all flesh around it, taking away life from the man, scorching his soul with his saber, forever
trapped within the everlasting rotation of energy inside the Saber hilt.

While he did Selene threw her Valheru sword at a man trying to run away, a sickening crack noting that the aword
slammed trough the man's ribs cutting his lungs and heart in half, immediatly destroying the feeble life within the
puny lifeform who cowarded in front of the Dark Jedi.

Archean motioned to the Training bay. "There are multiple people in there, probably getting our weapons to use against
us, we need to stop them!"
Ylith nodded and followed Archean to the Training bay. Selene close behind them. Ylith and Archean both watched
around the corner, just extracting both their head as laser fire greeted them warmly.
"Selene, wait here.." Ylith said and Archean smiled.
"Ylith, let her come. We were her rank when we got into fights!" Archean said
Ylith nodded and they all went into the Training room. Ylith defending Selene when needed, but finally letting her go
and giving her her own path into the ways of the Dark Jedi.

"No the [Expletive Deleted F-word]ing tube of adhesive you nonce," Kieran bellowed out from under a fuel tank. He held his hand out waiting for Sashar to deposit the tube into his hand, instead of the coolness of the plastic he felt a sticky liquid sensation.

What the hell?, he thought; thinking for a second it was something more sinister that had been dribbled into his hand by his friend.

"Sashar you tosser, I wanted the glue in the bloody tube, you know how hard this [Expletive Deleted] is to get off?" he shouted out in mock anger, secretly grinning on the inside.

"Glue what glue?" called the Mandalorian back.

"Oh piss off," replied Kieran jokingly.

"Shouldn't have called me a nonce then," replied the Archpriest smugly.

"Well as you said we are short on time," replied Kieran condescendingly, "now hush, I need to concentrate."

The Mandalorian focused on his work, he applied the adhesive to the underside of the fuel tank and then attached the makeshift explosive device firmly to the underside. They had been fabricated from the materials they had to hand. Unfortunately, they had numerous detonators but hardly any explosives to go round, which meant grenades had to be dismantled and their incendiary compounds removed. Kieran had attached remote detonators to the devices so they could be triggered when required. Each one had to be independently triggered, it was essential as different explosions would be required at different times.

"Is that almost done?" asked Ethran walking up the pair as Sashar helped Kieran to his feet.

"Yeah, done," replied Kieran glancing quickly in his bag checking he had indeed placed all the devices.

"The locations?" asked the Soulfire Seargent.

"Well, there's one under the two fuel tanks, which will give a pretty awesome bang, in that stack of crates Kieran rigged up something special, it's a homemade claymore," explained Sashar.

"Yeah," interjected Kieran grinning, "its on all four sides of the crate, but they all blow at once, I'd have rigged it independently but there isn't enough time, plus there's a few other random ones dotted around the stacks of crates, not claymores, they just go boom."

"Fantastic, and Sashar, how is Trepidus coming on with the E-Web?" asked Ethran.

"Well, Kieran's explained roughly how to set it up and operate it so he thinks the kid will be alright," explained Sashar gesturing over to the corner, "I missed out on that part of our training on Dxun, it was after I came here, but Kieran knows his stuff."

"Good, no doubt it will come in handy," Esca replied glancing over to where the barrel of the E-Web poked through the firing slit in the wall. They had connected the Command Centre and the Troop Barracks to the hangar by cutting a firing slit, the E-Web was positioned in the Command Centre, with Trepidus operating it and Kieran controlling the explosives. Jaex was meanwhile running the defenses in the Troop Barracks as Sashar was to remain with his apprentices.

The Mess Hall had been a different matter, out of all the rooms on the level it was the least defensible, four walls, four doors and little cover. Sashar had come up with the idea to turn it into a death trap. If the hangar fell, they would draw the rebels into the Mess Hall and blow it up, then retreat back to the turbolift which served as their Alamo.

Kieran chuckled to himself.

The suprise in the Mess Hall will be fun...

Hopefully we won't have to use it...

And hopefully, if we do, I'll be alive to see it...

Ethran, Trepidus, Kieran, and Sashar were all in the Command Center, focusing their attention upon the E-Web while Vodo, Kale, Odin, and Jaixen were all within the Troop Barracks, setting up positions to attack.

“I’ll be back.” Said Jaixen, turning towards the exit of the Barracks.

“Where are you going?” One of the SoulFire troops asked.

“We’re going to need more than the 4 members at each position. I’m going to go recruiting.”

Jaixen walked out the door and started a slow jog down the corridors, focusing the Force to sense where other Arconans were to get them to join their defensive wall.

Jaixen looked at the Mess Hall as he passed it, remembering helping the others in placing explosives within and around it.

~You can’t let them blow it up! All the wounded and sick are in there, there won’t be any time to move them out!~ Yelled the Child, begging for mercy.

~They will be a necessary sacrifice. For the good of the whole.~ Answered the Adult.

~But please!~

~No. Even if I were to try and deactivate them, we would be killed for disobeying orders, and if we tried to help them, the SoulFire members in the Troop Barracks would be severely weakened while we were gone.~

The Child silenced.

The sound of the Lift approaching caught Jaixen’s attention and he activated his saber, expecting a group of rebels to attack him. He was half right. As soon as the door opened, blood flew out from the opening like a wall, splattering all over the walls and floor, following closely by several severed limbs and organs spraying outwards and landing in disturbing squishes.

Jaixen smirked as Koskian walked out of the lift, covered in blood and smiling, teeth bared in the full grin as the yellow glow of his saber lit him up in an almost disgusting mix of yellow and red, rather befitting of the act he had just committed.

“Hello there.” Said the Exarch. “Heard you guys were needing some help with defenses and thought I could lend a hand.”

Jaixen nodded. “You bet. Just head to the hangar and you’ll have plenty to do. Just talk to Ethran.”

Koskian thanked the Knight and proceeded as he was directed.

Suddenly sensing a group Force users close to him, Jaixen ran quickly towards the Training Bay area. Coming to a stop just at the door, Jaixen heard several screams inside.

Activating his saber and cutting through the door, hearing a scream penetrate through the metal as he had judged right and a rebel was indeed on the other side of it. He kicked down the door and crushed the man underneath it, a pool of blood running out from under it, bones crunching as Jaixen walked over it.

Blaster fire was everywhere, the sound of pain and agony following quickly behind like a child to its parent. Several Dark Warriors of various ranks, though all below Knight to Jaixen’s dismay, were fighting a group of rebels that had apparently attempted to gain weaponry from the Training area.

Jaixen watched as the Warriors used various weapons, such as blasters, swords, daggers, to kill the rebels quickly and efficiently. Hearing the door Jaixen had knocked down and finally getting time to look, several Rebels spotted the Knight and started firing their blasters towards him, but before they got off even a dozen shots, a whip flew out from the crowd and wrapped around one of their necks, then being yanked back hard, it slit one rebel’s throat while spinning his head around 360, then falling off as the body hit the ground. As the others turned to look what happened, it cracked out again, this time with the Force adding even more power to it as it slammed against their backs, cutting through their clothing and skin, throwing them to their knees.

As they groaned and stood up, turning to blast the one who had attacked them, a sword flew through the air and stabbed into one’s neck. As the last one alive turned to his comrade, an Acolyte ran through the crowd and grabbed the sword, slicing it outwards from the side of the Rebel’s neck, causing blood to spurt out over the warrior’s body as he brought his blade to the heart of the last rebel.

The warrior put his foot to the Rebel’s chest and pushed him off of his blade, then wiped it off slowly and sheathed it before turning to Jaixen. The warrior had silver hair that was down to his chin with a dark midnight blue tenchcoat around him with silver buckles, as well as a tight black T-shirt underneath and baggy black pants. As Jaixen tried to focus on his eyes, the Acolyte ran a hair up his face, slicking his hair back with a few spikes on top, revealing a black blindfold over his eyes with a silver symbol of Arcona. With a movement of his hand, almost the entire force of journeymen moved beside him and aimed their various weapons at the Krath.

Jaixen smiled at the Obelisk, sensing his abilities as a Leader already. Twirling his saber into view, the Obelisk moved his hand down and the others calmed.

“Nice to see a Knight showing up finally.” Said the Warrior

“Name and PIN number.” Stated Jaixen

“Kryd’r Ircor, 6970.” Stated the Acolyte

Jaixen smirked and nodded. “Nice job handling the rebels.” He complimented before turning to the entire group. “I need all of you to gather as many weapons as you can carry, the members of Battle Team SoulFire are planning a defensive maneuver within the Hangar Bay and we need more help to keep them back once they arrive. I’m recruiting you all.”

The crowd cheered and then began grabbing weapons from the large stockade within the Training Bay. Holding his hand out, Jaixen used Telekinesis to bring a bundle of Trip Mines to his hand. He had plans for these as he pocketed them.

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The preparations were well underway. Soulfire Strike Team were the front line of defence for the clan, and although the current unit hadn’t been together long, they were each acting like seasoned veterans, even the Journeymen and Ethran was pleased, though he’d never let on.

Sashar approached him with a grin on his face. “Sarge, we’ve hit the motherload – There’s another E-Web stashed in the Troop Barracks. I’ve sent Kieran and Kale to set it up down the hall from the Hangar’s entrance, so if they make it out we’ll catch them without cover. It’ll buy us a lot more time and rack up a hell of a kill-count.”

“Good. Any other sparks of tactical genius?” Isradia queried dryly.

“Actually, yes. The second E-Web will fall quicker than the first; it doesn’t have a shield generator. We rig it to blow with a simple overload command into the Generator then abandon it, letting the dissidents try and use it against us. It’ll take another 5 or 6 out at least, meanwhile we could set up two ambush positions; one opposite the non-functioning lift down to the sub-level, another in the bottle-neck between processing and the security checkpoint. When they move around to the north of the Mess Hall we can catch them in a cross-fire from these fall-back positions.”

Esca grinned. It was a sound plan. “Very well, get the preparations made and have some barricades erected at these fall-back positions to soak up return fire. Is the Mess Hall rigged to blow?”

“Totally. We’ve left the injured in there too so they’ll believe it’s an area we’re trying to protect. I’m going to seal shut the west, east and south doors so that they have to get past the E-Web if they want to take the Mess Hall, however I’m a little worried that they’ll try to cut west on leaving the Hangar and maybe flank the secondary E-Web position from behind, which would effectively ruin the ambush.”

Isradia thought for a second, then drew his lightsaber and stalked down the corridor to a point between the Mess Hall and the Base Command Centre. He pulled a Thermite charge from his belt, set the timer for 15 seconds and placed it carefully on the ceiling. The two Equites quickly took cover around the corner and both flinched when the explosion rocked the whole structure. Turning around again, they were confronted with an impassable wall of rubble and pylons. The way was impassable.

“What shall I do now?” Sashar asked, almost enjoying the anticipation of a truly great fight to come.

“Come with me, we have a few more surprises to ready.” He answered tempestuously and set off for the Lift chute with the Archpriest in tow.

-=[]=-

The descent was unimpeded by the traitorous families, most having already been slaughtered by the more blood-thirsty members of the clan and their journey through the winding main corridor of Sub-Level 1 was eerily quiet. When they arrived at the Restricted Area, Sashar could have laughed aloud at his own idiocy. Ethran and the Entar had been ready to face around 20 Krath War Droids when the internal defence systems had shut down, and with them, the control unit for the droids. Most of them were undamaged. Swiftly, the pair of Equites slipped amongst the droids, switching them to independent sentience instead of being extensions of the Base’s computer and security system.

“Droids, activate.” Esca barked, and the hunched over killing machines straightened, their purple eyes all focusing on the Obelisk.

“New Orders: Kill anyone not from Clan Arcona using stealth and evasion protocols and defend this level of the base to the best of your ability.”

The droids silently nodded in affirmation and spread out through the level, finding hiding places to launch an ambush en-masse should the Rebels make it as far as the first sub-level.

Satisfied with the handiwork, the pair headed back up to the Ground Level to make sure the rest of Soulfire was carrying out their orders.

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The Exarch walked with purpose through the bases hallways, barely noting the sounds of gunfire and battle nearby. These simplistic peasents had attacked his Clan, and those who were of his family in a way.

To say he was anger would be a somewhat lacking estimation.

Pissed off was closer to the point.

In a homicidal rage would be more appropriate.

Blood was still dripping from his robes when he entered the hangar bay, and was confronted with a scene of slaughter and mayhem. Several robed bodies lay near the center of the bay, at least two dozen dead rebels rested near them.

A few Arconan warriors had already gathered in the bay, the markings on they're robes signifing them as members of Soulfire. He had commanded them once....but the amount of time that had passed since then made him barely think of it.

One of them, the leader by the looks, a Prelate at that, noticed him immediatly.

"Who the hell are you....uhh" Ethran took in the Exarch's robes, realizing what rank they represented "Ahh, an Exarch?"

A slight smile crossed Kosk's face, he had been away to long it seems.

"My name is Koskian d'Tana.....also known as Psyko, and when the rebels arrive, you'll see why."

With that, the d'Tana cleared a spot on the floor with the force, and sat down, eyes closed and waiting for the scum to arrive.


------------------

OOC: Coming into this kinda late, sorry

The wall began to groan and crack as a 1 square foot section of it broke from the rest and bended inwards, facing the door. Jaixen placed a Trip Mine onto it so that if the door opened, it would go off.

“Are the Flachette and Napalm grenades ready yet?” Called out Jaixen

“Yup, tie the wire.” Answered Kryd’r from above him.

Jaixen nodded, then took a razor thin wire and wrapped it around a Cryoban Grenade tightly before placing it right next to the door at the base of where the wall had been pulled out, roughly a foot away from the Trip Mine.

“Okay, you need to get out of there.” Said Jaixen, watching as Kryd‘r dropped in front of him and ran out the door before he activated the Trip Mine.

As the door closed behind him, the Krath quickly ran the method through his mind. The Trip Mine would go off as soon as someone opened the door, which would set off the Cryoban Grenade, freezing everything within 10 feet of it, which would then freeze the string attached to it, making it incredibly heavy so that it pulls the trigger for the Flachette and Napalm, setting them off, catching everything within 10 feet of the Door on fire and hitting everything within 15 yards with razor-thin needles.

~Please, I beg of you, be careful, make sure that these don’t hurt our friends…~ Pleaded the Child

The Adult stared at the Child, then felt a twinge of pity in his heart and felt a sense of cautiousness and paranoia.

“Okay, remember Brothers, do NOT enter any of the Checkpoints, the Command Center, nor the Hangar, for all of their entrances are rigged to explode with Napalm, Flachette, and Cryoban Grenades.” Warned the Knight to his clansmen through the communicator for the 2nd time.

Earlier, he and the various journeymen he had come across before had visited various areas of the base, setting the same trap at locations that Jaixen thought any army would aim to take, let alone the fact that the Rebels probably believed that all the security would work for them still. After sending them away one by one as their supply of grenades depleted, Jaixen was soon left with only two warriors with him.

Kryd’r, a Protector with talent for leadership and fighting, though blind without the Force, and Eternal, an Acolyte, blessed with wisdom and intelligence, though cursed with a robotic left arm.

Both had apparently took to heart what he said about grabbing as many weapons as they could carry. Kryd’r had grabbed so many Flachette and Napalm grenades that he wore the belts like a suit, wrapped around his shoulders, chest, and stomach, one would almost think he was trying to become a walking bomb. Eternal had gotten the idea as well, but she had grabbed Cryoban Grenades, enough to fill every pocket within her robes. Both of them still had plenty of each Grenade left, even after all the areas they had rigged for incoming Rebels.

“I thank you both for your help. I will see to it that you are both rewarded for your bravery and I will see you both later I am sure.” Said the Krath as he bowed, turning towards the Troop Barracks.

“Actually, you may have to do the rewarding yourself.” Replied Eternal

The Knight looked at the pair with a questioning look.

“How would you feel about taking on two Apprentices, Master?” Asked Kryd’r with a smug look on his face.

Jaixen smirked. “Sure you can handle it?”

The two nodded, then followed him quickly to defend their base with their lives.

The Obelisk sighed deeply.

It was almost the hour of doom and he was growing tured of killing helpless people. Archean and Selene
were both following him as he took them trough sub level one, but appearantly, the droids that had once
fought them now took it all on upon their former masters.

"Whats the plan Ylith?" Archean asked and Ylith turned to face Selene and Archean.
"Well...I believe there is a spy within our mids..."
"A spy?" Selene asked and Ylith nodded.
"Explain.." Archean asked and Ylith sighed.
"Isn't it obvious? The Defenses turning against us, the re-inforcements, the time, the locations. It all fits that
there is a spy here."
"A Dark Jedi?" Selene asked and Ylith and Archean both looked upon the younger girl.
"Possibly." Archean stated and Ylith nodded.
"lets go to the main level and contact others about it. We'll worry about the intruders first." Ylith said and they
gained their way back above.

-----

"Sashar, all in ready." Kieran said and Sashar glanced grinning upon the laid out defenses. He still had to get
used to the ways of Arcona, but he found himself right at home when he had to think of the defenses that
needed to be erected from the ruins of the old inner base defenses.

Jeax and his two Apprentices, Khyd'r and Eternal, walked up to Sashar and he bowed slightly, his apprentices doing
the same.
"Sashar, all is ready. The enemy can arrive any moment now."
Sashar did not strain himself in answering other than nodding forward, telling Jeax subtle that he would want to
look forward, outside the hangar doors.

Outside of the hangar there were at least five ships thundering down from the sky, these were short range shuttles
designed to get men onto to ground on a short notice.
This also meant there was a capital ship of some sort waiting above the clouds.

Sashar suddenly noticed this and looked at Jeax. "Does this base have a bombing shield?"
"I think that one was shut down when the defenses were de-activated. But I thought I heard someone tell an officer
about sublevel 2 having an enforced layer to avoid collapsing, it could maybe withstand a bombardment."

"Go check it out. I dont want to risk us being trapped here when the big ships starts firing." Sashar said and he
turned his gaze back to Kieran. "Stall them..." the Krath said smiling and Kieran returned the grin.
"It shall be done."

-------------------------------------------------------------

PHASE 4; ENDGAME

{{{{{{ IMPORTANT }}}}}}


ok, so now the rebs are coming right at us, and by the looks of it, when we win, they'll bomb the [Expletive Deleted]
out of us. Besides that, there is a spy within our ranks.

You will all have to work on one of the three assignments. either you work on the defense, you work on
revealing the spy or you work on hiding from the bombing.

I am setting the end date a week later. So this will give you 2 weeks to post!

I will judge this time on Defensive and Strategic plans/development, Character Development and Realism.

the last one meaning that you shouldnt be all god mode, even though we're Dark Jedi. We are wounded, fatigued
and the Rebels have great numbers. Dont underestimate them!

RULES

No god mode....you're still wounded or bound by rank or fatigue, Realism people!

read before you post, dont post before you have a clue what is happening.

No Spam, Spam is instand ban from run on.

Have fun

___

for the maps , check the intro posts. medals of Phase 3 will me announced soon!

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Sashar Kodiak Entar watched Jaixen and his two apprentices go out for a moment, briefly wondering if he’d see them again, then turned his attention back to the matter of hand. The first of the transports was just setting down and almost as one Soulfire tensed – Sashar Kieran and Trepidus in the command centre and Esca, Odin and Kale in the barracks. The side-doors of the mollusc-like craft opened up and a stream of Rebel shock troops poured out. Sashar felt the mental command from Esca and barked out one word to verbalise this “Fire!”

In unison, the E-web opened up on the right side of the craft and from three different sources streams of smaller but equally lethal automatic bolts cut down the rebels in droves. With the troops pinned inside the shuttle, Sashar had time to quickly analyse the situation. They obviously had a capital ship as these shuttles were short-range, however either they didn’t want to orbitally bombard the Arcona base or they couldn’t as the ship lacked Heavy Turbolasers. If it was the latter it’d grant them a much easier time once they got into space and dealt with the threat, however the only reason Sashar could think of them wanting the base intact would be to use it as a staging area for further attacks into Brotherhood territory, in which case it’d be preferable for the whole installation to be destroyed rather than used by the opposing force.

Then there was this matter of the traitor – someone that was clever and elusive enough to be able to cover his tracks from 20 highly-trained force users and someone with high enough clearance to turn the security systems against every single member of Clan Arcona. They couldn’t be totally safe even if they did successfully repel the Rebel attack until the spies’ head was erected outside the hangar on a spear.

Sashar’s danger sense spiked and he looked up to spy a Rebel Shock troop hanging from the open hatch of a second drop-ship wielding a PLZ-2 missile launcher. The weapon spat out a projectile and it rocketed across the hangar, straight for the E-web emplacement leaving a smoky cloud of ignited propellant in its wake. The Mandalorians hand shot up and he shoved the missile away, altering it’s course into the ceiling. The explosion damaged the area just in front of the Base Command Centre, but the E-Web was intact, as was their cover of the wall – for now.

The Second shuttle set down next to the fuel canisters, partially blocking Ethran’s team’s field of fire with it’s large engines, however it was of little consequence – the obstruction wouldn’t be there long.

“Sash?” Kieran queried, momentarily risking a glance away from down the barrel of the E-Web.

“I got it.” He answered and pressed a button on the hastily customised console still operating in the Command Centre. There was a beep, and the fuel canisters erupted in a horrifically large explosion that engulfed the second landing craft with it’s doors already open and spilled burning shock troops across the hangar like confetti. The air was suddenly thick with smoke and screams of the dying but the eruption raged on, ripping apart a corner of the Hangar’s roof such was its force.

The fire from both of the Soulfire positions redoubled as the angered Rebels ran out from the cover of the first shuttle, ignoring the fire from the two positions and tried to storm the Hangar door. Most were cut down by E-Web fire or rifle fire from Esca’s team, but a few made it a few meters in – and were promptly blown up by trip mines set behind or on crates that were scattered about the Hangar floor. The series of smaller explosions added to the general confusion whilst the concentrated fire in the ‘killing field’ Sashar had devised was working perfectly.

Two more shuttles hurtled into the Hangar and set down further in amidst the inferno and Rebel troops poured from all four entrances, too many for the two guerrilla teams to be able to contain. Again, smaller explosions rocked the hangar as trip mines were set off but there were now rebels loose who were trying to stage defensive positions in the Hangar with the little cover they had and sporadic counter-fire started to bounce off the E-Web’s shield.

This new attack was quickly getting more and more fierce, and Sashar had a feeling that things would get a lot worse before they got better.

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OOC: i've taken the liberty of drawing up a map of the defences set up on the Ground Level BattleplanGround Level

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The amount of weapons fire that was being pumped into the hangar was immense. Sashar’s group was focusing the e-web fire where they saw fit, and Ethran’s group was picking off the small groups that would converge to try and make it to the hangar doors. Just then the Prelate saw a rebel who looked to be an officer type. The Sergeant quickly threw down his AXM-50 and donned his own, personalized, Xerrol Nightstinger. With the scope already tuned for a short range target, Ethran quickly found the officer Rebel and took a single shot to the head.

The Rebel officer went down as the Rebel troopers around him went into a frenzy. Ethran too that opportunity to go ahead and take out several surrounding invaders before his canister expired and he had to replace it. Putting the Nightstinger to the side, the Prelate went back to his AXM and opened fire once more. The amount of ammo they had in that spot was quickly diminishing, and there would soon be a problem if they lost all their ammo.

Looking over to Sahsar’s position, Esca saw more and more heavy fire rain upon the oncoming invaders. Suddenly Esca turned back to where he was looking before and pulled his head below the opening before it was hit by a stray blaster bolt. He needed to pay more attention, but this was getting insane. The rebels were making their way to the doors, so Ethran decided it was time to slow them down even more.

“Kale! Get me the Cryobans!” Ethran ordered.

As the Trooper stopped firing long enough to get the grenades, Esca opened a box and removed several Burrowing Detonators. He programmed them to move towards the Hangar door, stop and explode. This would hopefully take out the group forming in the corner, since both Ethran’s group and Sahsar’s group could not get to them without entering the hangar.

“Cryobans!” Kale said as he gave the grenades to Esca and picked his DLT-19 up once more.

Once the detonators were successfully programmed, Esca picked up two Cryoban grenades, set them, and threw them into the Hangar. The sleek grenades spun through the air and detonated, sending shards of an ice like substance into the ranks of the invaders. Most of them yelled in pain, and were slowed due to the sheer coldness of the shards, and the others just fell.

Ethran took this time to slide the Burrowing Detonators as far as he could towards where he wanted them to go, then saw them move on their own the rest of the way. When the Prelate looked up again, he saw a barrage of fire shooting his way. With a quick burst of speed, Esca was able to get back into his position with only minor nicks from the bolts.

A short time passed, then three explosions echoed through the Hangar followed by the sweet sound of screaming. The detonators did what they were supposed to, and the main group nearest to the Hangar doors were now scattered.

The urge to protect was swelling greatly with the Child as it screamed for the Adult to turn around and help his brethren, but the Adult would refuse to abandon his orders.

~Turn around!~ Roared the Child ~Help them! Help the wounded! Protect the base!~

~I can’t save everyone, its impossible, and even if I could, I have to obey orders!~ Roared The Adult did his best to keep his control and ignore the Child.

Jaixen rushed down the hallways, the explosions almost hurting his ears with their intensity.

Kryd’r and Eternal were following him closely, both stealing small glances behind them with each shake of the structure. They were so unsure of what to do, nervousness flowing through their bodies with every step. The only thing they knew for sure was they had to follow their Master.

Suddenly the purity of the Knight’s white hair darkened to a red hue. He stopped and turned around, facing the two of them.

“Kryd’r, Eternal, go help the Injured move from the Mess Hall to the Processing area. The Rebels don’t know the Lift is out, so they will head in the opposite direction from you, and even when they do find out, jumping down its shaft is the only way to the ground level since they don’t know about the ladder Sashar, Trepidus, Esca, and I used to get up here. Once they are all safe, place some Napalm, Cryoban and Flachette Grenades, along with Trip Mines, down the Lift Shaft, that should stop the Rebels even more. Make sure, however, you send a message to Sashar and Esca, warning them. After you have completed that, come find me on the 1st Sub-Level. Both of you, be careful and don’t get yourselves killed. You have plenty of time for heroics when your Knights.” Ordered Jaixen, his voice angry, yet sad, as if the two emotions were warring for control over him.

The two bowed slowly. “Yes Master.” Then took off as they were told.

Jyx watched as they ran, praying that they would be okay.

The crimson red faded to white, and Jaixen turned back around.

~Are you happy Child?~ Asked the Adult

~Yes…I’ll be quiet now.~ The reply was whispered.

~Good.~

Jaixen flew down the halls quickly, rushing as fast as he could as the sounds of destruction and death roared behind him, as if Rebels had not arrived by themselves, but with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War and Death fighting one another for claim over the Warriors souls.

Jaixen reached the Lift and jumped down it, landing hard and causing a small wave of air to rush out from his feet before he rushed out the door, but was quickly stopped as a Krath Droid swung into view, a blade nearly rammed into his throat.

“Good hiding place.” Complimented the Knight as he deactivated his Saber, heating the arm of the droids to red hot due to the closeness of it. The droid swung back up out of view and ready to drop down again.

Glancing around to make sure no other droids made the mistake of trying to attack him, Jaixen flew down the hallways, his hair and cloaks blowing behind him as he ran, trying to come up with a battle plan to help his friends.

Kieran watched the scarlet bolts stream out of the barrel of the heavy blaster. A continuous highway of energy ripped through crates, metal and flesh, the acrid smell invaded the Mandalorian's nostrils whilst his ear drums were assaulted by the steady rhythmic screaming of blaster fire, punctuated by screams of pain. Kieran could feel the fear, it was effervescing from the flesh of the Rebels in torrents. The fuel canister's explosion had engulfed a landing craft whilst sending another through the shock waves skittering across the hangar floor. The Protector was delighted with his handiwork, so far it had done everything that was required of it.

He spied a triage of Rebels diving for cover behind a crate, with the E-Web's blaster fire searching for them but failing to make contact. Kieran grinned widely and reached up to the control panel. He searched for the appropriate button and hit it. The make-shift claymore inside the crate exploded and shrapnel ripped out from it. The bodies sailed through the air like a majestic bird of prey to hit the floor with a thud, skidding along leaving a trail of shiny, sticky blood. The Mandalorian returned his gaze to the power readings on the E-Web, he looked up and nodded to Trepidus giving him the signal to ease off on the firing as the heat levels were reaching dangerous levels.

He handed Trepidus an AXM and picked up his own Deathhammers. They would need to wait whilst the barrel cooled, it would take no more than thirty seconds, but maintaining a constant rate of fire was crucial. The Rebels had arrived en-masse and needed to be pinned down, which meant they had to keep firing.

_-[]0[]-_

Seargent Rad Marter knew something was missing, something had stopped. He thought for a moment what could be the cause of it, he listened hard but all he could hear were the screams of the dieing and blaster fire.

That's it!

"The E-Web's stopped we need to take it out, frag grenades ready I want three in that firing slit now, Crik, Staver and Ri'Lek you throw we'll cover," the Rebel Seargent barked out his orders.

His squad or rather what was left of it rose in unison, some firing but three with grenades at the ready. Rad watched as the human Crik took a pair of blaster bolts to the neck, he screamed and went down clutching his wounds. Staver's arm was vaporized from blaster fire just as he was throwing his grenade, it fell to the floor. Ri'Lek got his away.

"Nade! Run!" screamed one member of the squad making a dash for some other cover, he got three steps before he was cut down. Rad knew better than to try to run, he grabbed the grenade and tossed it away, somewhere where it could do know harm.

Something hard hit his head, stars blossomed in his eyes and his first thought was that he had been hit, but he dismissed that knowing full well he would not be alive if that was the case. His glance fell to the floor and he noticed a smooth spherical device nestled by the crate.

But I threw that away?

Oh sh*t, that one's Ri-

_-[]0[]-_

Kieran watched Sashar grinning at his handiwork, over the now firing E-Web. He had seen the grenade floating through the air and Sashar had immediately caught it using the force then sent it sailing back towards the group, it connected with one of the soldier's heads then it had exploded. Limbs and bodies sailed through the air, ripped apart by the shrapnel and explosion.

"Gotcha," Trepidus spoke.

Kieran turned to see the stream of fire ripping into a landing craft, tearing through the wall of flesh that was a Rebel platoon who were attempting to disembark. Several dropped to the floor in fear, shocked by both the level of fire and the scene of pure carnage.

Bodies and limbs lay strewn across the hangar. Blood clung to the crates and walls having been sprayed out by severed arteries. Crazed soldiers huddled in corners, either screaming or crying softly. The wounded rolled on the floor moaning for help or for a swift end to the pain that could only be bought through a blaster shot to the head. However, the weight of numbers was proving more successful, the Rebels were pouring in, for everyone that dropped another three would appear. The Mandalorian grinned widely.

Like lambs to the slaughter.

He reached out and pressed another button and an explosion ripped out across the hangar.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bombardment of blaster bolts bouncing off the E-Web’s shield or digging holes into the wall was getting more and more intense as the sheer number of Rebels and drop-ships increased, but that wasn’t what had spiked Sashar’s danger sense – the tell-tale whine of four high-powered sublight engines abruptly switching to repulsors was.

An X-Wing dropped into view and immediately spat a torrent of hideously powerful crimson lances directly at the far wall, blasts which vaporized the duracrete as if it was so much tissue paper and overloaded the shields of the E-Web with just one glancing hit.

“Fall back! Go go go!” Sashar barked to his two apprentices as he crouched down and seized a stack of remote detonators. He armed them all in record time and looked up through the tattered remains of the walls. Trepidus and Kieran had already sealed the door behind them, knowing full-well what Sashar intended to do. Picking up the stack of det-packs, he hurled them at the X-Wing, building up an incredible speed with an added boost from the force. He didn’t wait to see the resulting explosion, choosing to instead duck down and unclip his lightsaber from his belt. The detonation was terrific: A blinding light dazzled everyone in the Hangar and the sonic clap knocked everyone to the floor a millisecond later. The X-Wing’s shields were dropped and it’s nose badly scorched, but the Archpriest didn’t want to give the pilot time to think.

With a telekinetic blast, he sent the remnants of the wall shooting out like shrapnel and sprinted on their figurative heels. He got a full five paces into the Hangar before throwing all his remaining force energy into a lunge/jump that shot him the rest of the distance into the air and landed just in front of the cockpit atop the X-Wing. His lightsaber came out and plunged through the transparisteel canopy and through the plasteel of the pilot’s helmet. The X-Wing lurched and almost as a finishing touch Sashar decapitated the R5 unit nestled in behind the cockpit before he lost his balance and plummeted to the surface, a good 15 meters below.

He landed heavily, losing his lightsaber somewhere in the fall and groaned aloud – the fall had forced all of the air from his lungs and he was sure a couple of ribs were cracked, but that was nothing compared to the X-Wing, which shot overhead and crashed into the Hangar, destroying three Drop ships in the blast and incinerating anyone in the cavernous wreckage of a room.

He lifted his face from the dirt and was greeted by the business end of an A295 rifle and was vaguely aware of other rifles being levelled at him in a loose circle…

-=[]=-

As soon as Sashar jumped Esca knew what he planned. He pulled Kale and Odin away from their positions and gestured to the door.

“Come on, get to the fall-back position; I’ll handle the E-Web.”

They both gave a crisp “Yes Sir!” and raced out of the room with their Sergeant hot on their heels. Seconds later a deafening explosion rocked the entire facility. Ethran grinned despite it all; he loved being in the thick of it like this.

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Both of Jyx's apprentices were heading for the Mess hall. They were not sure exactly what to do, except they needed to help get the injured people to the Processing Area. Kryd'r didn't know about Eternal, but he would most definitely rather be fighting instead of saving people. These two were some team. A Miralukan, deeply within the force, blind without it, and another, a woman, whom had a metal arm. There were only three things on Kryd'r's mind. Saving the children, getting Eternal back to Jyx safely, and killing. Although he loved the feeling, the adrenaline rush of combat, saving people was just as important, especially Eternal. If they were both to be Jyx's apprentices, then they would be getting to know each other quite well. Through his 'sight', by use of the force, he could sense incredible potential within her.

Kryd'r snapped back to reality, as he heard someone up ahead.

"Wait, Eternal.......I hear something." Kryd'r said, turning his head to the left, allowing his ear to face the corner.

"I don't hear anything." She exclaimed quietly in his ear. Although he did. Cries of anguish and pain, coming from inside the room they were outside of. This must be it, the mess hall.

"Eternal, we are here. The mess hall is within here." Kryd'r said. Through a normal person's eyes, blood could be seen everywhere, as well as bodies. Through the eyes of this Protector, blood, life force, and The Force, could be seen. None very strong overall, though. "There is no one to worry about fighting within here. We just need to enter, take them up to Processing, and return, to finish the job. You up for it?" Kryd'r said as he looked at the young girl. She stared back, with intense eyes.

As they entered into the hall, a slow, evil smile crept onto Kryd'r's face. Although he wanted to help them, there was some strange satisfaction he got from hearing the screams. Something hidden, primal, simple, but there, and strong. He could smell the blood. To him, it smelled sweet as the fresh air. How he longed to kill just a few.

"Kryd'r, Kryd'r, snap into it!" Eternal was yelling. The wicked smile left his face, as he looked around.

"Sorry, let's get moving." He said, as they set to work, helping the people move.

"All people capable of running, stand up, everyone else, don't move." Kryd'r announced, as he looked around. Not many stood up. He could sense fear, strong and oh so pleasing to the sadistic Miralukan. He was somewhat of a creature to be feared. Standing 6'4", skinny, but rather imposing. A long trenchcoat covered him, and as he turned, also did it, to reveal the whip at his side, and the sword at the other. Even from the other apprentice, he sensed a tinge of fear. Fighting back his animal instincts, he started picking up people by the shoulders. A total of 4 others stood to help. As the 6 people capable of running sprinted back and forth from the Mess Hall to the Processing Area, he could sense the enemies getting closer. He had faith in his fellow warriors though.

As they entered to take the last of the injured from the mess hall, he saw a man in the corner. His Force was leaving quickly. He wouldn't last. Kryd'r looked at him.

"How do we help him, Kryd'r?" Eternal asked. Kryd'r had one way in mind.

"Grab the others and go. I will be along soon."

"We need to stay together."

"Just go, Eternal, I will be there soon." Kryd'r said, not taking his 'eyes' of the man laying, slouched over, clutching his stomach. "GO!!!" Eternal turned, carrying a child in her arms. The blood slowly dripped, and hit the ground. Splash....splash....splash....the pleasing sound to his ears. The same insane smile crept over his face, and he turned to make sure they were all gone. It was him and the wounded man.

"Hm....what to do, what to do." Kryd'r said, rubbing his whip, as he unraveled it, letting it hit the ground. He cracked it once, as his back faced the man.

"Help.......me....ple...." The man started, although couldn't finish. Kryd'r's whip gashed open the man's throat, as his blood ran down his shirt. The recoil of the whip slung blood on Kryd'r. He wiped the blood off his face, licking his fingers. He bent down to the guy, hearing his bleeding, and heaving moaning, as he was in great pain. Kryd'r wanted to help, although his baser instincts wouldn't allow him. Whip after whip, the man was getting severely gashed, and blood was flying everywhere. A lacerating crack of the whip cut open the man's stomach, as the guts rolled onto the floor. The breathing stopped, and the Force had completely left the innocent victim.

Kryd'r turned, and walked out of the Mess hall, heading for the Processing area. He took out the black cloth that held his hair in a tail, and let it flow over his blood covered face. As he entered the area, Eternal turned to look at him. Her eyes widened.

"What happened!"

" The man didn't want help. He fought back, quite vicisiously. I had no choice but to 'subdue' him." Kryd'r said.

"What now?" Eternal asked. "Do we bomb the shaft?"

"Yes, after we warn Esca and Sashar." Kryd'r said.

The Knight jumped up to the shaft of the elevator reaching the main floor.
Leaving his apprentice and best friend behind to check out on the situation and checking also of someone needed his help. He moved his way to the corridors as blasts folled the air and a subtle shift in the temrature gave a slight impression of the explosions full force.
"Ylith!" a voice suddenly called from behind, Archean and Selene had followed him up.
"Master, we thought it would be best to stick together." The girl said with a slight smile. Ylith knew she felt for him which thrived her to go to him. He would deal with some of her weaknesses soon enough, while on the other hand, he liked it.

His attention went back to the present and he nodded slightly. "Lets check on Soulfire, your team needs you Selene." Ylith said with a faint smile, he didnt like to leave her behind like that, but he knew Sashar could use al the help he could get without any limitations.

"Master, you go to defend the base, I will find some of my Battle Team." she said and Archean smiled slightly.
"So she is calling the orders now eh Ylith?" Archean said with a smile and Selene blushed when the thought occured to her.
Ylith waved away the comment and smiled, "It shows determination, which is good. Just be careful." He said the last words softly and Archean sighed.

Selene left off and Ylith and Archean moved auickly to the Hangar bay, or what was left of it to assist Sashar and his team, hoping that he was not to late.

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Sashar rose shakily to his hands and knees and every one of the Rebel troops around him tensed.

“Get on your feet! Hands on your head! Comply! Comply!” They barked, and Sashar couldn’t do anything but obey as two of their number yanked him to his feet. He was utterly drained both physically and mentally, and he hadn’t the power to oppose them any more – he’d done his best for the clan, but his job was now over.

There was one last task he needed to perform, however. With the last of his force reserves he placed himself into a Hibernation Trance and dropped to the floor as he drifted from consciousness, dimly aware of shouts of surprise coming from his captors.

-=[]=-

Captain Greflanx was pleased. His Squad had been tasked with securing the surrounding jungle around the facility whilst the majority of the troops poured into the Hangar. Frankly, if he was perfectly honest, he was pleased that he hadn’t been assigned to the first two waves. Almost 90% of them had been wiped out by various ambushes just taking the Hangar, and he was damn sure these Dark Jedi would have more surprises in stall before they finally gave in. This Force user would be the perfect excuse to get out of harm’s way and back up to the command ship.

He warily approached the crumpled form clad in tattered grey robes and cuffed his hands behind his back, then when he was sure that the unconscious force-user was indeed out cold, ordered two of his men to pick him up and take him back to the Drop Ship.

-=[]=-

Ylith and Archean turned the corner just in time to see Soulfire squad setting up their second ambush. Ethran grabbed his Aediles’ arm and urged him back around the corner.

“Bad Idea. As soon as they open that door, it’ll trigger one of Jaixen’s bombs. Wait a few first.”

Arch and Ylith reluctantly held back, knowing that every second could cost Sashar his life. There was the sound of a door opening, a trip mine activating and then a series of varied explosions, coupled with an inhuman symphony of screams. Ylith closed his eyes and grinned, relishing the sound of suffering as it echoed down the hallway, carried on by a wave of intensely hot flame, a shower of eviscerating needles and an intense breeze of sub-zero air caused by the cryo-ban.

He and Archean stepped about the corner and sprinted down the short hallway, stepping over the remains of what had seconds before been yet another crack squad of Rebels – and straight into a stylised vision of hell.

The Hangar was a mess. Walls through to the Troop Barracks and Base Command Centre were for the most part disintegrated. Crates and parts of ships were strewn about the once-polished floor. Then there was the smell. It was burned flesh mixed with burning petrol, the fusion of hair and clothing to skin and the floor, and of spent blaster rifles exploding in the users’ hands such was the heat of the explosions. Parts of wrecked drop-ships lined the entrance to the Hangar, and a R5 units’ flower-pot head lay on its side, it’s light long since extinguished.

The pair of Knights ran through the still-smouldering chamber and stopped at the Lip of the hangar, just in time to see a lone drop-ship heading back to orbit, whilst a fresh batch were heading back down.

“He’s on that ship, isn’t he?” Archean murmured, and the Valheru merely snarled in reply; he hated to lose.

“C’mon, fall back to the main facility so we can help Soulfire mount a defence.”

But both the Aediles knew that this was just a stalling action. Sooner or later the rebels would get through and pick the Dark Jedi off, one by one.

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The sound of the explosion echoed down the corridor to the fall back positions.

Looks like they're coming.

Kieran drew his Deathhammers and crouched down behind the barricade. He cleared his mind of any thought and concentrated in the task in hand. He was in the second of the two fallback positions and his escape route took him out into the jungle. There he had been instructed by Sashar to look after Trepidus, although a stronger Jedi than himself did not possess the same level of knowledge Kieran possessed when it came to operating in such conditions; in fact he was the weaker of the three with Selene also accompanying them. In his time of Dxun, Kieran had been taught many things, but what counted now was his harassment tactics training and his survival skills.

"They're coming," Esca reported over the comlink.

Kieran stood calmly aiming out with both his Deathhammers waiting for the first rebels to come into view. They would not be so brave as the first waves, they had taken a pounding and would be wary of any trap. The E-Web standing alone in the corridor invited any soldier to speculate that a trap was likely. That, however, did not matter, they would have to come, it was the only way through.

And when they do, I shall be waiting, arms open and welcoming them

A head peered round the corner, glancing to the left towards Kieran and his group, his mouth opened in shock but no sound came out. A blaster bolt struck the man in the back of the head and he slumped forward, the back of his head smoking. Kieran looked across the room to see Esca, standing, the barrel of his weapon smoking and a small grin across his face.

"Down, duck down," Kieran said, dropping to a crouch behind the barricade.

"Why? We should stand and shoot them as soon as they come round," Selene asked.

"No, they had no idea we're here so we may as well keep it that way. We'll wait until they are engaging Esca and his group, then we'll pop up and hit them, couple of frags silently down behind them," replied Kieran searching for the grenades.

"A good idea, we'll catch them off guard," Selene nodded agreeing with the Mandalorian.

"Here, you two do it, I don't have the control over the force you do, I'll push it too far," Kieran spoke handing out a grenade each to the two Jedi.

They took the devices nodding silently and settled down to wait. They couldn't see anything but could grasp a good picture of what was going on through the force. The Rebel soldiers down the corridor were bathed in fear, their comrade had just been shot and were being ordered in. Kieran could feel their uneasy anticipation as though he was going through it himself; although to an extent he was. Blaster fire erupted suddenly and a strong sense of excitement and enjoyment erupted from over where Esca and his team stood. It was apparent that the Rebels had rounded the corner, he could hear their screams now, pain and fear came through strongly and Kieran grinned.

He needed a good look to judge when the moment was right for them to strike. He peered over the barricade and took stock of what was happening.

At least two Rebel squads had taken up position behind the E-Web and were currently powering it up to be used. They were firing heavily at the rest of the Soulfire team, it was apparent that they were struggling under the sheer weight of fire that the Rebel squads were unleashing.

"Now seems a good time, you're looking at two squads so make sure the grenades land far enough apart to cover them both," Kieran informed them before dropping down.

Trepidus and Selene rose above the barricade and tossed their grenades, they used the force skillfully to guide them to their destination and then ducked down. Two quick claps signifying the exploding grenades echoed into the hallway. The sounds of screaming ensued which brought a smile to the Mandalorian's face, his plan had succeeded.

He rose to fire.

Selene stood up next to Kieran, the Valheru sword Ylith had given her glowing at her back. The Guardian’s green eyes were blazing as she realized that she was becoming more and more like her Master, the painful screaming of the injured Rebels would have made her sick to her stomach mere months ago, now it excited her.

A quick nod from Kieran indicated that they could start their end of the battle. Selene was grateful that she had teamed up with Kieran, it was good to have someone with her that knew how to handle these conditions. The Guardians and the Protector started firing at the Rebels, trapping them between Soulfire. Selene felt her Valheru genes fueling her need for bloodshed.

As the first of the rebels reached them she pulled her sword from its sheath, the aura empowering her. The Valheru girl jumped onto the barricade, Trepidus at her side. Neither of the two enjoyed firing at the Rebels, instead wanting the battle to be close and personal and bloody, very, very bloody. Selene brought her sword around and hacked the head of the closest rebel clean off, relishing as she heard the subtle “thud” as it hit the floor, before moving off the barricade and entering the battle on her own terms. Kieran kept firing behind them, his Death Hammers providing much needed cover for the two Guardians.

Her mind filled with all training she had received from her Master, how to attack without opening her own defenses, how to use the sword as an extension of her own body instead of a randomly attached part. She ripped two more rebels apart with her sword before glancing at Trepidus and watched him covering himself in the blood of those he had taken souls from.
”Selene, behind you!”
The girl felt the presence of a rebel close behind her, just as Trep warned her, and brought her sword around in a quick flash, cutting his stomach open and watching as the man screamed in agony as he collapsed to the floor.

The two rebels squads that had come at this end of Soulfire was slowly being decimated, their blood flooding the floor around the troopers. The Guardians taking care of the rebels coming at them while Kieran kept firing and taking out those further away. The rebels were pinned between the Soulfire members and as Trepidus pushed his sword through the last of the attacking rebels, the comlink crackling with Esca's voice.
"Good job all of you."

”Selene, come back here, Ylith will tear us apart if you get hurt!”
Selene smile at Kieran, knowing that his fear was very real, and returned to the safety of the barricade with Trepidus following close behind her.

”What now?” Trepidus asked, breaking the sudden silence punctuated by the occasional moan from a body that had not yet given up.

"Now, now we wait, these positions are not meant to be held for a indefinite period of time, they are merely there to slow them down, when they come we fight, next time they'll be more clever," Kieran explained.

"Most likely, that's two squads we've ripped through and not taken any casualties," replied Trepidus.

"You forget, we have, Sashar has captured, no matter how powerful you can be, he is up against a Rebel strike force," replied the Mandalorian gravely.

"He'll pull through it," Trepidus replied.

Kieran merely nodded and looked across at Selene, the Guardian stood staring fiercely out into the room. Her face and hair shimmered under the lighting and splashes of blood were drying to her hair, face and clothes, creating damp clots in her hair and tarnishing her Jedi robes. She ignored it, her entire focus devoted to the empty space around the E-Web gun, it was as though she was willing it to be filled with Rebels for her to lay waste under the edge of her blood stained sword. Kieran had seen such lust for battle in others, he himself at one point. Trepidus was different, a visage of pure calm and inner reflection, he was clutching an AXM rifle to his chest, his index finger resting on the trigger.

Kieran detested moments like these, moments of boredom, the mind tended to wander and focus was lost, which inevitably got you killed. His teachers had told him the best thing to do was to focus on the plan, pick holes in it or improve it. The Mandalorian had already identified one major flaw, the positions of the barricade ment that stray shots from either side inevitably crossed over to the firing positions, it would have been better in hindsight to place them at an angle to each other. However, the moment for planning was done.

Now we fight.

"If they come close like that again, try to draw them closer so they can't use their rifles and blasters, we don't carry lightsabers so deflecting blaster bolts cannot be done," Kieran warned the pair.

They nodded, too deep in thought to take real notice of what he had said. The Mandalorian wondered if they had seen any real combat before this day, he was after all the newest recruit on the Soulfire team. That fact did not bother him, time spent in the brotherhood could teach you certain things, but the knack for killing and surviving takes a life time, Kieran had already spent a life time killing.

"They're coming," Esca reported over the comlink.

Kieran delved deep inside him, extending his senses through the force and sure enough he could detect them, but these troops were different, they didn't radiate the fear and anxiety the past few squads had.

"Esca, these lot aren't scared," Kieran spoke over the comlink.

"Aye, most likely a commando unit, they'll be good," the Seargent warned them.

There's nothing more than I like than a challenge.

The Mandalorian drew his blasters and raised one, aiming for just in front of the corridor's entrance. Sure enough, a soldier darted out, he got three steps before Kieran's Deathhammer answered his plea for his life to be ended. Two bolts flashed out, one passing over his shoulder the second catching him in the shoulder spinning him. Trepidus AXM finished him with two shots to the chest, but before any celebration could be lived the rest arrived.

They erupted from the corridor like lava from a Volcano's crater, spewing blaster bolts left and right whilst running to take cover. Kieran recognized it as a well practiced and effective move, the blaster fire to pin the Jedi down whilst they established themselves. Again, they attacked with two squads, each one taking a firing position. Trepidus' AXM was in full flow, red bolts lanced out bouncing off the barricade, others flying over and the occasional one hitting a Rebel. The missed shots still had their effect, encouraging the Rebels to keep their heads low. Unfortunately they did not oblige the young Jedi and returned fire with gusto, partly motivated by the congratulations and rewards they would receive for bringing down a Jedi, and partly for a more sinister reason; revenge for their comrades' lives.

Revenge is a powerful motivator in the right hands, especially in my hands.

The Mandalorian's Deathhammers answered their blasts, fired in accurate but rapid shots. He allowed himself little time to aim, but saw a pair of bolts connect with a man's face, melting the flesh and bone to send him toppling backwards, face smoking. Kieran's face lit up with a malevolent grin, which turned sinister in the lighting and red glare of the blaster bolts, enough to give the bravest of children nightmares, but that was what he was; a Rebel's worst nightmare.

Kieran was waiting behind the corner, his touch with the force telling him there was someone coming and Esca confirmed
it. The commlink cracked as an explosion told Kieran, Trepidus and Selene that it will be a hard time. Esca tried to say
something but due to static they couldn't hear it.

Kieran moved around the corner, stopping just in time as he met a saber tip almost full on. The blood red blade
resembled his Master as the Obelisk Knight watched the Mandalorian with suspision.
"And why are you?"
"One from Soul Fire." Archean suddenly said from behind the knight and Ylith tilted his head back a bit, facing the other
Aedile. "Do you train your men to die so easily?" Ylith said as he lowered his saber and de-ignited it.

Selene walked to him, bowing slightly then hugging him.
Ylith smiled slightly but then held her in front of him. "Now is not the time Selene, quick, go with them to Esca, Archean and
I will fend them off as long as we can, tell Esca he has about twenty minutes tops to set up a nasty surprise.
"Yes Master." came the reply from the girl who was covered in blood, Ylith smirked and looked at her knowing that she
was becoming like him, and he enjoyed it.

Kieran nodded and Trepidus and Selene began geathering their weapons and supplies to transfer to Esca.
"So whats with you and Selene?" Archean asked suddenly and Ylith held a grin.
"We were more before she joined the Brotherhood Archean."
"Another one?"
"If you are referring to that bitch of a wife I had...I suggest you drop it."
"She seems to look like you."
"It's the sword, her genes are transformed by wielding it. Just like they did with mine." Ylith said, his eyes going to the
corners, watching the open hallway and the trembling sound of many footsteps all simultaniously.
"Do you love her?" Archean asked him and his gaze turned to the ground.
"She fuels me with emotions of the Dark Side, she has an impact on me."
"I'll take that as a yes.." Archean replied dryly, the two brothers of battle laughing as the Rebels came into view. When
they saw the two Knights laugh they were confused and held their guns high.

"Dark Jedi! Surrender and face a quick death!"

The eyes of the Valheru shifted into a state of insanity and madness while Archean touched the force, watching trough it
as he had no eyes to do so.
Archean dashed forward and Ylith followed, they knew their combat skills, tactics and agility with almost pinpoint precision.

The Sith Aedile of Galeres pushed his foot against the wall, reaching into the air while Ylith jumped trough laserfire,
scorching his robes even more than they already had while jumping into the mass of the squad.

Archean reached the Knight's side and both ignigted lightsabers, both slashing trough the tender flesh of the Rebel
host. Ylith and Archean took wounds from laser fire, but nothing directly serious. As the last member of the Rebels was
cleaved in half, Both Ylith and Archean fell on their knees, heavily fatigued, undernourished and in pain.

While breathing loud, Archean spoke. "Ylith...How...How much can we have..?"
"We...have to buy...Esca some time...We must hold!"

"Battle brothers untill Death eh Ylith?"
Ylith smiled and reached out with his hand, meeting Archean's within the air.
"Untill Death..."

Explosions, rumbles, screams, nothing short of horror came roaring through the Sub Levels, echoing in the ears and minds of everyone.

Jaixen had arrived on the 2nd Sub-Level just a short time ago and was talking with one of the Engineers, asking how much the levels could take as far as damage and as soon as Jaixen had heard that the Levels could easily take nearly anything the Rebels most likely had, he quickly began to plot out how to help his brethren survive the threats brought against them.

Calm was his mind at the foremost, the Adult thinking of a solution, trying to find a way to carry out his duties, efficiently and quickly.

Anger was in the back of his mind, the Adolescent thinking of the attack, hating his enemies and the spy who wished their death, trying to think of the quickest way to kill them all and make them pay.

Fear was in the deepest part of his mind, the Child quivering, shaking, praying that his friends were still alive, hoping they would all be okay, thinking of how to save his comrades from harm.

His thoughts turned to his apprentices and he hoped that they were okay. If someone had hurt them, he would exact his revenge upon everyone that was related to whomever did it.

Thoughts turned towards the battle on the Ground Level. He knew they wouldn’t be able to last much longer in there before they retreated to the First Sub-Level.

~Sub-Level One…~ Murmured the Adult within his mind. ~We barely have any defenses beyond that of the traps I laid within the doors of the Checkpoints and the Droids…Once they get past that, we have nothing to fall back onto…~

Suddenly a ringing sounded in Jaixen’s mind and he held his forehead for a second before a voice spoke to him.

~This is Kryd’r reporting to every member of SoulFire. Eternal and I have placed Trip Mines armed with Napalm, Flachette, and Cryoban all along the Lift Shaft, but they are not activated yet. When all the Ground Level forces have retreated down the Lift, please simply use the Force to activate them so when the Rebels attempt to follow, they shall see what fools they are for thinking us to be so easy to give chase to. Thank you and Good Luck to all of us.~

The message was weak and almost whispered, Jaixen could feel that Eternal had lent Kryd’r some of her power to get the message to all who needed to hear it.

~They must have been too afraid of messing up a plan of Esca’s or something, so they combined their power to send out a warning message…~ Said the proud Adult. ~Kryd’r, Eternal, come down here to the 2nd Sub-Level, quickly!~

Soon after sending the message, his two apprentices arrived beside him, each must faster now after planting almost all of their bombs.

“Good job, both of you.” Appraised their Master as he smiled at them before turning his attention to the large crowds inside of the medical and storage bays, where they had all stocked up on supplies. “Status report?”

“All of the injured are now safe Master.” Replied Eternal

“Good, Esca and the rest of SoulFire?”

“Fighting hard and implementing all available tactics to defeat the enemy. They are holding up relatively well, but will be retreating soon most likely to the 1st Sub-Floor.” Reported Kryd’r

“We shall have to hurry then.” Smirked the White Knight before raising his voice so all could hear. “Attention please! From what my Apprentices have informed me, the battle on the Ground Level is about to be lost and the fight for Sub-Level One shall begin soon, so we need to move out, quickly.”

The crowd began to part as Quejo and Ktulu made their way through it, walking up to Jaixen.

“Hello there, Jaixen I believe it is now?” Questioned Quejo before receiving an approving nod, after which he continued. “Do you have any specific orders or ideas from the Ground Level in which to act on?”

“Unfortunately no Sir, but I have a strategy if your willing to listen.”

“They’ve worked before, so why not now, go ahead soldier.” Nodded Quejo

“I suggest we take half of all the Arconans who possess Sabers, along with every other warrior that wields long-range weaponry, and head to the upper Sub-Level in which we can meet up with our brethren to form a Last Stand against the enemy rebels, for if they get onto the 2nd Sub-Level, it will be nearly nothing short of a massacre with no where for us to run Sir.”

Quejo nodded. “Why the gunmen? Why not everyone?”

“Well, first of all Sir, sending everyone would be a bad idea because we might need reinforcements or something. Having everyone at the front lines wouldn’t help us very much in the long run. Second of all, we can’t rely too much on Melee Combat Sir, there are too many of the enemy. Also, I have an idea.”

“Go on.”

“As I said, we send half the Saber-wielders and all of the gunmen to the 1st Sub-Floor to stage a fight. Now, soon after the battle has started, the Rebels should begin to move forward in an attempt to push us back, in which someone from the Level will contact the Saber-wielders down here. They shall then begin to cut out sections of the floor with their sabers. Doing this will kill many Rebels simply with the Lightsaber blades, but if the section cut out is large enough, a whole grouping of rebels may fall, in which all the Melee warriors left behind can quickly rush and dispatch them.”

“Sounds simple enough, but could it work? It would take quite a while to cut through the floor in certain areas.”

“Then simply start now, yet stop before anyone pierces through, and also you could leave some so that when a Rebel steps on it, or so many stand upon it, that it drops due to the weight. Along with this, you can place small explosives in certain areas to set off once the signal has been sent.”

“Master, Sir!” Suddenly exclaimed Eternal

“Yes Apprentice?” Asked Jaixen

“Master, the Krath Droids on Sub-Level One could be programmed to stay in hiding for as long as possible until the signal is given when the Rebels begin to proceed further, that way we hit them with explosions, gunfire, falling floors, sabers cutting through the floor, and droids attacking from behind them all at the same time, it should create even more disorientation within them.”

Jaixen smirked, proud of the idea his Apprentice had suggested.

Quejo turned to Ktulu. “Any thoughts?”

“I’m up for anything at the moment. I say let’s try it.” Said Ktulu, slightly looking up at the ceiling, as if trying to pick out places for the strategy to be employed.

“Okay then. Ktulu will stay down here and help out the proceedings here, I’ll go with you and the others to the upper Level and prepare.” Quejo stated as he turned around. “Okay people, you heard him! Everyone who is proficient with a long range weapon, head to Sub-Level One, everyone who prefers Melee, stay here. Ktulu, I’ll let you handle separating which Saber-wielders to send up.”

“You got it.”

Quejo raised his voice once more. “Everyone bring as many weapons as you can! We have to get maximum firepower not only for ourselves, but for the coming members of SoulFire!”

Jaixen thought for a moment as a Child‘s voice whispered in the darkness, glanced to his apprentices, then turned to Quejo. “Inside of the Weapons Lab there should be dozens of high powered shields and weapons, if experimental. We could use those.”

Quejo smirked. “Also, I need a small group of Guardians and Hunters to go to the Weapons Lab and retrieve anything you think could be useful!”

Jaixen looked back to his Apprentices. “I want you two to go as well and arm yourselves. See if you can find any Personal Shield Generators for yourselves.”

“What if the Rebels come down before we get back? Should we still try to get to you?” Asked Kryd’r

“I’m sure you both can handle yourselves, just be careful. In fact, here.”

Jaixen held up his arms in front of his chest with one palm on top of the other, then pressed all 5 fingers onto the palm of the other hand. A soft hiss was heard and suddenly the skin-tight material of Jaixen’s gauntlets loosened, nearly sliding off his skin with the weight of the metal. He then took it off and handed his right one, the Cat-Claw Blade, to Kryd’r and the left one, the Flat Blade, to Eternal.

“Use these to protect yourselves if you run into any trouble. The armor is durable and be able to take at least a few hits for you.”

“Thank you Master.” Both Apprentices replied simultaneously.

He helped them put each on and activated them, the material once again becoming skin tight against their arms, making it nearly impossible to take off. He showed them each of the pressure buttons and what they did.

Quejo looked to Ktulu and nodded as the last of the Knights were split in half. Both sides were ready.

“Shall we go Sir?” Asked Jaixen

“Immediately. Let’s show these bastards the power of Arcona.”

Kryd'r looked to Eternal, and the gauntlet on her hand. He smiled, and looked as his. The cat-claws were perfect.

"Ready, Eternal, and others. Off to the weapons lab." Kryd'r said. Eternal nodded. They headed off towards the weapons lab. This was his thing. He loved weapons, more than anything. Hopefully, he would find a new weapon. He didn't know if eternal like this mission or not, but he hoped so.

"Kryd'r, look for a weapon for me as well. I have heard of a prototype weapon called the Kusari-Gama. If you find it, bring it with you for me." Jeax rang into Kryd'r's head. That would be fun. They walked, for what seemed like forever. The two apprentices of Master Jaixen, along with a group of other Hunters and Guardians. Finally, they reached the weapons lab. The only thing Kryd'r could think of was the glorious weapons all around. He saw any type imaginable. Kryd'r looked towards Eternal. Her face showed she was enjoying this as well. The first objective of Kryd'r's: Find the Kusari-Gama. Unfortunately, he didn't know what type of weapon it was. He looked all over.

"Hey, what are you looking for? There are all sorts of weapons everywhere." Eternal said.

"The Kusari-Gama. A weapon Master Jaixen wants us to look for."

"What type is it?" One of the other soldiers asked.

"I don't know. He didn't give me any deta....." Kryd'r stopped in mid-sentence as he looked towards a case, glass, with a weapon in it. The weapon was a sickle with a 2 foot long hilt and 2 foot long blade that has a 17 foot long chain attached to the base of it, a disk attached at the end of the chain, with the chain and hilt of the sickle colored silver, the blade of the scythe colored black, and the disc colored red. The chain is wielded by throwing out the disc, which has Force-activated vibro-technology incorporated into it to make for cleaner, yet deadlier, cuts, and then either gripping the chain and swinging it in various manors, maneuvering the scythe to control the chain’s movements, using the Force, or a combination of the three. Under the weapon was a plaque. The plaque simply read Kusari-Gama: Experimental.

"This....is.....incredible!" Kryd'r said, looking at it. He had never seen such a weapon. Although this weapon wasn't much use to him. It wasn't his type. Oh, well, if that is what Master Jaixen wants, he is getting it. Kryd'r drew back his right hand and was ready to smash it, when one of the other Guardians yelled.

"Don't!! It is experimental, it could kill you if you used it wrong."

Kryd'r let out a laugh that chilled the very souls of the others around him.

"It isn't for me. It is for Master Jaixen, and he has enough skill for this." Kryd'r said. The Guardian that first spoke up, shut up. Kryd'r's hand smashed through the glass, as it hit the floor and shattered. He reached in and picked up the beautiful weapon. "Awesome, purely genius." He said, as he tucked it under his belt. He looked around as other people were watching him.

"Come on, get to work, grab as many weapons as you can!" Kryd'r yelled. The rest snapped out of their daze and grabbed as many as they could. From blasters, to swords, to small personal sheilds. He looked at Eternal, as she had several guns, and quite a few other weapons. She also had a small energy shield on her right arm. Now it was his turn. Kryd'r grabbed 3 blasters, and put them in his belt, 1 Vibro-sword, several small bombs, and a personal shield for his left arm.

"Everyone ready!" Kryd'r yelled, looking around, as every person was equipped with several weapons. "Eternal, lead them, I will bring up the rear." Kryd'r said. Eternal nodded, and led the group out of there. Kryd'r bringing up the rear, turned one last time to see if there was anything else of interest for him. Just as he was about to leave, he saw a weapon that caught his eye. It was a whip, also in a glass case, showing it too, was experimental. The whip had a metal alloy handgrip, and a 12 foot hardened leather tail. The tail was coating with something. He hacked into the computer to the side, to find out what he was looking at. He found it.

Shock-Whip
A whip that was created through master craftsmanship, and a little Sith Alchemy. The tail is coated with a chemical that allows electrical energy to remain on it.

The metal alloy handle stores an energy cell, which is activated Via the Force. When activated, an electrical shock is sent along the length of the tail. When cracked, the electrical shock would be shot out in an arch the way it was cracked.

CAUTION: EXPERIMENTAL PHASE 3 of 4

This was what he was looking for. He smashed the glass and grabbed the whip. He then rushed out the door, to catch up with the group.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the hibernation trance, one wasn’t really aware of anything – it was even extremely rare to dream. However, Sashar knew when to wake up. He was just being dumped in a cell on board a capital ship vaguely reminiscent of a modern Star Destroyer. If he had to guess, he’d estimate an Acclamator-class Troop ship, Clone Wars vintage. That meant Arcona was in one hell of a pickle.

An Acclamator-class Republic Assault Ship was able to hold 16000 Clone Troopers (or, Sashar guessed, the equivalent in New Republic troops), and had 12 heavy Turbolaser cannons – it was also the first ship reputed to be able to execute a Base Delta Zero on a planet, which meant Orbital Bombardment was a very real possibility.

It was therefore imperative that he escape and do as much damage as possible. Sashar knelt down and tilted his head slightly, momentarily ‘slimming’ his hands so they slipped through the cuffs, grinning as they clattered to the floor, and closed his eyes. Dipping into the force, he stretched out as far as he could, feeling the flow of many minds about him gathering surface impressions and thoughts from the various guards – most of whom were bored with their current assignments and wanted to be part of the battle currently going on planet-side.

It took Sashar a while, but he was able to locate a particular mind from the rest of the guards and other prisoners; the guy in charge. Sash willed him to come check on their latest captive, and grinned as the bored officer complied and started down the warren of tunnels towards his cell. The Mandalorian kept up the pressure, never relenting until he stalked into the cell, and in blatant disregard to military doctrine, entered alone. Sashar released his mental hold over him and smiled politely. The officer looked a little confused as to why he was in the cell, and more importantly why he was alone. He quickly regained his bluster.

“You’re in a lot of trouble, many of our troops have fallen because the likes of you.”

Sashar smiled warmly at the man, rose from his knees and palmed the man in the chin, snapping his jaw together and momentarily stunning him. He yanked the holstered blaster from the officers’ side and pressed it to the man’s temple whilst sliding behind him.

“Right, you know the situation: I’m a big bad spoonbender with a blaster pressed against your neck, one twitch of the trigger and your grey matter will be evaporated before you can even process it happening. Don’t get me wrong, I will kill you given half a chance, it’s been a whole 3 hours since something died because of me and I’m getting quite bored, so you’re going to be a good little guard and open my cell door and we’ll have a talk with your friends at the security station. You’ll lead us down and out of here and you’ll communicate with the other officers only when I tell you to, I don’t want you to even look at them, oh and don’t try any tricks – I can see everything you can think and will know almost before you do.”

The officer gulped in reply and together the pair stepped out of the cell. The alert was immediately raised and Sashar had blasters trained on him as frightened officers tried to react to the unusual. It was a tense few minutes, but Sashar and the officer arrived at the security atrium to find at least 30 troops levelling their blasters at him. He could hear voices behind him and knew there were more in the narrow tunnel. There was also a pair of auto-turrets aiming down from the ceiling at him, but they were hardly the vicious versions he’d recently faced in the Arcona Base. He almost laughed out loud when he saw them, but kept his expression in check and shouted to no-one in particular “My Lightsaber or his head becomes an interesting stain on the wall.”

Nobody moved. Sashar nudged his captive and he shakily gave his consent.

“G-give him the weapon.”

Sashar was almost visibly relieved to spy the weapon being removed from a locked container in the corner of the room, and thrown over in his direction. He caught it with the force and moved it to his belt without letting go of his captive. This was definitely going to be the hard part.

“Okay. New orders. Move.” Sashar injected as much authority as he could muster into his voice and was both surprised and pleased to see the officers directly in front of the main doors slide away, granting him access. However the victory was short-lived. The doors opened and a further 10 troops marched in, solidly blocking his passage.

It was almost with a tinge of regret that Sashar opened himself fully to the force, shot his captive in the head and shoved the body forward with an augmented arm, then drew his lightsaber and waded in close.

The next few moments were a blur – the room was far too crowded for blasters to be of much use once Sashar was amongst the throng before the door, and the only evidence of his passage was the eerie cyan blade scything around, spinning, weaving, feinting and slashing through the guards before they could bring their weapons to bear.

As soon as Sashar was near the door he ceased the attack and dove through the opening, sprinting away from the melee with a force-powered speed, batting a droid from his path without so much as a second glance or faltering step. He didn’t care where he went, he simply ran, tearing down corridors and tunnels, taking random lefts and rights until he found himself alone.

A myriad of consoles were beeping quietly before him and a 3D map of the ship, whilst others clearly displayed power level for the main generator and how they were divided into different peripherals of the ships such as engines, weapons, and shields. He was in a power-distribution node.

The Mandalorian studied the readouts carefully and made sure to dedicate the approximate locations of all the vital points of the ship to memory from the map and grin as the final pieces of a plan slotted together. The Arcona summit would love him for this.

Sashar carefully disengaged the safety overrides and pumped all reserve power into shields, then smashed every console and display in the room. He then proceeded to the next Power-Distribution Node a quarter of the way around the deck towards the rear of the ship and smashed those controls too. In total there were 5 places in the ship where power distribution could be changed; three nodes, engineering and the bridge. His plan was dependant of him having the final call on that, which meant he needed to leave the bridge for last.

The other power distribution node proved more problematic. They’d given themselves enough time to get a squad in position; all with A295 Rifles levelled at him. Sashar swore. He’d never be able to dodge all those blasts, or deflect them all; not from 8 rifles in such a restrictive area with little cover.

This left only one option: one he’d have preferred not to call upon. He stayed just around the corner from the presences and closed his eyes concentrating hard on the lighting in the corridor. The lights running along the ceiling flickered and abruptly exploded , dropping the lighting to that only provided as backups along the sides of the walls. With his preparation done, Sashar slowly stepped around the corner with his hands already raised.

“Your Sabre! Throw it to us!”

Slowly, the Mandalorian lowered a hand to his belt and unclipped the weapon, then with exaggerated care bitched it only halfway between him and the blockade, it’s tip resting at the edge of the long shadow cast by the light behind him.

They all stood, a little unsure as to what to do, but Sashar had closed his eyes, letting him fall into a familiar force-trance, one which he’d been practicing for weeks in the seclusion of his retreat on Sukhar, but one he was far from being confident with. Shadowcrafting was much more…intricate than simple force use, it was almost elemental and played about with some pretty mind-altering stuff. It was in Sashar’s eyes also firmly unclean in terms of the art of engagement and, Clan identity or no, he felt like it was sullying the glory of warfare with its use. He’d definitely have to intensify his training in the more standard areas of the force if he ever got off this ship alive, merely as penance.

He’d chosen to follow the “Outer Darkness” path when he embarked upon his studies of Shadowcrafting, and one technique he’d paid particular attention to was the ‘Touch of Darkness’.

Slowly, almost leisurely, a pitch black tentacle rose from the Mandalorians’ shadow, writhing in slow motion as it reached its full length of 3 meters. The troops were mesmerized by this shadow gaining a life of its own, but the speed at which it moved was almost too fast to register. The tip of the shadow-tentacle snatched the lightsaber from the ground, activated it, and swung in a broad horizontal swipe, filleting the four front troops. Before the other four could react, the tentacle had vanished and the weapon was falling back to the floor.

But it never hit. Sashar was there, the weapon landing neatly in his hand and in three strokes; he felled the last four troops.

He marched into the last Power Distribution Node and trashed every single console and display, making sure that nothing was easily repairable, and proceeded down to engineering, however he knew as well as whoever was captaining this boat that his next destination would be engineering and that there was only one way in or out of such a vital area of the ship so it was more easily defendable.

However, Rothna Engineering (the subsidiary company of KDY that had designed and built the pre-cursor to the Star Destroyer) had never designed the Acclamator-class Assault Ship with a heavy mind towards rogue Jedi running about the place, as it was widely assumed that Jedi would be fighting with the clone troopers during the war as they were the sworn protectors of the Republic.

There was nothing in place stopping Sashar from cutting a hole in the decking a floor above main engineering, and dropping into the cavernous room amidst all the half-set up defences and milling engineers and troops, blazing cyan blade in hand and a wicked glint in his eye.

“Hiya fellas.” He said amicably.

There was a startled silence before pandemonium broke loose, and the next few minutes were a blur. The azure blade ripped through the air, through the troops, through the engineers, through the consoles, wreaking havoc in a matter of seconds, and Sashar was moving almost too fast to follow. The was totally immersed in the force and was moving with such offhand grace and precision that it was almost a pleasure to watch him dance through the space, boosting himself off consoles, pirouetting through the air, swinging the lightsaber about him in an artful display of skill and form IV acrobatics.

Then, almost before he knew it’d started, time slowed and he found himself standing in the flickering light of several partially-working displays. One light fizzled and exploded out from the ceiling in a shower of sparks that stung the sweat glistening on Sashar’s face. He was panting, his shoulders rising and falling rhythmically as he slowly turned about on the spot, surveying the carnage. It’d been a long time since he’d gone into the zone like that and he had to admit, it was hellishly fun, even if the cost was tens of sentient lives. They knew what they were signing on for when they joined the crew of a Warship; it wasn’t anything personal, just war.

Sashar chuckled at the irony of his own thought process and retraced his tracks back towards the detention centre; he needed access to that turbolift shaft if he wanted to reach the bridge.

-=[]=-

Analysis: They know I’m coming, they know that I can cut through floors to avoid traps so they’ll make sure to protect the lower level too, and I can’t pull another lightsaber stunt, which leaves only one option: maintenance crawl ways.

Sashar’s mind ran through the possible scenarios like a veteran combat computer as he climbed up the access ladder inside one of the Turbolaser chutes. He knew very well that the chances of him actually making it to the bridge were slim, and the chances of him even pulling off the entirety of his plan were even more slim (positively anorexic in comparison), but if this ship was allowed to stay in orbit the battle was already lost. 20 lightsaber-wielding force users were a force to be reckoned with, to be sure, but not when compared to 16000 troops. And even if clan Arcona were able to hold the base, this ship could pound it flat via orbital bombardment.

No, this ship had to be dealt with, and this was the only way Sashar knew how. He reached the maintenance hatch above the bridge level and forced himself into the tight conduit, instantly wishing he was shorter and had less broad shoulders, but still squirmed in fully, following the contours of the passage for a good hundred meters. When he finally reached the vent directly above the main atrium before the bridge, he cursed under his breath. Arrayed directly beneath him was an E-Web cannon and a good number of troops erecting a solid barricade, and the blast doors to the bridge were already sealed. He could probably deal with all that, but would get cut down when he started slicing through the blast doors by the other forces they had to call upon, which meant he’d need to find other means of entry; unfortunately the vents didn’t allow humanoid passage anywhere near the bridge.

Annoyed, Sashar retraced his scrabbling through the vents and exited two decks below the bridge and typed in a query to the nearest work station. The captain of the ship had finally sprung into action and presumably moved most of the crew to more secure locations – Indeed, as soon as the Mandalorian exited the turbolift shaft the turbolift itself swept past him and from the sounds emanating from the other shafts, the other turbolifts were all being summoned to a nexus point presumably so that the tubes could be locked down.

Sashar found what he was looking for and proceeded onwards; following the directions the helpful computer had given him to the key to gaining entry to the bridge in a way they’d have not even considered.

-=[]=-


Captain Terrl, an aging Duros, was captain of the Prosecutor, an elderly wreck of an Acclamator class troop-ship which should have been decommissioned with the fall of the clone wars, but still the venerable ship was held together with the pride of her crew and the good fortune of not having seen proper combat in at least 10 years, instead it spent its last days carting around troops to different hot-spots about the galaxy. However, Captain Terrl was not a bad leader of his men. He knew his job was vital, just as his ship was, as there were few ships still in operation that could hold so many troops.
However, he also knew the damage a single rogue force-user could wreak. He’d been on Bpfaash when a rogue Dark Jedi had gone ape-[Expletive Deleted], he’d seen the damage they could cause and knew that this was in all probability his last flight with the Prosecutor; he knew that the ship probably wouldn’t survive the next few hours and the lives of many brave men and women would be lost because of that idiot sergeant’s bringing the captive aboard – obviously a Trojan Horse if ever there was one. That, in Captain Terrl’s mind, made it all the more imperative that they get as many troops onto the ground as quickly as possible so that their sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.

It came as no surprise, when saw a flash of light in his peripheral, and turned to the viewport to see a figure in an EV suit wielding a cyan lightsaber that was cutting through the Transparisteel. There was an explosion as it breached and the shards exploded outwards, many of them catching the figure and almost dislodging him, but he was relentless. Showing an inhuman strength he pulled himself through the breach and dropped to a crouch. The blast-shield dropped down over the gaping hole before any of the crew could be sucked out and the intense whistling stopped.

Terrl let go of the hand-rail he’d been gripping and prepared for the worst. The bastard had come in through the viewports. His hand blurred to his side, age not slowing down his once famed quick-draw…

-=[]=-

Sashar’s wrist flicked and the two security officers standing by the door were thrown against the wall like rag dolls. The numerous shards of transparisteel that had lodged themselves in his suit hurt like hell, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that; he had to take this ship down now.

With another flick of the wrist, the door controls were pulverised. A blaster bolt caught him square in the shoulder, spinning the Mandalorian about and to the floor.

Pain lanced through him even more, but this was perfect, it’d give him the opportunity he needed.

He was instantly surrounded by the other security officers, each levelling a blaster rifle at him and a distinguished-looking Duros stepped up, holding a still-smoking blaster pistol.

Sashar allowed his lightsaber to be taken from him and winced as they roughly stripped the damaged EV suit from his battered form. He’d been through a lot in this conflict, gained his fair share of scars, and he hoped it’d prove to his Clan mates once and for all that he was a stalwart, even if he was new.

The Duros Captain waited patiently until he was completely devoid of the EV suit and his hands were cuffed behind his back with 4 officers each with their pistols levelled at his head. He then spoke quietly, calmly.

“You are an intruder on this vessel. You are one of the people we have been sent to kill and I bear no shame in saying that I was expecting to die when you came onto my bridge. Yet you were stopped. Not by another lightsaber wielding youngster such as yourself, but by an aging old space-farer. This must tell you that the will of your ‘force’ is not one of subjugation and destruction – at least not of this ship.”

Sashar smiled as the captain spoke, and replied with a casual, relaxed voice.

“3 things. Firstly, 4 guards to halt me? [Expletive Deleted F-word]ing insult. Secondly, cuffs didn’t hold me before; they sure as hell won’t now. Thirdly, I was never brought down by you, old man, I was just being polite.”

Sashar’s hands twisted violently as he warped the cuffs subtly so that they no longer fitted around his wrists. His hands splayed out to either side and all four of the weapons were swept away. The lightsaber was yanked from another officers’ grasp, breaking a few fingers as it went, and then he was off.

Time seemed to slow about him as the blazed hissed and snapped through the unlucky few next to him, and then he was darting about the bridge too fast to hit with a blaster, mercilessly killing the crew until less than 10 seconds later there were only two figures still standing: Sashar and Captain Terrl.

Terrl knew the Mandalorian was making a point. Slowly, assuredly, the Mandalorian approached the Captain, his archaic weapon humming beside him and Sashar smiled.

“You are a warrior, captain. You have led this ship well, I had a hard time reaching you and you have nothing to be ashamed for dying at my hand. You never failed your men or this ship by not beating me in single combat, and your accuracy with a blaster did you credit, but you are an old warrior. I will grant you the death you deserve and hope you appreciate that it is simply your time to go.”

The blade slashed horizontally, decapitating Captain Terrl. Sashar then set to work. He disengaged the safety settings on the engineering console that usually warned the crew well in advance if the reactor was going critical and then moved to the tactical console. He raised all the shields and shunted full power to them, then instructed the Turbolasers to fire on full power non-stop at an unremarkable point on the planet’s surface. The power spikes went through the roof. He then accessed the Hangar Bay controls and overloaded all the mag-con fields, effectively exposing the Hangar deck to an explosive decompression. Thousands of troops and support personnel and military materiel and droids were yanked from the huge deck that spanned a good portion of the ship. There was a shockwave through the force as the lives extinguished en-masse, and in that single act Sashar Kodiak Entar killed more people than the whole of his Clan had through this entire operation.

Those lives that were left on the ship, those that were ‘fortunate’ enough to not be on the flight deck would be dying soon anyway. The huge power-drain on the main reactor was having precisely the desired effect: the Reactor had overloaded and was in the middle of a core overload. If Engineering had been staffed they may have averted this chain reaction, but Sashar had already dealt with that. Nothing could save the ship now.

Sashar finally moved to the helm console and pulled the hulking craft from orbit, aiming for a point in the great southern ocean, and set the engines on full-blast. The ship lurched into action, hitting the atmosphere with a titanic crash with an angle far too steep to be healthy. Escape pods blossomed from the hull like insects from a kicked hive as the ship stabbed deeper into the atmosphere of Gethsemane, but there were plenty that were trapped on-board.

He locked in the course and hopped up to the gantry and gazed out of the viewport, watching the hull of the craft glow orange as it tore through the upper stratosphere. Whole sections of armour plating peeled back under the intense friction and assorted detritus fell from the ship. Gradually, Sashar’s viewport was filled with blue as the doomed craft plunged deeper and deeper into the planet’s air, leaving a trail of burning fuel and debris in it’s wake. Then, with a shudder so great it dropped Sashar to his feet, the ship hit water. The nose plunged straight in, sending giant waves out in all directions. Slowly, almost gracefully, the bottom of the craft slammed into the water and immediately the already-decimated flight deck flooded, gobbling up water and dragging the once-great craft down.

As the ship slowly started to sink, dragged down by it’s own weight, Sashar queried the computer as to the location of the nearest life-raft and was pleased to see that there was an emergency survival kit just down the hall. He quickly cut through the sealed doors and found the corridor deathly quiet, the troops long since running to the escape pods.

He sized the kit from its position mounted to the wall and jogged to the airlock, cycled it and breathed the fresh smell of Gethsemane’s salty ocean. He was however somewhat alarmed to see the water slowly snaking up the neck of the command tower – it’d only be moments before the rest of the ship was submerged.

He inflated the raft in mid jump as he leapt from the stricken craft and landed into the water with a slap, adding yet another stinging blow to his already considerable list of injuries. The raft had fully inflated itself, and the Mandalorian heaved himself onto it, being careful never to let go of the survival pack.

There was still a very slim chance he would survive. The ship, even though it was now underwater and probably would stay there for the rest of its days, still could explode due to the overheated reactor which could cause a tidal wave enough to take him out, and even if that didn’t occur, there was a good chance Arcona could still be overrun by the Rebel forces already on-planet and never find him. But for now, there was nothing more he could do.

He activated the emergency beacon, recorded a short message identifying himself and lay back in the raft, enjoying the near-silence and the sun. He drifted off into a well-earned hibernation trance, reminding himself to wake up when he needed water or protection from the elements.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ylith grabbed his shoulder as Archean went around the same corner he had only moments ago. This became
a very tricky situation, according to some of the senior officers cursing and shouting orders, the mother ship
of the rebel invaders was brought down swiftly by the hands of a Dark Jedi. Ylith closed his eyes and got a
smirk on his face that animated his amusement over the trick Sashar pulled off only slightly. Archean smiled
also but slowly lowered himself, allowing him to sit against the cold steel wall. Ylith remained upright, often
peeking around the corner to see where the Rebels were. They were still trying to remove the blockade of
bodies the two Knights had piled up. To Ylith's amusement, the pile always got bigger when they found one
of the few mines Ylith and Archean carried and hid between the cold and lifeless human hosts.

"So Ylith... - The Sith said catching his breath still - how on earth are we going to hold them off any longer?"
"No clue, I heard Esca's group is retreating with Selene's squad, and..." suddenly the Obelisk's mind shot
to memories of the message Kryd'r gave to every Dark Jedi in the base. The shaft was rigged with explosives
and when Esca's team retreated the bombs would be activated.
"You don't think they forgot about us...do you?" Ylith asked glancing at his friend and Archean looked back at
his friend, or at least tilted his head to his, as his eyes gave him no sight.

------=[]=------

Selene moved trough the shaft downwards, noticing all sorts of explosives set by the two apprentices. The Valheru
Girl got worried now, such an explosion would be devastating even to those within the first of the sub levels. She
moved trough the tunnel and when she reached the ground went straight to Esca, but before she could reach him
the Leader of Soulfire Strike Team made a swift movement with his wrist, the force arming every explosive with each
their own beep.

"Esca no!" Selene shouted and Esca looked questioning upon the girl, in her eyes he saw the same shape as Ylith's
and suddenly his mind spoke before she could.
"Ylith is still up there?"
Selene nodded, acknowledging Esca's statement. Esca cursed to himself and to the fact that two valuable Dark Jedi
Knights were now locked on the Ground Floor.
Esca touched the force, reaching out for Jeax's apprentices.
Is there any way to de-activate the mines and explosives after they are armed?

*Negative -Kryd'r answered, using a large amount of strength to do so- They cannot be disarmed once you set them.*

"Esca, what about Ylith and Archean?" Selene asked almost in a panick. Esca shook his head.
"They are as good as dead.." Remarked the commander coldly, moving away from the Valheru girl, shouting
orders to set a defensive perimiter, ensuring a last stand against the Rebel opposition. Word from a plan Jeax
had invented already reached Esca and he made plans to ensure the plan would be a success, already startting
preparing everything for nearly every flaw and worst case scenario they could guess.

Selene grabbed her Master's Valheru sword tightly, the blue flaming aura engulfing her, she now felt close to him
and probably this was the last time she could.


------=[]=------


Bleeps sounded trough the air and when Archean and Ylith both heard it wasen't from the pile of bodies they
collected, they sighed deeply.
"We're trapped."
"Well observed, for an Obelisk." Archean said with a smirk and Ylith sighed deeply once more.
"I didnt think the 'until death' vow would go into office right now." Ylith said with a hint of regret in his voice.
"We die an honorable death, for our clansmen and their future, that is worth everything, even our lives!"
Ylith smiled at his friend remark and offered his hand to lift him from the ground. The two Vasarius brothers
strode forward to the pile of bodies, thinning rapidly. Suddenly Ylith pulled Archean to the check point Selene,
Kieran and Trepidus were at not to long ago and hi smiled broadly.

"Whats going on Ylith?"
"Mandalorian fit Battle Armors, probably brought here by Kieran. Or they were here before and they aren't even
Mandalorian at all."
Archean laughed but grabbed a torso armor and replaced his outer robe with the armor, Ylith did the same and
the Obelisk made a grunt of dissaproval but knew he had to wear the armor for his own survival, if there was even
a chance for it.

An explosion suddenly sounded and the pile of bodies was scattered all over the place. Ylith and Archean both
ignited their sabers, the Sapphire Blue and Ruby Red blade's in perfect contrast to each other, fighting along
side trough the mists of warfare and explosions. The two Jedi dove into the group of Rebels, Lightsaber's whizzing
around their bodies, mustering their last shard of strength their body provided them with. Even though their
number was greater, the destruction of their capital ship by the hands of one single Dark Jedi broke the morale
of every Rebel soldier.

The rebels fired at will, the red lasers flying trough the air, cutting trough iron and flesh as they even sacrificed
their own to get the two Dark Jedi. The knowledge the two Vasarius had about each other now reacher their
climax as they preformed excellent battle manouvres within their limits of power and strength.

Ylith threw his saber to Archean, jumping away from fire as he grabbed a blaster from fallen Rebels. He used
the gun to fire at the Rebel host. Archean grabbed the Red saber and threw it at the feet of the Rebel host.
The Obelisk turned the gun into repid fire, and used the force to fire with a high accuracy upon his Red blade.

Rebels with energy shields now came forward, protecting the gunmen from any opponent fire. Archean and Ylith
both anticipated this. In training with the Grand Master Royal Guard, they have learned how to dispose of them
in multiple ways, this was one of them.
The Saber fell simply on the ground, blade still active trough the force, the Obelisk shot rapid fire shots at his
saber blade. The blade reflected the Knight's fire to the enemy, a low deflection caused the shots to be aimed
under the shield of the shieldbarers, causing them to fall down or to die instantly. Archean now landed near the
Red saber, kicking it up to meet with Ylith's hand as he jumped towards Archean, both now chopping their way
trough. Suddenly the Rebels retreated and before Ylith and Archean could wonder they suddenly saw why. A
gun similar to the E-web stood into place, manned instead of automatic, the turret startted to fire at the two
Knights. They Defelected turret fire as much as they could, but as Archean barely got around the corner, Ylith
was shot badly in the back, the armor he wore shattered, his flesh burned.

The Obelisk was thrown forward, into the wall, knocking him out instandly. Archean knew his friend was still
alive, but to the outside world he was to be announced dead. This would probably save his life, but Archean
now stood alone, facing the Rebel host. Archean grabbed a small communicator, hoping that Esca could create
a second entrance to the first sublevel but the Sith cast away his fear of death as he had to warn them about the
turret. He just hoped he would not be too late to warn them before he would be killed.

With a wave of his hand, Quejo lifted the floor from one wall to the next up and curled it forward before stopping, making a little “trench” for his warriors to hide behind. He then did the same thing twice behind it, making three rows.

“I want powerful Force Users and medium to long range weaponry in the first two rows. Force users, I want the enemy attacking one another, getting shoved to the ground, having random bones broken, if you can do it, I expect you to use it. Those with longer-ranged weapons, or heavier artillery, back row. If need be, make a few more rows.”

SoulFire and the Weapon Lab group had gotten grouped up with Quejo and Jaixen a little while ago and were setting up preparations for the assault that was sure to come. They knew they had little time lift and were hurrying to make the most of it.

Jaixen touched the Kusari-gama, which had the metal chain wrapped around his chest in a large X shape with the disc at the center and the scythe equipped at his side. He had heard rumors about this weapon, how it was designed after two of the more unique weapons of the ACC, one that even Dalthid had found trouble fighting against. He couldn’t wait to see the power of this weapon.

An explosion rang out from above, shaking the ground hard. Everyone’s eyes turned to the Lift Shaft, but it was untouched.

“Someone checked the Mess Hall and got a nice surprise.” Smirked Kieran "We must have rigged it with too many explosives, I couldn't hear anyone screaming."

Quejo, Esca, Jaixen, Halcyon and Strategos smirked, shaking their heads and continuing their planning until Selene suddenly came running up to them.

“Can’t you at least try to save Ylith and Archean!?” She pleaded, her eyes almost glowing with ferocity.

Quejo turned to her with monotone voice, yet eyes that showed a hint of regret. “We can’t send anyone up now, there is no way to save them.”

“Please!” She attempted, holding the sword of her Master tighter.

The Purity faded.

“Esca. You are one of the Strongest members here. Could you not go to the Weapons Lab, telepathically reach out to Archean and Ylith, call them above you, then you all use your sabers to cut out the ceiling?” Asked Jaixen, in a soft voice.

“Yes, but would that not weaken our Troops?” Asked the Obelisk

“Yes, but I believe with the new weapons we have received, we should be able to survive without you for a little while, and the addition of Archean and Ylith to the team should make up for your absence.” Replied the Krath

The leaders looked to each other, then as the CON nodded, Esca too agreed.

“Selene, let’s go.”

Selene smiled and bowed to the warriors, then took off with Esca to the Lab as the Pure once again shined through.

“I hope you know what you’re doing…” Said Quejo

~So do I…~ Said the Adult

Suddenly an electrical hiss was heard, followed by a sound that reminded Jaixen of livewires zapping. Soon everyone’s attention was brought to this sound, heads looking around, hunting for the source of the noise until it was finally pinpointed.

“It’s coming from the Lift…What are those Rebels doing…” Muttered Quejo

Suddenly a small flash of blue flew down to the lift and hit the right corner, causing a small bubble of lightning to swirl around it.

A few warriors began to walk towards the Lift, but quickly stopped as thuds were heard, a few at first, then dozens, landing hard and fast. Like demons, Rebels began to emerge from the shadow within the Lift.

“They disabled the bombs with Ion Blasters…” Whispered Jaixen, his face and eyes filled with horror and wonder.

~Master, how could they have known?~ Kryd’r and Eternal’s voices both rang in his mind.

Jaixen’s eyes opened wide as his mind flew back to the explosion earlier, how no one had heard a single scream, and he roared loudly, “Get to your stations!” as the first blaster shot was fired.

A message rang almost mind-numbingly loud into the minds of Esca, Quejo, Halcyon, Strategos, Ylith, Archean, and Ktulu.

~The spy is still at work! We must find him or Arcona is ruined!~

Ylith laid there motionless as Archean tried his best to ward off the attackers that were making their way towards them. The Sith Aedile going through many things in his mind. He knew that soon enough he could not ward off the rebels anymore. Maintaing his focus he pushed on, his sapphire blade deflecting bolts left, right and centre, stopping every so often to see if his fallen comrade would awake. The Bruth’Kothae Sword Master had become quite fatigued from the non stop fire fight that he was in.

Come on Ylith. Archean thought to himself. Picking off rebels one by one by return laser fire, Archean bought himself some time. Archean’s senses began to tingle, a few short moments later there was life in the fallen Obelisk

“Ylith!” Archean blurted as he knelt down to help his friend. “We gotta get out of here and I think I know of a way.” The Sith said as he stabbed his saber into the floor below. If memory served the Sith well, they would be directly above the weapons lab in Sub level 1, hopefully the rest of the Clan’s warriors wouldn’t be too far. Ylith began to slowly get up, he looked to his left and saw a few more rebels charging forward, shooting in front of them, Ylith’s instinct was to reach for his saber, which he did in one fluent motion as he raised to a stance, deflecting the bolts where they came from.

“You almost done there, Arch.” Ylith asked, trying to focus and not concentration on his fatigue.
“Almost…”. The Sith brought his saber round in front of him and the circle of the ceiling quickly fell down and made a thud on the ground below.


Esca and Selene looked up to the ceiling.

“What the bloody hell?!” He said, trying to get his mind around what just happened.
“Who the hell is up there?” Asked Selene
“I don’t know and I don’t like it one bit.” Jeax quickly armed his saber, Selene raised her Valheru sword when a familiar face popped through the hole.

“Remember me?” Archean said with a smile as he saw Selene and Jeax armed for battle.
“Are you crazy? You could’ve flattened us.” Selene roared.
“Oh calm down, you.” Archean said as his head disappeared, followed by cracks from lightsabers, this time two bodies came through the hole.

“Master!” Selene called as she ran to the Obelisk Aedile. Archean walked over to Esca and began to strategize.

“Well what next?” Asked Archean

Kieran had retrieved his Battle Armour from the Weapons Labs where it had been stowed to be checked over by Arconan technicians. Kieran allowed himself a few moments to ensure it was all in working order and donned the helmet. The HUD activated in its familiar manner, still programmed to respond in the way his father had had it. The readouts from his suit indicated everything was in order. He smiled within the suit and removed the helmet blinking against the light from the outside. Kieran cupped the helmet under his arm and made his way towards Esca.

“Sir, your orders,” Kieran inquired.

“Ah Kieran, good to see you’ve got your armor, everything in order I trust?” he asked.

“As far as I can tell sir, it looks like they didn’t get round to checking it out, so it should be just as I left it,” replied the Mandalorian running a gauntlet over his torso armor admiring the smooth texture and thinking of the skill required to craft such perfect armour.

“Fantastic, you are to stand in the front row, I trust your abilities will keep you safe there,” replied the Sergeant.

“Aye Sir, I think I can handle a couple of pesky Rebels,” replied Kieran grinning.

“Good, make sure Trepidus is ok, give him something long range,” Esca added before turning away to busy himself with other defense preparations.

}-[]-{=}-[]-{

“Get to your stations!” roared Jaex as he raced back to join the line of defenses.

Kieran grinned drawing his Deathammer and raising them. His suit calibrated for the darkness within the Turbolift and highlighted possible targets, painting them in a green outline. He sighted one Rebel who was crouched on the floor after jumping down and squeezed off a trio of shots. The blaster bolts flashed out; connecting with the figure sending him soaring backwards, hammering the lifeless body into the wall with a dull fleshy thud.

Then, like a tsunami they poured forth from the entrance of the turbolift, running wildly at the Dark Jedi lines, some firing blindly whilst others with the calmer demeanor stopped to crouch and fire. The more accurate shots where deflected back by the lightsaber wielding Jedi, bolts flashed back and forth. Kieran’s Deathammers echoed as he pumped blast after blast of superheated light into the oncoming tide of Rebel scum.

The volume of fire was incredible; a passing observer would see sheets of fire rather than individual bolts. Those Jedi without lightsabers sported blasters and fired continuously, the Rebels themselves fire wildly as they charged forward, and no tactic to their assault was visible.

The first few Rebels reached the front line of Jedi. Lightsabers hummed as they seared and burnt their way through flesh, organ and bone. Limbs were severed and heads rolled on the floor. Kieran, not possessing the archaic and romantic weapon of the Jedi resorted to more brutal and less civilized ways to dispose of the enemy.

He flipped his Deathammers in the air and caught them, now holding onto the barrel. He dropped slightly and held his blasters loosely by his hips in true Mandalorian style. Had he not bee wearing a helmet all would have seen the demonic grin that spread across the young man’s face. He had been waiting to come close to these Rebels for some time, now he was going to make the most of it.

The first man came upon him, swinging the butt of his rifle in a wide arch aiming to cleave and smash Kieran’s head into oblivion. The Mandalorian’s left arm shot up, his Deathammer blocking the blow deftly, meanwhile his right arm shot out, the grip of the blaster hooking itself round behind the man’s neck. Kieran pulled down hard and the Rebel’s head came down connecting with the bent metal plates. His head exploded, blood cascaded down the metal tile but the man was still alive. Kieran could detect his life force through the force, his pain was immense and Kieran fed on it. He slammed his left Deathammer down on the back of the man’s skull, denting it; blood erupted like a primeval volcanic eruption, splashing his armour. The Protector had no time to recover before the next Rebel was upon him, lunging with his rifle, again for his head.

Kieran nimbly ducked under the blow and rose; he hooked his arm around the blaster trapping it to his side and swung out with his right arm. The Deathammer hit the man in the jaw, shattering it; Kieran let him drop to the floor leaving him there to hamper the progress of the other Rebels. The Mandalorian holstered his Deathammers, knowing clearly the remainder of this fight was to be fought in the bloody close quarters.

He activated a system in his armour through the verbal command, two long vibroblades shot out over the top of his fists. These two blades were just a small part of his suit’s sophisticated weaponry. The Hunter stared at the stampeding Rebels and sighted one, he raised his right fist and a small harpoon shot out from his gauntlet, the cable instantly began to wind drawing the man closer to him. The Rebel half ran and was half dragged until he came to rest millimeters from Kieran’s fist, the vibroblade firmly embedded in the man’s chest.

Kieran looked at the man quizzically, tilting his head to the side as a feral beast would do when looking upon his prey. He studied the man’s face, neatly shaven with a strong jaw line; he could not see the colour of the man’s eyes as they began to role into the back of his head. The Mandalorian calmly slit the man’s throat with his free blade and let him drop to the floor.

He turned back to the centre of the battle to see a Rebel soaring through the air, his face a picture of burning hatred that would make any Dark Jedi proud. Kieran smiled inwardly, both in pity and in joy, pity for the man as he made an unfortunate mistake in how he attacked this certain Mandalorian, and in joy for he would dispatch yet another Rebel with ease. Kieran raised his fists and waited calmly, sure enough the Rebel dropped onto the blades, sinking deep into his chest rupturing arteries and piercing vital organs. Kieran thought he could almost smell the contents of his bowels before he forced pushed the lifeless body off into the throng of attacking Rebels.

Kieran could see Esca’s purple blade slice through the Rebel tide that broke against their defenses. They were holding their position, through both sheer grim determination and through their skill. His gaze turned to the Turbolift and still Rebels poured out. The task seemed hopeless; they could not erect a dam large enough to stem the flow of Rebels, no matter how hard they tried.

Kryd'r watched, as he was in the second row, sending telekinetic blast towards the rebels. He wanted to be closer to the action. All of their most powerful warriors were there. He finally figured out what to do. He would go in there, and fight to the end, as he knew it may very well be near. Quickly, with a little help from the Force, Kryd'r jumped up, hitting the ceiling, and kicking off, into the middle of the rebels. This darkness bothered him none, as he didn't rely on physical sight, so much as the force. A rebel was running towards him, with a knife pulled out. Blaster fire erupted all around, and many, many bodies were hitting the ground.

Kryd'r started grabbing towards the partially blind rebels with the force, aiming for their eyes. Every time he touched one, they screamed, as pain flew throughout there faces. Inflict Pain, one of Kryd'r's favorite Force powers to use. He quickly realized that this was not the place for this, as a blaster bolt skimmed his calf. He abandoned himself to the full power of the internal animal, having no more control, or reasoning of right and wrong. The Shock Whip quickly came out, and started lashing many rebels.

Rebels were screaming in pain, as the whip, with a slight amount of eletricity on it, was ripping into their skin, right and left. Kryd'r soon became to enveloped, as he felt blood running down his back, and he quickly started loosing his energy. He would die out here, if need be. Although the pain was great, it didn't stop the warrior, as he was going to die. He was sure of it, for his clan, and for the Brother hood. He started to lose consciousness, and fell to the floor. All he could remember was a dark figure standing over him, and a blaster charging up, then a scream as the blaster light faded, and someone grabbed him.

It was Jeax. Seeing his new apprentice in trouble, he ran foward to help him. The red blade of Jeax's saber flashed as the man fell quickly. Kryd'r's light body was then lifted, and dropped into one of the pits created. Barely conscious, Kryd'r relied on the Force to heal his wounds. It would be a long process, but necassary for survival. Accelerated Healing would be his only means. Since all of his force power went towards this, he was now blind, until finished. He heard screams, blood-curdling screams that would make any man's nerves go, yet enjoyed them. To bad all he could do was lay there, unable to fight.

Jaixen breathed deeply as he left his apprentice to heal, running out into the mayhem, trying to end the fight quickly so no more Jedi were killed. He smirked as he saw out of the corner of his eye, Esca and Archean rushing into the battle. Selene helped Ylith get away from the battle, his injuries diminishing his abilities.

~How much trouble has the Spy caused us already?~ Asked Archean as his blade sprung to life again, piercing through the chest of a Rebel.

~The bombs rigged in the Lift and in the Mess Hall were all for nothing, they must have activated the Mess Hall to make us think they were successful, and they simply deactivated the Lift ones with Ion Blasters.~ Replied the Knight.

~Do we know anything about the bastard?~ Inquired Esca as he grabbed the head of a Rebel and slammed him hard against a wall, cracking his skull as his saber deflected blaster bolts.

~He has to be of a high rank to be able to get passed all the security and everything. At least above Knight. ~ Halcyon injected, running his saber through several Rebels as he spun his saber in his hand, behind his back, and all around him, decapitating and amputating Rebels left and right.

~Any ideas on how to pinpoint him, or at least narrow down the subjects?~ Asked Strategos as he used Telekinesis to lift up several Rebels and block incoming shots against him before throwing them into others.

~Perhaps we could tell different sections of the Clan different information, then whichever plan we tell them gets foiled, that would be the group with the Spy.~ Suggested Jaixen as he threw his saber through several Rebel’s bodies, then pulled it back to him through others. ~It won’t pinpoint him, but it will at least give us his general location.~

~That should work. Okay, Esca, we’re going to test SoulFire as a whole, go through Checkpoint Beta and flank the Rebels.~ Ordered Halcyon ~If this plan fails, you should be attacked or defended against.~

Esca nodded, then relayed the order to his Troops. ~SoulFire, we are to feign retreat and head to beside Security Checkpoint Beta, where I shall cut down part of the wall and we shall go through to flank them from the side, move out!~

Every member of SoulFire nodded to Esca, then feigned retreat as they ran towards the Weapons Lab.

~Quejo, warn the Knights of this level that we are going to send the Krath Droids up the Lift and that they should be careful not to shoot or harm them.~ Suggested Strategos ~If this plan fails, the Droids should be taken out rather quickly.~

~This is Quejo, I am about to send the Krath Droids up the Lift Shaft to surprise the incoming Rebels, be careful you do not shoot them or accidentally cut them down.~ Warned Quejo.

~Ktulu, tell your Knights to prepare to detonate your explosives under the Floor.~ Called out Jaixen. ~If this plan fails, the Rebels should move away from the detonation areas.~

~Okay, this is the time when we strike, we are to blow up sections of the floor and then attack the Rebels!~ Yelled Ktulu, nodding to his troops.

~We are in place Sir.~ Said Ethran.

~Do it, and try to keep tabs on how the Rebels react.~ Instructed Halcyon

Screams rang out loudly as SoulFire suddenly rushed in from the side of the Rebels, Esca in front, cutting them down left and right, leaving nearly no time for them to react.

~No defenses here Sir, it seems they were generally surprised.~ Reported the Obelisk.

~Good, I bet you’re relieved. Next, Quejo, send the Droids.~

Quejo jumped backwards, flipping over several Rebels and decapitating them as he landed, turning around and calling into the Communicator. “All Krath Droids are to go up the Lift Shaft and eliminate the enemy!”

From the back of the hallway, soft purple lights appeared as the Droids awoke to obey their Master, lights so faint almost no one could see them. Suddenly, they dropped down to the ground and ran quickly towards the Lift, staying close to the wall to remain as hidden as possible until the reached the Lift, each one quickly diving up it.

Zapping sounds of electricity were heard again and suddenly the droids fell down one by one, slamming hard into the Lift, the glow of their eyes fading.

~Now we know which group it is, the Knights up here.~ Said Halcyon.

~Perhaps we should have Ktulu activate the bombs just in case?~ Asked Strategos.

~Can you each keep track of the Knights up here?~ Check Halcyon. ~We don’t want to lose our chances by getting confused.~

~Yes Sir.~ Each of the Warriors replied, focusing on the Force Signatures of each Knight currently on the level.

~Ktulu, active them!~

~Here we go!~ Roared the Priest, warning his troops and perhaps the hidden Spy as he pushed the button, exploding several sections of the floor in front of the lift, Rebels screaming as shrapnel and fire flew over them.

Halcyon smirked. ~Most definitely not below us.~ He broadcasted a message to every Arconan. ~Full Assault, show them the great power of Arcona!~

~Keep a lookout for suspicious activity among the Knights, we still need to find out which one it is.~ Whispered Strategos as warriors flew passed him to attack the Rebels.

Ylith sat against the wall, every fiber of his body screaming in pain. He watched in a blur how the two armies
collided in the mid of the base. One thriving to take while the other tried to defend. The Obelisk's mind was
chaos and he could not find words anymore, the vision was faded and the hearing was muffled. His balance
was spinning around in his head making him feel he was about to pass out again. He purely acted on instinct
rather than trough acts of mind when he escaped the rebels with Archean on the ground floor. It fully drained
him and now he was sitting against the wall, barely able to move and about to pass out. His head moved to
the side, watching upon the familiar face of his apprentice Selene. She seemed to be shouting words at him
but he saw her lips move in slow motion while sound could be heard in the vast distance.

Ylith felt himself draining, feeling every inch of energy drawing from him. Blood loss and exhaustion made it
unbearable. He closed his eyes and didnt open them again.

Selene shouted at Esca and others, telling them he needed to go to the medical bay quickly. Halcyon suddenly
grinned and nodded. Strategos looking to Esca and nodded aswell.

"Fall back!!!" the sign was given, all personel had to retreat to the Medical bay. Most of them were amazed by the
sudden order by they all thought it was bacause of the wounded while Halcyon and Strategos had something else
in mind.

They moved trough the hallways, Archean assisting Selene in carrying Ylith to the med bay. The Obelisk Knight
had taken a beating beyond beliefs but still decided to fight on for he was still alive. Multiple explosions were set
off and most of them were extra packet with smoke grenades to make the retreat easier. While the Krath war
driods kept them busy the retreat went swiftly.

When the jedi were packed into the Medical bay some became restless while others took the oppertunity to
heal up. while they did Halcyon moved to Strategos.
"Are you ready?"
"I am Halc, have you set it?"
"Yes as soon as power is out and the lights go it it's show time, be sure to seal this place shut."
"Already taken care off" Strat said dryly and when he did multiple Knights ignited their saber and sealed the doors
by melting them shut. allowing no one out again.

Strategos closed his eyes and used Shadowcrafting, to move his shadow underneat the door towards the main
electricity panel. There the ProConsul used his shadow to pull the lever, causing the entire base to shut down
except for the medical bay.

The Jedi forces were silent at first, listening at the confusion of the Rebels when suddenly they heard a terrifying
and deep hum.
"Bees?" Jeax asked confused and Halcyon nodded.
"A secret project, meant for Biological warfare. These bee's are nocturnal, as large as your forearm and are venomous.
They could kill a small child in seconds."
"How come you didnt say before Halc?" Esca asked and Halcyon smiled without a sign of humor within it.
"There is still a spy to be taken care of..."

Ylith grabbed his head, his reaction slow, bringing his hand to his face, opening his eyes to see the blur pull away and the sight return to him. Disorientated the Knight rose from his seat and glanced around. He saw now the place was filled with people, every Dark Jedi was now in the medical bay, so it seemed. Ylith rose to his feet, holding himself up against the wall. The pounding in the head of the Knight told him he wouldn’t be any better in the following days, for even the Force could not heal this amount of fatigue and wounds of battle so easily.

Archean suddenly moved towards him, grabbing him by the arm.
”Ylith? Are you alright? You took quite a beating.” The Sith said with concern to his brother in battle. Ylith nodded slightly. “Yes I will be, I just need my second arm back that’s all.”
Archean smiled slightly and Selene was with SoulFire, the Battleteam from the Galeres house sure made an impression upon the members of the Arcona Clan, the Battleteam showed initiative, grand support and perfect tactics. As an Aedile of House Oriens Obscurum, Ylith was more than glad to have these strong hearted men and women as his ally.

Ylith collapsed, fatigue suddenly overtaking him once more, Archean at his side, holding him up. The mind of the Knight snapped back to the moment before the Rebel invasion. The morning before it all happened.

”Hey Ylith, hurry up! We’re going to be late and it’s your fault!” Archean said and Ylith shrugged as he placed his Valheru sword behind his back.
”As if they care, the Royal Guard is always late.” Ylith said and Archean laughed.
”You are one of them so you should know.”
”Shut up..”
Archean laughed and they both moved to the Hangar Bay, the first of the shuttles should arrive within the hour.
”Have you ever wondered..” Archean began, Ylith watching him from the side as he walked to a control panel to check on the shuttles current whereabouts.
”..Have you ever wondered what would happen if Arcona would be destroyed?”
”What do you mean?”
”I mean, even with the force and all we are all pretty weak when a spy comes in and messes up our defenses.”
”Oh please, as if that would ever happen, we are force users and wielders of the Dark Side. If there was a spy in our midst we would know by now.”
Archean smiled slightly, his head turning to the open hangar door, a swift breeze entering the hangar, cooling it down.
”You’re not a spy, aren’t you?” Ylith asked and Archean laughed.
”Of course not, but there are those who make you think about it.”
”Like who?”
”You know that Sashar? He is new in Arcona, and I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about him.”
”Oh c’mon Archean, he used to be a bounty hunter, and bounty hunters are known not to be quiet.”
”I just have an itching feeling something is about to happen.”
”You worry to much Archean.” Ylith said as he read the results from the panel, a slight bleep indicated that the calculated arrival time was set. It would take another half an hour before they would reach the base.

”And what of Selene?” Archean said.
”Oh would you stop that, she is hardly spy material, you can look trough her like a sheet of paper.” Ylith said laughing.
”That new Jeax character is also a bit weird, I heard him talk to himself yesterday, I think he is mental.”
”Would you stop? Man you sound worse than Quejo.”
”Hey I am just on my guard!”
”You weren’t when I met you.”
”That was different.”
”Yeah, sure.”
”I didn’t know how to suspect people.”
”Yes you did.”
Archean punched Ylith against the arm, the Knights both laughed as the moved to the Hangar door.

”Then there are Kieran, and the one they call Psyko…”
”For the love of…next you will say Halcyon himself is the spy.”
”Could be…”
”Nothing, I mean it, nothing is going to happen, I mean we are Arcona! They will have to think twice before even laying a finger on us!”
”True my friend, very true, but..”
”Want to accidentally fall out of the Hangar?”
Archean laughed and decided to keep his thoughts for himself right now, Ylith laughed by the way Archean thought so lightly over Arcona. But in the end Archean would be the one laughing.

Ylith opened his eyes and watched as Archean held him up. The Obelisk regained balance and stood on his own strength.
”Are you ok?” Archean said and Ylith nodded.
”Yeah, I am fine…and I should pay more attention to you.”
”Huh?”
”What you said in the hangar before all of this happened, you were quite right.”
Archean laughed and placed his hand on the Obelisk’s shoulder.
”Though I wish I wasn’t.”

Suddenly Strategos asked for silence and within moments the room fell silent and when it did the Consul, Halcyon, began to speak.

”Arcona, this was a time of grave danger for you all, you have survived many perils, you have learned to co-operate with each other and you have been more of service in the clan than in many times before. The weak died, the strong survived, as such is the way of the Dark Side of the Force.”

Some people started to mutter, some in protest of losing their beloved friends and calling them weak, others because they agreed with the Consul.
Halcyon raised his hand, the room falling back into a silence.

”And Arcona, I bring you news that the Spy has been found.”

The crowd again began to whisper to one another, asking if they knew who it was or if they have seen anything, once more Halcyon raised his hand.

”Everything that has transpired was done by my hand.”

The whole crowd fell into an ice like silence, amazed.

”This all was a test, a test of courage, a training to keep you active, to keep you strong and to prepare you for the very, very near future. There are many clan feuds to come, and for times like those we need to be at our best, even when unexpected. Arcona, I have to say you have done well in this, you have shown initiative, you have shown courage and you have shown that the Dark Side is one of brothers and the willingness to die defending your clan. That, my Arconan brothers and sisters, is what the Dark Side is all about. Eradicate the weak, live with the strong, and deal with everyone who oppose you.”

”What of the bees?” Esca asked while looking at Halcyon directly and Halcyon forced a grin.
”Simple, there were none. Gethsemane and it’s destruction taught us that there can be opposition anywhere that can take us by surprise, even at our own homes. You need to be prepared for this. The soldiers you fought were of the Arcona Elite, a special task force trained by Arcona.”

”And what of the capital ship above?” Kieran asked and Halcyon grinned once more.

”It was a ship filled with captives from the Gethsemane Incident. The ship was provided by the Royal Guard after they took it from the Rebels, as an exchange for bombing the moon. However, the ship was of no need for us and when the Arcona Elite left the ship they set the Rebels loose, except for the command deck. The Captain was a veteran sentenced to death after a betrayal against the Dark Side. It was all planned.”

Everyone looked amazed by the statement and Ylith smiled slightly and watched Archean.
”You knew of this didn’t you?”
”Only a little, I knew he was going to do a training, but I did not know it would be of this scale.”

Halcyon smiled slightly and Strategos added,

”House Galeres and House Oriens Obscurum had to work together now to conquer their foes. Though Galeres was far superior of that of Oriens Obscurum, the delicate way House Oriens Obscurum uses it’s men is admirable. The Battle Team SoulFire was of absolute importance during this battle, honor to you Esca, for you lead your Battle Team with a vast and steady leadership not found in many.

As for the two Aedile’s, You have done everything to keep the base in motion and to keep the members safe. Archean, Ylith, you two were like brother within the battle, and never let each other side, not even it that meant death. This has shown dedication and commitment.

Now Arcona, lets clean up this mess.”

The doors opened and the soldiers of the Arcona Elite, greeted the Dark Jedi by bowing slightly, some were still wounded while others didn’t even have a scratch. One of the Arcona Elite pushed a button of a sound device, removing the humming of the imaginary bees from the air. Ylith smiled slightly then looked at Halc.
”Have you thought of picking up Sashar?”

Halcyon looked at Strategos who shugged. Then they both smiled and went to the Hangar to get a shuttle to pick up Sashar personally.


Sashar laid back in his inflatable boat. Silently eating some of his rations while getting a nice tan from the sun above him. Sashar suddenly wondered what happened in the base. And when he searched for his communicator he suddenly heard a small plopping sound.

As the Krath looked he saw his boat was leaking air.

”A damn…”

------------------------------------------

Thank you Arcona for making this worth while. It means a lot to me.

Winners will be announces ASAP

Ylith