The hunt for the Blade Caliburnus

Ptolomae,
Dig site
11.00 hours local time
Day one

The Cocytus Sun holds watch over the jungle of Ptolomae. Slaves captured during a random and secret raid on a republic planet work under the scorning heat. During the Sixth Great Jedi War, a reconnaissance fighter from one of the other clans has crashed here and the Rollmaster has deemed it vital to regain the information. The Jedi Hunter who was given oversight over the project doesn’t like his job. The jungle is too hot, moist and he hates bugs. But a superior has deemed him suited to go here and supervise the most boring event ever so he does that. Every Clansman under his command knows that they’re here because they’ve messed up some mission or angered the wrong superior. The supervisor was sent here after he threw a locust knife down from a window right into the bark of the Rollmaster.

Suddenly a slave starts to scream, the Hunter looks towards the sound and watches as the poor man is thrown 200 feet into the air. “Those damn gas bubbles. This is the sixth worker we’ve lost in four days! I don’t want to be the one to go tell Bnar that we’ve ran out of slaves. Protector, get over here! I want you to do a recon-flight over the sector to search for more bubbles.”
“Yes sir!” the boy answered. The Supervisor starts to wonder why the boy was sent here, “Meh, he probably flew a fighter into the clan headquarters or something like that.” The second in command sneeres. He’s here because he poisoned the food of a competitor, but he spiked the wrong plate and the Aedile nearly died before he could clear out the poison with the force.

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Ptolomae,
Dig Camp
14.00 hours local time
Day one

“Sir, the recon-pilot is here.” A steward informs the Supervisor. “I asked you not to disturb me during my meal! Do you want to go help out the workers for the rest of you puny life?” the Supervisor rages.

“But sir, you asked to be notified when he arrived.”

“Oh yeah, I did. Good work steward, send him in.”

“What have you found.”

“Sir, it’s …”

“It’s what Protector? And hurry up, my lunch is getting cold.”

“I found some sort of tomb sir.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a Duracrete construction about two miles to the east. It’s no bigger than a coffin, but it seems it has been there for a few decades.”

“Dismissed Protector.” As the Journeyman walks of a plan starts to grow in the mind of the Supervisor. If he would be the one to bring the coffin to the Rollmaster he could get re-assigned to a better place. He activated the comm. And yelled: “I need an expedition team within ten minutes. Be prepared to transport an object to the HQ, no escort needed. I’ll take it out myself!”

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Ptolomae,
Headquarters of House Caliburnus
23.00 hours local time
Day Two

Ood’s pocket Holo-platform started to buzz.

“If you will excuse me Mylady Impetus, I’m vibrating.”

Ood walked to the side and answered the call standing under a banner stating: Congratulations Xen and Impetus with the promotions. As the Rollmaster waited for the connection to get established he looked to the other banner: Welcome to HC Squirrels. As the coonection established Ood saw Col. Earnie, Maj. Tina and Field Marshal Ratatosk walking towards him.

“What!”

“Sir, this is main security. We’ve got a Jedi Hunter here who says he needs to talk to you.”

“Who is it?”

“The one that threw that blade last month sir. Shall I retire him permanently?”

“I’ll take the honours. Send him to the main library, I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”

“Aye sir”

As he put the platform away, Ood stepped up to greet the Squirrel-dignitaries.

“I hope you like the accommodations Colonel.”

“Squeek, hrmmn they are acceptable Squeek”

“You must excuse my uncle sir, he’s suffering from a bad cold and his throat is very dry. Major can Tina said in response to the squeeking and coughing if the Colonel.

“Oh of course, and you Field Marshal. What’s you’ opinion on our base?”

“A bit badly defendable, but nothing the Horde can’t fix. Ah Mylady Quaestor, good to see you again.” Ratatosk continues as Impetus walks up to the group: “How long has it been?”

“Since I came here to run Caliburnus Marshal. It’s good to see you again though.”

“If you all will excuse me now, I have a meeting with a subordinate.” Ood says as he walks of towards the steel doors and into he hallway.

Field Marshal, we need to discuss the defensive situation of this location.” Impetus says to the old squirrel and they walk towards the command tower.

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Ptolomae
HC headquarters, Library
23.20 Local time
Day Two

The Room was dimly light when the Hunter finally reached it. No sign of Bnar. After pulling the coffin in the room he wanders of to go find the Rollmaster.

“What do you want!” a voice coming from the shadows asks.

“We’ve made an excavation sir. We found a Duracrete Coffin. I thought you’d wanted to see it and that’s why I’m here.”

“Where is it!”

The journeyman nods towards the door.

“Go back to the dig site Hunter.”

As soon as the man has left, Ood rushes over to the coffin and starts to translate the writings on it. “Here lies [Blurry part], Sith Lord, Ruling Quaestor of Caliburnus”

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Ptolomae
House Caliburnus Headquarters
10.00 hours local time
Day Three

“You wanted to see me Ood?” The Quaestor asks after she has entered the room.

“Yes Ma’am, yesterday we found that coffin. According to the seals it contains an ancient Quaestor of our house”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know, the name wasn’t readable. But after opening it I can ensure you it was a sith. The body was wearing a Sith armor.”

“What else did you find?”

“5 scrolls. The first is a journal. It’s last entry is: “We’ve hidden the Blade Caliburnus in the Altar. The House Elders are appointed as guardians of the temple.” Now I’ve been researching all day and all I can conclude is that the legendary blade of Caliburnus really exists”

“This is unbelievable, that blade was rumoured to have the power to ..”

“I know ma’am, but it doesn’t end there. The second scroll indicates the ritual to unlock the altar. The Third one shows an archaic map, all we have is a few landmarks. The Fourth one is a list of names of the guardians.”

“You mentioned five scrolls, What’s the last one?”

“Well ma’am, it is an ancient …”

“An ancient what?”

“An ancient Playboy ma’am!”

After a few minutes of looking at the scrolls Impetus looks at her rollmaster again: “Ood, go pack your bags. I want that blade so you’re organising an Expedition”

“Yes ma’am, I’ll make sure we have what we need. You could go find members to join our expedition, if you want?”

“Sure, you arrange everything. I’ll compose a team.”

Impetus quickly rounded up a varied squad of her members for the forthcoming expedition. Ood, and Xen topped the list, and she thought it would be good to bring her apprentice Cethgus along. The list included about 15 other people.
This blade will be heavily guarded, she thought to herself, and scribbled a couple of names of equittes on the list. She gave the list to Ood.

“Get these people ready, if anyone else wants to come along they can, we leave tomorrow at midday,” She said quickly, in a rushed voice.

“It will be done my lady.” Ood replied in equal haste.

“I’m going to sleep now, gather everyone by the entrance hall at midday tomorrow, we leave as soon as possible, take anyone who wants to come along.”

“Yes ma’am.” Ood replied and left the Quaestor to herself.

After returning to her quarters, she spent some time looking over the scrolls again. The map wasn’t very detailed. All it had was a picture of a mountain, what looked like a lake, a cave, and a small shining black structure in the centre. She marked the map, she was sure that was there the blade was hidden. Resting the scrolls on a cabinet, she drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

A bright white light faded into a short, wide, black altar. She turned around, to see Ood and Xen behind her. The next part was blurry, till a figure in apprentice robes died on the altar, a series of dark flashes, and then everything faded. A deep, slow voice sounded seemingly from all around her.

“I am Caliburnus. Find me. Free me. Restore power to my name…”

She awoke with a start. It was almost midday.

Ptolemae
Hangar bay
2 hours to deadline

Ood strolled through the door leaving the main hangar. He had been looking at some maps and no whe needed to find the Quaestor. It seemed someone had [Expletive Deleted F-word]ed up and now Ood would need to brief Impetus on the change and make the change in under two hours without having slept for 20 hours.

When he reached the door to the Quaestors office, Ood knocked and entered. Impetus was sitting on an armchair near the fireplace, her face was grim and pale. Like she had seen a ghost.

"Ma'am, we have encountered an unseen obstacle. Before I gave you the scrolls and map, i made a mental copy of them."

"I see, what's the problem?" Impetus said.

"Well ma'am, i checked the map with modern maps. We will need to set the ship down before we reach that weird rock on the map. It's the outer marker of a place called the Bloodforrest. there is no possibility to land in that place. We'll need to traverse that place on foot!"

"Make the preparations, I'll brief the crew."

“It will be done ma’am.” Ood bowed swiftly and left, fetching spare blades, blaster packs, food supplies, and anything else he could find.

It wasn’t long before the entire crew had gathered in the entrance hall. “We have encountered a slight problem,” The Quaestor began, glancing over her team. “The altar we need to find is in the middle of the Bloodforrest. There’s no chance of us landing in there. We’ll need to get to the altar on foot.” A murmur of talk broke out among the crowd. The twi’lek made a cutting gesture with her hand and the hall fell silent. “The forest is infested with wildlife. We know of Mantigrues, Kath Hounds, NightShrikes, Howlers, Nexu and Akk Wolves. There were rumours that Tuk’atas lived in the Bloodforrest. With a powerful Sith artefact like this, I wouldn’t rule anything out.” As she finished speaking, Ood and Xen came into the hall with levitating huge crates with the Force.

She led the crew round to the hangar, a Delta-class DX-9 stormtrooper transport was waiting in the centre, Vally sat in the pilot seat. “Hello Impetus. When you’re ready, load the crew on.”

“You heard him, get in the ship once the supplies are in.” Impetus entered the ship last, double checking no-one was left behind. “When you’re ready Vally, let’s go get that blade.” The ship took off and made it’s way towards the Bloodforrest.

Blood forest, "I read about it in the clan archives." meanwhile he felt the vibration as the ship slowly left the hangar..

He thought about what kind of equipment will support him in this mission. 2 Single handed Sword, a blaster pistol, food, water, cloak, 20 meter rope. He took his place in the shuttle. The safety belt tightens around his waist.

His mind slowly faded away as he focused on the mission before them. He heard the name of the destination over and over again, like a vision. During his time in the clan, he learnt not to underestimate the power of the animals and some of these animals were force sensitive, they were predators, natural killers, corrupted by the dark side of the Force. Even without feeling the force, it could corrupt them, making them more aggressive, and ruthless. Not to mention a convoy in the “jungle” is an easy target for predators.

He prepared himself for this encounter which possibly will be one of his most difficult. He wasn’t afraid, he wanted to be ready He felt as the ship changes the altitude and speeds up. It will take only some minute or hour to arrive.

Cethgus took his seat onto the ship he sat next to hiss fellow Nightmare
member, Zeron. Cethgus had his training saber on him and Zar’rok,
a prised blade. The Zabrak slowly looked at Zeron and began to talk to
him, having nothing better to do.

"How are you then" Cethgus asked.

Zeron looked at Cethgus "I’m ok I mean I am really trying to focus
on the mission ahead" Zeron replied.

Cethgus looked around the dark compartment they were in then replied.
"So have you done much lately at all" Cethgus asked.

"Not really but still this mission should get me back into action"
Zeron replied. Cethgus smiled then looked a bit nervous.

"Most of the missions I have been on with Impetus I always end up in a
whole lot of trouble" Cethgus said to Zeron.

Zeron smiled "You will be fine on this mission look at who is going"
Zeron tried to reassure Cethgus but to little success. Cethgus clenched
his fist into a ball then slowly relinquished it.

"Everything will be ok Cethgus you will see" Cethgus said in his head
to reassure himself.

He noticed Zeron making sure he was ready and decided to do the same and
found he had brought everything that he need to take onto this mission.

The clan summit sat in a separate compartment, planning the journey ahead. Xen noticed a slight flaw in the journey plan. “You told Vally to land behind that rock on the map right?” Ood nodded. “Have you compared this with modern maps? That strange rock is a long rock ridge called Anima Ridge. The only landing place is on the wrong side of it.”

“Yes, I thought we could go round.”

“Look at the size of it, that’ll take days. It’s not that high, it looks like we’ll have to climb over.”

“I’m with Xen, that mountains too wide to walk round, and there’s no form of shelter anywhere around the ridge. Let’s go over.” Impetus added her input.

“OK then, we’re going over.” Ood said while scribbling something on a datapad.

The ship started to lower into a flat space of grassland, surrounded by shrubs and high grass for miles. From above a long, thin ridge of rocks could be seen, then a seemingly endless dark forest. As the ship lowered beside ridge, the forest was blocked from site, the rocks seemed much taller and more imposing than from down on the ground.

The ridge was about 10 times as high as the average sentient being, and sloped at about an 80-degree angle. Birds swooped overhead, and a skeleton lay on the ground beside the rocks. The climb looked treacherous, but going round would take days. Once they were all out of this ship, the Quaestor began to organise everyone into a space of thin grass away from the ship

“I think we should send some equittes over first, make sure it’s safe, than they can help the rest up.” A horrible shrieking noise interrupted her. She looked up. 6 full size Mantigrues began to swoop on the group. They readied their weapons and gave each other some space.

„Why we afraid from some birdie?” Zeron pulled his blaster out of the holster. He not knows much about these beasts but they prey on smaller creatures. But he couldn’t forget this place and why they are here. Maybe they are not ordinary monsters.

“Defend the perimeter” shouted someone. Lightsabers could be heard from everywhere. Mantigrues attacked without any thinking. The journeymen were equipped with Blasters. They started firing on the creatures. 2 Mantigrues were shot down, in the first wave. They weren’t match to the power and training of the Group. Some low level Journeyman weren’t fast enough and got hit by the deadly claws of the creatures, fortunate their wounds were only minor. 4 of them still out there, and they will be back.

The tall manish creature jumped the 4 meters off his fighter like it was 4 milimeters. The step appeared natural to the dockman. He was clad in black, and nothing else was seen except glowing blue eyes. A flash glitened and the dockman saw the creature was armed with some sort of knives cliped to his belt.

"Caliburnus docks sir. How may I help you?" The dockman was only slightly less the confident. He was trying to be friendly. Only someone with house codes could land quietly, but the enemy had been known to infiltrate a few times before.

The alien humanoid lifted hands, still concealed in the flowing black robes, to his head. The Hood fell back, and the dockworker took a step back in suprise. He looked human, except his head had a giant cone on it!

The Cerean, the Caliburn dockman remembered now reading of them in his schooling of foreign races, shook his ponytail out from his robe and took a deep breath of air. The hair was in a tight braid, and a deep black pearl clasp kept it together. The braid almost touched the ground.

"This is home now?" The dockman was silent. "I am looking for a Krath Warrior, is Master Braecen near? No matter, I'll track him and the others down."

"Ya... You are..?" The dockman had no idea why he was scared, but the stutter he had worked so hard to hide since he was made fun of in grade school came back like bugs to a glowrod.

"Jedi Hunter Prajna Berkana. You have no worries. If you are scared of these:" Prajna flipped a Ryyk Blade off his belt and placed it a centimeter from the dockman's throat before he could even flinch. "You shouldn't be." Prajna reclasped his knife to his belt. "You would never know they existed if I wanted you dead."

Prajna lightly sniffed the air. "Ah, lunch time. And that is a lunch for war! I haven't eaten or killed in a week."

SW Xen’Mordin glanced around the clearing. He knew the remaining Mantigrues were just waiting for another moment to strike. With his lightsaber still ignited, he pulled out a shuriken and quickly threw it out into the forest. Moments later, a thud was heard, along with the screeching howl of one of the Mantigrues. Smirking Xen turned off his lightsaber and returned it to its place on his belt.

Xen looked at a few of the journeymen. He could tell a few were shaken up from the sudden attack. He gave Impetus a concerned look.

“You sure it was wise to bring some of these people. I didn’t tag along to baby sit this kids. We need people who can fight, think, and help us get Caliburnus.” Xen muttered quietly to Imp, while he pulled the hood on his robes back over his head.

“They will do, give them a chance Xen.” Impetus replied with a distant look in her eyes. Xen gave her a quick calculating look.

“Something is wrong isn’t it?” Xen asked with a slight hint of concern. Impetus noticed the tone.

“I’m fine Xen, but you sound worried.” Impetus said.

Xen looked around at the surrounding trees. “I just know there is a reason they call this Bloodforest. Are you sure it is worth the risk?”

“Yes, and I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life.” Was all the Twi’lek replied. Xen nodded, he too understood the feeling of having something call to him. What bothered him so much was when that had happened, it brought more pain then he ever could of imagined. Before the painful memories of the past could be brought up Xen forced them back into their cage at the back of his mind. But deep down, Xen knew that somehow the madness he fought back constantly would surface during this mission. And because of that he was afraid, afraid of what he would do.

"Are you kidding?" Prajna's words echoed across the walls of the mess hall. The place looked trashed, like a heard of kindergarteners ran through covered in finger paint.

Prajna took a finger and felt the closest food on a plate. "Still warm!" He was talking to himself, as no one else was around. Prajna whiped a chair out and started pigging out on the food. He looked off into the rest of the hall. There were at least 10 or 12 meals here. It would be a feast tonight. Then he would go find some trouble after a nap. After all, where there is trouble there is blood, and where there is blood there is fun.

Impetus’ eyes followed the Mantigrues as they flew around in formation for a second attack run. They started to slow down and gathered a lot of height, turning slowly yet sharp. As their climb slowed to a peak, they seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds. “Get ready!” Impetus shouted across her crew, igniting her lightwhip and spinning above her head.

In a flash, they dropped like a stone, curving steadily towards the group. There was a sound of simultaneous scraping and buzzes as weapons were unsheathed and sabers activated. A torrent of blasters shot towards the Mantigrues. A horrible high-pitched scream came from the left one as it dropped out of the sky, its wing torn horrifically. The leader, darker and bigger than the rest, looked down at his falling comrade for a second, then continued his swoop.

One dived straight at Impetus, the last mistake of his meaningless life. “Pitiful animal,” the Twi’lek muttered to herself in the native Twi’lek tongue. She spun to her left out of the way and allowed the whip to stretch into the dragon’s neck. The glowing red Mandalorian Iron wrapped around the bird, burning it’s throat and head. Its ear-piercing scream was cut off almost immediately, but the bird remained tangled in the Queastor’s whip. She dropped the whip and reached for her lightsaber.

Xen silently stood in the field with his lightsaber active. The calm amid the chaos, Xen remained still. Without showing any movement he shifted his weight. As one of the Mantigrues swept around and dove, Xen easily sidestepped and sliced open the side of the falling bird. Not even pausing Xen slowly made his way over to where the final Mantigrue was attacking.

As he got near, a blaster shot hit its mark, right on the neck of that attacking dragon. It fell with a rather dull thud. Xen looked around at some of the fighters, catching their breath. Still wary of what was to come, Xen looked around the darkened forest.

Faint whispers echoed across the faint breeze. Myth and legend combined to become nightmares. Flashes of world enflamed in darkness swept across his vision. Silently Xen continued to fight a battle in his mind, and one that could prove to be far more deadly then anyone believed.

BattleLord Phoenix awoke from his drunken stupor in the back of the shuttle.

"Where is everyone?!" Yelled Phoenix.

"Out here you lazy oaf!" Replied Impetus. After stretching, Phoenix strapped on his light armor, tested his lightsaber and grabbed the Phoenix Blade.

"So I miss anything?" Asked Phoenix with a grin as he surveyed the area of ravaged Mantigrues.

"No, nothing at all." Replied Xen in a the most sarcastic tone possible, "Nice of you to join us." Phoenix grinned and stretched.

"Where are we headed to now?" Both Xen and Impetus looked at eachother, then looked up at the jagged cliffs ahead of them.

"Since you were late Phoenix, I need you to take a small group and ascend the cliffs first to assess what we are dealing with here. We will then follow suit with the equipment. And do not enter the Blood forest till we
set a game plan, no going off and killing everything. Do you hear me Phoenix?" Asked Impetus

"Bloodforest?" Mumbled Phoenix as he stared at the cliffs. Uh yea, sure, no killing unless your there, got it. Take all the fun out of the job why don't you." Said Phoenix as he walked away.

"OK... You, you, you, and you. You have the honor of accompanying me up that wall there. So pack light, grab your blasters and lets have at it." Ordered Phoenix as the four young dark jedi snapped to attention. The five set forth towards the cliff's basin, staring blankly at the base. The five started up the cliffs slowly and steadily.

"Can't kill nothing, nothing here to kill anyway, sheesh. What the......?!?" As Phoenix was complaining to himself, a mantigrue jetted through the tree cover below and took out two of the young jedi, sending one screaming to a thud on the ground while devouring the other.

"Open fire you gits, don't just sit there and friggin stare!!!" Yelled Phoenix at the two newbs. Phoenix then placed his back against the cliff wall and tightened his body, ready to attack. Though poorly aimed, the young jedi had distracted the mantigrue long enough for Phoenix to attack. He lunges outward in a large arc, flipping onto the beasts back.

"Another head for my wall," thought Phoenix as he used his ancestrial blade to decapitate the pitiful dragon. He then jumped from the spiralling dragon and impaled his saber into the rock bed, grinning as he watched Impetus and Xen run for cover.

"Look out below!!" Yelled Phoenix as he pulled himself onto the summit edge.

After the last shots, everyone was scanning the nearby trees. The house summit after making sure every threat is neutralized; the leaders started shouting orders about gathering up and moving out. The Equities moved out to secure the flanks and the rear.

The journeymen were the mass in this expedition quickly organized them and headed out following their leader. The road wasn’t easy. Very hard ground slowed the moving down. But this was nothing compared to the difficulties they faced at the ridge.

No place to move the supplies and equipment with machines, the journeyman had to improvise a way to move the heavy cargo such as food, water, weapons, tools up the ridge. It was a very hard and difficult climbing. The stronger, more trained journeyman headed first to create the necessary supply points for moving the equipment up. They created elevators were nothing more then some rope, plank. Many younger dark Jedi injured during this action. But because of the perfect training, and organization they arrived to the top of the ridge in an hour without losing anyone.

The top of Anima Ridge was a mere few meters wide, the cargo perched precariously on the top. On the other side of the ridge was a flat bit of grassland that spanned about 10 meters away from the rock wall. Then there was the Bloodforrest.

It was about another hour before the group got the cargo down to the other side of Anima Ridge. Impetus looked towards the Bloodforrest. It was almost pure darkness, even in the burning bright of the Cocytus star. Smaller birds littered the sky above the forest canopy, a small kath hound shot of into the dense jungle on sight of the large group.

“OK let’s move!” Impetus shouted, her voice heard by everyone. She turned and slowly walked into the jungle, her House behind her. The ground was very soft and uneven. It was barely possible to see, despite the occasional scissor of sunlight cutting through the thick canopy. Lightsabers and training sabers activated in a spread throughout the ground. Everything in about a 5-meter radius was illuminated in a multicoloured light.

There were soft, rapid thuds as a pack Akk wolves ran past the group at a sprint. A horrible screeching sound was heard followed by a howl from the wolves as they caught their prey. The group moved further into the unknown regardless.

Phoenix sat in his makeshift chair that he carved into a tree, a four foot stump sat in front of him, still smoldering from a lightsaber slash. Phoenix filled the three goblets sitting on the stump as Xen and Impetus walked towards him.

"Thirsty?" Asked Phoenix with a grin.

"What we drinking?" Asked Xen.

"Delicious rum.....It's delicious because I stole it from Saitou's stash.... So I noticed that this area has barely any room to manuever, and I'm getting the distinct feeling that something big is waiting out there."

"I feel it too, but no matter, we press on." Replied Impetus after taking a large gulp of rum. Xen followed suit and began to try to plot a route through the dense forest. After about 15 minutes of walking through the forest, an eerie silence fell over area.

"Do you hear that?" Asked Impetus.

"Bah, I don't hear anything." Replied Phoenix, thinking he was being smart.

"That's the problem you fool." Shot back Impetus staring at him as he hung his head in shame. As Phoenix's head shot up as to reply back finally, the ground began to tremble and crack beneath them.

"You had to say something didn't you two!" Yelled Xen. Out from the soft ground bursted a Greater Krayt Dragon. Members of House Caliburnus scrambled as the massive beast clammered towards them. The legendary dragon stood over 120meters, it glowing yellow eyes gazed down at its victims, its large horned head arched back and let out a deafing roar. Some of the younger jedi began to fire out of fear, but the blaster fire seemed to bounce off the dragons thick silvery hide. Its ten legs pushed the beast through the trees, splintering the on contact. Trees were flung to the side as if toothpicks as the dragon's massive spiked tail swung at its would-be prey.

"What in the blue bloody hell is that?!?!" Yelled Phoenix to anyone who was within earshot.

"It looks like a greater krayt dragon." Replied DJK Ood Bnar.

"The RM would know that kinda useless crap.....How do we kill the bloody thing?!" Yelled Xen.

"Sinus cavity is weak and it can't discern shadows from real people. Only problem is that its spikes and fangs secrete a deadly venom." Replied Ood.

"Only problem....It's at least a 120meters and the only problem you see is the.....Oh My God!!!" Yelled Phoenix as he ducked and was nearly decapitated by the dragons tail. Four apprentices were taken down by the spikes, two of them impaled.

The group knew that if they didn’t get rid of the greater krayt dragon fast, this venture would have been for nothing. Several of the journeymen panicked and ran. This got the attention of great monster. They didn’t stand a chance.

“Stay still! Hid back in to the shadows.” Xen barked at the group. Everyone stopped moving and silently stood waiting. The great beast moved it giant head around staring at the shadows. ‘There has to be something we can do to get rid of this thing’, Xen thought with a slight hint of fear. He pulled his cloak tighter around him as he went through the many possible ways they could defeat this beast. He didn’t show any sign of acknowledgement as Phoenix quietly snuck up beside him.

“It has a weak sinus cavity, right?” Phoenix questioned Xen. Xen’s eyes lit up.

“Do you honestly think that would work?” Xen replied, knowing what Phoenix was really getting at.

“ It is worth a shot. If we can get several other people to help with it, it would greatly improve our chances.” Phoenix stated. Xen nodded and silently left to talk to the others.

While Phoenix and Xen told the others about what they planned to do, a Guardian’s nerves finally snapped. He ran away screaming. The dragon rushed at the poor Sith. With a sickening crunch, the dragon snatched up the Guardian. As the dragon devoured its small snack, the rest of the group was left on the ground attempting to recover from nearly being crushed.

After the group got back to their feet, Impetus gave the signal. With a combined effort, the group lifted several heavy trees. The tree’s roots groaned and snapped as the trees launched forward at the dragon. One of the trees hit its mark, right up the left nostril of dragon. It drove in with a deafening crunch. The great beast roared in agony. It stumbled and recovered its footing. All they really had done was anger the great beast.

The dragon slowly walked towards the group as they backed of, making a deafening thud with every step of its immense body. They were forced back into the thick jungle, smaller creatures fled in fear of the Greater Krayt dragon. A few blaster shots from the journeymen hit the dragon’s head, but did nothing aside from stunning it for about a second.

The dragon whipped its tail round, cleanly uprooting a tree about a meter away from the Quaestor. The twi’lek drew her saber without thinking, and threw it at the dragon, using the force to guide the hilt with an invisible hand. The dragon slapped the saber away from his head, cutting part of his right front leg, but the hilt snapped in two. Impetus swore loudly and drew her lightwhip, backing away as the Dragon fell onto 9 legs.

Malaki knew that this was their time to stand and fight back, He went to his master Impetus. Standing by her side he pulled out his two Mwc Enforcers loaded and ready to fire. He gulped at its strengths and height of the dragon that slowly approached them.

Expecting everyone to follow he says to Impetus “Well is this what you call fun”.

The group keep on walking back away from the deadly beast, as they got deeper in to the forest the dragon ripped the trees that covered the group leaving them wide open. As it swung its Claw to the group Malaki released a wave of bolt shots at its claw striking it many times it step back then roared.

As the thunderous sound went through their ears Malaki said to his master “ I stand with you, lets bring down this beast”

While most of the house was off wrestling the Dragon, Prajna was passed out battling his own monsters...

[ PJ looked across the dirty, sandy, windy desert of Tatooine. This had to be the worst planet in the world. It was pretty much the complete opposite of his Cerean homeworld. And to add, the locals came out to say hello. Somehow, he had a lightsaber. It had the strange effect of changing colors every three seconds, which did a number to PJ's attempts to concentrate the force through the sand storm brewing. Small, beedy yellow eyes srrounded him. JAWAS!!!! He didnt even know before how awful these wretched creatures were. They charged. It was easy to slice them up. But every one that fell spawned two more vile beasts from the robes of the dead one. They came wave after wave and never stopped. They were hanging on his limbs and stabing him with small electric shockers!!]

Prajna was tired and covered in sweat. He lay on top of a table, several empty bottles of warm ale spattered ascrew around him. Breacen tip toed through the mess to wake his apprentice. He picked up two glass dishes and smashed them right next to Prajna's ear. The Jedi Hunter sat upright and looked around. "Oh Hey Braecen. That was the worst dream ever. Jawas! I hate those litl' buggers. If I see one..."

Braecen batted his eyes a moment in shock. "Are you ready to go young padawan?"

"Yes Sir!." Prajna stood at attention and saluted. "So how are we gunna get there?" And now it was Brae's turn to grin.

Braecen grabbed his young apprentice and rushed to the shuttle bay.

"We are late, and your clanmates are going to be pissed that you are sleeping and not with them fighting. I recieved a message to bring you to Anima Ridge so you can get your further orders. So lets go Hunter!" Ordered Braecen. Both Jedi boarded the MTRNS Dragonsbarge, gave the flightplan to Captain Kno-Be Jaana, and jetted towards Anima Ridge.

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Meanwhile in the Bloodforrest, the members of Caliburnus were in a losing battle with the dragon.

"So a tree up its nose didn't work, cutting its leg off just pissed it off worse, and I may be insane......But I really don't think even I could get close enough to shoot that thing directly up its nose." Said Phoenix softly with a grim look on his face. The dragon slowly tracked its prey, every-so-often attacking at the shadows.

"Hey, I thought the idea would work, I didn't know. Ood wasn't so forthcoming with instructions." Whispered Xen angrily.

"Don't go blaming this on....." Replied Ood as Impetus cut him off.

"Shut it all of you, christ, like a bunch of squabbling children," Said Impetus with disdain in her voice. "We need a plan, because rushing this thing is just getting us killed." As Impetus said this, a group of apprentices were found by the lumbering dragon. Blaster fire erupted as the group of apprentices panicked, infuriating the beast further. One apprentice was caught in the jaws of the dragon, an earpiercing crunch came as the monster devoured its prey. Another apprentice was thrown by the dragon tail, impaling him on a tree branch. The other two were able to get away barely scathed.

"I got it, I got it!" Yelled Phoenix before he could catch himself. "I have an idea that just may be crazy enough to work," Whispered Phoenix. Everyone leaned in to hear, the most likely highly dangerous and inprobable plan that has been known to come out of Phoenix's mouth. "Ok, Ok, everyone know what to do? Good, Xen with me, Malaki with Ood. Imp, your down the center and make sure only to go when we have it distracted, we don't need you dying out there. Ready.....Lets Go!!"

As soon as she said this the twi’lek turned and ran to a safe away from the dragon and climbed to the peak of a tree, her movements amplified by the force, then watched and Waited. Ood and Malaki split and ran either side of the beast as it slowly stomped towards the tree Impetus was in.

Xen and Phoenix stayed in front of the dragon, using the Force to influence its movements and weaken it, waiting for the Quaestor’s attack. Malaki and Ood hacked at the dragon’s side with sword and saber, using the dragon’s flinches to turn it into the right position. Slowly, it began to move towards Impetus’ tree. The tree started to shake from the dragon’s heavy foot. Impetus watched and waited for the perfect moment. As it got close to the tree, Malaki hacked down it’s right side and it reared to the right in reaction, knocking Malaki to the ground. Impetus slowly drew a katana from about 10 meters above the dragon. It turned its side to Impetus, then Ood Xen and Phoenix held it in place with the force. Leaving her life in the Equittes’ hands, she jumped down sword first onto the top of the Dragon’s head. The sword dug to the hilt in the top of its skull, causing a fountain of green blood to spray high into the air. The beast reared up in pain and Impetus was flung all the way onto it’s lower back, just managing to grab onto a spine right near it’s 5th pair of legs to stop her self falling under it, and se managed to keep her katana in her left hand.

“It’s not dead, stab it’s heart!” Ood shouted from the side.

“Where the Hell is it’s damn heart?” Impetus shouted back.

“Between its 3rd and 4th legs on it’s back!”

Impetus managed to regain her balance and stood up precariously on the dragons back, it’s movement severely slowed by the 3 foot wound in its head, but it was still shaking beneath her. It was like trying to keep your balance in an earthquake. She cautiously made her way back up the massive body, breaking into a light-footed run before the heart. She took a great leap and plunged the blade into the dragon’s back, just to the left of its spine. This time there was no huge reaction. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the Great Dragon took a few steps then fell to the floor with a deafening thud. Impetus jumped off it and stared at the dead dragon. It seemed a shame to kill such a beast.

“Alright, that head’ll look great on my wall!” Phoenix went to run up to the dragon but Impetus held him back.

“How about you save that till the way out.”

“Hmph fine, but I won’t let you forget that. Now I think you should attend to Malaki.”

Impetus’ Apprentice was laying on a tree branch, not showing much sign of life. She dashed to him and knelt over his body. “He’s still breathing. Bring me a medical capsule immediately.” She preserved a flicker of life in his body as Phoenix went to fetch some bacta.

Xen joined Impetus and Phoenix over Malaki’s body. The rest of the group was staring in awe at the giant carcass of the great beast. Xen could feel Malaki fighting to live. It marveled him how all life always fought to survive, even when it all seemed hopeless. Everyone dies, and the chase death gives you is all part of the thrill of life. What little thrill Xen could feel anymore that is.

Malaki was in that chase right now, up close and personal. Xen frowned on the inside, wishing he could give fight again to the terror of death. In many ways Xen was already dead.

“We should splint his broken bones as best we can and give him a place to recover… I think after that little ‘adventure’ we all can use a rest before venturing on.” Xen suggested. Impetus looked up from her medical work.

“Good idea, I’ll finish up working on him, you go talk to others and tell them to rest for the time being.” Impetus replied. Xen went out and did as he was asked, and shortly there after, received a message from Braecen. After a quick conversation Xen returned to Impetus.

“Good news, Braecen is coming with Prajna in a shuttle. It has a medical droid and supplies. That should help out with Malaki. Impetus nodded.

“I’ve done all I can do, I just hope the shuttle gets here soon. Lets all go rest.” Impetus stated. Xen nodded and walked off to find a nice place to rest. After finding a decent place to relax and meditate far away from the others, Impetus appeared and sat across from him.

“Maybe you where right… Maybe this is a mistake.” Impetus said slowly.

“It’s just been stressful so far. Clear your mind and relax for a short while. You will feel better after wards.” Xen said. Impetus agreed and they both silently meditated. With his mind clear of everything Xen felt calm.

The world suddenly slammed into Xen as he focus with a start. Impetus was lying on the ground screaming in fear. Xen didn’t know what she was seeing, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

"So Proconsul now? You were always the most dedicated of the ambitious"

Braecen turned and looked down at his taller padawan. "You never had the dedication to stick with it all the way through. I hope you will this time. You will be a Dark Templar yet." The Shuttle engines changed pitch as the flying vehicle grinded to a halt. "I cant go with you."

All the built up excitement from reuniting with his old Master again drained from his face. "And why not?"

"This is a misison for your house. I may guide and help you out later, but you need to learn to place nice with the other kindergarteners in the sandbox."

Prajna gave a nod of understanding before hopping out of the shuttle. He stood and watched it ttake off before turning to his new mission. Well at least it wouldn't be hard to track the crew down. It looked like a herd of Rancors tracked there way around. It wasn't long before he saw the large Krayt Dragon corpse. "Oh man! I missed all the fun." PJ quickly sprinted to find the crew. He arrived in time to see two members of the house lying on the ground. "I already took my nap guys. Lets go do this."

Phoenix caught PJ by the arm. "Are you ready to fight young Hunter? This is a serious mission and already we have lost Journeymen."

Prajna's entire demiener changed as he took a silent breath. He bent low to one knee: "I am ready to serve."

"I read in your file you have an extensive background in healing?" Phoenix spoke again to Prajna. Prajna simply nodded and took the hint. He looked down at the injured Gaurdian. Prajna streched out with the Force, one he was still learning. The one's mind was in pain, and he would and could not stop that. Then he hit the cause of the pain. Prajna flinched.

He pulled out a small puch from his belt. "These are rare leaves from my home planet; I think a cousin of bacta plants. Cerean Warriors used to use them to extend battle for days without a full hospital treatment. But they were hard to nurture and grow. Only a few remain in the galaxy." Prajna put one in his mouth and chewed it. Then he spit it back out in his hand. He opened Malaki's mouth and tossed the gob in.

The substance disolved in the other's mouth. Malaki turned once and moaned. "He will be ready to go in a few minutes. He will still hurt, but function is returned... At least until we make it through this mission. Then he will need a full bacta swim back at the base later.

Prajna stood up and whiped his hand on his robe. "Ready to go sir." He turned to salute Phoenix, before breaking to a big grin and a silent laugh in his typical smart alec fashion.

Malaki moaned in pain, he sat up shaking his head as he hit his head when he fell to the ground giving him a headache. As his vision came back he saw Prajna, Phoenix and saw the glaze of his master not far away ; Phoenix offered a hand to get him back of his feet and the guardian accepted it.

“ Ouch, what happened out there all I remember is me slashing the dragon then nothing, any one got some pain killers I have this horrid head ache” Malaki said in slight agony. He was answered by phoenix “Lets just say you fell”.

He went to his sword cleaning the blood of it then left the older ones to get on with their business. He went to the corpse of the dragon up to one of its claws cutting a part of it off then left that beast to rot in hell. As he walk back to the camp he was startled by Xen who look truly worried about someone.

“ I am ready to join back with the group but Xen you look worried what’s bothering you” Malaki asked Xen.

Night falls fast over the jungles of Ptolomae. Ood walked out to the great beast that lay on the rocks. A crappy last restingplace of such a fierce creature, it had taken multiple equites to take her down. Ood was quite sure he was looking at a female.

Calmly the Knight weaved the force around the guards, making him almost invisible, luckily everyone was in the tent with Malaki. Ood hated it when he needed to misdirect an Equite. A lesser known ability of Neti is the fact that they are naturally gifted Illusionists, this gave Ood's ancestors an advantage against the native monsters from Ryyk and later Myrkr.

After making sure the sentry's where not noticing him, the Rollmaster strolled over to the remains and activated his saber.

"I see i'm not the only one who read the books on Krayt Dragons, youngling." Ood said as he felt the Hunter walk into the clearing.

"Not everyone disregards bookknowledge Master Krath." Tyno answered: "I know of the secret."

"Let's solve this as clanmates, fifty fifty?"

"Sounds good to me Lord Envoy."

Calmly Ood opened the abdominal setion of the dragon and stepped into the beast. ten minutes later he exited carrying six Krayt pearls.

"here's your cut Hunter, use them wisely when you make your saber."

Using the force, Ood closed the belly of the beast again and went to hide the pearls. Nobody would ever think he knew about the beast and simply needed more powerfull Dark siders to kill it. Soon, they would embark on the voyage to the temple and he had to examine charts and visit Malaki. With a last use of the force the Caliburnian released the minds of the guards and went to check up on them to punish the ones who where asleep.

Nobody would ever find the pearls, not even if they cut every tree in the jungle down.

Zeron was sitting under a tree, using his glowrod to categorize and note the remainings of the dead clansmen he gathered after the fight, he was looking for any useful equipment. They couldnt afford anything to lose. Zeron looked around, many died today and more will die. He not really minded, he is alive and those who died wasnt worthy to live but somewhere, somehow in the deepest part of Zeron's soul he doesnt understand why they had to die.

Tyno closed his security compartment on his Actis starfighter and climbed back into the cockpit chair.

As he began running system checks and setting the ships alert levels to maximum Tyno pondered what he would do with the pearls.
He had flown out to find the team earlier that day but the Bloodforest made scanning nearly impossible and would have likely had to head back to HQ until he found a large clearing where the forest had been massively disturbed. Tyno had waited until the cover of nightfall to land his fighter for stealth and was amazed to find the remains of a Greater Krayt dragon. He had seen the smaller Canyon krayts during his time on Tatooine but had only heard rumors of this terrible beast. Tyno did know however that such a large dragon must have significant amount of pearls and they make excellent focuses for lightsabers.
Planning to sneak in and take one pearl for his lightsaber construction he was not surprised to find Ood already on his way to take some for himself. He had to admit that bushy tree thing was very greedy for being as wealthy as he was.
Setting the final security codes he hoped out and shut the cockpit.

“Keep and eye on the ship and don’t hesitate to take off if you have to Wisdom”

As Wisdom beeped his affirmative Tyno turned and headed back to the camp.

“I am here now so I might as well do something” he said out loud to himself

Meanwhile, Impetus rested at the camp, slowly falling asleep, the remains of her saber to one side. She still had her katana and her lightwhip, both made unbreakable by Sith Alchemy, but it wasn’t the same as having her lightsaber for self-defence. Seeing the hilt destroyed brought the reality of that hard.

She had a similar dream to the one she had before they left.

There was a bright white light like before, but this time it faded into a black dragon and a few Dark Jedi. It was smaller than a Krayt Dragon, but looked strangely dangerous. It smacked one of them in the chest with it’s tail, then everything faded. The voice came again, seemingly from all around her.

“You have passes the first test, Quaestor. But what you will see in this Quest it like nothing you have faced before.”

The tips of the trees came suddenly into view as she awoke suddenly. It was still very early in the morning.

After having hid the pearls, the Rollmaster had given Malaki a small amount of his juice. To him it worked as blood, increasing the healing. But humans could make miraculous recoveries when given a small amount. There was still alot of danger ahead and the expedition would need every single fighter they had.

Whilst pondering, Ood reached his tent and stepped inside. He had brought a big paviljon with him. inside was a table that held maps of the area, every journal, log on the jungle and the scrolls found in the sarcophagus.

"Now to get back to work." the Knight muttered into the darkness as he started to map out the best route through the jungle.

Tomorrow they would have to cross a river that housed aquatic snakes, much alike to the indigenous life of Naboo. But luckily smaller. The biggest one ever recorded was only 20 feet long.

It got dark very fast tonight. Prajna, with his high skill in stealth and a special Robe from his mother's tribe special for the night, blended away from the camp. He took a sample of a few trees and stopped at an overlook of the river crossing they would ford tommorrow. He noticed an extra pointy rock and curled up on it for a pillow. PJ was probably still a bit tired from lunch time booz. He passed out easy, knowing he would be rested for tommorrow.

Night passed quickly in the Bloodforrest. The group had travelled quite a way into the Jungle before they fought the Greater Krayt dragon. It was around midday before the House was ready to attempt to cross the river.

The group approached the waterside. The river was about 30 meters wide, and aquatic snakes swam threateningly near the surface of the deep blue-green water.

“Got any plans Imp?” Xen muttered to her quietly.

“Nope, but Ood might. Ood! Get over here, what do we do now?”

“Umm… the snakes are poisonous, and there’s a strong going towards our right. And who knows what else is down there that no-one knows about.”

“Trust you to know all the useless crap Ood, Imp asked you what we’re actually gonna do.” Phoenix said from behind them, looking into the water.

Ood watched as Phoenix leaned over the edge. From the left-corner of his eye he could see motion. something was ....

"Phoenix, get away from there!" the Neti yelled as he pulled the SBL down and away from the side.

Mere seconds later a mouth snapped closed at the exact position where Phoenix head had been before the Envoy had pulled him away.

"Meh, i could've handled it myself thank you." the Battlelord sneered while he tried to get over the shock.

"Xen, Imp, i suggest we use another method. maybe if we cut up the Krayt Dragon body and throw it in. that might distract the creatures long enough for us to pass." Ood said

"Well, I get the head for my wall if you plan on doing that," Replied Phoenix to Ood's idea, "remember I called it earlier. Ood, come here for a second."

"Yea Phoenix?" Said Ood as he cautiously walked over to the seemingly irate Battlelord.

"This is for you, don't tell anyone I gave you this, don't want to look soft you know and Cooch will kill me." Said Phoenix with a grin, handing Ood a small bottle of amber liquor.

"Thanks for the save. Now, back to what I was doing....You! Yes you, don't look at me like that, I'm not going to kill you." Yelled Phoenix as an apprentice cowered behind a rock.
"Take this back to the Dragonsbarge and have the Captain store it somewhere nice and cold." Ordered Phoenix as he sliced the dragons head off for his trophy room.

Impetus gave Phoenix a deep cold stare..."Are we finished?"

"Um, Yes ma'am sorry," Replied Phoenix with his head hung low.

"You three apprentices take those swords and proceed with Ood's idea, the rest of you finish packing up the camp and prepare to leave immediately. Ood, now how do we cross this river?" Asked Impetus.

"Well, first and foremost we should use the knocked down trees as a makeshift bridge. Our combined powers in the force should be able to put it together quite quickly. Problem is, as we just saw with Pho, this is called the Serpent-Blood River." As Ood glared at Phoenix.
"As I was saying before I was interuptted earlier, the snakes are poisonous and run close to 20ft long. I believe that if we put enough of the krayt's blood and body parts in the river, it could buy us enough time for us to get across." Phoenix looked around, some of the trees would need to be cut for this to work. Phoenix looked over at Impetus.

"Hey Imp," Yelled Phoenix. As she looked over to him, Phoenix tossed her his secondary saber. "You may need this."

The house summit along with one of the sons of palpatine stared across the river. At least with the dragon they could see their attacker. Now they would have to put full faith in their powers to get across alive.

Prajna was still a low life in the House, even though he had been around for many years, compared to those who cared and those that were old, he just was young still. That and for the fact he was an Awesome Person! (yeah you know it) he was assigned in charge of taking the Journeymen back and collecting 200 trees. Then the big wig force users could do what they needed at the river so the rest of the crew could march over safely.

Prajna gathered up 6 little minions and set off. They picked up some big trees and were mostly carrying them in pairs. If only PJ wasn't so lazy, he might help and get it done faster. But with help from the dragon yesterday, they had plenty of supply for the demanded order. Oh how he dreaded manual labor! Then he got an idea. They weren't all that often coming to him, but sometimes one worked out. Instead of carrying them the whole way to the river, PJ had everyone stack them at the top of the Bluff next to the river. Then one at a time as they were carried in, PJ jumped on and rode them down the very steep hill.

The trick was stopping. The first three trees were a breeze down. After a not to bad a climb back up he came down again. But that fourth lil' bugger, he just got going to fast down the bluff. SPLASH! straight into the water. It was moving fast, but that wasn't the problem. Prajna grew up on a lake and was a superb swimmer. It was the giant snake who started after him. It was still faster, and if not for fast action, would have had Cerean meat digesting in it for a month.

Prajna did the only thing he could, he punched the slimey beast in the face. It flinched before charging again. Prajna kept swimming to the shore and almost made it too! but he had to fight back. Not time to get a weapon, so he just grabbed it. The two began to wrestle, it was quite a fight, and the others on shore got a good laugh. Prajna came out, and held up the vine tied up like a preztel! Wait a vine? Yeah that is right. PJ had just mustered his toughest fight ever against vegitation.

He crawled out and took the three trees already down hill to work. He put them in the ground like tall pillars forming a fence. As each Journeyman brought another tree over to the top of the bluff he pushed it down and the new "fence" caught it in a nice pile. The job finished quicker as Prajna dragged his feet back up the hill and helped the others carry more trees over from yesterday's fight arena.

At 2.2 meters tall the Guardian was a fearsome sight. Covered from head to toe in tattooes one could not miss the mandalorian symbol on his cheek, that is, one couldn't if they could see it. In his personal battle armor which reflected the tattooes on his body he was waiting quietly. The Assault shuttle was fast approaching the location of the team. Having defected from Clan Arcona not long ago he had still been in transit when the team had left for the expedition, and he had been trying to catch up with the team since. They had found the original landing site, and despite protests by a guard left at the shuttle they had taken off to get him to the location.

Arturius Tyr Klee was a former stormtrooper. He had trained hard and eventually become an officer before being noticed for his prowess in battle by a Dark Jedi. He had left the order for a number of years after losing some of his connection with the Force, but now he had returned, and he was quickly gaining in power. As the shuttle swung around Arturius could feel the prescence of the Dark Jedi below him.

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Phoenix looked up at the sound of the engines and repulsors from the shuttle. A specialized door opened in it's belly and descending on a line was a large armored figure. Phoenix could see the markings on the armor, they were obelisk in design, and whoever was coming down on the line was not using the force at all to stablize themselves, which meant whoever it was had combat expierence. Then Phoenix noticed something else, the figures armor was very similiar to Mandalorian in design, right down to the T-Visored helmet.

Arturius hit the ground and cushioned the impact by bending his knees. As the Guardian straightened up he noticed the effort to work on crossing the river, interesting. He noted the shuttle leaving overhead, and made a mental note that he was beyond the point of return. Arturius bowed to Phoenix as he moved closer.

"Guardian Arturius Tyr Klee, Battle Team Leader for the Nightshades. Sorry I am late."

Phoenix seemed to evaluate the guardian, who was clearly a warrior. "Interesting way to make an entrance Guardian. I take it you trained as a Storm Trooper."

"Yes Sir, fast assault trooper. My job was to get in behind enemy lines, do some damage, and meet up with the main forces. Not quite a commando though," the Guardian spoke.

"Works for me, we need some more journeyman with backbone. Welcome to the party."

Arturius smiled under his helmet "Good to be here, I'll get to work right away"

Ood walked through the campsite, for all spectators who knew the Neti he was on one of his weird walks. When Ood Bnar had trouble figuring out a problem he started to walk, without knowing it. Everyone stepped aside or removed objects from his path as not to disturb the Rollmaster. His insights where found usefull by the summit.

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"Sir, wath out!" a young Novice yelled to Phoenix and the newly arrived Guardian.

But it was too late, being distracted by the journeyman, the Obelisk Guardian was rammed by something that seemed to him like a walking tree. By the time Phoenix had figured out what had happened the Guardian had drawn a vibro-blade and was advancing on the assailant's position.

"Hold it right there youngling!" a booming voice spoke out to Arturius,

The Guardian turned to Phoenix and asked: "Did that plant just address me?"

"Yes i did, now put the blade away before I get really annoyed and draw my saber." Ood yelled. His booming voice carying surspanning the entire campsite: "Phoenix, who is this insulant bug."

"The new battleteam leader of Nightshade mylord Envoy!"

"And what are you doing in MY tent?"

"uhm, sir ... We aren't in your tent. We're standing in the middle of the camp."

The Neti finally takes the time to look around, shifts his weight and scratches his leafy chin: "I could have sworn i was in my tent! hmm, doesn't matter. Welcome new one, we can always use fish-bait i mean journeymen of your rank."

The two warriors watch as the treelike being wanders into the woods in search of his tent. After an uncomfortable silence, Phoenx asks if the new one wants a drink. and they both wander off in search of a bottle of rum.

Phoenix threw his arm around Tyr, and handed him a small flask.

"So I hear you like whiskey of the special kind," Said Phoenix with a slight wink.

"But, how did you.....?" Asked Tyr as Phoenix raised his hand.

"Don't fret on trivial things....I have ears everywhere when I need them." Replied Phoenix with a grin. "As you see, we are tryin to navigate across this river with minimal casualties. The tree we just spoke to concocted a plan to make a makeshift bridge and distract some pesky 20ft venomous snakes. You look suprised or anxious, either or, you missed the fun before though; krayt dragon, very dangerous, so these guys are going to be a cake walk. What I need you to do is go over there and make sure Prajna stays on task, a vine almost killed him before. We've lost enough people already, we can't afford to lose anymore."

"Aye sir....But may I ask, what are we doing?" Asked Tyr.

"Hmm, that would do well to tell you wouldn't it. Those trees over there are what we are using to make the bridge." Replied the flustered Battlelord. As Tyr walked over to the already working journeymen, Phoenix looked over the now calm terrain. Soon this area will erupt again into chaos. Is this artifact so important to risk the lives of everyone in the house. Phoenix let out a long sigh then found a spot in a small clearin in the woods, and began to meditate.

"Phoenix.....Phoenix!!" Phoenix heard his name being called, but it seemed like an echo in a dream.

"Wha..wha..what?!" yelled Phoenix now rubbing the sharp pain in his ribcage. "What do you want?"

"We need you now, we are constructing the bridge," Ordered Impetus. Phoenix got up and went over to the river bed with Impetus. The journeymen were bringing the trees down and had a significant amount at the bed. The Krath Priestess, Sith Warrior, Dark Jedi Knight and the Sith BattleLord began to use the force to bring the trees together and build the bridge.

Prajna stalked off down the river by himself. His flowing black robe hood now covered most of his face from the sun. Who was this new guy? Why did he get rum when he showed up? All Prajna did was save some poor newb's life in the nick of time. This guy just dropped down with some shiney platemail and thinks he is a demi-god. He even did just what was needed every time. The trees were all ready for the Elites to use their freaky force powers to get the crew across.

Prajna looked at a small pebble. He focused, took a breath, and focused again. The wind had more power to move it than PJ could. Well, all he could was wait now until the bridge was built, and carry on with the mission. He would just have to try all the harder to be better than this new Guardian. Competition always brings out the best in everyone. He tried once more with the pebble, and almost could feel it through the force, just quiver a little. The Dark Side is always the Strong Side.

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The first trees floated above the river. Several slithering snakes popped up heads and long necks to see the new comotion going on above the water. Arturius used his thumb lined up with a single eye to gather a distance. He pulled some sort of electronic tool out to better calculate the distance. "Phoenix, unless my physics skills are too rusty, we need to stretch out 217 meters from shore to shore to reach the other side. We should notch each end to make them easier to hold together with the Force."

Prajna returned from his solo hike. He saw the bridge and jumped up. "217? you know if we just hopped from tree to tree we could make it the whole way faster." Prajna was tip toe tight rope walking the tree, barely keeping balance.

Arturius aimed his arm up and shot a grappling hook onto PJs robe. "Get Over Here! You cant be going up there yet, they guys are working hard to hold it up." Prajna flew twoward Tyr and hit the ground hard at the Guardian's feet. He picked himself up and dusted off is robes.

"Jedi Hunter Berkana reporting sir!" Prajna snapped a sharp salute at crisp attention.

Tyr tilted his head ever so slightly. "That was a rigid command mark, you ever serve Prajna?"

Prajna broke his stance and started a soft laugh to match the big grin on his face. "HAH, never that, sir! I just saw how you did it earlier."

"Well if you ever want some disciplinary training I can do a little bootcamp training for you once we get out of this little mess we are in." Tyr lifted his hand in the general area refering to everything going on all at once.

"I like to not think so far ahead, but when we get out of this, I think we can both teach eachother a few things." The Mandolorian armor nodded and the two shook hands. "Now where do you want me Sergeant?"

Ood's mind was a glowing orb of power. The neti where one of the olderst races still in existence, this makes their brain more in tune with the force since they lived under it's presence the longest. But with that knowledge Ood still wasn't fully prepared for the power surge going through him.

Through the force he looked around: Impetus, Xen and Phoenix where standing in a Triangular pattern around the treelike Knight, Sending their power to him. The Rollmaster acted as reservoir for the combined power of his friends and after adding his own potential, he focussed the stream of force into a tool and started to construct the bridge.

This gave the Envoy a rush of strength, and for a few seconds prior to the outlet of power he could see the Universe from a completely different plain of power. Being a focussing crystal for the beam of force gave the Dark sider an unknown insight into existence. He could sense the creatures in the forest, river and in the rest of the system. And he could feel Prajna walking on the tree. Just as the Rollmaster was thinking of sending a surge of telekientic energy over to throw the Hunter of the bridge, he could feel Arturius reacting as well. In the inner sanctum of his mind, the neti made a sidenote to keep an eye on Tyr, he was capable of great things.

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

The bridge was coming along steadily for those who weren't partaking in the of it. The entire team had gathered on the side of the river to see this show of force of their superiours. Most apprentices and Novices where stunned by the sheer power running from the Equites into the Knight and then towards the bridge.

After no more than an hour of this, the bridge was completed, and the 4 Dark Jedi took a quick break. Probably the lightest of the group, Impetus took a few cautious steps across the bridge, her hand above her katana in case anything happened. Impetus had used the katana for over 4 years, and it had had it’s fair share of bloodshed from the twi’leks days as an assassin. Recently after her knighthood, she used Sith alchemy to enchant the blade, causing it to never lose it’s edge, and the blade was impervious to lightsabers.

Just as she got to the middle of the bridge, an amphibious water snake around 20 ft slithered up onto the bridge and slid menacingly towards the Twi’lek. She drew her sword. With sure, but light-footed steps, she reached the snake in a matter of seconds. The snake was sliced clean in two without touching the bridge, and both halves fell in the river. The bridge wobbled slightly but stayed firm. With no other problems she got to the other side, as someone else began to follow.

Tyno watched as Impetus finished crossing the bridge and muttered out loud

“You have got to be kidding, that thing is worse then the sea snakes”

He still didn’t understand why they had gone through the trouble to make a bridge when the equites could have just turned the water in stone or any other element that fit there choosing. As the others began to cross the poorly constructed death trap Tyno sat and focused on the force as he would need its help for what he had in mind.

Standing he stared at the river and thought “no problem this should be easy”

With a running start Tyno charged the river and with a force assisted jump he twirled gracefully over the river as a tan, black blur. As expected several of the snakes leap from the river to devour the sith. It was then flashing silver entered the blur as the snakes fell back down to the water parted from there heads before they ever managed to get close.

Tyno came out of his flip in a crouched landing on the opposite side of the river so close that his cape fluttered down into the water. He stood up to see Impetus giving him a very stern look for attempting such a stunt.

“No more stupid stunts you’re setting a bad example” She said mildly angry and pointed at a Apprentice attempting to emulate his feat.

The Apprentice managed to get about a quarter of the way across and even kill one snake before the other grabbed him and pulled the screaming fool back into the depths. This seemed to discourage anyone else from making the attempt.

“Well anyone foolish enough to try that isn’t a big loss” replied the Sith commander as they waited on the others

Malaki smirked at the foolish act of Tyno, but he was not as idiotic as him so he walked over the bridge. As he was walking about two 20ft snake started to attack the logs below making the bridge unstable, it managed to pull least two logs before Malaki blew their heads off with his mwc enforcer he was carrying just encase of any trouble getting across the bridge. As he got to the other side he spoke to his Master.

“Well could be worse they could have eaten us by now, but Impetus we still have a long journey left and the party we have is to small we need more men if we are to succeed in finding this artefact “ Malaki said getting curious of his master plans.

He looked back to the log bridge and down at the bottom more of the logs were giving away the group has to hurry to get safely across the deadly river.

A few more people crossed the bridge without any troubles. Well over half the group got over without a problem, but by the time the Twi’lek Acolyte Val’kyr crossed the bridge it began to wobble very noticeably, almost throwing him off his balance.

Next up, Battlelord Lusankya put a tentative foot on the bridge, and began to walk along it. As he got to the middle, the bottom logs almost touched the surface of the river. A swift scraping caused gasps from many apprentices. In an instant reaction Lusankya held the bridge together with the Force. With swift, light footsteps he reached the other side in a matter of seconds. As he reached solid ground 2 logs on the bottom slid apart. Some more logs followed them. Then some more, until the whole bridge split in two and a large portion in the middle washed away.

About a third of the group remained on the wrong side of the river, a new plan was needed. Fast.

Arturius and PJ were two of the members still stuck on the far side of the bank...

"Sergeant, we gotta get over there. And we need a plan to get us all over." Tyr looked around frantically, his mind racing like a pod racer over smooth desert sand. There was never just a simple solution to solve any problem of this proportion. Every bump in the road was slowing the whole house from getting the Sith Alchemy weapon.

The Guardian looked again at the river. It was flowing fast and snakes were as numerous as TIE fighters on a Star Destroyer. The screen he looked through on his helmet had numbers racing to do calculations of distance and physics. Prajna didn't have a fancy helmet, but he had a good measure for what needed to be done.

The Hunter looked at his surroundings. A few tall trees still stood on the shoreline. If they could get a rope and... "Arturius, how long is that grappling hook of yours?"

"Sorry Berkana, I was thinking that too but the river is just too wide. However, judging by the capabilities of our senior officers, I believe one of them is strong enough to hover a rock across the current with the rope attached."

A Zip Line! It was simple. Now Prajna had to find a tree tall enough to tie it down to on this side of the river. Tyr went to grab Phoenix to help with getting some rope to the other side.

"Hmm, what are they doing over there?" Ood asked.

"Seems like they're trying to tie that rope to that tree over there to climb over." Xen answered as he saw the small group walking around on the other shore.

Ood, Xen and Impetus had watched the bridge collapse and now, seeing as the others had already found a way over the river, they could go map out the next part of the trip. Calmly the Caliburnus Summit walked a bit into the jungle.

Meanwhile, on the other shore, things looking bright. The rope had been tied to the tree. Phoenix had used to force to throw the other end accros and some Novice was just attaching the rope to a strong tree.

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

The summit meeting went without issues. Ood pointed out on the map how they had to go, straight through the Black Heart. The Black Heart is one of the most thickest jungles on he planet, so Impetus advised to let two lightsaber carrying members go first to cut a path, then some Journeymen with machetes to clear the path further and finally the rest of the team.

There where going to be a though few days ahead of them.

Phoenix stared at the bridge and thought to himself, "Why me," as he shook his head. Phoenix turned as he heard footsteps running up behind him.

"PhoBird....{deep breath} We have a plan," said Tyr as came sliding to a halt. Phoenix looked at the small group as Prajna was trying direct traffic, but having some small problems with the scared journeymen.

"Well....let's have it, we don't want them leaving us here and taking all the credit do we?" Asked Phoenix with a grin.

"Well, the plan is to take that long wire we have and attached it to that high tree over there. Then, using your powers, guide the wire and subsequently the rest of the group over the river. Hopefully we will be able to get by with minimal casualties." Explained Tyr.

Phoenix stared at the group, the argument growing louder off in the distance. "Let's do it, get me when you need me." Tyr gave a short bow and ran off to the group, which at the moment was not getting anything accomplished. Phoenix began to walk to small clearing not far from the group, when he tripped over some bones lodged in the sand.

"Hmm..." Phoenix said to himself, picking up the bone fragments and examining them with his datapad. "Ingenius, wow this explains a lot. But, if they brought them here, they must have...." Phoenix cut himself off as he looked across the river bank. "Better send this over to Ood for him to examine, I just hope my findings are flawed." Phoenix wrapped the fragments around a note and then placed them into a small pouch, and with the force, sent them flying across the river hitting Ood in the back of the head.

"What the hell?!" Yelled Ood rubbing the back of his head as he picked up the pouch. Ood read the note, and looked over at Phoenix with a concerned look, he hoped he was wrong as well. Ood checked the surrounding area of the river bank, looking for any signs of the two creatures.

"Impetus, I need to show you something we have found. Looks like Ysalamiri have been the cause of all our force problems on this trip...and, well, there are also Vornskr." Said Ood.

"Great, this is all we need." Replied Impetus.

Meanwhile on the other side of the river, Phoenix had taken his thoughts off the bones, leaving it to the summit to figure out the right course of action. He came to his spot and sat down on the ground, throwing his robes off. Phoenix cleared his thoughts and began to reach out with the force to bring calm to the group. Using his equite power of Battle Mediatation{BM}, the group of journeymen began to calm and now work with eachother to accomplish their task at hand. As Phoenix stood up, he felt a new Apprentice approaching quite rapidly.

"Sir, urgent message for you from Judecca." Said the apprentice with a deep bow as he handed over the holopad. Phoenix turned on the pad. Braecen's image appeared.

"Dark greetings Battlelord Phoenix. This message is to inform you and your house, that Dakari has stepped down from Consul of the clan. I have been announced by the Grand Master as his replacement, and you, I have chosen to be my second. Your presence is requested post-haste at the clan headquarters. In darkness." Braecens image gave a slight bow and disappeared.

"PCON, wow....Eh hem. Take this message back to Braecen. I will arrive at HQ immediately after we find the blade. Now go," Ordered Phoenix. The apprentice scurried away through the forrest back to Clan HQ.

"Tyr, Praj, Zeron, get that line up the tree, we need to get moving."

“As you wish Milord,” replied the three Jedi Hunters at the same time. They worked in complete cooperation, Zeron and Prajna climbed the tree pulling the wire, while Tyr helped and led them from below. The wire was heavy, but the power they felt gave them the ability to climb the dozen of meters up the tree. When they reached the safe level from those beasts, they tied the wire around the tree. Prajna signaled Tyr they were ready. Prajna looked at the newly promoted PCON.

“Very well” said Phoenix quietly. He used his mind to raise the wire from the ground, and lifted it high above the water to make sure none of the snakes would be able to get any of the journeymen. Size matters not, but something was interrupting Phoenix in his concentration. Sometimes it looked like he was going to drop the wire, but his experience, and training took over on the temporary disruption of the Force. On the other side, the Equites quickly took over the wire and ordered the Journeymen to be prepared.

Zeron watched as his brothers grabbed the wire and ran towards a tree.

“This will be interesting none the less Prajna,” Said Zeron as he looked at the Hunter.

"Interesting? I think fun might be a better word!" With that said, the Cerean Jedi Hunter hooked both his Ryyk blades over either side of the wire. He shot off with a push of his feet. Being the one with the idea, of course Prajna knew he would have to be the one to test it out.

The wind rushed passed his ears, causing a dull whistle to be heard in his eardrums. His ponytail chased him like a tail, spinning wildly in the air. Water sprayed up from the wild rapids of a river below. His feet hung still several feet above the water. The other shore loomed close, and Prajna realized he didn't have any brakes! He tried to tighten the friction on the wire with his weapons of choice, but the wire was to slick for him to get anything on.

He hit the ground HARD. PJ tried to tuck and roll to lessen the fall, but it was just way to fast. Prajna Berkana lay on the ground for a moment to catch his breath. "That was awesome!" Was what he finally was able to say. Prajna sat up, rubbing his scratches. He picked up his two dagger-blades and sheathed them.

Then the JH looked around for someone stronger in the Force who could slow each member down as they came across. He quickly found Ood, who was going to catch each person with his larger strength and stature. The Jedi Hunter signaled across to Zeron to start sending everyone across.

A youngling who served in the communications devision ran through the camp. An urgent message from the Clan Envoy had arrived and since Rasilvenaira had signed the message with her rank of Knight adjudant, the message had been given top priority.

"Sir, a message for you from Judecca!", the Novice whispered.

"Hmm, i see", Ood said as he watched the holo-message, "Go get Impetus, Xen, Zeron and Phoenix."

The boy hurried to find these members

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10 minutes later

"I called you all here for a specific reason that might reflect upon this mission. Today I received a message from my direct superior. There will be some changes in Caliburnus."

"Who got sacked?", the new Proconsul asked.

"Nobody actually, I have the honour to inform and promote a few people. Xen, you are a wonderfull Aedile, but the clan needs you elsewhere. I can tell you that they're awaiting your arrival at Judecca, congrats, you're a member of the Consuls coven, Ward of the East. With his departure, there is a vacancy in the HC Summit. SW Thran Occasus will be arriving on Ptolomae soon to take over as Aedile. With Thran moving here, Acclivis Draco needs an Envoy. I am ordered to report for duty on Antenora within 2 weeks. This however leaves a vacancy in Caliburnus. Zeron, as my assistant you did great. It's time to prove you are worthy to be a Compagnion Class Envoy. Hereby you're the new Envoy of HC. Questions?"

A soft wind blew across the silent summits, the only sound coming from the raging rive behind them. “I take that as a no.” Ood said to the group.

Impetus raised her hand from the middle of the crowd. “So you can still continue with us for now? We need your vital knowledge of the Bloodforrest.”

“I’ll remain with you until we find Caliburnus. Thran Occasus will be arriving shortly. I think we should continue on, and let him catch up with us.”

“OK, lets press on then. Get the House up together, we’re moving, we should find the altar soon.”

Impetus led her house deeper into the dense jungle. Everywhere in the Bloodforrest looked the same. The only kind of marker they had was the river they had just crossed.

“Phoenix, you still have that map?”

“Yes, what do you need?”

“There was a river on the map, how far is it to the altar?”

Braecen was sitting in his new office, the one he'd occupied since becoming Consul, when the holo-comm built into his desk buzzed for attention. With a quick application of the force he activated the device and said “Yes?”

“My Lord, this is Fevam in the comm center. Sir, I'm recieveing a coded transmission that I am unable to decrypt”

Looking puzzled Braecen said “Unable, send it to me immediately”

“Yes my Lord” replied Fevam

As the code began to scroll across his screen a cold smile crossed the Epis' lips. Punching in the counter code, one known only to those who had served in the now defunct Clan Exar Kun, he waited for the screen to resolve itself. On the screen before him was a man he'd not seen in over six months, one who by the look of him was sitting in the cockpit of a fighter.

“You've heard?” Jaysun simply asked

Nodding Braecen said “I have my friend. Welcome to your new home”

“Thank you Brae. I understand I've been assigned to House Caliburnus” said the Templar

“Indeed you have. They're currently engaged on a mission if you'd care to join them” replied the Consul

“One extra saber couldn't hurt I suppose. Send me the co-ordinates and I'll head there immediately” said Jaysun

Punching in the co-ordinates Braecen said “Co-ords sent, and good luck”

With a quick thumbs up Jaysun said “Copy that, Jaysun out” before he switched off the holo comm. Punching in the new hyperspace co-ordinates he steered his E-Wing onto the exit vector and punched the jump lever, onto his new life.

Phoenix looked over the map, trying to find out where they were.

"Well, if I am reading this right, we are bout a day, day and a half max away from the altar. We have to navigate through this jungle and then what seems to be a ravine or large ditch to the entrance to the altar."

"A day and a half?" Asked Impetus perplexed.

"I'm accounting for problems that will arise on our way there," Replied Phoenix with a smug look.

"Ok, Phoenix, you and Xen will use your sabers to cut us a path throught this jungle. All journeymen make sure you have you blasters and secondary weapons ready to fight. Ood make sure that Xen and Phoenix keep us on track. I will take the rear and cover our backs and bring Thran up to speed when he decides to show up. Now lets move out!" Ordered Impetus. Phoenix and Xen looked at eachother with huge grins as the drew their sabers and made their way to the edge of the forrest.

"You two come here and make sure you cut down anything we miss," Said Phoenix to two journeymen. Phoenix and Xen began to slash and swipe at the trees and then pushing them to the side with the force.

"So Phoenix, when do you think we are going to run into these vornskr?" Asked Xen.

"The buggers are probably close by as is, but I think their lairs will be close to the altar, so we are in for a good ol' time," Replied Phoenix

Malaki pulled out both of his mwc enforcers but then had to throw the other one away as it got damaged during the building of the bridge. As the masters talked he watched Xen and Phoenix start to demolish the forest so we could have a safe journey. He walked up to Impetus to ask if he could help in any way.

“ Malaki you can go with the journey men if you wish but stay close to them ” she replied.

The hunter nodded to her and then went to the Journey men that were preparing for their scout in the forest. They both had a katana and a blaster, by the sight of their faces it looked like they wanted to be died than do this.

“ Guys I know what im doing here, My master have told me to take care of you in there and that’s my intension to lets some ground rules as a team” Malaki said to both but there was no reply. He went on to say “ Rule one no splitting up and rule two shoot to kill” he said but all what came from them were grunts.

Impetus and the other high master gave them the signal and slowly walked into the forest , the river sound faded away as they got deeper and they just could he the sounds of slashing sabres in front of them just without no one there. The forest noise overtook them, the wind guzzling threw the tress and the sounds of the animals. The path looked clearer as they got deeper, but dirtier with food sources such as ysalmir. As what they thought was a forest in the beginning turned out to be as more jungle like as they slowly walked down the muddy paths made by Xen and Phoenix.

Prajna swatted another mosquito that tried to suck his alien blood. Sometimes he hated having the oblong and enlarged cranium. This was one of those times. The start of the hike had been relatively quiet. However, this couldn't be called the Blood Forrest for no good reason. Prajna had his senses on full alert. His two Ryyk Blades were sheathed, but ready to strike in a blink. His hooded robe was pulled tight, trying to keep annoying insects and stray branches from attacking him.

Someone screamed up ahead, and the distinct sound of a person hitting the ground was heard through the brush of te leaves. "Ysalmir!" came rushed and worried screams, yells and whispers down the line. These creatures had the unique ability to completely shroud the Force, effectively cutting off the mob of Dark Jedi in its radius from their power.

Luckily Prajna was one not grown up with this crutch. Additionally, even now he was not a strong user of it. It was his advantage now, when even without the Force he was a deadly fighter and skilled scout. The Berkanan family member worked his way upto the front of the ranks, and found Phoenix. "Mylord, most of our house members have never felt the galaxy without the Force. It is like blinding our whole group. If we get attacked now..." Prajna spoke to soon.

Howls echoed through the jungle. It was obvious to everyone what was coming. Vornskr! These mighty beasts were able to sense their prey through the Force, and that meant the Dark Jedi Tribe was a prime target. They are the infamous predator of the Ysalmir, whose only defense is the Force bubbles. From the sounds, this was an entire pack of them, on the hunt. And to make matters worse, the Ysalmir knew the Vornsky were coming too. The bubble of Force blindness had enlarged from the Ysalmir to effectively cut everyone off from the Force. Most of the members would now be as worthless as women and children agaisnt the coming attack!

Ood flourished under the absence of the force. The Neti knew Myrkr wildlife good and knew how to survive in the force-less bubble.

"Quaestor Impetus, i know i'm a mere observer but it my be better if I go first. You know growing up on Myrkr and all that, a Neti has adapted to this surroundings."

"Sure Ood, but take Phoenix with you. he might not be able to acces the force, but he still is a master swordsman."

"Aye ma'am! Pho, follow me to the head of the colonne.", Ood yelled as he saw the Proconsul walking back to where he and Imp stood, "We're going to make sure everyone gets out of this alive!"

"Aww, come on! can't we sacrifice that annoying Apprentice to the Vornskr first? You know which one i mean, that brat with the horns!"

Malaki heard annoying shouting behind him and instantly knew the voice, it was Ood. Malaki ignored it at first but then he heard the last thing that he said

"Aww, come on! Can’t we sacrifice that annoying Apprentice to the Vornskr first? You know which one i mean, that brat with the horns!"

This straight away reminded him of his old friend who was newly appointed as DJK, Cethgus. He shivered in fright and carried on walking along the path with the two journey hunters, what were both guardians. He heard movement following them for quite some while, a howl came from his left so he instantly check on the other journey men. There was only one of them behind him, then he Heard gun fire from behind them.
Malaki and the guardian ran to the noise, they found no one except a sword and a blaster gun, no body or man there what so ever. Movement came from the bush in front of them, sinful howls surrounded them. From the bush in front jumped out this rat like wolf creature followed by more exleast five of them.

“Oh, what worse having to fight Vornskr or surviving this quest” Malaki said to guardian who replied with a humorous laugh.

One of them jumped at Malaki, he reacted quickly firing several bolt shots from his MWC Enforcer straight into the head of the vornskr. It landed besides Malaki flinched then was dead; the others looked at the dead one then started to growl viciously. They barked to terrify the journey men, walking around a circle with them in the middle. They drew their swords and stared into the one that looked like was the leader of the packed. His look was bloodthirsty and terror.

“Yeah Someone Can Come and help us now” Malaki Shouted trying to get the attention of any members of the party.

The confused journeyman stood bewitched by delicate saber technique of the mysterious equite. He had slain a horde of the creatures already. The drab grey of their pelts would have made a spectacular jacket for a playboy in the inner-rim had they not been sliced wide open. The coiled heap of intestines spilled onto the boots of the three weathered Journeymen. Under a load of cursing and boot wiping, Malaki, Cethgus, and Ood turned back to the swift Battlemaster.

“You could have left one of those for us, Phoenix.” Malaki said with overflowing ungratefulness.

“Shut up and fall back to camp.” The agitated Proconsul hissed as the stench of whiskey filled the noses of the unsuccessful vornskr hunters.

The three sighed in unison, like some cartoon characters in a child’s program. As they dredged off cleaning their boot on the vegetation of the trail, Phoenix eyed the bodies. A peculiar gathering of skin on one of the beasts suggested that had been pregnant in recent weeks. The well trained Sith shut his eyes, extending an expanding web of life sensitive energy into the surrounding area. They were there and close.

The son of Palpatine leaned towards the ground and he spotted the entrance to the den. The hole was bigger than he had imagined. The proximity to his location explained why the beasts had been so eager to tear apart the journeymen that had crossed their path. With a look back to the large and very dead doglike beasts, Phoenix bent over and began squirming down the hole. After several meters on his hands and knees, the stench of death clogged the small tunnel system.

He just grinned and bared it. The Firrerre was strangely curious about what had been killed. Pondering the possibilities, a yapping of near natal barks drew his focus. Two pups, one gray, one black. Two weeks at the oldest. He quickly scooped them up and slunk backwards out of the dug-out refuge. With his hindquarters directly in the face of the young Quaestor, she smiled to herself. “Cute. And the vornskr too.” The Twi’lek said in basic as the Proconsul shook off the brief startle.

“They are mine. Don’t even think about it.” The man said defiantly as he thought about what she had said.

“Get the Aedile’s message?” Impetus said with a little sparkle in her eyes, still eying the Proconsul.

Noting the peculiar gestures of the Twi’lek, he stuttered a sentence “Errr…Thran, yes. Festival. He’s right you know…” he spat.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll leave some regiments here to maintain the camp until we can get back. We are so close I can taste it.” The scantily clad lady said with a fire in her voice. “Let’s get out of here.” She finished.

With a silent nod, the near-human male tucked one of the wailing pups under his arm. He ran a hand through his two toned hair and motioned for the woman to lead the way back to the camp. The hypnotic cadence of her hips drew his attention away from his new pets, who were attempting to squirm free. Thoughts of a midnight rendezvous and several nightcaps began his daydream, which soon drew his focus back to her hips. It was the booze talking, but it looked like fun all the same.

As he grabbed both the pups by the loose skin at their necks, he remembered the treasures he had just found. “They would have died otherwise, why not have some pets?” he thought. The lightness of the situation seemed out of place, people had died and more were sure to fall.

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6 Hours Earlier: 1200 hours

CSP Transport Ship
The soft rumble of the sub-light engines broke his sleep. He had probably been asleep for about seven hours, passed out drunk after a month-long bender in his quarters on Antenora. Battleteam leaders in times of peace were about as useful as a Gammorean in a Crystal shop in downtown Theed. The liquor had dried up as the Clan representatives came to escort him to his new office on the home-world of House Caliburnus.

He must have impressed someone or said the right things to a drunken and influential member of the Consul’s Coven to have pulled this promotion, because he didn’t recall any outstanding personal achievements to merit it. Then again, he didn’t remember much of anything. He fumbled for a small pouch in the balled up cloak on the floor beside the bed. Two quick hits and the nausea faded. Thirty seconds later, he was upright. It was definitely a Clan Ship, crisply folded sheets and empty footlockers.

The knock came, firm but aimed at courtesy. The man pulled his stressed and dirty shirt on as he answered. “Oh, you are awake. Aedile Occas-” the Journeyman began before the stereotypical cutoff of the reputable Bakuran.

“Just Aedile Thran, please. Is Impetus still bugging me to go play in the mud and find her silly little artifact?” the notorious Sith Warrior said with an overly perturbed tone of voice.

“Yes, Sir. The Madame Quaestor orders you to join the excavation expedition immediately. The Caliburnus is to be retrieved immediately.” The greenhorn proclaimed with a Krath-bred vigilance.

“Inform the ‘Mistress’ that there the Tournament of the Fox begins tomorrow. She must cease progress into the wilderness and return for the Festival. I have been stone drunk and I know this. She is becoming obsessed with this quest. The Proconsul is also too deep into this quest. Send word to them immediately; this ‘dig’ is to take an immediate hiatus. For Darth’s sake...a Greater Krayt is dead. Do they know how much that beast is worth alive? Get them back here, immediately.” the forceful Sith commanded, despite his lesser role in the clan.

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House Caliburnus Compound: After the war, 1700 hours.

“A stalemate? Go figure.” The goldenrod ex-dancer mused upon reading the formal results of the war. “Hmmm. Rollmaster, As this little scrum is now over, I have a task for our House. Zeron, as Ood is no longer involved in the archaeological foundations of this house, I hope you have become familiar with the documents pertaining to the Caliburnus artifact. We have an unfinished mission that needs addressing.” The Quaestor said as she seemingly spoke to herself.

“Yes, Madame, Thran gave them to me some time ago. I have studied them and feel well prepared to continue along on the dig. If that is what you were suggesting…” the sheepish Journeyman said in response.

“Excellent, I knew that drunk wouldn’t want to get involved. Leave him out of this, Zeron. Thran is too quickly consumed by power, we both know that. Prepare our dig team and send word to the Proconsul. We move for the Caliburnus altar, today. Arrange for Thran to go on some task.” The Krath Priestess smiled as she schemed enough to have made a Sith proud.

“Madame, He left with the Acclivis Draco Aedile for Bakura last night. He took some personal leave time. If you ask me, I think they are a little too friendly. I bet he has seduced her.” Zeron interjected.

“I find it much more likely that it went the other way. Occasus is very impressionable; learning to control him is like training a Mon Cal to like the smell of fish: Not very difficult. It just takes a woman’s touch. He is out of the picture; this should make it easier for us. He has been aiming for my office since he arrived. Also, if he took Rasilvenaira that doubles our chances of success. If I claim Caliburnus, they will have no choice but to submit to my reign. I will teach those Sith a lesson, that is for certain.” Impetus harped as the thought of seeing Thran shown up stretched her smile close to a breaking point.

The two packed up and began to move. The quest would end soon.

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10 Hours Earlier

On the trail of Caliburnus: 700 hours

The slender Warrior stretched as he opened his eyes. The insides of space transports were always cold in the morning. He stood up and slid into his clothes. With a firm grip he snatched up his lightsaber, it had been set away from his robes. He ruffled his hair and left the stone silent space craft to practice his saber techniques. Makashi he had developed well, Dun Moch was his next step. The Jungle was warm, trying, and dangerous. He loved it.

After around an hour of intense saber work in the dense jungle just outside of the YT-2400, Thran’s female companion showed her sleepy face. “How did you sleep?” the brown eyed girl asked with a subtle smile. His shirt was off and while she avoided staring, she admitted to herself that she certainly wanted to.

He paused his training and addressed her. “I slept great. We have a long day ahead of us. We are close; we can definitely get there before anyone else. If you are ready…I would like to get going.” The Bakuran said as he caught her peeking. He smiled as he wiped the sweat from his body with his shirt.

She smiled. “Yeah, I am ready. Come back in and let’s gather our stuff.” She said as she turned back to the comfort of the craft.

He followed her in and joined her in gathering the materials for the trek. She insisted on helping him don the rest of his clothes. Pulling the utility belts taught around his chest, she inspected him. Her feminine hands grabbed a blaster pistol like it was nothing; she tucked it in his pants quickly.

“I know you don’t use them. Just in case…I worry.” his counterpart said with a cool demeanor.

He nodded, it was too hard to object to her anyways. Rasilvenaira was notoriously tenacious, to say the least. The ruggedly handsome Occasus began his lecture. “Cover your 6, Vornskr and Akk are voracious around here. Anything big, we run. Stay close. Keep your tip up and mask your force presence. It will be a tiring run. But, you already understand that. This house is Sith, I will not allow the Krath to further its decadence. The weapon will be mine.” The traitorous Aedile said with a seethingly bitter hiss.

She smiled. “Stop talking. Let’s move.” The resident of Ord Mantell commanded.

Standing primed for action, he looked to her. “I love you.” He said as the scoundrel’s smirk took over.

With a calm and teasing display, she passed by him towards the exit. “I know.” She replied. The pair stepped into the jungle, complete with toothy grins. He looked to her as the she sealed the loading door of the Olus Vision clamored shut. She nodded.

As the two Sith Warriors slipped into the dense foliage, the birds scattered. If the rumors were true, the pair would have many obstacles to outrun. He was just hoping that they avoided another Krayt. The Menagerie Manager and Dark Paladin could make quick work of other species, but a Krayt required luck.

Thran and Rasilvenaira drifted through the Ptolomean jungle, slipping quietly through the thick foliage. Stretching her senses out, Rasilvenaira remained alert, her mind sorting through the myriad life signs around them for signs of larger predators. Glancing over at Thran, she could tell the Warrior was deep in thought, planning. She smiled slightly as she imagined Impetus’ surprise when Thran beat her to claiming the weapon. The Twi’lek annoyed her and she considered the possibilities of killing Impetus, but dismissed them. More than likely, the chance wouldn’t come, unless Impetus was more foolish than Rasilvenaira already suspected.

Something prickled against her senses, focusing on it, the Equite motioned to Thran.

“What?” came the mental response as he turned his attention to her.

“Something reptilian, hunting, coming our way.”

“Lovely.” He placed a hand on his saber. “Can you tell how big it is?”

Rasilvenaira concentrated, feeling the creatures mind as it came closer. “A little over a meter I think, but it’s impressionable, it stopped.” She glanced over her shoulder at Thran, reading the silent question in his expression. “I just convinced it that heading further north would be a better idea.”

He smiled, “Brilliant, maybe it will run into the others.”

The pair continued on their trek, both very much at home in the jungle after having spent many days over previous months exploring the jungles of the Antenoran oasis together searching out new creatures for Thran’s menagerie. Stepping carefully to avoid the less friendly looking plants, they wove their way deeper into the jungle keeping their focus on reaching the Altar and the legendary weapon.

*****************************

Impetus arrived at the temporary camp that had been maintained for the expedition, impatient to get the quest back underway she began ordering the journeymen around. While some seemed eager for the adventure, others were beginning lose interest in the Quaestor’s game.

“Zeron?”

“Yes, Madame?”

“You are sure that drunken Sith is out of the way?”

“His ship left saying he was going to Bakura, along with the Aedile of Acclivis Draco. There’s been no further communication from him, so I assume he is gone.”

“Wonderful, I hope they plan on staying away for a while, I don’t want anyone getting in my way, Caliburnus will be mine soon.”

Zeron bowed, keeping his own ambitions to himself. He obeyed the Krath because she was in charge, but the young Hunter did not plan on being a follower for long. He had his own dreams of power, just biding his time.

“We need to move.” Xen whispered into the ear of the Twi’lek. Impetus gave a slight nod of her head. Xen laughed to himself at how easily she still trusted him, figuring their time working together had formed some sort of friendship. Xen didn’t have friends, and he didn’t trust anyone. Trusting people led to being stabbed in the back. A lesson well learned, and a lesson he planned on personally teaching the Quaestor.

He shadowed the Krath as they moved through out the camp, telling people to get ready. Xen was tired of this search, he felt a ripple in the force. Something far off into the future. He understood that something big was going to happen, something that would shake up the entire house.

The troop was gathered together. Everyone stood at attention before Impetus. Xen could feel that most of the group was apprehensive about venturing forth again to find the blade. However others seemed eager and excited, such as Cethgus.

‘Always eager to help.” Xen thought to himself. Something was different about this day Xen realized. The darkness he spent his time restraining wasn’t fighting, it was like it wasn’t there. Sudden fear gripped him, not sure of what this would mean.

“We have all suffered much this last little while.” Impetus began, “but now that conflict is over, we can continue to aid and build up our house. Finding the ancient blade, Caliburnus, is a top priority, nothing else matters. We must get to the blade as quick as possible. No more foolishness.” Impetus paused for a moment and looked at Tyno, reminding him of his actions with the river earlier. “Lets move out.”

“Errm.. Impetus. Where exactly are we moving out to? This place all looks the same.” A Journeyman asked from the crowd. He thought himself stupid, but many needed the same question answered. Including the Quaestor herself.

Impetus consulted the map that inspired the whole quest. They had came back in a different direction to the first time. It was likely they’d have to cross the river again, although at a different point to the first entry. According to the map, it would be narrower on the point where they crossed. It seemed they had a shorter path to the altar too. It made her wonder why they didn’t go that way the first time.

“We move that way!” The Twi’lek shouted across the crowd, pointing to her left in the direction of the Altar. Looking up, she had pointed into the thickest part of jungle in sight. Tree trunks overlapped each other like a piece of weaved fabric, shrubs and bushes knee high, thorns running through at ankle height. She swore to herself in Ryl, and heard Val’kyr laugh behind her. Maybe this path wasn’t so easy. “Mind your ankles, don’t trip up.” She turned and swung her saber in an arc through the bushes, the tips of the thorns fell a few inches. “Follow me!”

The Twi’lek slowly made her way into the dense forest, tentatively stepping around thorns and trees, her house behind her. After less than a minute, a Novice tripped over a loose thorn, falling face first into a tree, breaking his nose, blood splashing onto the grass. “I told you to be careful!” Impetus snapped at him, again cursing in Ryl.

After a few minutes, the Twi’lek’s sharp senses began to pick up noise. Running water could be heard from far off, but it sounded different to the last time. By the sounds of things, their path was taking them to a waterfall. The sound started to fall on more ears, as collective moans spread across the group. They would have to cross the river, again.

Braecen and Phoenix stood on the bridge of the Exicidium gazing over Judecca.

"Word is that Impetus has set back out to find the Caliburnus Blade and wishes for your further assistance," said Braecen to Phoenix.

"I was waiting for further evidence in the bombing of Judecca before heading back," replied Phoenix. As he finished speaking, a young ensign ran up to the two and then bowed.

"My lord Phoenix, a bounty hunter by the name of Cruzer Sanisk is requesting to speak with you on an urgent matter."

"I see your ties with the guild have not diminished over the years," said Braecen with an evil grin.

"Well, you know me, always making friends," replied Phoenix sarcastically. "Ensign,you are to take care of my pups while I am gone. If anything happens to them...It will be your life," Ordered Phoenix as he quickly moved down to the hangar where the bounty hunter was waiting. Upon his arrival, Phoenix was both happy and deeply concerned. Phoenix waved his hand to the guards showing them they could leave. "Cruzer, you were the last person I thought I'd see here. Which means, either you caught the traitor Kaycida, or someone is doing something they shouldn't be." The human smiled back at him.

"Well, I wish i could say that my men found Kaycida, but, two of your Aediles are not where they say they are," replied Cruzer. Phoenix shook his head.

"They never left Ptolomea for Bakura did they?" asked Phoenix.

"The NyghtFyre left for Bakura, but my men didn't notice till it was half-way there was no one on it, and the Olus Vision is not in the HC hangar," replied Sanisk. Phoenix walked over to a comm relay and sent a message to Braecen.

"I am leaving immediately to Ptolomea aboard the Nautilus, something has come up," Phoenix turned back to Cruzer. "Lets go."

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Back on Ptolomea, Thran and Rasilvenaira were making good time and closely approaching the altar. The Thran suddenly stopped.

"Do you hear that?" asked Thran. Silver perked up her head to listen, then nodded. "No one knows we are out here, so who the hell cou...." Thran was cut off as a modified Firespray zoomed in and stopped dead about 50m from them. "Take cover!" yelled Thran. They both looked up at the ship as the cargo bay door open.

"That son of a...."

"Thran, quiet, he's looking for us," yelled Ras softly with a glare. "We really need to eliminate him." Thran tapped his lightsaber while staring at the Battlelord.

"His time will come very soon."

"I can't see anything in this garbage, you sure this is where they should be?" yelled Phoenix to Cruzer.

"We found their ship about 5miles from this location, they should be around here somewhere," replied Cruzer. Phoenix then threw down a small, cylinder type object, then waved his hand and the firespray took off. Cruzer pointed down to a riverbank and slowly brought the ship around. Phoenix saw the Twi'lek coming out of the forrest, and she looked infuriated.

"Come to a stop over that ridge, I will get off there," Phoenix told Cruzer. Cruzer shook his head and nodded as he brought the ship around and opened the cargo bay. Phoenix gave a short wave to Cruzer and jumped from the ship.

"You're late!" Yelled Impetus.

"Well from the information I have recieved, so are you my dear," replied Phoenix grimly with a look of utter confusion from Impetus. "Your humble Aedile and his companion have made their way towards the alter without you and the team, and are about a day or so ahead. And seeing as how I could not land anywhere near them, we better make haste to catch up."

It was getting late into the day, approaching the late hours of the afternoon. The group could either make camp losing more ground coverage or try and get across this for god saken river. Impetus and Phoenix stood infront of it gazeing into a much clearer water than from the earlier event with this same river.

"Well i wonder if the snakes have inhabited this part of the river" Impetus said trying to seek out any moving object in the water infront of them

"Theres only one way to find out" Phoenix said as he pciked up a stone throwing it into the river.

The stone skipped across the river then stopped sinking down to the bottom of the river. Everyone looked up watching the stone fall silently without any distrubance.

"Well lets just say theres no 20ft snakes" Impetus said

The group then started to hurry trying to devise a plan to get acroos the river. In the end the came to two final decisions. Make a bridge or jump and swim across .But it all came down the their leaders command.

The sun began to fall, turning the land to a rich and warm gingered and they were close. Dense foliage fell smoldering to the ground as a bright blue lightsaber cut its way through the jungle. She was falling behind, stumbling in the wake of his ferocious trailblazing. It was only a matter of an hour before they would reach the altar site if they could keep up the pace. The sweating man looked back to the Sithess who had followed him on this trek as she took the last drops of water from her canteen.

“Focus on regulating your body temperature. This is not like the heat of Antenora. No, it’s a dry heat…” the curtly cut Aedile remarking with overwhelming sarcasm. “Here, take this. We will be there soon.” He said, tossing his own water rations to the paled woman.

She nodded and drank from the strapped bottle quickly. Thran examined the sky, taking bearings from a pirated version of the Main Expedition’s map. Occasus was too proud to let his Twi’lek employer get to the weapon first. It started as an idea, but Impetus’ had been condescending to him like any Krath would be of a Sith. With the proper application of pride, envy, wrath, and insult, a bold and dignified Sith would do anything to prove his worth. It just so happened that the Bakuran’s outlet was treachery, admirable among Sith. Simply put, the events to come were a ballsy and deliberate display of self-worth for Thran Occasus. He knew this better than anyone.

Turning back to the jungle, the harmonious and distinctive feeling of Sunset fell on his back. This moment of the day had always driven him, encouraging him in some arcane and unholy way. The makeshift machete preformed the task with ease, leaving a clear path behind the vibrant colored blade. He smiled fully knowing his tool was worth far more than any utility knife a headhunter might carry. Suddenly, like a turn of a page, the feeling sank into his chest; the relic that so many had lusted for was within his grasp.

“Thran, Slow down a minute. Do you even know what we are looking for?” Rasilvenaira said, incautiously.

“It is a big temple. Can’t miss it. Just keep up. Don’t have time to stop now.” Came the impatient response.

“What happens when you touch the weapon? Legend says that it kills on the touch…If this goes wrong, the-” the House Acclivis Aedile began, showing some great concern.

As typical Thran Occasus, he cut her short. “Nothing will go wrong. Legend is legend. I have read the scrolls. Have you? No. This is the single most important find the House or Clan, for that matter, has made. Braecen commissioned me for this trek.” The Sith hissed.

“You don’t have to lie to me, you know.” She said, exuding her own pride.

“You chose to come along. Turn back if you want, but I am not slowing.” He fumed; before he turned back instantly hacking away into the dense, humid jungle.
She sighed. They were close.


The pair of leaders segregated themselves from the construction forces. The bridge had fallen into a bit of disarray. Impetus tugged nervously at her lekku as Phoenix continued his briefing.

“So, Madame Quaestor. We have no choice. I have called in the Masters of the Clan. At this rate, he will get to the weapon way before we do. We may have some luck. He might get lost in the temple.” The Sith Battlelord suggested.

“No, I have worked with him before…He had access to all the paperwork. He knows where to find it. Phoenix, if I had any idea about this I would have stopped him.” The Krath Preistess said defending herself.

“It’s too late for that now…Look, we have to make our way to the bottom of this ravine to the north. It will lead us straight there. Get the troops moving. Thran has show reckless abandon of concern for larger forces. I swear, I am going to put his head up next to that Krayt. Now…move.” Phoenix turned back to the bounty hunter that accompanied him.

“Damn fools.” He said before moving off into the crowd of workers.

No more than an hour later, the expedition force was moving forward again. Phoenix Palpatine was bent on pushing the force. The path was cut quickly, inching closer towards stopping the rebel Aediles.

“When we get to the Ravine, blasters armed. Expect resistance. Do not stop. Kill everything.” The PCON commanded. As the Equite ignited his lightsaber, the small figure of a boy appeared to his side.

“Proconsul, I have come as you requested.” The boy said with an icy and frightful tone.

“Master Machweg, I am glad to see you. I need your expertise.” Phoenix plead.

“Don’t tell me. Let’s get him.” The nappy looking child Master Neimand replied. “I will do my best to contain his mind while you and Impetus take the weapon from him. He is nearly there.” The Master said, reflecting on the situation.

Rasilvenaira bit back any further comments, she’d come to know the bold Bakuran well enough to know that her concerns would only be falling on deaf ears. Still, she was worried as they grew closer to the temple that held the object of their quest. Stopping for a moment, she collected herself, letting the abundance of life around her strengthen her own connection to the force. Rasilvenaira took a deep breath, catching a second wind, and quickly moved to catch up to Thran.

Thran was focused on slicing his way through the jungle, determined to reach the weapon before the Krath could. He glanced back over his shoulder as she closed the gap between them. “What kept you?” he smirked before turning his attention back to the trail he was making.

“Oh, thought I’d take a moment and admire the scenery.” She replied, grinning slightly. A strange chill ran down her spine suddenly, the Warrior stretched her senses out but could find no reason for the odd feeling she’d gotten. Wary, she kept her saber in hand, though she didn’t ignite it, yet. The shadows were lengthening between the trees as darkness closed in around the jungle, the sun sinking slowly below the horizon.

Rasilvenaira’s eyes were quick to adjust; she was a creature of the shadows, perfectly at home in the night. Still, she was unsettled by the prickling feeling that something wasn’t right. “Thran?” she thought.

“Yes, just keep moving.”

She nodded and stepped gingerly around the grasping tentacles of a carnivorous plant, and the pair continued on their trek in silence beyond the sound of sizzling foliage being hacked aside by Thran’s saber.

********************************

The main expedition was also steadily moving, despite the many complaints from the lower ranked members of the group who were extremely unhappy at the prospect of traveling the jungle at night.

The Proconsul growled angrily, “Shut you whinin’ up or I’ll give you a reason to complain. Either you all keep moving and we reach the weapon or I kill you all.”

An uneasy hush fell over the troops, and Phoenix turned his attention back to Impetus who still seemed distracted and nervous. “They might get their first, but we have a few surprises on our side.” He nodded toward the young Master who traveled with them.

“I hope you’re right about that Phoenix.”

“Of course I’m right.”

Ohika and his Journeymen compatriots followed carefully and quietly behind the furious Equites. Someone had made an unofficial “No-Talking” rule. Behind the comfort of a Mandalorian helmet, Ohika worked his way through the ranks. Finally, he came up to the mouse haired little boy showing him the same disregard as the lesser Dark Jedi. As the stocky armor-clad ex-bounty-hunter pushed the kid to the ground, he found himself face down in a thick spot of mud. His helmet had been knocked from his head, a disgrace for his race. With obvious fluster, he righted himself and wiped the gooey muck from his face.

“Pick on someone your own size.” The boy replied, casually walking away to rejoin the rest of the Equites.

The only response was a slight grumble and a round of laughter from Ilob's peers, especially Malaki. The Protector swung on the Jedi Hunter out of instinct. As the scuffle unfolded, the silhouette of a fuming Proconsul filled the field of view for the rumbling Journeymen.

“Maybe I haven’t made this clear, children. We are moving forward. Got it? Stop spraying this jungle with testosterone. Perhaps a little more incentive is necessary to put your heads in the right direction.” Phoenix began as Impetus joined him.

“The Proconsul is right. You are now given the permission to kill Thran Occasus on sight. Disregard any prior commands…Get to him, NOW!” said the goldenrod near-human, her face distorted with a jealous anger.

The thought of blasting the pretentious Aedile stirred deep within the Journeymen class. Thran had a notorious record for bullying the Journeymen of the House. Malaki had long suspected that Thran was attempting to compensate for his own faults as a journeman, where Ohika, like the other Mandalorians, just thought that his Aedile was just a laser-brained and half-witted excuse for a leader. Either way, they both relished in the opportunity to see Occasus take a blasterbolt in the head.

Instantly, the group stood and pulled their weapons out. Phoenix smiled; he liked the thought as well. As they pushed forward the familiar growl of hungry Vornskr. The Summit leaders nodded, simultaneously igniting their lightsabers. The sleek black body of a vornskyr lunged from the vegetation, dismembering a faceless trooper. A veritable horde of the quadrupeds emerged from the jungle, filling the cleared path with salivating, gnashing jaws.

“Volley!” called one of the anonymous Officers, hailing a blanketing barrage of crimson shot upon the beasts.

As the smoke cleared and the bodies fell, the saber-wielding group of Sith, Krath, and Obelisk charged the remaining pseudocanines, ready to leave their mark.

‘This is the most stupid thing in the world,’ Xen thought to himself, ‘could this be any more poorly managed… We haven’t even reached the temple yet, and continue to lose soldiers.’

Not having any more time to reflect on these thoughts, Xen joined the rest of the group combating vornskr. His red blade met the head of one of the beasts, killing it instantly.

“Attack together.” Impetus ordered, the worry was clear in her voice and expression. Xen saw a vornskr approach behind the Krath. Xen was in clear range to stop it. Something inside of him made him stop. The canine attacked the distracted Krath. She let out a slight scream, many of the other equites jumped in to defend the Quaestor. Xen let his instinct guide him.

Xen made his way away from the battle as quickly as he could. He saw the Proconsul attacking another vornskr alone. Xen let out a flick of his wrist sending a shuriken flying at toward the Battlelord and the canine. The flying blade nicked Phoenix’s shoulder, but imbedded itself into the shoulder of the beast. Xen proceeded to run into the dark forest, leaving the Proconsul to finish off the beast.

Xen’s eyes tried to adjust to the sudden darkness. He could still hear the frantic battle proceeding behind him. ‘Maybe those beasts will do the job I wish I could do.’ Xen thought to himself. Somehow he knew right where he needed to go.

***

The battle had ended, with only a few dead and injured. The injury to Impetus had been minor and she was more then well enough to continue.

“Report.” Impetus told the young Journeyman.

“Five dead, twelve injured, one missing.” The journeyman quickly reported.

“Missing?” Impetus questioned.

“Yes Warrior Xen’Mordin Vismorsus is no where to be found.” The journeyman stammered. At that moment Phoenix arrived carrying the shuriken that had nicked him before.

“Recognize this?” The Proconsul asked handing the weapon to the Krath.

“Yes, I’d recognize that symbol anywhere, it belongs to Xen.” Impetus replied. Her eyes went wide. “He abandoned us didn’t he?”

“That is what I believe.” Phoenix responded., “I believe it would be best if we hurried.”

***

After hours of trekking across the black forest, Xen was relying on the power of the force to continue to let him move. He was barely able to keep moving. He knew he had to be close. The Sith took a quick breather, leaning up against a tree.

A noise to his side startled him, and without time to react, two blades of light, one red, one light blue, where right in front of his face. Xen smiled, he had found them.

“Where are the others?” barked Thran.

“I don’t know.” Xen began, gasping for breath. “I left them early into the night. We where attacked by a group of Vornskr. I ran off in the commotion to find the two of you.”

Thran stared at the Zabrak with piercing eyes, then glanced to Rasilvenaira. He knew the two where debating whether to trust him or not. It was now out of his hands, but Xen was confident he had made the correct decision.

Phoenix growled lowly in his throat as he thought more and more of Xen's betrayal. "That bastard. I'll have him disemboweled when he is found." He looked at his ever decreasing group and scowled once more. This expedition was taking its toll on his troops. He wasn't so much concerned for the safety of these journeymen as for the several Equites in their midsts. There were only a few of them but he still felt concern for their safety. "Impetus...remind me to disembowel Xen for his betrayal. He will be punished." Phoenix declared just to break the silence. For some reason he couldn't explain, the Proconsul felt slightly uneasy as they drew nearer the temple. "Does anyone else feel that?" He asked the two closest to him.

Before he got his answer, a journeyman, a Guardian by the look of his robes, screamed out. He stepped out of the jungle and began running towards the group. "Some one help me! He took my eyes!" Phoenix turned and looked at the young man and saw that his eye sockets were bleeding and empty. Immediately lightsabers were brought to life. The proconsul pointed to a pair of Jedi Hunters. "Find out what did that to him. and you two," he pointed to a Dark Knight and a Protector, "fan out and back them up." The dark knight ignited her saber and moved into the dense jungle.

The sound of lightsabers clashing and the screams of the journeymen could be heard by all in the group. Phoenix ordered the group to stay together and not rush to the aid of the young ones. He could feel a strong presence in the Force and a cold feeling grew up his spine. Something was in there.

He moved slowly through the jungle. The vines and brush moved out of His way and not a thing touched His body as He stalked out of the jungle and into the clearing. He was clothed in dark robes and stood over six feet tall. His shadow moved around his body as if was a cloak and His face hidden by the darkness. Power exuded from the man. And Darkness. Pure Darkness. It sent fear coursing through the bodies of all but the strongest of the explorers. In one hand was a blood red lightsaber. In the other hand was the head of the female knight that was sent into the jungle. Without a sound He threw the head to Phoenix's feet.

Phoenix stopped the head with his foot.

"You know, I liked that Knight. And seeing how I am in a foul mood as is, I will thoroughly enjoy ripping your throat out," snarled Phoenix. The cloaked figure raised his saber, taunting the Battlelord. Phoenix kicked the head up at the figure and lunged. The man sliced his saber at phoenix's head, nearly missing as he ducked underneath, applying a hold to then man's wrist.

"You need to be faster than that," grinned Phoenix as he tried to peer into the cloak. A swift kick sends Phoenix a step back, followed by a saber attack, barely stopped by Phoenix's saber.

"Got some skills I see, and I thought this would be easy," snapped Phoenix. Both Equites battled fiercely, exchanging saber attacks. The cloaked figure was able to land near misses across the Battlelord's armor. Frustration began to sit in, Phoenix could not kill this Jedi, and even more, he had no idea why he was wasting time fighting him. Phoenix slashed and sliced at the unknown man, hoping to find a flaw in his technique. And one arose. The man lunged at Phoenix, providing the opening he needed.

"Gotcha," said Phoenix as he gripped the assailants wrist and twisted, disarming him. Phoenix thrusted his hand into the throat of the man, putting him to his knees.

"Time to see who you are." Phoenix pulled the cloak off, and stared. "Who are you?" Suddenly Phoenix was caught with an uppercut and knocked to the floor. The unknown man ignited his saber and went to thrust it into Phoenix's chest.

"Enough!!" with a loud booming voice followed by a large bolt of force lightning ended the battle. Phoenix stared at Machweg wondering what was happening.

"Phoenix, this is Sykes Rokir Jade. Sykes, this is your proconsul Phoenix Olkyssagh Palpatine. Now, if you two are finished being utter morons and wasting precious time that could be used to catch the traitors, we can get moving," responded Machweg to the looks of confusion. Both men got up and glared at each other.

"We'll finish this later," said Phoenix

"I'm looking forward to it," responded Sykes. Both men took off into a sprint to catch the group.

“Why should we trust you?” she said as she dipped behind Thran, wrapping an arm around his chest, as if to hold him back.

With a total disregard for the woman’s question, the muscled Zabrak approached the more sinewy Human man. “Passion, Thran. You are an exquisite and shining example of what a Sith should be.” Vismorsus said with a musing tone.

“You cannot flatter your way out of this, Xen.” The girl from Ord Mantell replied, arguing on the House Caliburnus Aedile’s behalf.

“Silence, Woman!” the tired and weary defector barked.

With little warning, Thran broke from Rasilvenaira’s grip and threw his entire mass onto Xen, knocking him to the ground. Occasus flailed violently as he battered the other Warrior with a cluster of sloppy clouts. After a brief scuffle, the Bakuran backed off. He brushed the dirt from his clothing. A firm pointing finger and a firm brow aimed at the Zabrak, warning him thoroughly before his assailant said a word.

Thran stood with clenched fists and a clenched jaw. “Give me your saber.” Occasus insisted.

Though he was reluctant at first, Xen’mordin handed the tool over. It was a symbol of trust, for the moment. After a soothing moment of silence, Thran turned back to the imposing undergrowth. He instantly continued cutting.

Resuming his planned speech, Xen assured the pair he had no interest in taking the weapon for himself. He droned on for what seemed like hours, alleging Impetus of terrible injustices to the Sith order. As the speech came to its stirring pledge to Thran’s cause, the leader of the target faction cut his newest officer short. “Shut up…Help me.” The Sith said, returning Xen’s weapon.

The group went to work, cutting the brush away with intensifying ease. Finally, the brunette woman stumbled across a small stump of stone, the base of a statue. Suddenly, the jungle opened up. A towering complex rose out from the bare ground, a large central building stood out from the others. The granite stone appeared as alien as the treasure seeking group of Sith. Thran glanced to his companion, silent as the effigies of the ancient people who guarded the Tomb of Caliburnus. A soft roar came from the tangled tropical forest around them, setting the adventurers off, running towards the altar.

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Both groups had made progress, but the overwhelming presence of influential and haughty Dark Jedi from the upper echelons of the Clan seemed to slow the sanctioned Expedition team. Impetus barked orders, Phoenix barked orders, but only the weak minded gave their orders much thought. Apathy fell through the ranks, distracting the force from their goal.

The Twi’lek female was a ripe twenty-one, prime suspect for the lonely men of the force. The watched her dredge through the jungle, over the river, into the ravine. She had a strange and irresistible aura about her. Confining her conversation and battle-plan to the select group of leaders around her, the drones of the band ogled her from afar, full of all sorts of earthly notions. The golden hue of her skin shined through the night, catching Cethgus’ eye. He sighed, dreaming of his boyish crush and a romantic evening. The group had stopped for a moment, expecting a report from a reconnoitering group.

They had pushed far, close to stopping the mutineers. The jungle had lightened in the ravine, A lightly armored scout interrupted the meeting, saluting his superiors. He had news from the front. Machweg, the prodigy of the Clan, smiled. He already knew.

“Lady Impetus, The heretic has reached the temple complex. I am afraid we are too late.” The soldier said.

“Has he found the weapon?” she replied with great concern.

“I do not believe so.” The starch man replied.

Niemand smiled, taking some pride in the success of the Sith’s treachery. Phoenix, still fuming from the scuffle with the Jade, thought to himself. The energy of the group felt confused and lost. The leaders listened as Impetus issued orders to assail the temple complex. The scout finished his exchange with the Twi’lek and scurried off to distribute the commands.

When the leaders meeting reconvened, both the Krath Master and the Sith Battlelord questioned the Quaestor in almost perfect harmony. “Heretic?” echoed the query.

“Don’t question my word choice! I WANT THAT WEAPON!” she roared.

With her response, the Battlelord began to question her integrity in this quest. The group nodded, preparing to rush off to capture the target of a peculiar vendetta. The Master hinted to the obscure Clan Summiteer to hang back, obliging Phoenix watched the stalwart relic-hunting Krath Preistess run off to attempt to seal Thran’s Fate. The wiser of the Dark Jedi paused for a moment, looking to each other. “Got something to say Proconsul?” The pre-teen savant pried.

Phoenix thought a moment more, before gathering his weapons. He replied “I only hope you are ready, Master. Something or someone is about to get broken…” The boy grinned and trotted off behind the battle charge. The Battlelord followed, a deep concern still on his mind.

The group pressed, the temple was in sight…

Xen hadn't come far when he stopped dead in his tracks. He could feel more than see the woman next to him doing the same, shifting her attention completely away from him and towards the building. Something was off in the aura of the building... or whatever one could call it. And it felt very wrong.

Only Thran was oblivious to it all. He had come so close, and his desire was taking over, masking the warnings in the Force. Not that the Force felt right to begin with, which was part of the reason Xen's survival instinct told him to turn and run. Yet he felt some of the same desire, and asides, Thran still had his saber.

Xen's eyes met Rasilvenaira's, and he noticed the contempt in her eyes. If for him or Thran's ignorance of an obvious problem, he couldn't tell. Then the Sithess followed Thran, calling out telepathically for him to wait. But she knew at once he didn't hear her. Fear crept up inside the woman, and she had to swallow hard to push it back.

Occassus was a good distance ahead of them now, almost in reach of the blue-grey walls of the structure. He couldn't see an entrance, but this didn't worry him yet. If needed, he could walk through walls - with a little help of his saber, of course. But his legs slowed almost by themselves. The weirdness of this place begun to seep in slowly.

There were no sounds other than those they made, and while this was too unusual in a place full of Dark Force, there would usualy still be sounds from outside, or sounds of creatures flourishing in Darkness. This was different. Then there was the light. It had changed, the sky was more of a purple colour now, despite the hour of the day, and there was a feeling of taint of age, much as if he was looking at an old picture turned yellow over time. Most prominent of all was the dilated feel of the Force itself. Usually, in places like this, there would be a very powerful aura of Dark Force pressing in on even experienced Dark Jedi. This aura, while powerful, didn't press in on Thran. It was rather trying to stretch him, tearing at his mind and tugging at his soul. He felt like walking through water all of a sudden. Confused, he stretched his body up, trying to shake the sudden feeling of being a fly taped to sticky paper. His head turned, and he saw his companions stand at the edge of the small clearing. They didn't move. Xen had his right arm outstretched, pointing at Thran, and silver's eyes were wide with something Thran could only think of as fear. He waved to them, to indicate he would be moving back to them to discuss this weird feeling he had. But their expression did not change. They seemed frozen.

Alarmed, Thran went back towards them a few steps, but from one moment to the other he did not only move as if in water, he also seemed to lose ground under his feet and walk in place. Then he noticed he was walking backwards while trying to move towards them. Panic begun to rise, but only for a moment. No, there was time to flip out later, in case he could not find out what was going on. For now, he gave in to his still burning desire and started moving towards the building again. The answers would be somewhere in there, he was sure of that.

Xen raised his arm, pointing to where Thran had been just a moment ago. From one second to the other, the man was gone. "Where's he gone to? What HAPPENED?"

The Aedile blinked and stared, fear coming back at an alarming rate. "It's like zhe telepoted out... or rather, was teleported elsewhere."

"We need to find him." Xen knew how lame it sounded. They had no idea where to start, and Thran could be anywhere.

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It was Malaki, yet it was not him.

Impetus and her group were staring wide eyed and open mouthed at the human. Malaki's left arm was pointing right at the Twi'lek woman, and his lips were twisted in a terrible grimace. A second before, the man had been walking quietly and seemingly deep in thoughts, and the next moment he had turned into... something else. They could feel it through the Force. Something or someone had taken a hold on him.

Before Imprtus could address him, Malaki's voice, or at least a voice coming from Malaki's mouth, addressed her. "You," it said. "You have the greatest ambition, and the lowest patience. After the weapon of glory, you are. Worthy, you are not. Only a Sith can unearth that what was promised to the House that became Caliburnus."

"Just who are you, and what have you done to Malaki?" Phoenix didn't seem the slightest impressed, if anything, he seemed to calculate how to add this ursuper of Malaki's physical being to his row of trophies without killing Malaki.

"Ask not things you cannot comprehend - yet," the voice replied, calmer this time. "Continue on your own path - without the derivates of true Sith knowledge you have taken with you." Malaki's body was still pointing at Impetus. "You will understand - in time. Time. Time is of the essence here. That is the message I came to deliver."

Impetus hand had reached for her saber instinctively, but of course she had no saber left. Yet what she would have done with the weapon, she didn't know. Slaughtering the body of one of her own? But the point was moot. With a grunt of confusion, she was looking at the eyes of Malaki again, who dropped the raised arm and stared at his left hand. Before he could shrugg it off, he noticed everyone was staring at him. "What? What are you looking at?" he wanted to know. "Phoenix? Did I miss something important?"

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

"We need to find him?? Need to find him? that's all you have to say?" Not quite sure what else she had expected the Zabrakh to say, Rasilvenaira was barely stopping herself from shouting. Trembling in anger, she looked around for any hint of thran, just in case he was still somewhere near. "Stating the obvious will not help us at all, you know."

"I know." Xen took a deep breath and rotated his saber hilt with his nervous fingers. "D'you think he's already in there?"

"That is, of course, a possibility." The woman calmed down, if just barely so. "But he didn't go in on his own accord."

"Trapdoor?" Xen suggested

"Possible. But maybe it has to do with..."

"...whatever strange thing is going on in there," Xen finished. "Well, then, we can stand around all day or try to find him." a part of his mind finished the sentence with '...and die like him' but he didn't dare say it out loud.

"If we'd be more than two, I'd suggest splitting up," the Sithess said thoughtfully. "But seeing how we already lost him, we shouldn't go alone."

"Agreed. After you."

"After me?" Silver looked at him, suspicious again. "No, I don't think so. I definitely don't want you in my back just now."

Supressing a sigh, Xen shrugged. "OK, then. Me first." Carefully, he stepped further towards the building, saber at the ready. Silver followed him, casting suspicious glances and scowling at the man's back. If Xen wopuld have gotten lost, she would have asked thran to try from another site. Oh why did Occassus have to be so insensitive to Force hints at times..?

"It suddenly feels like I'm walking in water," Xen exclaimed and stopped.

Rasilvenaira almost bumped into him. It was true, though, she, too, could feel it. "And the light has changed. And the sounds and..."

"I don't think we can turn back." Xen knew this, but he could not say how he knew.

The woman turned and walked a few steps back, only to find herself sliding backwards again. "Seems you are right."

"There are footprints," Xen pointed out, fixing his mind on the next important thing, just to not lose it. Things you could fight were fine with him. This, however, was not, so he needed to force himself to focus.

"From Thran," Silver nodded. "But only on the bit of soft ground where it is damp."

"Well, but we knew he walked further towards the building now. Just why didn't we see him anymore?"

"Let's just follow. And beware, the Force feels so... thin. There is much more to this place than we thought." In her mind, she had never doubted the weapon would be well protected, yet this, she had not foreseen. Nor did she have an idea what "this" was, yet. "Stay behind me." And as if to find Thran faster, she passed Xen and took lead in their endeavour.

Rasilvenaira pressed on, trusting Xen to follow her or not, she didn’t really care. The Warrior’s feral instincts screamed at her to flee, to put this place behind her if at all possible. Shaking her head, she tightened her control over her own fear, focusing on the one fact that was more important to her – Thran was in there, somewhere. Rasilvenaira had no intention of leaving the temple without him.

Though she couldn’t see an opening, Rasilvenaira knew there had to be one, Occasus hadn’t vanished into thin air, she was certain of that. Though that was about all she could be sure of in this twisted surreal environment. Suddenly as the Sith took another step forward, the temple walls seemed to shift and close in around her and Xen.

“Ras, wait! Do you even know where we’re going?”

“About as well as you do.” She snapped back.

“So you’re just going to go rushing in and probably get us both killed? How will that help Thran?”

The Warrior whirled around, her crimson saber igniting. “I could not care less if you die, I do not plan on it. Get in my way and I will kill you myself, now shut up and look for clues.”

Xen stepped back slightly, his hand tightening on his own saber as he saw the pure rage burning deep in the woman’s dark eyes. “Fine, Caliburnus will probably kill Thran anyway, he’s not the Quaestor.”

She growled, “That wretched sorry excuse for a Krath isn’t either. So I imagine, Caliburnus will sort it out soon enough.”

“Imp is the Quaestor, Ras, face it.”

“Only in name, Xen, you know that, or you wouldn’t be here. You would be by her side if you truly believed it.”

The zabrak lowered his head, and then something caught his eye, “What’s that?”

He pointed to a strange mark carved into the stone floor, and then he realized that they were inside the temple, and he hadn’t even noticed the dirt path give way to stone flooring.

Rasilvenaira stepped closer to the marking, and then stopped dead as a low rumbling growl bounced off the walls around them. Both Sith turned, their sabers glowing in the strange dim lighting. An jet black shadow seemed to materialize from nowhere, fixing them both in its baleful gaze, the beast moved toward them like freshly spilled ink drifting over the stone.

“Tuk’ata!” Rasilvenaira and Xen both recognized the beast in unison and dove out of its way one to each side as it lunged for them.

*******************************

Phoenix glared at Malaki, and then looked around at the group. This expedition was growing stranger by the moment, and it was wearing what little patience the Proconsul had even thinner.

“Master Machweg, you have any ideas about what just happened?” he asked as he regarded the young Master.

The boy shrugged, though a gleam in his eyes suggested he understood far more than he would let on.

“Who cares what just happened, you heard whatever it was, TIME is what’s important now. Thran has reached the temple; we don’t have time to waste, get moving!” The Twi’lek shouted, and she marched off in the direction of the temple, hell bent on getting there and claming the weapon for herself.

“Just you wait a moment, Quaestor, we don’t know what’s in there, you go charging in head first and you could get us all killed. Start using that brain of yours for something more than looking pretty.”

Rasilvenaira and Xen stood back up staring down the direction which the beast first appeared, however the tint glow from their sabres didn’t show much light so they couldn’t see that far through the darkness of the temple. Xen turned around in full complete circles twice until he eventually noticed two devious glowing blood red eyes, then to the black shape of the Tuk’ata.

“Its times like these when I told you so really does mean a lot” The zabrak said glaring into the fate red eyes in the distance.

Rasilvenaira turned around noticing the eyes as well, and then suddenly the beast began to charge back at them. The Tuk’ata ran for the female, with a furious hiss as the beast ran towards her. As it reached with in metres with in her presence the beast swung its large paw for the female Sith.

“Ras! Watch it” Xen screamed at the female.

The zabrak throw his light sabre at the hand of this overgrown beast that went to attack his companion. The sabre buried itself deeply through the paw, both of the sith covered their ears as the Tuk’ata screamed in a deafening growl. It suddenly swung round its other hand at Xen, picking up the defenceless sith. Squishing his grip tightly, trying to crush his next meal. The sabre deactivated itself from the hand of the beast falling to the cold rough stone fall below them. Rasilvenaira looked up at the beast within the crimson glow from her sabre, then seeing another two red eyes gleaming in the distance approaching them quickly.

**************************************

Impetus ignored that comment by the young master, she watched him walk on by, and then left herself. The hunter stared at Phoenix then hurried along as well, eventually followed by Phoniex.Malaki looked utterly confused, as if he didn’t actually know where he was or what happened. The hunter in his instinct avoided Phoenix as something made him feel he was untrustworthy, however Malaki couldn’t really talk about trust anymore after all what he can remember of his rant at his quaestor. He hurried along the group trying to get to the front along side Impetus, as he got there he was suddenly barged out the way by Phoenix.

“Well somebody should have a bit more respect for fellow members” Said the hunter looking disgusted at phoenix behaviour

He caught back up along side his master and began to apologize for early.

“Master, what ever that was back there, I’m sorry for it ok, I guess there is more to this temple than we expected” the hunter said trying to get the attention of his quaestor.

All he heard from the Twik’lek was a slight mumble then a sign; he believed that he was now beginning to be outcast by the team. Eventually he grew the nerves to grab her out of the way to be able to communicate with her.

“Oui master, what’s wrong with you, ever since we started this quest you have changed, your not the person you were before this started, your more arrogant, inpatient….”The hunter said before his was rudely interrupted by Impetus

“Your right young one however that weapon shall be mine, now stop this chitchat and get back to the quest, we have not got much time left till the others reach the weapon” She said then strode off back in the direction of the temple.

Malaki looked around at the group realising that this quest was becoming more of a race and man hunt that an expedition. He walked back off with the group looking through the environment he could see the temple ahead of them.

“There it is team, double the pace, hurry now we will be there quickly” Phoenix shouted to the team which then started to run in the direction and sight of the temple.

The vociferous clamor of the toxic and monstrous Tuk’ata drew the attention of the self appointed autocrat. With vainglory and lightsaber in hand, she pressed out of the sylvan and into the clearing where the temple rose from the jungle. The edacious jaws of the Tuk’ata had pinned the two defectors against a moss covered wall. A pair of brutish soldiers followed their mistress’s command, leaving the beasts smoldering in the grass at the feet of the unsuspecting Sith. Xen stood shaking, he had been roughed up well. Rasilvenaira would be left to answer for what had happened.

“Where is that yegg?!? That treasonous piece of dianoga dung!” Impetus screamed forcing herself into the mix.

A upstart and respectable lady would have addressed the problem in a logical way. The Quaestor soon found out that Rasilvenaira did not take etiquette courses on the street of Ord Mantell. The sound of the open handed slap echoed in the temple complex, the blow had left Impetus lying prone on the ground.

“Stand up so I can hit you again!” the fair skinned brunette screamed.

Xen watched in shock, his mouth hung open with a strange curiosity and attraction. The street ready StormRaven pounced on Impetus, continuing her vent. The rest of the group soon joined them, observing the cat-fight as it grew more violent. Impetus tried to tap the force, but the jungle had tired her. In the shadow of a towering wall, they wrestled for their weapons. After a prolonged stalemate, the Master of the Dark Side stepped in, halting the feud.

With little warning, Machweg, the young Master, separated the quarreling females. They floated like rag dolls being tossed into the toy bin, colliding with the ground, they bounced a few feet in opposite directions. Tapping into the vast pools of the Dark Side, which welled up in the presence of the demonic altar place, he tore their minds to ribbons and with shameless ease he began sorting out what information was important.

“Phoenix, put these gals in a cell together. They will sort out their own issues.” Duda replied smiling to himself.

Phoenix motioned to his personal guard, who instantly drew their shackles. Rasilvenaira, who had gathered herself much quicker than the tired and beaten Twi’lek, saw the guard and began a sprinting search for her lost inamorato. The guards seemingly ignored the fleeing girl, quickly binding her victim.

“Quaestor Impetus, you are hereby placed under arrest of the Clan, by order of the Consul. I apologize, your quest ends here.” Phoenix regrettably informed her. The tone of his voice was sheer disappointment in her, in her failure, and that Thran was long lost. Impetus squirmed and coughed up thousands of objections as she was dragged off.

Machweg slid over to the Proconsul “By order of the Consul?” he pried.

“If she failed, a Safeguard. Where is he?” Phoenix replied, too furious for verbosity.
The Dark Jedi Master noted the Palpatine’s impatience and replied calmly “He is close, very close.”

Rasilvenaira slid to a stop against the stone wall of the temple. The strange feeling of the place had shifted again, even the air felt thicker now. The Warrior stood a moment, catching her breath after the close call with the main expedition. Her emotions chased themselves around in her mind, she was pleased that Impetus had been arrested and hoped she’d be punished, but Rasilvenaira was at the same moment disappointed that she’d not be getting the chance to finish the twi’lek herself. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the Sith focused her mind on the object of her search. Despite the twisting and convoluted feel of the force in the temple, she could still feel Thran. Taking her saber back in hand, Rasilvenaira took off again, keeping up a swift pace yet remaining alert for other possible hazards or traps as she moved deeper into the temple.

The inner corridors of the temple twisted in seemingly impossible ways, and the Warrior was growing more frustrated with each passing moment. A winged shape suddenly burst out of the shadows and the Sith’s reflexes reacted, crimson saber snapping to life and slicing through the hapless beast. Rasilvenaira kicked the body viciously and moved on, keeping her saber lit. The unnatural darkness of the place began to close in around her. Pausing for a moment, she allowed her eyes to adjust, grateful for the time she’d spent training her senses. Unlike most of her peers, Rasilvenaira was a hunter by nature and did not rely as strongly on the force as others did.

The Warrior continued on, moving further into the temple, slightly disturbed by the lack of any sounds beyond her own footsteps. Shrugging off the nagging uneasy feeling that plagued her Rasilvenaira focused her mind on Thran, he was close, she just hoped that she could catch up to him before anything else happened.

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Thran dodged sideways, pressing himself against the temple wall as a triggered trap sent a boulder crashing down where he had just been standing. His normally bright emerald green eyes had turned stone grey as he studied the path before him. The Sith’s clothes bore bloodstains and rips from encounters with various creatures along his way. Cursing under his breath, the Bakuran pressed on, his sheer determination evident in his expression. Thran knew he was getting very close to the weapon, he could almost imagine that he felt it calling to him, drawing him forward.

The glow of his saber illuminated another rune covered wall, as well as other strange markings that he didn’t recognize. Moving cautiously, but as quickly as he could, Thran continued along the passage way. Soon he grew uncomfortable as he realized the passage was growing narrower. Unwilling to turn back, he shifted his grip on the hilt of his saber and kept himself alert for any signs of more traps. Eventually the passage widened out into a large hall and Thran took a deep breath, glad to not have the cold stone walls pressing in around him now.

Above him on a ledge near the ceiling of the Hall, two deep ruby eyes observed the Sith coldly. The silent shadow remained motionless, waiting and watching.

"I suppose," Phoenix said, with some effort to sound casual, "that you still won't explain to us what this is all about?" He stared at Machweg with as much coolness he could muster, which wasn't all that much. The surroundings begun to press on him, Dark Jedi or not.

"Time," the boy stated, and there was no hint of playing games in his voice this time. "As the messenger said through Malaki's body earlier. What have you felt as we neared the temple?"

Phoenix didn't answer the question, but slowly nodded. He begun to understand. As the pieces fell into place, his feeling of impending doom increased. "In what time are we now? Are we even inside time? What if time outside the temple passes faster than here, or faster in here than..."

"I do not know," the boy interrupted. There was a spark in his eyes Phoenix hadn't seen before. "I am not even sure we are in the same time as Thran Ocassus. I am not actually sure we are in the same place in space we were before. But I do know that we are not alone in here." With a gesture that seemed to grand for a child that young, Machweg took in the surroundings, which looked harmless enough if you ignored the Dark aura. "And I do not mean creatures meddled with by the Dark Side."

A sudden memory appeared in Phoenix's thoughts. A scroll with names on it. "Guardians?"

"You can be sure of that," Machweg nodded. "And they will be strong."


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

Impetus was fuming. There was no clear thought left in the Twi'lek's mind. How could they betray her like that? How could they lock her away in an old hole with mossy walls, alone in the darkness, and go for the weapon themselves? It was supposed to be hers!

The room they had locked her in was an old cell designed to hold those unfortunate enough to be sacrificed in one ritual or the other. It was four or five steps wide in each direction, and not much higher than the woman could stand. Trying to get her rage under control, the tired Twi'lek felt the walls and moved along, her hands trying to cover every bit of the walls in the hopes of finding an escape route. The doors, a slab of mocinv stone, was sealed tight, there would be no way out there.

At the almost non-existant corner in the back of the cell, she found a crack and felt the low flow of cooler air. As she sank to her knees to examine it further, Impetus also noticed the stench of ages with it, decay and death and abandonment. But the crack was large enough for her to fit though. Not wasting any thought about what she would do if she would get stuck, her rage renewed, and she crawled into the crack.

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

They were surrounding Thran, according to their ancient and yet new orders. The guardians of the temple, unseen and effective, came closer and closer, their not quite corporal shadows floating around corners and down the corridors and towards the corridors he walked. Observing, they were, biding their time because they did not know the intruder's purpose yet.

Thran was oblivious to this. He was not, however, oblivious to the call coming from what seemed to be one of the lower central rooms. Descending a ramp slighly covered with moss, he wondered for a brief moment why this temple was here at all, when Caliburnus had only so recently taken residence on this planet. But it did not matter. All that mattered was beating that Krath wretch to the weapon. Reviving the glory... oh, the glory...

For a second, he stopped at the bottom of the ramp, noticing he had been running. That was foolishness better left to the Obelisk. He had to be careful. Maybe Ras would have known how to proceed best. Ras...

It only now occured to him that he had left her behind. For a split second, the desire to go back and search for her pushed to the front of his thoughts, but then it was gone. Moving left and taking the next ramp downwards, he set all his mind on his prize again.

The shadowed existence following him laughed, but it was a mental laugh unnoticed by Thran, and it's ruby red eyes stared coldly at the Sith's back.

Inch by inch the Twi'lek twisted through the deceptively small crag in the perimeter of the cell the ProConsul had entombed her within. The Ryloth native was thankful for her given talents and the years of slavery she had spent as a dancer - allowing her body to twist in unimaginable positions with fluid and grace. She buried her face in a pool of mud once again as her hips contorted almost one hundred and eighty degrees along her spine. Finally, the seductive back end of the Krath Priestess tumbled from the hole; loose of the craggy edges of her confines.

Haughtily, the Krath examined her backside over her right shoulder. 'Perhaps I have neglected my daily routine for too long,' her thought was punctuated with a frown and severe disdain. She moved to wipe the muck from her face, the cuffs restraining independent movement. Impetus swore at the thought of Olkyssagh ."I will kill that damn Sith if the opportunity ever presents itself..."

Racing through the catacombs, stuff cuffs attached, the Krath Equite let the desire of the blade known as Caliburnus direct her feet. With haste she made a pronounced advance, hoping to flank the main group until an advantage presented itself.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"What?!" The ProConsul demanded of the contingent of troops tasked with the safeguarding of the prisoner Priestess. "It was a simple task... imprison the Lady Krath until my return or that of a sanctioned moderator of the Lord Consul!" The large man's voice reverberated through the eerily silent tombs with a punctuated emphasis or rage.

"Grand Marshal," the man began, but his voice was drowned in a gurgle. The ProConsul stood before him, his right arm extended and his fist grasping an unseen point in the air. The soldiers trachea constricted further as the Sith's grip tightened - SNAP - the throat constricted to the point of folding in on itself. The Force dissipated from the surrounding area immediately - the rage of Phoenix breaking the strange hold of the temple only momentarily - the corpse fell to the ground with a thud.

The Son of Palpatine turned back towards the proceeding he had been evaluating: the guilt of Xen'Mordin Vismorsus. With the capture of the defector, the crowd had been demanding his head. And, honestly, Phoenix had grown so weary with the situation he was half tempted to condemn the man. His head pivoted towards the direction where Malaki and Ohika had been holding the Sith Warrior at bay... his eyes bulged with fury as his eyes drank in the scene before him. Both the Jedi Hunter and Protector lay prone on the ground, no sign of Xen present.

The Sith rounded on the Master of Darkness that was at his side, "You could have prevented the escape of a known dissenter!" Duda gave a noncommittal shrug to say, "As if."

With emotions running high, Phoenix repeated the too oft command "Move out!"

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Impetus' azure orbs soaked in the sight before her. From start to finish, she had watched the entire scenario play itself out - waiting for the crowd to move forward. Albeit, they moved reluctantly and with less zeal than when the campaign had begun.

Creeping forward the Krath settled upon her knees next to the form of the fallen soldier; The one whom had been so viciously murdered by the Sith Battlelord with the Force. She carefully worked through his gear, acquiring what she would need as she passed the large group and began her pursuit of the one known as Occasus.

With a pile of stuff beside her, the Krath began to sort through it in a logical manner. She picked up the key to loose her bindings. The key slid into the lock and a metallic pop indicated the key was the correct one. As the metal cuffs fell upon the temple floor she tenderly rubbed her wrists to bring feeling back to them. Carefully she harnessed several additional power packs before firmly grasping the stock of the blaster rifle lying before her.

"You cannot take what is mine, Occasus..."

The room before which Thran now stood seemed to be wrong in many ways. There was no door, as in most temples, the hallway opened right into a large room with stone walls, in this case, stone walls hewn out of the rocks underground. It was large, yet how large, the Sith was incabable of judging. The dimensions in the room seemed to shift, as did the lightning. Shadows appeared where there had been none before, and light that one moment appeared to be yellow was red in the next.

There was a chasm in the middle of the room, with hellish heat emanating from it. The distance to the other side seemed to vary. It gave Thran the feeling of being drunk. There were natural platforms, some small, some wide, leading over the chasm - nothing that would be a problem for a Sith, under usual circumstances. With the wavering distance, however that was done, this Sith wasn't sure if attempting to cross over that way would be a wise move.

There was nothing but some ground plates with symbols on them on this side of the chasm. On the other side of the room, though, was a dais with a small, crystal box on it. If he wasn't mistaken, it was one of the crystal types one would manufacture his saber from. The holding place of his prize?

Once more he wished Ras would be close by. Calling out mentally for her again, he heard nothing but telepathic whispers of people long past, and, as it seemed, also from people yet to come. No sign of the woman at all. He found this quite disturbing.

With a sigh, he entered the room and moved towards the abyss. Molten lava was flowing slowly at the bottom - some hundred meters down, he thought - and the heat waves coming up were likely part of the weird spacial issues this room had. Yet, the man noted with eyes half closed, the distance to the far side and the dimensions of the rooms as such did shift constantly. Time, he realized, wasn't stable here. He saw the room in various states of construction, and all at once. If he concentrated just so, he could even see the fleeting shadows of former contstructor slaves and their masters. Sounds of labour seemed to appear every now and then. A room full of Force and unimaginable age, yet it seemed to be so very young at the same time.

"Why I am standing here, thinking about this like a silly Krath," Ocassus muttered. Then he took good aim, with his heart more than his eyes, and jumped.

He landed on a swaying piece of rock that had looked much more stable. Balancing himself was not hard though, he didn't even need the Force to do that. Once more he jumped, this time to a more stable platform at a higher level.

'Thran? Where in the name of Darth ARE you?' Silver's telepathic voice, finally. Somehow faint and yet very close. 'They are in the Krath damn temple. We need to hurry.'

'In the anteroom of hell,' Thran replied with some sudden flash of humour. 'Come on under, all you have to do is follow the ramps down.'

'Coming," Silver replied, and there was no doubt that she was rushing to meet up with him.

Thran turned towards the far side. He would have to make several more jumps, but it should not be too difficult as long as he let himself guide by the Force and ignored the wavering heat playing tricks on his eyes. Yet a sudden movement, like a floating shadow, distracted him. Someone or something was standing close to the crystal box. A split second later, cold shovers ran down the Sith's spine. Several of those shadows, on either side of the chasm, and they were closing in. Were their eyes really glowing red, or what that just a trick of the ever changing light? He didn't know, but he was about sure he had just found the guardians of this place.

Silver, running and jumping down ramps so fast two contact traps missed her and she didn't even notice, heard his mental groan in her mind. 'What's up now?'

'My day has just gotten better,' came the frustrated reply.

The miserable heat of the room hit Rasilvenaira instantly as she turned the corner. With a step into the room, her attention snapped to the nebulous figures bearing down on the man. Searing embers coughed up from the boiling cauldron of molten rock churning under the viaduct that past over the chasm rift, stinging her skin as the made contact. “Thran!” she called out in a mixture of pain and worry, to no apparent response.

His face contorted with a terrible grin, he was going to be victorious. Handsome features and charm gave way to lustful and malicious textures in his eyes. The Bakuran dove with a Herculean strength towards the crystal urn, reaching for his goal. The shadows, growing incredibly large, obscured him. The wispy, smoke-like apparitions roughly took the contour of a personage before becoming an impenetrable dark haze. Swirling patterns in the manifested evil decorated the room with a strange and alluring appearance. As Rasilvenaira stood speechless, observing the terrifying sight. At first an undulating chant seemingly rose from the magma below the elevated deck. It swept the room, hanging in the corners as if it moved freely of the laws of harmonics and wave motion principles.

The calefaction of the softened ore that protected the room dissipated suddenly. A shrill, screaming gasp seemed to come from the ancient walls as they drew a cruel airstream down the sloping ramps of the facility. The keen and level-headed Sithess understood why she felt as if she had been watched since entering the Caliburnus Altar. The walls, the guardians, the shadows; all were alive, twisted around one fate. The gilded dreams of endless sums of treasure seekers fell like a paper house in a cyclone. A quest that spanned generations had finally come to a climax and in the true poetic fashion, everything would finally unwind.

Sunset screamed, in perfect harmony with the fall of Cocytus over the furthest removed world. Night had fallen, bringing the impending darkness. The unmistakable crisp and disdainful snap-hiss of a lightsaber broke the ghastly sounds of the enchanted chamber. The cloud parted in sections, slowly swirling in thin vines. Occasus became the locus for now the rotary spirits. They seemed to engulf him, taking his body as their own.

He shook at first, like a tired traveler after finally disembarking from an uncomfortable vessel. Clutched in his hand was the most beautiful weapon StormRaven had ever seen, jet black, brilliant gold, passionate and rich crimson, a blade like the fires below its resting place. He held it across his chest, examining his tensed forearm. A scrolling golden decoration on the saber glittered in the light of the room. He turned his head methodically, as if he were adjusting to his own body. The half-man appearance of the rebellious Aedile left a bitter fear in the now cowering woman. She regretted coming, she feared for Thran, and she feared for herself. His emerald eyes had leeched to an empty and malevolent pair of bloodshot rubicund orbs. Occasus didn’t move, staring at her as if she were intruding on an extremely personal encounter. Anger personified.

She heard footsteps behind her, but was too petrified to flee. “Thran, please...” her heart told her to say more, but the words never reached her lips. The man she shared so much with was no longer there. He snarled and spoke in a language that had been lost for eons.

“Zhol kash dinora! Ja’ak!” he began.

Though Rasilvenaira could not understand the released soul, she knew his language. Sithese. The rejuvenated corpse of a man began speaking to himself in the foreign tongue, admiring the newly acquired fleshy vessel again. She tried to contact her lover, searching for his mind. As the moments passed, it sunk into the pit of her gut.

“So, you’ve found it.” came a voice from behind her…




>:)

Rasilvenaira growled, her crimson saber snapping to life as she half turned allowing the filthy, bedraggled form of Impetus into her field of vision while still keeping her eyes on Thran, and whatever possessed him. The Warrior despised the completely helpless feeling closing in around her. She kept reaching out for Thran’s mind only to be blocked again and again by the overwhelming darkness that shrouded the bearer of the weapon. Swallowing against the fear rising in her heart Rasilvenaira looked over at the Twi’lek.

Battered and still covered in mud, spots of dried blood marring the once pristine form, Impetus took another step closer, looking from Rasilvenaira to the figure holding Caliburnus, her eyes blazing with hatred. Choosing to ignore Rasilvenaira for the moment, the Twi’lek moved even closer toward Thran.

“You might have found it first, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be keeping it.” She yelled.

Rasilvenaira’s anger flared, pushing her fears to the back of her mind as she glared at Impetus, her own hatred of the Twi’lek surging to the front of her thoughts.

“You delusional, half-witted, wretched pile of bantha spit, you still think you are worthy of that weapon? You’re a Krath, you will never wield Caliburnus; you are too weak.”

Impetus’ lavender blade ignited with a crisp hum as her face twisted with anger. Lunging at the Sith, she was determined to exact revenge for the assault from StormRaven earlier that had earned her arrest. The agile Warrior met the attack, her ruby saber humming defiantly as it crackled and hissed against Impetus’ blade. Around them, the shadows seemed to grow quiet; watching the conflict. Still standing on the raised dais where he had claimed the weapon, Thran and whatever guardian possessed him looked on as well. His eyes focused on the Krath, a sneer of contempt spread over his features.

The two women fought, circling and attacking, the anger and hatred between them burning nearly as hot as the lava that heated the chamber. Impetus screamed in pain as Rasilvenaira’s crimson blade drove past her defenses and seared a vicious cut across her left hip.

Suddenly a dark tendril lashed out, rapping itself around the Krath and slamming her back against the stone wall. Thran moved toward her, the sunset hued blade of Caliburnus blazing as it reignited.

“You, Krath, have trespassed where you do not belong.” His voice was strange, not really his own as he spoke. “You will be the first of many to fall before Caliburnus.”

The Twi’lek scrambled to her feet, fear gripping her mind as she stared at the apparition approaching her. Turning, she fled, seeking to save herself, hoping she wouldn’t get lost or trapped within the temple.

The man started to pursue her, but Rasilvenaira called out, once again desperately searching for Thran’s mind beyond the presence of the guardian. “No! Let her go, she’s not worth killing. Let her live with the knowledge that she failed.”

Demonic eyes focused their attention on her, and she swallowed hard, knowing that it was not truly Thran she faced at that moment. She extinguished her saber, knowing would not be of any use to her if he truly intended on killing her. Stepping closer, her dark eyes met his gaze.

“Let him go as well, Caliburnus is safe, in the hands of the Sith, take your leave and go, there is nothing left to hold you here.”

Laughter echoed through the chamber, and the man smirked, “This one suits me, why should I not keep him?”

Rasilvenaira stopped, mere feet from him, her mind focused on all that she and Thran had shared together. “Because he is not yours to keep.”

The rest of the House had meanwhile moved up the ramps and stairs, following a reddish glow. Something was drawing Pheonis right to wherever the glow came from, but he couldn't say why. Master Machweg had suggested to rather search below ground, but Phoenix would have none of it. If he was drawn so strongly towards the top of the temple, there was definitely a reason.

They finally emerged from a wide flight of stairs into a pyramid shaped room of enourmous size. The red glow came from a crystal coating on the ceiling, which appeared to be cold and hot at the same time. 4 statues of Darth Sidious decorated the corners.

Yet the most fascinating part was the floor. It was transparent, and red embers glowed under it. The Proconsul knew what they were. He had read about the Fires of Caliburnus in older stories - a powerful illusion only those truly bound to Caliburnus and Scholae Palpatinae could see. Accordingly, only the other House members and more powerful Clan members could see it. There was a whisper of awe and suprise in the air.

Before Phoenix could decide how to proceed, Malaki called from behind one of Darth Sidious' statues. "You want to see this," he said. His voice sounded confused and almost terrified. "I think we have a problem."

Not only Phoenix rushed towards him. It quickly became crowded. Those not able to fit behind the statue waited impatiently and called out to them. Everyone was nervous. The Proconsul, though, was at a loss for words. There was a small window behidn the statue, of the type usually seen in keeps and strongholds - high and narrow. Glass was covering it, so no sound or climate from outside could reach in. What the window showed, though, was not the jungle world they had just left. The window portrayed a snow covered landscape, with the occassional ice ladded rock inbetween. An unheard storm was blowing snow around forming dunes. The Proconsul knew at once that this was not an illusion, or a holodisplay. The aura was real, the Force flow was real. The world out there was present right now.

Before his confusion could turn into something productive, someone else called from behind another statue. "There's a window here. Is that what you see? And it shows..."

Malaki was there before the officer could finish the sentence. A stony desert, wind ridden as well. Impossible to tell the temperature, but from the looks of the strange and spare vegetation, Phoenix would bet on it being a cold wasteland. He rushed to the other two windows. A grassy plane, full of strange herd animals and banthas and finally what he considered to be the jungle world they had entered from. "Master Machweg," he called. "Can you make any sense of this?"

There was no answer. The boyish Jedi Master was gone. Phoenix growled for a second, then he relaxed. The child always had a mind of his own and had surely gone underground as he had wanted them to do. But no matter. An idea was already forming inside Phoenix' head, an explanation as to why the temple had suddenly appeared, among other things. "Let's go downside, too," he ordered. "Maybe we are not too late to catch Thran before he does any damage."

For a man of his stature, he looked incredibly daunting. He stood admiring the relic, examining its intricacies. It was a beautiful piece, truly something that would have done well in a collection. As he felt the gem with his fingertip, he turned to Rasilvenaira. As he approached her, he appeared to grow before her. She had never feared him, never once. Thran Occasus melted for women, but not this time. Step by step, he approached.

“This weapon was the product of a lineage. It was not made in one place. It was not made at one time. It is a symbol. Darth Vectivus, do you know him?” the precarious man said.

“No.” came an interjecting voice.

Proconsul Palpatine, knight in the vicious dejarik game of the adventure. Weapon in hand and pride in his step, a challenge boomed forth from the Sith Battlelord. Caliburnus came to life again, taking aim at the challenger. Phoenix met the challenge. He had been aching to fight someone. What ever dragged him on this forsaken mission was about to reveal itself finally, permanently. He noted the different appearance in his opponent. The young Master was nowhere to be found, and it concerned the Battlelord. The culmination of frustration and confusion came to be in a duel. It was perfect, nearly poetic.

Phoenix set his feet. A master of the Dun Moch Style, the stalwart Proconsul wasted little time before attacking. He started with a thrust, a move atypical of a well schooled duelist. His rival assumed the defense, setting his feet in motion and deflected the attack away. He spun about, crossing one leg over the other as he began to circle. The stalemate ensued for only moments longer. Thran lunged, swinging immediately into a chain of attacks. He alternated his placing, but above all he did not waste a motion. The Caliburnus weapon felt strong, it operated in perfect order.

The attacks flowed like the waters from a spring. Occasus darted, spun, and danced his way across the small area of floor. The energies of the room were smothering the men, who worked their attacks rearward, up the labyrinth of ramps. The entire way to the surface, Occasus batted his opponent back with an endless dance of Force aided saber technique. The clash of the pseudo-Titans left scorch marks on the ancient walls, killing the moss that covered them. Finally stepping into the open air, Phoenix turned the tides. His vibrant blade broke the stampeding underling, opening room for his own attack.

Phoenix danced the radiant light of his lightsaber closer and closer to his target. He swung, fighting for his life. Phoenix clumsily stumbled, missing the quicker Bakuran who had evaded an attack. A stinging kick caught his ribs, tossing him free of the fight for the moment. It did not affect him much; in fact it just irritated him. Phoenix readjusted and began his next charge.

A crowd gathered, including a smiling Machweg. The group cheered. Thran wove a strand of mental energy, quilting a psychokinetic blast on the older Sith. The Grand Marshal reeled from the blow, it had knocked him clear of a building, a lucky shot. He stood and gnashed his teeth. Rasilvenaira had followed the showy men as they fought. Something about the Form Thran assumed spoke to her. Form II, nothing else. Typical Thran.

Someone had been eluded. Someone had been defeated. The woman was starting to believe that even she had been fooled. The duel of fates would ultimately tell the tale. No sooner than she completed her thought, Caliburnus coughed as it shut off. Thran instinctively grabbed his own weapon. He would kill Phoenix, if he had to.

Machweg sat quietly, watching like a puppeteer. He smirked. The Proconsul would ask for help soon enough.

Phoenix was irate. The anger swelling inside of him, clouding his judgment and his abilities.

"I am better, I am stronger, why can I not defeat him?" Phoenix asked himself. "This fight should have been over already, but he is anticipating my every move." The possessed Bakuran just grinned evilly at the Proconsul, and this infuriated him further. The Battlelord posed, switching forms from Dun Moch to Trakata. "I will have your head next to the Krayt dragon you insolent whelp!" Phoenix channeled the force to enhance skill, knowing this "power" inside Thran increased his abilities.

Taking a deep breath and planting his back foot, the Battlelord lunged at the Warrior. Phoenix lowered his body as the crimson blade of Thran's saber sliced through his hair. Coming underneath Thran's arm, using telekinetic strike, Phoenix landed a blow to Thran's ribcage. Then with a swift movement, he brought his arm around and underneath Thran's, locking it in an armbar. Phoenix brought his other arm around striking Thran's chest with the saber butt, then dropped his knee behind Thran's to bring the Bakuran to his knees.

"Yield, or I will kill you," ordered Phoenix. The Spirit laughed and then spat on the Proconsul.

"I am enjoying this vessel, I do not think I'll let you destroy it," replied Thran. Phoenix brought his saber around again, this time igniting it. Thran ducked underneath the attack, then reversed the hold. Phoenix watched helplessly as the Bakuran destroyed his saber with a quick, almost unseen movement of his saber. Thran looked into the now fearful eyes of the Proconsul, picking him up by his throat, and tossing him across the room.

"It is now time for you to die Phoenix, i have had my fill of you," said Thran as he pulled out Caliburnus again pointing it at Phoenix and igniting it. The Proconsul reached for his other saber, fumbling to get it free. Phoenix looked over to the Dark Jedi Master, eyes widened, fear running rampant.

"Now would be a good time to do something!!" yelled Phoenix. "Or do you just plan to sit and watch this thing kill me?" Niemand grinned evilly at the Proconsul.

"No, I was just waiting for you to ask."

The small boy hopped to his feet, clutching his miniature lightsabers in tiny fists. On the receiving end of an intent stare, Machweg pondered for a moment. He squeezed his eyelids shut, clearing his head of the battle. The floundering Proconsul became disgusted. He was going to cut the Force fed monstrosity from the Sith Warrior, not caring for what became of the host. Phoenix, irritated beyond control, screamed as he charged back into the conflict.

The unhallowed slender man made the marauding Firrerreon look like an unprepared fool. The body of the man flew off, bending unnaturally about a mysteriously placed tree. Strands of silvery white hair became stained with the blood of the injured Proconsul. He hissed, doubling with the pain. It didn’t show often, but Phoenix did have the pronounced canine teeth of his people.

Machweg stood calmly, all the while distracting Phoenix more with each passing second. The picture was coming into focus of the young Master. The Warrior’s Saber. High Tensions. The Libraries of the Krath. It all made sense.

Thran smirked, proud of himself. Phoenix stood again, unrelenting as any Sith would be. He swung his weapon wildly, a sloppy display of the ancient form. The Warrior parried, in perfect display of the Duelist’s Form. He danced between attacks, slipping several jarring slashes into the fray. The clash and hiss of the weapons came in a rhythmic succession, adding to the beauty of the duel. The two were locked and intent on killing. Thran kept Phoenix’s mind in check, distracting him from the callings of the Force. His enemy was frustrated and frustration causes error. Soon, it would happen.


Phoenix seized what he thought to be an opening in the duel. He dipped and drew his saber across his enemy’s body. His inexperience with the Form of the Emperor had him in trouble. He had missed entirely. The strange sidestep swipe had placed the silver-haired legend of House Caliburnus stretched the precarious position. Occasus focused his sights, striking swiftly. The bright red of his rival’s saber vanished as the emitter fell rolling to the ground. The death of the saber ended with a crunch.

Thran leveled his weapon to Phoenix’s neck. He stared into his eyes, hoping to absorb an ounce of fear. Defiant, the ghostly looking Palpatine spat at the would-be executioner, landing a blood filled glob of spit on his robes. Damned Dark Jedi Master would rather see an entertaining scrum before getting involved, he thought to himself. Occasus raised his blade. Phoenix shut his eyes.

The air was thick and time stood still. Phoenix opened his eyes again, after what seemed like minutes. He had turned, Thran had turned away to focus on Machweg. He looked back over his shoulder and said “You have lost, Proconsul.” His tone was icy, yet it seemed fulfilled. The gears spun in the spared man’s mind. Confusion at first, followed by relief, topped off with a shocking enlightenment. Something was off. Perhaps he had not given the younger Sith enough credit.

Duda smiled. “Your little charade is over. Go back to where you came from. All this disruption…Not a courteous thought. Darth Vectivus…I should have seen it long ago. Clever. Very clever.” He cooed.

“Care to test yourself, Master?” He challenged.

“No, You and I know this is not my fight. Tell me, Occa-” the Master said, being cut short typical of the spirit-free Thran Occasus.

“Just Thran.” The man hissed.

“Silly man. You have foiled your own plan. Too arrogant to forget your own name, Moron. There were never any spirits…You were just hoping to fool some people. Have a little fun in your destructive romp. You conniving Sith…You should be proud. Very Clever. I don’t much fancy the ways of the Sith, but that was well executed. I was most impressed by your investigation of the details of this facility. You knew your way around, avoided the guardians, and claimed the weapon. You did your homework. Impressive, I didn’t think that the Sith could read between the lines. You didn’t even fight like a Sith Warrior. Very convincing.” The child said, gleaming with his discovery.

Instantly, Phoenix jumped to his feet. Swinging with full force at Thran’s head. The noise was reminiscent of the sound you would hear if an empty barrel were dropped in the cargo bay. Occasus hit the ground, taking a face full of dirt. He was out cold. Phoenix fumed, he huffed and paced, attempting to control his anger.

Machweg began immediately ridiculing the Battlelord “Didn’t get the toy you wanted? Aww…Too bad…” he jeered.

The Sith spun about and kicked his unconscious enemy in the ribs. Upon doing so, Rasilvenaira sprung to her beau’s side. Phoenix turned to the Master, screaming. “Explain just what the HELL is going on here!!!”

“You were duped.” The boy replied, giggling.

“Where is that Damned Weapon!?! SEIZE IT!” Phoenix shrieked. Instantly, noticing it on the belt of the concussed Thran. Another swift kick to his prompted the worry-filled Rasilvenaira to roll him on his side. The Proconsul reached for his claim, the weapon. He grasped it in his hand, instantly trying to turn the weapon on.

“It’s of no use. You aren’t the Quaestor.” Machweg chirped.

Phoenix looked down at now coughing Occasus. “Son of a bitch…” He said, half amazed himself.

They moved towards the exit as quickly as possible. Machweg was carrying Thran with the Force, the worried Silver walking next to him. Phoenix needled him with questions about the pyramid room, a room Machweg called a gateway. Supposedly, you could reach several worlds and even times through it, under the right circumstances.

"So," Phoenix said, "this temple exists on different worlds. But how come it is here exactly? How did anyone know Caliburnus would make this home eventually?"

"No one knew." Machweg looked at the Proconsul with that darned isn't-that-obvious look Phoenix so hated. "It's here because it needed to be, simple as that."

"I yet need to see proof anything could really go from one world to the other from here," Phoenix grumbled. "I very much doubt such a thing is truly possible."

Niemand tut-tuted at him. "Really, Proconsul! How else do you explain the krayt dragon? They live in deserts and are most definitely not native to any of our worlds."

"But..."

A moan from Thran, who was coming to, interrupted them. Malaki, who had listened in on all of the talks, frowned and said something he considered to be very clever. "Why don't you just declare a new Quaestor so someone will be able to use the weapon?"Everyone's eyes fell on him, and he had the sudden feeling to have said something totally dumb.

"Thran used the weapon before," Machweg said, with obvious patience. "Does this maybe tell you something?"

(Sorry for the shortness, I have an injured elbow and am lucky to be able to write anything at all)

Still livid about the actions of Thran, Phoenix grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to his feet. The woozy Aedile shook his head, as his vision refocused. His jaws clattered as the Proconsul shook him, demanding answers. “You have exactly two seconds to tell me how to turn this thing on…” Phoenix exclaimed, roughing him up like a gangster from Nar Shaadaa collecting protection money.

“I’m not telling you.” He laughed.

“Proconsul, consult the Consul…” Machweg said, scolding Phoenix.

Phoenix took a deep breath and turned from the group. As he walked away, Malaki turned back to the assembling crowd, looking more confused than ever. Soft murmurs filled the crowd. Machweg beckoned to Thran and he came. The small boy looked smaller than normal when juxtaposed with the tall pronounced man. The two walked off away from the group, engaging in a private conversation. In typical fashion of Thran’s female companions, Rasilvenaira watched him closely.

After they had put some distance between the groups, Machweg stopped and spoke. “Thran, tell me…How did you pull this off?” he inquired, surprising Occasus with his lack of insight.

“It was destiny, Master Machweg. Let me tell you something that my records and wrap sheet do not describe to you. I have known the tale of Darth Vectivus my whole life. I use it as the archetype for my own tale. I was taught it as a child, younger than you, in fact. Here is something that you do not often hear in the endless logs of the Krath Library: Not thinking can be a great advantage. How did I do it? Simple, Master. Through the Dark Side.” Thran said with a smirk.

Machweg smiled back, intrigued by the response. “This trip has changed you for the better. You aren’t such a push over anymore. I find it much more difficult to track your thoughts and to predict your action. I will tell Braecen. You are not a Sith Warrior anymore.” He replied.

“Master Machweg, What of Impetus, the twi’lek?” Thran asked with some concern.

“She has the pride of a Sith, she will likely take refuge in Acclivis Draco.” The mousey boy said.

The pair walked back to the group, engaging each other in questions and responses. With the complete mystery unfolded for those who could fathom it, they rejoined the group. The frustrated screams of Proconsul signaled the Consul’s opinion and order. He returned to the group also, eying Malaki on the way. He was angry and most of all embarrassed.

“What is happening?” Malaki asked.

Though he was ignored, the present company had some idea. Machweg grinned, rather impressed by the Sith and his recourse. Cethgus, Tyno, and the other Journeymen gathered, rambling in the background. Rasilvenaira stood.

“I do not claim to know what is going on here…But, by order of the Consul of Scholae Palatinae in concordance with the legend of Caliburnus, the person who can successfully ignite Caliburnus is to become the protector and guardian of the House. Can you use the weapon, Sith?” Olkyssagh asked.

The starch sound was the only reply he needed. Phoenix nodded. “By word of the Grandmaster and Dark Council, that weapon is for use in ceremony only. It is not to be your personal weapon. It will be investigated and catalogued. Congratulations, Quaestor Occa-” Phoenix began before being cut short.

“Just…Thran…” he said.

“I will never understand what the hell your malfunction is…Pack this up. Drinks are on Thran.” Phoenix replied.

“Oh, Phoenix…I request Rasilvenaira as my Aedile. We will be a back later this week. Have some…things…to take care of.” Occasus said, hiding a smirk.

As the disgruntled and tired group turned to leave, Machweg looked up at Thran, blatantly confused. “What things?” he questioned.

“You’ll understand in a few years, kiddo. You’ll understand.” Thran said, glancing at the woman.

************************************************************************************

Nearly a week later, Thran stepped into the Consul’s office. Phoenix stood with Braecen discussing some matters. Occasus leaned in the door eying Phoenix, evilly. “A Krayt…A damned Greater Krayt…You killed it! You bastard! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THAT THING IS WORTH! YOU STUPID FRACKING KARK!” he said before pouncing onto the man’s throat. He shook him and Braecen was forced to interrupt the scrum. Phoenix fought back and pulled Thran’s shirt from his back.

“Damnit Thran…We are going to have to work on your diplomacy.” He said, pulling the Bakuran off of the Proconsul. “By Darth! What happened to your back!?! It’s all scratched up!” he exclaimed once seeing the Sith’s exposed back.

Thran laughed. “Oh, nothing…You have been at this desk too long, it is killing your brain.”

Phoenix stood up and laughed once he saw the man’s back himself. “It happened when he was hooking up the power couplings…Right?” he said with a smile.

Oblivious, the consul replied. “They don’t look like electrical…OH!!!”
He thought for a moment. “Damn…It’s good to have you back in the saddle, Thran. Now…Get to work.”

Phoenix followed Occasus out, he smirked to himself. “You are gonna regret finding that weapon. Congratulations. One question…what did you do to make me look so stupid in that duel?” he asked.

“Not a damned thing.” The Bakuran said.

“Fine. You smug bastard. Here’s a question…Do you think that a guy like me and Impetus…” He asked timidly.

Thran chuckled “Well, she is pretty fragile right now…I give it…5 to 1 odds. Let me buy you a drink and we can elaborate.”

“Now you are talking my language.” Phoenix replied.

Thanks to all who participated! Good work and Thank you for writing! I love you all, but I am so glad this thing is over! Like Phoenix said in the run-on...Drinks on ME!