Jedi Council Forums - Sithstrike - 25 ABY. Jacen, Luke, Leia; cameos by Mara, Lando; Sith OCs. REVISION IN PROGRESS.

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Author	Topic: Sithstrike - 25 ABY. Jacen, Luke, Leia; cameos by Mara, Lando; Sith OCs. REVISION IN PROGRESS.
AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/22/05 3:57pm Subject: Sithstrike - 25 ABY. Jacen, Luke, Leia; cameos by Mara, Lando; Sith OCs. REVISION IN PROGRESS. - Date Edited: 2/20/06 2:07pm (19 edits total) Edited By: rhonderoo
	Title: Sithstrike (Chapter 1 of 10) Author: AlisonC (aka Eleventh Guard on FFN and LJ) Summary: Two Sith Lords attempt to turn Jacen Solo to the Dark Side, to strengthen their forces against the Yuuzhan Vong, while another plots to destroy the Jedi and the two rival Sith and rule the galaxy alone, ignoring the true threat. I've requested that this thread be locked. It is being rewritten for canon compatibility and to ensure TOS compliance (probably okay, but better safe than sorry.) Author's Note: This is slightly revised from the first copy, which is archived on another site. Feedback: Yes, please, and I accept constructive criticism as well. I want to learn what I could be doing differently to make my work better. Slate-gray rocks, mostly smooth from wind erosion, rose from the flat land to her left, perhaps fifty meters high at the apex. They did have some gouges from where other rocks had struck them or pieces had fallen away. The landscape, dry but not quite desert, extended everywhere else almost as far as an eye could see; very slight hills, greener, were far ahead, but more than two days' journey on foot. The other woman was dead. Darth Inferna, known to most as Prille Baclaw, didn't know who the fallen was, except she was a Mirialan. The small colored bars tattooed across her cheekbones and along either side of her nose suggested that much, and when Inferna opened one of her eyes with her thumb, it was a clear green. Her black hair was matted and soaked with blood that ran from open wounds in her back. But she had charred slashes over one arm and a blackened splash over her chest, suggesting blaster fire or possibly blaster fire and a lightsaber. Prille looked at her own hands, which held her deactivated lightsaber and a blaster, its power setting turned to "kill". There was an open container hooked to her utility belt, holding a few razor helices - transparent razors, hard as diamond and filed to a fine edge that can cut through almost anything that is softer, twisted into a helix shape. Thrown with a flick of the wrist that sends them spinning, they burrow easily into improperly shielded machinery or into a body. Inferna pushed the corpse over onto its stomach. The circular cuts bled around small clear handles. She yanked the helices free and pried the shock prod and jagged knife out of cold hands. Then she turned around. There was another presence. Human. At first she had not noticed him - why? It was as though there was no Force in him. His was another face that she had never seen before - somehow familiar, yet completely foreign. He watched her with one eye; the lid of other was swollen shut. When her gaze met his, he shrank back, as though unable to get up but desperate to leave. Someone - the Mirialan, Inferna guessed - had tied his wrists to an upright metal and wood frame, stuck into the ground, and he was mostly lying on the dirt and dead grasses, slightly pulled up by his wrists, and the ropes that dug into his skin. She took a step closer, and he closed his good eye, trying to turn his head away from her. He seemed not to have the strength. She looked up at the frame. Stuck to it at the top, apparently by its claws, was a small animal. It was covered in furry scales, and shorter than her arm. She moved closer still, and felt as though someone had put a blindfold on her eyes and plugs in her ears, although she could still see and hear. The Force is gone! She stepped back out of the blank area, feeling her senses return, and picked up the razor helices. She hurled each of them at the frame, and the helices sliced through it, until the ysalimir fell and hit the ground a meter and a half below. She took a deep breath, and walked back into the dead zone. It was disorienting, but she was strong and healthy in her own right. She cut away the ropes that bound the young man's wrists and he collapsed completely. She quickly gave him a visual examination and found that there was evidence of serious injury - broken bones and almost certain internal bleeding. Inferna took a few deep breaths, but it was not enough to keep her heart from pounding; something in her snapped. She grabbed her lightsaber and returned to the body of the killed woman. She decapitated the offender and continued striking until a burning stench filled Inferna's nostrils and her eyes stung. Then, and only then, she felt calmer. Then she went to the dying man - not much more than a boy, really; she would have been surprised if he was a day over eighteen - and carefully picked him up. The ship was within sight but still at least two hours of walking away, and she didn't want him to die before she got back to the Sithstrike with him. They left the invisible barrier ring around the ysalimir, and his limbs jerked. His eye popped back open and he drew deep and ragged breaths. "Shh," she said. "Calm down or you'll break into pieces." He raised one arm and put it around her neck, and she leaned her head down to whisper. "You will be my apprentice." "Darth - In-fer-na," he gasped after only a few seconds' hesitation. "Mas-ter." And then he slipped back into unconsciousness, and she walked faster towards her ship, confident that with the return of the Force, he would survive for now. But his skills were lost to him for a time, and though hers were not, she didn't know if she could save him. "Damn you, Korosia!" Inferna shouted, even though there was no one to listen. The power of the Force flowed over her and through her, increasing with her rage. She was almost running, but then she stopped, forced to choose between leaving her weakened apprentice alone, or risking him further injury in transit to her ship. She vowed she would not lose him before she could strip away the old lessons and build new ones in their place, showing one more adept where the true Force lay. The decision hung before her, and she could feel his life trickling away even as she stood. Heavy-hearted, she set him back down on the dry ground. "I will come back for you," she said, genuinely angry, but not at her supposed target. "Be here when I return." The vision disappeared, and she was back in her bed. The tangy smell lingered for a moment in her nose before the bland, recycled air within the stronghold on Xi Alta washed it away. She looked around; nothing, or at least, nothing out of the ordinary, except that she was awake in the middle of the night. In ten minutes Darth Inferna was out of bed, dressed, and walking down the long grey hallway to the east elevator. She passed by T-3P0, and said to him, "Tell Darth Vexon that I'm going to Merooine. That's all he needs to know." -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/24/05 12:17pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO - Dark Tide: Onslaught, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (9/22)
	Sithstrike: Chapter 2 Chapter summary: Darth Inferna runs into Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo on Belkadan. Disclaimer: A little bit of dialogue here, towards the end, is taken from DTO and, again, no copyright infringement is intended. It comprises only a very small portion of the chapter. “Oh, no,” Inferna said aloud, not fully understanding what had happened. She knew that it was something annoying at best and something dangerous at worst. She sat up straight, looking out of the cockpit windows at the stars. Stars that should have been starlines for at least another ten hours. Her first thought was that her hyperdrive had failed and now she was stranded in the middle of space, but that explanation didn’t feel right. She glanced down at her screen. Belkadan? I should have flown right past it, she thought. Somehow she’d flown just close enough to the sun's gravity well to be pulled out of hyperspace. The only way that would have happened is if I changed the coordinates after setting up my route for Merooine. When she looked at her previous entries, though, it showed that initially she had set the coordinates correctly and then an override was placed. She didn’t remember putting in an override, and she was sure she was alone on the Sithstrike. Inferna stretched out her awareness through the Force, to see if there were any other life forms on board that shouldn’t have been. She found nothing. Wait – there was a sentient life form. A being that held and emitted the Force, and strangely complex, more so than any human or humanoid that she had ever met. As she cruised through the system, she powered down her sensors and tried again to touch the creature. Not so complex this time, because there were two of them. For a moment she thought that her Sith brother had followed her out to Merooine and brought another with him, but as soon as her mind began to sort the mixed auras, it recoiled. They were Jedi. This ought to get interesting very quickly, she thought. Darth Inferna was in a quandary. Her master, Darth Trefitz, was dead, leaving behind only what he had taught his two remaining Apprentices, and his vision for the future. A future without the Jedi smoke screens - something closer to the glory days of the Empire. Inferna was still a child when the Rebellion started, and only fifteen when the Emperor died. She remembered her earliest days in a subsidiary school of the Imperial Academy, with a possible future in front of her in medicine, working hard to make sure that her Imperial brothers were in top shape and developing means of making them ever stronger. But now… now all that was lost, and the galaxy was falling apart. Darth Trefitz had shown that much to her. First the Jedi were responsible, through their dogmas and trickery, for the death of the Old Republic. Now through Luke Skywalker they had destroyed the Galactic Empire and his followers were slowly tearing the galaxy’s seams open. He was so sure that the Jedi were a threat that he did away with the Rule of Two, and wasted no time in taking and training four apprentices. Three survived him. Inferna was sure that it was because of them the Yuuzhan Vong were able to navigate around the galactic barrier. The details were still fuzzy to her – what she did know was that these extragalactic parasites, the anti-machine crusaders bent on destruction and capture, had destroyed Dubrillion, and she and her “brother” barely made it out before the invasion. For two years they’d come to the planet and gone from it, working smuggling deals to increase their wealth and build up a small sphere of influence, and now that opportunity was gone. They’d been able to hide themselves from the Jedi who came through, cloaking their minds and avoiding interaction, but the Yuuzhan Vong were something that even two Sith could not go up against alone. Under Emperor Palpatine, this would never have happened. Under the Sith Empire, this would never have happened. Put the Jedi in charge, when all they can do is a little stage magic and fancy footwork, and you get chaos. Killing Trefitz and the third apprentice seemed like a good idea at the time, but now their absence worried her. That was two fewer they had on their side. Ruling the galaxy was an ultimate goal, but a long way off – first they had to make sure there was still a galaxy to rule. And at the rate things were going, they would need more help. Darth Vexon suggested joining with the Jedi, briefly, just to handle the Yuuzhan Vong crisis. Such talk would never have even come about if there was a strong leader. But as far as Inferna knew, the two of them, joined through the Force though not through blood, were all that remained. “To hide our strength in a façade is not something that would help us,” she’d said coldly. “Turning the Sith into Jedi, even only on the surface, would weaken us. What we need to do is strengthen ourselves.” And so she left for Merooine, the planet at the edge of the galaxy, where she had once lived and trained. She was sure that the Jedi influence there was slight if any, and she could search for Force-sensitive beings to take back to the stronghold at the tip of the Tingel Arm on Xi Alta. There weren’t many sentient beings on Merooine, and most of the planet was deserted, which made it the perfect place to search for ones without Jedi taint. And she thought that she would find the youth from her dream there, desperate and compliant, a fine soul to twist into a weapon against the Yuuzhan Vong and then against the Jedi. But before she could reach Merooine – she’d been pulled out of hyperspace outside Belkadan. She knew that the Yuuzhan Vong had come to Belkadan before, and might – or might not – have left. The Force was a weak ally against them, though many times stronger for the Sith than a Jedi pretender. I know I didn’t change those coordinates! There was no time to worry about it. She started to turn the sensors back on, then thought the better of it. There was no reading from any other ship, though she knew it was there, somewhere; it was likewise powered down, and probably for a reason. Inferna shuddered, realizing that whoever was coming probably had more information than she did about what was down on the surface – and they were hiding from it. The Force signs came through strong, and while her ability to use the Force was well above and beyond that which a Jedi of her sensitivity could achieve, her ability to passively sense it was on par or only slightly better. Whatever was down on the planet, the newcomers knew of it and didn’t want it to see them. She thought it would be best if it didn’t see her, either. She guided the tiny freighter towards Belkadan, with her mind shrouded to keep other minds out, but loosely enough that she could still reach out and notice them. Two individuals, no more, both strong in the Force; one of them blindingly so. They edged closer and closer to the flora and fauna of Belkadan, and she guessed that they were approaching the atmosphere, but slowly. She followed as well as she could, and turned on the active sensors to 5% power. On her screen, a faint ion trail appeared, and a glowing dot that represented the other ship. It was identified as a Skipray blastboat. The two that she was trailing would notice her ship, if not her life force, but she didn’t fear them. No Jedi – no two Jedi, for that matter – could stand against a fully trained Sith Master, not unless one of them was Luke Skywalker. And even then there was doubt. Inferna bit her lip and scowled, stretching her awareness further as she continued to follow the ion line. She saw a speck moving above the clouds, then through them, and she knew that she’d caught sight of her target. At that point she had to power down her sensors further, relying on the bare minimum to keep from flying into mountains or debris, and she lost sight of the ship ahead. The natural way to go, once underneath the thickest layer of clouds, was easily seen; towards the mountains. She spotted a small gap between two ranges that her ship would fit through. Apparently, the Jedi had decided to go that way as well, since she could feel them and they were still ahead of her; therefore, she continued forward. There was a building in the distance. Inferna guessed that the building is where they were headed, so she approached it too. Then she caught a flicker of emotion from the Jedi before it winked out. That could be a slight problem, their ability to calm and mask their feelings; it would make it harder for her to find them. As she had thought, however, the closer she got to the building, the closer the two beings seemed. Her own mind was hidden, covered in shadow, the way her Master had taught her to do years before. But now she had to be sure to let just a little bit of raw emotion and pieces of thoughts through – more like an thick opaque curtain, really, than an impenetrable soundproof wall – so that she wouldn’t appear to have no Force in her at all. They would assume wrongly that she was the Yuuzhan Vong, the aliens who were enemies to her as well. The Jedi are the enemy of my enemy. That makes them… well, lesser enemies, for the time being. Inferna was frustrated, even though she found a safe (for the ship, for now) place to land. Here she was, by herself, mostly well-rested and with no injury. She was at her top fighting form now, and at the peak of her physical power – thirty-six years old, too young to slow down much with age but old enough to have built up years of training until her motions were automatic and precise. And she was on a planet where there were few other sentient creatures. Two Jedi, completely unaware of her presence, vulnerable to ambush. And she couldn’t kill them. Not now. Not while the Yuuzhan Vong were out and about. She knew that she would have to, against her training and against her own feelings, do her best to keep them alive until the extragalactic threat was removed. Then the Sith could take on the Jedi, and in the meantime, they would find new apprentices, so instead of two against a hundred, it might be a dozen against a hundred. Or, more likely, a dozen against fifty. Inferna looked one more time to the datascreen. There didn’t seem to be anything in the air that shouldn’t be there, and she made sure to check the air for iron-containing compounds and airborne acids. Nothing out of the ordinary. She found herself relieved, even though she knew that her vision had been of Merooine, or a planet a lot like Merooine. One never could be sure what would happen, especially not with the Yuuzhan Vong. She lowered the ramp and walked out, keeping her helmet on. She’d had run-ins with a few Jedi before, and although she was sure none of them had escaped, there was no point in taking the chance that they would recognize her. She just needed to get information from them, so she would be able to report back to Vexon and find out what they were going to do, besides go to Merooine next, and get their own apprentices. Which should have been done long ago, but for the bickering and other troubles. Ah, well, water under the bridge. She sensed the two figures approaching the front of the blocky building, where she was waiting already. There was a gate in the high wall, left open and covered with some kind of green plant. The opening of the gate was small, too small to get through without pushing through the green overgrowth. Inferna absently looked up at the plants, not at the newcomers, pretending to be oblivious. "I think we’ve been followed,” someone said. Inferna turned to the two Jedi. For a split second, the faces didn’t register, because both of them were wearing goggles. Nonetheless, after the first moment of recognition failure, the name of the older man came to her. She couldn’t not know it. Luke Skywalker. Not that it mattered so much… she reminded herself that the detoured part of her mission was to find information before pressing on to - Inferna blinked twice as she caught sight of the younger man. He looked familiar. That’s him – that’s the boy I saw in my dream last night, she thought. Before the – whatever it was happened to him. But if he’s a Jedi – and with Skywalker - how am I going to separate them? Maybe it wasn’t a true vision of the future, but just a call to come out here. As she pulled herself out of their thoughts, she noticed that they were both staring at her, and decided that it would be a good idea to answer. “I sure am glad to see someone,” she said. “I’m having some trouble with my ship.” “It looked like you were tracking us by our ion trail,” said Luke. No reason to lie if I don’t have to. One can deceive as well, if not better, through honesty than through falsehood. “I was unexpectedly thrown out of hyperspace and my sensors picked up the trail, yes. I noticed you guys were powered way down so I copied and flew in.” She shrugged. “The name’s Baclaw. Prille Baclaw.” Luke looked at his companion and nodded. They came forward, to the plant-covered walkway, and he pushed some of the growth aside to make a path. He motioned for her to follow, and she did. “This is a bad place to be hanging around,” he said. “It’s a good thing that you mimicked us or the Yuuzhan Vong might have been alerted to another presence, and we don’t want them to know we’re here until it’s unavoidable. I’m Luke Skywalker, and this is my nephew, Jacen Solo. We’re here to take a look at the ExGal building.” The smile on her face, barely visible under her helmet, was genuine; the reasons for it, though, were not quite obvious. “Luke Skywalker? The Jedi Master?” she squealed. “Yes, yes, shh. We don’t need to make that much of a racket.” The pathway opened into a courtyard, and Jacen, Inferna, and a small astromech droid came in behind him. The overgrowth was thick and wild, but there was an empty space up to the door of the ExGal facility. But in front of the doors was a strange-looking pile of trash. Discarded electronics… no, destroyed electronics. She spotted an R5 unit with a dried skull, presumably human, attached to the top, with various wires pulled through its cavities. She nodded slowly. If this was the work of anyone other than the Yuuzhan Vong, I would be most impressed. “What is it?” Jacen asked. His eyes were fixed on the macabre droid. “A warning, clearly,” said Luke. “What I wonder, though, is who it’s directed at.” “Whoever it was that you felt out there?” Jacen glanced at Inferna. “The others, I mean.” “That would be my guess,” said Luke. “But guesses aren’t what we came here for. Learning the answer – that will be tough. I just hope it’s not too tough, or the answers we get will remain here, on Belkadan, and you and I could spend eternity like this poor fellow: warning others to stay away.” He sighed. “Miss Baclaw, what’s wrong with your hyperdrive?” “Oh, nothing. It’s the nav computer that’s acting up.” She shrugged. “I really don’t want to interfere with whatever it is you’re doing here. I could help, if you wanted, but I get the feeling that I’m not really welcome.” “It’s not that. This is a very dangerous place. I have reason to believe that invaders from another galaxy, the ones that have been ravaging star systems for the past few months, are here. We might not make it out alive, and if you leave now, it could be your best chance.” “They’d see a ship leaving, surely,” said Inferna. “I… I don’t think that you will die here. Call it a hunch, but I have faith. If you want me to go back to my ship and wait, though, I will.” “No, you’ll be safer here.” Luke gestured towards his lightsaber and the one that Jacen carried. Inferna suppressed a chuckle; her own lightsaber was hidden deep in her lined pockets. They wouldn’t notice it, more because they weren’t looking for it than that it would have been impossible to detect. But he must have picked up on something in her thoughts, because he said: “Do you have any weapons on you?” “I always carry a blaster.” Inferna patted the black handle that stuck out of her utility belt holster. “Don’t worry, Master Skywalker; I wouldn’t use it on you or young Solo and even if I was inclined to, I know it would have no effect.” “It doesn’t have much effect on the Yuuzhan Vong, either.” Luke started to step around the mangled parts of computer systems, droids, and other equipment and approach the doors. “But it could buy you time.” -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/24/05 5:44pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO - Dark Tide: Onslaught, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (update 9/24) - Date Edited: 9/25/05 3:39pm (2 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Chapter 3 Summary: Darth Inferna conspires with Darth Vexon to cause trouble on Dantooine, then deceives Luke and Jacen about her true nature. Darth Vexon stretched his arms and leaned back. He didn’t have much time to relax now – not that they ever did, but he was busier than ever in their underground fortress on Xi Alta. He had wanted to go out to Gamma Alta, searching for those who had the Force in them and could become Apprentices, but Inferna was gone and had not contacted him in five days. She had said she was going to Merooine, but gave no other details. The Falleen man scowled into his cup of blue tea, half gone with the remaining half cold, and slammed the metal cup back down on the table. A few drops splashed on the table in the mostly bare conference room. Just at that moment, he heard a high-pitched buzz, and he closed his eyes. Someone was on the other side of the door. Vexon reached out to the person on the other side, using the Force; for once, he wasn't in the mood for the entertainments of his personal servants and if it was something minor from a low-ranking officer, he didn't want to deal with it. But he sensed urgency in the other life form, and identified the potential offender as important enough to allow in. He pushed a red button on the computer console in front of him and the door slid open. "Good afternoon, Major," he said. Major Andula saluted and stood at attention. "Good afternoon, Lord Vexon." "At ease. What is it?" "A request to holoconference you, Sir, from Lady Inferna." Andula, a human in his mid-forties, handed a small cube to Vexon. "Thank you. I will activate it. Now go on; I’ll brief our crew if it’s important." "Yes, Sir. Permission to leave?" "Orders to leave." Vexon placed the cube on a little black tray next to the computer console and waited. Inferna appeared above it, shrunk to one-sixth of her height. She was standing in her altered ultralight freighter, the Sithstrike, and appeared to be in normal health. "Vexon," she said. "Inferna." "Are you busy?" "I’m always busy." "Well, then you won’t be overly troubled if you get a little bit busier." Her tone was slightly sour. "I need you to go to Dantooine." "That’s eighteen hours away," said Vexon. "And that’s why I’m telling you nineteen hours before you need to be there." Now, if voices were like their sounds, hers could have corroded tin. "That means that neither one of us will be-" "I know. This is important enough to leave the base to our officers for. Go to Dantooine and shake things up a bit. The refugees from Dubrillion are hiding there, and I believe the Yuuzhan Vong are on their way, not far behind. The Vong are a little bit beside the point – at least, only indirectly involved. I want you to bomb Dantooine." "What?" "You heard me. Bomb Dantooine. I don’t care what you hit, as long as you get the most people that you can. Avoid killing the Jedi if you can. That’s strange to hear, isn’t it? But trust me on this one; we will be much stronger in a few months’ time if we can pull this off." "Do you mind telling me what you’re up to on Merooine?" "I mind telling you over the holo. It’s a long story, one best told in person when I return with my prize. Oh, and I’m not on Merooine. I ended up taking a vacation here on Belkadan first." "You’re on Belkadan? What in the blazes possessed you to go there?" "Don’t act stupid, Vexon. I don’t have time to play silly games with you, although I will explain all in due time. Go to Dantooine and take out as many people as possible in a single hit, then leave to the outskirts of the system. Only leave the system if you are pursued by more fighters than you can handle. The point is that the people need to die all at once." "All right, all right. Strike Dantooine and try to spare the Jedi so that they can fight the Vong for us. What’s the objective?" "Your objective is to drop the bomb." Inferna folded her arms. "The purpose, if that’s what you’re asking, is to create a tremor in the Force, strong enough for a true adept to feel far away. It’s not worth killing those who would do the work of fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, but it’s worth the lives of many thousands of useless citizens. When it’s time for you to do it, I’ll let you know. In nineteen hours I expect you to be inside the Dantooine system. I’ll give you the code when it’s time to come in for the strike, with twenty minutes to spare. Is that understood?" "Yes, Lady Inferna." Inferna turned her head to the right, looking at something Vexon couldn’t see. "Don’t be late," she said, and reached forward to push some buttons. Her arm disappeared beyond the boundary of the hologram and the image washed away. Darth Inferna smiled as she cut off the transmission. It would be a difficult plan to carry out, and dependent on several other people – beings, the reminded herself. Not all were human. Vexon’s part was just one of many, but it was critical. Most of the rest would be up to her, and a little left to chance. She lowered the ramp to the Sithstrike, called the Spinning Star for the time being, as she picked up a small keypad ringed with multicolored lights. Quickly, she grabbed its cord and stuck the plug into a small round port in her cockpit console as Luke came up the ramp. "Hello, Master Skywalker," she said pleasantly. The happiness wasn’t completely faked; the first step towards strengthening the Sith was on its way, and the rest of that bit was in Vexon’s capable hands. "Prille – how long do you think it’s going to take you to finish fixing the nav computer?" Inferna had anticipated that question, and altered two lines of code, halfway through its primary targeting program. It would take someone who didn’t know about the intentional alteration several days to find, since she had substituted characters that looked almost identical to the correct ones. "Almost finished, I think," she said. "The software is corrupted, so I’m having to go through line-by-line and correct the program. It’s still showing two errors, but that’s a lot fewer than twenty-nine." "How about I send my astromech over with our programs? It might be quicker to copy them and process them to work with your other systems than to find the last two bugs in your program." Inferna nodded. "I’d like that." She bunched up her face, creasing her forehead and the skin around her eyes. "But – has something happened? I haven’t been bothered here. Whoever’s around has been leaving me alone." "I don’t know how much longer that’s going to hold up. Jacen and I have been doing some scouting, and it doesn’t look good. The planet’s being turned into a shipyard." "Oh." Inferna pretended that she didn’t understand. "Well, that’s good, then, right? Maybe I could get a better copy of the programs from somewhere else." "No! These are the living ships – the coralskippers that I told you about. The Yuuzhan Vong ships that are grown, not built. They’re here, and they’ve been taking slaves. It’s horrible, Prille – their bodies are disfigured, and they’re sick. Many are dying. It would be best for you to get out of here as quickly as you can." "I think I’ll take you up on that," she said, and stood up. She’d have to find a way to stall for time later – software incompatibility was always a good excuse. In the meantime, though, she wanted Luke to leave. She had a hard task in front of her, one of the most difficult manifestations of Sith power that she had ever attempted, and she needed time to draw energy and prepare for it. It might have been less difficult if she didn’t have to somehow keep him from sensing the dark Force swirling around her and through her mind. He must have been wondering why her life force was so weak, and she didn’t know if he sensed the dark power in what little came through. She’d have to supply a reason for it without looking like she meant to do that; he wouldn’t seek out an answer that he was sure he already had. All this while drawing on the Force for her own designs. Luke went back to his own Skipray and sent Jacen over with R2-D2. Inferna relaxed a little bit; though Jacen was certainly strong in the Force, possibly more than most of the other Jedi, he was not quite as strong as his uncle. And he was younger, with far less experience than Luke. She didn’t have any fear that he would discover her secret; she had more of a command over the Force than he did. How much of that was natural ability she didn’t know; she was at least twice his age, and not weakened by the false teachings of the Jedi, the teachings that shied away from full ability and full responsibility. R2-D2 plugged into her computer systems (which she had carefully wiped of any incriminating information about Xi Alta, Merooine, or other destinations) and his lights began to blink as information was downloaded to her nav computer. Inferna went to the back of the Sithstrike and returned with two glasses of water. She handed one of them to Jacen and clutched the other. "There was no Jedi Order when I was a teenager," said Inferna, as though idly making conversation. "I was only fifteen when the Emperor died." "Those must have been hard times," Jacen said. It seemed as though he wasn't sure exactly what to say to her and therefore stuck with a neutral answer. "You’d be surprised. Life goes on as usual for quite some time… the news didn’t even reach my mother for a month." That much was true, although she herself was on Coruscant and knew within a few days, and her father was killed in the Battle of Endor. "It was a sad time for all of us. But you… you’re Darth Vader’s grandson. How do you feel about that? So much power in your family." "Anakin Skywalker’s grandson," Jacen said, a little bit crossly. "Of course." She feigned confused contrition and tilted her head to the right side. "I apologize if I touched a nerve. I must say I don’t know at all what it’s like to live in a Jedi family. I went to school – I went on vacations, now and then. It was all very normal. Until it ended." She turned her head sadly and stared at the softly blinking lights in front of her. "What did you do after the Empire fell?" "The military jobs I was being trained for didn’t exist anymore – not with the same demand." She sighed and let her shoulders fall. "I took a security job first, and then went on to commercial trade. Very bland work, but it’s kept me fed and given me a home." She left out the many years of training under Darth Trefitz. "There was the carrier ship incident, though, fifteen years ago." "Carrier ship incident?" Jacen asked. He sounded interested, and Inferna suppressed a laugh. "I was on the ship Blueray when it was carrying toxic materials away from Coruscant to dispose of in the outer reaches of space," she said, once more choosing her phrasing carefully to avoid an outright lie. At one time, she was aboard the Blueray, though it was not the same trip that ended the ship's long and useful service. "One of the containers of radioactive waste leaked, and thousands died. I lived, but all that radiation does great damage to a human. Sickness that lingers for decades. But I’ll survive, still. I do have to hope that my medical supplies don't run out..." She made sure that her glance toward R2-D2 and her computer systems was conspicuous. "That’s terrible, Miss Baclaw. I hope we can get you on your way fast so that won’t happen. I want to ask, though, have you ever been to a healer for your sickness?" Inferna would have rolled her eyes if she wasn’t still playing her part. "I’ve been to doctors in these years, yes. If you mean the Jedi, then no, I haven’t. Regular medicine is fine for me, and if it’s not broken, why fix it?" "Because instead of treating what’s wrong they could make it go away, for good. I don’t know. I’m not a real healer myself. But I could talk to Uncle Luke and ask him who you could go to. Well, maybe not now, but..." "If you want to, but I’d rather not trouble him." He would mention it to Luke. Inferna was certain of that much. Then Luke would think he knew what was wrong with her and wouldn’t probe further. "Oh, look at that; the droid has finished. Tell you uncle I said thank you, thank you very much for helping me out." And you have no idea how much you’re helping me, either. That night, Inferna slipped out of the her ship and made her way back the ExGal facility, where Luke and Jacen were staying. She moved quietly and quickly, although any electronic alarms that might have been set before were destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong, and she was sure she would detect any that Luke had put there. As she expected, though, there was nothing, and she let herself into the eerily quiet building. She went down the long corridors, letting the Force guide her to the right location. There was almost no light, just what came in from the stars through broken windows and a few small breaches in the wall, and she had to be careful to watch where she was stepping, lest she trip on something and give herself away. When she got to the third door on the right, down a hall on the second floor, she stopped. Very slowly, Inferna reached out to grab the door handle, and she was not surprised when the door quietly slid open with just a slight tug. It occurred to her that she could do things the easy way. Jacen was asleep, vulnerable, and she was a Dark Lady of the Sith with a working, hyperspace-capable ship not far away. Or it would be hyperspace-capable in thirty extra seconds, once she fixed the intentional coding mistakes. She could drug him or injure him too badly to fight her, and then escape with him – although she’d have to hope Skywalker didn’t catch her. It was not really any harder than the plan she had, but not any easier, either, and there were other positive consequences of her original idea that she needed. If her plan worked the way she anticipated, he would first believe her to be a savior when others had abandoned him - and when the truth came into full light, it would be too late. Inferna stood in front of the door, now closed behind her. She walked closer to him, still covered in a mental cloak, and looked down at his sleeping form. He looked almost angelic there. The purer one is, the farther one can fall. She concentrated on an image – a single image, the one of the Yuuzhan Vong village that she had secretly scouted after Luke and Jacen had already been there. She imagined that she was walking through it, at that night hour, building up the sounds and sights, smells and textures, the feeling of the wind, enough that it came vividly to life. When the vision sprang up like a second reality, running simultaneously with the one that she was in, she expanded the curtain around her mind, little by little… until Jacen was well within it. He would experience the world that she created, and all other thoughts and emotions would escape his awareness beyond the fullness of the dream. There were slaves, and they had a master. Inferna, in the second reality, walked out into the sunlight, where murky, thick waters met the edge of land. She went out into the water, opened her mouth, and called out to the slaves. They followed the sound, and so did their master. She drew her lightsaber, striking the master again and again, until he fell down, sinking below the shallow surface. Inferna then drew back the edges of her mind, sharply. She would only have a few seconds before he woke up, but that was enough for her to escape the room and close the door behind her. She felt him jump out of his sleep state, and took that as her cue to leave. She was tense, and she wasn’t sure why. There was no way that Luke would know she was there in the building, unless she slipped and fell and made a great racket, which she had no intention of doing. It seemed that the next stage of her plot had succeeded – but then it came to her, as she went back out the main doors and began the dash to her ship. She was counting on Jacen taking the dream as a command from beyond, and there was quite a bit that she was leaving up to the Yuuzhan Vong as well. It still wasn’t entirely under her control. There was nothing more for her to do now but wait. She sat alone in the cockpit of the Sithstrike, as though asleep, but in the darkness she was watching out the windows. She felt the motion of another Force adept, not too far away; it appeared that Jacen had taken the bait, believing that the dream she planted in his brain was a true vision, and he was acting on it. Well, maybe it was a real Force vision, she thought, but the slight joke didn’t do anything to put her thoughts in order. She got up and went out to the open space in the middle of the ship that would normally be filled with bolted-down cargo containers, and practiced her lightsaber forms until she was tired enough to take a break into the refreshment of a Sith meditation. Anger and frustration consumed her until she was mostly rejuvenated, though still hampered by the veil across her mind. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/25/05 3:23pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO - Dark Tide: Onslaught, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (update 9/24) - Date Edited: 10/1/05 11:45am (3 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Chapter 4 Summary: The plan to separate Luke and Jacen is successful, and Inferna then helps Jacen get away from the Yuuzhan Vong - and into a Sith trap. Inferna hummed a merry little tune about Alderaan while she took a shower, and she still had a sadistically cheery layer over impatience and anxiety when she was dressed and poking around the outside of her ship. It was early morning on Belkadan, before the sun came up over the horizon, but it was close enough that the sky had lightened from nearly black to medium blue. “Good morning, Master Skywalker,” she said brightly, as though she didn’t notice the concern on his face. If Luke was concerned, and showing it, then a regular person would be downright terrified; she took that to be a good sign. “Prille. Is Jacen here?” “Here? Heavens, no. I haven’t seen him since yesterday.” She frowned, then put her hands to her mouth. “Oh, no, you don’t think he’s gotten into some kind of trouble, do you?” Inferna looked behind her and to each side, quickly, as though afraid something was going to jump out at them. “You need to leave,” said Luke. “Now. I suspect he might have gone out and gotten captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, and I’m going to look for him. It’s about to get ten times more dangerous around here.” Part Two: Complete. “How exactly am I supposed to leave with my nav computer completely inoperable?” Inferna demanded. She waved a hand towards her ship. “I’m reinstalling my old program as we speak – it should be done in another ten minutes – and then I still have to find the bad code. Your software is too modern for my older system to use. And some of it wouldn’t come up at all - the coordinates are completely unreadable.” “I'm sorry about that, truly. But if you stay here, you are going to die.” “If I leave now, I’ll die when I fly through a star. I’d rather take my chances on land.” She pursed her lips and made a sad face. “I’ll take you on my ship. Come quickly with me, and you can stay on it. I’m going to get Jacen out and then we’re going to Dantooine.” Inferna allowed her confusion to show through, and then she realized that Vexon hadn’t dropped anything yet. She probably would have felt the tremor as well if he had – perhaps, or perhaps not, in her shielded and therefore weakened state. Still, he wouldn’t act without her command. “I can’t leave my ship,” she said. “All of my life is here on it. I’m sorry.” She lowered her head. “May the Force be with you, Master Skywalker.” “We can come back at a later time. You will get your possessions and come with me,” said Luke. Inferna saw his fingers slide through the air, almost imperceptibly, as he spoke, and she felt a tug on her mind. For a brief moment she wondered if it was really such a bad idea to leave... then she snapped out of it. “I can’t, and I won’t. That’s all there is to it.” Inferna let her shoulder sag and she focused her attention on a non-existent crack on the outer hull. "I wish you luck with that choice, then," said Luke. She watched him run off to the west, towards his Skipray, and then she went back into the cockpit and keyed a high-frequency secure channel, further protected with an old military encryption code. If someone wanted to slice into her transmissions enough, they probably could, but all she needed was a few hours’ head start, and nobody was around to hear her conversation or care about it. “Darth Vexon? Good morning.” “It’s evening, Inferna.” “Xi Alta time it’s evening; Belkadan local time it’s morning. So as far as I’m concerned, morning. Listen, we’re ready. Hit Dantooine. Locate the most populated area that you can and hit it with everything you’ve got.” “Now?” “No, next week,” Inferna snapped. “Of course I mean now. How many minutes to impact?” “Ahh... let’s see... eighteen. I've got the triple laser and two concussion bombs.” “Perfect. Inferna out.” She heard the sound of an engine, and watched as Luke’s Skipray shot out of the forest, flying southward. He would be distracted, but she still didn’t want to take the chance of him discovering her deception early. She quickly booted her computer systems and corrected the altered lines of code, then drove her freighter slowly in the same direction, like a tank crossing the grasses. When she got to the edge of the clear area, she waited. Don’t fail me, Vexon. She was halfway in a trance, attuning herself to the glowing Force emanating from many points in the galaxy. Inferna wasn’t sure exactly how much time was passing as she concentrated on the orbs whizzing around each other, population centers everywhere around. Her awareness of the outside world dimmed to almost nothing, and her body went slack in her seat, worn out from the double effort of sensing and curtaining. There was a bright flash in one area, then a rapid and brief dimming; a few seconds later she was hit by a shock wave that nearly threw her out of her chair and jolted her back into full reality. Her heart rate rose as the fear of many thousands doubled, but then she lost the connection. That’s it, Vexon. Do it again. Quickly. The second shock wave came soon after, but in realspace she was less able to feel it. Still, there was no mistaking that not too far away, thousands had just met a rather timely death and many times over that were now in a panic. Something terrible had happened on Dantooine, before the Yuuzhan Vong were supposed to arrive, and if she picked up on that, surely Skywalker would as well. Less than five minutes later, the Skipray appeared again, soaring through the atmosphere towards a lightly clouded sky. Inferna threw her head back and laughed. It was too perfect, bordering on unbelievable - Skywalker had fallen for the ruse. He was leaving Belkadan for Dantooine, to work to save the lives of those poor refugees, not wanting to risk them to save only one. She didn’t know how he felt about that, but she knew it might have been a hard decision for someone like him, so unaccustomed to making decisions based on sheer statistics instead of more variable and less reliable things like one’s preconceived notions of right and wrong. The important thing, though, was that he was alone on his ship. The early attack on Dantooine had forced him to leave Jacen on Belkadan, supposedly alone save for the Yuuzhan Vong and slaves – and one hapless woman who refused to leave her freighter and would face death instead. Oh, she’d face it all right – and strike it down. As soon as Skywalker’s ship was out of sight, Inferna lifted into the air and headed for the Yuuzhan Vong shipbuilding - shipgrowing - village that he had tried to approach. She realized that her mission was far from over, and that the part that lay ahead of her might be the toughest of them all. Still, she was a Sith. She had much more power at her disposal than any Jedi would. Now that Skywalker was gone, she put less energy into hiding her mind from other Force sensitive beings, and that gave her an added edge and helped reduce her fatigue. Apprehension took away the rest of it. Inferna found the village quickly, halfway hidden in a deep valley by the river, surrounded by tall, narrow objects jutting up from the sand. Most of the buildings there were wooden shacks, but she spotted one larger structure, looking strangely like an oblong shell, perhaps fifty meters long. That’s it, she thought, and brought the Sithstrike down on a bed of thick vines. The ship flattened the vines, and when she lowered her ramp, she saw that she would be walking through plant material growing knee-high in most places and a bit higher in others. She probed the land around her, trying to feel the Force, but there wasn't much. Not even - not even from the village. When she concentrated with all her ability, she was able to locate Jacen, but for some reason his own senses had been nearly shut off. All the better - he won't notice if I drop my shield. Inferna did a quick check of her person – belt, blaster, lightsaber, razor helices, body armor, helmet – and ran down the ramp. She noticed the faint smell of death, like slightly decayed flesh – some of it human, some of it alien – as she raced towards the shell with tall steps, trudging as quickly as she could through the vines. There was almost no activity in the immediate area, and she guessed that the slaves had been killed. That didn’t matter; they were dead anyway, from what she had heard of their life signs. Before she got to the opening of the shell, though, a figure appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. The Yuuzhan Vong can’t be sensed through the Force! She had known that, of course, but now it became all too clear. Two tall warriors had appeared, covered in scars and strange markings, noses missing their cartilage in shredded faces. They both wielded staves and jumped towards Inferna at the same time. She whipped out her lightsaber and activated it. Initially, she scoffed at the thought of a staff against a lightsaber, but to her dismay, her blade wouldn’t cut through it, but only left score marks. A quick spike of fear quickly sublimated into rage, and she struck harder, faster, parrying strikes from one warrior and attacking the other. She seemed to be getting the upper hand until a third one joined in the fray. With a shrill scream, she jumped up and kicked one of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors in the stomach. He fell back, mostly unhurt but now off-balance. Instinctively Inferna brought her lightsaber up and watched in horror as the second warrior’s staff turned into a moving snakelike whip and wrapped itself around her weapon. It had reached for her arm, but she pulled away before it touched her, and twisted around the glowing blade instead. The red beam of her lightsaber began to smoke and hiss where it was touching the whip-staff, but wouldn't cut through. She deactivated it for a second, and the pulling warrior also lost his footing from the sudden release. Anger consumed her. She was literally seeing red, the blood vessels in her eyes threatening to pop and tinging everything a deeper crimson than came from the light pouring forth from her lightsaber. She grasped the handle firmly and skewered one of her opponents’ faces with it. A charring smell filled the air around her, and she absorbed the energy, spinning in circles around the other two. The warriors were strong, and their armor was hardy, but they weren’t invincible. Eventually, she would wear them down. Inferna managed to get far enough away from them to approach the trees next to the long shell, and she struck through one tree three times. The tree slowly fell, and she pushed it with the Force, towards the warriors. It crushed another one as it hit the ground, and then the battle turned to one-on-one. She wished that she had the ability to call forth lightning, but she wasn’t sure if it would have any effect on the Yuuzhan Vong, and even if it did, wishes didn’t make it so. There was no way to handle this except the hard way. While she fought on, she popped open a small metal cylinder, not much bigger than a lightsaber handle, hooked to her utility belt. She reached into it with her left hand and grasped one of the small, smooth handles, without looking, even though she could lose a finger or two if she grasped the object in the wrong place. There she kept the razor helices, her backup weapons for when blasters and lightsabers needed extra help. Inferna hurled the little curl of transparent diamond-glass at the warrior’s unarmored neck, giving it just the right spin with a flick of her left wrist. It sunk deep into his flesh, a momentary distraction, before her saber cut his head into two. He collapsed to the ground and she grabbed the razor before proceeding onward into the shell. “And stay dead,” she commanded the corpses, pointing at them accusingly. Was it possible that they could rise again from those injuries? She didn't know, and thought it would be best to finish her task and get out as soon as she could. Inferna then daintily dropped her once again deactivated lightsaber into a large pocket over her thigh, and entered the only opening of the shell, two meters high. The sunlight came from behind her, casting a long shadow ahead. She curtained her mind again, nervously, in case there should be more of the Vong. She followed a narrow walkway that opened up into a large room. What she saw there made her stop in her tracks, right before she got to the room. What is that thing? Inferna had no idea what the creature was, but it was ugly. It appeared to be about half her size, mostly gray, with six legs and four arms. It had an exoskeleton of mottled white and gray and a few small splashes of red, or rather, gray and red with white clumps of… something. Something that disgusted her on a visceral level though she couldn’t quite understand why. She heard a clicking sound, the clicking of its feet on the pearlescent floor and its pincers opening and closing. She reached for her pocket, but stopped just as her fingers brushed against the zipper. She saw Jacen, bound but awake, out of the corner of her eye. Inferna paid little attention to him then, since he apparently wasn't going anywhere, but she looked at the strange beast and wondered what it was, and what to do about it. It backed up, then came forward, then stopped, as though it wasn’t quite sure whether to approach her or not. Finally it made up its mind and crept forward, and Inferna took out her blaster. She fired three shots at the creeper, but two of them hit its bumpy carapace and did nothing; the third shot hit it in its eyestalk, burning out one of its eyes. Inferna continued to shoot, and finally enough of the shots hit vulnerable spots that the creature seemed to find it difficult to move or locate her. She wasn’t concerned right then about killing it, but only keeping it out of her way for a short time. I sure hope there aren’t any more of those... things... or the warriors, she thought grimly, and finally took a good look at Jacen. “What in the red hells...” she said, letting her voice trail off. He was suspended by six bands, one thick band around each wrist, each ankle, and each thigh. The bands wound around him and flowed into long ropes criss-crossed all the way to the ceiling and kept taut. The strain was evident on his face, and Inferna saw no obvious way to untie the ropes. There was no sound then except for the creeper’s clicks, fainter and fewer than before, and Jacen’s labored breathing. “You’re not in good shape, kid,” she said, and pulled out one of her helices again. She crossed the room to Jacen and tried to saw through one of his ankle bonds with it, but at first the razor helix wouldn’t cut. Then it snapped into two. Inferna swore and turned around, and spotted something vaguely familiar near the door. “Hey. Is that your lightsaber?” “Yes,” Jacen choked. Inferna ran over and grabbed it, then activated it and burned slowly through ropes with its green beam. He fell to the ground and she hooked the lightsaber to her belt, then put her hands under his arms to pull him up. “We’ve got to get out of here,” said Inferna. “I don’t know if there are any more of those Yuuzhan Vong beasts around, and if there are, I don’t feel like fighting with them. Ship’s not far. Can you walk?” Jacen stumbled for a few steps, then righted himself and walked normally. “Yes, Miss Baclaw. But – where’s Luke?” The youth touched her elbow. “I can’t feel him close by.” “Luke’s gone. He said he was coming to get you and then go to Dantooine, but I saw him leave in a real hurry. So I figured I’d come by and make sure he got you out – lo and behold, he didn’t.” Inferna sighed. “Come on, let’s go. You can get cleaned up on board.” Jacen stopped then, and reached up to a wound on his cheek. His face scrunched as he dug into it. “One of those… those seeds,” he said. “The seeds they planted into the slaves to make growths on them. They put one in me.” Inferna peered at his cut. It was only about three centimeters wide, but appeared to be deep. She thought she saw the outline of a little object – something like a pebble stuck under his skin. “Brace yourself,” she said, and dug into the cut with her long fingernails. She grasped the hard egg and tugged it out. “Sorry," she said as she shook a few drops of blood away. "That probably hurt, but it’s gone now. To the ship.” They raced down the shell building and outside. Jacen glanced for a moment at the dead Yuuzhan Vong – two of them obviously cut down with a lightsaber. “Did – did my uncle kill them?” “I don’t know if he killed any of the enemies or not,” said Inferna. She pulled him by his arm, gently, and they hurried along the trodden and only partly overgrown path through and out of the village. It was slow going through the blanket of vines, but they half-hiked and half-ran as though a rancor was at their backs. She lowered the boarding ramp for them, and as soon as both were on board, she powered on the engines and lifted up towards the stars. Inferna took the pilot’s seat and guided Jacen to the passenger chair behind her. “I’m guessing you want to go to Dantooine, too,” she said. “I know that I should go, but –“ “Maybe Luke didn’t want you there. Maybe he thought you’d have a better chance on Belkadan than you would if you went with him.” “I don’t think so,” Jacen said. He still was still trying to wrap his mind around what happened. He'd foolishly followed a vision that turned out to be false, and Uncle Luke was gone. Did he really leave Jacen behind? Did Luke think he'd died? That didn't make sense, but no answer did. “The fact remains that he left. I don’t know why any uncle would do that to his nephew, but… well, I’m sure he had his reasons.” Inferna turned to Jacen for a moment and smiled at him, the sad, knowing smile of one who feels sorry for someone else. “I’m going the Alta system to swap this ship out. I have a brother who lives out there, and he’ll take good care of the Spinning Star for me. Unfortunately I don’t have time to go to Dantooine yet, so you’ll just have to tag along with me. It’ll be all right, I know. It’s hard when people do things that don’t make any sense, especially people you thought were doing the right thing. But we’ll get everything sorted out. I’ll help, if I can. I promise.” When she was far enough away from the planet and sun’s gravity, she entered the coordinates to Xi Alta and slid into hyperspace. Then she got up and went to her small supply cabinet and returned with gauze, tape, and bacta patches. “Here, take these. You don’t want scars, now.” “Thank you, Miss Baclaw.” Inferna brought out a light blanket, too, and gave it to him, then waited until she was sure he was asleep. Then she went to the refresher, pulled out her comlink, and connected to the secure frequency. “Vexon, report in.” “Vexon here.” “Good. Well, we're done. Return to Xi Alta immediately. You were wonderful. Mission accomplished.” "Thank you, Inferna.” “And make sure the on-ship prison area is ready. Make it look bad. He doesn’t know about us yet, and when he finds out, I want it to crush him. Understood?” “Understood,” said Vexon. “Except for one thing, Inferna. You just picked up a prisoner from Belkadan? I thought everyone was gone.” “I ran into some folks. On my way to Merooine, and poof, came out of hyperspace outside Belkadan. Don’t ask – I don’t know. We'll just count it as a serendipitous computer glitch, although I have my doubts. Anyway, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Jedi Knight Jacen Solo were arriving about the same time I dropped into realspace.” The crackling of the speaker and splashes of water were all that broke the silence for half a minute before Vexon said, “You're making up a story, now.” “I am not making up a story. Well, I didn’t get Skywalker, and don’t want him. Skywalker would be too hard to turn. But Jacen Solo is aboard the Sithstrike right now, as our captive, and I’ll be bringing him to our fortress in less than a day. Darth Inferna out.” -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/26/05 5:44pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, OCs (update 9/26)
	Chapter Five Chapter Summary: Luke returns to Dantooine and a transmission from Inferna to Vexon is intercepted. Come on, people, post! Luke had to take a few minutes to calm himself after he entered hyperspace en route to Dantooine. Something terrible had happened - he didn't know what, exactly, but he suspected that the Yuuzhan Vong had followed the refugees. The feeling that came to him when he was still on Belkadan was as though terror struck many thousands of hearts and then some of them were still. He was sure that Leia was one of those who had suddenly cried out - and also, thankfully, that she was alive. I left two behind, he thought, trying to stave off his guilt. She didn't want to go, and I can respect that, but... "Artoo," he said, "can you send a transmission to the Spinning Star?" It was a long shot, but worth a try. If R2-D2 had pulled the other ship's tracking information the day before, and it still existed, there was a chance that he could make contact. He was still close enough to Belkadan that the remote transmission system might reach her, though for it to travel from hyperspace to her location in realspace would take several minutes. Artoo chirped something that sounded vaguely affirmative. "All right, then, try to get a signal. Don't send anything; just see if you can get a connection." A long pause, and then: Blip-beep-blip! "How about a location?" The words "Location: Unknown" flashed briefly on his datascreen. With a surge of hope, Luke then said, "Put me through on the remote link. On one of its secure channels." He waited for a minute, while Artoo continued to make noises and static came over the speakers. Then the little astromech droid emitted a final series of beeps and the static level dropped to a low and steady crackling. "Baclaw... Prille Baclaw. This is Luke Skywalker. If you can hear me, please send me a message." Several tense minutes passed. The tranmission should have taken four minutes to reach her, or at least close to that, and her reply would take the same time. It was ten before Luke heard a sound like someone picking up a microphone. "Master Skywalker?" Her voice was hushed, like a whisper forced louder for audibility. "You know, I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am to hear from you, because I realized after I was off Belkadan that I didn't know how to reach you. I wanted to tell you that Jacen's with me. I found him down at that strange village with all the pointy structures outside of it, and we just barely made it out in time. Listen - I can't go to Dantooine right now. My ship still needs work, so I'm going to swap it out for another one before I bring him to you." Luke released a held breath and listened to her message, then sent a second transmission to her. "If you're going to be somewhere safe, or at least safer than where I'm going, stay there. I wouldn't want you flying into a war zone, and that's what Dantooine is going to be like. There was a bad attack there a couple of hours ago, and I haven't felt anything more, but it could be on its way any time." Eight minutes this time. "Oh - all right. I guess you'll want the location, then. Tingel Tristali, at the military base on the north pole." Artoo pulled up a simplified map of the Tingel Arm of the galaxy, with Tristali ringed in red. "Thank you. Wait there until you hear from me or my sister Leia. And can you put Jacen on the link?" "...I would, but he's asleep, and I don't want to wake him up. He really looked and sounded worn out. I almost had to carry him to the ship. Don't worry, though, he'll be fine - just tired. If you can give me your signal array, I'll call you back when he wakes up." Luke sent the locating information to Prille and when he received confirmation that it was received, he said, "Thank you, then, and you've just made me feel a lot better." "I'm glad I could help, then, Master Skywalker. Now I must go, but I will call you in a little while." I wasn't expecting him to bother me so quickly, Inferna thought, annoyed. The first transmission almost woke Jacen up and she barely was able to turn down the volume before he discovered that Luke was indeed looking for him, ruining part of her deception. She entered the numbers Luke sent to her, and instructed her receivers not to accept any more transmissions from that system for the remainder of the flight. The destruction on Dantooine was not quite as bad as Luke thought it might have been. One of the passenger ships had been flattened, with its edges blown to bits; everyone inside was dead. But whoever had come by wasn't bent on killing everyone, even though it was a reasonable assumption that he or she had the capability. "I don't understand it," his wife Mara said once he had found her, and their nephew Anakin, and returned to the refugee camp. He walked with her and Leia now just outside one of the ships, and it was twilight. "This wasn't the Yuuzhan Vong. We saw a ship come down, through the clouds; then we heard an explosion and felt a shock wave - it knocked me and Anakin down - but that was all there was. A regular ship, not one of theirs; in fact, it scared the Vong away for a few minutes. We were being followed by a few of them, but they backed off just long enough for us to make an escape. Still - you couldn't have known that. You did the right thing, coming back as fast as you did." "The important part is that those still living are safe," said Leia. "I would rather have us all together - but with the increase in activity from the enemy that we're seeing here, if Jacen is out of harm's way, it might be better." She sighed and shook her head a little bit. "I probably shouldn't have said that." "You're just speaking as a mother," Luke said. The fact that Leia wasn't angry with him for his hasty departure from Belkadan was a relief. He was a little bit worried after being unable to contact Prille again. The signals would reach her ship, but receive no answer except "Access Denied". "Actually, I was wondering if you might know anything about the woman we ran into on Belkadan. She said her name was Prille Baclaw. Does that ring a bell?" Leia's forehead wrinkled as she thought back. "No, not really. I did once meet a man when I was very young - wait. That might have been his daughter's name. Spencer Baclaw was the overseer of a large farming continent that supplied rations for some of the Imperial fleet. A Captain, then. I met him on one of my first diplomatic missions from Alderaan, and he had two daughters. I don't remember which one was which, though - it was so very long ago, twenty-seven, twenty-eight years." "There could be any number of them in the galaxy," said Luke. "Were either of the daughters in an Imperial-run school on Coruscant?" "Both of them, actually. One was Prille, I think, and the other was... Melody, Melany, something like that. A few years apart. The older of the two - she must have been about twelve - was very nice, but the younger one stood distant and didn't speak much. I really don't recall anything else, though. And it's possible that those aren't even the right girls." Luke nodded to his twin sister. "You're right. I didn't think she was anybody that either of you would have heard of, anyway. Career cut off before it began, and I gather she lost a lot in the Blueray accident. In any case-" "Blueray? The carrier ship that leaked and exploded?" Mara stopped walking and faced Luke. "I don't understand... did she have family on it?" "Not that I'm aware of... she said, according to Jacen, that she was a passenger and almost died when there was a radiation leak." "There were no survivors," Mara said quietly. She suddenly looked agitated. "Not a one - the entire ship was gone to pieces so small a person couldn't pick one up. Either he misheard her, or she was lying." Before Luke could think of a response, though, a long shadow appeared next to them before revealing its source as Lando Calrissian. The look on his face was one of grim duty. "I think I know the answer to that one," he said. "I'm sorry, but I overheard the end of your conversation, and that's not all that's been overheard. One of the scout ships picked up a scrambled transmission that went to the bomber. Oh, we sent out a few small fighters after him, but all six got shot down. It was hanging near its jump point when this message came through, though, and there were a few scouts orbiting the planet. Looks like old Imperial coding. My slicer only needed nine hours to break through it, and that means it was very insecure for a military encryption. Either they were sloppy, or didn't care that they would be found out. I think you all need to hear this - what we could sort out from the static." Lando turned on his comlink. "Machi, play the tape." Leia watched the comlink as something scratchy began to come through - even though it was only sound. Her eyes were fixed on the tiny comlink speaker. "...derful. Mission accomplished..." "That sounds like Prille," Luke said worriedly. "Shh!" Leia hissed, and put up her hand. "...make sure... ready. Make it... about us yet, and when he..." Then the voice switched over to a male: "...thing, Inferna. You... prisoner from Belkadan? I.... gone." Inferna returned to the link: "...folks. On... came out of hyperspace... just count it... Jedi Master Luke Skywalk... same time I dropped into real..." Leia covered her mouth and closed her eyes. I'm not hearing this, she thought, even though she knew she was. There was a long pause, nothing but crackling and the heavy, tense silence from their party, before the voice on the speaker started up again. "I am not making... story... and don't want... it would be too hard... Jacen Solo is aboard... our captive... him to our fortress... Darth Inferna out." "That's all of the message," said Lando. "That man you heard was the one who dropped the gift. And I'm thinking, Luke, that the Belkadan woman was Inferna." "That's not possible," Luke insisted, and he put his hand on Leia's trembling arm. "Her life was weak. There was so little of the Force in her that I almost couldn't sense anything at all. She was very sick, from something, and certainly she couldn't be a Sith Lord." "Were you even listening to the message he played for us?" Leia cried. Mara looked away for a moment, and then she turned back to Luke. When she did, the Force streamed off her like vapors escaping a boiling pot. "Mind cloaking. Emperor Palpatine could do it easily, and I've heard of other Sith doing the same thing. They can shield their thoughts and even their life signs. Like a Jedi, but it's not quite the same - they can pull the Force into themselves and twist it to appear different even to those who can see it. Prille wasn't sick from radiation, Luke. She was hiding her nature. The Sith are still with us." No sound came from Leia except a strangled yelp in the back of her throat, as the realization suddenly came to her fully: her son was in the hands of the Sith. They couldn't fight the Yuuzhan Vong and the Sith at the same time; one alone was more than enough. They had thought that the adherents of the Dark Side - the true Sith Lords, not fallen Jedi, but with no past as a bringer of the light - were gone. Instead, they had been hiding - to reveal themselves at a time when the New Republic was particularly vulnerable. And Luke had no words to comfort her, either, and he felt the same sting twisted in a different way. It was, in a way, his own failure... his own inability to keep from being focused on only one thing. While he was watching the Yuuzhan Vong and focusing his mind on them, he had become oblivious to the subtle signs of Prille's - Inferna's - falsehoods that were now more than clear. And because of that, his nephew was not with them on Dantooine, but left to the Sith. The only small consolation was that she apparently didn't want to kill him, or she would have already. "It doesn't look like they have any affiliation with the Yuuzhan Vong, if that's any help," said Lando. He looked uncomfortable as he spoke. "And he's still alive." "Try to find what you can about Tingel Tristali," said Luke, "and we will send out a small ship or two there to poke around. That's where she said she was going, but I doubt now that it was the truth. In the meantime - one of them will probably request a ransom. Once we know what it is the Sith want, we can start working on a plan." "Now isn't the best time for that," Lando said absently, and pointed to a scout ship coming in to land, with red lights flashing. "We're getting a signal. Capital ships and several squadrons of coralskippers." -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/26/05 5:49pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, OCs (update 9/26)
	(I know we're not supposed to "up" and stuff, but this is going to be a seriously long page to load if I don't make it go to a new page with chapter 6 or 7, so is it OK to post a few quick ones to force it to page 2, or no?) -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/27/05 9:17pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, OCs (update 9/26)
	Chapter 6 Chapter Summary: Jacen and Inferna arrive at the Sith stronghold. “Here we are,” said Inferna as the Sithstrike returned to realspace. The tiny glittering Alta sun sparkled in the distance, and its twenty-five planets were almost indifferentiable from faraway stars. “We’ll reach Xi in less than an hour.” “We’re near the edge of the galaxy,” said Jacen. He was still sitting in the passenger chair behind her, but he leaned forward to get a better view out the cockpit windows. “If you look out to the portside, there’s almost nothing. Just a few stars and a little cluster above the red star.” “That’s not a star. That’s Theta Alta. It looks like a star from here, though.” Inferna smiled as she switched on her comlink. “Channel eight opening,” she called into it. “Digo? Are you there?” “Good morning, Baclaw,” Vexon said. “I trust it is morning to you this time?” “Of course. Very early morning, though.” Jacen gave Inferna an odd look, and she shook her head and waved her right hand, slightly rolling her eyes. Just a private joke, she mouthed. “You arrived a little bit ahead of me, but I expected that. I was only going point three past lightspeed for awhile. Didn’t want to push the system any harder after all the, ah, problems I’ve been having with it.” “Right, right, you were telling me about that. How’s our guest?” “Just fine, Digo. We’ll be there in about fifty minutes. You’ve got the, ah, guest suite ready?” “Putting the last touches on right now, my lady. All has been prepared." “Excellent. I’ll see you there shortly.” Forty minutes later they approached a grey and white planet and began to drop down through the atmosphere. The clouds were thick, but once she was underneath them, the ground was still gray. “Looks pretty bleak, doesn’t it,” said Inferna. “Actually, most of the ground is covered with ice, and it’s a pale silver – almost off-white. But so little light from the sun makes it all the way out here, and even less gets through the clouds, so it stays a bit dark. The clouds are helpful. They trap some of the heat in. If it weren’t for the clouds, the surface temperature would probably be at least negative ninety degrees Celsius.” “What is the surface temperature?” Jacen asked. Alta wasn't a familiar system to him, but then, there were thousands of stars with habitable planets - more when one counted the marginally habitable ones like this. “Averages negative thirty in the daytime, negative sixty at night. Not a very hospitable place, either way, but that’s one reason why we chose it. Nobody comes out here poking around. No pirates, no other troublemakers – and so far, the Yuuzhan Vong haven’t arrived, either. Let’s hope it stays that way.” “They won’t stay away forever,” said Jacen. "If they want any of these planets, they'll take them." “Probably so, but I’m not going to worry about that at this moment. I have other things on my mind.” Inferna flew near a smooth patch of ice. Most of it was pitted or raised, with holes here and there and a glacial surface to the right, but there was one large area like a completely calm sea, frozen solid. Two rectangles of ice broke inward neatly, leaving a hole, and she guided the Sithstrike toward the hole. Jacen began to fidget. “Is something the matter?” Inferna asked. “No… not really… just flying down through the ice reminded me of another encounter I had with them. They're not like humans, Lady Baclaw, and not like any other species I've ever met.” “I’m sure that was troubling.” Inferna nodded, as though only halfway paying attention. It was true that her thoughts were elsewhere as she flew straight down and then at a sharp angle, curving off until the ship was upright again. The strain of holding back her mind from him was wearing badly on her. Never before had she attempted to maintain the shield for more than a full standard day, and now she had gone a week with only one small and partial break. Even thus weakened, she had a difficult end for their flight. There were a few abrupt turns and another downward drop, all in complete darkness. No one but a Jedi or a Sith would be able to safely navigate the long route into or out of the compound without automated navigation, although there was another path cut straight up and through a glacier that could be used by others if they knew about it. Few did, and no one was around to see her, but she still preferred the twisting route that she usually took. She was starting to hear voices in her head, voices that she'd thought were long gone. Darth Trefitz's growl in her ear, her own younger voice... Inferna shook her head, mentally lashing out at the sounds, and they fell quiet. Jacen started to say something, but stopped himself, and Inferna bit back a curse at herself for letting her shield slip for that second. Luckily, he didn't question her. Finally the Sithstrike came to a stop at the end of the pathway. The room was perfectly circular, a hemisphere on a smooth and almost glassy surface. It was lit by a few faint globes stuck in the walls, enough that Jacen could see that they were inside a large area carved out of ice. “I guess you don’t have your padded suit with you,” Inferna said after a moment. “Tthere’s another one on board, and we're about the same size. Five centimeters or so won't make a difference; just try not to trip and fall.” “My suit? But... you saw my uncle and I when we were going to the Yuuzhan Vong village?” He's getting suspicious, she thought. Her temples started to throb. “I saw you pass by once. It doesn’t matter, though.” She rummaged through the locker next to the main supply cabinet and pulled out two thick tan suits. “Here, just put it over your clothes. It’ll keep you warm enough until we get into the main building, and that’s air conditioned. A little chilly, but nothing too uncomfortable.” They both slipped into the cold weather suits and then Inferna led him down the ramp. The bottom of each suit was covered in a rubberlike material, so Jacen was able to walk on the ice without slipping too much, even though the surface was slick. There was the outline of a door in the gray crystal, with a groove cut into it on the right-hand side. Inferna pulled a plastic card out of her pocket and slid it through the groove. A faint click was heard, and then the door swung open. “Wait,” said Jacen, just as he crossed the doorway. “What is it?” A little bit of annoyance crept into her words. “Something’s wrong here. I can feel it. It’s… dark energy. Like something evil is close by, something dangerous.” “Dead man,” Inferna said matter-of-factly. That much was true; Trefitz himself was buried in the ice. “Someone named Dark Treefells or something like that was rumored to have lived and died here, before my brother and I took over. He was a tyrant, so I’ve been told, and the odd aura's been mentioned. Nothing to worry about.” And she thanked herself for leaving his body there, frozen solid only two hundred meters away, so that there was an excuse for Force oddities. Inferna and Jacen came out of the first corridor and through another set of doors to the second. There, it was warm enough to remove their outer coats, although, like she had said, it was still cold. They passed by T-3P0, who started to say, “Good morning, Mast-“ “Shush,” Inferna said, cutting him off. “Pfft, droids.” Jacen followed close behind Inferna as she turned down one corridor and up the next, but he still thought that something felt a little off. The way she had interrupted the protocol droid also gave him pause, but it didn’t go beyond a feeling of unease. Well, what did you expect? he thought. You’re inside a thick band of ice, way underground – probably down near the bottom of a glacier, in what looks like an abandoned military complex. With a woman you barely know, and after she cut you free from the Yuuzhan Vong. It hasn’t been a comfortable week. Finally they came to the end of the hallway and Inferna opened another door. This was the conference room, empty except for a large square table in the middle and eight seats around it. On the table there were two datapads and a miniature holoprojector. “Master Digo,” said Inferna. “Major Andula. It’s wonderful to see you here this morning. May I present our guest, Jacen Solo.” She smiled and sat down. Two men – one human, one Falleen – were next to each other on the side of the table that had the datapads. Inferna had taken the farthest seat on a side, leaving two sides wide open and an empty chair on her side across the corner from the Falleen, whom she had addressed as Master Digo. She waved towards that chair, and Jacen dutifully sat down in it. Inferna whispered to him: "Master Digo is the brother I told you about. We're not actually related by blood." Vexon smiled, showing his rows of sharp teeth shining in a green-tinged face. “Solo,” he said. “I’ve heard so much about you. It’s a pleasure to be meeting you at last. A little young for a Jedi Knight, though, aren’t you?” “I’ve been trained since I was a very small boy,” Jacen said. “Excellent. Well, I hope you won’t mind staying with us for a little while.” Inferna continued from there. “I’m sure you’re wondering what this place is. It looks like an underground ship – and it was a Star Destroyer, long ago. Right now it’s mostly the center for some computer research, medical experiments, and other projects. Nothing too fancy – just the kind of thing that would make a pretty penny being sold to a major manufacturer.” She smiled wanly. “Credits make the galaxy go ‘round, after all. If you were expecting something a little more exciting, well, unless biology and chemistry are exciting to you, then you’ll probably be quite bored.” “It was very kind of you to bring me here with you, Lady Baclaw,” said Jacen. “And I thank you and Master Digo and Major… ah…” “Andula,” Inferna prompted. “Yes, sorry, Major Andula. Thank you all very much. I don’t mean to trouble you, especially not after you helped me escape the Yuuzhan Vong. But when am I going to be able to go to Dantooine? My family is there, and all the refugees from Dubrillion, and they probably need me.” Vexon leaned forward and stared at Jacen. “I doubt they need a boy quite that much,” he said. “Master Digo, please, that’s enough,” said Inferna. “Unfortunately I’m not making another trip out of the system for a few days yet, and probably nobody else is going to be going out, either. You can just stay here, and you’ll be safe, and whatever happens on Dantooine won’t affect you. Then you’ll live to fight on another day. Andula will take your belongings up to your room, and then you’ll be able to go freely. I’ll get you a passcard so you can go into the public and semi-public areas without an escort.” She winked discreetly at Vexon. It was like a theatrical production, one that they knew so well that they could play any role, and perform at a moment’s notice, with a few words changed here and there to fit the situation. Vexon stood up and motioned for Jacen to rise. “Do you have anything large and metallic with you? The metal detectors will go crazy,” he said. "They're installed at several checkpoints on the upper levels. There have been some problems with theft," he explained. “No, not really – just my lightsaber,” said Jacen. Inferna had decided to return it to him while onboard, because that was what a slightly daft but good-hearted pilot would do, and now they had to take it again. “All right. Andula has a secret code to get through the detectors, so he’ll take it up to the guest suites for you.” The little hairs on the back of Jacen’s neck stood up and he felt a twisting, a sense of wrongness, in his gut. “Can’t I wait until I go up to my room?” he asked. “I don’t want to be without it.” “Absolutely not. The last thing we need is a false evac-“ “Digo!” Inferna cut him off midword and didn’t even use any honorifics with him. “He absolutely can keep his lightsaber until we’re finished here. As a matter of fact, here. I’ll hold it out on the table where everyone can see it, and then everyone will be happy.” She took the weapon out of Jacen’s hand and laid it out on the table, with her own hand over the handle, just like she promised. The objective was complete. Jacen had been divested of his lightsaber. Baclaw must be the one in charge here, thought Jacen. That’s good to know. Although – she didn’t seem quite this together when we were on Belkadan. “In any case,” Inferna went on, “we have a problem. A serious problem, throughout the galaxy. The Yuuzhan Vong are spreading everywhere and to be honest, I don’t know what to do about them.” “You have a few ships,” Jacen offered. “You could go to my uncle with me, and there would be something for you to do there. And you said this base is a Star Destroyer. Can you get it out of the ice?” She batted the questions away with two rapid blinks of her eyes. “Tell me something, Jacen. If you’re throwing a million credits at a problem, and it’s not going away, would your next step be to throw a million and one credits at it?” “Well, no.” “Then why would you want to just add a few bodies and ships to a group that is almost certain to be exterminated? It doesn’t make any sense. And don’t give me talk about the Jedi, either. You’re a Jedi Knight, and I’m not, and look who fared better against the Vong.” “There were three or four of them – not thousands and thousands,” Jacen said. “That’s not the point. The point is that you Jedi are not as strong as you think you are. You can’t see the Yuuzhan Vong through the Force. Using the Force on them has no effect unless it’s indirect. The sight that you’re so accustomed to using is blinded, and even when you do have it, you’re held back by teachings and dogmas and all kinds of silly rules about what’s honorable and what’s not.” “That’s not true. But... but where did you learn so much?” Jacen asked, bewildered. Even if her assessment of the Jedi was wrong, she showed that she had more information than she seemed to have had the day before. “A friend.” Inferna made a careless motion with her hand. “Now I don’t see how it’s so honorable and good to call upon only half of the Force – the weak half – and let so many people die. That’s why the galaxy is so vulnerable to invaders right now – invaders that would never have dreamed of being so bold while Emperor Palpatine was alive.” She folded her arms angrily. “I have another question for you. How many innocent civilians die every time a planet is destroyed or taken over by the Yuuzhan Vong?” “I – I don’t know.” Jacen was suddenly frustrated. Baclaw was talking like an old Imperial sympathizer. He could understand why she would feel that way, though – maybe the stress of what was going on, coupled with personal pressures, including her poor health, made her desperate. And she rememberd the Empire, in a favorable light, as she had been one of its students with a good government job ready for her upon graduation. “It depends on the planet. It could be a few hundred for a colony area, or several trillion for a large planet that supports a lot of life.” “So why do you still insist on using only a small portion of the powers that are available to you? You can heal your body rapidly, even from wounds that would kill a weaker being. You can fight many people at once. You can use your emotions of anger and fear as a fire instead of hiding from them and wasting time and energy to smother them. Use the Force, not just let it pass through you. You would rather hold to a silly tradition and let the deaths of those trillions be on your hands?” “What you’re talking about,” Jacen said, letting a little bit of frost come into his voice, “is not the way of the Jedi. If I let my anger take control, then I would fall to the Dark Side.” “Then you do fear!" Inferna cried, with a gleam coming to her eyes. "You fear the Dark Side - you are afraid of being afraid.” “Lady Baclaw, with all due respect, I don’t know why you’re telling me all this. Is it that you don’t understand the Force? You aren't a Jedi, like you said, and-” “Not understand the Force? I understand it better than you do, boy. I’m just trying to make you think about things a little differently. Your uncle might have taught you the Jedi way, but apparently that way also means running off and leaving innocent people to die. He had no way to know that I would have my ship running when I did. For all he knew, we were both going to die terrible deaths on Belkadan, and he had to run off on the hunch that the Yuuzhan Vong had reached Dantooine. To save his precious Mara, no doubt.” “It was the Yuuzhan Vong who attacked Dantooine.” "Perhaps, or perhaps not. But definitely not at the time he left Belkadan. There was a tremor in the Force. I felt it, too. That attack had nothing to do with the Yuuzhan Vong.” Jacen wanted his lightsaber, but he couldn’t ask for it now. He tried to nudge it slightly, using the Force, but Inferna’s hand was still wrapped around the handle. He settled for a grip on it, ready to whip it away if needed. “That was the work of Darth Vexon,” said the Falleen. “Dark Lord of the Sith.” “What?!” Jacen exclaimed. At that moment, Inferna and Vexon both dropped their mental shields, and suddenly Jacen’s mind was assaulted with great outpourings of the Force, bright and sinister. “Master Digo is Darth Vexon,” said Inferna. “He’s the one who dropped the bombs. I am Darth Inferna. I wanted to... test you and Luke both, to see if you could detect the Force tremors from a comparatively small explosion. I had no idea that he was going to feel it that strongly and panic and run straight to Dantooine. But no harm done.” She clipped Jacen’s lightsaber to her own belt. “I think I’ll be keeping this. After all, you’re not going to need it.” Vexon already had a pair of stun cuffs ready, and he grabbed Jacen’s arms, then snapped the glowing rings over his wrists. “Would you like to save the galaxy from the scourge of the Yuuzhan Vong?” he asked. “I’ll never become a Sith!” Jacen shouted. “Good, good.” Inferna drew out the word a little longer than normal. “You’re frightened. You’re angry. Don’t run from it." She dropped her voice to a breathy hiss. "Feel it.” He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, thinking back to the Jedi Code. He started to feel calmer, and his heart slowed. “I am not going to turn from what I’ve been taught.” “We’ll see about that.” Inferna shrugged her shoulders. “Any time you change your mind, you just let me know. You do realize that you’re not going to leave here until you do submit to my training, don’t you?” Jacen raised his head proudly and stared directly at her. The immediate shock had passed, and he was able to summon the strength to meet her gaze. “Then I’ll stay forever.” “Very well. Though I thought you were in a hurry to get back to saving people. If you’d rather save your own conscience than other lives, then you’ve already chosen the side of selfish desires, haven’t you? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and so you choose the way of the fool because it is easier. Ah, it’s up to you. I'll come to check on you in a few days, in case you change your mind. Vexon, take him to his quarters now. We have nothing more to say here. Do whatever you like to Solo, as long as he doesn't die and isn't maimed for life.” Breathe, Jacen thought. There is a way out. There is always a way out, one just has to stay alive long enough to find it. And she isn't trying to kill me - not yet. The room that he came to was a cube, two meters on a side, with perfectly smooth white walls that matched the floor and ceiling. There was absolutely no furniture in it, nor light fixtures, so that it was pitch black without a source of light brought in from outside. All there was in the room was four sets of white rings, molded into the wall with metal hinges and metal locks. Vexon pushed Jacen into the room, and after stooping behind (he was a little bit taller than two meters), wrestled him against the wall. Unarmed, Jacen couldn’t fight back hard against the Sith Lord who was his mass and at least half over again, and who had a lightsaber of his own. In a few moments the stun cuffs were taken off and he was bound by two of the ring pairs - one fastening his wrists, the other around his ankles. Vexon tightened the rings by twisting a key through the locks until Jacen could barely move a millimeter. “I don’t know what you mean to do," said the Jedi Knight, "but if you really are trying to kill me, I’d die before turning into one of you. And if you won't let me go until I join you, then you'll die of old age while I am still not turned.” “Your mother would be so proud of that decision,” Vexon replied. “Taking the easy way, the way that feels more comfortable in your head because you're too afraid of breaking antiquated and rigid rules. Staying here, smug in your righteousness, while millions scream for help.” Vexon left with the glowrod, and the door closed behind him. Jacen was alone in complete darkness, with nothing to see, nothing to hear, and nothing to do - except try to call out through the Force, to Luke, to his twin sister Jaina, and to his mother, but the moment he let go of himself to put out his call, dark power threatened to smother him. He let himself go limp against the wall, hanging partly by his arms, and put his energy toward protecting his mind and trying to think of what he would say to Inferna when she came back, after the slow crawl of minutes would turn to hours, and hours into days. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/28/05 7:48pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, somewhat AU) Jacen, Luke, OCs (New chapter 9/28!) - Date Edited: 9/30/05 3:04pm (2 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Chapter 7 Chapter Summary: A new threat surfaces, and Inferna speaks to Leia. Edit: there is no edit, but I'm having technical difficulties with the thread (it won't let me add a new post) so that's why there's no Chapter 8. It's done and waiting. Darth Inferna was staring at the timepiece on her desk and fighting boredom when a light flickered on her holoprojector. She pushed a button on it and stood back, waiting for the image to appear. I do hope this isn't Leia again, she thought, but the bits of light formed into the miniature image of Darth Vexon against a backdrop of sand dunes. “Vexon reporting in from Gamma Alta,” he said. “I’ve not found a soul who's strong enough in the Force to make a good apprentice for either of us.” “Keep looking,” said Inferna. "You've only been there one day. Either that or get the cloning tanks working." “Yes, yes, I will. Still working on that, and I think we're close to getting one of them operational. But there’s one more thing,” Vexon continued. "I’ve made contact with another. Another Sith, out on the planet Mistan.” “What? I didn’t know of any others.” Inferna frowned. It was possible, of course, that they were not the only ones who had hidden away from the nosy New Republic (and the Galactic Empire before them, and the dying Old Republic before the Galactic Empire), but didn't strike her as likely. Or desirable. “Neither did I. But the Hyprojectory came back into the system thirty minutes ago and gave me the information.” The ship Hyprojectory was sent to the planet of Mistan a week earlier to set up an emergency base, should they need to leave Alta for more than a few days. “Admiral Rinapt told me that there was a Sith out there, and that she knew we were going out to Mistan soon. A Mirialan woman. I contacted her as soon as I heard...” Inferna pushed herself back in her chair. Mistan was a lush green planet full of trees and wild shrubs – nothing like the one she had seen in her dream. But the thought of a Mirialan joining them was too uncanny. “No,” Inferna said, cutting Vexon off in the middle of her sentence. “Korosia is bad news, and I don’t want us to have anything to do with her. I don’t care what she can do or promises to do. We will not be meeting with her.” “Wait... how did you know her name? I thought you didn’t know about any other Sith.” Inferna slapped the desk hard. “I didn’t! But I do know a few things about a Mirialan named Korosia and she is nothing but trouble. What did you tell her?” “I only said that we’d be contacting her if we’re going to go to Mistan, and let her know we’re on our way.” “Well, you call her back and tell her that I decided we won’t be dealing with her. Not at all, ever.” “I – all right, Inferna. We need all the help we can get, though.” “Korosia is no help. She’ll hurt us more than anything. She will try to destroy our forces for her own gain, thinking only of this year and not of the next decade.” “Very well. Apparently you know more than I do about it. Vexon out.” Things were starting to come together, and in ways that Inferna didn’t like. She had half a mind to pick a different planet for their emergency base, but it had already been set up, and she didn’t think it would be too difficult to maneuver around one person. Inferna turned the projector off and went back out into the hallway. She took a plastic bottle of water and meandered towards Jacen’s cell. He’d been held there for five days, and she was impressed by his fortitude. His life was weaker than when they first got to Xi Alta, but he seemed to be holding up all right. However, she’d felt a steady decline in his strength throughout the day, and now, mid-afternoon, she figured it was time to let him have something to drink. Now would be a good time to break him, she thought. Vexon hadn't done much towards that end before his departure, but not for lack of trying. Inferna glanced into the small chemical supply room at the end of the cell block and shook her head. A jug of hydrochloric acid was nearly empty, and used syringes and multi-colored vials nearly filled the waste bin enough to send it down to the waste chute. Ah, but Vexon, this is where you are wrong. There is an easier way. The door opened for her and she carried in the bottle and a glowrod. Inferna held the rod up to see Jacen more clearly. He was awake, and still bound exactly where he had been left five days earlier. Jacen struggled to raise his head, and he glowered at her. He had dark circles under his eyes and appeared a little bit drawn, but he was able to give her a dirty look. Apparently Vexon thought to test the limits of what injuries were acceptable under Inferna's terms and which weren't; Jacen's right arm was broken in a gruesome compound fracture - and from the appearance of the wound, flaming with infection and obviously days old - no measures were taken to assist with healing. Inferna put down the bottle and pulled out her comlink. “Andula, this is Master Inferna. come down to Cell 3-C and bring a splint.” “Yes, my Lady. I will come at once.” Inferna shook her head slowly when the crackling of the comlink stopped. “You make things so difficult, Jacen. What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Oh… hrm… I suppose you’re thirsty. You’ve been here for five days.” “I know,” he rasped. “Well, I brought water. It wouldn’t do to have you dying already.” When Jacen eyed the bottle suspiciously, she went on, “For goodness' sake. I didn’t put any drugs or poison in the water, if that’s what you’re wondering. If you ask nicely, I’ll let you have a sip.” Jacen set his jaw and continued to stare at her, silently. “Fine – if you’re not thirsty, I still am, and I guess I’ll be on my way.” She started for the door. “Please,” Jacen whispered. “What? I can’t hear you. All I heard was ‘please’. I didn’t hear the ‘Darth Inferna, my Master’ part.” She’s toying with me, Jacen thought. She’s trying to break me down. I mustn’t give in! He watched her but kept silent; he thought briefly about using the Jedi mind trick on her, and then rejected that as silly. It would never work on a Sith Lord. Inferna said, "At this temperature, it'll take you five to eight days to die of thirst. With your hibernation trances maybe longer, but - oh, that's right. You're not able to concentrate when you're all bound up like that. So the end is near, Jedi." “Please, Darth Inferna.” “I still can’t hear you correctly. One more try.” Say it - say it and live. Survival, then escape; no one is hurt by these words. “Please, Darth Inferna, my Master.” “There, there – that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Inferna smiled and crossed the room, then pushed the rim of the bottle against Jacen’s mouth. He drew in the tiniest taste, meaning to check for adulterants, but then need took over and he drank everything in it with long, desperate gulps. “See, it’s so much better for you when you do what you know you must do." Major Andula appeared with a roll of tape and a metal slat. Inferna thanked him and then released the ring that held Jacen’s right arm. “I’m going to set this for you,” she said. “I know you will be good and let me teach you, and you'll need to be whole.” She pushed the ends of his bones back together in a straight line while he took a few deep breaths, then she pressed the slat against his skin and bound it up tightly with the tape. Then she reached into one of her pockets and took out a syringe and tiny brown vial. Inferna drew some of the clear liquid from the vial into the syringe, and Jacen felt a mild pinch as she injected its contents into his right bicep. “That should get rid of your infection soon, and keep you awake, too. Now, I'm going to bring you out for a bit; I have a holoconference scheduled, and thought you might like to watch.” Jacen tried to read the expression on Inferna's face, but it could not have been more blank, more generic, than it was. He thought carefully about what he would say before he said it. She would keep him alive as long as there was hope that he would swear allegiance, so he would have to string her along, without taking a step too far and having to prove himself. "You would have a prisoner present at the conference?" "Not exactly. Behind a two-way mirror, so that you can watch, but can't be watched. You do want to see your mother, don't you?" Jacen walked between the Dark Lady and the Major while they made their way out of the cell block and up to three levels to Inferna's office. There was a small room behind it, on the other side of a reflective surface; inside the room, empty save a speaker system, the surface was a window. Inferna locked the door and sat down at her desk. She dismissed Major Andula and then turned on the holoprojector. What she didn't explain was that the brief meeting with Leia Organa Solo took place that morning, and what Jacen was about to see was merely a recording. Rays of light resolved themselves into Leia's image, the size of a doll. "Good afternoon, Councillor," Inferna said smoothly, at the same pace that she had spoken those words earlier. "Prille Baclaw," Leia replied. She seemed to be holding herself under tight control, and her tone was strained. "Or is it Darth Inferna?" "Whichever you prefer, my Lady. It appears that you were trying to contact me for the past several days, and I've found the time to speak with you. What do you want?" "I want to know where my son is. We can work this out, Lady Inferna. Surely you know that many worlds have fallen to the attacks-" "This isn't about the Yuuzhan Vong. However, if you're willing to pay a ransom, then I will consider turning Jacen back over to you - alive, no less." Leia nodded slowly. "Tell me your request, and perhaps we can come to an agreement." Inferna let a smile play across her lips. Up until this point, she had been exactly mirroring what she said earlier, but now her statements would change. The first time, she had demanded that Jacen be traded for both Jaina and Anakin. "A squadron of X-wings, fully operational. New or used. I will supply my own pilots." "What?!" Leia demanded. "Surely you can't think I would agree to that." Back behind the mirror, Jacen was stunned. He looked up at the speakers, wondering if there was some trick, but he could find nothing wrong with what he was hearing - except, of course, what he was hearing. "Twelve starfighters for the life of a Jedi Knight? Perhaps you are right... that is an unfair trade, and I would come out on top. Four X-wings, then." That time, she had actually asked only for Jaina. "Are you playing with me, Lady Inferna? That, too, is a request that we cannot honor. We have supplies here, though, that we can spare." Earlier: I'm sure you do, and I could use them. But how about money? Right now there's a ten-million credit bounty on the head of my brother, and I'd like to pay it off. Perhaps ten million credits would be something you could give me? "I am not playing with you, no. However, I am intrigued by your offer. I have no need now for foodstuffs, but if you'll not give me starfighters, what about astromechs? Twelve astromechs would help me immensely and you would not miss them." Leia blinked twice. "Are you sure he's worth that much?" Master Digo is a valuable partner to me. Of course he is worth ten million. "I... well, I thought so, at least." "I disagree," Leia said. Her words were clipped and hurried. "And I am beginning to think that you only want to waste my time in the middle of a crisis." Quite the contrary. I can help you, if you will let me. I was a loyal student of the Empire, and though only trained for military support roles, I do know about organization and service. I'm no Emperor Palpatine, but I will do my best to bring a sense of order. "Waste your time? Why, we were discussing the return of your firstborn son to his family and to the Jedi Order. Surely one or two small mistakes on Belkadan don't decrease his worth in the eyes of his own family." "He did some things well, but there was too much wrong in him, Lady Inferna. If he came back, the cost is more than we are willing or able to pay. I'm sorry, but this conversation must end." The hologram disappeared, and Inferna stood up. She made a show of sighing unhappily and then unlocked the door to the window room. Not entirely surprised when Jacen didn't push it open, she pulled on the door and stood in the portal. "You mind-tricked her!" Jacen accused. He was sitting underneath the speaker, his left arm wrapped around his knees. Inferna saw damp lines on his cheeks. "You did something to my mother!" "Search your feelings, Jacen. You know the Councillor better than I do. Did her face match her words and her tone?" There was a long silence, and Jacen covered his face. Finally he said, "Yes, Lady Inferna. Yes, they did." "Then what is left? There will be no search parties; there will be no mourning for you. Your life, as a Jedi Knight, is over. But if you wish to live again, you can - let me guide you, and you will become so powerful that all who shrugged at your passing will stand in awe and wish they had fallen at your feet while they had the chance." He needed time. Jacen had no doubt that Inferna was performing, creating illusions of a sort, but his mother's strange behavior had him confused, and now there was no apparent ill will in Inferna's demeanor. She had the same sympathetic look that she had worn from Belkadan to Xi Alta. He thought he saw a flicker of sadness, even possibly regret, in her eyes, and she held out her hand to help him up. Jacen reached for it, then pulled back, picking himself up on his own power. Inferna looked hurt. "I will think about it, Lady Inferna," he said. That was true, but not the whole truth - certainly something that the Dark Lady could appreciate! Still, he was not able to hide - not from her - that he was unsettled and bothered by uncertainty. Inferna noticed immediately, and took it as progress. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 9/30/05 3:13pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, others, OCs (Chapter 7 Up) - Date Edited: 9/30/05 3:15pm (1 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Chapter 8 The first two people to respond to this thread, other than me, will receive a free drabble (a 100-word story) from me, and you can pick the characters and the situation. Real Summary, though the first is also true: Inferna & company go to Mistan, but Korosia was waiting for them. Ship names are NOT italicized here because all the markup codes were making me unable to post. Darth Inferna heard a noise so loud that it hurt her ears for a moment. It sounded like someone had turned on the emergency raid sirens just outside her office door and faced them towards her. She picked up her comlink. “What the heck is going on out there?” she shouted into it. Vexon’s voice was barely audible over the noise of the sirens, but midway through his sentence, the alarms stopped and he screamed his words before toning back down. “Signal from the - STATION ON - Theta Alta. They're here.” If that’s who I think it is, I’m going to… no. Not them. Inferna realized that she’d felt absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, and if several Jedi came for them (she found it hard to believe that any would come alone) she'd have sensed them. “Let me guess,” she said. “Yuuzhan Vong?” “That’s the message I’m getting from Rinapt. They’re already losing fighters outside Gamma.” “Damn it! Well, we take everything. We’ll lose some of our equipment, what's outside the Charybdis in separate stations, but that can’t be helped. You take the Hyprojectory and the most precious cargo; it has the best shields for a big ship. I want a few items stored aboard the Quantum, though. I’ll command the Charybdis myself.” Besides the Hyprojectory, they had ten ships. This included smaller craft like the Sithstrike but not small starfighters, mostly uglies. The Quantum was an extremely heavily shielded ship with excellent speed but almost no firepower, usually kept on board the Hyprojectory, to be ejected as a last-ditch attempt to save cargo in case of major danger to the larger ship. Inferna found Andula in the hallway as she was leaving with her datapad in one hand and a stack of datacards in the other. “Andula… I need you to do me a favor.” She put her hands on the man’s shoulders and looked straight into his eyes, conveying the utter gravity of the situation. “I want you to guard Captive Sixty-Two personally. Take him on the Quantum aboard the Hyprojectory, and at the first sign of real trouble, leave for Mistan, with or without the Hyprojectory. Don’t hang around if there's any chance that the Yuuzhan Vong will hit it. I think they'll be focusing their efforts on our starfighters and this Star Destroyer Charybdis, but one can't be too careful." The creases in Andula's forehead deepened and he squinted one eye, but said nothing. Inferna read his disapproval and snapped, "I stole their prize and they won't be stealing it back from me! It's a matter of pride - my pride." She jammed her outstretched thumb against her sternum between two buttons on her jacket. "And don’t let the captive out of your sight until either I or Vexon arrive. No one else!” “Yes, Lady Inferna. What will I tell him?” “I’ll take him out and explain things, that I’m sending him away from the system as quickly as possible because I don’t want him in the middle of a space battle. This is Sith business, and that silly living ship is going to be a dead ship soon. But we might lose some equipment or even a ship or two ourselves, and I don't want one of them to be the Quantum. Without our cloning chambers up, we need known Force sensitives.” Inferna raced down to Cell 3-C and opened the door. She opened all the rings and pulled Jacen away from them. “The Yuuzhan Vong are in the system,” she said. “I’m going to give you to Major Andula and he’s going to take you to our next base, out on Mistan.” Jacen stretched out his arms and legs. He tried to touch her mind, but found that she had walled off her thoughts; nothing but a small amount of concern bled through, and he had no way of knowing whether or not it was genuine. “Are you coming with us, La - Master Inferna?” “I’ll be on the main ship. I have to make sure everyone else gets out, but I don’t want them anywhere near you. You’re the best hope we have for an apprentice.” She sighed and looked him over. He was still minimally dressed and didn’t look very well, although at least his fever was gone and his wounds were partially healed, none of them infected any longer. Even the acid burns covering his injured arm and shoulder had faded, after her moratorium on Vexon's ineffective physical tortures. “I’m going to get there as fast as I can. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I know that the Vong won’t take you, and they won’t take me either. It’s not something I can explain, but I know it to be right. The Force speaks to those who speak back to it - the way we, the Sith, do. Do you understand me?” “I think so, Master Inferna. I do know how to fly the ships, though, and-” “I’m not going to let you control the cockpit of any of my ships until you’ve proven yourself, captive,” Inferna said sternly. “I can see that you’ve come a long way. But I’m still not satisfied with your performance and you still haven’t accepted my offer of apprenticeship.” “I don’t want to take it! I’m a Jedi. But that doesn’t mean I can’t-” “Come on.” Inferna pulled Jacen along as she ran down the hallway and threw him at Major Andula. “Major – take care of young Solo. Nobody touches him except by my permission and I am certainly not giving it to the Yuuzhan Vong. They’re the reason we’re dealing with the Jedi at all other than to slay them, and I cannot even begin to describe how much that angers me!” “Yes, Lady Inferna.” Thirty minutes later the ships had cleared the surface of Xi Alta and flew upwards into the atmosphere. Inferna’s Charybdis led the way and the Hyprojectory followed closely behind. “Three capital ships, Inferna,” called Vexon. “Three of them?” “Off to portside.” The three large objects had already appeared on her screen, and that was all she needed to see. “All right – we don’t have the firepower to handle them. One, yes – two, I’d try it, maybe. But not three. Punch in the coordinates for Mistan and we’ll be on our way.” The hyperspace jump to Mistan was short and uneventful. The Charybdis popped back into realspace first, out of the three largest ships, followed by the Halberd and then the Hyprojectory. Inferna waited a few minutes for the others to arrive, willing them to hurry. They then they sped down to the surface to their new base, which was the gutted remains of an abandoned Imperial outpost, partially rebuilt by her crew earlier. Each of the smaller ships opened up first, as their landing procedures were shorter and they didn't need as large of a space to settle down. It took Inferna ten minutes to get from the Charybdis to the front of the complex, and that was on a landspeeder. A strange feeling came over as climbed down - she sensed another presence. It wasn't Vexon, and for a brief part of a second she thought of their dead sister, Darth Valtire. But the aura wasn't coming from Valtire, either. Korosia. “Inferna on Channel Six,” she called over her comlink. "All stations report in." She tensely waited for nine replies, and got only eight. “Inferna to Andula. Major Andula, do you copy?” There was a long silence, and she felt the energy of fear swelling within her. Then she heard a thin voice coming over the static. “I – copy – Lady – Inferna,” it said. “Major – Andula – here.” “Why didn’t you answer? What’s wrong with you?” “Down – in – section – four…” and that was all. Inferna ran down the landing ramp and all the way through the compound to Section Four, at the northeastern corner. The Quantum was docked there, in a large empty room with no roof. The Hyprojectory was on the other side of the wall. Now, instead of the Quantum crew unloading their inoperable cloning chambers and other irreplaceable goods, she saw the aftermath of chaos. A few boxes had been pulled off the ship and were strewn on the floor, their contents scattered about, mostly bolts and cut sheets of transparisteel. Seven crew members were in unnatural positions on the floor, some holding blasters, as though they were dolls tossed by an angry child. Then she saw a body on the Quantum’s ramp, in military dress, slumped over. Major Andula was dead. Inferna quickly examined his body and saw that he had two large burns – one over his left leg, and one over his chest. Both sunk deep and had already been cauterized, as if by – a lightsaber. And Jacen didn’t have a lightsaber. His was still on her utility belt. Inferna ran up the ramp, shouting for the crew to come out, but all she found were more corpses. The only small consolation was that his was not among them. Although her fears needed no further confirmation, they received it anyway, in the form of engines roaring nearby. Something small and shiny streaked through the sky at a steep upward angle, and she reached for her comlink, ready to shout orders to disable the escaping ship. But that would do no good, and if Korosia was trapped, there was no telling what she would do. Darth Vexon looked up to see Inferna dropping down from the top of the wall, on the outside, and then running across the narrow strip between the facility and the ships. “Hey – where are you going? What’s going on?” he asked. “I’m getting the Sithstrike out,” she said, not stopping to talk. Vexon had to race behind to keep up with her, but since he was taller and his steps were longer, he was able to stay close. “It’s still there, Inferna. I’m sure of it.” “I’m going to Merooine and I need it.” “What in the – you can’t be serious. We just arrived!” “I am serious!” Inferna stopped when she got to the front of the Hyperjectory. “It’s that Mirialan woman. Lady Korosia. She killed Andula and she has Jacen on Merooine - well, they're on their way now, and every second that's wasted is her head start.” “Maybe she’ll have better luck turning him than you have-“ “You don’t understand!” Inferna shouted. “She doesn’t want to turn the Jedi to the side of true power and give them honorable names. She wants to kill them!” “Is that really such a tragedy? There are other Jedi, and many who have never been trained and could be easily made into our instruments. And we've still got the cloning cylinders, and they're almost running-” “Shut up, Vexon. Just shut up and get my ship before I tear your limbs off with my bare hands!” She stepped up to him menacingly, and the other Sith Lord instinctively backed away. “All right, all right.” Vexon returned to the Hyprojectory and in another minute a side compartment opened up. Inferna climbed the dispensed ladder up into the small docking bay and got into the Sithstrike. She barely glanced over the diagnostics before deciding that it was good enough, and she quickly lifted off into the sky. You've made a fatal mistake, Korosia, Inferna thought. You should know that we don't tolerate aggression against our people. Subordinates, she hastily added. Either way, you're on my bad side and I've been starving for a real fight. She pushed the sublight drives harder and harder, and the second she escaped the gravity well of Mistan's soft yellow-white sun, she shot away into hyperspace. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/1/05 11:38am Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO AU) Jacen, Luke, Leia; Sith OCs (Chapter 9 w/Saber Duel! 10/1) - Date Edited: 10/6/05 3:26pm (7 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Chapter Nine Chapter Summary: What could be better than two Sith girls having a lightsaber battle? Darth Korosia takes Jacen to Merooine and almost kills him. Darth Inferna confronts her and they have a duel, then Inferna has to make a tough decision about what to do about Jacen, as she understands now that he will not accept her offer to train him in the Dark Side and that further efforts will be a waste of her time. edit: I missed some tags... and need to do a better job of proofreading. edit 2: Whoops, minor plot hole... Inferna lost the wrong weapon. It's now corrected. Jedi Knight Cirlyn Hayes looked around in shock at the destruction. His tiny ship, meant to hold up to four passengers, had carried him and fifteen others away from Dantooine, but only as far as Merooine, the first safe planet he could reach. It had barely made it that far before its life support systems began to fail, thinning the air and making it impossible for the ship to maintain a steady temperature. He meant to stay just long enough that he could make repairs to the ship and get to Agamar with them, then jump to Coruscant. But he’d sensed something dark and sinister while out looking for food – and come back to find all the refugees slain. “Hayes.” Cirlyn turned around at the sound of a smooth voice – a voice dripping with ill intent. He saw a tall Mirialan with shining black hair, holding a lightsaber that gleamed blood-red. She was standing at the bottom the loading ramp; he was at the top. Cirlyn activated his own lightsaber, and the familiar light blue blade extended. “You will not get away from Darth Korosia,” the woman said. She took a few steps down the ramp, and Cirlyn followed her. She had a bound prisoner with her, facing away from Cirlyn. He was limp when Korosia picked him up – unconscious, perhaps drugged. Cirlyn felt his life signals, weak but steady. Korosia went on: “Hayes, turn your lightsaber off and roll it down the ramp to me. I will give you to the count of five. If you make any sudden moves or do not do as I say, then I will kill this young man before your very eyes and then take you down.” Cirlyn thought fast. He rolled the saber down the ramp, but too far away from the prisoner. Korosia would have to lean to get it, or at least briefly change focus to concentrate on pulling it towards her, and that might give him enough time to snatch his lightsaber back and attack her. But Darth Korosia pulled the lightsaber to herself without moving, and put it in her right hand. When she did, the bound youth tumbled into a heap on the ground, and Cirlyn got a better look. Jacen?! But I thought... Rumor had reached him that he was being held by a lady Sith Lord, but Cirlyn was almost certain that her name wasn't Korosia. There may be two of them, then. This is worse than any of us knew... two Sith still alive? “Let him go,” Cirlyn said evenly. Korosia did not say anything more, but walked boldly up the ramp. She moved too fast for Cirlyn, and she stuck her red lightsaber into his chest. She held the his own against his neck until it burned through. Then she clipped both the sabers to her belt and went back down to where Jacen lay on the ground. He started to come to. He didn’t know where he was, but the air was a bit dry, and had a strange metallic tang to it, laced with dust and organic waste. He coughed and choked, fighting a wave of nausea, as his vision started to clear. Then his head was jerked back – thrown back, from something blunt hitting his chin hard. “You are awake,” someone said. It was a woman, but no one he knew. “Good. I just killed one of your Jedi friends, Jacen. And now I am going to kill you.” He started to speak, but the words wouldn’t form in his dry mouth. Korosia had one of the lightsabers in her hand, but only hit him again with the handle. Lines of pain radiated out from his jawbone. He pulled hard at the ropes holding his hands, but they wouldn’t budge at all. In desperation he tried to tear one of the lightsabers free with the Force, and when that didn't work, he lashed out towards it in his anger. It twitched briefly in the woman's hand, before guilt hit him for using his fury that way, and he lost his grip. A wall of dark energy collapsed on him and pinned him to the dry ground, as if the air pressure suddenly rose. He couldn't breathe, and his ribs started to crack before the feeling eased. Jacen coughed again, which sent waves of pain over his broken ribs, and he tried to spit, but his mouth was too dry. “Who are you?” he finally managed to croak. “Darth Korosia. Jedi Huntress. Sometimes we hunters like to play with our prey a bit, though. I am going to enjoy watching you die.” She laughed and stood before him with her hands on her hips. “You wouldn’t kill me!” Jacen thought fast to come up with a reason why. "If you do, cough then the Jedi will come hack after you... that is, if Darth Inferna doesn't find you first." “Oh, I would. And I am counting on Inferna finding me. That is why I have not killed you yet. You will draw her to me as you breathe your last, and then I will strike her down as well. Your death will make me stronger. One by one, I will eliminate all of the Jedi. And all of the Sith, and all shall swear their allegiance - to me." Jacen forced himself to become distant from his injured body and try once more to reach out to someone he knew - someone Korosia wasn't expecting, but could take her out. She was too much of a threat. Uncle Luke, please come for me, I’m on- A kick to the gut made him crumple forward and cough blood, and he ended the thought. “Don’t do that,” Korosia warned. “Or I might not wait." Jaina... He heard another cracking noise, and saw Korosia move in a blur before blacking out. Inferna sailed through the clouds of Merooine and downward at such a steep decline that she was almost plummeting. She maintained control of the Sithstrike, though, and landed as close to the dry lands as she could. She saw a ship not far from her own, further toward the hills by a few kilometers, but took little notice of it; no one living was there. The goal was to get even closer to the place she guessed she would find her targets, and have a shorter space to run. Inferna didn't put the Sithstrike into energy-saving standby mode; she left it ready to take off at the push of three buttons and pull of a single lever. Then she took off running. She knew that Darth Korosia was on the surface somewhere, the Force boiling off of her and lighting up Inferna’s secondary vision. Jacen’s life was weaker, not much more than a spark, but it was there. Inferna followed the two of them, over dry grassland and patches of sandy dirt. It seemed that they were moving away from her landing site, and she considered going back to her ship and flying closer, but somehow she knew that it wouldn’t change anything. Jacen’s Force presence disappeared suddenly, and her heart leapt into her throat, and then she noticed that Korosia's was gone as well, and she remembered: the ysalimir. He wasn’t dead, not yet; he was just cut off. She kept on going, as fast as she could, knowing that at that pace she would eventually overtake them. She came up to the gray rocks, near mountains, and stopped. The Force was strong there, and Korosia had to be close. Too close, in fact. “Darth Inferna. I did not think you were coming out to see me. Vexon said that you would not have anything to do with me, and now you are chasing me through the galaxy? Make up your mind.” Korosia stood with the setting sun at her back, which left her face in the shadows, but not so dim as to hide the sardonic smile that spread across her face. Inferna refused to retort, choosing to let her response come through instead in her warning tone. “Where is he?” “Not far,” said Korosia. She crossed her arms over her stomach, one hand to each side of her belt, and then snapped them outward. A lightsaber blade extended from the grips in each hand - one crimson, one pale blue, throwing a sickly grey-violet glow over her pallor. “Close enough that he will see my power as you fall. But then again, it really does not matter to you, does it? You will be dead in a few minutes.” “The Yuuzhan Vong are too big a threat for any one of us to deal with alone," Inferna said, as though she were exasperated and speaking to a child who could not understand and refused to try. Could Korosia be reasoned with? "We have to stay together until they’re defeated. What are you trying to do, Korosia - take away the guardians and let the Yuuzhan Vong have every world? You're not a true Sith. A true Sith thinks of the now, and the future.” The other woman stepped forward menacingly. “Do not talk to me about true Sith, Inferna. You are the one who ran here from Mistan on a rescue mission.” "On a mission to destroy a wretched thief who took my property from me,” snapped Inferna, immediately on the defensive. Korosia had cut too close to the bone on that one. “If you’re not with me, then you’re against me, and I’m going to have to end your life for my own good and the good of those that I would rule over. Including my apprentice.” Korosia jumped at Inferna, who spun around on one heel and ducked out of the way of the swinging blades. She still had her own lightsaber and Jacen’s, and she wielded one saber in each hand – his green one, and her red. Inferna heard the familiar vibrating sounds as they came to life, and lunged for Korosia's neck with the green blade. She held the red one in her left hand and tapped it from side to side and up and down, blocking a flurry of blows, so quickly that it appeared to be a glowing red cloud, pushing away luminous arcs of red and blue. Korosia leapt up and slightly backwards at the last fraction of a second, and Inferna, frustrated, thrust forward to catch her on the end of her red blade on the way down. However, Korosia was waiting for the attack and parried that swing and the one that Inferna brought around from the side. The fight seemed to be a stalemate; Korosia would attack, and Inferna would parry and then lead an attack of her own, only to be stopped by Korosia’s whirling sabers. Eventually they settled into a pattern of interwoven swings and blocks, each of them simultaneously on the offensive and defensive. Time seemed to slow down and bands of light surrounded them like the glowing ribbons of the rhythmic gymnasts in a performance hall, swirling around the deadly dance. Inferna brought her red blade up towards Korosia's chest, but Korosia blocked it with Cirlyn's blue saber and made a stabbing motion toward Inferna's chest with her own. Inferna had no trouble knocking it out of the way, swinging in a wide green arc, and then she flicked her wrist down. The green blade skidded down the red one and sliced through the top of its black grip. I've got you now, she thought. Korosia's red lightsaber darkened and sparked. Inferna felt a blast of fury from her foe, and sucked the furious energy in as she cut through the space between them. She batted Korosia's remaining blade away and brought her left hand up for the killing blow. Then something stung her eyes and lips. The world in front of her suddenly went dark, as if the sun and all the stars disappeared. A searing heat ripped its way down her arm before exploding in her hand, and a terribly sour smell filled her nose. Inferna knew what happened; Korosia had thrown acid in her face and nearly took off her arm. Only an instinctive jerking motion away from the heat had saved it, but the stinging, throbbing pain at the base of the fourth and fifth fingers of her left hand told her that those fingers, as well as the lightsaber she'd constructed 20 years earlier, were gone. I don’t need to see to know where you are, thought Inferna, and she fought on, focusing on anticipating Korosia’s motions and beating her to them. The pain made her stronger; the fear made her stronger; even without her sight she could fight back with skill equal to her rival. She started to see little patches of faint, fuzzy light, and the patches elongated and took on slight colored casts. Her sight was returning, but it didn’t matter. A faint cry registered in the back of her mind, and she didn’t recognize it right away. It stirred up a primal anger, though, and Inferna started swinging and slashing harder and faster. Slowly, she began to dominate the duel. A well-timed feint made Korosia trip, and although there wasn’t enough time for her to strike her opponent with the saber - Korosia brought hers up behind her as she fell, blocking the cut that Inferna would have made - she was able to pop open the razor container at her left hip, using her thumb to pry off the lid. She grabbed two razor helices and hurled them as hard as she could, spinning them solidly even in her awkward grip, and both of them hit Korosia in the back. Korosia shouted in anger and spun quickly around, and as she did, Inferna was able to graze her arm. Korosia’s lightsaber came down towards Inferna, but it was too late; Inferna had already taken out her blaster with her three-fingered hand and fired it at her enemy’s chest. It was not expected that she would use a common weapon and Korosia wasn't ready for it. The red bolt flew out and splashed across Korosia's front, burning and melting through her black tunic and leaving a gaping hole. Inferna felt the woman dying, and watched her slowly drop her remaining lightsaber and reach for something at her belt. Then that was the end; she seemed to be alone on Merooine, not another living soul except for plants and a few packs of roaming beasts in the distance. Inferna threw the blaster down and walked over. She rolled Korosia’s body onto its stomach and pulled her razor helices free. I’m not going to waste them here on you, she thought disgustedly. Usually a saber fight would leave her energized, but now she only felt drained, and merely angry instead of filled with a gloriously burning hatred. Inferna put away the helices and took all of Korosia’s weapons – including the two that she had clutched at in death. Those were nothing much, just a knife and a shock prod. Inferna slowly turned around then, knowing what she would see, and simultaneously desperate to see it and dreading the same. Jacen was about twenty meters away, half lying on the ground and half suspended by his wrists. Each had been bound tightly to the sides of a wooden frame. Although she had seen him that way in her dream and replayed it over and over in her mind many times since then, she found herself somewhat unprepared. Somehow familiar, yet completely foreign, she thought, and that was her assessment in a nutshell. He looked so bad that she barely recognized him; the thought of what might have happened if she arrived ten minutes later made her shudder. She felt as though she was falling, for a moment, and frustration rose in her heart almost to a panic. But not quite. After all, Vexon was right - there were other Jedi, ones whose rage would be easier to unleash. He was right, yes, Inferna accepted that. Inferna made eye contact with Jacen, and he saw her – seemed to be coherent enough to recognize her. Or maybe not. He struggled lightly then stopped when the rest of his strength was gone; it didn’t take long. And even though she couldn’t sense him through the Force, she knew that the boy was terrified. It bothered her on a deep level that she couldn't push away, and that bothered her as much as his emotion did. The ropes that fastened his wrists to the wooden frame were pulled tight, making his hands red and a dripping ring under each rope even redder. A brief scene played out in Inferna’s mind; memories of Trefitz cracking a whip at her and lashing at her back and arms when she did something wrong. Memories that had been pushed away. So this is what true guilt feels like, she thought. I’d forgotten. No! A Sith does not feel guilt! She stepped towards Jacen, and he dropped his head, closing the eye that hadn’t already been closed. She heard him sigh, and his head moved slightly, as if he wanted to turn it away but was too weak. Inferna broke the ysalimir frame with the razor helices, not wanting to use a lightsaber in an area that was devoid of the Force. The top of the frame, with the animal, fell down, and then she went into its area of influence. It was like being truly blinded and made deaf – unable to feel anything that she was used to. She worked quickly, with Korosia’s knife; she cut away Jacen’s ropes and caught him as he fell forward. Inferna examined him quickly – a few deep gashes still open, several broken bones. He was so badly dehydrated – much worse that she had left him to become – that he seemed almost fifteen kilograms lighter. A little of that might have been from starvation, but even ten kilograms of water gone was dangerous and could be fatal. All she had with her was a canteen. It would have to do. She emptied it into his mouth, and he feebly sucked at the narrow neck of the canteen until it was dry. Jacen, I am not going to let you die! I killed three Yuuzhan Vong and Darth Korosia to make you my apprentice, and you are not allowed to let it end here! Inferna felt it then; the full rage of the Dark Side. She helped Jacen settle down on the ground, carefully, while her mind felt as though it was exploding. She felt disconnected from herself, as though her body was moving and she was watching it from somewhere else. One strike from the lightsaber in her hand removed Korosia’s head completely from her body, and then she continued to strike. Hate filled every part of her, hate and frenzied wrath. She didn’t stop until there was not enough of Korosia left to cut into two. She was breathing hard, but now felt enough calm return to her that she could think and that she could act on her own accord. Then she went back into the space around the ysalimir where there was no Force. She picked Jacen up, as gently as she could, so she wouldn’t cause any further injury to him. His body couldn’t take much more without completely giving out - she was sure of that much. And even though he was much lighter than was normal for a young man of his height, almost as tall as Inferna herself, and she was very strong, it still slowed her down to have to carry him. She estimated it would take at least two hours to get back to the Sithstrike, another twenty minutes to get into hyperspace (she didn’t dare push it for fifteen and tumble him around in the ship so hard), and only then could she stop and start to treat his wounds. Even then, she didn’t know how he would do; she didn’t have a bacta tank on board and they would have to wait until reaching Mistan. A few steps away from the frame, Inferna felt the Force come back to her. Jacen felt it too, and where there was a void, there was now a tiny glimmer coming from him. His arms and legs jerked suddenly, and he opened his eye, panting for breath. “Shh,” Inferna said. “Calm down or you’ll break into pieces.” His right arm had been dangling over her shoulder, and now he raised it slowly, slipping it around her neck. She could feel him reaching out for any source of comfort, and it didn’t seem like a good time to push for him to learn to rely only on the Force and on himself. Inferna bent her head down and whispered, “You will be my apprentice.” Jacen tried to look up at her. He couldn't remember where he was, or how he got there, but he knew that he was badly hurt - no, not just hurt, but dying - and that someone whole was there with him. He would play along, and she might take him somewhere safe. He struggled to remember her name. “Darth Inferna,” he rasped. The words came out barely understandable “My Master.” He weakened further from that small effort, slipping back into unconsciousness. Jacen had been far too weak to shield his thoughts, and Inferna knew that he was lying. He still had no intention of joining her in the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong and the Jedi as her Sith Apprentice. Not even when his life clearly depended on it. In that moment, Inferna knew that she had to make a choice; to take him back to Mistan anyway, or kill him the way any real Sith would do when faced with a Jedi who wouldn't cooperate. She had done all she could. Vexon brought him terrible agony; Inferna twisted truths to make Jacen believe he'd been abandoned by all who should have cared about him; Korosia took him to the edge of humiliating death and left him there. And even then, he refused to turn from the Jedi ways. “Damn you, Korosia!" Inferna shouted into the light wind, and hatred filled every particle of her being. She took a few more steps, unaware of how quickly she was going and that she had almost broken into a run. She forced herself to stop, and then she was still, with Jacen weakening in her arms. When Inferna picked up on that, it hurt her as well. Her hate, general despair, Jacen's confusion - none of it felt good anymore. Her eyes stung, and not just from the sour and metallic air. If a Sith Lord has to enjoy this, then I resign. Power holds misery at bay, but if misery is the cost of achieving it, then it defeats the purpose. I'll go rogue and make my own rules if I have to. Hold on just a little while, Jacen. If you can just stay alive until we get into hyperspace, I’ll take care of you from there. She took a deep breath. "I will come back for you," she said, straining to keep the anger out of her voice. If she could have raised Korosia from the dead, she would have, if only to strike her down again. "Be here when I return." Inferna left Jacen behind and took off running as fast as she was able. This is the end of my vision. I don’t know what happens next. She got to the Sithstrike well ahead of her guess, having sprinted the whole way. Jacen was still living, but so close to death that she couldn't reach through to him, and only saw him as the faintest speck, no more than a small plant. Inferna raced the ship as fast as she could towards the place where she had left him, then collected him for transport. Inferna set Jacen down on the narrow bunk, strapped him to the mattress, and quickly went to the cockpit to take off. In twenty more minutes, they were on their way to Mistan. Inferna went back into the cabin to check on Jacen. He was perfectly still on the bunk, and now not only was she unable to communicate with him, she could barely find him through their connection - even though he was right in front of her. She stuck a wide needle into his arm and ran a very weak saline solution into his vein. “If I could save you myself, I would,” she whispered, “but you have to do it yourself. I can only do what any other person could do. I know you can fight this. Don’t give up.” His mind gave a slight twitch, and nothing more, and she hoped that at least a little of what she said registered. She put her ship on autopilot and stayed by his side for the remainder of the hyperspace jump, on edge, full of fury and grief and something else that she didn’t recognize. There is only one more chapter! And don't worry. nobody dies in chapter 10! -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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Briman Registered: Oct '04	Date Posted: 10/1/05 11:40am Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (Chapter 9 w/Saber Duel up 10/1)
	Just finished chapter five, so I'm making good time -----signature----- The Force is with you young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet --Vader But all warriors must fall one day-ROSE I
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ladylaurel18 Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 10/1/05 12:46pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (Chapter 9 w/Saber Duel up 10/1)
	I can not believe that nobody has responded to this. Alison, your story is wonderfully engaging. Darth Inferna is interesting, she almost srikes me as what Palpatine might have been like when he was young. Luke was completely believable. This is a wonderful story, and I aadmire you for being able to post without any feedback. Keep going, I'll read! -----signature----- Twich’s Twisted Sisters Pacis, Iuris, Libertas, Obsidis Shadow of the Suns- http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/22714582/p1/?14
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/1/05 4:32pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (Chapter 9 w/Saber Duel up 10/1) - Date Edited: 10/1/05 6:06pm (2 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	Briman - thank you! I was thinking for a bit that I might have the thread all to myself, lol. I'm about to post the last chapter, too, so you're halfway through. ladylaurel18 - I appreciate your comments very much Yeah, I had a younger, female Palpatine in mind for her, although she's not quite as strong. In fact, I was hitting around the idea of writing a short prequel (and I may still do so for one of the board challenges, just a one-shot ficlet, but I don't know) of her turning tothe Dark Side which was about a year after Palpy died. She was very upset by that because she admired both him and Darth Vader very much - in a totally platonic sense, of course. And blushes well, I'm used to not having a lot of feedback - the most comments I've ever gotten on ANY story was 14 and that was on a high-traffic board, after I'd pimped out the fic on my LJ, and many of them were not from different people. I rarely write 'ship fic (though I do have two short ones elsewhere) so I expect few responses and treasure the ones I do get. I worry that I might have overdone Leia's concern in chapter 5, but I don't want to go back and edit it unless people think it's really OOC. I think she's more on target in chapter 8. The ending coming up is different than in the other-archive version because, unless my ideas change radically, there's going to be another story. In the original, Inferna and Vexon both died to the Yuuzhan Vong, but I needed a villain for the sequel (Vexon would be perfect for it) and Inferna has a minor role as well, so I couldn't kill them. Chapter 10 ends Sithstrike and it's over, but there are a couple small things that slightly open the door for the story tentatively titled Crystal Clarity which takes place 24 years later. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/1/05 4:39pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Sith OCs (Complete 10/1) - Date Edited: 10/1/05 6:08pm (2 edits total) Edited By: AlisonC
	CHAPTER TEN Summary: No summary becaust that's all spoily! He felt as though he was floating, out in a great void, and thought he must have been dead. Pieces of memories came back to him, though, instead of the complete disconnection from reality that he had expected, and the joining with the Force. Instead it was as if his mind was intact and cut off from his body, cut off from everything material, and he was going nowhere. He remembered Merooine, and the woman who had taken him there. From the moment the Quantum reached Mistan he knew that something dark and even worse than Inferna and Vexon was there. Darth Korosia. That was her name. She’d been intent on killing all the Jedi, and the other Sith as well. At least Inferna, though also a Sith Lord, understood that life had value. The value she placed on it was based on her own interests, but it was there. Korosia was a different kind of Dark Lady, and she, instead of trying to recruit Jacen, had thought only to kill him. It appeared that she succeeded. Jacen had reached the point of numbness, of slipping into and out of consciousness, as Korosia attempted to do even more damage to his body. The Force helped separate his thoughts from his battered form. At least, until she’d struck him in the head with the lightsaber handle, repeating the hit whenever he woke, and then tied him to the ysalimir frame. He’d died in the empty bubble, and instead of becoming one with the Force, he was trapped. At the end, there had played out a brief hallucination, of Inferna confronting Korosia and killing her, and then taking Jacen back into life. She wouldn’t do that, he thought. Not for me. Not wanting to kill me doesn’t mean she’d risk her neck to keep someone else from doing it - and she's still a Sith Lord. But why had he thought of her, and not his uncle, or his brother or his sister? Jacen felt something tied to his mouth and nose, and he was halfway through reminding himself that he didn’t have either of them anymore when he noticed that he wasn’t in complete darkness. A little bit of light filtered through his – eyelids? - and then he pushed his eyes open, both of them, to the uncomfortable feeling of liquid running into them. He looked at a distorted, pale greenish scene – there was a table, and two people, but it all looked like he was peering at them from the inside of a small round swimming pool. I’m in a bacta tank. I’m not dead... One of the people said something, and leaned over to a console; the lid was moved off the tank, and then they both climbed up a narrow stair next to it and lifted him out. Inferna and another man that he didn’t recognize were there, and he wrapped a towel around Jacen’s middle to help him dry off. “You’re going to have to pay me back for the trouble of pulling you out of Merooine,” Inferna hissed into his ear, but he didn’t sense much malice in her voice. “That’s a lot of wasted fuel, and we just went through quite a bit of bacta getting you put back together.” “Was it wasted, Lady Inferna?” Jacen asked. “Perhaps not. That’s up to you.” Inferna stood up and grabbed his hand, and helped him down the stairs. She led him down a few hallways and a set of stone stairs, and then they reached the cell block of the Mistan station. However, it was different than the block on Xi Alta. Here, the prison cells were fewer, and this one looked more like a poorly furnished hotel room than anything else. There was a narrow sheet of metal with a thin mattress on top of it, a shelf against the opposite wall, and a water fauce, next to a small hole in the floor. “You’ll stay here,” said Inferna. Jacen looked warily at the bunk and the faucet, and she went on: “I didn’t booby-trap anything. What you see is what you get; there’s your bed, and there’s the water tap, and if you need to relieve yourself that’s what the hole is for.” “Yes, Lady Inferna.” Was she going to make him continue the charade now, or did she know that he still would not join her? Jacen thought that she had to know; Inferna might have been many bad things, but stupid wasn't one of them. He just wanted to sleep, then, and decide what to do next. He didn't trust her. She locked him into his room and lingered only for a moment on the other side of the door before returning upstairs to the newly set-up research laboratories. Quite a bit of work had been lost, but they still had enough data saved to recreate most of the projects. The designs for a small superweapon, with half the power of the Death Star and only a tiny fraction of its size, had flopped, as had their copy of the old Spaarti cloning cylinders, and many of the biology projects had been put on hold in order to create a bioweapon against the Yuuzhan Vong. It occurred to Inferna that it was a nearly useless endeavor, all their research rendered meaningless by the fact that they didn't have any of the Vong held for experimentation. Getting a live one wouldn’t be so difficult if they didn’t have a tendency to go around in large groups. It was very late that night when she finally decided to go to sleep for a few hours. She didn’t need much, and could go several days without it, but then while everything was calm (for once) it seemed like a good idea to catch up. She didn’t want to be less than at her peak of alertness and strength, any more than necessary, in case the Vong decided to follow them out to Mistan. Clips of a dream flowed into her mind as she drifted off to sleep. Once more she saw herself with a lightsaber on a distant planet. This time, it was one that was hot and bright, and the Yuuzhan Vong were attacking in large numbers. She saw flashes in the sky – her people’s ships against the coralskippers. The coralskippers were falling apart, but her ships were being lost, as well. On land, the battle was fierce, and many Sith were cut down. Finally most of the Yuuzhan Vong were on one part of the planet, a small peninsula and a few islands nearby, in the steaming sea. Alone and outnumbered, she radioed out to the admirals. Nothing. Every ship was gone. Every one of the Sith, and all of their loyal officers and troopers, were dead. The Vong had been pushed back, except for the two dozen who had followed her to the tiny island, but her order was nearly annihilated. One of them took a step towards her, and behind the warrior she saw Jacen on the ground. His neck was bent at an angle that human necks could not bend, and she felt nothing from him except the lingering buzz of energy from a man newly slain. A bitter fury exploded inside her, and she screamed as she swung her lightsaber in a frenzy of violence. There were too many of the Yuuzhan Vong for her to kill, but she would try. Ten of them fell before she felt a punch to the gut, and she saw her innards spill as she collapsed. She woke with a start but couldn’t make the images, burned into her mind, go away. The next day, Jacen and Inferna boarded her ship and were gone in a few minutes. She said nothing to anyone except to tell Vexon that she was leaving and didn't want to reveal her location, and a few parting words to Vexon's small daughter. Jacen sat quietly behind Inferna in the cockpit, but eventually the curiosity got the best of him, and he asked: “Where are we going?” Even if she didn't tell the truth, at least her choice of answer would give him some kind of clue. However, she only said, “You’ll see when we get there.” After two days of travel, the ship came out of hyperspace just outside of Coruscant. Jacen remembered the planet well, and he looked out the viewport at the vast city spanning more than half of the globe. Inferna set the ship to orbit. “You’re going to go down to the surface,” said Inferna. “Well, not the surface, but the upper levels. I want you to go and find your uncle Luke.” Jacen’s gaze met Inferna’s, and he did not understand at first. Why would she set him loose on Coruscant, encouraging him to find his uncle? Was it some kind of trap? She couldn't possibly believe that he would attack Luke, and even if he did, that he could win. "What am I to do then?" he asked. Inferna stared outside for a moment before she answered. “I’ve thought it over at some length, and you would be stronger against the Yuuzhan Vong as a Jedi Knight. You already are familiar with the Jedi ways and only have to practice a little bit more before reaching your full potential. As a Sith, you’d have to start over almost from the beginning – it’s faster, particularly since you have some training that’s useful, but all in all it would take more time than we have to get you fighting well. So I’m letting you go.” He nodded to her slowly but still thought that there was something else she wasn't saying. Perhaps he had been infected with a biological agent, or... Jacen didn't think it would do much good, but he reached towards her mind, wondering what she was thinking. She had been a little bit more open over the past two days than the previous weeks. He found no complete thoughts, but her emotions were unshielded, wide open for him to read. Regret. Sorrow. A tiny stirring of hope. She really did mean for him to return to Coruscant, and there was no trap in it. Inferna stood behind Jacen and put her fingertips against his temples. Something moved through his mind, like a magnet, slowly rubbing over the surface of memories until they were gone. He reached up and grabbed her wrist. "Stop!" he cried, alarmed. "I'm only erasing this that I have done," she said. "Your captivity in the hands of the Sith Lords. It was something I didn't think you wanted to remember." "Leave it all, please," he said, and she turned her head to one side, then pulled her hands back slowly. Jacen shook his head to clear it, then glanced out the window again. "We're on Coruscant? How did we get from Mistan to Coruscant in only a day?" "We've been in hyperspace for two days," Inferna said. "I... never mind." She repeated what she'd said during the previous conversation, and ended with, "I’ve already sent the identification codes down, so nobody is going to shoot at you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go into the escape pod and begone.” Jacen nodded to her, thinking of how good it would be to see his family and friends again, after believing for so long that he never would. He climbed into the pod, then looked back over his shoulder; she was still watching him, and had followed half the distance from the cockpit down the long hall to the two pods. Inferna finished her short travel and reached out her hand, pressing something into Jacen's. It was his lightsaber. "May the Force be with you," she said. "And with you as well - Prille." "I wouldn't go that far," Inferna warned, but there was a slight warmth in her tone and a smile in her eyes. She shut the small door of the pod firmly, and stood back as it ejected down towards Coruscant. Darth Inferna sat back down and waited until she couldn't see the pod anymore, then turned her ship around and guided it away. She started to enter coordinates for a nearby star system, then stopped, and instead put in a few variables and instructed the nav computer to select a random inhabited planet and then go. Maybe the Jedi were not completely right, but neither were the Sith. Being bound by strict tenets and fear of the Dark Side was no freedom, but the freedom through the Force that the Code of the Sith Lords describes was at least as much of a lie. She watched the stars streak into starlines, on their way to an unknown location, and left Coruscant and twenty years of lies behind. And the Jedi Knight was right on one thing. Prille was a rather good name to have. She leaned back in her seat on the Spinning Star and settled in for a long trip. THE END! -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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crackjacks Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 10/1/05 8:30pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Leia; cameos by Mara, Lando; Sith OCs - COMPLETED 10/1!
	Dude that was great, just found it thanks to Yea but that was great, I wish I had found it earlier, any way great job!--kt -----signature----- jacks on crack Great kid! Don't get cocky.-Han Solo The Brigade Charade- http://boards.theforce.net/Beyond_the_Saga/b10477/21015527/p1 The War's Over-http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/22938391/p1/?0
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AlisonC Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/3/05 1:46pm Subject: RE: Sithstrike (NJO, AU) Jacen, Luke, Leia; cameos by Mara, Lando; Sith OCs - COMPLETED 10/1!
	Thanks crackjacks and thank you ladylaurel18 for the rec! No more updates on this, unfortunately I tried to stretch it back out to the original 11 chapters but couldn't and didn't want to pad. -----signature----- Sock of Eleventh_Guard
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