The Fading Light

Thanks Gang - I'll probably post at midnight tonight!

 

Well, Casper may have been human, but unfortunately, he is no longer male.

That was... interesting, to say the least. At least we know for sure that Casper is human, lol...

 

Okay dokey, this is going be another long post, but a helpful one. And a TDH mystery will be solved in this chapter. Can you guess which one?

Oh, and a perl of wisdom Sidious does not carry over to the Empire; take a guess what it is?

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CHAPTER 55.0

?Again.?

On that command, Darth Maul came at Darth Sidious and the two Sith Lords connected in repetition over and over with their dual bladed lightsabers. They moved against one another aggressively, and to someone who didn?t know they would actually see it as an actual fight. Their speed and fluidity of movement was fast and charging, their red blades move with such speed it was as if the two Sith Lords were surrounded by a large burning red energy field, and when their deadly weapons clashed in a high rate of frequency the strobe affect bordered blinding and the noise could grind back into sand.

It was a symphony of confined order, measured use of a learned craft, and a chaotic form of improvisation that would make a music lover cringe if it were music, but to warriors of darkness such as themselves it was at times better than sex. The release of aggression, the need to remove the inferior and the subtle joy of finishing off a fool who believes to be stronger than them put them on a high conquest. The opponent was an obstacle in the way, but an obstacle that could fight back and give challenge. Like any obstacle it had to be overcome. When a Sith did so, especially with the spilling of blood, they truly knew the meaning of gratification.

For a Sith Lord it was satisfying to prove superiority and do so time and time again. To prove once again that the Dark Side is the true power of the Force, that to rule over the weak and the inferior is a far better way to live than the proposition of existence over serving on knees and under the weak and the inferior. If the simpletons were so afraid of the dangers of the universe, then they should have just let the Sith enslave them. Through their reliant need of their masters, the Sith would have easily taken care of them, justice would be swifter than any icy current of rough ride waters, and with one ruler instead of 50,000 thinkers and one useless leader there would be no trifle, time consuming matters. Their rule would be simple; obey or die.

Alas it had not happen in the past, but Darth Sidious looked forward to that rule in the future. That is if he didn?t make one vital mistake along the way, which included this exercise in lightsaber fighting.

Sidious was confident in many things, confident enough to have Lord Maul come at him full tilt and with intent with his weapon to try and kill him. It was a routine they have done many times before, a way to gage Maul?s progress and to see whether or not as Sith Master if he deserved to maintain that rank. If not, and if Maul killed him, then it was obviously simple that Sidious was not meant to be the leader of this Order. That he was in the view of the Dark Side that weak element that hindered the progress of not just his apprentice but the entire plan of conquest. If that were the case, he did deserve to die.

Sidious backhanded Maul so hard the apprentice fell to the ground and about cut himself in half with the dual bladed weapon; no, today Sidious was not going to die. Maul, certainly by kicking his lightsaber with his knee to cause it to bound over his laying head to prevent death, didn?t want to die either. Sidious, hardly breathing after an hour of action that saw little breaks, just said, ?Again.?

Maul, breathing heavily but not so much where he was too tired to continue, rolled over the way of his left shoulder, landed on his feet behind the shaft of his weapon, kicked the weapon up and before he grabbed it he flipped over it. By the time he landed the weapon was all ready coming at Sidious with every intention of taking off his head. The move was both spectacular and meant to be a distraction.

Sidious taught him it, and he could defend against it in his dreams. Although Maul was being spontaneous and

 

ARGH! Change that damn color setting!
How about a dark royal blue? Would be much better, and a darker yellow.

Apart from that, and my continued ignorance of GRS 45293482039202 until you made those changes, great post. I really pity Maulie-boy.

 

Maul should stay away from the topic of Juna around that Sith Master of his!



That was great Casper and the bit on Mr. Rapier too!

 

Djuva: DONE! I went to a dark blue backdrop, but white lettering. <sigh, I have to master HTML shading, I swear I do>.

Oh don't pity Maul too much; it isn't like he's going to be cut in half in the future.....oh......wait.............my bad.

Sara: That's true, but what is that telling everyone?

Also the part about super weapons - anyone catch the irony of that?

 

Oh, of course. I guess even Lord Sidious is above the magnetic pull of those ridiculously huge weapons of mass hysteria.

And yeah, Maul needs to learn when to keep the lip zipped. Personnal matters is one of those things.

Great post Casper, and might I add, oh how deliciously evil with the GRS bill. That sly dog, Benny.

 

[evil_grin]Oh, there is more to it than that[/evil_grin]

 

FORWARD!

 

Oh, I hope folks get this and get a kick out of it, especially those who have been here since 'The Black Rose'. Hehehehehehehe.

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CHAPTER 55.1

?So what is GRS45293482039202?? asked a perplexed Darth Maul.

Nebula looked at the young Sith Lord and couldn?t help to think that Lord Sidious was a bit too deceitful about leaving his apprentice so deep in the dark about politics. Then again, Lord Sidious never thought he was going to die; of course not, since he?s the Dark Hope?s father it will be he that leads the Sith to its greatest glory so why would he need to tell Maul the finer points of politics and low level bureaucracy. Like all Sith learning the way of the Va?der they were expendable tools of hate until they reached a very defining point, the death of their Masters or their own deaths. It was again the glaring drawbacks of the lack of faith and family that have continued to plague the religion.

She felt a little for Maul. She was looking at a dead man; not now, not in the immediate future, but down the road he was going to die young.

However she was a little perplexed herself when Naressa Jaina told her of what she found in her meditations after having another nightmare about Juna. The riddle of the nightmare did intrigue Nebula so, but she couldn?t find anything in Naressa?s mind with a mind probe; that is the mind probe failed on her too much, another indication that her powers were waning. After ensuring her granddaughter that the answer would come Naressa went to work on finding a solution to her relationship problem with Lord Sidious. Only one thing came to mind: Galactic Republic Senate voted approved measure 45293482039202.

Now all four Sith were nestled inside the Sith Lord?s annex, huddled tightly around a data terminal that had a patch link with the Sith central command database, which in turn was linked to all the covert operations and sensing equipment in the Sith Order arsenal. Maul and Sidious stood patiently behind the seated Sith Maidens with Nebula off to the side a bit and Naressa tapping away on the terminal keys.

Still working, Naressa said without hesitation, ?It stands for Galactic Republic Senate 45293482039202, a legislative measure better known as the Republic Data Revival, Restitution, and Modernization Amendment.?

Sidious? features narrowed and he mused to Maul, ?Then Senator Rapier wrote the legislation; just after he and Mistress Naressa were married. He was given the task under the Data Sovereignty Act to revamp the Republic?s ailing government connected data terminal network, from data pads to the HoloNet itself. I also recalled he left me out of it even though I was his close advisor.?

Naressa looked at him sympathetically. ?That?s because the measure was my idea.? She turned back towards the terminal, again trying to access something on the outside. ?Whenever I had an idea I told him to share it with no one unless it was required as part of the plan.?

Nebula smiled a little towards Sidious and said, ?A wife does have to have her secrets.? The Sith just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. ?Tell them more, Naressa Jaina. I think it?s quite clever.?

The terminal beeped, and the crest of the Rapier Family Clan appeared on the screen. Naressa smirked mischievously and said, ?Absolutely.? She turned towards Sidious and Maul by spinning her chair around to face them. ?I had this need to see how close the Jedi were monitoring our activities if they suspected that we still existed. Turned out, this legislation bill after it was implemented, I was right.?

Nebula butted in and craned her head to one side. ?Darth Rune made a very glaring mistakes, Lord Sidious. She attacked a Jedi and left him alive.?

?If you mean Dux Gheruit, then that is no consequence,? noted Sidious. ?He was found insane, purged, and then he attacked his family. His sister killed him.?

?Indeed he was, you?re right it happen and unfortunately it did. See the Jedi didn?t purge the man?s memory and Rune, leaving him for dead, left his

 

FORWARD! Boy the traffic is heavy now around midnight.

 

CHAPTER 55.2

One look from his seated position looking out his ship?s view screen told Magus Prophet part of the tale that was his tactical genius and quite possibly his reckoning curse with Juna?s life on the line.

Straight ahead of him about half a C.U. away, glowing strangely for any planet with the sun shining on it, was the planet Coruscant, or better known as Core of Rust by the fringe fanatics that lived and labored in the Outer Rim. Standing between he and his intended destination, and also from backing up for that matter, was a line of space ships of various sizes, shapes, and colors that were forced to travel in a straight line through a reputation of Golan Alpha sentry points, one of hundreds of such lines traveling at fractions of sublight speed for the sole purpose to prevent an attack. The only exceptions; stopped and inspected diplomatic counselor ships at the enforced One Coruscant Unit Sentry Enforcement line. It didn?t matter if you were a diplomatic ship or a cargo of foodstuffs nothing was getting a free ride in.

That left the plethora of stolen diplomatic codes had Prophet hung out to collect space dust. Surely his likeness was on every children?s cold meal box in the galaxy thanks to the ravaging of the Legacy Virus and Affect Mind doesn?t work on droids so being boarded with all the fire power out there in the sector reading to annihilate an idiot was out. With an armament rating of one, his ship was poorly armed and only sported augmented shielding within design specs; his only saving grace because he looked like, on the outside, a tourist. They random spot-checked any ship with an armament rating of two or more and if the ship looked too illegally modified they stopped it completely. This traffic and hold up caused problems economically, slowed the wheels of progress, and psychological it made people turn away from the system with the feeling that Coruscant was next.

Genius, of course, had its flaws: a 10-hour sublight travel buffer zone with a single transmission right-of-way to the control towers only. Even after two hours and listening to whiny space traffic controllers telling him repeatedly to stay on course, Prophet was ready to chew durasteel.

Patience, of course, was winning the day for him. Up until now he did not need to rush the Republic?s end or crack Sarch?s SON disk or hunt down Sanctuary or put a speedy end to the Sith. However that was changing more and more with every slow second that past, knowing that the Jedi Master he was in league with was going to kill the love of his life before he proved to her his worth and intentions. It was not a speculation, it was certainty; Jedi Knights, in his experience with them to date, have a compulsive complexity for needing to right something before or after; they practically strive to get to the before so they don?t deal with the after.

A good example of the reasoning would be if, for some wild reason of illogic, that Sarch took his Juna before the Jedi Council and asked them to train her to become a Jedi Knight. The Council would reject her, given her use of the Dark Side in the past obviously, to prevent a tragedy down the line with her involved directly; to stop it BEFORE it happens. A quirk of avoidance is a mountain of alleviation his ?father? had told him once; this was the Jedi?s outlook on matters as well.

Prophet frowned; his ?father? did not heed his own advice; he did not avoid, he did not alleviate, his death.

?Clutchdrop, this is Coruscant Aerospace Flight Command. You are warned not to ride the engine assembly of the craft in front of you. Back off acceleration and acknowledge.?

Sighing, Prophet dropped the speed a bit on his ship to give himself distance from the garbage dump in front of him. Pinching his nose, he turned on the comm and spoke. ?Sorry about that, C.A.F.C. My awful.? He switched off his comm and said without a pinched nose, ?Oh yes and shove it up your ass.?

Prophet turned on a display by the controls of the craft and stared at the simple sentences on screen, filled with B

 

[face_shocked] good posts!

 

Thanks: and now you know Naressa's little things.....hehehehehehehehe

 

It's always great to see a Prophet about.


I guess if I was Juna though I'd have to have more concern.



Great posts!

 

Sara, I have to know... what is your connection between you and the Simpsons icon you have? My real name is Bart, and that's why I have it... y tu?

hmmm, there was something else I wanted to talk about, something about how silly sith apprentices can be when they are given grandmotherly affection and how Juna must be in deep poopie, little stuff like that.

Oh well, ALL GONE NOW! *short, quick SIGH*

 

Lol. Afraid not Bart!

 

Sara: Well, he will have more to do in Act Three, believe me. Hehehehehehe.

And yes Juna should be concerned for many reasons; you'll see.

Jaxx: You're trying to pick up ANOTHER female JCer? Talk abouta playa (kidding)

FORWARD!

 

Now Sara, don't be shy: advertise!

Suns of Freedom (prequeal to Discovery) by Sara Kenobi

 

Thank you, Casper!

 

lol, Casper, just call me Enothchild

 

No posting today, mesa thinks. HOWEVER for those who have websites, register your website here:

The Star Wars Link Engine

FORWARD!

 

Of course Juna should be concerned. Heck she should be dropping a load in her pants now that Senor Heavy-Breather is in the neighborhood!

Oh and if I've failed to mention it already; Prophet is quite of his rocker. I mean the guy's just plain nuts no matter what spin you put on it. I pity anybody who has to associate with him.

Great posting, Casper! With Prophet in the house, things sure ain't gonna be staying calm for very much longer!

 

No they won't; the next few chapters are long and filled with released kinetic energy and a Sullustan screaming like a 5 year old girl.

EEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Argh! Watch out, Juna!