A massive cataclysm has struck the universe, and destroyed most everything in its wake. The survivors are now trying to pick up the pieces, and figure out exactly what has befallen them. Gather together, lightsiders!! The darkness has shattered the peace and calm of the galaxy...and they will do anything to stop anyone from finding out exactly what has been done! This is our first sitewide RP plotline. Lightsiders, you are looking for the source of this massive event. Clues must be found, lackeys tracked down, and bits of memory discovered. Darksiders, you guys don't want that to happen....because of the one behind the whole thing is furthering his ultimate goal. Mandalorians, and non-force users, you guys can decide where you stand on this line....do you side with the Jedi, and try to discover the reasons behind the ruined universe, or will you side with the darkness, and protect those secrets. Will the secret of the cataclysmic reaping be kept under wraps? Or will the Jedi and their allies find out the truth? Your RP and writing will decide the outcome!
BATTLE ARENA
Welcome to The Saga Continues. We have a section called the Battle Arena. Here you can use your characters to fight other characters. Hone your skills and see what you are made of. Don't worry, anything that happens here, does not effect your characters in posts, so if your character dies, you can still use them over and over. Have fun and check it out!
The Saga Continues is the product of the mind of ADMIN ADI; all contents are copyright their original owners. All characters belong to their original creators, and may not be used or replicated without permission. All images are copyright their original owners. This skin Operation Mindcrime was made by pharaoh leap of Pixel Perfect and put together by ADMIN KRYSTAL
Kuat Drive Yards, or KDY, was the largest military shipbuilding corporation in the galaxy at the time of the Galactic Civil War. It was based on the planet Kuat. The main production facility of Kuat Drive Yards was the Kuat Drive Yards Orbital Shipyards, a ring around the planet Kuat. It produced many of the galaxy's most terrifying symbols of Imperial might, including the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and also produced walkers such as the All Terrain Defense Pod. It had several subsidiaries, with Kuat Vehicles focusing on civilian ground products, and Kuat Systems Engineering producing starfighters.
The Lambda-class shuttle smoothly flew into one of the hangar bays of the massive ship yard that orbited the planet of Kuat. Gently, it touched down, and the landing ramp extended in a hiss of steam. The special ops troopers were the first to exit the craft, their blaster rifles readied in case of any conflict, despite the scanners showing that there were no life forms in the immediate area. They swept away from the ship in an arc, and soon, the all clear was radioed in.
Andor unstrapped himself from his seat and made his way out of the shuttle, knowing full well that Bellum and the others would follow quickly behind him. He strode down the ramp until he was in the deserted hangar bay. He looked around in the dim light, letting his eyes adjust. As expected, the power was out, and the only light was coming from the shuttle and from the sun's rays that crept in through the hangar bays shielding. He could see outlines of a few small starships scattered here and there, their conditions unknown from the distance at which he stood. His nose scrunched up against the smells of mildew and death as the fumes hung stagnant in the air. He moved forward, each footstep echoing off the hallowed walls. A few steps later and his boot stepped into something hard and brittle, resulting in an eerie crunch. The Lord of Ruin looked down with squinted eyes with curiosity.
A rotted corpse well within the advanced stages of decomposition. Skin and flesh had sunken in. A few bones stuck through tattered fabric. Signs of infection shown in the remains of the male's eyes and gums, but in a place as isolated as an orbiting space station, the resources of food were largely limited.
"So even the dead can starve." He mused out loud. With a kick, he moved the corpse out of his path, letting it unceremoniously crash face first into the ground. "Spread out. It's going to take a lot of time to clear this place, and the sooner we can get through this whole thing, the sooner we can get the people of Kuat to rally behind us."
Andor moved towards a set of doors that he believed would take him to the main reception area. He had studied some schematics of the Drive Yards he had found on the HoloNet, but wasn't entirely sure of their accuracy. But this station was huge. It encompassed the entire planet. It would take them weeks or even months to clear it all. But he'd use the people of Kuat for that. For now, they just had to make their way to the Nebulon frigate. "Radio in when you've found the cruiser."
Besides the sounds of the landing craft and the stomping of boots on durasteel the station was eerily quiet. Bellum followed and listened to Andor's commands to find the ship and start clearing out the sector of infected. Although he had never seen the undead, he remembered back on Cinnagar when he accidentally killed Master Geir's apprentice, who was showing the beginning signs of the virus. But the once-Jedi had shot the Bothon through the skull and thus creating no possibility of reanimation.
Upon the command of dispersal Bellum spun on his heels and walked out of the room. He didn't know quite where he was going but he had an idea, having only glanced at the holo-map. As he walked down the hallway he passed by a few corpses that had deteriorated beyond species recognition. The sight of the corpses surprisingly didn't phase him like he thought it might, "They are just bodies of the weak, nothing more nothing less." He said out loud to himself.
As he turned a corner he came upon a group of infected, shambling around slowly. Once one of the beings saw him however they all noticed him and began a hurried shuffle in his direction. Bellum chuckled at the walking dead, at this pace he would grow old when they reached him. He reached out with his metal hand, closing it into a fist and watched as the first ten shamblers' heads imploded from being crushed. He then lifted one of the undead and used it like a humanoid wrecking ball, slinging it back and forth in the remaining gaggle of shamblers. As he dropped the remaining torso of the being he sensed a slight presence in the Force, not close enough to notice if he had been on the lookout for it, but it was there all the same.
"Bingo." He breathed lightly to himself.
As he continued to search the halls for his prey Bellum worked on reducing his presence in the Force, something he had learned to do from his master a long time ago, and used during his short time as a bounty hunter when he hunted suspected Force sensitive contracts. During those times he had to work on perfecting it by trial and error. There had been a few times his quarry had slipped through his fingers because he hadn't properly concealed himself. But this time he would do it right, and he wouldn't fail in his personal mission or his master's.
Andor walked up to the control panel, his gloved finger pressing the button to open the doors. Nothing. To be fair, he hadn’t expected them to open since the power was out on the entire station. He also knew that they were lucky that the oxygen generators were still functioning. If those went out, then they’d suffocate within minutes…. Well, Andor wouldn’t, but he wasn’t sure about the others.
The black hilt of his lightsaber slid into his hand and ignited with a snap-hiss, the crimson glow of his blade illuminating his face. He thrust it into the doors, which immediately began to melt away into an orange and yellow liquid. Quickly, he drew a circle, withdrew his blade and then pushed with his hand. The metal circle fell away with a loud bang, the noise reverberating deep into the station.
From the darkness before him, Andor heard the uneven shuffling of the undead, aroused by the sudden noise. The footsteps heavy and erratic began to clamber closer, and the noise of animalistic grunts and moans reached his ears. He stepped through the doorway and let the light of his blade fall upon the approaching seven bodies. With a flick of his left hand, the Force rushed out of him, sick, cold and deadly. Immediately, all seven heads popped like a ballon, sending blood and matter splattering across the floor and ceiling. The bodies fell with a meaty thud in front of the Lord of Ruin.
Andor stepped over them, holding his lightsaber in front of him as a light, and continued deeper into the darkness.
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Pteron’s footsteps were silent, as the verpine stalked into the bowels of the shipyards, away from the others. Her antennae twitched as she listened around her, tracking the location and movements of any threat that got too close. But she didn’t strike them down, but instead snuck by them. Silent as a wraith, she moved so quickly that even the dead didn’t notice her. Dipping through the space between two doors that were only partially opened, she founded herself in some sort of control room. Making her way to the console, she tapped a few keys.
Nothing.
Ducking down, she tore off a panel and looked at the wiring inside. Perhaps she could override the system and restore power to this sector of the ring. Then she’d be able to use the computer to locate the starship’s location and gain praise from Andor. Quickly, her fingers shot into the wiring as she began to work, sparks shooting out around her.
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Xrux stalked forward, the butt end of his lightsaber pike clicking idly against the floor with every step of his right foot. It was dark, and the wookie was not happy with his advanced sense of smell. God, did it smell awful. Death hung in the stagnant air like static to clothing. Xrux wanted to shrink away from it, but in his mind he heard Andor’s words, “Together we can discover the power to escape Death. We will become immortal!” Xrux didn’t want to die. The unknown of the afterlife filled his heart with fear, and that fear was where he found his power.
He rounded the corner to find two infected standing still in the middle of the hallway, their heads hung low. Immediately, they turned to face the approaching wookie, their arms stretching out and their fingers opening and closing as they reached out for their prey. Xrux let out a low growl, and twirled his pike in front of him, bringing it across his body from right to left. The phrik shaft connected with the first walker’s jaw, resulting in a sickening crunch that sent it sprawling to the ground. Then, he reversed direction, his left hand shooting forward, bringing the other end of his unignited pike into the chest of the second undead. It reeled backwards and Xrux finally ignited his blade, a yellow blade shooting forward. He hefted the pike above his shoulder and threw it like a spear. With the strength of the wookie’s throw, the lightsaber pike shot forward like a bullet, impaling the infected in the face and pinning it to the wall behind. Turning back to the rotting corpse that was trying to regain its footing, Xrux brought his right leg up high. He stomped down, driving the heel of his foot deep into the female Twi’lek’s temple, resulting in yet another sickening crunch and a pop as blood shot out and matted into his brown fur.
With a huff, he retrieved his pike, deactivated it, and carried on into the darkness, knowing that if he found the ship, Andor would be so proud he’d have to teach Xrux the power of immortality.
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Ratnik was far from quiet, his footsteps thundering throughout the area as he blundered forward in search of the prize. His eyes were squinted against the dark, his two upper arms each holding an unlit lightsaber hilt, while his two bottom arms hung loosely at his side. He knew that the noise he was making would attract the dead ones. Soon, they would come out of the shadows in a shrieking horde of rotting flesh, their hunger for meat driving them into madness. It was an unnerving thought, but he knew that if he could prove his power to Andor, if he could become the Lord of Ruin’s second in command, then he’d obtain a power so great that those around him would cower in fear. They would yield in the face of his power, and some day, maybe he could even overthrow Andor himself….
His thoughts were broken by the inevitable shrieks that echoed in his ears. They came at him at a sprint, breaking out of a room to his right. He turned to face them, but he was slow and the first one dove forward, grappling him around the chest, its gnashing teeth only centimeters away from digging into Ratnik’s cheek.
He roared in anger as his lightsabers ignited, a purple blade and a green blade illuminating the darkness. His lower arms reached up, ripping the clinging body off of his chest, and in a sheer amount of strength, pulled the rotting corpse apart, its midsection splitting open and its intestines stretching outward as he threw the torso in one direction and the legs in another. Then, his blades fell into the flesh of the next two, cutting through them like a warm knife through butter. Drunk with ambition, Ratnik blundered on.
As Bellum silently walked past the corpses of the dead, he could sense the fear emanating from his prey. He continued on, slowing his movements as he grew closer creating virtually no sound, the fear he smelled reminded Bellum of his past life: weak, fragile, dead. The fallen jedi paused for a second as he watched the wookie kill two undead, "The wookie is powerful, I will give him that. But his heart is not in it. He is frightened, and a scared beast can be dangerous when cornered. I'll have to play this one safe." Bellum thought to himself as he stalked behind his quarry.
"What would the best way to go about this. I've fought a wookie before, but I was armed then and they can't do much after they've been shot a couple times." Bellum thought as he tapped his hip where his blaster usually hung. It had been almost a week since Andor took them from him and he was about to replace his weapon. On the ground Bellum noticed a three foot solid durasteel rod, in fact the only reason he had seen it was because he had almost tripped over it. He crouched and picked up his new makeshift weapon, not too heavy. The metal would have to suffice for now.
From the shadows Bellum decided to play upon the Wookie's fear, "With fear like that, it's a surprised you are still alive." He said in his best imitation of Darth Andor. He stood stock still, hood covering his head, weapon in his right hand hanging by his side, concentrating on keeping his Force presence concealed. The smell of the dead would keep his natural oder subdued specially since he had just come from a fresh kill. Using the acustics of the metal hallway Bellum attempted to throw his voice to a different area without the Force, "I have no use of a Sith Acolyte who is afraid of his own shadow. You would be better off removing any thoughts of grandure from your mind."
If his plan worked correctly the acolyte would be caught off guard and would eventually cause the Wookie to panic and succumb to dispare
Honestly, reconnecting the power was not nearly as difficult as she had expected. Within a few moments, there were a few more sparks from the wires, and then the whine of the computer powering on. All around Pteron, the lights began to flicker on, bathing the control center in golden light. The dull roar of the air conditioning filled her ears as the cool air blew through the vents and tickled the back of her neck.
The verpine smiled at her success and flipped the power switch on the terminal display, watching as the program continued to boot. It would only be a matter of time and then soon, she'd be the one to find the ship and prove that she was the most capable of the group.
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As Xrux dispatched the two infected and continued down the hallway, he had let his mind fall into the swirl of the Darkside, looking to it for comfort and for power. He could feel Pteron's and Ratnik's presences in the distance, both of them motivated with their mission and moving their own separate ways through the station. And his master's presence was unmistakable: it was daunting, no, it was more than that. It was blood chilling and frightening. The Lord of Ruin was a beacon of energy, a maelstrom of power threatening to suck in everything around it. He too, moved away in another direction, and soon Xrux felt his power surge as Andor no doubt engaged some biters on his own.
But Bellum had disappeared entirely off of his mental radar. Xrux figured the newest member to the Order had decided to take a path of stealth, in order to sneak by the dead unarmed and unnoticed. And although that method had its uses, Xrux had always been the one to engage an opponent head on, and not to fight from the shadows. Xrux knew his natural strength could overpower most in the galaxy, and when he paired it with the Force, he was nearly unstoppable.
He stopped and his ears perked as a small sound behind him caught his attention. It had sounded like clinking metal, but had stopped so suddenly, and it had been so dull to begin with. He turned, but in the darkness, he could see nothing. And then, that's when the words came at him from the chasm.
Xrux froze, not out of fear, but mostly out of confusion. The voice that he heard sounded like Andor... sort of. But something seemed off, and the wookie could still feel his master's roaring aura in the distance, not here in front of him. It didn't add up.
And then, he realized who was confronting him and he smiled.
"I could say the same of you," Xrux growled in Shyriiwook, not caring whether Bellum understood him or not, "Having to pose as your Master in order to confront me is laughable."
As if on cue, the lights above powered on from Pteron's efforts in the control center. Immediately, the hallway was lit up and Xrux saw Bellum standing before him hooded and holding a long piece of metal. Xrux laughed as he hefted his pike in both hands, holding it so that the right side was leading with his right foot forward. "Good luck."
“Of all the times for the lights to turn on!” Bellum swore in his head. He instantly stopped concealing his Force presence, he had no more need to hide. He then turned that unused power into a grip on the Wookie’s eyes, envisioning in his head popping them like little grapes. How delightful that would be. He barely moved a muscle, as he closed his left fist, he had to concentrate on the precision attack, but he also had to watch the Wookie for any type of aggressive movement or Force counter attack. He had to be ready for any kind of counter, physical or mental.
Bellum knew he had to win. Defeating Andor’s Acolytes, no matter how useful they were, would be his start to his rise in power. As his anger for his current misfortune and the Wookie’s gall to laugh at him grew so did the energy he poured into obliterating the eyes of his prey. He stood there, nearly motionless, waiting for the Wookie to howl in pain, or howl a battle cry, either way; this fight had started.
Xrux watched his opponent closely, and as Bellum's left fist closed, the wookie began to feel a pressure on his eye. It was evident what Bellum's plan was, and the Wookie knew the counter to breaking a force crush. As soon has he felt the pressure, Xrux moved into action.
His swept his trailing left leg behind him, pivoting on his right foot in a counter clockwise spin. As his back briefly faced Bellum, the line of sight was momentarily broken and the pressure on his eyes eased. But Xrux knew Bellum could continue the attack if his concentration wasn't broken. As he spun, he dipped low, swinging his pike with a two-handed grip. Now he faced Bellum once again and the pike whipped from Xrux's right to left at Kirwin's knee height with the wookie's unstoppable strength.
But Bellum was still too far distanced for the six foot phrik shaft to actually connect with his knee, even with the Wookie's arm length. But the wookie projected his move forward, hoping to catch Bellum off guard by his use of projected fighting and shattering his knee anyway. As the sweeping move passed by, Xrux followed through, stepping forward with his right leg and spinning the unlit pike above his head, bringing it crashing down in an attempt to crack open Bellum's skull through a second projected move as he slowly cut down the distance to his prey.
Ratnik moved deep into the complex, and smiled as the lights came on and the AC began to blow. He had always been impressed with Pteron's technical skills and was glad she had managed to restore the power. Ahead of him was a hallway of office spaces and cubicles, littered with trash, corpses and debris of all sorts. It seemed unoccupied, but to make sure he wasn't going to be caught of guard, he banged one of his fists against the side of cubicle. The loud thud echoed, and Ratnik stood still as he pounded it again, hoping the noise would draw out any infected that lingered.
Nothing.
He proceeded forward, taking note through the Force that Xrux and Bellum's auras were flaring. Even from this distance, he could sense the tension, the anger, the adrenaline of combat. Why would Xrux pick a fight with Bellum when their mission was to journey the Drive Yards alone? It confused the Besalisk, as he knew Xrux didn't have it in him to disobey Andor's orders. Perhaps Bellum had attacked him? Although that didn't seem to make sense either.
Ratnik shrugged off his thoughts as he strode through the cluttered room, looking for any signs that could lead him to the lost Nebulon cruiser.
That was what he was looking for: movement, Bellum ceased his attack the instant the Wookie’s foot moved. He never expected the Acolyte to just accept the attack, he wanted him to be the first to move. He then reached out with his left hand and grabbed a hold of Xrux’s midsection with the Force and yanked, as if pulling on an invisible grappling hook. As Bellum flew through empty space, he watched the Acolyte start a two-handed swing. The two seconds it took Xrux to rotate his body put Bellum about three feet away from his prey’s center mass, perfect length for the projected swing. Planting his feet and rotating his torso to increase his physical force, the Durasteel rod swung from behind Bellum’s right hip to his left to meet the swinging force of the Wookie’s leading elbow. It was a risky move, but if it worked as planned, the fight may become more even.
"You're wasting time dog, just die." He growled at the Wookie.
Before Xrux had even finished his spin, he felt a grip on his back as it began to pull him, but it was too weak to off-center the wookie. His feet planted just in time to find Bellum in mid-air, lunging forward at him, and placing him within three feet of the Wookie's body. A foolish move, as Bellum had just placed himself within the physical striking distance of his six foot staff.
Bellum moved fast, but it only took a minor adjustment for Xrux to efficiently block the apprentice's attack. He continued his horizontal swing, Bellum's knee now only an inch or so away as Bellum himself struck out with the rod, aiming for Xrux's leading right arm: another oversight. Bellum's blade came from his right to left (Xrux's left to right), and thus, placing Xrux's pike between the two objects. The rod glanced off the midsection of the pike, but there was no time to tell if the durasteel had withstood the blow. Xrux's right thumb twitched, hopefully going unnoticed with all of the chaos of battle . The yellow blade screamed forward with a snap-hiss at the same instance when Xrux's shaft would hopefully shatter Bellum's left knee. Quickly, Xrux stepped forward with his right leg, bladinng his body so that his right side was directed at Bellum. With a sharp movement, he pulled the staff upward, hoping to take the lightsaber blade upward to take off Bellum's left arm from beneath the armpit.
A crack sounded from Bellum’s knee as the Phrik staff connected, causing it to give way and Bellum to fall to a kneeling position. The movement put his back and left shoulder facing the Wookie and out of the path of the whining pike’s blade as it flew upward. A painful fire erupted from Bellum’s knee as it hit the ground, most likely broken, but not un-repairable. He had no time to think about it though as his opponent would most likely try to follow up with a downward swing of his weapon.
Instead of being immobilized by the pain, Bellum fed off of it as he rolled away from and behind Xrux, placing himself at least twelve feet away from him. The apprentice stood up quickly and faced Xrux as pain shot through his knee again. He clenched the jagged ended one and a half foot Durasteel bar in his mechanical hand. He bared his teeth at Xrux as he continued to feed on his pain and grow his rage from his stupidity. “Imbecile! Without the darkness I don’t stand a chance against it. Specially in the state we are now.” Bellum screamed at himself as he glared at the Wookie. He slowly began backing away, favoring his left leg, from the Xrux toward the door ten feet down the hall, trying to plan out his next move if Xrux decided to pursue him.
Xrux didn’t care that his second strike failed to land a hit. The sound of the cracking knee was sweet to the Wookiee’s ears and his eyes followed Bellum’s escape path: a roll underneath his staff and behind him. Following him, Xrux turned to find Bellum standing cowering just out of his reach.
“What’s wrong, Bellum? You don’t like it when the dog bites back?” More wookie sounds in their native tongue. The blade of his lightsaber pike hummed casually as he sneered, placing the butt of the staff into the ground and letting his right hand rest on the shaft at around chest height. His left arm hung loosely at his side. His feet were at shoulder width position.
Bellum was beaten. Xrux knew this, and he found no fun in playing with a handicapped foe. Andor would want him to kill Bellum, to give into his hate and anger and finish the boy who threatened his life. But at the same time, Xrux knew that if he did kill Bellum, Andor would be furious. Either way, Xrux would be punished. But at least with this decision, Bellum was now a submissive and Xrux has moved a step up the ladder.
He grinned, his pointed and jagged teeth showing through the forest of hair on his face, “Pathetic.”
Every word the Wookiee spoke increased his hatered for Xrux. Had his knee not been broken by that hit, the fight may have gone differently. Bellum turned his back on Xrux and limped away, returning to his hunt for the ship. The doors automatically opened and closed as he passed through, luckily there were no undead in that hallway.
Bellum limped down the winding hallways until he couldn't bear the pain of his knee and sat down on a bench. As he sat he prodded his knee to figure out what had broken, sharp pain shooting through his leg. His inspiration revealed to Bellum that only his fibula had been broken where it connected to his knee, "That would explain why I can still walk." He spoke out loud to himself. He sat for a few more seconds preparing to take the pain of his broken leg then stood up.
His knee roared in protest and Bellum refused to give up, turning the pain to power. As he walked across the large room he was in, the feeling of pain felt less and less, Bellum was confused at first but concluded it was his determination and will to continue. The doors at the other end of the large room opened and four shambling corpes struggled through.
"Just great. I don't need this right now." Bellum growled to himself. The zombies noticed him shortly after entering as he was the only thing moving in the room. One of them howled befor charging at him in a stumbing run. The other three followed shortly after at the same pace. Bellum stepped forward putting all his weight on his right foot and hurled the jagged rod in his right hand at the lead shambler. The rod sailed through the space like a bullet impaling the lead creature through the eye and continued through the back of its head, tumbling to the ground behind it. His target took a couple more steps before dropping like a sack of rocks. The remaining three continued charging him like nothing had happened.
Stepping on his left foot, sending tendrils of pain up his thigh, of which Bellum again drew from and used the power to throw the left two undead across the room where the splattered against the wall. One of which impailed itself against a wall fixture. Bellum then took his third step forward, bringing his mettalic fist forward to connect with the chest of the last charging creature.
His fist felt no resistance as it entered and exited the being, but a howl indicated it wasn't dead yet. Bellum looked into the dead eyes of a once female Twi'lek as it tried to bite at him to no avail. He grabbed its throat with his left hand and squeezed using a small amount of Force crush to sever its head from its shoulders. He pulled his now entrail covered arm from the corpse as it crumpled to the ground, "Bloody plague. More of an issue than it should have been according to Andor. Let's see what is through these doors." Bellum said out loud to himself as he limped toward the doors picking up his weapon along the way.
Walking through Bellum came into a room with giant glass panels looking out into space. The room had a couple corpeses laying on the ground in worse condition than the ones he had just dispatched. He stood in awe for a moment at the sight of the shipyards. Then he spotted what Andor had sent them for: the Nebulon Frigate. Andor had told him to radio when he had found it, but he had never been handed a comlink. The lights were on yes, but Bellum didn't know if all systems had been restored. So instead of looking for an intercom setup he sat down on the ground, left leg extened in a comfortable position and used the Force one last time to send Andor a mental image of where he was and the ship that was docked there.
As he sat there waiting for his master to either respond through the Force, or to show up Bellum's body began to sweat from the trauma to his leg. Leaning back on his arms he worked on regulating his breathing to keep from passing out. But the longer he waited the less his body wanted to do anything. He slowly lowered himself to his elbows before finally laying down, his knee now felt like a 2-1B surgical droid was trying to cut it off with a bone saw without anesthetics. Bellum layed there looking at the ceiling as his vision slowly shrank to pinpoints, then ultimately went black.
Xrux stood idly as he watched Bellum limp away in defeat until the man slipped through a set of doors and was lost to sight as they closed. He deactivated his pike and continued forward in the direction that Bellum had disappeared. Passing through the doors, he watched as Bellum dispatched a pair of walkers in front of him with vigor. The guy was pissed, and if Xrux were in that position, he'd be too. He moved forward, letting his footsteps make just enough noise to alert Bellum that he was being followed, haunted by his superior.
Either Bellum was blinded by his anger, or he just didn't acknowledge Xrux's presence, as he slipped forward into yet another room. Xrux waited behind for about a minute, that way Bellum would be free to dispatch of any threats that awaited them. "Work smarter, not harder." He thought to himself. Judging that enough time had passed, the rookie continued forward and entered the room with glass windows. He looked through them and into the eternal view beyond: into the darkness of space littered with the sparkling lights of far off stars. But then his attention turned to the large, daunting Nebulon Frigate that towered before them, a reminder of the success and progress that civilization had made before they fell to the dead. The wookie was no engineer, nor did he have the skills of a pilot of any sorts, but even he could tell the Frigate had not completed construction. Parts of its outer hull were still missing, the gigantic slabs of metal hanging by chains and connected to large cranes, waiting to be attached. Who knew how much still needed to be completed on the interior.
Xrux frowned. Where was Bellum? Expecting a trap, Xrux instinctively ignited his lightsaber pike and opened himself to the Force. But he felt no warning, no threat of danger, no trap. Bellum wasn't here... Wait, yes, there he was. Turning to his right and in the direction of the presence he sensed, Xrux saw Bellum, laying unconscious on the ground. Deactivating his weapon, he reached to his utility belt and unclipped his com link, sending a brief message to Andor with the coordinates of the ship.
Doors on the other side of the room hissed open and Xrux whirled to face whoever came through, but relaxed as he saw his Verpine friend waltz through with a happy smile on her face. But that smile vanished as soon as she saw Xrux and Bellum, realizing that she wasn't the one who found the Frigate first.
Andor had found himself wandering the dark halls. He wasn't lost in a physical sense, but he was lost in thought. In his head he devised plans for the Order of Ruin. He'd begun to masterfully craft plans together missions, procedure protocol, economic growth, domestic and international relations, and more. His mind wandered back to the events of Honoghr, thinking about the losses of Abaddon, Ishmael, and Ryu. Although they had been weak, and thus, deserved to die, Andor realized the wealth of power and knowledge they had possessed. And now, it was all lost to the depths of Chaos.
Or was it?
Abaddon and Ryu both had masks imbued with the power of Sith Alchemy. Perhaps those relics still held remnants of the two sith lords, remnants Andor could call upon and bring back to the living only to steal their knowledge. Andor had taken Abaddon's mask when they left the Medical Center, and now, it was being stored in his personal chambers aboard the Messiah, but he didn't know what had become of Ryu's. Ishmael, Andor knew, was also a master of alchemy, and although he didn't wear any enchanted armor that Andor knew about, Andor strongly remembered the journal that Ishmael always seemed to consult back on Korriban during the beginning days of the Order under Abaddon's rule. Perhaps that journal would provide insight on the depths of Alchemy that were currently beyond Andor's own ability.
There was only one way to find out. He'd have to return to Honoghr.
The lights flickered on and a small current of cool air began to fill the hallway, breaking Andor from his thoughts. That Verpine was a smart one, useful and crafty. She'd definitely got his attention.
Not ten to twenty minutes later, it became evident that the Nebulon Frigate was found. First was a message from Pteron, with only coordinates in the text. A few minutes later, Andor felt Bellum's presence briefly brush his. He allowed Bellum into his own thoughts, and immediately felt his apprentice's pain and rage, but sifting through the emotion, he saw a single mental image of a room with glass windows and the Frigate. Then, the connection was broken. Thirdly, Andor's comlink buzzed again, this time a message from Xrux saying he'd found the Frigate. He forwarded the coordinates to Ratnik with orders for the Besalisk to meet them there, and then Andor himself was on his way.
Bellum didn't open his eyes for a solid minute when he came to, the breathing of the wookie and Verpine were thunderous in his ears. "Would you both just shut up. Your breathing is so loud!" He growled as he sat up, pain rocketing from his knee through his thigh. He rotated his sitting position to look at the other two in the room. He gave out a harsh hissing through his teeth as he adjusted trying to make his knee comfortable.
They all sat in silence, Bellum wasn't going to talk, he had nothing to say to the wookiee and he didn't feel like striking a conversation with the insectoid. A half hour had passed as they sat in silence before the automatic doors hissed open and his master arrived. Bellum couldn't read the expression on his face, be it anger, pleasure, disappointment. But he wasn't going to sit as he entered the room. Bellum stood up as quickly as possible, his knee screamed in protest as he knelt not showing his grimaced face to his master, "I found the ship for you, my Lord." He ground through his breath.
He was proud that he had completed his master's mission, yet upset that he had failed his own. But now that he had had time to think about it he was unsure of how Andor may have responded to his victory. He may have praised him for defeating a stronger foe, but then turn around and punish him for striking down a fellow dark sider. But Bellum would get his revenge on Xrux, he would kill the wookie and make him into a rug.