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
Kirwin was near the main entrance to the Temple, debris blocking any access to the hallways. The sight paralyzed him until the grief within freed him from his trans. Kirwin looked about him with tears in his eyes, "Who could have done this?" he thought to himself as sobs began to rack his body. Kirwin took a few more steps toward the entrance before his knees gave way. His entire childhood was in that building, everything he knew. Then after his sobs started to subside Kirwin remembered: that was the past that turned its back on him without an explanation, that’s the past that wouldn’t help him with his future, that was the past that left him in the Outer Rim to be constantly tested on and refused freedom. Kirwin’s anger rose in his chest and blinded by the tears in his eyes he reached out with the Force and amplified by his anger Kirwin lifted the massive blocks and pillars blocking the entrance of the Temple. Once the entrance was cleared the floating rocks crashed to the ground out of the way and Kirwin strode under the archway into the main hallway. Once in the main hall Kirwin looked about at the destruction and noticed many bodies strewn about as if a battle had been fought. Seeing all the death socked Kirwin out of his angered mindset and he ran to the nearest Youngling.
Kneeling next to the body of the seven-year-old boy who looked as if he had been cut down with a lightsaber and had been dead for a couple weeks now. Standing up he went to the next body, a sixteen-year-old female Padawan who had had her left arm removed by most likely a lightsaber and been shot through the heart with a blaster. “Who could have done this?” he said out loud as he searched more of the dead bodies. During the search he found a few lightsabers, but it looked like a large amount of the Jedi had been unarmed during this massacre. Kirwin collected any lightsaber he found knowing that any non-Jedi who stumbled upon the damage would try to loot and sell the Power Crystals on the Black Market. In the end Kirwin ended up belting six lightsabers, he also found a Storm-trooper whose skull had been smashed by a rock with no indication on who the assailant was. Kirwin had removed the chest piece as it had been completely undamaged from the fight. After finding all the known precious items he knew of he returned to his ship to store them intending to give the fallen Jedi a proper burial.
After an hour or two of collecting broken wood to burn all eighteen Jedi on separate pyres Kirwin finally placed the Youngling he first found onto his pyre. He then walked back into the temple to retrieve the Storm-trooper and placed him on the ground a few feet from the Youngling’s pyre. Using the Force, he raised a pile of rubble and neatly placed it on top of the trooper. He never did like the Empire, but the troopers only followed orders, whatever they were. “He may have been an enemy but he deserves a burial all the same.” Thought Kirwin once the stones came to a stand still on top of the body. After that was done he re-entered the hall and collected a piece of wood that he had found still burning and returned to the entrance where he stood in front of the three rows of six pyres. Wedging the firebrand in between two rocks Kirwin called upon the Force and split the flame into eighteen different burning orbs then cast them onto each pyre at the same time. Not knowing the formal words for the ceremony of Jedi burial Kirwin recited the Jedi code,
Kirwin opened his eye and looked up, it was only then that he noticed that the normal crowded lines of vehicles in the skies were incredibly diminished than the normal Coruscant traffic. Maybe it was nothing, there was always something going on that tried to draw the attention of every alien on this planet. Maybe there was a big festival or political announcement that had a large portion of the planet watching and out of the sky-ways. But that did not concern Kirwin, he had a new mission, to hunt down the Jedi and tell them of what he had learned here in the Temple and return the lightsabers of the fallen. Before Kirwin left however, he had to see if he could find any other Jedi artifacts that may have survived the destruction of the Jedi Temple. And with that Kirwin started to climb over the rubble to where the Jedi Archives would have been.
Being as the Temple wasn’t much more than a giant pile of rubble Kirwin’s hopes to find anything that had survived diminished with every hour that passed. He was also getting exhausted from moving so many boulders in order to try to excavate the area he believed to be the correct location of the archives. It was getting dark now as Coruscant Prime began to set on the horizon, with mixed emotions on his failure to find anything he knew he had no other reason to stay on this metropolis rock and it was time to leave. As he turned to climb back down the rubble mound a glint of blue light caught his eye, he looked toward it and it was gone, but as soon as he looked away it returned, “Strange, my mind must be playing tricks on me.” Spoke a puzzled Kirwin as he walked toward the small blue light with his head turned to the side, “whatever it is doesn’t want to be found if being looked for.” The search ended when Kirwin arrived at a wall of a boulder that had a small broken hole at its base. He got to his knees bent over and using the night vision of his cybernetic eye saw a three-inch cube wedged in the hole.
Reaching his hand into the hole Kirwin attempted to dislodge the Holocron from its prison but to no avail. Getting frustrated Kirwin stood up, loosed his DL-44 and fired at the hole while yelling. Holstering his blaster and seeing that it did nothing to help his cause, looking at the boulder he calculated that it was too big for him to lift, “Nothing is ever to big or impossible for one who is truly with the Force.” whispered a voice, “Who said that!?” said Kirwin as he spun around looking around anxiously hand on his blaster. After searching the surrounding area with his cybernetic eye’s thermal vision, he didn’t spot anyone and returned to the problem at hand, freeing the Holocron from the rock and leaving. He had left his lightsaber on the ship, that would have been the easy way to free it, but he wasn’t going to use that weapon of the Jedi until he had answers. Using his blaster anymore might damage the Holocron, and any type of explosion would most definitely destroy it and its contents. Maybe instead of completely moving the boulder Kirwin could lift it enough just to free the Holocron and claim it.
Kneeling in front of the rock-face Kirwin began to meditate and reached out to the Force for the power that he sought to move his obstacle from his path. Kirwin could feel the surrounding stones and rubble, he could feel the Holocron stuck in its whole, but he could not feel any life forms in the immediate area confirming that the voice from earlier was only in his head, “Strange, why would I hear something that was in my head?” he pondered. Reaching out with the Force and attempted to lift the wall of a boulder, to no avail. Realizing he failed Kirwin opened his eye and began to get frustrated, he could feel the anger rising within him, he paused and realized what he was allowing to happen to himself.“I have been letting my anger get the better of me,” Thought Kirwin with this revelation, “But I have gained strength through my anger. But if I gain power through anger, but anger leads to the Dark Side won’t I eventually fall to it’s lure? Is there a way for me to harness this power in the Force without falling?” he closed his eye again and began meditating on his new revelation.
Reaching out to the Force once again Kirwin felt the same power he felt when he grew angry, but there was no anger attached to it, he grabbed a hold of this power and directed it toward the rock-face and felt it shift upward a few inches. Holding the boulder in place Kirwin used the Force to grab the Holocron and summoned it to his outstretched palm. Opening his eye again the rock crashed to the ground, Kirwin stood up and made his way back to his ship. He had what he had been looking for, it was time to start his new mission for answers. He had to know if there were any Jedi left, he had to know why he had been exiled, he had to know what had happened here at the Temple, he had to know the answers to his questions. "Jedi Master Lar'wei will know, he was on the Jedi Council. If he did not fall here he may have gone back to his home world: Empress Teta in the Teta System." Kirwin spoke out loud in response to all the questions that had begun to surge through his mind, "We will start there." Upon arriving back to his ship Kirwin looked up at it, "Guess if I'm going to keep flying you I better give you a name, how about the Silent Angel? Why call you that? because all I get for my questions is silence and angels are said to guide travelers to their destinies in some beliefs. Look at me, talking to my ship and explaining myself to it on top of that. Ha! if Master Fingu heard me he would have me sent to the infirmary immediately to get checked for insanity!" Kirwin smiled at the thought as he boarded the Angel and prepared for his journey to the Deep Core.
It had been three days since Andor had landed on Coruscant and finally he was at the Temple. Finally, he could assimilate into their petty lifestyle and expose the strong ones to the truth. The Jedi used their power to protect the weak, to allow them to continue to hinder the growth of Society. It was laughable and it was pathetic. The weak do not deserve protection, they deserve death so that only the fittest and strongest could survive. If the weak can't take care of themselves, then they deserved to be cleansed. And anyone who stood in the way of that philosophy also deserved to die.
As he approached the main entrance to the Temple, Andor noticed that the temple did not resonate in the Force as he expected. It was not a beacon of the light side, but instead, it radiated of pain, despair... and death. Of course, Andor knew the plague would have made its way here and he knew the Jedi were not immune to its lethal symptoms, but for the temple to be so clouded in the Force, the devastation must have been worse than he thought. He finally reached the top of the stairs, and found numerous piles of ashes, with the remains of some charred wood. It was only a guess, but Andor figured a mass funeral had taken place here. That meant the Jedi had indeed died.
Andor smiled at the thought.
Making sure he had complete control on his False Light Side aura, Andor adjusted his brown cloak and the newly acquired lightsaber on his left hip. He walked forward and passed through the main entrance of the Temple. His eyes scanned across the empty space of the hallway, taking in the sensation of death with a sense of both shock and fascination. The floor was littered with rubble and debris, a stench of decomposing flesh faintly flirting with his nose. It was beautiful. He continued to stride down the hallway and stopped as something on the ground caught his eye. Looking down to the silver metallic floor, Andor saw a pool of dried blood. The way the caked, brown colored mass was shaped, Andor knew a body had once laid here. He looked around and was surprised to find a rock, no larger than the size of his fist, covered in blood. How very peculiar. It was indeed obvious to any force sensitive that a massacre had taken place here, but there was little to no evidence. There were no bodies, there were no weapons, there was only this single pool of long dried blood. Had someone survived and laid the dead to rest? There was only one way to find out.
Andor stood up and moved further down the hallway, stopping at a doorway that marked a room to his right. Entering the room, Andor looked around, a mission to find security hologram recordings. But the first room yielded no positive results. So he moved on, room by room. If the room wasn't blocked by collapsed rock, Andor searched it.
Finally, on the eighth try, Andor found a security console. He pressed the activator switch and at first, nothing happened. In a fit of anger, Andor smacked the machine with his hand, and instantly the console began to flicker before playing back footage from only minutes before. Pressing the correct buttons, the holographic display began to rewind and Andor watched as the screen projected the main entrance and hallway for about two weeks without change. Then suddenly, there was a figure who began carrying corpses into the chamber, walking backwards and fast. Hastily, Andor pushed the buttons again, and the hologram began to play normally.
There was a single figure, a young human male that was collecting the corpses of the dead and carrying them outside, out of view of the security camera. So this is where the piles of ash had come from, confirming Andor's suspicions upon his arrival. Grabbing a nearby rusted chair, Andor sat down and watched the events on the hologram unfold.....
Andor had managed his way to the archives, having cleared away all of the rubble barring the entrance and was now downloading as much information to his data pad as its memory would allow. Of course, none of the information was classified as Andor had not been able to break through the encryptions of the more sensitive files. As the download commenced, the Sith Lord meandered his way up and down the shelves in a casual stroll, revealing in the destruction of the temple. And then he felt it. The presence of the Light.
A chill went down Andor’s spine and he froze, his mind immediately alert and refocusing on his False Light Side aura. Although the presence was distant, it became closer and closer with each passing second. Someone was coming home. Quickly, Andor made his way back to the terminal where he had left his data pad. Whatever had been download would have to do. Grabbing it from the table, he slid it into the folds of his robes and made his way out of the archives, hurrying to the hangar bay of the temple, honing in on the incoming presence.
As he got closer, the presence in the Force began to multiply. There wasn’t just one Jedi, there were four.
“Jackpot.” He muttered to himself as he rounded a corner in the hallway to find the doors to the hangar. Accessing the keypad, the doors slid open with a hiss and the Sith Lord entered as a small YT class freighter set down on one of the many designated landing spaces amid the numerous abandoned ships. He slowly approached the shuttle, his mind plotting the best course of action to take. Obviously, the Force had sent him a gift, four separated Jedi for the reaping. Andor stopped a short distance away from where the landing ramp would extend and waited with his hands clasped together in front of his waist.
In a hiss of steam, the ramp protruded from the ship. Moments later, the door opened and four figures strode forward all dressed in the traditional attire of the Jedi Knight, a tan tunic with a brown robe. First was a male Wookie, followed quickly by a female Verpine and a male Besalisk, and lastly, a female Mirialan. They must have felt Andor’s presence as well, for they approached him with caution. Their eyes showed distrust, but deep down, Andor could feel a sense of comfort as the four Jedi felt that they had found a fellow Jedi to answer their questions.
“You are a sight for sore eyes my Jedi brethren,” Andor spoke with a smiled, his voice resonate and full, as he held his arms high and wide in manner of greeting, “My name is Lucian Kalumnia. I think we could all agree that there is much to discuss. Please, let us find a place where we can get comfortable.”
The five of them exchanged bows as Andor gestured for them to follow him inside the temple. In the distance, dark clouds began to form as a crack of lightning darted down to the earth, followed almost immediately by a roaring clap of thunder. A storm was brewing.
"When we first learned of the outbreak, we decided to head to the Senate building to offer protection to the senators. By the time we got there and managed to fight our way through the hangar, there were none left. They were all dead... or just gone." Pteron, the female Verpine, spoke, as the group sat around one of the many abandoned tables in the Dining Hall of the Temple. They hadn't been there long, but in the time they had shared together, Andor had learned that this quartet of Jedi had fought their way into the Senate building, clearing offices, meeting rooms, the rotunda itself, and much more in search for any survivors. But then, they had been trapped inside for three days by the sheer number of infected that continued to swarm the building.... It was a problem Andor was fortunate not to have encountered.... yet. "We had received word of a gathering of Jedi on Naboo, but we decided it was our duty to save those that we could instead of fleeing the planet. But we failed." She hung her head in defeat, and Andor could sense her despair, an emotion that she was clearly not trying to hide, despite the teachings of the Jedi.
"You did what you thought was right. You cannot be blamed for that." Andor said as he placed his hand on her shoulder in a reaffirming manner. "This is a dangerous and confusing time for us all, and only through the Force can we find peace and the answers that we seek." God he wanted to barf. This was utter nonsense.
The other three jedi, Xrux the wookie, Jade the Mirialan, and Ratnik the Besalisk all remained silent as they each respectively ate at their ration bars and sipped at the glasses of water Andor had gathered for them. All of them were exhausted from travel and from sheer survival. Their minds raced with emotions, all of them focused on a single thing: surviving.
"All of your feelings betray you," He warned, "Your thoughts dwell on your emotions, and as a result, the will of the Force is clouded. As I have already said, these are dangerous times. You must be cautious, or you could become a servant of the Dark side."
"I would never join the dark side!" Jade retorted, anger flaring in her voice and her eyes shooting daggers at Andor. Andor held eye contact, watching as her eyes began to water before she quickly looked away, wiping frantically at her face with her sleeve. Xrux, the wookie, gave a slight whimper as he reached over and pulled her into a hug, rocking her gently in his big fluffy embrace.
Finishing his ration bar, Andor stood up. "I'm sorry if I upset you, Youngling. We are all stressed and tired. Perhaps we should retire for the night and continue in the morning." Silently, the quartet stood up and followed Andor as he led them down the hallways of the Temple. Most of the lights were out, some were flickering, and only a rare few still shone brightly. Finally, they approached the dormitories and they moved inside.
"Should somebody take watch in case any of the infected show up, Master Kalumnia?" Ratnik asked, turning to face Andor, his large, four armed body simply dwarfing Andor's own slim figure.
"A great suggestion, Ratnik." Andor smiled, "I'll take first watch. You all have had a long day. Grab a bed and get some sleep, I'll wake you when I start to feel tired."
And so, from there, the four Jedi scattered like bugs underneath a rock, each making their way into a separate room and crashing onto the cots and falling asleep before they could even strip out of their outer layers. Andor sat down in a cross legged stance in the main threshold to the dormitories and closed his eyes as he began to reflect on what he had just witnessed. The Force had graciously brought him four young Jedi, broken and hopeless. They had seen nothing but death and failure since the plague had hit Coruscant. Although they believed they were far from the Darkside, Andor saw the truth. They were only an inch away from falling into the eternal chasm of Bogan. It wouldn't take much to push them over the edge. They were all in this together, and just like a set of dominoes, if one fell, so would the others.
He waited until they were deeply asleep. The sounds of snoring began to drift out of Ratnik's room and Andor stood up. Making his way into the doorway of Ratnik's room, Andor let his eyes fall on the sleeping Besalisk. Andor's thin frame blocked out most of the light coming in from the hallway, leaving him featureless as his silhouette stood as still and silent as the wraith that he was.
The four armed behemoth that lay in the bed nearly two times smaller than he was laying on his stomach, his face pressed deeply into the mattress, the pillow having been dropped to the floor. The Jedi Knight's four lightsabers rested just out of arm's reach and his robes were in a crumpled heap on the ground. Andor watched a bit more before he stepped into the room, quietly sliding the door shut behind him, leaving them alone in complete darkness.
And then, the Sith Lord released his veil, the illusion of the light side that surrounded him vanished in an instant. At first, there was nothing. But then, the darkside began to trickle in, slowly like a cloud of fog. Andor willed it to spread out around him, letting his power permeate the very air. The temperature of the room began to drop and if there were any light, one would be able to see the vapor of their breath as they exhaled. The Sith let his aura move forward, wrapping around the innocent, non-suspecting Jedi that slept in front of him.
Immediately, Ratnik twitched, his mind subconsciously reacting to the presence of the darkside. Then, his body began to thrash, as if he was having a nightmare. The bed beneath him groaned as the Jedi's weight constantly shifted, the metal legs threatening to give out at any moment. Then, in his sleeping stupor, the Jedi began to whimper, a small whine escaping his lips.
Andor rushed forward in the darkness, squatting next Ratnik and wrapping his arm around his head, covering his mouth with his hand. The stifled whimper began to grow, threatening to become a yell as the Jedi began to wake up. His four arms began to lash out, one of them bashing into the back of Andor's head. Clotted in the head by such a muscular force, Andor's head immediately became light, his body slightly tingling. "Shhh.... Wake the others and I snap your neck and then I'll kill your friends."
Immediately, Ratnik went still at the sound of Andor's true voice, the voice of the wraith that he was: icy and cold. "What do you want?" He muttered through his covered mouth. Slowly, Andor removed his hand, and backed away. The blackness of the room was so dark, that he knew there was no way for Ratnik to see him.
"I think the question is more, what do you want? This plague has brought out things in you, emotions that you can't fight back like the Jedi teach you to do. You fear becoming one of them. You fear death, don't you?"
Ratnik responded with silence, but Andor could sense his thoughts. He could sense that he was right, that the mere suggestion of becoming infected had caused Ratnik to feel anxious, his mind trying in vain to subdue the fear that welled up within. "It's ok to feel fear, Ratnik. Emotions are a natural response, why should you subdue them? Embrace them, for they give you strength."
Still, the besalisk remained silent, his inner turmoil becoming more chaotic.
"I can teach you to survive. I can give you the power that you desire to save yourself and your friends."
Ratnik's voice was dry, soft and full of pain as he fell into the darkness. "What must I do?"
As the night progressed, Andor continued to torment Ratnik, reveling in his anguish, his pain, and the internal conflict the Besalisk went through, hopelessly attempting to stave off his emotions. This young Jedi was no match for Andor's might, he had been cornered into submission and now had fallen into the clutches of the dark side, the fallen Jedi's fear of death urging him to search for powers that would help him survive this galactic apocalypse.
They sat together in silence and in darkness in the Besalisk's room, bathing in the icy clutches of the dark side that filled the room like a fog. Andor was used to it, and as such, he opened himself up to it, drawing in its presence through every pore of his body and letting it rejuvenate his fatigued body. But he could sense Ratnik's hesitation. The dark side of the Force felt nothing like the light, and the Besalisk continuously tried to cower away from it. But Ratnik could sense its power, its potential to bring the one thing he wanted most in this world: the power to survive. The Dark Side tantalized him, letting its icy tendrils graze over his skin in a seductive manner. Andor could sense Ratnik's longing, the craving that all Sith felt. The besalisk's hunger for power grew stronger and stronger as four armed humanoid sank further and further away from the light.
"You can taste the power of the Darkside. Through it, you will be unstoppable." His voice was warped in the darkside, reverting back to its normal cold and wraith-like whisper.
"I can taste it. How do I harness this power?" Ratnik asked, his voice was monotone, almost trance-like.
"First you must draw in your friends. Only when they have realized the truth as well will I teach you. Only then will you learn to survive."
"And what if my friends remain loyal to the Jedi and to the light?"
The night had passed in horror for the three remaining Jedi as Ratnik and Andor visited each of them in their sleep, and one by one, they fell to the darkness. Xrux and Pteron had fallen easily, both succumbing to the darkside at the sight of Ratnik's own decent into darkness. The thought of losing their longtime friend broke them, and together, they had agreed that they would stop at nothing to protect one another. Now, the Wookie, Besalisk, and Verpine stood alongside Andor, all four of them encircling the cowering Mirialan Jedi. Jade sat on the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs as she brought her knees into her chest. Her body quivered as she silently cried, trying to rid herself of her fear that burned deep within her chest.
She had found herself ripped from sleep as Ranik and Xrux each grabbed her by an arm and threw her from her bed. Her head had hit the ground hard, and now, there was a huge gash above her left eyebrow, blood slowly trickling into her eye and down the side of her face, before dripping onto the floor. She could sense the darkness in all of them.... Her three friends were gone, replaced with shells of their former selves, their auras already manipulated and contorted by the dark side of the Force. She now knew that this "Lucian Kalumnia" was not who he had appeared to be, for even his aura had fallen farthest from the light.
He was a demon who had destroyed Jade's friends, snatching them from the darkness like taking a baby from its crib.
"Pteron, Xrux, Ratnik, you all are my friends. You are Jedi!" Jade finally broke the silence, sobbing, "You are stronger than this. Can't you tell that this man is a Sith, the one enemy we swore to destroy?!"
Pteron, the Verpine, shook her head. "Times have changed, Jade. The Sith are powerful and can achieve things that we had never thought possible. We need all the strength we can get to overcome this disease that plagues our galaxy. We must unite together to achieve survival."
"Is that what he told you?" Jade spat back in retort. "Listen to yourself! You aren't making any sense. You're saying the Jedi and the Sith need to unite to cure the plague? We've been surviving, we don't need his help or the help of the darkside!"
Xrux stepped forward, his brown, hairy and musucular arm stretching out, his hand clasping tightly around Jade's throat. "Uggguh aarrragghuuhw! Huurh huurh uughghhhgh huurh raaaaaahhgh uughghhhgh huurh wrrhw!" *
Jade grasped at the Wookie's hand, desperately attempting to ease the pressure on her collapsing throat. Slowly, she felt her body leave the ground as she was lifted into the air. "Pl.. Please, Xrux. Don't... do.. this." Jade's face was turning a dark red, almost purple, as the pressure in her head continued to build, her lungs unable to retrieve the oxygen her body so desperately needed. Her body began to twitch, and her eyes slowly rolled back into her head.
Ratnik and Pteron both moved at the same time, each of the fallen Jedi drawing their lightsabers from their waist. In unison, the two blades shot forth, orange and green light illuminating the darkness as they both stabbed into Jade's torso. Jade's back arched as she screamed, or at least, it would have been a scream if her body had had any oxygen left to release. It was more of a pained whisper as her body went limp in the wookie's grasp. The two blades deactivated and Xrux let Jade's corpse fall heavily to the ground.
All the while, Andor stood there with a smirk spread across his face, basking in the darkness that he had created. Before him stood three monsters, who, in only a day, had fallen to the darkness and collectively murdered one of their own.
It was a good day.
*"Enough of this! If you're not with us, then you're against us!"
The four Sith now sat in the cafeteria, the sun shining brightly through the windows, exposing the empty, desolate and disease-ridden city that surrounded them. They munched on the remaining non-perishable food, and the filtered water was running low, meaning they would soon have to move on to find more clean water, knowing that drawing it from the tap could run risks of having it contaminated with the virus.
"You three are to report immediately to Korriban. Find Ishmael, the Lord of Corruption. Tell him I sent you and he'll put you to work." Andor's voice was back to its usual chilling whisper, his guise dropped and the dark side of the aura radiating from his being. He took a bite out of the cooked frozen dinner, a mushy mac and cheese with some sort of mystery meat. "If the Jedi did indeed meet on Naboo, we need to find out what transpired. And we need to have our full strength gathered if they decided to research a cure for this virus... which I'm certain they will. It's not like them to sit back and hide with all of this destruction and sickness going on. They're up to something."
The three fallen-Jedi all stood up and nodded their heads in an affirmative and made their way to their YT freighter that still remained in the Hangar Bay. Soon, the starfighter's engines roared to life and lurched into the air before disappearing into the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, back on the ground in the temple, Andor finished his meal and removed his com link, opening up a secure, encrypted channel to SG-14 who still remained with 'The Shadow' at the Spaceport. <"SG, bring 'The Shadow' to the Temple's hangar. We need to locate Admiral Lynn and the others and see what sort of arsenal we have left after this plague.">
<"Right away, My Lord. The ship has already been refueled and I will be departing momentarily.">
Andor cut the communication and stood up, brushing crumbs off of his lap. His boots clacked against the ground as he entered the hallway, his brown cloak flowing gently behind him. "If I were a Jedi, would we stay on Naboo, or would we go somewhere else?" he thought to himself. If they were indeed looking to cure this virus, they'd be foolish to stay on Naboo. They'd need to go somewhere where there was a state-of-the-art medicalfacility. He narrowed it down to two: Kamino, or the Red Dawn Medical Center on Honoghr. Both were completely viable options and only time would reveal which was the correct one.
Activating his comlink, he sent out a pre-recorded message to Admiral Lynn's last registered comlink. It had been since before the plague since the admiral had last reported in, having docked 'The Messiah' and the rest of the fleet back on Nubia for minor repairs and a supplies run.
<"Admiral, this is Andor. I'm currently holed up on Coruscant and need to rendezvous with the fleet. Report in and send me your coordinates.">
About an hour had passed when Andor's palm-sized holoprojector began to vibrate insistently from its pocket. Pulling the device out and laying it flat on his extended palm, a blue hologram of Admiral Lynn flickered to life.
"What's your report, Admiral?"
"My Lord, the remnants of the fleet are parked on the outskirts of Nuba City in the Nubia System. There has been some sort of viral outbreak, and it has decimated the planet. We've been taking in survivors, exchanging safety for their commitment to your fleet, Sir."
Andor's eyebrows arched in interest as he cocked his head slightly in an angle. "Yes, this virus is wrecking havoc on a galactic scale. It's not just on Nubia. I take it, that by remnants of the fleet, you mean to say that the virus thinned out our ranks?"
The blue image of the male human nodded "Yes sir. We only have enough personnel to pilot the Messiah, Sir. Add to that, two squadrons of fighters and approximately 300 troops. We took a huge hit, Sir."
"Indeed we did, Admiral. But those that are strong, survive. The weak will always fail."
"Indeed, My Lord."
There was a brief pause in the conversation, resulting in the image of the Admiral fidgeting on his feet as he grew uncomfortable with the situation as Andor processed the new information.
"Come to Coruscant, Admiral. You won't be detected as the Republic is non-existent and the Jedi have been driven from the system. From there, we will regroup while I make contact with the others."
"Others, My Lord?"
Andor smiled, his sharpened, white teeth, gleaming in the light "Yes, Admiral. You didn't think I was the only Sith that survived, did you?"
Andor was waiting in the Hangar Bay with the brown hood of his Jedi robes pulled up to hide his face in shadow. He didn't have to wait long, until the 'Shadow' announced its arrival with roaring engines and a small gust of wind.
Setting down on the ground, the engines died down to a low roar, but did not shut off entirely. The landing ramp extended and Andor entered his ship. He made his way into the cockpit where he sat in the co-pilots seat.
He hadn't slept the whole time he had been at the Temple, and now he was beginning to feel the first symptoms of fatigue setting into his body. He felt tired and worn, and he visibly slumped in his chair. The droid looked over to him taking in the state of its master before it pulled on the controls and began to guide the ship back out into the open.
"Get some sleep, My Lord. I'll have us into orbit before you know it."
"Excellent. Wait there until the Messiah arrives and alert me when it does."
"Of course, Sir."
Andor let his head fall back into the head of the seat and closed his eyes. For a minute, he reflected on everything that had transpired here. All of the pain, the anger.... the FEAR. The Jedi Order was fractured, the galaxy in a state of euphoric destruction, and Andor had gained the services of three new Sith acolytes. It was a successful mission, and now, it was time to find out just why the Jedi had met on Naboo....
The ship rose into the atmosphere and Andor fell into a dreamless sleep, his body as still as a corpse.
