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The dust and smoke rose around Maris, the sound of blaster fire echoing just outside the burnt out shelf of what had once been my family's home. My father had told me to run, get my sisters and get them out of the path of the battle.
I looked to his sisters now, Emily was shivering in the corner trying to use her hands to block out the sounds of the battle. Alice was the one I was worried about though, she had shutdown, staring into space as she attempted to abandon the horror of the world around them. They were only six years old and while I was only seven, I knew it was my job to keep them safe.
I couldn't help but remember mother telling my father this would happen, "You can't just run form master and think he won't chase us." She had been right, Maris smiled sadly at the thought. I knew why father wanted to leave, they had been slaves on a mining colony for a powerful merchant. To escape slavery my father and the other slaves had revolted, killing the merchant and using his ships to escape to a neutral world.
Though it was called a neutral world, the republic and the empire were still fighting over it. It made it a dangerous home, but for a year we got to be free. The older slaves had always said, "We're free, but eventually the Sith will come. The Sith always come."
I hadn't known what a Sith was, so I asked my father. His normally deep red that is common to us Sith Pure-bloods paled to a thin unhealthy pink. "They are extremely powerful and dangerous people, they control the empire and everyone who lives in it. If you every meet a sith Maris, either make sure to be very polite or if they haven't seen you yet, run."
Interrupting my thoughts was the sight of my father crashing through the wall next to them. Walking through the breach was a man clad in thick metallic armor, the spilt blood coating the steel colored gleaming in the light of the fading suns above. The armored figure reached out his hand and my father was lifted from his back and into the air. He hung there suspended in the air only briefly before the armored figure laugh darkly, and with a twist of his figures my father's neck gave out a horrid crack and his body fell to the ground lifeless and still.
I threw myself at the man, beating at his leg and sobbing hysterically. He only laughed again, the same cold and terrifying chuckle that had meant my fathers end. I was lifted off of my feet and thrown back into my sisters, the shock of having me crash into them seemed to be enough to wake them from their terror induced detachment. They would have been better off staying away from the reality of the moment.
Their eyes shifted from me to the armored figure and then to the form of our father lying dead on the ground, they stared blankly for a moment before Emily ran to our father. She shuck him, sobbing the whole while, begging and pleading for him to get up, promising to share with her sister, to be the perfect girl for him if would just get up.
I watched in horror as the figure went for my sister, he had only made it a step toward her before being knocked off his feet and propelled out of the building and away from us. I looked to the sound of the new footsteps, a short Twi'lek woman stood only feet from us, her hand outstretched and a blade of blue soft light burning in the other. She looked at us in regret and sympathy before meeting my eyes, "Get your selves to the shuttle, quickly now!"
I nodded to her in a daze as I grabbed Alice's hand and then Emily's, Alice walked along willingly, to in shock from everything that had happened around her to focus on much of anything. Emily however, I had to all but drag her along with me, her crying that I can't leave dad behind. I saw the shuttle the Twi'lek woman had mentioned, it was surrounded by republic troops to busy returning fire to pay a few children any mind.
I got the girls up the shuttles ramp and saw a few of the other freed slaves that had lived in the little makeshift village. Gamma, an elderly human woman was sitting in the back of the shuttle, when she caught sight of us her eyes filled with life and she quickly stood and embraced us.
"Where are you parent's children?"
"Dad didn't make it Gamma, he didn't…" I couldn't say it again, my throat started to tighten on me. To cocked up by the grief and the hopeless of the reality of it all to find any other words for the kindly old woman.
"Where's mommy?" Alice asked, she looked to me as her eyes started to refocus on where she was and what was happening.
"I don't see her in here, have you seen her Gamma?" I look toward the elderly woman who shakes her head, pity filling her expression as she draws the two girls in closer to herself. Most human had always seemed adverse us, but Gamma had never treated us any differently. If our mother was dead, then she was the closest thing to family that the three of us had left out side of each other.
"We can't leave her behind Maris!" Emily was still crying, fighting Gamma's hold on her to try and get back outside of the transport, she had already had to watch as she lost on parent today. I knelt down and hugged them both, "I'll be right back, listen to Gamma alright?"
"You can't child, it's a war zone out there!" The look in Gamma's eyes told me exactly how worried she was, I knew that it may be foolish to run back out when the armored man might still be around, but losing one parent today was already much too much.
"Will you watch them until I get back?" She starred at me in resignation for a long moment before she nodded, and even though the worry was still in her eyes, I could see the spark of pride there as well. "I'll be right back girls, please be brave for me until I get back."
My sisters nodded to me with tears in their eyes as I turned and ran down the shuttles ramp. "Get back here boy! Where in the hell do you think you're going?" I could hear some of the soldiers calling out after me as I ran from the transport and back into the fray.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, I weaved and bolted through the rubble of the small settlement. I stopped for a moment, the body of a friend I had made during the escape from the mining colony was pinned into the concrete wall, half his body gone and the other barely recognizable through the seared and mangled flesh. I wanted to weep for him, but I was starting to run short on tears today, what little I had left would have to be saved for family.
The next houses I looked through were much the same, either empty of all life or makeshift tombs for the dead. When I reached the edge of the small settlement I saw them, the armored giant and the small Twi'lek fought on through the hail of blaster fire that the surrounding soldiers were lobbying at each other. Every time the giant word be close to striking the Twi'lek with his red saber the Twi'lek would cast out her hand and the giant would be blasted by some invisible force and lose his footing, giving the women time enough to slip away and cut another piece of his amour with her blue saber.
"Mom…"
I had finally caught sight of her, she was bound along with I line of other ex-slaves that has lived in the settlement. I tried to make my way around the soldier, hoping that I could get to her without them noticing. That was when I heard the scream, I looked to the fighting pair and saw the Twi'lek woman thrown from the armored giant. She now had a long gash down her right arm, when she tried to get up the republic soldier behind her ran forward and grabbed hold of her. They started to pull her away when the armored man threw his saber at them, it twirled through the air with a horrid sort of grace to it, before it could strike the Twi'lek a soldier through himself in front of the blade.
"Fall back to the shuttle for evac!"
The Soldiers began to fall back into the ruins of the settlement, they were leaving and I was still out here. I began to move quickly to my mother, hoping that I could still get her and get out of here. I only made it a few steps before I was thrown off my feet and onto the hard ground. I turned to see the armored man stalking toward me, is menacing chuckle making me freeze up in fear.
"My, my, what do we have here?" He bent down and grabbed a hold of my neck, lifting me up from the ground and drawing me close to the visor in his helmet. "I remember you, what a brave little slave you are."
"Put him down!"
I turned my head what little I could in his iron grip, my mother had seen me in his grip and was trying to help. "Is this little bit of trash yours?" His echoing laughter was filled with glee and malice.
"You were trying to save her weren't you little slave?" His visor turned toward my mother and said, "Well little slave there's our mother, say goodbye."
He turned me fully in his grip as I watched him throw his saber and impale her through the heart. After that I couldn't tell what was louder, the vile man's laughter, the republic shuttles engines as they flew away to safety overhead, or my own screaming.
I woke up from the dream like I always did, screaming and drenched in a cold sweat. It had been more than a decade now, and I still woke up to most days having to carry-on after reliving it in my dreams every night. Waking up screaming now was rare at least, which was for the best since most slavers and overseers don't tolerate damaged goods very well.
I looked around the large tent, it would have been spacious if not for the it having to house twenty saves when it was only meant to shelter five. All things considered I had been worked on worse digs, my owner before this one had had us building a large monument on Dromund'Kass. The conditions there were a nightmare, slaves were being burned through like kindling, between the wildlife and the constant rain life expectancy on the construction was only a few months.
Our past owner had thought to win himself some favor by gifting some sith with a collection of his "best" slaves. I have no idea whether or not it worked, though I won't deny having the occasional urge to drop some artifact in the hopes of it landing him in a tomb of his own. The small shred of self-preservation I had left kept me swinging my pick in these damn tombs, though recently I was being used more as a trap tester than a digger.
The horn sounded outside the tent signaling it was time for the slaves to get up, get their rations, and get to work. I was already up so I just stood and walk out of the tent, the others grumbling behind me as they started to rise for another day of hard labor.
I caught sight of the station already set up so I moved toward it, a slave overseer was slave that was trusted enough by their masters to operate the day to day affairs of the slaves beneath them. If the slave overseers proved to be useful enough they could one day be freed or allowed to save their own money to eventually buy themselves. It had the habit of making them ruthless toward the slaves beneath them though, so eager for freedom that they'd drive the rest of use to an early grave if it got them there.
Beside the slave overseer was a large pile of bags, our rations for the day and the masks to ensure we didn't breath in too much of the dust inside the caves. The ones that had come with me from Dromund'Kass had praised our new "master" for his thoughtfulness, but I had figured he just didn't want to waste slaves while it was cheaper to keep us alive than to buy new ones. "Let's see if they still think he's thoughtful if the situation reverses."
"Number?"
"You know my damn number Kais, just give me my food and my place to work and I can get to trying not to be squished by some damn rock trap, again."
Kais scuffed at me and motioned for the man standing behind me, I rotted my teeth as the long whip slashed down across my back. Over the last month I had noticed Kais was quick to answer impudence with pain, though my previous overseer had always answered it by stringing up the offender and whipping them close to death before then doubling their workload and halving their rations. It was meant to make an example, he was not happy with me after I lived through his little excise in public torture.
Compared to that bastard Kais was downright pleasant, if you could learn to ignore the arrogance that bled from his mouth every time that he spoke.
"Here smart ass, you're working on the first entrance into the inner passages today. We lost two springers on it yesterday and I'm not about to report we fell behind."
I grabbed the bag the Kais handed me and left toward the tomb. Darth Lear I think was who they said was buried here, not that it mattered all that much to me. I pulled out the some of the stale bread form the bag and kept walking through the tomb into the lower portion of the passages. By the time I arrived at the entrance to the inner passages I had already burned through half of my rations for the day and finished nearly half my canteen. I'll need to be careful not to run out before the tonight.
I slung the pack over my shoulder and got to work, if this tomb was anything to go by then these ancient Sith lords paranoid to an absurd extreme. Traps triggered every few feet in the upper levels, most were simple arrow or dart traps, not much of a threat to a sith but more than enough to lose us two or three people a day. Though I suppose the people who built these tombs cared as little about the lives of slaves, as the people sending us in here to die did.
The first two traps had already been triggered, the blood staining the floor and the walls were a testament to the lethal quality of the traps placed in the inner catacombs. I would like to think it was stealth of skill that made me a decent springer, but in reality it was using my head. The ground around most of these traps had been distorted by time, whether it was the pressure of the spring's tension cracking the stone around it or the stone slipping down on inch or so as the metal rusted and aged.
Using my head allowed me to survive down here, I noticed the next trap, a piece of slightly lower stone the floor around it, I picked up a stone from the floor and threw it on top of the slipping brick. The corridor in front of me was swallowed in large torrents of flame. The heat was made me feel as if I was burning alive in the narrow corridor, luckily it faded away quickly. I pulled out the most recent map of the corridor from my bag and marked the traps location and a brief sketch of the passages behind me.
The next several hours were spent much the same, I had lost track of time down here. I checked the small watch they placed in the bags of springers and shift leaders, it was so they could know when to return and to keep track of how long it took to reach a given place for notes on a tombs size.
I was about to turn around and make for the surface as it was already past the time I should have turned around my more than an hour, when I felt a jolt of electricity run down my spine.
I turned quietly behind me, the passage was empty, but my heart was bounding now. I took a step forward and felt the sensation run down my spine, only this time it didn't fade. There was a small part of my sensible side screaming at me to turn and run, these Sith tombs couldn't hold anything good in them for a slave like me.
I couldn't bring myself to listen, the feeling of being drawn in was to intoxication. The thundering of my heart echoed in my ears as I turned a corner and came up to a vault. The sarcophagus of the Sith lord was in the center of the large open room. The ceiling vaulted and high, beams of fading sunlight pored through small slits in the rooms ceiling. It wasn't the coffin that really drew my attention however, it was the platform above it. I walked up the carved staircase to the top of the platform, and there was the source of the feeling.
A small triangular box, glowing softly as the runes carved into it pulsated quicker with every step closer I took. I reached out, to in awe of the sight before me to give my actions the second thought they ought to require.
The box opened slightly before it gave off an intense flash of light, I found myself suspended above the ground, facing an ancient holographic image.
"To the one that was managed to arrive at my tomb, know that you have not arrived here by chance or random happenstance. Only those deemed worthy may walk the hallowed ground that is the resting place of Darth Lear." The hologram threw out his hands, gesturing to the carefully constructed room crypt of the ancient Sith lord.
"To all those deemed unworthy, they will see but a passage leading to a pile of gold and silver. Let them take their paltry gains and flee in ignorance of their failings. You however, apprentice, for that is what you now are, no matter if you are a Darth or a lowly Lord, are now the apprentice of Darth Lear, rejoice at the fortune destiny has bestowed upon you child."
I couldn't help but sneer at his image, what "fortune of destiny"? I was held in midair and forced to listen to some ancient crazy hologram as he ranted and razed about how great he once was. Not to mention the "apprentice" part of it all, I don't see how a dead man plans to take an apprentice, though I would love to see this "all powerful" Sith's expression if he knew he was talking to a slave right now.
"For what you have found here apprentice is not the knowledge of my techniques, or the secrets of my accent. No, what I have left here is so much more. I have left my very power in the force contained within this holocron. Now hold still, the holocron will have to read the depth of your force sensitivity to determine how best to gift to you my power."
Well that shouldn't take very long, I was the farthest thing from force sensitive that one could get. My sisters had been, at least to a small degree, force sensitive. I was like my father though, not even remotely force sensitive. It was unusual for a Sith Pure-blood to show no sensitivity what-so-ever, but my father had explained that was just how all the men in our family had always been.
The holocron glowed brighter and the room began to echo with a high-pitched hum, then the pain set in.
It was excruciating, like my body was being torn apart from the inside. I could feel the sensation of electricity building up throughout my body, burning and crackling like a living flame bents on reducing me to ash. All at once the feeling was gone, leaving behind a throbbing and ache that extended over the whole of my being.
Then struck, all in a single moment the electricity I felt building up in my body stormed through me and scorched the ground bellow me and the singed the very air. I must have looked like a solid ball of lightening at the moment before the roaring torrent ended. The silence that followed was deafening, the roaring crackle of countless strikes of lightening added to nothing but the sound of my struggles to breath and the holocron's slowing but steady hum.
"It would seem that some kind of seal or curse was in place, though through the power of Darth Lear it has been swept aside. Rejoice apprentice, for today truly is your most fortuitous of moments. Now that the holocron has the information it needs, we will begin."
I looked up sharply in horror over the holograms proclamation. I don't know what is worse, that I was force sensitive all this time and some kind of curse how robed it from me, or that I was going to have to suffer through more of the pain that I had just barely survived. "Wait, surely there is some else better suited to be your apprentice."
"These are my last words to you apprentice, take form here what you wish. For all that lies here forgotten, is now yours. Take it, and with it bring glory to the name of your great master."
As he finished speaking lightening shot from the holocron in into me, I had thought there would be a horrendous pain accompanying it. All I felt though was a gentle warmth covering me, the light from the holocron slowly fading away with every passing minute. When the holocron finally lost its entire glow and I was dropped to the floor, before slipping in unconsciousness I heard voice gently whisper.
"Welcome home, Son of Kallig"