She knelt in the training room, solitary and feeling as if she would soon die of boredom. She had done this for the past five years since she had first met her new master in the torture chambers of the Sith Academe on Korriban. That day she had been waiting for Overseer Rantic to interrogate the republic SIS agent she had found while completing her final trial.
"Thalia! Why don't you have those tablets I sent you for and where are the other acolytes"?, the overseer demanded.
"S-ss-Sir, I came back with the republic spy that Lord Tytho had asked me to bring in, she told me she had already contacted you... and the other acolytes were destroyed... accidentally".
At this Rantic growled deeply as he advanced on the short, dark haired, human girl."I've never even heard of this Sith. So not only have you failed to complete your final trial but you insult me by lying to my face".
She slowly shrank away from him as he strode forward, fumbling with her practice vibroblade.
"b-bu-but I did wait you told me to do, I've killed countless insurgents and recovered more artifacts than half of imperial intelligence"!
"You've been told the rules, you've failed and now" The lightsaber in his hand buzzes to life as a crackling red blade shoot out of the end."you die"! That's when she passed out.
She woke up in a cold, dark room... no, if I'm going to be telling my story I'm gonna do it as me. Taking in third person is strange. I woke up in a cold dark room. I'm not sure how long I had been there but as soon as I stood up light burst into the room from what seemed to be from everywhere.
"Finally, your awake". That soft feminine voice was all to familiar, it was the same one that had guided me through my trials and told me to find the spy in the slave quarters. Shielding my eyes from the light, I could barely make out her outline. "Thalia... close call that time, try to complete your first task before you start on the next, I hardly had time to enjoy killing that overseer."
"B-bb-but my lord, y-you told me it could wait".
"Oh, yes, I did say that didn't I? Well i said it could, not that it should. Listen closely dear, else you'll never make it".
By this time my eyes had adjusted and I could see the scarlet eyes of the sith lord who had taken it as her personal challenge to make me a powerful, well informed and miserable acolyte. She used the force to pick me up by the back of my robes, like a mother cathhound to its pup.
"Now that you've 'graduated' from the academe, I've decided to make you my apprentice".
As I heard this I fell back to my knees ' oh gods, shes gonna work me to death'. "Now, now none of that...". Suddenly I'm flying through the air towards a stone wall.
I came to my scenes soon enough to bound off the wall and reach for my vibroblade... which was gone.
"looking for this?" I turned towards my new master and wo and behold, there was her blade.
"hmm, no this won't do at all". She grabbed it by the blade and shattered it over her knee.
"W-what am I s-s-suppose to use now? I needed that"!
"Ah, there's your problem always to focused on needs and what must be done and when you have to do it... you'll never get to be a sith lord like that. By the way, that stutter, it's cute but its gotta go if I'm not going to be killing you".
That was my first day as the apprentice of Lord Tytho. Since then, I've been waiting in that same room, swinging around the remains of my vibroblade... I named it Seplic, after an older initiate that I had had a crush on. Before you assume anything, no, I ended up having to kill him and feed him to a pack of starved jawas. Don't ask. I've trained, meditated, slept, briefly sang, till a voice on the speaker said I sounded nice, which promptly put an end to that ever happening again and spared by my self. There was little to do and less way to tell time.
When the door finally opened a tinny cathar boy. He ran up to me and I looked down to him."hello mama, I'm Davir, Lord Tytho asked me to bring you to her. If you could follow me I'll..." and that's when i grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground. The poor boy was so light I didn't need to use the force
"tell me the directions to where she is... please" I cocked my head sideways before the last word. Under my vice-like grip, he could barely manage to tell me to take two rights then a left at the first door." Thank you very much" he dropped like a bag of sand when I let him go, coughing heavily. He got up quickly and ran to show me the way, but as he passed me, I jammed the broken end of Seplic into his chest. His eyes glossed over before he hit the ground. I was in no mood for company.
Her door was locked when I got there, of course she locked it, why wouldn't she lock the door after sending for me? The speaker on key pad besides the door made a static sound as Tytho's voice cleared out.
"Hello dear, how was your alone time and where is Davir? I told him not to let you kill him, but that's besides the point. If you'll drop the vibro-shank, I'll let you in".
A moment later and I was in her chambers. The room was mid-sized, with selves covered in blasters, rifles and more than a dozen lightsabers. She sat at her desk at the opposite end of the room, clad in her usual purple robes with the gaudy pink scarf around her neck. She gestured towards the chair facing her."Come, sit down, we have so much to talk about".
So we sat and I... endured her attempt at small talk.
"How was your room"? 'My prison cell was horrible' I thought, what I said was closer to "I-it was lovely master, b-bb-but could we not..."
"I know it's a bit bare now, but I'm still working on refurnishing the place after I cleared out the garbage from its last occupant".
"Th-thank you ma-am, but...",
" I've been trying to decide what color to paint the room, what do you think of pink"?
'I think if you paint my room pink and leave me in it for that long again, I'll go insane'. "Um... well I'm not..."
"you'll love it, trust me, good thing too their may be a lot of time between jobs".
'Oh gods no'!
By this time I gave up being part of the conversation and let my mind wonder, inspection the strange decor around the room.
"Are you paying attention"?
'oh shit' "yes master" my eyes snapped back to her.
"you're obviously not a fan of interior decoration, so lets skip to the business"
'finally'!
"Your first assignment is on Dromund Kaas, I need you to bring me the head of the mandalorian bounty hunter that killed my last apprentice, I'll brief you on his location when you arrive at the space port".
"master"?
" yes my apprentice"?
"I'm going to need a new weapon".
She smiled broadly at this and walked over to a shelf.
"Are you familiar with the use of a blaster"?
"Y-yes ma-am, b-but...",
" a lightsaber of course, but I find that in a pinch its nice to have something less expected". She lifted a heavy blaster pistol of of the shelf.
"I'm thinking an Arkanian custom blaster would suit you best, I've tinkered with it a bit, improved energy cell, beam splitter, oh and watch the trigger, its a bit touchy".
"Thank you ma-am, but...".
"Yes, yes I haven't forgotten, your lightsaber". She walked over to a display case and selected an odd piece. The lightsaber was rather ornate; Dura-steel straight grip, with an complex wire cup guard over the handle made of a material that I didn't recognize.
"This is Laatste lied. I think you'll like its current augmentations, but you can change it as you see fit".
She handed me the decorative hilt and I activated it, after a short amount of fumbling. The thin, violet blade shot out, pulsating with a radiant heat, but there was something else, a draining feeling. Lord Tytho turned her back to me,
"Like most lightsabers, it has three crystals, yours uses a compressed synth-crystal for its color and composition as well as a Barab ingot to amplify its heat. What makes it special however is what caused its last user to fall. It was constructed with an Afvoer as a power crystal. Usually these are used for their color, but when they're connected as the power source they don't just feed off the force around you, they feed off you, and your opponents. As long as the blade is activated, it will weaken you".
I quickly closed the blade, I could already feel fatigue from the little I'd used it. "I'm hoping the use of will lessen your reliance on lightsaber combat, though should it come to that, you don't need to worry about your hand, the guard is made of songsteel, its expensive, but lightsabers won't damage it".
Ma-am, m-maybe a less...",
"No, I'm sure it won't steal all of your strength before you finish your opponent, have some faith in your self dear. Besides the effects aren't permanent, you'll recover quick, now get to the shuttle, their going to be leaving soon and I want you on the next one out. We'll work on your outfit when you get back".
"Um.. I don't know how to leave, and whats wrong with my...".
"Oh, yes that, roam around, you'll find it. Its the big lift".
After hours of roaming, I found the lift, one of what seemed to be hundreds by the way. The harsh desert sun stung my eyes as I stepped out of the tomb that my master had concealed her stronghold in. As my eyes adjusted to the bright light, I didn't see the speeder in time. The next thing I could remember, the red sky was spinning around a blue figure, a head with two lekku. As my eyes came into focus, I could see a pair of violet eyes. Beneath them were blue lips, which were moving as if to shout, but I could barely hear a whisper. Then that came into focus too.
"Miss, can ya' hear me"?
I nodded sluggishly as I tried to sit up and assess my situation. 'I must have hit my head, but my leg felt... odd'.So I looked down. The bone was out... far out. For reasons I still don't understand, that was just the funniest thing, making me laugh lightly before I fainted.
In ways of places to wake up after something as freaky as that go, this place was pretty bad. It looked like a ships med-bay. I figured this out by looking at the med-bay sign above the only door. The room was mostly clean, with a Kolto tank across the room from the bed I was in. Not in, shackled to, I shook the manacles to confirm the feeling. I looked down to see that's not the only thing that changed about my arms. There was also a kolto drip connecting to the vein inside my right elbow.
'Enough putting it off, we need to look down again'
.My left leg was in a splint made of scrap dura-steel and synth-cord. Just as I was about to reach for my lightsaber, the door opened and a blue twi'lek man walked in. I sat up as far as my restraints would allow and put on my best terrified act, which wasn't entirely an act.
"Now, now. no need to be so scared miss, it's just that when ah' brought ya here these sorta fell out'a your robes".
He pulled Laatste lied, and my blaster out of a rough canvas bag at his waste. I shifted myself so I was sitting my knees under my chin and back against the head board of the bed. The handcuffs prevented me from hugging my knees like I usually do when I'm stressed out. This sight clearly pained him, I could see the guilt written all over his face.
"So ah' figure ya came here ta steal some old sith junk like us, right"?
"I'm j-just looking for stuff to buy food. K-korriban is a hard place to live, I'm not looking for trouble, p-promise".
'Damn it thals, why didn't you loose the imperial accent'?!
"So... hearin' you talk now, sounds more like your an escaped slave...".
'oh good an out'.
I turned up the terrified look from a shaking to a cornered animal.
"please! d-dd-don't take me back, th-they'll kill me... or worse"!
"Now don' ya worry, ah'd never do somethin' like that, those nerve burners in the academy are crazier than a rabid tonkie".
I relaxed back into the seat I was in before and again tried to hug my knees in, both to ease myself and to drive home the guilt to get him to unshackle me.
"let's get those off of you, then I can show you around the ship... if your ready".
"o-ok".
After he unlocked the handcuffs, he picked me up off the bed, "Let's not have ya put any weight on that just yet".
He carried me through the ship, introducing me to the crew. We met Joeci, a Zebrak woman, in the engine room. She was the mechanic. Farin, a massive dark skinned man, who's job tittle was simply put as 'the muscle' was found in the hall way leading to the mess hall and great room where I was introduced to Petra.
"Well hi there little lady". Petra leaned in so our faces where only a hands width apart. Startled I shrank into my carrier's arm and hugged him to distance my self from her.
It's not that she was particularly frightening, she must have been four foot ten inches at the most. The strangest thing about Petra were her eyes. They were all diferent colors, like kaleidoscopes. The colors kept moving and changing. Besides this, she was clearly human.
"Oh, come on Petra, she spooks easy"!
" ah come on captain, don't you tell me your not liking being so close to her"
She wiggled her eyebrows with a pointed look at how tight I clung to him, so I flailed to get him to put me down.
"Quit that, ya shouldn' have weight on that foot".
As he wrestled to keep me up, his hand landed on my chest. Realizing what he has grabbing, his eyes went wide and his face went a deep shade of blue.
Three things happened in the next few seconds. First Petra fell down laughing, then I slapped him and he dropped me. Searing pain lanced through my leg and and I screamed. I'd planed to do most of that, save the accidental grop, but that high pitched scream, that was all to real. Petra stopped laughing immediately and suddenly I was surrounded by the crew members I'd met.
"Oh poodoo! Ah'm so sorry"!
I stayed there for a long moment trying to calm the pain.
"Hey petra, go get the Kolto drip".
'Hmm, maybe?... no I need to be lucid'.
"N-no... j-just give me a m-minute".
Petra whispered " Didn' know she could talk...".
After the pain went back down to a dull ache, I nodded and he picked me up and set me on a soft couch bolted to the wall of the main room.
"So now that ya know all'a our names, how 'bout ya tell us yours"?
'think Thals! tell them anything, anything but the truth'!
"M-my name is Thalia, but I still don't know your name". I looked at the tall twi'lek man that had hit me with his speeder.
"Well course you do, Everybody knows it, though they don' know its mine". He turns and grins "I'm Captain Dasi'l the typhoon".
He was obviously very proud of his name, as his crew all cheered hearing it.
'Time for some revenge'. "Never heard of you". I stated with the greatest sabacc face possible. Of course I knew him, he was infamous for his raid of the Grand Republic Station over Illum. His ship wreaked havoc for all of ten minutes and left without a trace, save the looted super station with a blue D marked on top and millions of credits worth of stolen goods dispersing.
At that remark he looked aghast at me.
"Ya never heard ah' me? Guess the don' tell their slaves anythin' at all". Petra punched him in the arm.
"Why didn' ya tell me she was a slave to those monsters"?
"Sorry Petra, I'll give ya a heads up next time".
Farin stepped forward and picked up petra before the tiny woman had a chance to attack Dasi'l and quickly jogged of. I could still hear Petra shouting something in twi'lek even after they were gone.
"So... now that we'er all familiar and tha' such, where you headed now? I doubt you wanna stay on korriban".
"I've got an aunt on Dromund Kaas that I had planned to stay with once I could stow away on one of the leaving shuttles".
"Dromund Kaas? Are you crazy? An escaped slave that wants to go to tha imperial capital? You'd be better of just walkin' back into the academy". I flinched at this, not just to keep up appearances but because I genuinely feared going back. Dasi'l sat down on one side of me and put an arm around my shoulders.
"How about ah' make you an offer? Stay on my ship fer a while, just till the sith can assume yer dead, then I'll take ya to Dromund Kaas if ya still wanna go. Deal"?
I looked up at him and I was about to say no, across the room Joeci interrupted
"Are you serious Captain? She's afraid of her own shadow, we can't keep her on the ship, she's dead weight"!
In that second my mind was made up. I'm gonna be a pirate for a while, just to spite her.
I grabbed my heavy blaster and Laatste lied out of the bag at Dosi'l's hip, jamming the pistol into the holster under my armpit and the lightsaber into the clip at my waste.
"I'm no light weight, I can hold my own against most sith acolytes"!
'damn it Thals stop showing off'!
Joeci grabbed the handle of the scatter gun at her back and I kept my hand on my blaster.
" Hey! None ah that".
He jumped in between us and held up his hands. I could see her hand tense as she was about to draw, when Petra charged in screaming,
"Tal'kan chii" and tackled Dasi'l. Joeci let go of her scatter gun and bust up laughing. I relaxed,
'not getting shot today, that's nice'.
A while latter, after Petra was done, Dasi'l continued the tour of the ship. The men's crew quarters were to the left of the women's, where I'd stay. While I was told that the two were identical, I wasn't allowed to go in the men's area.
"It's not cause it's better than the other, its cause ah don' want to walk in on people... mixin' like that on the ship".
We walked past the Captains Quarters with out any comment, he made a point of not looking at me for a bit after that. When we arrived at the cockpit, I looked from the hyper-drive control panel to the manual fighter controls.
"What kind of ship is this"?
"This here is a costume stock light Freighter class Anti-Orbital XS Shoi Tu, but I call her Betona".
"alright were next"?
"That would be telling Thalia". He set me down in a chair, strapped me in, then seated himself and hit the intercom button.
"Ok everyone, strap down and hang on, we're goin' in'ta Hyperspace".
After a few hours, we came out of hiperspace with Umbara in the distance. I've heard rumors of the strange Shadow world, that the people were highly advanced. So much so that if they applied their technology to either side of the war effort, the winner would be decided. So far as I've heard both sides diplomatic and militaristic advances have been met with massive planet to orbit plasma bolts that sliced through defensive shields as if they weren't there.
Flag ships from both sides were met like this. No warnings, no communication. Just more space debris. Through the front window we could see the decimated shells of ships and an corpses flouting bloated and gored. Petra entered the cockpit
"Move over Daisy, this is my job".
"at's Captin Daisy to you".
Petra took her place at the pilots chair, "yeah... riiiight".
We dodged most of the space junk by inches and only got hit once, making Petra chuckle. The rest of the crew came into the cockpit,
"Oi Petra! you tying to kill us"!
Ferin's voice was booming and loud, but not angry, he had more of a 'joking but I'll throttle you' kind of tone.
"ya know she likes to have 'er fun Ferin, besides, she loves herself to much to kill us all".
"Your damn right I do".