3.07: ENDGAME: World Asunder
DS Day 291-308
Where: Darkstryder Planet
Sooni stared out across a world of ruin and rubble. He and his co-pilot were awed by the world they had been sent down too. It was a vast maze of bizarre architecture, and ruined streets. Sensors detected the world was thriving with life, but it wasn’t apparent from where Sooni stood.
The Muvon waited for his signal, telling them it was clear. On board, the Farstar scout team was waiting to “hit the beach”. Sooni was proud to be the first, but knew he couldn’t handle this task on his own. The world was immense, strange and overwhelming. Every turn he made, he felt like someone was watching him.
His directional sense seemed impaired as well. This planet didn’t give him a good feeling at all.
After sending the message to the Muvon that he had successfully made his landing, Sooni started making his way around some of the ruins he had landed near. He had spotted some Imperial activity in the center of this city, near an immense fortress. His instincts told him this was where he needed to land the Farstar. He cautiously turned a corner on the southern end of the ruins, to peer across a vast open area of rolling hills. At the top of one of the larger hills were three figures, remotely humanoid. Sooni froze.
The three figures stood holding spears. They seemed canine to some degree, hunched over and unmoving. Realizing they already knew he was there, he stepped out into their view. The three figures were then joined by ten… twenty… thirty others. The hills were peaked by hundreds once they all came into view. Sooni felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead.
Kl’aal’s shadowy figure stood nearby, hidden behind some ruins. One canine figure raised what looked like a staff, glowing magically, then in tandem, they all disappeared behind the hill. Sooni finally breathed, once the aliens were all out of site. He looked at Kl’aal. The Defel shrugged.
An hour later, Sooni had worked his way up to a forested area. There he encountered hand-sized avian creatures that buzzed like insects as the flew. As he listened closer, he realized the buzzing was actually forming words he could understand.
“New ones!! New Ones!! We must report this!!”
As they flew away, Sooni could only whimper “No you don’t have to…”
Two sentient races in less than an day. This was teaming with life.
Several hours later, the Muvon was settling down next to the Defender.
The Scout team fanned out, setting up security measures, and scouting further out than Sooni had. As reports came in, more and more sentient life was being detected.
Samarion encountered a dangerous slime creature with bizarre abilities. Other scouts encountered armor-plated worker beasts in nomadic tribes just south of the landing site. Other non-sentient species were encountered, but all seem to have very strange, almost Jedi-like abilities to one degree or another.
*****
“First Contact is our only option. To find out what and where the Imperials are doing here, we need to contact one or more of the races here.” B’Dorbeck paced the Tactics room, throwing the intelligence reports to the table. “We need an army to take on the Imp presence here, and we may have one right in front of us.” He scanned the others in the rooms. Of course, Gorak was against it, but the others looked convinced.
“Well, Thyte? You feel good about landing?” Adrimetrum asked the scared Bridge Officer
“No, but when has that ever stopped you?”
“Good, then let’s put the final phase of your plan into action. Deploy the Night Terrors to the asteroid, and we’ll follow it in.”
*****
Like a majestic terra-raven, the Farstar gracefully settled down on to the planet’s surface. The Scout teams had returned with more intelligence about the many tribes through out the landscape. They all stood from a distance as their sank to the ground. The dust and smoke cleared, and the crew was well under way, off-loading the supplies and setting up a defensive perimeter.
The epic story of the Farstar crew’s diplomatic contacting of the many races on the Darkstryder planet can be summed up in one phrase: surprisingly peaceful and successful. The races they encountered were varied, but structured, as if constructed for specific purposes. The referred to something called the Darkstryder or the Master, and referred to an long dead species, calling it the Makers or Creators. They became known as the Precursors. Many of the more advanced species on Darkstryder told of a prophecy of the “New Ones”, who would come down to free them of the tyranny of the Darkstryder. When they asked who the Darkstryder was, the answered with ambiguous responses about the Master, the Keeper and the Protector of the Well. They referenced the Fortress, which they immediately knew was where the Empire had set up shop.
*****
Dajus sat peering at the scouting reports of the fortress. Something was calling her to that location, she could feel it all the way to her soul. Her nature and her destiny for the first time where in alignment. However, not for the same reasons.
She was going to meet her destiny, before anything else major happened. The Night Terrors were already putting a plan together to assault the Fortress. The Captain, from what she could tell from the intelligence reports, was convinced this was the source of Darkstryder technology. She and the rest of the command staff thought this was their chance for a stand against Sarne. They thought they had surprise on their side. Dajus knew better. She would head off the blood shed, and get to Sarne before the rest did. It could be all over before it started, she thought.
It’s almost too perfect.
*****
Perfect!!
The Captain already had too much to worry about when she was told the Loh’Khar had escaped. She had forgotten about the Twi’lek, giving him just enough time to plot an escape. He had help, as the surveillance camera’s revealed. Someone in a cloak opened the doors. Someone who knew things about Farstar security.
It was one of many things she had to worry about. The Diplomat had worked with many of alien species and was able to forge a deal for help from a tunneling species. This race of worm-like creatures agreed to help a small team to infiltrate the Fortress from underneath, while two larger teams would assault the front door. However, she simply did not have the man-power for a frontal assault. She needed more.
As if on cue, the diplomat came rushing into tactics. ” Captain, you need to see this…” He waited for her to move.
He escorted her out to a bluff over looking a wide flat plain. On the plain were hundreds of Yapi and Charr Ontee warriors, and tunneling in and out of the hill side, were more Segmi.
“The fruits of my labors. We have allies. The Senior Lieutenant Moyato of the Night Terrors is already planning an assault. We’re not alone in this after all” B’Dorbeck smiled.
She stared, dumbfounded. It was all she could do to keep from crying. She finally spoke, “OK, tell all crew to prep up for an assault. We only need a skeleton crew on the Farstar. This is what we came here for.”
The secret of Darkstryder looked almost like an attainable goal…. almost.
*****
Dajus had walked the entire distance to the Fortress alone… well, not entirely. She was carrying the pyramidal device found on the ferryship, and she also new she was being followed. She knew Hasslock would follow.
Dajus was convinced that she was what Sarne wanted…or what someone else wanted…perhaps this Darkstryder wanted her. The voices she kept hearing called her to this point, telling her that it was her destiny. All that she had learned, all that she had suffered, had led up to this point. Her Master’s voice had joined in the chorus of voices, urging her not to fall for the Dark sides tricks. She was going to face this, once and for all. She would prefer to face it alone, but that’s not how it was going to happen. The Master probably had something to do with that.
Hasslock approached from behind as she viewed the Fortress with her macrobinocs. “What exactly do you intend on doing?”
“Walk right up to the front gate.” She smiled and stood. She was already half way to the Fortress before Hasslock broke from his shock.
“What the hell… It’s a good day to die…”
*****
Gorak did not trust the Fixer one bit, but he did promise him a way off this world, out of this mess, and a way of getting a piece of Chuborro’s business. They had been walking for about a day, and he knew that the Captain would have probably noticed him and the Twi’lek gone by now.
“How much further, Loh’Khar. I am beginning to doubt this whole plan.”
“Not far. My contact said to meet him specifically at these coordinates.”
They came to a large collapsed building. All that was left was a ring of bone-like rock where the wall was once. The Twi’lek stopped and pulled out a small hand scanner.
“This is it. I have to send the signal.” Loh’Khar said.
“Who is this contact, fixer??!” Gorak reached for his whip, suspiciously.
He turned from the Rodian for only a second, then reversed holding a blaster in his hand. “An old friend of yours. Chuborro will be most pleased…”
Before he could finish, a loud crash, and the icy stun of a freeze field knocked Loh’Khar’s blaster from his hand.
*****
Lieutenant Thyte was more than happy to stay on board the Farstar. The others would assault the fortress, in search of Sarne and the Darkstryder secret, and all he had to do was wait. He had orders to take off if there was any design of trouble. He didn’t like that order, but he was prepared to obey it. He had a very small crew aboard, just enough to keep her going in combat. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He watched as the repulsor vehicles and marching soldiers trotted off to the west, towards the fortress.
An hour or so later, trouble raised it’s head.
“Lt. Thyte, we have hostile targets baring down on us from above!!! Twelve, repeat twelve TIE Interceptor fighters!!!” Thanis alerted.
“Tell Gorjaye to get those fighters up and covering our ass!!! Take this thing up, and head for orbit!! We’ll make a fight of it yet!!”
Thyte knew it was too easy.