Star Wars : The New Sith Crisis

Plight

Rorn stepped into the large room and switched the lights on . He reached out in the Force and shoved a lever forward causing the far wall to rise silently . A long line of droids awaited his choosing . Armed with lightsabers, machetes, chains, blasters, every sort of weapon , the droids were deadly in their brutal simplicity . Rorn studied the linei=up for a second and walked to a panel on the wall and keyed in several commands . Several droids activated and leaped forward, their savagely glowing sensors searching for an opponent . Rorn walked away from the wall and pulled out his lightsaber , activating a single sapphire blue blade . Immediately , the droids recognized this threat and jumped to surround the Jedi .The droids were monsterous affairs, capable of killing normal men in seconds and Rorn was fighting four . Mentall, Rorn nick-named them according to their weapons . Machete, chain , club, and katana , the droids reflexes were programmed to be faster than Zabrak reflexes, but Rorn was aided by the Force . He fingered the safety over-ride control, hanging from his belt . He would need to use it, if the droids seemed to be getting the upper-hand, or so Luke had told him when assigning him this excercise . Chain advanced slowly, its weapon swinging in a leasurely circle, and then it attacked . Chain swinging in a blur of steel metal, the droid went down on one knee and struck upwards . Rorn went into the Tera Kasi defensive position known as " Hiding Tortoise " and the chain whistled harmlessly over his head . He then used a form called " Rancor rising" and his lightsaber cut up between Chain's legs and up through his head . The droid fell apart, even as Katana feinted into the battle . Rorn flipped over behind the droid, avoiding the upwards stab easily and cut down-wards, knicking the armor on Katana's left shoulder . As he landed, Katana whirled, his blade coming in low, hissing through the air . Rorn hopped ove it and his lightsaber spun in his hands, cutting through Katana's head and rendering the droid in-operable . As the remaining two droids, Club and Machete, stalked toward him, Rorn took a deep breath and de-activated his lightsaber . Placing it on the floor, he shoved it away with his foot . Club and Machete did not hesitate like their predecessors , but rushed at the Zabrak in an all-out attack . Rorn leaped over the first assailant and landed on the second's shoulders, where he released a flurry of punces at its head . Machete ran back and swiped at the Jedi atop his perch on Club's shoulders . Laughing at the classic trick, Rorn flipped from Club's shoulders and let the machete hack into the cudgel-bearing droid's head . Machete pulled back, his weapon glistening with oil and mechnical lubricants, and started toward the agile Jedi, who was now ready in a fighting crouch, all traces of humor gone from his face . Machete raised his weapon arm , ready to swing and Rorn struck, leaping upwards in a one-two kick that shattered Machete's visual sensors and over-loaded his circuits . Rorn stepped back as the tall droid fell with a electronic whine , and then his attention was drawn toward the far wall . Something was drawing him toward it . Stepping slowly, Rorn walked toward it . As he drew up to the wall, something caught his attention . A beeping sound, muffled by the layers of stone and durasteel that formed the wall, gaining in pitch and intensity . Rorn mused over this for an instant and his face blanched in horror as he heard another noise, the sound of a detonater . Leaping back from the wall, Rorn wrapped himself in a defensive Force blanket, just as the wall exploded in a huge flash of light, fire and shrapnel . Rorn absorbed the energy of the explosion, wincing as the shards of metal and stone struck him and then as he hit the floor . He used the energy to heal his wounds and calm his screaming nerves, even as he stood and gasped at the authors of the explosion . Menacing , gleaming battle droids stepped through the crater in the wall and surveyed the destruction they had created . Rorn glanced around for his lightsaber but didn't see it , closing his eyes, the Jedi held out his hand and visualized his lightsaber in it . A second later, Rorn felt its familiar weight and cool textures , flicking both blades on, he opened his eyes . The droids at the wall, suddenly focused on him, their beady red sensor/eyes whirling like a holo-camera lense being focused and they began to approach . Rorn felt for Luke and sent him a message . Luke, strange droids have blasted their way into the lightsaber training arena . Get help, QUICK ! He gasped as the leading droids reached to their left wrist and de-tached metal cylinders, which instanly ignited to become . . . lightsabers . Rorn gulped as the emotiom-less killing machines came closer , each activating a lightsaber as they recognized Rorn as a enemy . He glanced to his side nervously as Don came up to his side, his purple lightsaber, ready for combat . " Luke's getting some more of the knights to come and help, but I dont think we can hold them for long ." He said quietly ," There's thousands of them according to the sensors ." Rorn gaped at the approaching droids," Someone must have had a lot of dough to blow and all on us . I'm flattered ." He joked, trying to lighten the moment . " It was not meant to be flattering . It was meant to get the job done . " a familiar voice said . Rorn turned and stared at a life size hologram of Ric Gronard ." These droids will destroy every last Jedi on Yavin 4 . Nothing will standin their way, not even the famous Luke Skywalker . Lightsabers cannot stop them and neither will the piti-ful blasters ." Rorn snorted angrily as the holo-image faded, laughing the entire time . The legion of droids raised their lightsabers and attacked , all at the same instant . Rorn shoved Don back through the door and slammed his hand down on the over-ride controls , locking it and releasing the cortosis ore inner door on the other side of the blast door . He then sent out a crushing wave in the Force , knocking the entire first wave of droids onto their backs . Rorn ran then, dodging blaster bolts from the blasters that had appeared in the droid's hands that weren't carrying lightsabers . He somer-saulted under a burst of blasts that struck in front of him and leaped through the last door . Shutting the door , Rorn locked down the practice arena with the cortosis ore doors and the outer blast doors . Nothing could get out in now . This was not an invasion, it was an infestation of deadly insects. Rorn felt the pounding on the door, the heavy metal vibrating with the force of the blows . Blaster fire, the humm of lightsabers and the buzz of droids speaking filled the comm . Rorn activated a holo-cam and blanched at the sight of what the droids were doing to Luke's lightsaber arena . The entire room was destroyed, only thing still standing were the walls and the droids . " Oh , Luke's gonna kill me ." Rorn groaned . Hearing a slight sound he whirled and came face to face with another Jedi . Raki was an asian Jedi, about five feet tall, and not very intimidating , but looks were deceiving as this little Jedi had taken third place in a lightsaber tournament , set up by the students . " What is the problem . Where is the danger ?" he said, his Basic running together and hard to understand . Rorn pointed at the small surveilance screen and began to walk toward the small armory . " Ahh, Luke is going to kill you for locking them in there ." Raki said, before running after Rorn .

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Luke motioned a small group of experienced Jedi toward the lightsaber arena, while directing the majority of the Jedi to travel to the Catacombs , as he had nick-named his bunkers under the other temples . He watched as they boarded the speeders and took off, most of them needing to stay behing until the speeders came back . His fingers ran slowly over his lightsaber, not even knowing he was doing it, he raised the lightsaber and fingered the activation stud, releasing the glowing green blade . The senior Jedi stared at his weapon even as he heard the steady stomp of marching through the jungle . He felt a flicker of danger just as the Force began to guide him and he let it take control, his lightsaber moving with im-perceptible speed to his back and deflecting an blaster shot . Luke whirled to see a huge wave of red and silver droids marching out of the jungle, blasters in one hand and ........ lightsabers in the other . Luke had never seen droids like these before, let alone with lightsabers . The droids were not tall, being almost six feet in height and were not very big, but Luke had learned a long time ago that size means nothing to strength . The droids moved with a slithering grace that far under-estimated their deadliness . Luke glanced to the side and then back and screamed out a desperate ," NO ! " as a eager young Jedi trainee bounded down the stone stairs . An entire rank of droids turned toward the charging trainee and charged right at him . Luke turned his eyes away as the eager young Jedi disappeared under a sea of chopping red lasers . Luke raised his lightsaber and screamed out a challenge at the droids, his anger taking over for an instant ( And this is where he raises his sword and yells, " For Ireland " . HEE HEE, I couldn't resist ) , before leaping down the stairs in the midst of the Jedi , yearning for revenge . HIs lightsaber struck into a droid and winked off . Luke stared at the blackened hilt for an instant , with a weird feeling of deja vu . ( Is that how that's spelled ? ) The senior Jedi re-activated his lightsaber just as to his side someone yelled, " They've got cortosis ore armor . Aim high ."

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Rorn dashed toward the main entrance , Raki at his side . Raki drew out his weapons of choice as Rorn readied his double-bladed lightsaber , and they both leaped through the door into the crowds of swarming droids . As the image of the battling droids registered in his mind, he shook his head and muttered ," Ah dang . " and entered the fray . Rorn heard ," . . . armor . Aim high ." And he relayed the message to Raki who was juggling three lightsabers, blocking every blaster bolt that came to him and sending it straight back . His uniqe style was just that, uniqe . No one else had even tried it, not wanting to mess around with death . Rorn stopped for an instant and wathed the three blade twirl in their deadly dance . Red, blue and green, all twisting together, never touching for Raki's tosses were perfect . Rorn felt danger behind him, and spun, his lightsaber cutting into a droid and then winking out .The Zabrak re-activated the blade even as he twirled the lightsaber and stabbed into the place where the armor had been cut away . The droid fell, one out of thousands . He could feel the anxiety of his fellow Jedi even as Luke waved a hand and shouted for everyone to retreat to the speeders . Luke choked back a sob as he counted the re-maining Jedi, less than half of those who had been there in the beginning, were there now . He shook his lightsaber angrily at the still approaching droids , there were a few gaps and holes in their defenses now but their attack was still coming strong . "Everyone to the Catacombs . We can make a better defense from there . " Luke shouted , making sure that all of the Jedi heard him . He leaped up into a large snow-speeder, piloted by a Jedi and hoisted several more up with him, then Luke dropped back down, his lightsaber cutting through the front of a droid's head, before shorting out . His eyes darted upwards as a X-wing and Rorn's bladecraft shot out of the hangar and began to pummel the droids with their blaster cannons . Droids were being destroyed left and right, but still more came . Luke could feel Don's presence in the X-wing and he mentally told the trainee to follow Rorn to the hidden tunnels . Don acknowledged, but before he left, Don fired several more shots at the droids, including a concussion missile into the droids at the tree-line . The explosion wiped out about twelve droids . Rorn not to be beat, fired a long burst of ion cannon fire, into the droids, dropping about thirty . And then they both flew toward the opposite direction to the other temple, so as not to lead the droids to it . A futile gesture maybe, but Luke was glad to see it . He leaped onto the last speeder bike as it pulled out, deflecting the laser fire directed at the by the droids .

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Ric walked into the Jedi Temple, his lips rising in a silent snarl at the thought of only a few Jedi had died . The droids had performed better than expected however, taking over the entire Jedi Temple was not something he had fore seen in the near-future . He tensed as he hear a shout and then relaxed as he recognized Darth Rakar's penetrating voice . " We have found one , Gronard . Come, he is no Jedi . " Ric lunged back out the door and leaped up onto the stone wall, his claws, imbedding into the stone and he climbed, looking like a huge evil spider . Reaching the top, Ric vaulted over just in time to see a young humanoid alien hurl a droid at Rakar , and impale another on his icy blue lightsaber . Ric recognized the alien as a Cathar and the impulses of Force energy radiating out from the alien as Dark Side . He raised a hand and summoned the alien's lightsaber to it . The Cathar didn't hesitate, but pulled out another, activating a green blade . Ric grimaced, Didn't this kid know how to make a lightsaber with real color ? He motioned and his multi-weapon slithered into his hand even as Rakar activated his lightsabers . The Cathar stopped as he saw the crimson blades and then he felt the Dark Side, intertwined around the two . " I am Hyrinin , Apprentice to the Dark Side . Who are you ." he asked, his show of bravado, not very convincing . Ric grinned, his fangs in full sight and said " Ric Gronard , Dark Lord of the Sith ." Rakar floated forward a bit and said his own name ," Darth Rakar , Dark Lord of the Sith ." And then Ric asked the question that was bothering him , " Why are you here at the Jedi Temple if you are a Dark Side user ? " Hyrinin glanced warily at the two and slowly answered ," I came for lightsabers . I had none of my own and no knowledge as how to make them . I have been here for nearly a year, keeping my existence a secret and only sstealing supplies when necassary . " Ric nodded thoughtfully just as Hyrinin screamed " Look out ! " and lunged forward, his lightsaber intercepting a blaster bolt headed for the side of Ric's head . Ric grinned inwardly, he had felt the laser coming but had decided to give Hyrinin and Rakar a show of his healing abilities . Hyrinin bared his own formidable fangs as he noticed Ric's un-impressed expression ." Well you can stay around, but keep out of my way ." Ric told him , before starting to descend the long flight of stairs leading to the ground .

Posted by Nate at August 9, 2004 08:35 PM