"Three"
"two"
"One"
BOOOOOOM!!!
"Impact," Roger announced.
Like it wasn't the most obvious thing in the fucking world. My PAK legs had managed to hold myself steady enough. The moment the ship finally stopped moving, I released my grip on the compartment walls. The ship groaned around us. Sparks rained from exposed wiring.
Bolts groaned from somewhere behind me.
"Ughhh..."
I turned. He slowly pushed himself off the ground, looking like he'd just been personally introduced to every wall inside the ship. Grey scrapes covered his khaki exterior.
"You alive?"
Bolts stared at me.
"...I hate flying." I turned away from him after realizing he was gonna be okay.
Roger had already moved on. Apparently, crashing from the sky wasn't worth discussing. The S.I.R. unit walked calmly toward a wall locker, opened it, and retrieved an Irken plasma rifle. He checked the weapon. Loaded it. Then stood ready.
I resummoned my lightsaber and pistol before walking toward the dimming pilot console. Most of the displays were dead. The ones still functioning flickered weakly. I briefly lowered my pistol and placed it within Bolts' reach.
"Here."
Bolts immediately grabbed it. Then I reached toward the emergency controls. Pressing a button the Windshield suddenly ejected
KABOOM!
The windshield exploded outward. The massive transparent panel launched away from the ship and crashed somewhere outside.
I jumped out onto solid ground once more, saber raised high.
"COME ON THEN! LETS DO THIS!" My voice echoed through the air. I waited. My eyes scanned the wreckage. The trees. The darkness beyond.
I expected the monstrosity to make itself known. To leap from the shadows. To come charging toward me with glowing veins and an energy-draining fist. Nothing happened.
Only the soft, flickering noise of damaged Irken thrusters filled the night.
At least it had stopped raining.
That was something.
Then—
A soft groan broke the silence. My saber immediately shifted toward the sound. Confused, I slowly began walking around the wrecked ship. The ground was torn apart where we'd crashed.
Then I found it. The monstrosity.
The creature's glowing upper body clawed desperately at the ground. Its entire lower half had been crushed beneath my ship. Entrails stretched between the wreckage and its torso. A horrifying trail of exposed organs dragged across the dirt as it tried to pull itself free. Its glowing veins pulsed beneath torn flesh. The monster groaned.
I stared.
Then slowly smiled.
"THIS IS TOO EASY!"
I raised my lightsaber.
Finally.
For once, something was going my way.
I stepped forward and swung.
The creature moved.
Its arm shot upward.
And caught the lightsaber.
I froze.
THE LIGHTSABER.
It was holding my fucking lightsaber.
Its hand wrapped around the glowing blade.
Bright violet energy poured into its palm.
The creature's veins immediately began glowing brighter. I watched in disbelief as bits of its torn torso slowly began to mend itself.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
I immediately deactivated the blade.
The creature's hand closed around empty air.
"THAT'S CHEATING!"
I jumped backward. tempted to shoot it in the skull but worried it would absorb that too!
"Fuck."
I didn't have any kinetic weapons. No shotgun. No conventional rifle. No cannon. Nothing that threw physical objects at high speeds. A glaring weakness in my inventory. One I would absolutely be fixing after this.
I looked down at the creature. It was weakly attempting to pull itself away from the wreckage. Still trapped. Still injured. I summoned one of my PAK legs. The metallic appendage unfolded from behind me. I raised it. Then stabbed downward.
CRUNCH.
The creature's head slammed into the dirt. My PAK leg punched through its leathery skin. But stopped.
Bone.
The metal tip scraped against its skull. Trying again, the creature weakly moved to cover its head. I'd had enough.
Anger and frustration building I empower the spider leg with the force. Force energy flowed through the metallic limb strengthening it. The creature looked up. Its red eyes met mine.
SCHLICK.
It punched clean through its skull. For one second, its fingers twitched.
DING. Necromancer (Lv 6 → 7).
The monster let out one final, wet gasp. Its arms weakly dropped against the dirt. The glow in its veins flickered and faded. The red light vanished from its eyes.
I stared at the corpse. Felt its presence dissipating into the air.
Then slowly raised both arms.
"VICTORY!"
I stood there in the darkness beside my ruined spacecraft, surrounded by smoke and burning trees. Shaking the creatures bodily fluids off my PAK leg before retracting it, I finally looked around. Dawn was beginning to arrive. Far in the distance, faint light slowly pushed through the nightmare consuming Verdara's sky. The horizon had turned a dull grey, struggling to shine through layers of smoke, ash, and cloud. but that was no reason to drop my guard. I still needed to find somewhere to hold out until the fleet arrived to claim the planet.
Luck seemed like it was on our side right now as we seemed to have touched down somewhere barren enough not to be swarming with zombies like the cities, suburbs, and farms....
We were still in a forest though, curse Verdara and its lush forest! getting in the way of seeing anything!
I could potentially repair the ship. With my One with Machines Trait, I could probably restore it faster than any other Irken could manage. But that would still take a few hours, not to mention The Verdaran fleet would most likely shoot us out of the sky again.
Placing my hand on my wrecked ship it suddenly vanished into my inventory. Making the gruesome sight of the flattened monstrosity's lower half even more visible. A mess of crushed flesh and bone. A strange compulsion came over me in the moment and I placed a foot on the monstrosity's head before it too disappeared into my inventory.
...
Who knows? Could be useful.
I summoned seven more B1 battle droids. The last seven in my inventory. They promptly stood up and synced with my PAK. Roger and Bolts watched the entire spectacle from nearby. Neither said anything.
"Orders, Master?" Roger asked.
Dwelling on the situation. The Tallest had told me to hold out for seven rotations. Seven Verdaran days. Technically...That wasn't impossible. Thinking about it maybe having a giant bright pink dome surrounded by complete darkness wasn't the best way to remain unnoticed. That might explain why the base had gotten swarmed at least as fast as it did. Maybe we could find somewhere quieter. Somewhere hidden. Somewhere the zombies wouldn't immediately notice us.
I turned toward Roger.
"Roger, do you know where we crashed by chance?"
"A rough estimate, Master."
"Can you head us away from any population centers?" I gestured vaguely toward the surrounding wilderness. "I have a feeling all these monsters would gun for densely populated areas." I paused. "Thankfully and unfortunately, I'm the only organic in our little group."
"Understood, Master."
Roger saluted. Then pointed in a direction. With nothing better to do, we started walking.
The first few minutes were...
Honestly peaceful.
The sky remained dark and smoky overhead, but dawn was slowly coming out. In the far distance, red beams occasionally descended from orbit. The orbital bombardment was still ongoing. Every distant flash was followed, sometimes minutes later, by a faint rumble.
But around us? Nothing.
Just the sound of our footsteps.
And the rhythmic clanking of cheaply manufactured battle droids walking through the forest.
I was actually beginning to think we might be completely safe.
Then—
A guttural roar echoed through the forest.
Everyone stopped. The sound was distant. But still had that spine tingling effect...
I looked at Roger. Roger looked back at me. Bolts slowly raised his pistol.
"...I vote we walk faster," he said.
"Agreed."
We started jogging. The B1s followed. Their footsteps created a strangely soothing rhythm around me.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
For some reason, it helped calm my nerves.
Maybe because I knew exactly what they were.
Machines. Predictable. Reliable.
Not horribly mutated corpses capable of developing new biological abilities overnight.
This whole experience had me reconsidering becoming a Necromancer....
---
After several minutes, we found it. A cave built into the side of a short cliff. I immediately pointed toward it.
"There."
Nobody argued. We promptly claimed it as our own. I summoned furniture from my inventory and began barricading the entrance.
Tables. Chairs. Cabinets. A couch. The furniture was some of the more tacky stuff i took from Naboo. Honestly, losing it didn't hurt my feelings at all.
The B1s established a defensive perimeter at the cave entrance while Bolts, Roger, and I moved deeper inside. I summoned a few chairs. We sat.
Roger turned toward me.
"Plan, sir?"
I looked at him.
Then looked around the cave.
Then back at Roger.
"Well..."
I leaned back.
"You guys aren't really in any danger, are you?"
The zombies wanted living things. Organic things. The only reason they'd destroyed my previous battle droids was probably because the machines had been getting in their way. Which meant Roger, Bolts, and the B1s were relatively safe. I, unfortunately, was not.
The first possibility entered my mind. I could just leave. Not the planet but the universe. I could jump back to the Star Wars galaxy. The problem was that time appeared to stop in whichever universe I wasn't currently occupying. So seven days wouldn't pass here, I'd have to come back eventually.
But...
If I left and spent enough time preparing, I could return with a functional starship. More battle droids. I could theoretically build an entire fortified position around this cave.
The idea began forming in my head. Then immediately collapsed. Because if I returned with a functional starship...The Verdaran fleet would probably shoot me down again.
Quite the dilemma.
Maybe I could leave. Come back better equipped. Fortify the cave. Hold out. I'd probably need hundreds of battle droids. Unfortunately, despite selling various things throughout the lower levels of Coruscant, I couldn't exactly afford hundreds of decent battle droids.
Eventually, I settled on leaving this universe. Temporarily.
Unfortunately, I would need months—at minimum—to gather enough resources and prepare properly. Realistically I'd need to take advantage of the battle of Geonosis to get thousands of free battle droids....
That's years off though. And just thinking about that gave me a headache. There were wayyyyy too many aliens. And my xenophobia gets stronger with time. Strangely, perhaps because Verdara was part of my assigned mission, I hadn't actually felt much xenophobia toward the Verdarans. I was supposed to be here. They were my targets. My responsibility. My future subjects.
Probably...
Well...
Before the entire civilization turned into zombies.
But the Star Wars galaxy? Jesus Christ. Every second there was another species. Another weird face. Another tentacle-headed politician. An alien with four arms and a language consisting entirely of clicking noises. It was mentally exhausting.
...
Though it had been well over a year since I last returned. And part of me genuinely missed Shaak Ti. She was kind of like a naggy aunt. A very powerful naggy aunt. And, admittedly...It didn't hurt that she was one of the more exotic aliens...I blinked.
I missed Anakin too. Surprisingly. That realization sat strangely in my chest.
Gross.
With my decision finally made, I stood from my chair.
I would leave. Prepare. Gather droids. Then return better equipped.
Roger looked toward me.
"Master?"
I looked at him then Bolts. Then I decided not to explain. There was no point. The moment I left this universe, they would all effectively freeze in time. I would leave and return in the exact same instant. They wouldn't even know I'd been gone. So instead, I simply stood there in the dark cave, staring toward the barricaded entrance.
Thinking about Coruscant.
About the Jedi Temple.
About Shaak Ti.
About Anakin.
About all the annoying aliens I'd have to deal with again.
I sighed.
Then activated my dimensional travel.
---
Elsewhere
Verdaran Dyson Ring
Commander Vin had initially believed the situation on the surface was an exaggeration and under control.
That belief lasted approximately half an hour.
The Dyson Ring surrounding Verdara's sun was the pride of their civilization.
A massive engineering super-structure extending around the star, collecting more energy than the planet could ever realistically consume. Most of that energy was distributed throughout the ring, powering cities, dockyards, orbital infrastructure, and military installations.
A military fortress.
And now—
Thousands of civilian vessels had begun arriving within an hour of the first reports from the surface. Military transports. Private ships. Emergency shuttles. Anything capable of reaching orbit. The Ring's docking bays had been opened to the evacuating public.
"Shuttle unresponsive commander" one of the communications officers announced.
Commander Vin looked up from her terminal.
"Identity?"
"Verdaran. Civilian transport."
"Pull it up" Vin paused.
Her terminal suddenly showed the civilian shuttle, slowly drifting toward the Ring.
It looked damaged. One engine was barely functioning. The hull carried scorch marks. Emergency lights flashed through the cabin windows. It was heading toward one of the rings many docking platforms.
"Get security down there"
After several moments a platoon of 40 men waited in the docking corridor, Vin watched as the shuttle connected with the docking platform. The airlock sealed. Security stood nearby. Nobody knew exactly what had happened on Verdara. The official reports were confusing. Violence. Riots. Mass casualties. Some kind of biological emergency.
The shuttle door opened.
Nothing happened.
"Dyson Military Police! Can anyone hear me?" The platoon leader called out.
Silence.
The interior was dark.
Then something moved.
The platoon leader suddenly rose several inches off the ground. His weapon clattered against the metal floor. He grabbed his throat. A strangled gasp escaped him. The officer's boots kicked uselessly beneath him. His hands clawed desperately at his neck. There was nothing there.
Then—
Exploding from the shuttle doors figures poured into the corridor. The floating officer didn't even have time to understand what was happening. Grotesque bodies slammed into him. Flesh. Teeth. Claws. His torso was torn apart before it hit the floor. His head remained suspended in the air for one horrifying second longer. Then dropped. The corridor erupted.
"CONTACT!"
The remaining thirty-nine soldiers opened fire. Green plasma gun fire illuminated the docking corridor. The infected were forced into the narrow corridor between the shuttle and the security barricade. The military had an advantage. The corridor became a killing zone. Plasma fire tore through the infected.
"ALARMS ACTIVATING!" someone shouted. Emergency sirens began blaring throughout the docking platform. Red warning lights flashed against the walls. More security personnel would arrive.
Vin watched through the security feed. Her jaw tightened.
Three soldiers at the front of the formation suddenly lurched forward. Their feet left the ground.
"What—"
They were ripped across the corridor. The three men screamed. They were thrown directly into the swarm. The infected fell upon them before their bodies hit the floor. Their screams lasted seconds.
Vin stared at the monitor. Something was standing inside the darkness of the shuttle. Watching. The infected around it continued pouring into the docking platform.
"DESTROY THE SHUTTLE!"
A massive reinforced door slowly descended from the ceiling, designed to seal the docking platform from the rest of the Ring. The creature slowly stepped forward one hand lifted.
"SIR, airlock failure! If we destroy the shuttle the men will be exposed to vacuum!"
"SHOOT IT!"
A nearby missile battery immediately rotated toward the docking platform and fired a rocket directly into the shuttles cockpit, the explosion causing secondary explosions throughout the ship, vacuum began suck everything where the shuttle had been.
Everything not secured to the floor was dragged toward the breach. The men exposed to vacuum flew forward and found their life either extinguished by the dead or lack of air. The infected, however...
Didn't stop.
Bodies crawled across the walls. Some were sucked into open space. And continued moving. Exposed to the freezing, airless vacuum. The monsters weren't deterred in the slightest. Their red eyes continued glowing against the darkness of space.
And for the first time, Captain Vin understood something important.
Something intelligent had brought the infection there.
---
Popping into existence once more i found myself in my room. A few seconds to recall what happened well over a year ago it suddenly dawned me that it was currently the end of an ordinary day, and i had quite literally just walked into my room for the night.
I slowly looked around. Everything was exactly where I remembered it. My bed, clothes random assortment of possessions. The familiar walls of the Jedi Temple.
The fear and tension I'd been carrying finally fell away from my body. breathed the happiest sigh of relief in my entire life. God, I was genuinely glad to be back. I quickly changed out of my clothes and into my ordinary, average Coruscant street garb.
Then I ran across the hallway.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
I knocked aggressively on Skywalker's door.
Anakin stood there, confused.
He had barely changed out of his training robes and from his point of view i was growing increasingly distant lately.
Then suddenly—
There I was.
Standing outside his room with the dumbest grin imaginable. I couldn't help it. It was good to see him again. Really good.
"Come on!" I whispered excitedly. "Let's get out of here."
Anakin stared at me.
"What?"
"Let's. Get. Out. Of. Here."
He was beyond confused.
But perhaps my joyous emotions traveled through the Force.
Because slowly...
He grinned.
"Okay."
He turned around and began digging through one of his drawers for something less recognizable than Jedi clothing. Within minutes, the two of us were sneaking through the halls of the Temple. And eventually escaped into the endless streets of Coruscant. I didn't care where we went. I didn't care what happened. I was just happy to be somewhere that wasn't Verdara. Eventually, we found ourselves in one of the nearest entertainment districts. Crowded streets filled with thousands of people, aliens, bars, gambling dens, red rooms, you name it.
Nestled deep within a crowded, rambunctious audience, Anakin and I found ourselves yelling the night away alongside complete strangers. Credits disappearing the night away.
CLASS: Necromancer (Lv 7 / 100)
HP: 170 / 170
MP: 150 / 150
SP: 170 / 170
Unallocated Stat Points: 5
STATS
STR: 17
END: 17
DEX: 17
INT: 15(+60)
WIS: 15
CHA: 20
LCK: 15
ACTIVE SKILLS
Raise Undead (Lv 2 / 10)
Force Telekinesis (Lv 7 / 10)
Force Heal (Lv 7 / 10)
Enhanced Movement (Lv 5/10)
Precognition (Lv 4 / 10)
Mechu-Duru (Lv 5 / 10)
Disguise (Lv 6 / 10)
PASSIVE SKILLS
Force-Based Skills
Force Sensitive (Lv 6 / 10)
Force Meditation (Lv 9 / 10)
Force Veil (Lv 4 / 10)
Physical / Combat Skills
Sprinting (Lv 4 / 10)
Acrobatics (Lv 5 / 10)
Climbing (Lv 2 / 10)
Parkour (Lv 3 / 10)
Brawling (Lv 4 / 10)
Melee Weapons (Lv 1 / 10)→ Knives (Lv 2 / 10)→Lightsaber (Lv 5 / 10)
Stun Resistance (Lv 1/10)
Marksmanship (Lv 3/10)
Ranged Weapons (Lv 4/10)→ Small Arms (Lv 4/10) →Massive Weapons (Lv 1 / 10)
Dancing (Lv 2 / 10)
Sneaking (Lv 5 / 10)
Pain Resistance (Lv 5 / 10)
Drug Resistance (Lv 3 / 10)
Muscle Memory (Lv 2 / 10)
Utility / Social / Misc Skills.
Anatomy (Lv 3 / 10)
Butcher (Lv 1 / 10)
Chemistry (Lv 2 / 10)
Traps (Lv 2 / 10)
Computers (Lv 8 / 10)
Masseuse (Lv 8 / 10)
Merchant (Lv 5 / 10)
Woodworking (Lv 5 / 10)
Alchemy (Lv 5 / 10)
Herbalism (Lv 4 / 10)
Pharmacology (Lv 1 / 10)
Knot-Tying (Lv 4 / 10)
Painting (Lv 4 / 10)
Singing (Lv 2 / 10)
Construction (Lv 4 / 10)
Engineering (Lv 4 / 10)
Strategy (Lv 6 / 10)
Patience (Lv 1 / 10)
Farming (Lv 2 / 10)
Politician (Lv 2 / 10)
TRAITS
Mana Gifted
One with THE FORCE
2nd Mind+
Robotic Stamina
Dimensional Traveler
The Chef
Acid Punk
One with Machines
Smart Man's Gun
Echo of the Force
Eye of the Force