"Evil is not a toy. These Rakghouls, on the other hand..."
A chalky limb tore through the crumbling dirt where I had been standing a fraction of a second before I had leapt back with everything I could muster.
The combination of physical fitness and strength with the Force was just barely enough to land me somewhere marginally less crumbly but far sturdier. A massive support pillar of some sort but lacking anything to support, whose presence I discovered with my back. I scrabble for purchase before I finally managed to drag myself to an almost flat section.
From there, I was able to draw two main conclusions. Firstly, this was not the only pillar around me. As far as the eye could see, there was a sparse forest of similar structures. That should not come as a surprise, but I had been flying a bit higher than the pillar.
Secondly, and perhaps far more importantly, there was a pack of not-quite-zombies staring up at me with milky eyes set into oversized heads with maws bristling with too many teeth to comfortably fit.
Rakghouls. This universe's Exhibit A that God exists and was sorely disappointed in His creations. Just one bite from those crooked teeth or one scratch from those filthy claws, and I would become one of them. Yes, it was good that I had followed my instinct to get out of there.
Gazing off into the middle distance, I could see the crashed cruiser half-embedded in the landscape. Or at least its hammerhead keel. The rest of the ship was obscured by a low ridge. It was as defensive a location as you could get. No doubt the pirates around there had managed to fortify it to some degree. Maybe some turrets if they had been prudent. Maybe some landmines if they had been assholes.
Maybe I shouldn't have ditched the speeder yet.
Well, not that I was getting back to it any time soon; there were some decidedly unfriendly faces still prowling around the bottom of the pillar. No way was I going to get rid of them without a weapon. And the pirates were unlikely to do something…
Of course, it wasn't like I needed a weapon to get rid of the Rakghouls. Reaching out with the Force, I got a secure grip on one of the pallid monsters and lifted it. Higher and higher, until it was several meters off the ground, about halfway up the pillar.
I could hear it snarling and clawing at the air as it thrashed in my grip, not understanding what was happening to it but thoroughly opposed to it.
And then I threw it.
With the Force, obviously. There was no way I was touching that abominable creature myself; that was a great way of getting scratched, infected, losing my free will, and making the whole galaxy worse by inaction. No thanks, I rather liked living.
But my throw was not some random act, as a vagrant might discard a burnt-out cigarette. No, this was targeted. There was, after all, a nest of pirates within view. A nest of pirates which – probably – had something that I needed.
So yes, I threw the rakghoul at the pirates. And the other twelve which were clustered around the base of the pillar, trying to scrabble upwards. All thirteen flung towards the enemy like the Mongols did with plague-ridden corpses.
Except this felt significantly worse, somehow. Maybe it was because I was not just consigning dozens of people to death. Maybe it was because I was about to make this world marginally worse by increasing the number of Rakghouls. Maybe it was because I was taking lives without the pretense of protecting others or saving myself.
I did not like this feeling.
Still, from my vantage point, I got a wonderful view of blue, green, and red spears of light stabbing into the sky. And into the surrounding landscape. Blaster bolts, I knew. Clearly, the Rakghouls had found their prey. If all went well, they would kill each other and leave me with an empty pirate camp. Or, and this was far more likely, I would have to deal with a few less of either camp.
Either way, it was a win for me.
I made sure to wait for the commotion to die down before sliding down from the support pillar. Oddly enough, the few seconds I spent clutching the pillar as I descended were quite a lot calmer than my initial leap to safety. By the time my feet touched the flared base, I was feeling almost myself.
Granted, the half-kilometer to the pirate base was less than encouraging, but I had a plan that would keep me from setting foot on the ground that was so full of Rakghouls. It all hinged on those support pillars that littered the landscape. Most still stood at the regular intervals at which they had no doubt been built, and all of their bases were still there.
Focusing the strength of the Force to my legs, I leaped from the artificial stone ribbon and sailed through the air towards the next one. For a brief sphincter-clenching moment, I feared that I would fall short. Fortunately, I managed to land on the next ribbon without so much as touching the dirt. Unfortunately, my landing was a tad rough, earning me a fair few bruises for my trouble.
And then I did it again.
And again.
And twice more, until I reached the top of the ridge below which the cruiser rested, revealing… quite a mess. A pair of turrets had sat on either side of the entrance to this small valley, the metal plating now torn apart and their sparking internals on full display.
The pirates who had manned them were in no better state. I saw two lumpy piles of flesh that probably used to be pirates, and a jagged smear of dark red fluid that ran to an open hole in the side of the ship. I contrasted rather starkly with the large steaming puddle of green liquid that dominated the small valley. No doubt it was some highly dangerous chemical spill.
Yeah, those pirates were going to have a bad time.
Luckily for me, the hole with a trail of blood and gore leading towards it was not the only means of ingress into that crashed cruiser. A few levels higher, there was a large rectangular opening. Too high to reach without a ladder, climbing gear, or the Force.
The hangar bay, it had to be. Or the cargo bay. A ship that size had to have somewhere smaller ships and shuttles could land, or where cargo could be delivered. Big ships needed to be resupplied when out in space, after all.
Which meant that I got to jump up there and hope the pirates had stowed something with a hyperdrive there. And preferably with a full tank of fuel.
The already destroyed turret crumpled further beneath my feet as I landed on it. A second later, I was back in the air, leaping towards the cavernous hangar opening. Something beneath me popped and a wave of heat pushed against me, but I ignored it in favor of the sights within the hangar.
Though mostly empty and devoid of almost any semblance of functional technology, save for a terminal and small generator that had obviously been added in after the crash landing, the hangar did have what I needed. Technically, it had three of what I needed.
Ships.
Two lopsided fighter craft, squat spacecraft with wings on the dorsal and port side, looked exceedingly difficult to fly. Of course, with enough repulsorlifts, there were very few things that could not fly, but I was not about to take that risk.
That left the third ship, what looked like an oversized shipping container with an even more oversized RV impaled on the front of it with some engines bolted to the back. If nothing else, it could probably be relied upon to carry some cargo quite some distance, which meant it was perfect for my purposes. And the access ramp at the front was down, too. All the better for me to get out here immediately.
But I didn't.
For a moment, I could not quite realize why I was hesitating. Was there another trap I was sensing? Was this some kind of warning?
My gaze drifted over to one of the many locked doors, to the distinctive dark red curve that split the door into two uneven halves, and recognition bloomed in my mind. This was the Endar Spire. This ship had carried an amnesiac Revan and Bastila Shan on its fateful voyage- and with them, Jedi bodyguards. And who had Malak sent after them but Dark Jedi? They had all carried lightsabers. Quite a few of them had died here.
What were the chances that one of their weapons had survived?
Or, failing that, even just a crystal?
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Hey guys I would really appreciate it if you could throw some power stones to help elevate the ranking.
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