Silverlight Rising Part I: ForceFall
Chapter Ten: Shadows of Dissonance
During the first few weeks of my long exile on Korriban. I realized that I was being hunted by a pack of deranged Tuk’ata. Their glossy skin was black as the darkest night and hung on their bones in such a way that showed they hadn’t eaten for days. Twisted and ribbed horns extending from their heads and spines. A true nightmare of a creature, warped by ancient Sith and turned into living demons of agony and dissention. They were ravenous and on the brink of insanity. I could see it in their glowing yellow eyes and I could feel in emanating from their emaciated bodies. However, their hunger did now diminish their intelligence, they were patient hunters, stalking me across the barren wastes for days. No matter how fast I moved or how far I ran every night when I finally couldn’t go another step I’d turn my eyes to the horizon and see these unholy creature’s eyes glowing in the dark. Always close enough to watch the rapidly declining health of their prey, biding their time waiting for the perfect moment to attack. I waited for them every night going mad from lack of food, water and sleep. I was scared, truly terrified, there were moments I wanted to give up, hours where I’d just let these hell hounds rip me to shreds simply to end my suffering. It was lowest moment in my life because I could see Death approach me and his eyes burned yellow.
“Atlas!?” Tome’s desperate voice pierces the vail of my doubt. “Wh…What are we going to do!?” Tome says. The stench of fear flows from him like an unbridled river.
Another black shadow spawns from the cave wall behind us. Tome’s back was now pushing against mine. I could feel him trembling, he was doing his best to hold a strong stance but his blue saber was quivering as a result of his fear. “Tome.” My tone was calm and boasted so much confidence it made him jump in response. “Do you want to die here?”
“What!?” he retorts. “What the hell kind of a question is that?”
The creature let out another deep growl. I stare at its yellow eyes and let out an exhale. “If you refuse to die here and now then there’s nothing to be afraid of. But if you must be afraid then let it give you strength. Embrace your fear and use it, cause it’ll be the only thing that saves you.”
Tome forces out a breath and steadies his nerves. I can feel him regaining his composure, that’s good because I need his help if we both are going to make it out of this place alive. I refocus on the creature and its yellow eyes. Why hasn’t it attacked yet? It’s almost like they are simply holding us here. Which means…
“What are they doing?” Tome whispers.
“They’re intelligent, whatever is calling us here wants us to stay here...for now.” At least I think so.
“But why?” Tome responds. “What could possibly be down here?”
I think for a minute this whole situation has been dubious at best. Why have I been the only one receiving these whispers it doesn’t make sense. I open my mouth to respond to Tome when another wave of whispers over take me. I let out a cry and fall to my knees, the whispers are now stronger than before. “Kill!” the word echoes through my cranium. Tome whips around to face both creatures. “Kill!” the whisper repeats. “Kill him!” it demands. I look up at Tome who actually looks concerned for me. The whisper hisses away and the overwhelming feeling leaves me.
“Are you ok? Was it that voice again?” Tome rattles off quickly.
“Yes.” I respond.
“Well what did I say?” he insists. I activate my vermillion blade without breaking eye contact with him. He notices my fixated glare and slowly turns towards me. “What are you doing?” his voice trembles.
“The whisper told me to do something.” I can see Tome subtly shake his head in a silent plea for mercy. “It told me to…KILL YOU!” I lunge forward before Tome could reach and impel the shadow creature behind him.
The creature lets out a piercing scream and falls to the ground. While the other shadowling rushes towards Tome and me. I quickly reverse my hilt grip and with an agile spin, decapitate the second creature.
The monster falls to the ground at Tomes feet. “You…you were going to…”
“No, Tome I wasn’t.” I interrupt him. “Now we got to find the others and get the hell out of here.”
I turn without hesitation and run down the tunnel I can feel Tome close behind a few minutes later we enter another large cavern with more tunnels leading in every direction. We hear several loud screams come from the cave mouth behind us. “Looks like they found the ones you killed.” Tome says while lifting his saber towards the opening.
I scan the room and study its features. “This is it.” I say, “This is where we make our stand, Tome.” I look at him and he nods in response.
“I don’t want to die here, Atlas.” He says refocusing on the cave opening.
The sound of rushing steps echoes from all around us. There are a lot of these things and from the sound of it they are not happy. I back up to Tome and face the opposite side of the cavern. “Whatever you do, don’t hold back. Do you understand me Tome? These things reek with the dark side they won’t show you any mercy.”
“Understood.” He responds with unexpected confidence.
We remain still listening to the cave tremble as lord knows how many monstrosities make their way toward us. I catch site of several of their glowing eyes flash across the cave openings. What are they waiting for? Just then Seto, Halish and Mara come running in from an adjacent entrance with varying degrees of shock on their faces.
“There’s something after us!” Seto shouts while activating his purple blade and joining Tome and me.
“I’ve never seen something like that, what are they?” Mara asks joining the fray.
Halish hesitates before getting in the defensive formation. “This is all your damn fault Sith! What was the point of all this!?” he demands.
Seto lets out a painful gasp. “That doesn’t matter now let’s just get out of here.”
I can’t help but agree with Halish, though. What was the point of all this? The dark monsters begin funneling in from all sides to many to count, it’s hard to determine when one of the beasts end and another one starts, they look as though they are all just part of a growing gelatinous mass of darkness littered with yellow lights.
The chamber becomes very quiets with only our collective breathing filling the air. Our sabers light mingle and shine against the encroaching darkness. All is still, all is calm. A single pebble falls from the roof of the chamber and collides with the ground. Within seconds the creatures begin their assault. Some eagerly jumping from the back while others rush forward with claws of rock and metal.
In the true chaos of battle there is little room for formalities and technique, it is simply two brutal forces colliding with the victor being the most vicious. It is no surprise that Halish and I are the most adept to this type of close quarter slaughter. It doesn’t take long for the beasts to recognize they needed to focus on the weakest members of our party.
Master Seto, while still a force to be reckoned with, was suffering. His injury coupled with having to use his saber with a non-dominate hand meant he could only parry and defend himself at best. Before I realized it the creatures were pushing him further away from the group. These creatures seem to share a collective mind able to adjust their tactics on a moment’s notice like flocks of bird and schools of fish seem to know when to change direction.
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I glance at Tome and Mara who were doing moderately well backing each other up. Mara is naturally defensive and Tome was rash and offensive they utilized each other’s strengths to augment their weaknesses. But they were rapidly being overcome by the onslaught. Something had to be done before they’re all killed.
I slam my foot onto the dense rock blasting several of the beast back far enough so I could throw my saber and catch two of the creatures that were about to overtake Mara. She looks at me with a shocked expression. “Get to Seto!” I shout launching off the ground towards Master Seto and pulling my saber back to me.
I let off a volley of force lightening striking the creatures that were about to kill Seto as well as freeing up enough space for Tome and Mara to come to his aid. Seto takes a knee and cradles his stump while Tome, Mara and I defend him.
Halish leaps from the center of the mass and crashes to the ground just beside Seto. “There’s too many, they just keep coming!” he shouts whipping away some green blood from his eyes.
“We need a plan!” Tome forces out between bouts.
Master Seto forces himself to his feet. “Collapse the tunnels.” He says through his teeth.
“Then we’ll all be stuck!” Halish argues.
Just then a fist sized rock hits Tome in the chest knocking him over and leaving Mara exposed for an attack. Two monsters descend on the Padawans with their claws eager for their flesh. Before I realize it was throwing my saber at one and jumping between Tome and the other. The creature’s claw sink into my shoulder just as I pull my saber back and sever its arms. It falls to the ground and lets out a low chortling noise as if it didn’t care that I had just severely wounded it.
“Halish!” Seto shouts.
“Ah, fine…Tome, Mara help me with this!” Halish yells as he waves his arm sending a large force pulse outward pushing the creatures back. “Do it now!” he screams throwing another force pulse out.
Without a moment to spare the two Padawans begin yanking the rock loose above the dark creatures. Seconds later the chamber begins to crumble and collapse around us Tome grabs me by my collar and drags me into the closest tunnel just as the massive boulders fill the room. The ground trembles for a few seconds as the muffled screams of the creatures slowly start to dissipate.
We all rested for a bit catching our breath and gaining our barring, Mara was tending to Master Seto who quickly injects himself with some pain killers and forces himself to his feet. Tome sat staring at the cave-in with his saber hilt grasp so tightly that his knuckles were turning a bright white and red. Halish seemed to be the only one not bothered by the fight, he was energetically pacing the tunnel stopping every few moment to look at Master Seto then me.
For the most part my wound wasn’t all that serious, more of a scratch then anything. I ripped off a strip of my black robe and put pressure on the cut. “Are you ok?” Mara asks.
“I’ll be fine, it’s Just the thing won’t stop bleeding.” I say with a laugh.
“Let me see.” Mara insists she takes the makeshift bandage away and hesitates. “Tome can you shine some light over here.” Without a word Tome activates his saber and moves it close to my shoulder.
“What’s the matter?” I ask “It doesn’t hurt.”
Mara looks at Master Seto than me. “Atlas, your wound looks infected.”
“What!?” I pull my shoulder away from her and stand. “That’s impossible I’m fi…” as soon as I go to take a step my knees give out beneath me and I collapse.
The pain was searing and pulsing through my body. I could feel the poison working its way through my blood. So that was why the yellow eyed devil was laughing. “Master Seto what do we do?” Mara asks frantically.
Seto opens his mouth when Halish chimes in. “We leave him, he’s the reason we’re down here in the first place.”
“We’re not leaving him.” Seto says.
“What other choice do we have, carrying him will only slow us down and from the looks of it the poison will kill him long before we get out of here.” Halish retorts.
I can see a subtle grin form on his face, all his problems are about to disappear. “There has to be something we can do!” Mara almost shouts causing Halish to glare at her.
“Mara’s right, Halish we take the Exile with us.” Seto says in an authoritative voice.
Halish looks at Mara and Seto, then he activates his saber. The cobalt blade highlights half his face. “Neither of you are fit to lead this group. If we want to live we have to leave the Sith.”
Seto’s hand slowly moves towards his saber when the whisper returns to me. I let out a scream and force myself to my feet. “This…way.” I force out between gasps. There were no words this time but rather a feeling that compelled me to follow through the tunnel. It made my body ache and the only reprieve was taking another step towards the source even if it killed me. I stumble but Tome picks me up and pulls me along. “Thanks” he whispers. “For saving me.”
I can feel his guilt. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“This would have been me if you hadn’t.” He chokes and looks away.
Padawans should never go through this nobody should have. “I should be the one that’s sorry, I shouldn’t have brought us…”
“COME!” the whisper was so loud and painful it made me lose consciousness for a second.
“Atlas!” Tome yells.
“We’re almost there.” I force out through clenched teeth.
As we continue to through the tunnel the walls begin to widen and take on shape. Before long we were in the dungeons of Ludo Kressh’s fortress. There was signs that someone was there because the walls and pillars had freshly lit torches lining them.
“This was the plan all along, those creature the voice. There is something very important here.” Seto says.
I could feel my body growing even weaker but there was no way I was going to stop before seeing what this was all about. “There.” I say with a gasp “At the end of the hall that’s it.” There was a massive door at the end of the hallway that look vaguely familiar to the temple door on Yavin 4 where we discovered the Force Conduit.
“Great we found a locked door.” Halish says sarcastically drumming his fist on the ornate construct. “How do you suppose we open it?” he looks back and smiles at my deteriorating state.
I push away from Tome and approach the door. The ancient relief could barely be seen from the countless years it has weathered. Instinctively I place my hand on the stone and the runes begin glowing blue and the door start vibrating and humming.
It lets out a loud hum and begins sliding open just as the whisper returns with even more power and ferocity then all the time before. “YES!” the whisper echoes in my ears making me shout in agony and collapse.