“Who hired you Crimos?” Sifo-Dyas raised his blade and swung left as he blocks the two simultaneous strikes of her weapons.
“I doubt that the Chommell Patriots could actually have the means to pay for your service.” Sifo-Dyas said.
“You’d be surprise to know how well founded the Chommell Patriots really are and how vast their numbers had grown.” Crimos snarled.
“Understandable knowing how wealthy the Trade Federation is.” Sifo-Dyas ducked sweeps his blade and as Crimos jumps he Force-shove her until she was pressed on the wall.
Sifo-Dyas felt the surge in the ambience and dropped his hold on her to raise his lightsaber as Crimos once again released a Force-lightning towards him.
“You can’t employ the same trick to the same opponent. You should know that by now.” Sifo-Dyas returned the surge of energy to her.
Crimos groaned at the impact of the Force-lightning on her body but heaved herself up and charged again.
Her pair of lightsabers came swinging in every direction trying to caught the Jedi’s single blade and disarm him.
Sifo-Dyas concentrated on the defense as Crimos drew to the Force and increased her speed and the force of her blows.
Suddenly a loud screeching noise filled the chamber like metal claws on a metal surface. The two combatants did not broke out from their duel but stayed alert on what’s making that noise.
A loud thud echoed from the shaft area and a loud monstrous roar filled the confines. When the two disengaged at each other the alpha male narglatch leaped to the surprised Lady Crimos.
Sifo-Dyas in his quick thinking use the Force to snatch her lightsabers from her. Crimos was left to battle the large powerful beasts with her Force assisted strength.
The Jedi momentarily left her to the mercy of the narglatch to look outside the exit and when he saw Sabé safely seated on a landspeeder accompanied by several security personnel he returned to stop the narglatch and cuff Crimos with a VK Stun-cuff set to maximum charge.
The aim of the electrical surge in the VK Stun-cuff is to keep the body electrically grounded constantly preventing a Force-user from focusing on tapping into the Force. Maximum settings are usually used for Dark Jedi and the likes, and in ancient times, against the Sith.
Crimos was still wrestling against the beast, doing her best to keep its fangs from biting on her flesh.
As Sifo-Dyas approaches, the Lady Crimos snatched the VK Stun-cuff from the startled Jedi and sent it tumbling on the surface of the reactors.
The electrical charge of the VK Stun-cuff sent sparks and stirred an overload on the plasma reactors.
“Run!” Sifo-Dyas shouted at the top of his lungs to those outside the exit as he gave everything he got to call onto the Force and cover the entire reactor with a containment Force-shield.
The first reactor exploded and despite the strained effort of the Jedi to keep the projected Force-shield intact, the initial heat and fire escape and blasted him out of the exit door and sent him falling down a thousand foot drop cliff.
The plasma overload seethed out of the shaft and the blast was contained until it dissipated. The Force-shield was shattered but it prevented the rest of the reactors to overload and explode.
Dazed, Sifo-Dyas realized he was on a free fall to his death. He took a thin tensile rope with a metal hook and threw it on the cliff wall hoping it would get caught on the overhanging rocks or plants.
It took a few seconds until the string became taut and he stopped from falling farther down. He swung to the cliff and measured which way was shorter, up or down.
He was spared of the choice when an airspeeder from the spaceport nearby flew towards him and hailed him.
“Ahoy there, can you leap to us?” the driver shouted.
“Sure, move a little closer!” Sifo-Dyas said.
* * *
Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas awakened in a bacta-tank, deep in the Palace’ medical wing and after two hours the medical droid finally allowed him to visit the handmaiden Sabé.
Captain Panaka, Lieutenant Siege, Aluva and an astromech droid was there. The Queen sat by the foot of the bed of Sabé.
“Master Jedi, how are you?” the Queen asked once she saw him by the doorway.
“Healed as if nothing happened at me, thanks to the combined healing power of the Force and the science of bacta.” he bowed and looks at the handmaiden.
“Master Sifo-Dyas, I am indebted to you. I owe you my life.” Sabé said to him.
“The debt isn’t necessary.” he smiled at her then turn to ask Captain Panaka. The other seemed to be anticipating his question so he answered before he could even asked.
“The spaceport crew that recovered you said you passed out the moment you landed on their airspeeder. They also recovered the unconscious Sabé here on the burning landspeeder. We lost her escorts, five guards and two officers. We also lost six pilots and five more guards by the hangar. They were attacked by the Lady Crimos who commandeered one of our Starfighter and escaped. Lieutenant Hoff here took a ship and chased her across the sky but she escaped when she entered the clouds, their sensors failed and he did not risk pushing ahead. Crimos also knocked two of the handmaidens waiting up on the walkway, but they are alright now.” Panaka explained.
“Eighteen lives!” Sifo-Dyas slumped on the wall and buried his face on his palms.
“You save thousands of lives Master Sifo-Dyas. That reactor should have exploded, all of them, but it didn’t and we know it was your doing. Had it exploded the entire palace itself would have exploded and crumble down by the cliff.” Queen Amidala said to him.
“How did she survived the blast? The last time I saw her she was being held down by the narglatch.” Sifo-Dyas asked.
“The team we sent to fix the reactor saw a burned carcass of the narglatch. Its underbelly was only slightly burned. Its back took the brunt of the explosion. Crimos must have insulated herself and use the beast as her shield.” Panaka explained.
“The Lady Crimos will return, she will stop at nothing to do what she was sent her to do here. And we still don’t know who is behind all of this. Even though I know all of you are thinking of the same suspect, we still don’t have that enough evidence.” Sifo-Dyas said.
“I agree. That is why I am temporarily leaving you to handle the Queen’s security and take command of our security personnel and pilots.” Panaka said.
“Where are you going?” Sifo-Dyas inquired.
“I am sending the Captain with Sabé to make contact with the Order of the Sanctuary.” the Queen said. “Master Jedi, a lot of things will now change here on Naboo, but by the name of the Force I will not allow these evil forces to destroy our future. I cannot do this alone. I will need all of your help.”
Chapter 16: The Staff of Vision
Adnara Prime, Adnara Sector, Outer Rim.
The entire Sector used to be grand and powerful, during the Hundred Year Darkness era when the Adnaran Sith Imperium was considered one of the most deadliest among the Seven Sith Imperium who wage war against the Republic and it’s Jedi Order, the armies of Ajunta Pall, and the Sith Order of Lord Graush on Korriban.
There is no record of proof about this story but Lord Maul believed it to be true. The Dark Side of the Force permeates the very core of the entire Adnara Sector. There are many other sectors that generates such ambience, all were once member of the Seven Sith Imperium. It could not possibly be just coincidence even though both the Sith and the Jedi and especially the Republic denies that such stories were real.
Darth Millennial was the first to discover the truth about this forgotten hole in the past. His Master believes it. There is no need to contest such affirmation.
The Adnarans were said to be master builders of warships and warfare in their Golden Age. Now they were reduced to primitive scattered tribes, each has long established their own form of religion.
The Republic held no interest in this sector. Its sources long exhausted. Its people long neglected. From space faring
conquerors they have become pathetic primitive savages.
Their technology and culture long lost.
There is only one relic from their history that matters now to Lord Maul. The Staff of Vision that is said to be under the possession of the current King of the Aspacian Tribe.
That king is said to be the ruler of the largest and most powerful tribe in all of the Adnaran Sector. That king, he was told, was the last descendant of Darth Venomous, the last Dark Lord of the Sith of the Adnaran Sith Imperium.
If he is to believe what his Master has told to him about Lord Venomous, Maul would have been hell-bent to learn what the Adnaran Sith Lord posses.
But the Sith was dead for thousands of years now. What’s important now was the Staff of Vision, the one said to be created by the last Adnaran Sith.
Reaching the top of the Shak’ringgan Mountain he finally saw the Ruins of Aspacia.
Before him some fifty kilometers from the foot of the mountain lay sprawled under the white sun was the Ruins of Aspacia, a once great metropolis, like a chunk of Coruscant that fell on this barren world. Now it was nothing but a tomb of gargantuan buildings, desolate and desecrated.
Maul took his macrobinoculars and scanned the ruins. He was surprised to see that every single building, no matter what state of damage, house hundreds to thousands of Adnarans.
Maul lowered his macrobinoculars and looked at the old city again. He had counted at least an estimate of ten to twenty families on one floor alone, not counting those he could not see on that same floor. If every single floor of every buildings out there are populated similarly then these tribe numbers by millions, perhaps about a hundred million.
And they are just one tribe.
He scanned the city again and spotted at the center what seemed to be more recently erected ziggurat compare to the rest of the city. It has to be the Temple of the Fang Lords.
Lord Sidious has warned him to be cautious and mindful once he enters that temple. He will be.
He began the long trek down the mountain. He was forty thousand feet above sea level and the air here is so thin it would have killed a human already. But he is a Zabrak, a Nightbrother and a Sith. Such pain and torture are most welcome.
The white sun was already receding in the distant horizon by the time he reached the ground.
A kilometer from him he saw an army of Aspacian tribe lined out in ranks in the barren land before him. A single rider on a beast whose species he has no idea came trotting towards him.
Darth Maul stood and waited.
When the rider reach within hearing distance it halted and called out at him in a hissing tongue. Like a snake uttering incomprehensible sounds it ranted on. Maul knew the rider was inquiring of who he is and what his purpose is.
Maul just stared at the rider unmoving.
The rider bellowed a cry of challenge and still the Sith Lord did not budge or reacted. Flustered and angered the rider charged and unsheathed a curving broadsword glittering with an electric charge.
Darth Maul ignited only one of his double-bladed lightsaber and waited.
When the rider reached him Maul finally got a good look at the Adnaran. He was reptilian, snake-like, tinged with dark green and battle-scarred. They’re species could easily pass for a Barabel on some worlds who thinks species of the same types are one and the same.
Maul raised his crimson blade to block the descending blow. His blade exploded in sparks upon contact and shorted out. Maul dropped and rolled under the tramping creature and leaped from the other side and snatched the rider’s sword and somersaulted above him, while in mid-air and upside down Maul slashed the sword and beheaded the rider. He landed the same time the Adnaran’s head fell on the ground.
The sword in his hand felt heavy but strong. He clipped his lightsaber and held the sword, feeling its weigh on his hands.
Ten Adnarans shouted in rage and charged. The others held their position. Darth Maul snarled and leaped to ride the beast. He led the animal to charge its masters and upon contact he swung his new sword, cutting through flesh and limbs. By the time he was circling back to face the rest, there was only half of them left on their mounts.
Maul hissed a challenge and charged again. The five complied and went head on. At the last moment Maul catapulted out from his beast and landed on the last warrior and sliced him from left shoulder to right armpit. The primitive blade sliced through the warrior like butter.
Maul snarled and licked the blood on his sword. The blood was slick and oily, his tongue burns at the touch on the electrostatic filled blade. Darth Maul savored the odd thrill of electrocution. Using the Force he became a blur and in mere seconds all of them were hacked in pieces. The beasts ran and scattered.
Darth Maul raised his sword and let out a howl of defiance.
One of the Adnaran on foot shouted back and all seven hundred of them charged.
Lord Maul has tasted blood. He will not be sated until all of them are nothing more but a rotting gore on the bleak soil of Adnara Prime.
* * *
It was a moonless night and Aspacia was shrouded in darkness. Darth Maul moved slowly, even after allowing his eyes to adjust in the dark he still could not see past the reach of his arm.
He tried to reach out in the Force but the multitude of strong presence of individual Adnarans living in the city made it hard for him to discern if one is miles away or already standing before him.
He focused instead on his natural instinct and senses, the ground was dry and the soft wind was gently blowing from his left side. There were nocturnal noise in every direction and he could smell the stench of rotten carcasses from the carnage he left earlier.
Slaughtering seven hundred Adnarans even with the help of the dark side did take its toll on him. Maul felt exhaustion but he fought it back and strengthened his resolve to make it through the darkness and reach the city which to his estimate was still a good twenty kilometers from where he was blindly walking.
Darth Maul’s senses suddenly screamed at him and told him to stop. Maul stilled his breathing, his pulse, his heartbeat.
Using the Force he enhanced his senses and confirmed that there was someone else nearby. Prodding deeper he touched the presence and Maul physically recoiled, he was startled because the presence came directly behind him.
Darth Maul’s hand went to his lightsaber and raised it, ignited and whirled to face whoever was beside him.
The red light of his weapon illuminated an Adnaran peasant. Maul surmised the other was a farmer, for he wore a simple brown tunic, carrying a long walking stick and behind him was a cart of harvested crops.
“Forgive my intrusion stranger, I am but a humble peasant on his way home.” the Adnaran said to him.
“How did you learn to speak our tongue?” Darth Maul asked, still not lowering his lightsaber.
“All of us do. It is part of our culture since the waning days of the Hundred Year Darkness area.” the old man hissed.
“The warriors I’ve fought, none of them spoke…” Maul’s brows creased.
“They can, they just didn’t. It’s a choice young warrior.” the Adnaran said.
“Is it always this dark in this world during nighttime?” Maul asked.
“There are a few rocks this way. Come and I will make a fire and I will answer all of your questions.” the Adnaran stated to walk away. Darth Maul sensed no deception in him so he followed closely, fearing if he stray behind he would lose sight of him.
The Adnaran sat on a rock and placed a few firewood and use a flint to start a fire while Maul sat on another rock opposite him, senses alert for lurking threats but the stagnant sense of foreboding and darkness he felt ever since he entered Adnaran space still clogged all around him, dulling his awareness.
He shuts off his weapon and clipped it back to his belt and watches the other like a predator studying its prey.
“Are you hungry? I haven’t eaten yet, do you mind if I make something to eat?” the Adnaran asked him.
“I am famished.” Maul simply said.
The Adnaran dropped his sack. Something alive is in there because the sack is constantly rippling with movement. He took one out and it was a small mammalian creature, like the womprats of Tatooine, only smaller.
Instead of putting it in the fire, the Adnaran bit its neck and blood oozed down from his chin and down to the soil.
“Do you prefer yours cooked?” the other asked and tossed Maul one squeaking creature.
Maul used the Force to grip the creature in mid-air. The small animal squealed as Maul crushed its small heart. When the creature was dead, Maul let it floats before him and use the Force once again to tear out its belly and remove its innards. He let the blood flow down until it slowed to trickles. The dead creature hovered back to the fire while the skin peeled off from it. While he was waiting for it to be cooked, the Adnaran had finished its meal and was washing the blood from his face and spoke to him.
“You are a Force-user, you don’t look like a Jedi, I assume you are Sith.” He said.
“Let’s start by telling me who you are.” Maul said instead.
“I am Yn Nyrel, a farmer with no family.” He said.
“Darth Maul.” The Zabrak said.
“Ah a Darth yet exist. Which one are you, a master or the apprentice?” Yn asked.
“I thought I was the one to do the asking here.” Maul hissed.
“Very well, ask.”
“How many are the Aspacians in there?” Maul watch as Yn took out a flask of ale and poured some on Maul’s cooking meal.
“There are about thirty million of us there, including the old, women and children.” Yn said as he took our herbs and spices, ground them to powder on the rocks and scooped them in his scaled hands and sprinkled it on the dead animal.
“I estimated a hundred million.” Maul said as the wonderful aroma whiffed in his nose and the Zabrak felt hungrier than ever.
“Your question is about how many of us in there.” Yn said.
“So there is more of your kind. Where are they?” Maul asked as he moves the cooked creature and took it in his gloved hands.
“Your estimate is correct. The other warriors are scattered across the planet among the lesser tribes, some are off world on the other Adnaran planets.” Yn nodded.
Star Wars - Artoo Detoo: Droid of a Kind (Volume 1) Page 15
