(A few years ago, Jedi Temple, Your point of view)
The training droid swung its training lightsaber over me with its right arm.
"AUGH!" I had raised my own above my head to block it, only for the droid to thrust its other arm forward, bashing its metal fist into my abdomen and nearly knocking the wind out of me. I exclaimed and fell into a half-kneeling position while holding my stomach area.
"Get up (Y/n)!" Master Chatak's soft but urgent voice called to me from the side. I looked up and gasped when the training droid brought its lightsaber over my head to plunge it down into a stab. I backed out of the way in time and raised my lightsaber to slice across the droid's top, but it raised its own and deflected hard, pushing my lightsaber up over my head. I ignited the lower blade and tried to thrust it into the droid's head while it was pointed directly at it, but the droid quickly deflected it. I kept my eye on the droid's lightsaber and used my own saberstaff to slice across its abdomen, but the droid was able to quickly catch my blade with a block, and force it down, getting us both on our knees. I watched the droid reel back its lightsaber and swing it towards my face from the side.
My heart started going into overdrive when I thought back to a few weeks ago when that same move got me a painful slash across the face. The fight or flight responses started going off in my head again. In a rush, I brought my lightsaber under his.
"Hagh!" I swiped my lightsaber up, countering the droid's and keeping it just an inch from my face as I pushed it up and above my head. A proud smile came to dominate my face and I let out a relieved chuckle. That didn't last long, I hadn't even realized the droid had stood up to be able to both push my lightsaber to the right and out of its way and at the same time, angle the butt of its lightsaber towards my face, before slamming the two together, all in the span of a couple of seconds.
"OW!" I cried as I was pushed onto my back and covered my forehead, that was when I realized I had dropped my lightsaber when the droid slammed the butt of its lightsaber into my face. I looked over to it and reached out to grab it with the force, but the droid wasn't so easy.
"Agh!" I yelped in pain. The droid stomped on my arm, I lost focus in the force from the feeling of my arm being crushed under the droid's weight as it stood over me, before pointing its lightsaber at me and preparing to bring it down on my face.
"Reset!" I exclaimed. The droid paused for a moment when its training lightsaber was mere inches from my face before the droid stepped off my arm and casually walked to the other side of the room where it got back into combat position. I held my arm as the blood started to flow through the veins properly again and went to pick up my lightsaber.
"Look at me (Y/n)." Master Bol Chatak's voice called out to me. I turned to face her, a little spooked by soft Zabrak's unusually strong tone. "Focus on the droid, not the blades." she said. I raised my eyebrow at this.
"How does that work?" I asked. "What am I supposed to be focusing on if not my opponent's weapon? Isn't the thing that's going to hurt me supposed to be the thing I need to constantly be aware of?"
"The opponent IS what is trying to hurt you." Master Chatak said. "Body language has the tendency to reveal the opponent's next move before they have even started to execute it. Just now, (Y/n), you failed to notice the droid standing back up and adjusting its arm placements to face the butt of its lightsaber towards you." I looked back at the training droid surprised as she said this before she continued. "Earlier you believed the droid to be attacking your head with its lightsaber, but you failed to pay attention to its other arm, waiting for you to open up your core so it could strike you with its fist. Padawan (L/n), this is exactly what happened to you on Khorm. If you wish to survive another ordeal like that, you must become accustomed to following the movements of the enemy..." She thought to herself for a few moments before continuing, "I believe you've had enough time playing with machines. Deactivate." The training droid ceased functions at Master Chatak's word, hunching down as it stood at the edge of the floor, and then Master Chatak turned to her side. Her dark-haired human padawan was sitting close by on the floor and watching my exercises in between chapters of a book. For a while though, she hadn't turned a single page and had kept an intense focus on my training, I don't think she had looked away for even a second throughout the duration of my last few duals with the droid. "Olee." Master Chatak said.
"Hm?" Olee Starstone said as she turned her head towards her master.
"Let's test padawan (L/n)'s capabilities against a live opponent." Master Chatak said. Olee looked back over at me and shrugged.
"Alright then." She said before snapping the book shut, standing up and making her way onto the grounds.
I hesitated a little bit and said, "Wait, shouldn't I practice against the droid a bit more?"
"You've been hogging the droids for an hour." Olee said as she walked over and took hold of her training lightsaber, igniting the blue blade. "I'm sure you've had enough practice by now to have learned SOMETHING." she said. "I know I have."
"Ummmm..." I started drifting off, trying to remember what exactly I had been trying to learn this whole time. It had kind of shifted around a few times since Master Chatak came in and took over supervision of me.
"Begin." Master Chatak said suddenly.
"Whaoh!" I exclaimed when Olee went straight for a stab at my core. I quickly ignited the top end of my saber staff and swiped it at the side of Olee's blade, pushing it away towards my left shoulder.
"Focus!" Master Chatak said. "That would have been an instant death because you were distracted."
"I'm trying, master!" I said. I rotated my lightsaber so that it was under Olee's lightsaber and then brought it over my head so that I was using my lightsaber blade to hold her's on my lower right side. I was able to lower my left hand to unlock the two hilts and enter a dual wield fashion, then I'd keep my right lightsaber focused on holding Olee's lightsaber down, while I used the left saber to slam it into her unprotected right side, then I'd release my hold on her saber with my right saber so she'd swipe her own over to her left side to block my left hand lightsaber that had just struck her, meanwhile I'd use my right lightsaber, now free, to strike towards her face, she'd hold up her saber to block me, unaware of the fact that I now have her right where I want her, I'd keep pushing against her lightsaber to match her resistance so that her lightsaber would actually stay in place, then I'd take my left lightsaber and strike hard at her wrist, causing her to drop her lightsaber on the floor and clutch her slightly burned hand, after which I would kick her lightsaber on the ground away, leaving her with nothing to defend herself with as I struck both of her knees, causing her to fall with nothing to counter with when I pointed my lightsabers at her head, victorious.
I made it to step two, unlocking the two hilts before Olee harshly kicked my left arm away, causing me to lose grip on my lower lightsaber hilt as my arm was flung back.
"Hey, What the-!" I exclaimed before she effortlessly swiped her lightsaber out from under mine and made me slam mine into the ground from trying to hold hers in place
"I can sense your thought process. Getting ahead of yourself much?" Olee said and went for another stab at my chest. "Whoah!" I exclaimed again and dodged out of the way. I grabbed my upper hilt with both hands now and shoved her lightsaber down hard. I slid the blade of my lightsaber along hers, intending to reach her hand and burn it but she quickly got down and waved her lightsaber over her head. My lightsaber would have slipped right off of hers but she twisted it around, keeping our sabers connected as she snaked her way around me, leading my arms to twist. She finally let go by pushing my lightsaber off of hers. By the time my arms had already reached around over my right shoulder, she had rotated me to be facing away from her and pushed me forward. I quickly turned around and brought my lightsaber to strike her from the side, but she raised her lightsaber to block mine at her face, and then when I tried to bring it to hit the side of her face again, she brought her lightsaber underneath and sliced at my arm, causing me to drop my lightsaber.
"OW!" I exclaimed and grabbed my slightly burned wrist just before she struck my shoulder with her training lightsaber and held it there, causing me to fall on one knee. "OW! OK! OK! OK! YOU WIN!" I said and grabbed the blade to push it away. My hands had soft burn marks on them, and the clone armor on my right shoulder and forearm of my training garments had slight burn marks on them. "Sheesh!" I said to her.
Olee pointed her saber away and chuckled as she looked at me with her left hand on her hip and a sly smirk on her face. "The instant you slid your hand down on your saberstaff," she said, "I knew immediately that you were going to disconnect your two saber hilts, and the way your elbow was bent told me that you were going to bring the lower hilt over to your left side." I shrugged in response.
"Excellent job, my apprentice." Master Chatak said, "Padawan (L/n), while you have expanded the limits of your body's mobility and your knowledge of lightsaber duelist forms over the course of your stay here, you must understand that it means nothing if your enemy knows what you will do next. I did not have to look into the flow of the force to discern your strategies, you leave yourself far too exposed, in more ways than one." I sighed with a little embarrassment as I deactivated my lightsaber. "Warfare is based on deception," Master Chatak said, "and I sense you have a long way to go before you can confidently recognize the hints a dualist leaves in their wake, as well as hide your own." Master Chatak paused for a second before saying "I think that's enough combat exercises for now. There are lessons in the library that I want you both to study on, I have arranged for Madame Jocasta to reserve them for you, they should be ready now."
"Awww." Olee whined.
"Finally." I said under my breath.
(Several minutes later, Jedi Temple, no one's point of view)
"Why don't you take your hood off?" Olee asked as you both walked down the hallway towards the temple archives. "It impaired your vision, you never want to have that in a fight."
"I know." You said, "I'm just not used to letting people see the slash across my face."
"It's not doing much. Olee said, "We can all see it clearly anyway, even with your hood on."
"Well it helps me feel better." You said.
"Let me take a look." She said and faced your head to look at her. She took a good look at your face for several seconds. "It's really not that bad anymore." She said.
"Really?" you asked.
"No, it's fine. You don't have to worry about it anymore." You smiled a bit as she grabbed your hood and tossed it off. You looked back at her, "That honestly takes a load off my che-" You stopped when you realized her eyes were wide with shock, which you sighed in response to "Of course..."
"Don't worry, it's healed up a lot." Olee said, "Just give it some more time, and you'll be back to normal. In fact, the scar seems to only reach your nose now."
"Ughhh," You grunted, "It still doesn't feel right. To have this showing for everyone to see wherever I go."
"Why?" Olee asked, "What's so bad about it? I think it looks kinda cool."
"Well I think it looks weak, or at least makes me look weak." You said, "I got it because I messed up. It feels like walking around with a sign that says 'I'm easy prey'."
"Come on, we're Jedi (Y/n). Commanders." Olee said, "Injuries are part of the job, sometimes they can be fascinating." She patted your back, "I'm sure that scar will make for a good story in the future."
"I ran over to a fully fledged sith while screaming like a maniac with my lightsaber raised." You said, "That's not really a story I'm proud to tell."
"Why not?" Olee asked.
"What do you mean?" You asked.
"(Y/n), you're a padawan." Olee said, "Making mistakes is part of YOUR job. You don't have to feel so weighed down with responsibility." she patted you on the back again "Let that come later, when you're a knight. These days, us padawans have the luxury of being as care-free as a Jedi could ever get. If you think anyone ever expected you to win against that sith, then honestly that's just your ego filling you up. You should be proud."
"Proud??" You said and looked at her confused. "Proud of what?"
"You saved the commander!" She said, "You were willing to sacrifice yourself. (Y/n), you've really got the spirit of a knight in you, just because you don't have the skills, doesn't mean you won't be a great knight in the future."
You smiled a bit again. "I appreciate the words, but I can't help but feel like that's easy for you to say." You said.
"Why? Because I'm a better duelist?" Olee asked, "That doesn't mean I'm perfect, I still have a lot to learn."
"Alright don't start patronizing me in front of the archives." You said
"I'm not." She said, "We're both padawans you know, focusing on your opponent's movement along with their weapon, your own train of thought, your environment, it's as much of a hard, foreign concept for you as it is for me."
"Really?" you asked, "This is news."
"It's even harder when you have to also focus on looking good in front of your master." Olee said. You hadn't considered that, you've felt the pressure of a master's gaze before, especially in the recent days that you've spent here.
"I get that." You said and patted her on the back. "You need some admiration? Take it from me. I could really learn a thing or two from you."
Olee chuckled a bit and said, "As much as I appreciate it, admiration from someone like you is not so much to brag about."
"Well it's probably the only admiration you'll get today. You can take it or leave it." You said.
She chuckled softly and said "So, is that a request? To learn something for me?"
You shrugged, "I mean if you would, it couldn't possibly be harder than learning from Master Kota." You said.
"I can agree with that. Olee said as you both walked into the library. "I'll think about it."
There was the young dark-haired teen sitting against the wall reading a book from the library. Everyone had come to expect him on their way in by this point in time. He would always greet visitors, acting like an organic alert system for Madame Jocasta. And you knew that even if he wasn't Jocasta's padawan doing assistance work at the library, he'd still be found here every free second of the day, studying the texts about the force and history of the galaxy, looking at datasticks of his own and hogging the holoprojectors to cram his knowledge full, lucky for everyone else, he didn't need to take thousands of datasticks and books to his quarters and prevent everyone else from using them if he had assignments to do in the library to distract him more. Jin-Lo Rayce looked up from his book when he heard the footsteps of you and Olee, who handed the book she was reading earlier to the young man.
"You can have your turn with this one now," Olee said as Jin-Lo took the book.
"Padawan (L/n), padawan Starstone." he said, "Good to see you both again."
"What do you mean again? We haven't been here at all today." You said.
"Also this isn't professional." Olee said, "You can drop the 'padawan' plump."
"How long have you been sitting there this time?" You asked
"Hmm, not sure. I think I lost count after twenty-six." Jin-Lo said.
"Huh, twenty-six minutes." You said, looking at Olee who met your gaze along with a shrug, "That's actually not that long."
"Yeah," Olee said, "I think that's a new record."
"... Oh no, that was hours, not minutes." Jin-Lo said
"What?!" Olee said with her jaw dropped.
"Hahahaha!" Jin-Lo erupted into a short fit of laughter that he fought to hold in to keep the noise down in the library. "I'm just playing, I've been sitting here for just under half an hour, waiting for you both." He said before he closed his book and stood up. "Your items are ready, follow me." He said and walked towards the fourth hall.
"When was the last time you ate, Jin-Lo?" Olee asked.
"It was an hour ago." Jin-Lo said, "You all need to stop with the nagging. Contrary to what you believe, I'm not addicted to this place. No need to worry that I won't let myself be free."
"I'm not worried that you won't, I'm worried that you can't." Olee said.
"Oh stop, like you were any better when you were under Master Jocasta's wing. And I told you, I ate an hour ago." Jin-Lo said
"Did you eat the paper? Because that doesn't count." You said.
"No," Jin-Lo said, "All those rumors are far from true."
"Then was it the datasticks?" You asked, "Did you eat those? The rumors say you do."
"Both of you get off my back before I change your identities in the archives to hutts." Jin-Lo said.
"Haha... wait, you can't actually do that, right?" You responded.
"Do you want to find out?" Jin-Lo said while looking back at you.
"... I mean, come on, there's no way you- MMMF!" Olee clapped her hand over your mouth mid sentence.
"Lesson number one: Don't push it." She said to you.
"Hahahaha." Jin-Lo let out a short laugh before he turned into one of the corridors containing a series of compartments. He opened one up and grabbed a scroll along with a datastick attached to it. "Olee, for you." He said and handed it to her. He looked at you and said, (Y/n), if you would follow me." He led you back out into the fourth hall with Olee tagging along. "I couldn't hold this one, for too long, so I had to just wait until you were here to retrieve it."
"Is there something keeping anyone from grabbing it?" You asked
"SomeONE." Jin-Lo said as he turned into the shelf. You heard a yawn from around the corner in the shelf followed by a familiar voice.
"About time, It's been almost an hour!" Ahsoka said.
You looked at Ahsoka who looked to be on the verge of sleep. "So, how's the library?" You asked and got the exact response you wanted.
"Great." "Horrible!" Jin-Lo and Ahsoka said respectively simultaneously.
"Jin-Lo, don't tell me you left her to stand here while we walked from the other side of the temple." Olee said.
"He did. Took you long enough, by the way." Ahsoka said.
"Come on, Ahsoka. I seriously doubt it's all that bad." You said.
"You don't know that half of it." Ahsoka said.
"Well look on the bright side," You said and gestured to Jin-Lo. "You've got him to keep you company this whole time."
"Once again, you don't know the half of it." She said and buried her face in her hands "I'm tired! I'm tired of all the history facts, all the names of the greats, all the star systems that look the exact same as the other star systems where nothing happened, gosh I don't care! He might be the most geeky person in the entire temple!"
"Hey, that's rude!" Jin-Lo said, "What do you mean 'might be'?"
Ahsoka looked at you. "Please!" She said and grabbed your shoulders while staring down at you intently, "Please tell me you saw someone else coming in! I NEED interaction!"
You looked into her eyes with a hint of fear, and cautiously shrugged in response with a shy smile.
"That's his stressful way of saying-" Olee started
"I know." Ahsoka interrupted her.
"Gosh." You said, "I didn't think this job would drag you so low." You said.
"What can I tell you?" Ahsoka said. "I'm a fighter. I'm a bird! I need to fly."
"I gotta go, Master Chatak will start to get stressed if I'm gone for too long, and when she gets stressed, I get stressed in return." She turned to leave "You coming?" She asked you
"I'll be there in a sec." You said and looked back at Ahsoka, "What the heck is the problem?" You asked.
Ahsoka sighed in response.
"It's only been a SINGLE DAY." You said.
"I'm just not accustomed to this." Ahsoka said, "silence, it's not unusual to me, but it's not something I'm always ready for."
"It's peace, Ahsoka. That's why they sent you over here. You risked the lives of your troopers because you couldn't choose to end the battle and go home." You said, "They want you to understand the benefits of security and solidarity."
"Well in my eyes, this isn't the way to go about it." Ahsoka said, "Peace to me is a gift, but for the past year or so, it's always been nothing but the calm before the storm." You tried to figure out how to help her. You both stayed quiet for a few moments before you broke the silence.
"Tell me three things, three good things that happened for you today." You asked.
"What? Ahsoka questioned.
"Come on, it's what Wolffe always does with the troops and I. It helps us not take things for granted." you said.
"Three good things that happened to me?" Ahsoka questioned. "There's not even three things that happened period." She said.
"Well," you said and clasped your hands together. "Spill it. I'm curious."
"Oh, don't patronize me." Ahsoka said.
"No, seriously." you said. "Tell me about it. I have no idea what goes on in here, but I've always wondered what labor in the archives is like."
Ahsoka shook her head. "It's not even worth-"
"Oh just spill it!" You said. Ahsoka raised her eyebrows at you, clearly you had come on a little strong.
"Well, um... Master Enisence came in today." Ahsoka said. "And me, being desperate for activity, I asked him if he needed any assistance, but he was pretty cold. He basically told me to get lost and leave him alone. To be fair, I did come on a bit strong, but still, I didn't know I was being that annoying." She looked at you. "... See? That's all that happens in here. I'm here walking around the halls making sure no one's gonna steal a piece of information from one of the most heavily guarded spots in the galaxy, and to see if people need help pulling out freaking books... (Y/n)?"
You were in deep thought. "That's... odd." You said. "I didn't realize he was back so soon."
"What are you talking about?" Ahsoka asked.
"Master Enisence." you said, "I uh, I spoke with him over holofeed just a few days ago, he was getting started on a campaign against the separatists in the Paloma system... I.. didn't expect him to be back for weeks."
"Really?" Ahsoka responded.
"Strange, huh?" you said.
"Yeah." Ahsoka said.
"Well, was he doing anything interesting?" You asked.
"No, he didn't even say what he was doing. He was just 'busy'. With what? I don't know and at this point I'm too afraid to ask." You though about this for a moment, still a little puzzled about the fact that he was back so soon. Ahsoka went to the shelf and pulled out a datastick which she handed to you.
"You should probably get going." Ahsoka said and handed it to you. "This is the information you need."
"Thanks." You said. "Hopefully we can talk later."
"Hopefully." Ahsoka said. "But you better get going. Olee tells me that Master Chatak will spar with her students if they're late."
"Ah." you said and turned around to leave.
"With training lightsabers of course." Ahsoka said.
"Those still hurt like hell." You said.
From behind a few shelves down the hall, Madame Jocasta leaned against the wall of information and listened to your words carefully. She brought her hand up to her chin in deep thought before she left to go find someone.
(Hell, Kadingir Sanctum, Your point on view)
I froze.
I... I actually froze.
I never freeze. It's not like me, no, especially with my gift. My sixth sense has always ensured that nothing ever catches me off guard. But back there, when I was in Exultia...
That girl...
As I walk through the dusty aerial plains of the Kadingir sanctum, with surprisingly not much to fight, mostly casual unwilling and hellrazers and occasionally something fiercer like an imp or once in a while a hell knight, my mind goes back to the state of confusion I was thrust into back there, when I found the celestial locator component in the hands of that young girl.
At first it was just the fact that there was an intelligent mortal life form in Exultia, but then when she spoke to me...
It was her voice, it caught me off guard for a minute. Why did it sound so... I've heard it, yes... I think. I shouldn't be worrying about this, I need to concentrate, but I can't get the burning question out of my head: Did I hear that same voice before? It was recently, wasn't it? Back there, in the galaxy where they were invading. Part of me thinks I'm being paranoid, but I can't deny the feeling of familiarity that covered my thoughts when that girl spoke to me. It froze me to my core. I was just completely stunned. The voice was one that I had heard before, and wherever I heard it, it left a big impact on me. I think...
"It is not too late."
"Do not blind yourself with hatred."
"Search your feelings for the truth."
No... Yes... Maybe?
Back on the planet where I killed Nilox, in that gigantic monestary, I heard a mysterious voice calling out to me. It wasn't a voice in the room with me, the only intelligent voices I heard were cries of help from the foolish locals. It wasn't someone hiding in the shadows, it was... it was like the voice of the air itself. But at the same time it did come from a certain point. No, maybe not. I'm not sure. My head is spinning right now. Yes, yes. That's right. The voice in the temple, it didn't come from a specific point in space, but it was certainly trying to lead me somewhere, somewhere... deeper within that temple. I could feel it in my sixth sense. It's strange, my sixth sense has never acted that way before.
"You... you're not that bad... right?"
... It's gotta be. It's almost the same voice I heard in that temple. That girl... Who the hell is she? Did she... did she somehow call out to me on that planet? How could she do that? What is she, some kind of mage? My sixth sense, it detected something... no, it responded, responded is the right word, responded to something so outlandish to me, and that's saying something.
Strange, the girl's tone sounds quite different between the calm and peaceful whisper I heard in that temple and her terrified, cautious pitch from when I confronted her, face to face. No, it can't be. There's billions of men and women in that galaxy. They can't be the same. Although, I'm understanding of why one would have a 180 degree shift in tone if they were to unexpectedly bump into me. Still, the similarity in the voices, I can't stop thinking about it right now. She had anger at me, I could sense it, especially when I pulled out...
I summoned my hilted weapon and looked at it intently.
What's so special about this? Actually, now that I remember, she had a similar weapon on her. I've been to thousands of worlds and many of the more technologically developed ones have had a similar retractable burning-bladed weapon. I've had strangers call me out once they caught me wielding this, mistaking it for a similar weapon that locals use. She had some of her own too, and from the look on her face when I pulled this out, she seems to mistake it for one of her own. Maybe she lost one and thinks I got it. Or maybe there's another reason, a mystery she will take to her grave.
But wait, the sounds... when she ignited her own weapon...
I looked at my weapon hilt and ignited the plasma blade on the top side.
The sounds, they're similar too... weird.
"...... (Y/n)?"
(Y/n)... What the hell's a (Y/n)?
She seemed so surprised before she said that. It's all so strange yet it peaks my curiosity. She wasn't just surprised, she was terrified. Her tone really did take a 180 degree turn. After the girl said this, she wasn't so keen on fighting me anymore. Why?
"STOP! What are you doing!? Is that you (Y/n)!?"
... I don't understand...
"The Wretch's life signal has been locked in. She is waiting for you inside one of the caves, marking her position for you now." VEGA said, interrupting my thoughts. A marker appeared on my HUD and led me to the right. My wolf snarled as he walked at my side and looked up at me. I looked back at him.
You will not attack her, she's an ally.
The wolf snarled lowly.
"As thy majesty requests." the wolf's mystical voice echoed in my head.
A flash of lightning erupted above us in the thunderous cloudy sky. The sky in this area of sacrifice and worship to the warriors of hell had grown from a fiery red to an aged tan. We walked on stone plains that held ancient gates, temples, and strongholds that had long been largely abandoned in hell's trillions of years of conquest. Pieces of the ground rose up through levitation and remained connected to the land by gigantic chains. Below these stone platforms, I could see that we had risen so high up in our journey to the Sanctum, that below the Kadingir hellscape, there were only more thunderous clouds below us. We had come a long way, we were now were tens of thousands of miles in the air. The edges of the hell plains were unguarded rims of the sky that opened anyone up to the opportunity of an attempted jump over to the other floating rims of the Kadingir sanctum, or plummet millions of miles below and risk being captured and enslaved by another lord of hell. I sometimes wonder what would happen if we found a way to keep going up. Is the "lower dimension" thing actually literal?
My wolf and I entered a large enclosure with old corpses and bones littered on the ground, which was practically painted red with blood. I followed the marker towards a tunnel on the side. I had been here before many times, including very recently when I followed that runt of pure evil Olivia Pierce during the crisis on Kamino and had to fight my way back to the mortal plain. In fact it seemed the blood I spilled all over the stone formations here was still undried.
I entered the tunnel. Close enough to the entrance was him. Once a strong and capable warrior, very exceptional like myself, blessed by his gods with unimaginable power, like myself, reduced to a rotting skeleton slumped up against a pillar of rock. All that remained of him was his ancient helmet of strong iron adorned with small horns that protrude from the helmet's top sides and curved downward. I stopped in front of my old friend and knelt down to pay my respects once again.
I remembered the times we had, the thrills we endured in his world. He was an adventurer, quite like how I used to be. When the demons invaded his world to conquer it, I followed. Together we ended the civil war in his homeland and drove the demonic forces of hell back out and sent his monstrous shouting world eater away with them. We saved thousands of people, drank and sang with heroes in taverns, found treasures of legends, stopped an undead lord from destroying the sun, solved hunger in his world with a single dairy product, earned the blessings of gods, scaled up mountains like never before, helped a fool get to his precious district in the clouds, and many other proud feats before both of us came back here to finish the job and seal off his world from the devils permanently.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry you couldn't make it home. You deserved a far better and more noble sendoff than this.
My eyes trembled as I gazed at the wound on his knee. The arrow that had found its mark right in the joint still remained. His screams of anguish and agony that immediately followed, along with the pain in his eyes and the terrified look in his face as I held him in my arms during his last dying breaths was still too painful to think about without trembling. I received terrifying flashes of the memory, of what happened immediately after he had been struck in the knee, it shook me to my core. His body paralyzed from the neck down in my arms, he screamed in agony and vomited puddles of blood as he spoke his final words, choking in between syllables over the unbearable pain. All that horror I felt still remained. Of all the worlds I have visited in my quest to stop the demons, I've seen billions of people die, people who I grew acquainted with, but none ever met a more inhumane and agonizing end that affected me more than his.
My wolf whined and came to lay down at my side, feeling my turmoil. I closed my eyes in sorrow and bowed my head in front of the noble and brave warrior.
We'll meet again in Sovngarde, old friend.
I stood up and continued down the tunnel with my wolf following me. I entered a cave at the end that had many unwilling and hellrazer corpses on the ground. They were all still intact, some were even still alive and moaning quietly in pain while lazily waving their limbs around. It had gotten pretty dark because of how far I had come from the cave entrance, but I could make her out in the darkness clearly enough, sitting in the center of the cave. She stiffly lifted up her head to face me. My wolf growled lowly as he looked at her face.
"Ahhh. You've modified it." The Wretch said in a sour, aged voice that also had a slightly monstrous and echoey undertone.
She was a demon. A unique one, I might even say exceptional. She wore a strange red hooded cloak and clutched a tall royal demonic scepter adorned with bones and jewles.
"It seems you've taken quite a liking to it." The Wretch said. She spoke slowly like a true elder while inching closer to me and reaching out a trembling bony hand to brush against my gauntlet. "My gift has served you well, child. But you must not come to rely on it. It accelerates your divine healing process by providing you with the essence of your precious wraiths, from the argent energy that flows deep through the veins of demonic creatures. But for every matter, there is an equal and opposite anti-matter. Argent energy in its base state still carries the same deadly hell fire that led to your people's doom." She chuckled at the reminder of the Sentinel's fate which made me clench my fist. "And if you are not careful, it will lead to yours as well, child." She giggled again as she traced her hand along my armor a bit more. I slapped her hand away and caused her to fall back. An unwilling demon crawled slowly past her.
"I only jest!" The Wretch said with a chuckle as she sat back up. "Forgive me if I have offended you, almighty bane of hell. It has been so long. So long since I have had an intelligent life form to socially interact with. A being capable of proper communication, capable of understanding how to converse with anyone about anything." She looked at the unwilling that was still trying to crawl past her towards me and raised her hand over it. "Even one who understands the pain and situation it finds itself in." The wretch brought her hand down over the unwilling's head and a gaseous light started flowing from its head into the palm of her hand. The unwilling screeched slightly louder but didn't stop crawling over to me as the wretch sucked out more of its soul until she relented and let the unwilling lay with its head flat on the ground, just barely alive enough to gasp in exhaustion and snarl lowly at me, but too weak to move at all now like most of its brothers in the cave.
The Wretch faced me and continued speaking "One like myself, but there are none. None who were intelligent enough to understand the predicament that entire hellscape found itself in so many eons ago, when we believed we had the mighty slayer trapped in hell with us once again, after claiming the souls of his weak brothers and sisters." I snarled at her and clenched my fist before she continued with a sly grin. "But in actuality, we had only trapped ourselves in hell with you. None else could understand that, they know only blood and suffering. But I-" She was interrupted by the unwilling next to her, which garnered the strength to moan loud enough to be an interruption. So she stretched her hand over the unwilling's back and sucked out the rest of its soul. She made no change in expression as the unwilling shrieked in agony before she claimed the last bits of its life force and let it lie there motionless and empty, then she continued. "But I knew of what we had wrought. And I knew that I would most rather become the Doom Slayer's spared ally, rather than his enemy, and pledge my services to thou."
Get on with it already.
"I perceive your silent agitation, child. You wish to know why I have requested to meet with you? You have another world to prevent the legions of hell, MY legions, from conquering. No, a galaxy it seems." She gestured outside. "As you have seen, they have taken many more of the deadly inhabitants of the hell plain to devour the worlds of their argent quarry." She said. "I must say, as your guide I take grand offense to your refusal to consult with me firsthand. Me, who has been your guiding hand for millennia untold. Wasting my clairvoyant power to inform you of the dark realm's agenda, providing you with the path to follow, and guiding you on events that will unfold." She stood up stiffly and grabbed my gauntlet with her rotten hand. "I gave up my titles, my power, gave you yours, led you to your vessel, foolish child! Did you believe you could simply leave me in the dust to rot??"
Yes.
At least for now.
I yanked my arm out of her grip and turned to leave.
"That is not why I called you here, my lord." She said, causing me to stop. "My clairvoyance, it will fade away in the near future." Now I turned around to look at her with my full attention, along with a hint of concern.
The Wretch... when the priests banished myself and my fellow Sentinel rebels to hell, I started massacring the entirety of this awful dimension. My anger took over again and nothing would make me stop, except for her. When we inevitably crossed paths, I decimated every demon under her dominion with ease. She was a lady of hell, and one of her gifts as a higher ranking demon was a greater ratio of intellect over savagery. Not only that, she was a master of the arcane arts, both demonic and even to an extent Maykr magick. I made my way to her domain, covered in the blood of her "people'' and seething with anger, berserk to my core and ready to tear her apart for challenging me and sending her hordes to end me. But things didn't go like they usually did with the other lords of hell. She wasn't so eager to mindlessly lay down her life in combat with me, such is the way of most intelligent beings.
In her desperation, the Wretch quickly offered me a deal: Spare her life, and she will use her magnificent abilities to aid me in my one-man war against hell. Not only would I be able to kill demons far more in efficiency, but I would be able to save more worlds and civilizations from falling victim to their conquests like the Argenta had. Her most unique and useful ability that was exclusive to her and her alone: foresight. She could see into the future like the Maykrs themselves, and she immediately saw that I would tear her apart along with every other creature that remained loyal to hell and the Maykrs. So she offered to use this power for my glory and victory. And as a symbol of allegiance to prove she was not like the traitorous Deag priests, she enchanted my Sentinel battle armor into an advanced suit of Maykr sorcery and technology, one that was completely impervious to any physical damage besides attacks powered by hell energy. It was my armor. It was arcanely connected to my soul, was now on par with my own natural physical levels of invulnerability, and had the power to draw in Sentinel energy from anywhere, even from Argent energy on a molecular scale to boost my divine healing, thus it would allow me to keep slaughtering demons continuously and infinitely without need for a moment's rest or break to rejuvenate. The wretch's foresight would serve me well in the millions of years I spent in hell. She would know when the lords of hell were seeking to conquer new land to absorb into their dimension, and she would inform me of the targeted world before the legions even started moving. She would also lead me to the portals in hell that allowed me to step into the alien worlds, so that I could slaughter the hellspawm before they could cause too much damage. I was able to finally put a lid on the demons, become the wrathful force of nature that shielded other worlds from unjust early judgment. And all the while, she would advise me on what the next move would be and the outcomes. She dared not lie to me. She feared me more than her fellow lords. Even if she did sell me out and I somehow was defeated, she would be forced back into hiding again like she was when I was sealed away, for she had already passed the point of no return eons ago. It had gone too far. The other rulers of hell would torture her for treason. I live as her only chance at life. Her power has served me well for so long... and now it's fading?
"My lord." The Wretch said, "There is something far greater at stake than another addition to the worlds of hell."She painfully stood up while using her bony scepter for leverage and as she leaned on it for support, she staggered towards the tunnel, stepping on the head of a weak unwilling and crushing it. She motioned for me to walk with her and I did so, with my wolf following behind. "For the first time in my entire life Slayer, the future is clouded. But I do know this: they are not trying to conquer so much space. Nay. The extent of land is worthless to us. The kingdom of hell is very plentiful, so incomprehensibly large and abundant with conquered worlds of the multiverse, even one such as myself must exercise mental effort from trying to grasp it. It is no simple occurrence for the forces of hell to exhaust so many of their legions to conquer so much space in one universe. That is because they are not... they are not simply trying to absorb this galaxy, they are trying to cover it. They don't wish to inhabit this land, that is simply an extra award. They need the space of this galaxy to be in the hellscape for a different reason." As we passed by my old friend and approached the mouth of the cave, she turned to me.
And this matters, because...?
I tilted my head, puzzled, and shrugged unsure of where she was going.
As we walked outside of the cave into the carnage aftermath where my wolf growled at a single unwilling that had stumbled into the area and caught sight of us. The Wretch continued speaking while the unwilling staggered over to our position at the mouth of the cave. "There is something unique about this galaxy, something special to them, something they need. Unfortunately for my lord, I have been cut off from the demonic hivemind for far too long to understand what it is. For the sake of my lord, I have tried to steal the knowledge out of the souls of the weak damned," She stretched her hand out towards the unwilling and her beam of dark magick erupted out and surged into the unwilling's body, sucking out its soul until she relented and the demon fell onto the floor, dead. "But the lowly slaves of hell have no knowledge to provide me. Whatever it is that they're searching for, it seems it is directly related to the loss of my power, that much is to be certain. The timing of these events could not possibly be coincidental" She walked forward and my wolf and I followed her further into the Kadingir sanctum.
"The voices of the lords of hell grow silent in my consciousness ever so slowly." She said, "My awareness of extended reality becomes shorter along with it, but you must know something: This galaxy, it is filled with some sort of mystical force, a magic that I have seen once before, long ago. And powerful warriors... Hm, It seems you have slipped upon them in your time there. I see a faint outcome, my lord. These warriors, they are cautious, intelligent, vigilant, and they will set their eyes on you. They will hunt you, they will put you in chains, they will judge you for acts against them..." she said as we entered into the path of the catacombs
How could that ever be possible? They're mortals. What edge could they possibly have over me?
"This is the truth of what I see, my lord." She said, "The clairvoyance bars me from prying my eyes further into the mists of time, except for one, there is one more chapter of fate you must be made aware of: You are to be betrayed once again."
Yeah, I'm starting to bet so.
"In this galaxy, I see the same fate that befell your pitiful Agrenta threatens to befall this world. I see a dark menace hides in the shadows of power and influence, they will try to thwart my lord, and give up their people and home to the demons for the sake of eternal power. The traitor is strong in power even as we speak, I am unable to predict who it is, but if you cannot discern their identity in time, I fear that you will meet your end. Not just the end of your life, but the end of the lives of those you hold dear in your heart."
She was puzzling me with every prediction she came up with. Dear in my heart? The only people who have ever been dear to my heart are either dead, scattered and lost, or sealed from me by universal boundaries. It's not like bonds are a thing completely of my past, but I hesitate to gain liabilities who might hinder my mission, or die. I've grown tired of having to mourn new figures in my life, but sometimes the mission demands connections. Yet despite even that, I have become increasingly numb to letting unexpected allies get too close as the centuries go by. Anger and sorrow, they have become my nature, nothing else is able to be let in. Anger to bring out my strength for battle, and sorrow to remember my motivation. This sounds ridiculous, but I could feel with my sixth sense that she was in as much disbelief as I was.
One thing was for certain, that galaxy is full of weak, manipulative beings. They brought the demons to their doorstep themselves, and I'm the only hope they've got for survival. They can't lay a scratch on me no matter how hard they try. Not a single one of them will ever get the best of me. This traitor, these warriors, they want to test their luck against me? Against divine nature? Against the bane of hell recorded in legends that span through universal boundaries?
Let them come. Let them try. They'll meet the same gory fate as anyone and everyone else who ever had the red wet guts to challenge what hell raised up, what Argent D'Nur tempered, and what Urdak empowered.
She continued speaking as we walked further into the catacombs. "Since I have begun receiving these visions, I have spent time searching far and wide throughout these sacred grounds, hoping to find the answer of what they mean. The Kadingir Sanctum, it is where shrines are built, sacrifices are performed, and it is where I discovered the first traces of what the dark ones now seek."
We entered a large chamber and she reached out her bony hand to point at the wall, which was completely covered with large messy texts and incantations. My wolf strolled forward and sniffed around the room, displaying curiosity at the texts. They glowed so brightly like fire, providing the only source of light that was abundant enough to illuminate the chamber besides a few dim candles. There were two things that caught my attention more than anything. First off was the giant illustration of a trapezoidal object which was the only non-verbal entity scratched into the walls. The texts were written in demon tongue, which I'd had more than enough time to become fluent in over the millennia. There were only strange and absurd messages etched into the wall that I silently read with an intrigued mind.
"Accursed land"
"Sovereign stars"
"The unholy plains that must be reclaimed"
"The hand of the dark one"
"Wielder of life and death"
"Sins of the father"
"Silent resurrection"
"Grounds of rebirth"
"The second coming"
"The chaos monarch lies dreaming"
So much stuff I couldn't really understand the meaning to, but it sounded enough like what the Wretch had said. Her prediction was starting to make a bit of sense now. And I could see that most of the texts on the wall repeated the same single message over and over again. These certain repeated messages seemed to have been inscribed most recently, and they were the second part of this whole thing that caught my attention more than anything. What they said made me skip a breath.
"The monolith draws near"
I couldn't believe it.
"It seems you recognize this message, my lord." The Wretch said. I stared at the inscription for a good moment before nodding affirmatively. The priests said this to me, so did the captain of that cultist ship. I have no idea what it means, but it's starting to sound serious, like this isn't a simple expansion of demonic territory.
"Dark times are upon us, great Slayer. I know thou feels it as well" The Wretch said. "What the demons seek, it will be found in the galaxy, and it calls for them to leave hell largely uninhabited. Whatever the devils seek, I can see vaguely through the boundaries of time that it will make them unstoppable, even for you." I turned my head towards her.
She clearly wasn't lying. And her predictions have never been wrong. This is bigger than I thought.
"I can only provide you with so much useful knowledge now." She said, "I have told you all that I have seen, the rest is up to the efforts of the mighty Hellwalker. If thou wishes to survive, to stop the expansion of hell, thou must stop the demons from consuming this galaxy. Thou must heed these warnings, and stop them from completing their search for whatever in reality they may be looking for. I regret to admit that I have exhausted my usefulness for now. As the future comes closer with each passing second, I can only wish and hope that I will be able to be of service again to thee. At this moment, the demons must be vanquished from this galaxy. My lord will have to rise to the challenge. The Maykrs, they need the souls of the galaxy for their energy, but the demons, they have no such use for the elixir of Argenta. They could make do without it as they always had before. The forces of Urdak and Hell aligned with each other for different purposes, so you see? The Khan Maykr, either she herself has no understanding of what the damned seek, or... she simply does not care."
I highly doubt it's the former. The god of the Maykrs knows everything, as do her angels. Either way, neither option means well for me.
"The demons, they want to cover this galaxy in their absolute control. Not for conquest, for preparation, or perhaps convenience. There is something there that they need to have." The Wretch said. "They are looking for something, or perhaps... waiting for something."
"HEEEEE KNOWWWWS..." The whisper of a deep, monstrous, demonic voice echoed through the catacombs and shook them to their foundation. My wolf ran out into the large passage in the catacombs and barked. The Wretch and I looked around, alarmed before I ran after my wolf and looked down the hallway to see imps, hell knights, prowlers, hell razors, and pinkies being teleported into the place. My wolf growled and got ready to fight. I looked back at the Wretch. She held her hand up and shouted some demonic arcane incantations. The beam of energy erupted from her hand again and moved through the hall before it connected to all of the demons in the room, sucking out their souls quickly. More started to pop in, but she had cleared the room enough for me to barrel through them.
"You must leave, my lord." She said to me, "I can see it now. They will trap you once again. They will destroy the catacombs and the traces to their goal, and bury you here to seal you away once again. Leave. Your continued survival depends on escaping from here, and stopping the consumption of the galaxy. You must do what you can to prevent this 'monolith' from reaching the clutches of the damned and bestowing its mysterious power unto them." With that, she teleported away in a spiral of demonic energy.
Some imps tossed fireballs at me as they ran to attack. I pulled out my shotgun and launched an explosive shot at them, killing them all. They were followed by more demons running at me. I entered the area and jumped up to avoid the claws of a hell knight. I landed another explosive shot at the back of a hellrazer so that it would be propelled by the explosion and bash against the hell knight's back. Then I landed on the dazed hellrazer and crushed its head under my foot, before blasting the hell knight with two more shots. The hell knight swung its arm and almost hit my head before I ducked, grabbed its arm and snapped it before punching the hell knight hard in the face, decimating its head and killing it.
A baron ran over to and thrust its hell fire wrist blades at me. I grabbed them and slid backwards a bit as it pushed the blade closer to my face.
"I have found an exit point outside the catacombs." VEGA said. "Marking it for you now." The marker appeared behind me. I felt the catacombs shake again and some sediment fell through the cracks in the ceiling. They're going to bury me.
No. Not again! NOT EVER AGAIN!
I reeled my left fist back and slammed it into the baron, taking off a lot of flesh from its hand all the way to its rib. The baron staggered backwards and from there I jumped up, pulled out my heavy assault rifle and unloaded many micro missiles into its face before punching it hard in another blood punch. Now its fiery skull was completely exposed and the baron tried to fling me out of the air but I dashed out of the way and kept circling around it, transitioning between a rocket, a precision bolt, a sticky shotgun round, a plasma heat blast, a rocket lock on barrage, and a series of automatic shotgun rounds before most of the barrons flesh had been blasted off and it tripped over a hell knight, falling on its hands and knees. I came over it and stomped down on its head before grabbing its left horn to pull its head up, where it roared at my face before I unsheathed my wrist blade and sliced its head from its neck. I heard a prowler rushing towards me from behind. Before it could catch me in that face grab again, I faced it and tossed the baron's head at it as hard as I could. The baron's head hit the prowler and knocked it out instantly. I simply ran over it, stomping over its torso in the process and destroying abdomen which made it wake up and cry in terror and pain. I simply faced backwards as I ran towards VEGA's marker and launched four explosive shotgun rounds and a grenade from my shoulder launcher, which exploded as I entered the catacomb passages and ran into the darkness
I slowed down as I made my way further into the pitch black passageways. I could hear snarling and snapping nearby. To my right. I unsheathed my wrist blade and thrust it forward, plunging it into the side of the unarmored mouth of the specter, which immediately revealed itself from its camouflage as a regular pinky. The pinky squealed in pain and tried to run me into a wall, but I jumped up and landed on top of it backwards. As I looked up, I could see more cyclones of demonic energy coming in. They temporarily illuminated the darkness before they disappeared, and the pitch black hallway was now filled with beady red and yellow eyes, and lots of growling approaching closer and closer.
I faced down at the pinky's tale, the demon was slightly stunned after banging its head on the wall. I unsheathed my wrist blade and stabbed it into the demon's unarmored tail which made it cry out in pain, then I blazed its tail with a dose of my flame belch and quickly turned myself around to face forward. The pinky screamed loudly and rushed forward, trying to outrun the flames on its tail. As it rushed forward, it flattened all of the demons in our way without a problem. I took out my heavy assault cannon and blasted the demons behind us to bits as I rode the pinkly through the catacombs. We were nearing a corner of the long hallway. I grabbed the pinky's horns and yanked them to the right before it could hit the wall. The pinky squealed in pain again as its neck was twisted harshly and it quickly turned itself to the right, slightly bumping against the wall as it turned. I kept a hard grip on its horns as it ran down the next hallway
The catacombs shook some more and pieces of stone were falling from the ceiling. I saw one on top of us which fell right in front of the pinky. The pinky bashed into it, catapulting me off of it and leading to me face planting on the ground and sliding a few feet forward. I picked my head up and looked back at the dazed pinky who was immediately crushed by a falling piece of the ceiling.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel in front of me. The place was falling apart and shaking rapidly. I got up and ran towards the light before the light suddenly went out. Something had moved in front of it and trapped me in darkness again. I was suddenly backhanded into the wall by a large arm and stomped on by what the glow of a red cyclone of demonic energy nearby revealed to be a large hell knight. It slammed its foot on me hard, keeping me in place. My arms were free so I aimed my rocket launcher up at the hell knight and locked onto him to blast a barrage at its face. The hell knight immediately staggered off and covered its face in pain. I blasted another rocket at its feet and made it fall on its hands and knees. The hell knight looked up to flash the rageful eyes in its bludgeoned skull at me. I unsheathed my wrist blade but before either of us could move to attack, my wolf lunged at the hell knight from around the corner and caught its face in his jaws, using his weight to yank the demon down to the floor. The wolf chomped down on the hell knight's head, the hell knight screamed in pain before my wolf tore out a chunk of its skull containing the demon's small brain.
"The serpents wish to see thou entombed once again, not slain." The wolf's echoey voice spoke in my head. "My master must run. Thou must not allow the dark beasts to keep him to be sealed away. My master must live." More demons appeared in the darkness and their beady glowing eyes blocked me from continuing. I blood punched through the fodder ones and leapt over the more powerful ones, right after climbing onto a mancubus' shoulder and grabbing the pipes connecting its cannons to its back fuel supply before ripping them out. I then shoved my fist into the heart chamber of another mancubus and ripped it out before sticking it on the demon's tusk. I ran towards the exit and heard the mancubi explode behind me, taking out other demons with them evident by the many cries and howls of pain.
I continuously dashed towards the exit, sliding along the ground through weak demons and blood punching or jumping over other ones and leaving a grenade or something behind for pleasure. A few prowlers tried to lunge at me from the walls but my wolf would appear and grab them out of the air with his teeth to let me continue forward. The catacombs continued to fall farther and farther apart. A large statue of a royal demon lost its foundation and started falling down. It was so tall that its head hit the wall and got wedged in that leaning position. But then another piece of the ceiling fell onto it and made it collapse, blocking my way. I approached it as my left fist started glowing with argent energy. When I got to the statue I blood punched it hard and destroyed it.
I was getting close to the exit now. An imp stood in my way but as it jumped at me I simply swung my arm at it, causing it to splatter on the wall. The ceiling was practically caving down on me. I saw a large stone coming down on my path really close to me. I drew out my hilt weapon and ignited its plasma blade to slice in half the large stone that almost hit my head. I kept my plasma blade out and continuously swung it around, stopping more pieces of the catacombs from interfering with my escape. Another statue suddenly lost its foundation, it was right at the entrance and it was falling down. I dashed forward consecutively, sliding along the ground in a flash. The statue was going to block the way out and I had just wasted the last of my blood punch reserves on the last statue. A stone fell on my shoulder and I rolled on the ground, now starting to get stressed. I quickly jumped back up and continued dashing. The statue was just over the exit now and in a few seconds, it would block it. I launched a grenade from my shoulder cannon right over the exit. The grenade exploded under the statue, propelling it up for a moment. I dashed forward more and then dove towards the exit.
I slid outside across the ground on my chest and looked back. Dust from the collapsing catacombs was pushed from the cracks in the exit which was now blocked by the statue. I heard more crunching from inside and looked up above to see the whole structure suddenly cave in. It toppled to the ground and covered the entire area around me with dust.
Great, good luck cleaning this off.
When the dust cleared a minute later, the catacombs lay in a giant pile of shambles. My wolf materialized nearby and howled and barked at me while nuzzling himself against my body.
It's ok, it's ok. Master is ok. I'm here.
"Opening the slipgate portal now." VEGA said. A moment later, a blue light shined from behind me and I turned around to see the slipgate waiting for me to enter. My wolf looked at me with his head tilted. I nodded to him reassuringly.
That's our new home.
The wolf howled softly and ran into the portal. I got up and followed him through.
I appeared back in my ship and saw my wolf sniffing around his new home curiously. VEGA addressed me immediately.
"I began the examination of the Sentinel Ballista you acquired in Exultia. Repairs of the weapon are 87% complete and should be finalized soon." I walked towards the center of my command station and pulled out the celestial locator component. "With the priests' life signals shielded, your celestial locator will need this component to be able to increase its search capabilities." VEGA said. The center of the command station floor opened up and a chamber came out. I placed the component in the chamber and it sank back into the floor.
"Analyzing... finalizing..." VEGA said. "... Component installation complete. Your ship's celestial locator should now be able to find the hell priests... I am detecting the life signals of Deag Ranak and Deag Grav in the galaxy. I shall have a lock on them both in several minutes." On the screen as well as on the hologram that projected over the command station, The galaxy was displayed with a cursor moving over one corner of the galaxy, scanning through all the star systems. Two points in the galaxy were highlighted with the cursor closing in on them.
(Gyndine, Ahsoka's point of view)
"Loc?" I said, walking up to the young ARC scientist who was reviewing construction logs.
"Commander Tano." He said. "Is there something you need?" Wow. That was easy. I really didn't expect him to be so soft on me, considering I had been kind of a jerk to him.
"I want to know is there anything else at all you can tell me about the Doom Slayer?" I said.
He looked up at me from his data terminal with a hesitant expression. "I've heard the rumors, commander." He said.
"Loc... during your internship with the UAC, did you ever see his face?" Loc had a disappointed look on his face as I asked him this. "Is it true?" I asked.
Loc shook his head. "Unfortunately, I can't answer that, no." he said, "The sarcophagus, it was regarded as a precious relic that only the highest ranking staff members were allowed access to. I was never anywhere close to him. In fact, I never even knew where he was, or exactly when they acquired him."
I perked my head up. "Sarcophagus?" I said and contemplated for a moment before continuing with my curiosity growing bigger. "Is there anything else you can tell me?" I asked. "Anything at all about how you all found him, anything you knew about him but couldn't explain?"
"There are a few things that might help you." Loc said. "Everything about him has been released to all of us now in the codex, but it's a little vague. There's not much we can tell you that isn't already in the codex, but the codex is based on what we know, and even we... we couldn't learn so much about him when he was in hypersleep."
"Hypersleep?" I said. This rabbit hole was just sinking further and further. "How about you start at the beginning?" I asked. "There's gotta be something else not mentioned in his codex files."
"The beginning..." Loc said. "There was something interesting, not about him, but the place where we found him."
"I want to know all about it." I said.
Loc pushed up his glasses before saying, "He was found in one of our earlier conquests in the hellscape. By this point, we had already retrieved several important artifacts and demonic test subjects for examination in our efforts to use argent energy to its fullest potential." He said, "Including a certain relic that was dangerous, but gave us valuable knowledge. It was called... What was it? The Helix stone."
"What did it do?" I asked.
"For one thing, it drove everyone who got in contact with it to insanity." Loc said, making me perk my head up curiously. "It was an unimaginable information holder, it had the ability to bestow us with the vast secrets of hell, limitless knowledge of its landmarks and history... but that knowledge was far too much. A lot of our best and brightest scientists and historians went insane the moment they touched it... except for one."
"Samuel?" I asked. Loc nodded
"Dr Hayden didn't have much of an organic brain to succumb to the madness." Loc said, "At least, that's what we assumed. Regardless, he was the only one able to mentally survive the knowledge that the Helix stone held, and that knowledge is what led us to an important place in the hellscape. One of the closest calls in all of our hell expeditions, a place we dubbed the 'Kadingir Sanctum'."
I was getting genuinely immersed in his recounting of it all. His stories felt drawing to me, and I paid close attention with curious eyes.
"It was different, far too different. The Sanctum was... borderline calm I might say. It had fewer violent and powerful demons than anywhere else we had seen." Loc said. "From the translations of texts on the walls and the observed behavior of the demons, it was clear to us that the Sanctum wasn't strictly a place of torture and harvesting like the rest of the hellscape, no, this palace was different. Lower demons would travel there like homage to perform sacrifices, bow down, pray and give penance. A few larger demons stood guard at the sight of valuable artifacts... It was a place of worship."
"That's crazy." I said, cupping my hand under my chin. "I never took those wild monsters for religious people, I never thought I'd ever hear that they actually performed worship..." I looked back at Loc. "Who did they worship?"
"Important figures in hell's history and population. That includes both barbaric heroes of hell... and villains." He said and looked at me to make the connection.
"... The Slayer?" I asked.
"He was there." He said, "One of those valuable artifacts that I mentioned were closely guarded? A stone sarcophagus, a big one, covered from head to toe in protective and restrictive runes that took months to get past. The tomb he was found in was guarded by the most powerful demons they could muster into the area. It was so discernible from the rest of the Sanctum. Guarding enchantments, every defensive measure seemed to be made in order to keep anyone from getting in, and demonic inscriptions all over the tomb, warning anyone who might enter that the terror within must never be allowed to get out. You've heard the Slayer's Testaments, haven't you?"
"I have." I said. "... How did the expedition team make it through all that alive?"
"They didn't." Loc said which caught me off guard. "They died getting through the tomb and tethering the Slayer's sarcophagus back to the facilities on Kamino. All except Dr Hayden"
"I can't believe that." I said. I changed the topic to something slightly different. "The texts, the testaments, is there anything else that you found regarding the Slayer?"
"There is one thing that you might find interesting." Loc said. "And that was the descriptions of his actions against hell which were inscribed around his tomb."
"What did they say?" I asked
"They told a story, or at least bits of a story, HIS story. They told us how the Slayer fought against hell for so incomprehensibly long, but according to those texts, he didn't spend all of his time in hell." Loc said. "He brought the fight to wherever the demons brought their conquests. While he was there, thousands of civilizations were saved from demonic consumption. He visited those worlds and thwarted the demon attacks. It was like a judge's statement against the Slayer. He's been all across the multiverse, seen so many different kinds of cultures, and walked among various civilizations and societies. These texts that we found in the Kadingir Sanctum describe in short but decent detail each of the worlds he stopped them from conquering." I perked my head up at this part, only for him to shake his head. "I know what you're thinking, and I've looked through them. Unfortunately, none of those descriptions matches our galaxy nor any of our planets. There are a few that sound vaguely similar to a few areas of the galaxy. If you would like to, I could send the files over to you."
"Yeah. That'd be really helpful. Thanks Loc." I said.
"Don't mention it Commander." He said.
"Ahsoka." I said. "You can call me Ahsoka."
Loc smiled a bit. "Well then, Ahsoka." He said. "If there's any other information you need, don't hesitate to ask. There's a high probability that the ARC has it. And as a head of intelligence, I have that info right at my fingertips at all times."
"I really appreciate it." I said.
"This Jedi, (Y/n) (L/n), I take it you two were well acquainted?" Loc asked.
"You could say that." I said.
"I can see why you'd want to learn more about him after catching a glimpse of his face." Loc said, "Heck, even I'm dead set on learning more about him. I mean, he's a legend in multiple different universal societies, he appears to be an immortal demigod who brought hell to its knees over the course of non-stop violence for millennia, he can take out an entire pack of demons with a single punch, and it turns out he may have been a padawan all this time? From OUR galaxy? Who could ignore tha-" before he could finish, I heard a beeping sound in one of my side pouches which caught my attention, caught his too. "I-Is that..." Loc said before I pulled the tracking monitor from my pouch.
When I looked at the rapidly beeping monitor, I felt like my heartbeat had increased tenfold. I looked at Loc with wide eyes.
"I gotta go." I said.
"Yeah, Im sure you do." He said back before I bolted out of the room.
I brought my wrist comm up to my mouth and said "Master Windu!" After dialing him up.
"Padawan Tano, what's the situation?" he answered almost immediately.
"I have a lock!" I exclaimed. "I have a lock on the Slayer's position!"
"What?" He exclaimed. "Come to the war room immediately."
"I'm on my way." I said.
I zoomed my way past workers, guards, and troopers on my way to the war room. My breath was starting to become sporadic as I got closer to the war room, but mind was going a lot faster than I was running. I could feel some anxiety start to build up along with anticipation. He was here. He was finally back, and I knew the next place he would be going would be where we would find the priests, and hopefully get him back. Still, it felt like what we were about to do is insane. The fear that he may coincidentally be against us is still present in me. But the thought of being able to speak with him again replaced that fear with rushed excitement. We could try talking to him again, bring him back to the light. We had to at least try.
I almost ran into the doors of the war room before they opened up to me, and I stood there hunched over, breathless. Master Anakin, Master Windu, Master Plo, Master Ferroda, Rex, X1, and Wolffe were in the room. Master Obi-Wan was being projected over the holoprojector.
"Ahsoka? Are you alright?" Master Ferroda came over and helped me stand up straight. After I nodded vigorously, he said, "Take your time. Tell us what it says." and helped me over to stand with the others.
"His location is stable." I said and pulled out the tracking monitor. I handed it to Master Anakin and said, "See for yourself."
Master Anakin held the monitor in his hand and took a good look at it. Master Plo peeked intensely over his shoulder.
"What does it say?" Master Kota asked.
"Inner Rim." Master Anakin said and looked up at the others. "The Laertos System." He handed the monitor to Master Windu.
"The Inner Rim?" Master Plo said. "That whole part of the galaxy has the heaviest presence of demonic forces. Do we have any eyes in that area?"
"That'll be a no." Master Kenobi said. "Not by a long shot."
"Communications with the Inner Rim territories have been down for weeks now, and the space is too heavy with demons at the moment to try and repair our satellites." Master Kota said
Master Windu changed the layout of the monitor's display and reacted with a puzzled face. "Strange." He said.
"What is it?" Master Plo asked.
"He's in the system, but he doesn't appear to be on a planet." Master Windu said. He changed the display layout several more times. "He's just in open space."
"I am alerting the rest of the fleet of this discovery." Master Obi-Wan said.
"Good." Master Windu said, "It's important that they arrive there as soon as possible."
"Shouldn't they wait?" Master Ferroda asked. "Half of the fleet is still mobilizing troops and Jedi masters in preparation for the attack."
"We have enough ships ready to effectively start the attack against the demons." Master Windu said. "They will be prepared if the Slayer leads them to the priests. The rest of us will follow."
"I am en route with the Vigilance to pick you all up, what's the status on mobilizing the troops?" Master Obi-Wan asked.
"We're ready, sir." X1 said. "Once you arrive, it won't take long for us to board."
"Good." Master Obi-Wan said
(Your Ship, Your point of view)
"Sentinel weapon repairs and modifications complete. The ballista is ready to be added to your arsenal." VEGA said. I walked over to the large smithing station behind the ship's bridge. The ballista was hovering over the station, now looking good as new, free of the rust and cracks that I found it with. I clutched the weapon and pulled it from the smithing station to observe it up close.
This is a fun one.
"I have the hell priests' positions locked in." VEGA said. I put the ballista away with the rest of my arsenal and made my way back to the bridge. The hologram of the galaxy that projected over the command station zoomed in on one particular area and highlighted a system.
"Priest Deag Ranak has been located in the Scipio system." VEGA said. "Radio channels report he and his fleet are currently engaged with Confederate forces trying to reclaim the system." The projection of the galaxy zoomed out and highlighted another part of the galaxy "Priest Deag Grav has been located on the planet Ossus. The planet is swarming with demonic creatures, no mortal life has been detected." On the monitor, The selection of Ossus and the Scipio system came up.
I tapped the Scipio system option.
"Understood." VEGA said. "Calibrating the slipgate portal now."
(Scipio System, no one's point of view)
In deep space at the edge of the Scipio system, a large and intense skirmish of naval warfare was taking place. A blockade had been formed in the path of the regular shipping routes into the system. The blockade consisted of many well armored ships that all bore the UAC logo and sent out starfighters and airborne demons. Keeping to the rear of the blockade was a large unusual cultist ship shaped like a cannon with four stabilizers. On one of said stabilizers was written in large text "UAC Forsaken Maw" The ship had a gigantic chamber in its center and on its main bridge, cultists shouted orders until the man standing at the helm caught everyone's attention.
"We have a clear shot." Deag Ranak said with a nasty grin, "Charge up the main Argent repeater! Wipe the Separatist fleet off the face of existence!"
"It will be done, my lord." The Kaminoan captain of the ship said, before addressing the rest of the crew. "Adjust the trajectory of the Maw towards the fleet's threshold, and charge up Argent energy drives!"
The chamber in the center of the ship began to charge up rapidly, with itself pointed right at the attackers. These attackers were the gathered fleet of Separatist cruisers that repeatedly sent out droid fighters to bring down the blockade. At the rear of this fleet, the flagship Invisible Hand of the supreme commander of the Separatist droid armies remained in place.
Aboard the bridge of the Invisible Hand, a battle droid commander hesitated and looked at his general
"General Grievous! The scouts are detecting high energy signatures in that large ship! We think it's preparing to fire!" The droid said.
"Hold your ground!" General Grievous said. "Have the bombers approach the UAC command ship for a bombardment."
"No!" Count Dooku said from behind him. "Have the fleet take evasive maneuvers. Avoid the blast."
"Do not do my job for me!" Grievous said, annoyed. "If you want to lead the attack, feel free to make up your mind and switch places with me."
"You're hot-headedness and disregard for safety will not be tolerated this time, General." Dooku said sternly, "This will be our only chance to retake the Scipio system, I will not allow it to be risked for your carelessness. Commander! Tell the ships to scatter, now! That weapon is dangerous."
"Yes sir." The droid said and got to spreading the order on the comms channels.
Several alarms went off on the panels in the bridge.
"General, tell me what's happening down there? Dooku asked.
"A large object just appeared, near the asteroid field." Grievous said.
"What is it? Republic Forces?" Dooku asked.
"Negative." Grievous said, taking a look at the radar systems. "There's no detection of a hyperspace exit. It's a tall object, and it seems to have appeared out of nowhere."
On the bridge of your ship, you had a clear view of the battle from the asteroid belt. The gigantic slipgate portal that brought your ship here closed behind it, taking a few asteroids with it back to the Laertos System. You walked over to your monitor and tapped an icon.
"Offensive measures, engaging." VEGA said, "Locking on enemy forces."