Categories > Games > Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic > The Prodigal Knight
The Fall of the Endar Spire
2 reviewsI'm hopping on the bandwagon and posting my version of the events in the game in novel format. Light female Revan.
0Unrated
Prologue
The Fall of the Endar Spire
From orbit, the planet of Taris looked like a silvery orb interrupted only by small blue patches of ocean. Patterns cris-crossed the planet's surface. This silvery city-planet was called the Coruscant of the Outer-Rim by many, but its prosperous days were long gone. Because of new trade routes, Taris was rapidly becoming obsolete. While some ships still came to trade with the merchants of this planet, Taris was decaying rapidly. Many people also disliked the politics of the planet, the attitude of bigotry and hate accepted by the nobles.
Taris was a multi-layered city. The Upper City was where the nobles lived, looking down on the poor from their tall towers, noses upturned. The poor lived in the Lower City, along with many aliens. The Tarisian nobles still had not accepted other species, although the Twi'leks were tolerated up-world. Still, it was almost unheard of for a Twi'lek or any other alien to hold any important role in Tarisian society. Beneath the Lower City was the Undercity. While the Lower City was dangerous in most respects, especially with the eruption of a violent gang war, the Undercity was even more so. This is where the Outcasts lived. They were long-forgotten people sent to the Undercity for equally long-forgotten crimes. However, it was not the Outcasts that posed any danger to anyone unwarily travelling in the Undercity; it was the Rakghouls.
Rakghouls were horribly mutated people that fed on the flesh of others. It was said that the Undercity bred the disease, but now the Rakghouls could spread it to others with a single bite from their infected teeth. Although a cure was being developed, the plague of the Rakghoul disease remains incurable.
It was not the petty troubles of the planet that had brought the lone Republic cruiser here. Indeed, it was the two Sith Interdictors that stood at either end of the system. They had pulled the Republic ship from hyperspace, and now, with the two giant, silvery Interdictors standing guard and preventing the ship from escaping, they had proceeded to attack it.
Small, silvery Sith fighters swarmed around the ship like insects, blasters scoring the hull. Sometimes they would hit something important and an explosion would wrack the ship. However, it was not the Sith's intention to destroy the Republic cruiser. No, they would not have gone to the trouble of such an elaborate setup if they wanted to destroy a lone Republic ship. They could do that anytime on the front lines of the war being waged between their two organizations. This ship held something that Lord Malak wanted, and his followers would get him what he wanted, or suffer the consequence of failure.
---
Commander Carth Onasi swore for what seemed the umpteenth time in the last several minutes. It was more than apparent that the Endar Spire had no hope of survival. He cursed Saul Karath's name before turning on his heel and facing the woman behind him. She gazed at him placidly, her large brown eyes betraying no hint of emotion. That was one thing Carth hated about those blasted Jedi, but he had been given orders to work with them on this mission, and he would not disobey his orders.
"Bastila," he said, addressing the Jedi woman standing before him. "The ship is lost. If you wait around here for them to board, they'll capture you and that's exactly what Malak wants." Bastila's eyebrows drew together. Finally, a hint of emotion! Unfortunately for him, it was apparent that she was about to argue with him. "Just be quiet and listen for a minute," Carth snapped. Bastila's mouth, which had begun to open, closed in surprise. "I know you're a Jedi, and I know you can handle that lightsaber you carry around on your belt, but if those Sith find you, they'll resort to overwhelming force to get you, and even you might not be able to fight them off. Just get to the escape pods! I'm calling all hands to the bridge. We'll hold off the Sith as long as we can until your escape pod is away, and then I'll call for the crew to abandon ship. That's it. It's over. We lost."
Bastila seemed to consider whether or not she was going to argue with him. It didn't matter one way or the other. Bastila was going to get to the escape pods and get herself off this ship if he had to pick her up and take her there himself. Finally, she nodded. "I see the wisdom in your words, Commander," she said, her voice evenly modulated to betray no hint of emotion. "My party and I will proceed to the escape pods." She turned to one of the Jedi in her entourage. She was a young woman, but had to be a little older than Bastila. "I want you, Landra, and Kali to stay back and fight off any Dark Jedi that might board. Once everyone has evacuated, proceed to the escape pods."
The three Jedi nodded, apparently not caring that Bastila may be ordering them to their deaths. "May the Force be with you, Bastila," they said almost as one, which completely freaked Carth out. Bastila nodded, and touched the shoulders of her companions affectionately before the one remaining Jedi that was with her, a male, touched her upper-arm.
"I know," she said. Now there seemed to be a tinge of sadness to her voice as her escort guided her off the bridge. Carth relaxed almost visibly, knowing that for once, Bastila had listened to him. The three remaining Jedi nodded to him and left the bridge.
---
Kiranna Sunrider had not been sleeping well of late. Her dreams consisted of flashes of images that would disappear as quickly as they appeared, and while she may have seen what they were before they had gone, she could never remember them when she awoke. A particularly violent explosion jarred her awake. She sat up in bed, disoriented, until she remembered that she was on the Endar Spire, as she had been for the past week. A glance out the viewport to her left told her what the source of the explosion was.
Looking down at her bare form, she figured she ought to get dressed and go out to see what she could do to help. She was surprised that the klaxons sounding had not awakened her before the explosion did. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, and just as she was about to stand, the door opened. Kiranna made a quick grab for the sheets, wrapping them around herself as a man dressed in the red and gold Republic uniform invited himself into her quarters.
"The ship is under attack!" he exclaimed by way of greeting.
Kiranna was speechless. Well, of course the ship was under attack. Anyone with eyes could see that! "W-who are you?" she sputtered, trying not to yell at him. The man at the door rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"My name is Trask Ulgo. I'm an ensign with the Republic fleet. I'm your bunkmate here on the Spire. We work opposite shifts, which would explain why you've never seen me before," he explained.
Okay, Kiranna thought. I suppose that makes sense. "Okay," Kiranna said, trying to sound agreeable. "I understand the ship is under attack. I was just about to go see what I could do to help." She pulled the sheet closer around herself, feeling unusually self-conscious. Trask was young. That much she could tell, although he didn't seem too much younger than her. She was sure he wasn't even paying attention to her current state of undress, but that didn't stop her from realising that she was completely naked under that sheet.
"We need to go help Bastila on the bridge," he told her. He was looking at her face, she concluded. She wondered if he had even noticed that she was wearing nothing but a sheet.
"Bastila? Who's Bastila?" she asked. She knew she shouldn't be wasting time asking what she was certain were stupid questions, but she felt out of the loop, dammit, and she wanted to know exactly who she was rushing out of the relative safety of her quarters to go help. Then she reminded herself that if Trask hadn't come, she still would have rushed out of her quarters to help in whatever way she could.
Trask looked at her like she had grown another head, but he answered her. "Bastila is the commanding officer of the Spire. Well, she's not really an officer, but she's the commander of this mission. You swore an oath just like everyone else on this ship, and now it's time to make good on that oath."
Fair enough, she thought.
"I understand that you're a scout and not a soldier, and a civilian at that, but Bastila needs all hands at her side." He stopped for a moment, shaking his head in apparent wonder. "I've heard what they've been saying about you. They say you've travelled all around the galaxy. You've been to planets I've never even heard of. People with your skills and abilities are hard to find."
Kiranna nodded. "I'll do what I can to help," she said. Again, she glanced down at the sheet she was wearing, and this time, Trask looked as well. "However, if I'm going to be any help to anyone, I'd better get dressed and get my weapons together."
Trask's face turned a bright shade of red. "Yeah. I-um . . . I'll turn my back so you can get dressed." He turned to face the door with his back facing her. Once Kiranna was certain he wasn't going to try and peek, she threw the sheet on the bed and gathered her clothes and equipment from her footlocker, quickly dressing. She sheathed her short sword in the scabbard on her belt, loaded her blaster with a fresh power cell, and ran a diagnostic on her cybernetic implant to make sure it was functioning properly. Once she was satisfied, she said to Trask, "Okay, I'm ready. Let's move out."
Trask turned around and smiled, visibly relaxing. "Right. The Sith have began sending boarding parties, so this room is in lockdown. I've got the code right here," he said, holding up his datapad. Kiranna nodded and Trask went to the door, inputting the override code. The door obediently opened.
As soon as the scout and Republic soldier had exited their quarters, a voice came over their portable communicators, which were strapped to their wrists. "This is Carth Onasi. The Sith have boarded the ship and are threatening to overrun our position. All hands to the bridge!" Kiranna and Trask looked at each other and nodded.
Other than the damage in the corridor outside their quarters, it was quiet. There was just a utility droid repairing a damaged power coupling. Plates from the ceiling had fallen to the floor in one of the more violent explosions, but there were no sign of Sith. Kiranna was certain that given the opportunity, they would search each of the crew quarters and systematically kill anyone, defenceless or not. That was just the way the Sith did things.
Kiranna followed Trask to the end of the corridor, where a locked door barred their path. "I don't have the security codes for this one," he said upon discovering that it was locked. "But I might be able to slice it." Kiranna nodded. She wanted to tell him to just do it, and not report to her on every little thing, but she decided against it. Trask successfully sliced the lock and the door slid open.
The two of them ran down the corridor, but as they reached the intersection, they saw blaster bolts being exchanged and knew that some Sith and Republic soldiers were engaged in a firefight. In the middle of the intersection was the body of a dead Republic soldier. Kiranna looked away, closing her eyes. She was by no means battle-hardened. She had combat training, but she had only used it in competitive circumstances; never in battle. This was the first time she had actually seen a dead body, and she knew it would not be the last. In fact, she knew that she was going to take lives today, because she had no other choice.
She felt Trask's hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked, his voice soft and gentle. Kiranna admired the fact that he was willing to take the time to comfort her, even as the Sith soldiers in the corridor ahead might be coming around the corner, blasters firing.
"I'll be okay," she assured him with a nod.
Trask nodded and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "You might want to draw your weapon. They'll be coming for us next," he said as the other Republic soldiers fell. Kiranna nodded and instinctively drew her sword, seeing that Trask was already holding a blaster. He withdrew his hand from her shoulder and cried, "For the Republic!" Kiranna charged in after him, allowing her arms to go on autopilot. The Sith she was fighting had drawn a vibroblade, and despite the relative weakness of her sword, Kiranna managed to kill him on skill alone. As his body dropped to the deck, red blood staining his pristine silver armour, the vibroblade fell from his hand as though in slow motion, clattering to the deck.
Kiranna would never forget the first time she took a life.
She picked up his vibroblade and switched her belt for his utility belt. It had a blaster holster and a scabbard appropriate for the vibroblade. She noticed Trask checking the bodies of the soldiers, trying to see if any of them had survived. When he looked up, she probed him with her eyes, and he shook his head, confirming that they were all dead.
The two of them forged onward. When they came upon groups of three or more soldiers, Kiranna used frag mines to thin their numbers before she and Trask would jump in and pick off the survivors. It seemed an efficient way of fighting, and made it easier to cut down on their own injuries. Kiranna already sported a pretty nasty blaster burn from when a searing red bolt had grazed her shoulder. Trask wanted to look at it, but she just used one of the kolto hypo sprays she found in the utility belt and insisted that they continue. The kolto gave instant healing and relief from the burning pain, but it would not heal the wound completely. She knew she could take care of it later . . . when she wasn't in imminent danger of being ambushed by a Sith patrol and killed.
They came to a door that was closed, but not locked. On the other side, Kiranna could hear spitting and hissing sounds and immediately knew it was the sound of lightsabers clashing. She didn't know how she knew, since she had never even seen a Jedi, let alone a lightsaber. She opened the door and her suspicion was confirmed. A young Jedi woman in billowing beige robes was fighting a Dark Jedi, who was bald and wearing glittering silver chest armour. His pants were wide-legged and black. Kiranna watched as the Jedi and Dark Jedi fought in their intricate dance until the Jedi struck the Dark Jedi down. She turned off her lightsaber and turned to them, but something in the wall behind her exploded, killing her instantly.
"That was a Jedi attached to Bastila's party. Damn! We could have used her help!" Kiranna almost gaped at Trask, but she realised this was a battle for survival, and they had no time to mourn the death of the Jedi. Still, Kiranna picked up the charred remains of her lightsaber. If she saw Bastila, she would give it to her and tell her that her companion had died bravely.
Finally, the two of them reached the bridge. They found two Republic soldiers holding resistance against four Sith troopers. Trask holstered his blaster and drew his own vibroblade. He exchanged glances with Kiranna, and the two of them jumped in to help the Republic officers battle off the Sith. No sooner had the last Sith trooper fallen than there was an explosion in the forward section of the bridge, killing the remaining two Republic soldiers. It seemed that all that was left on the Endar Spire was death and destruction.
"Carth and Bastila aren't here. They must have made it to the escape pods," Trask said after poking around for a bit on the bridge. Carth and Bastila certainly weren't among the dead here, so that allowed them to hold some small bit of hope that they had survived. "We better head that way ourselves," Trask suggested after a short pause.
"Right. Let's get out of here," Kiranna agreed. Now that they had hope that Bastila was safe, there was no point sticking around, and Kiranna wanted desperately to get off the Endar Spire and put it behind her. Although as she and Trask ran in the direction of the escape pods, she knew that her life as she had known it was changed. She had a feeling it wouldn't end with the Endar Spire. She didn't know where this feeling had come from, but she knew it was true. Somehow, she also knew Trask probably wouldn't be there to share in what was to come.
When he recklessly ran off to fight another Dark Jedi, she knew she was right. She saw the two Jedi corpses near him, knowing that if they couldn't fight him off, Trask didn't stand a chance, but she wasn't going to allow his sacrifice to be in vain.
She went through the door leading to the Starboard section. She knew she wasn't far from the escape pods. She just hoped there was at least one left so she could get away. Carth contacted her on her personal communicator, telling her that he was monitoring her progress on the life support system. He told her what was ahead and what she would have to get through to make it to the escape pods. "You've got to hurry," he admonished. "I can't wait for you too much longer."
Despite his words, Kiranna seemed to know that Carth wouldn't leave without her unless she died, which she wasn't planning on doing. She fought through more Sith like a woman possessed. They fell under her vibroblade quickly. Carth warned her of a whole group of Sith soldiers waiting for her on the other side of a door, so she quickly repaired the droid next to it and sent it in ahead of her. She lobbed a frag grenade in the general direction of a clump of Sith soldiers, killing them. The droid mopped up the stragglers.
Finally, Kiranna made it to the escape pods, where Carth was waiting for her. He looked like he had seen better days, but then again, she was sure she was just as bedraggled as him, if not more so. "You made it!" he exclaimed, relief evident in his face. "Let's get out of here. Bastila's escape pod is away. We're the last remaining survivors on the Endar Spire, and there's one escape pod left, so let's go. No point in sitting around here waiting to get shot by the Sith."
"I agree," Kiranna said. "Let's go." He gestured for her to get in ahead of him, so she did. He closed the hatch behind them and pulled the release to propel them away from the ship. They had just gotten away when the ship exploded spectacularly behind them.
Whatever happened next, Kiranna intended to sleep for a couple days, although she didn't think she literally would be.
The Fall of the Endar Spire
From orbit, the planet of Taris looked like a silvery orb interrupted only by small blue patches of ocean. Patterns cris-crossed the planet's surface. This silvery city-planet was called the Coruscant of the Outer-Rim by many, but its prosperous days were long gone. Because of new trade routes, Taris was rapidly becoming obsolete. While some ships still came to trade with the merchants of this planet, Taris was decaying rapidly. Many people also disliked the politics of the planet, the attitude of bigotry and hate accepted by the nobles.
Taris was a multi-layered city. The Upper City was where the nobles lived, looking down on the poor from their tall towers, noses upturned. The poor lived in the Lower City, along with many aliens. The Tarisian nobles still had not accepted other species, although the Twi'leks were tolerated up-world. Still, it was almost unheard of for a Twi'lek or any other alien to hold any important role in Tarisian society. Beneath the Lower City was the Undercity. While the Lower City was dangerous in most respects, especially with the eruption of a violent gang war, the Undercity was even more so. This is where the Outcasts lived. They were long-forgotten people sent to the Undercity for equally long-forgotten crimes. However, it was not the Outcasts that posed any danger to anyone unwarily travelling in the Undercity; it was the Rakghouls.
Rakghouls were horribly mutated people that fed on the flesh of others. It was said that the Undercity bred the disease, but now the Rakghouls could spread it to others with a single bite from their infected teeth. Although a cure was being developed, the plague of the Rakghoul disease remains incurable.
It was not the petty troubles of the planet that had brought the lone Republic cruiser here. Indeed, it was the two Sith Interdictors that stood at either end of the system. They had pulled the Republic ship from hyperspace, and now, with the two giant, silvery Interdictors standing guard and preventing the ship from escaping, they had proceeded to attack it.
Small, silvery Sith fighters swarmed around the ship like insects, blasters scoring the hull. Sometimes they would hit something important and an explosion would wrack the ship. However, it was not the Sith's intention to destroy the Republic cruiser. No, they would not have gone to the trouble of such an elaborate setup if they wanted to destroy a lone Republic ship. They could do that anytime on the front lines of the war being waged between their two organizations. This ship held something that Lord Malak wanted, and his followers would get him what he wanted, or suffer the consequence of failure.
---
Commander Carth Onasi swore for what seemed the umpteenth time in the last several minutes. It was more than apparent that the Endar Spire had no hope of survival. He cursed Saul Karath's name before turning on his heel and facing the woman behind him. She gazed at him placidly, her large brown eyes betraying no hint of emotion. That was one thing Carth hated about those blasted Jedi, but he had been given orders to work with them on this mission, and he would not disobey his orders.
"Bastila," he said, addressing the Jedi woman standing before him. "The ship is lost. If you wait around here for them to board, they'll capture you and that's exactly what Malak wants." Bastila's eyebrows drew together. Finally, a hint of emotion! Unfortunately for him, it was apparent that she was about to argue with him. "Just be quiet and listen for a minute," Carth snapped. Bastila's mouth, which had begun to open, closed in surprise. "I know you're a Jedi, and I know you can handle that lightsaber you carry around on your belt, but if those Sith find you, they'll resort to overwhelming force to get you, and even you might not be able to fight them off. Just get to the escape pods! I'm calling all hands to the bridge. We'll hold off the Sith as long as we can until your escape pod is away, and then I'll call for the crew to abandon ship. That's it. It's over. We lost."
Bastila seemed to consider whether or not she was going to argue with him. It didn't matter one way or the other. Bastila was going to get to the escape pods and get herself off this ship if he had to pick her up and take her there himself. Finally, she nodded. "I see the wisdom in your words, Commander," she said, her voice evenly modulated to betray no hint of emotion. "My party and I will proceed to the escape pods." She turned to one of the Jedi in her entourage. She was a young woman, but had to be a little older than Bastila. "I want you, Landra, and Kali to stay back and fight off any Dark Jedi that might board. Once everyone has evacuated, proceed to the escape pods."
The three Jedi nodded, apparently not caring that Bastila may be ordering them to their deaths. "May the Force be with you, Bastila," they said almost as one, which completely freaked Carth out. Bastila nodded, and touched the shoulders of her companions affectionately before the one remaining Jedi that was with her, a male, touched her upper-arm.
"I know," she said. Now there seemed to be a tinge of sadness to her voice as her escort guided her off the bridge. Carth relaxed almost visibly, knowing that for once, Bastila had listened to him. The three remaining Jedi nodded to him and left the bridge.
---
Kiranna Sunrider had not been sleeping well of late. Her dreams consisted of flashes of images that would disappear as quickly as they appeared, and while she may have seen what they were before they had gone, she could never remember them when she awoke. A particularly violent explosion jarred her awake. She sat up in bed, disoriented, until she remembered that she was on the Endar Spire, as she had been for the past week. A glance out the viewport to her left told her what the source of the explosion was.
Looking down at her bare form, she figured she ought to get dressed and go out to see what she could do to help. She was surprised that the klaxons sounding had not awakened her before the explosion did. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, and just as she was about to stand, the door opened. Kiranna made a quick grab for the sheets, wrapping them around herself as a man dressed in the red and gold Republic uniform invited himself into her quarters.
"The ship is under attack!" he exclaimed by way of greeting.
Kiranna was speechless. Well, of course the ship was under attack. Anyone with eyes could see that! "W-who are you?" she sputtered, trying not to yell at him. The man at the door rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"My name is Trask Ulgo. I'm an ensign with the Republic fleet. I'm your bunkmate here on the Spire. We work opposite shifts, which would explain why you've never seen me before," he explained.
Okay, Kiranna thought. I suppose that makes sense. "Okay," Kiranna said, trying to sound agreeable. "I understand the ship is under attack. I was just about to go see what I could do to help." She pulled the sheet closer around herself, feeling unusually self-conscious. Trask was young. That much she could tell, although he didn't seem too much younger than her. She was sure he wasn't even paying attention to her current state of undress, but that didn't stop her from realising that she was completely naked under that sheet.
"We need to go help Bastila on the bridge," he told her. He was looking at her face, she concluded. She wondered if he had even noticed that she was wearing nothing but a sheet.
"Bastila? Who's Bastila?" she asked. She knew she shouldn't be wasting time asking what she was certain were stupid questions, but she felt out of the loop, dammit, and she wanted to know exactly who she was rushing out of the relative safety of her quarters to go help. Then she reminded herself that if Trask hadn't come, she still would have rushed out of her quarters to help in whatever way she could.
Trask looked at her like she had grown another head, but he answered her. "Bastila is the commanding officer of the Spire. Well, she's not really an officer, but she's the commander of this mission. You swore an oath just like everyone else on this ship, and now it's time to make good on that oath."
Fair enough, she thought.
"I understand that you're a scout and not a soldier, and a civilian at that, but Bastila needs all hands at her side." He stopped for a moment, shaking his head in apparent wonder. "I've heard what they've been saying about you. They say you've travelled all around the galaxy. You've been to planets I've never even heard of. People with your skills and abilities are hard to find."
Kiranna nodded. "I'll do what I can to help," she said. Again, she glanced down at the sheet she was wearing, and this time, Trask looked as well. "However, if I'm going to be any help to anyone, I'd better get dressed and get my weapons together."
Trask's face turned a bright shade of red. "Yeah. I-um . . . I'll turn my back so you can get dressed." He turned to face the door with his back facing her. Once Kiranna was certain he wasn't going to try and peek, she threw the sheet on the bed and gathered her clothes and equipment from her footlocker, quickly dressing. She sheathed her short sword in the scabbard on her belt, loaded her blaster with a fresh power cell, and ran a diagnostic on her cybernetic implant to make sure it was functioning properly. Once she was satisfied, she said to Trask, "Okay, I'm ready. Let's move out."
Trask turned around and smiled, visibly relaxing. "Right. The Sith have began sending boarding parties, so this room is in lockdown. I've got the code right here," he said, holding up his datapad. Kiranna nodded and Trask went to the door, inputting the override code. The door obediently opened.
As soon as the scout and Republic soldier had exited their quarters, a voice came over their portable communicators, which were strapped to their wrists. "This is Carth Onasi. The Sith have boarded the ship and are threatening to overrun our position. All hands to the bridge!" Kiranna and Trask looked at each other and nodded.
Other than the damage in the corridor outside their quarters, it was quiet. There was just a utility droid repairing a damaged power coupling. Plates from the ceiling had fallen to the floor in one of the more violent explosions, but there were no sign of Sith. Kiranna was certain that given the opportunity, they would search each of the crew quarters and systematically kill anyone, defenceless or not. That was just the way the Sith did things.
Kiranna followed Trask to the end of the corridor, where a locked door barred their path. "I don't have the security codes for this one," he said upon discovering that it was locked. "But I might be able to slice it." Kiranna nodded. She wanted to tell him to just do it, and not report to her on every little thing, but she decided against it. Trask successfully sliced the lock and the door slid open.
The two of them ran down the corridor, but as they reached the intersection, they saw blaster bolts being exchanged and knew that some Sith and Republic soldiers were engaged in a firefight. In the middle of the intersection was the body of a dead Republic soldier. Kiranna looked away, closing her eyes. She was by no means battle-hardened. She had combat training, but she had only used it in competitive circumstances; never in battle. This was the first time she had actually seen a dead body, and she knew it would not be the last. In fact, she knew that she was going to take lives today, because she had no other choice.
She felt Trask's hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked, his voice soft and gentle. Kiranna admired the fact that he was willing to take the time to comfort her, even as the Sith soldiers in the corridor ahead might be coming around the corner, blasters firing.
"I'll be okay," she assured him with a nod.
Trask nodded and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "You might want to draw your weapon. They'll be coming for us next," he said as the other Republic soldiers fell. Kiranna nodded and instinctively drew her sword, seeing that Trask was already holding a blaster. He withdrew his hand from her shoulder and cried, "For the Republic!" Kiranna charged in after him, allowing her arms to go on autopilot. The Sith she was fighting had drawn a vibroblade, and despite the relative weakness of her sword, Kiranna managed to kill him on skill alone. As his body dropped to the deck, red blood staining his pristine silver armour, the vibroblade fell from his hand as though in slow motion, clattering to the deck.
Kiranna would never forget the first time she took a life.
She picked up his vibroblade and switched her belt for his utility belt. It had a blaster holster and a scabbard appropriate for the vibroblade. She noticed Trask checking the bodies of the soldiers, trying to see if any of them had survived. When he looked up, she probed him with her eyes, and he shook his head, confirming that they were all dead.
The two of them forged onward. When they came upon groups of three or more soldiers, Kiranna used frag mines to thin their numbers before she and Trask would jump in and pick off the survivors. It seemed an efficient way of fighting, and made it easier to cut down on their own injuries. Kiranna already sported a pretty nasty blaster burn from when a searing red bolt had grazed her shoulder. Trask wanted to look at it, but she just used one of the kolto hypo sprays she found in the utility belt and insisted that they continue. The kolto gave instant healing and relief from the burning pain, but it would not heal the wound completely. She knew she could take care of it later . . . when she wasn't in imminent danger of being ambushed by a Sith patrol and killed.
They came to a door that was closed, but not locked. On the other side, Kiranna could hear spitting and hissing sounds and immediately knew it was the sound of lightsabers clashing. She didn't know how she knew, since she had never even seen a Jedi, let alone a lightsaber. She opened the door and her suspicion was confirmed. A young Jedi woman in billowing beige robes was fighting a Dark Jedi, who was bald and wearing glittering silver chest armour. His pants were wide-legged and black. Kiranna watched as the Jedi and Dark Jedi fought in their intricate dance until the Jedi struck the Dark Jedi down. She turned off her lightsaber and turned to them, but something in the wall behind her exploded, killing her instantly.
"That was a Jedi attached to Bastila's party. Damn! We could have used her help!" Kiranna almost gaped at Trask, but she realised this was a battle for survival, and they had no time to mourn the death of the Jedi. Still, Kiranna picked up the charred remains of her lightsaber. If she saw Bastila, she would give it to her and tell her that her companion had died bravely.
Finally, the two of them reached the bridge. They found two Republic soldiers holding resistance against four Sith troopers. Trask holstered his blaster and drew his own vibroblade. He exchanged glances with Kiranna, and the two of them jumped in to help the Republic officers battle off the Sith. No sooner had the last Sith trooper fallen than there was an explosion in the forward section of the bridge, killing the remaining two Republic soldiers. It seemed that all that was left on the Endar Spire was death and destruction.
"Carth and Bastila aren't here. They must have made it to the escape pods," Trask said after poking around for a bit on the bridge. Carth and Bastila certainly weren't among the dead here, so that allowed them to hold some small bit of hope that they had survived. "We better head that way ourselves," Trask suggested after a short pause.
"Right. Let's get out of here," Kiranna agreed. Now that they had hope that Bastila was safe, there was no point sticking around, and Kiranna wanted desperately to get off the Endar Spire and put it behind her. Although as she and Trask ran in the direction of the escape pods, she knew that her life as she had known it was changed. She had a feeling it wouldn't end with the Endar Spire. She didn't know where this feeling had come from, but she knew it was true. Somehow, she also knew Trask probably wouldn't be there to share in what was to come.
When he recklessly ran off to fight another Dark Jedi, she knew she was right. She saw the two Jedi corpses near him, knowing that if they couldn't fight him off, Trask didn't stand a chance, but she wasn't going to allow his sacrifice to be in vain.
She went through the door leading to the Starboard section. She knew she wasn't far from the escape pods. She just hoped there was at least one left so she could get away. Carth contacted her on her personal communicator, telling her that he was monitoring her progress on the life support system. He told her what was ahead and what she would have to get through to make it to the escape pods. "You've got to hurry," he admonished. "I can't wait for you too much longer."
Despite his words, Kiranna seemed to know that Carth wouldn't leave without her unless she died, which she wasn't planning on doing. She fought through more Sith like a woman possessed. They fell under her vibroblade quickly. Carth warned her of a whole group of Sith soldiers waiting for her on the other side of a door, so she quickly repaired the droid next to it and sent it in ahead of her. She lobbed a frag grenade in the general direction of a clump of Sith soldiers, killing them. The droid mopped up the stragglers.
Finally, Kiranna made it to the escape pods, where Carth was waiting for her. He looked like he had seen better days, but then again, she was sure she was just as bedraggled as him, if not more so. "You made it!" he exclaimed, relief evident in his face. "Let's get out of here. Bastila's escape pod is away. We're the last remaining survivors on the Endar Spire, and there's one escape pod left, so let's go. No point in sitting around here waiting to get shot by the Sith."
"I agree," Kiranna said. "Let's go." He gestured for her to get in ahead of him, so she did. He closed the hatch behind them and pulled the release to propel them away from the ship. They had just gotten away when the ship exploded spectacularly behind them.
Whatever happened next, Kiranna intended to sleep for a couple days, although she didn't think she literally would be.
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