The Rise and Fall of Darth Malak

The Rise and Fall of Darth Malak


Introduction:
Welcome to Taris


Aaron Blake was a smuggler, a bounty hunter and pilot. He has served on pirate vessels and fought in the Mandalorian Wars on both sides of the conflict. He had traded everything from weapons, to spice, all manner of illegal goods with the one exception being slaves. He wasn't a moralistic man, but even he had his limits. Aaron had been on Taris for the past two weeks, at the invitation of the local crime lord, Davik Kang. With the arrival of the Sith, what was supposed to be a simple smuggling run from Taris to Nar Shadaa had turned into something of a nightmare.


No one was leaving Taris, the Sith had grounded all civilian traffic and no one entered without their authority. There was only one thing he despised more than a Hutt and that was the Sith. He’d fight the arrogant bastards wherever he could find them. Not that he had any love for the Republic, but at least they weren’t annihilating entire worlds.


Aaron was well aware of Davik’s reputation and had a good idea of his activities. Nothing seemed beyond the crime lord, slave trading, drug dealing, gun running, prostitution, protection racketeering, and all manner of other illegal activities that went on with little interference from the Sith. He wasn’t about to interfere, he’d learned long ago the hard lesson of not getting involved with the business of crime lords and organisations like the Exchange. While it was another story altogether, which was the reason he hated the Hutts so venomously.


For the past two weeks he had spent his time between the bounty office, the cantinas and enjoying all that Davik’s estate had to offer, which mostly included long sessions with the Twi’Lek masseurs. He had already broken his own golden rule and promised the three Twi’Leks that given the opportunity he would help them leave the city and the planet, but that would mean his business with Davik was likely to be compromised.


He was also looking for an old friend, in fact a lover from the Mandalorian Wars, a cold blooded evil bitch of a killer and the only woman he had ever told that he loved her. He wasn’t certain how he felt about that now, it was years earlier, but she was in trouble now and needed his help, he just had to find her. The fact that it was a Hutt dealing with the bounties and one being put on the head of Selvan was enough for him to want to storm the damn cantina and carve the slug up, even if he was just the Hutt who dealt with the contracts, a middle man.


Among his crew were three Mandalorians, Ryann, Jadira, and Dana, they had been missing for several days and he was starting to think he was going to have to go and rescue them, he was guessing they were in trouble with one of the local gangs, he didn’t know for certain but he would have been correct. Ryann and Jadira were trying to arrange the release of Dana who had been taken by the Black Vulkars, they knew only too well the treatment she was likely to receive at their hands.


In truth he was comfortable, a little too comfortable; the only time he ever left the guest quarters was for meals and to visit the cantinas, even the bounties were drying up, it seemed like all the criminals in Taris had gone to ground, and without searching every damn apartment in Taris, which was literally millions in the planetwide city.


His constant companions were the three Twi’Leks who Davik had told to keep the group of smugglers satisfied and entertained. They were Frydaa, Asiana, and Nisha, three slaves among the literally thousands that Davik had among his personal possessions.


He lay back on the bed watching the three girls’ dance. Slaves they may have been, but they knew how to put on a performance. All he could think was somehow they were going to be leaving when he did, he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to get them past Davik’s security, but he’d find a way, he’d miss them too damn much to leave them in this place. There were thousands of worlds like Taris; he could live with not returning. Besides, this place paled in comparison to the likes of Nar Shadaa, pity the place was controlled by the Hutts.


The dance finished the three girls were happy to join Aaron on the bed, he was compared to most who passed through Davik’s guest quarters, a remarkable gentleman. They wasted little time in stripping him to his waist, giggling as they did so. Aaron Blake had a weakness for Twi’Lek females, perhaps it was due to being brought up in a Twi’Lek village after his parents were murdered by raiders, whatever the reason he simply couldn’t help himself.


His pants came off next, all the time he was helping the girls remove their own scant clothing, if he played his cards right it was going to be a long day, and perhaps night as well if he could manage it.


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Above the planet of Taris the Republic fleet had fought a desperate battle, but were simply overwhelmed and devastated, Sith Lord, Darth Malak, former apprentice of the dark lord Darth Revan held the planet in his grasp. Everyone of the billions of people who made Taris their home were praying that he would not inflict on Taris the destruction that had occurred on other worlds.


Republic escape pods fell from space, lighting up the morning sky like meteorites. Hundreds landed across a massive area, how many would survive the dangers posed by the planets less than hospitable occupants was not something they could worry about as the remnants of the Republic fleet were shattered above the planet. Finally only the cruiser, The Endar Spire remained. It was the ship under the command of the promising young Jedi, Bastila Shan.


It was however not spared the devastation, Malak’s orders were clear, only Bastila was to survive, all else were to be killed. Among the crew of the Endar Spire were a Republic officer, Carth Onasi, and a smuggler brought onto the vessel at the request of Bastila Shan, a Nevara Kasta. After fighting their way off the Endar Spire, the pair landed in one of the upper city sections of Taris, perhaps lucky for them, Bastila wasn’t nearly so fortunate.


The rush towards the escape pod was quickly dispersed by a blaster wielding Carth, the threat of violence wasn’t something the mostly alien scavengers were prepared to risk, for the few scraps they might be able to remove from the pod, better to wait until the crazy human had departed.


Nevara was unconscious, much to Carth’s annoyance, as if he didn’t have enough on carrying their equipment bags they had salvaged from the Endar Spire. He enlisted the help of several humans among the crowd, each took one of Nevara’s arms over their shoulder, Carth keeping hold of the equipment, they weren’t likely to run off far with a fully grown woman.


Finally they made their way into the alien section of Upper Taris, finding an abandoned apartment to lay low from the Sith patrols that would undoubtedly be looking for Republic survivors. He took hold of Nevara, throwing the equipment bags into the conveniently empty chest next to one of the beds. He paid the two men and saw them out of the apartment.


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Bastila screamed in frustration as she climbed out of the escape pod, Mina was taken almost immediately, the pod surrounded by members of the Black Vulkar gang. Nessa was taken next after a short fight, all around republic soldiers were either being executed as they left the pods or taken prisoner, they didn’t seem too keen on taking male prisoners, which didn’t bode well at all for those they did take.


Bastila couldn’t see Jennata anywhere, she was her training partner and had fought alongside her during the battle to defeat Revan. The two women were quickly bound and gagged, placed in chains and forced to wear force suppression collars. A male Jedi, Shaden, fought his way through what seemed like hordes of the vile thugs, escaping into the city, she hoped he wasn’t going to be caught but also knew she had greater problems herself.


Before she had even the chance to escape the pod, hands were grasping at her, she searched around frantically but couldn’t find her light sabre. Already weakened by the battle and the use of her powers and battle meditation during the fight on the Endar Spire, she was going to have to rely on her martial skills to get her out of this particular scrape.


The first Vulkar went down easily, the strike to the side of his knee, breaking his leg and sending him sprawling to the floor. More appeared to replace him, a roundhouse kick almost broke the neck of a second, the upper palm thrust pushing his nose up into his brain, he fell to the floor, a look of defiant hatred across his foul features. A third was actually foolish enough to try and grab her to pull her into him; she simply raised her knee into his groin, her fist coming down into the side of his face as he doubled over. The fourth was felled by a flurry of blows, a combination of kicks and punches that knocked the sword wielding Vulkar off balance.


The others around her hissed and shouted in frustration, they were not about to let this particular prize go free under any circumstances. They simply rushed her; she dropped two more before being completely overwhelmed. She felt herself losing her balance, the shear weight of numbers too much for her to fend off.


She howled in frustration as her arms were first pinned and then chained, then her legs and finally her neck, one of the force suppression collars placed on her head. She wondered where such gutter filth would obtain that kind of technology, but it hardly mattered now, she was a prisoner like the others, she only hoped Shaden got away and would be able to try some kind of rescue.


The Vulkars had taken three Jedi and six republic soldiers, they had lost over twenty men, six of them to Bastila alone, the woman knew how to kill when she had to, not that it had helped her case much among the Vulkars. The look of hatred in their eyes was to say the least, quite worrying; she dreaded to think what fate awaited her now.


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Carth left the sleeping woman to rest, covering her in one of the blankets on the bed, he wondered what was the story of the people who had left this place abandoned, it almost seemed a bit too convenient, but at the moment they had no choice but to use it as their base.


The next thing was to look for survivors; he needed to know if the Jedi woman, Bastila Shan was still alive. That meant asking around the locals; probably the best place to start was going to be the cantina. He decided to change in to some less obvious clothing, the Republic uniform would be recognised instantly.


He made certain Nevara was comfortable, and then left. Looking around the place he stood out among the alien occupants, but unless a Sith patrol came along he should be alright.


Half an hour later he was walking into the local upper city cantina, the place was bustling with life.


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Bastila walked with her head held high, she wasn’t going to allow this vermin to intimidate her, they seemed amused by her show of bravado, perhaps they knew something she wasn’t aware of.


Several minutes later she was stood in front of a large dark skinned man by the name of Brejik. He simply smiled; the other two Jedi had been placed in cages, in the man’s quarters.


“Thanks to the Sith I seem to be collecting you Republic whores, and three Jedi no less, the question is now, what do I do with you?”


“Letting us go would save you a whole lot of trouble.” Bastila replied haughtily, she knew before she finished her arrogance was going to cost her dearly.


“I think I’ll take the risk, Jedi. If you haven’t noticed, your Republic is finished, the Sith rule this place now, and they don’t give a damn about what goes on down here. Your mine now, you had better get used to it.”


“We are members of the Jedi Order …”


“You’re prisoners, nothing more.” Brejik stepped forward tearing Bastila’s uniform open, he walked behind her ripping her jacket from her body.


This was something all Jedi and soldiers dreaded, mostly they feared being taken by the Sith but this situation was little different.
“Perhaps I’ll keep this one for myself, the others I’ll decide on later, bring in the officers and put her in her cage.” Brejik ordered his men. He walked around Bastila taking in the fullness of her body, she prayed he wasn’t going to go any further; her modesty was not something she was willing to trade. Her blouse at least covered her, until the next time this ape decided to take advantage of her predicament.


Bastila was taken by the arms and led to the cage, the sound of the lock clicking into space seemed almost a little too final for her.


Brejik walked along the line of six female officers that had been taken from the escape pods. Some had been marked, their faces showing signs of bruising, their clothes torn, although Brejik had given orders that none were to be touched. The prisoners would make excellent prizes in the forthcoming swoop races, and if they were in poor shape they were of little value.


Bastila was never one for being able to control her emotions, despite what some thought of was her cold nature, she wanted revenge for this particular degrading action against the Order and the Republic, and this man she promised herself would die by her hand.


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